Last week, there were 11 developments and news in public chain infrastructure | Public Chain Weekly

According to incomplete statistics from Chain Catcher, from February 22 to 28, there were 11 major news events in the public chain infrastructure sector, including Ethereum, Nervos, CasperLabs, Fantom Foundation, Optimism, and other public chains.

1. Public chain project Nervos releases 2021 technical roadmap, will conduct the first hard fork of CKB this year

On February 24, the public chain project Nervos (CKB) stated that its long-term goal is to complete the design and implementation of the Nervos protocol stack by 2024. According to its 2021 technical roadmap, Nervos will conduct the first hard fork of CKB this year and release the basic version of the light client protocol.

In terms of Layer 2, Nervos will continue to focus on developing a Layer 2 Rollup framework based on CKB, a chain-based Layer 2 protocol, and establish a small, usable payment channel network on the mainnet. Nervos plans to launch xUDT with strong scalability in 2021 and continue to improve existing tools, providing new tools such as the DApp development suite Tippy. In terms of interoperability 2.0, Nervos will make further developments in cross-chain frameworks and DEX (Gliaswap).

2. Public chain project CasperLabs will conduct public sale of native token CSPR through CoinList on March 23

On February 24, the public chain project CasperLabs announced that it will conduct a public sale of its native token CSPR from March 23 to 31, 2021, selling 10% of the total supply, with three participation options. The first option has a 12-month lock-up period, followed by a 6-month release, priced at $0.015, accounting for 4% of the total supply; the second option has a 6-month lock-up period, followed by a 6-month release, priced at $0.02, accounting for 3% of the total supply; the third option has no lock-up period but will be distributed 40 days after the sale date, priced at $0.03, accounting for 3% of the total supply. The minimum purchase amount for the first and third options is $100, while the minimum for the second option is $50,000, with purchase limits set for all three options. CSPR is the first token publicly sold by CoinList in 2021.

3. Alameda Research invests $35 million in smart contract platform Fantom Foundation

On February 24, Alameda Research invested $35 million in the smart contract platform Fantom Foundation. Alameda Research will collaborate with the Fantom core team to integrate cross-chain products such as Solana, Serum, and Raydium. Additionally, Alameda Research will run a validator node on the Fantom Opera mainnet to help improve network security.

Fantom Foundation is building a highly scalable blockchain ecosystem to promote decentralized, scalable, and secure technology. Fantom is a Layer 1 platform based on the aBFT consensus protocol, with protocols like Keep3rV1, Cover, Cream, Frax, Sushiswap, and desire migrating from Ethereum to Fantom to create a cross-chain ecosystem.

4. EOS founder BM: ADA is selling dreams while EOS is talking about technology

On February 24, EOS founder BM (Daniel Larimer) tweeted, "ADA is selling dreams, while EOS is discussing how to deliver on promises from a technical perspective. I think it's easier to evaluate dreams (ADA, ETH2) than reality (EOS). In dreams, people can believe in infinite potential. If ADA eventually delivers on the technical side, the dream will shatter, and the token will crash."

5. Ethereum scaling solution Optimism announces mainnet launch in March, has completed $25 million financing led by a16z

On February 25, Ethereum scaling solution Optimism announced that it will launch a public mainnet in March, allowing the deployment of any contract, rather than a public test version. The team also announced that it completed a $25 million Series A financing round in November last year, with early investor Paradigm continuing to participate in this round.

Optimism stated that after completing this financing, it is expanding its team and has hired neuroscientist Mark Tyneway, co-founder of Harbor Josh Stein, co-founder of ConsenSys Diligence Maurelian, Matt Masurka who worked on product development at Google and Cisco, and Annie Ke who conducted protocol research at Coinbase, among others.

Optimistic Ethereum is a scaling solution that offers complete cross-layer portability without needing to rewrite smart contracts. DeFi protocols Synthetix and Uniswap plan to utilize Optimistic's Layer 2 solution for scaling.

6. Fantom temporarily halts block production due to concentrated node voting power, foundation will propose rewriting PoS to decentralize node rights

On February 26, the smart contract platform Fantom Foundation announced it will release a proposal to rewrite its PoS blockchain to distribute validation and governance rights more evenly. This proposal needs to obtain more than two-thirds of the voting power to pass.

Fantom Foundation stated that the voting power of validator nodes in the Fantom network is too concentrated, leading to serious performance issues that directly affect the network. Around 14:21 UTC on February 25, 2021, block production slowed due to one of the validators going offline, and several hours later (16:53 UTC), the Fantom network completely halted block production for over 5 hours. At 22:25 UTC, the Fantom network resumed its normal block production pace. However, the two validators with the most governance rights, GoFantom and Hyperblocks Pro, still hold one-third of the voting power in the network.

On February 28, Fantom (FTM) addressed the temporary halt in block production on the mainnet, stating, "The Fantom Foundation will submit an on-chain proposal that may involve reconsidering the minimum amount of FTM required to run a node and limiting node size. No funds were at risk due to the network interruption, which was caused by the slowdown of block production by one of the largest validators, leading to a slowdown in block production by the second largest validator. These two validators (holding 1/3 of the network stake) triggered a domino effect, and although other validators continued to produce blocks normally during this period, they were unable to complete any transactions for about seven hours, resulting in the block production halt."

7. IRISnet completes mainnet 1.0 upgrade, has established IBC connection with Cosmos Hub

On February 26, IRISnet successfully completed the mainnet launch of v1.0 on the evening of February 25, Beijing time, becoming the first mainnet to establish an IBC connection with Cosmos Hub.

IRIS Hub 1.0 launched core features such as the cross-chain communication protocol IBC, Coinswap (AMM), enhanced iService, and NFTs, and will continue to develop and launch Ethereum bridging and CosmWasm functionalities. In addition to the underlying chain, the Rainbow wallet and IOBScan browser will also be upgraded to support the new version of IRISnet (www.irisplorer.io, irishub.iobscan.io) and Cosmos mainnet (cosmoshub.iobscan.io). The cross-chain browser IOBScan will also support browsing cross-chain transactions and services, becoming a portal for cross-chain visualization.

8. Ethereum developers formally propose to include EIP-1559 in Ethereum London upgrade, tentatively scheduled for execution in July or August this year

On February 26, Ethereum developer and EIP-1559 contributor Tim Beiko submitted a proposal advocating for the inclusion of EIP-1559 in the Ethereum London upgrade, tentatively scheduled for execution in July or August 2021. Tim Beiko believes that there are no issues with this EIP proposal, which is ready to go through the normal network upgrade testing process. The next step is to reach consensus on this proposal among developers and other network participants (i.e., miners).

9. Gavin Wood: Tentative goal is to complete the launch of parachains by the end of this quarter

On February 26, Polkadot founder Dr. Gavin Wood stated in an interview that the parachain testnet was launched two months ago and is gradually connecting with parachain teams, currently undergoing testing. Once satisfied with the code's performance, Polkadot will officially launch it on the Kusama network, along with the Kusama auctions, which include slot auctions and crowdloan systems.

This way, everyone can support their favorite parachains through the Kusama stake holding ecosystem, and they may also receive rewards provided by parachain teams in return for their support. Meanwhile, Polkadot has hired an external auditing firm to adjust all new code during the development of new code. Once the auditing firm deems it safe, Polkadot will deploy it on Polkadot, with a tentative goal of completing this work by the end of this quarter.

10. Crypto investment fund FD7 Ventures plans to sell $750 million in Bitcoin to purchase ADA and DOT

On February 26, global cryptocurrency investment fund FD7 Ventures plans to sell $750 million worth of Bitcoin within 30 days to purchase Cardano (ADA) and Polkadot (DOT). It is reported that FD7 Ventures is managing $1 billion in Bitcoin.

11. EthHub co-founder: Cardano's $35 billion market cap is unreasonable

On February 26, EthHub co-founder Anthony Sassano tweeted that Cardano is a platform without smart contracts, yet its market cap reaches $35 billion, which is entirely based on narrative and promises. This is a perfect example of why cryptocurrencies operate on 99% narrative and 1% fundamentals. Worse still, the market values Cardano at 25% of Ethereum.