Daily Report | Sources: SEC may approve Ethereum futures ETF, planned to launch before October; Scroll launches Scroll Beta test version for developers and users on Sepolia testnet

整理：Mia，ChainCatcher

"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"

1. Insiders: SEC May Approve Ethereum Futures ETF, Planned to Launch Before October
According to ChainCatcher and Bloomberg, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning to approve the launch of the first Ethereum futures ETF, which is a significant victory for several companies that have long sought to offer such products.

It is reported that multiple companies, including Volatility Shares, Bitwise, Roundhill, and ProShares, have applied to launch Ethereum futures ETFs. It is currently unclear which funds will receive approval. Insiders have indicated that officials have hinted that several ETFs may launch before October. (Source link)

2. Scroll Launches Scroll Beta Testnet for Developers and Users on Sepolia Testnet
According to ChainCatcher, Layer2 solution Scroll announced the launch of the Scroll Beta testnet for developers and users on the Sepolia testnet. New features or improvements include zkEVM upgrades, bridge upgrades, and infrastructure upgrades.

In terms of zkEVM upgrades, EVM compatibility has been improved through precompiled upgrades, efficient on-chain verification via proof compression and aggregation, and enhanced circuit integrity; regarding bridge upgrades, gas costs can be reduced by up to 50%, and a trustless message relay feature has been introduced between L1 and L2, eliminating reliance on trusted relayers; for infrastructure upgrades, a new EIP-2718 transaction type L1MessageTx for trustless messaging has been introduced, moving away from trusted centralized relayers, and a simplified circuit capacity checker prevents proof overflow while enhancing coordinator functionality.

Scroll stated that so far, over 100 projects have integrated with Scroll, with more projects in the integration process. The Scroll testnet on Sepolia will run alongside the future mainnet as a primary testing platform for users and developers. Scroll Goerli will cease to be used after the mainnet launch. (Source link)

3. MakerDAO Community Proposes to Lower DSR to 3%-5%
According to ChainCatcher, the MakerDAO community has initiated a new executive proposal to lower the Dai Savings Rate (DSR) from 8% to 3%-5% based on the latest updates to EDSR. Additionally, it proposes updates related to EDSR stability fees and increasing the cooldown time (hop) for the smart burn engine by 4,731 seconds, from 1,577 seconds to 6,308 seconds, and increasing the batch size (bump) for the Smart Burn Engine from 5,000 DAI to 20,000 DAI.

The proposal also suggests increasing the maximum debt ceiling for WSTETH-A by 250 million DAI (from 500 million DAI to 750 million DAI), increasing the maximum debt ceiling for WSTETH-B by 500 million DAI (from 500 million DAI to 1 billion DAI), and increasing the target available debt for WSTETH-B by 15 million DAI (from 30 million DAI to 45 million DAI). (Source link)

4. Data: BNB Bridge Attacker Liquidated 5.6 Million vBNB
According to ChainCatcher, data from PeckShield shows that the current BNB Bridge attacker has been liquidated for approximately 5.6 million vBNB (about 52.3 million USD). (Source link)

5. Former ConsenSys Chief Economist Lex Sokolin Joins Generative Ventures, Focusing on AI and Crypto Economy Integration
According to ChainCatcher, former ConsenSys Chief Economist Lex Sokolin has joined Generative Ventures as a general partner, focusing on the integration of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and machine economy.

According to crypto data platform RootData, Generative Ventures has invested in projects such as Taiko and AegisWeb3. Generative Ventures was established with funding from Bertelsmann, the largest media group in Europe, and several Asian internet entrepreneurs, having completed a multi-million dollar first round of funding. (Source link)

"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"

1. "Former ConsenSys Chief Economist: Web3 Still Needs More Real Economic Activity"

Lex Sokolin is betting heavily on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or rather, he is interested in how all the exciting new technologies will shape tomorrow.

"We need new vocabulary (i.e., new ideas)," he said in an interview with Decrypt, "Over the past four years, I have held several different positions at ConsenSys, starting with fintech, then marketing, and later with the cryptocurrency economics team."

Sokolin previously served as co-head of ConsenSys' global fintech division and is now a general partner at Generative Ventures, shifting his focus to the integration of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and machine economy.

The machine economy refers to a mesh network composed of various smart devices such as phones and watches, which constitutes a broader Internet of Things. With the help of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, these devices will achieve autonomous operation in the future, making payments to each other without any human intervention—at least that is an optimistic assumption.

He said, "When I entered this field, I considered many issues related to fintech and financial services, believing that cryptocurrency and blockchain are the new architecture for financial services. I have heard this perspective countless times, and I think this approach is correct in many ways."

However, Sokolin believes that the underlying technology supporting Web3 development should not be the only driving force for economic activity. When all activities are entirely centered around financial services, "we will see situations similar to the Luna collapse, we will have crazy professionals, we will have a lot of derivatives, and we will miss out on real economic activity."

2. "What Happened to the Whales on the Bitcoin 'Rich List'?"

We know that whales are the largest creatures in the ocean, and when they surface, they often cause huge waves. Similarly, users holding large amounts of crypto assets can cause market fluctuations when they make transfers, which is why the community refers to individuals or institutions holding a significant amount of crypto assets as crypto whales.

Crypto whales, especially Bitcoin whales, are particularly noteworthy. The term Bitcoin Whale refers to users who hold a large amount of Bitcoin, including individuals as well as various Bitcoin funds and investment institutions, typically referring to those holding at least 1,000 BTC or its equivalent in USD.

Since these whales hold vast amounts of Bitcoin, each of their trades can profoundly impact the market.

Therefore, closely monitoring the behavior of cryptocurrency whales is of great significance.

3. "Liquidation Amounts Approach 3.12 and 5.19, Four Reasons for Market Plunge"

"The horizontal length and vertical height," this saying has been validated once again. Around 5:30 AM this morning, while most Asian market users were still asleep, the crypto market experienced a long-awaited violent fluctuation:

Following Bitcoin's drop below 28,000 USDT last night, Bitcoin plummeted this morning, hitting a low of 24,220 USDT, marking a new low in nearly five months; Ethereum dropped to a low of 1,470 USDT, also a new low in nearly five months.

The short-term market crash also led to bloodshed in the contract market, with Coinglass data showing that over the past 12 hours, the entire network saw liquidations of 1.003 billion USD (with Bitcoin and Ethereum accounting for nearly 80%), far exceeding the 300 million USD liquidation amount during the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, and even surpassing the 800 million USD record during the FTX collapse, second only to the 1.3 billion USD record of the "5.19" incident and the approximately 3 billion USD record of the "3.12" incident.

What caused the plunge?

On a macro level, liquidity has clearly begun to tighten recently, whether in the stock markets of various countries or in the crypto market itself, with a rise in risk-averse sentiment.

4. "Expelling Validium? A Reinterpretation of Layer2 from the Perspective of the Danksharding Proposer"

Introduction: Recently, Dankrad Feist, the proposer of Danksharding and a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, made some controversial remarks on Twitter. He explicitly stated that modular blockchains that do not use ETH as the DA layer (data availability layer) are not Rollups and also not Ethereum Layer2. According to Dankrad, Arbitrum Nova and Immutable X, Mantle should be "delisted" from the Layer2 list because they only disclose transaction data outside of ETH (building their own off-chain DA network called DAC).

At the same time, Dankrad also stated that solutions like Plasmas and state channels that do not require on-chain data availability to ensure security still count as Layer2, but Validium (ZKRollup that does not use ETH as the DA layer) does not count as Layer2.

Dankrad's remarks have drawn skepticism from many founders or researchers in the Rollup field. After all, many "Layer2" projects do not use ETH as the DA (data availability) layer to save costs, and if these projects are kicked off the L2 list, it will inevitably affect a considerable number of scaling networks; at the same time, if Validium does not count as L2, Plasma should also not qualify as L2.

In response, Dankrad stated that Plasma users can still safely withdraw their assets to L1 when DA is unavailable (referring to when the off-chain DA network withholds data and does not disclose transaction data), but in the same situation, Validium (most projects using the StarkEx solution are Validium) can prevent users from withdrawing funds to L1, effectively freezing their assets.

Clearly, Dankrad intends to define whether a scaling project is Ethereum Layer2 based on "whether it is secure." From a "security" perspective, Validium can indeed freeze user assets in L2 and prevent them from being withdrawn to L1 in extreme cases of sequencer failure + DA layer data withholding attacks (concealing new data); Plasma, due to its design differences from Validium, while generally providing less security than Validium, allows users to safely withdraw assets to L1 during sequencer failure + DA layer data withholding attacks (concealing new data). Therefore, Dankrad's argument is not without merit.

This article intends to analyze Layer2 in more detail from Dankrad's perspective to gain a deeper understanding of why Validium is not strictly considered "Layer2."