ChainCatcher news, the JD recruitment official website shows that the company is hiring a stablecoin policy researcher. The position requires candidates to have a strong financial background and policy research capabilities.Job responsibilities include researching domestic and international stablecoin policies and regulations, communicating and coordinating with regulatory agencies, providing policy support to internal teams, and analyzing stablecoin market trends.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, an Ethereum researcher has proposed a new block proposal solution aimed at democratizing Ethereum's currently centralized block building process by implementing a "shared random algorithm."The anonymous researcher Malik672 stated in an article that "decentralized random block proposals" would utilize Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) to eliminate the maximum extractable value at the block level, fully achieving the democratization of block proposals and potentially accelerating propagation—the process of broadcasting transactions to network validators.According to Malik672's proposal, all Ethereum clients (rather than a few builders) would construct blocks through a cryptographic random algorithm. This random selection would prevent profit-driven manipulation strategies from affecting Ethereum users. The solution would better align with Ethereum's "trustless root" while still being compatible with the blob requirements of Danksharding—the solution aims to scale Ethereum L2. Malik672 added that the solution could even reduce the time slot duration from 12 seconds to around 6 to 8 seconds.

ChainCatcher news, Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan announced on the X platform that he has joined Etherealize as a co-founder to help the development of Ethereum, and Vitalik Buterin expressed his welcome.Last September, Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan announced his departure, concluding his seven-year contribution to the Ethereum ecosystem. Ryan stated on GitHub that his departure was for personal reasons, wanting to make space for new opportunities, and emphasized that this decision does not reflect any issues with Ethereum or the crypto industry. Ryan played a crucial role in Ethereum's key upgrades, serving as the chief coordinator for the Ethereum The Merge upgrade and overseeing the launch of the Beacon Chain in 2021. Ryan was also actively involved in the progress updates of Ethereum Improvement Proposals.

ChainCatcher news, in the Ethereum Foundation's latest semi-annual AMA, researchers responded to questions about Ethereum scalability, Layer 1 revenue, and security.EF researcher Justin Drake revealed that the first phase of the Pectra upgrade is expected to be launched in the coming months, focusing on enhancing data availability, which is anticipated to significantly increase the number of Blob transactions from 3 per block to 6, likely having a major impact on the Blob fee market. While some in the Ethereum community have called for an increase in the "base fee" for blobs, researchers at the Ethereum Foundation generally view this as a shortsighted idea.Drake stated, "I expect that in about 10 years, Ethereum's TPS will reach 10 million (about 100 transactions per person per day), and even with each transaction at $0.001, daily revenue will reach $1 billion :)"One of the goals of the Pectra upgrade is to enhance Ethereum's economic position, particularly by promoting the adoption of "native Rollups," thereby reducing Layer 2 solutions' reliance on Layer 1. Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum's goal is to maintain the neutrality of the network. Researchers emphasized that as the network expands in the future, the demand for data availability will exceed supply, and future scaling solutions like Danksharding will help bridge this gap.Additionally, EF has opened a $2 million bug bounty to encourage the community to stress test the hard fork, ensuring the security of the Pectra upgrade.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake believes that as the issuance of ETH decreases, it will "soon" become an "ultra sound" currency, while Bitcoin will be "phased out" as it approaches its supply cap of 21 million. This statement has sparked a debate between the two communities.Drake recently posted on X that to make ETH "ultra sound again, either the issuance must decrease or the burn rate must increase. I believe both will happen."Ethereum's issuance became deflationary after the merge in 2022, but it is set to increase starting in April 2024 after the Dencun upgrade, as the Dencun upgrade reduced fees on L2 networks and the total burn amount.However, Drake compared the issuance of ETH to that of Bitcoin, noting that since the Dencun upgrade, Bitcoin's supply has increased by 655,000 coins, while the Ethereum network has added 462,000 ETH in the same period. At current prices, the former is worth about $63.5 billion, while the latter is only worth $1.25 billion. Drake stated, "Currently, the supply of BTC is growing at 0.83% per year, which is 66% faster than ETH."He also pointed out that Bitcoin's supply cap of 21 million could lead to long-term security risks, as miners' revenue primarily comes from block rewards (about 99% in the past week, with only 1% from network fees). He added that due to the relatively low cost of attacking the network, Bitcoin is easily susceptible to security risks.However, analyst James Check stated that critics of Bitcoin's sustainability fail to consider factors such as energy advancements, mining efficiency, and economic incentives. He said that if Bitcoin reaches a reserve status, high fees are inevitable, similar to the fees institutions pay for the secure storage of gold.He added that over time, network fees will cover operational costs, while subsidies have already covered capital expenditures. Check also believes that advancements in energy, particularly nuclear energy and the utilization of wasted energy, will lower mining costs.

ChainCatcher message, encryption researcher and DYθR founder @hmalviya9 shared a valuation analysis of Berachain on his social platform: Berachain raised $142 million at an average valuation of $414 million by allocating approximately 34.3% of the supply to VCs. This calculates to an average entry price for VCs of about $0.82.If BERA matches the unrealized VC returns of SUI (approximately 15 times), the token's price at launch should be above $15, but this possibility is very low.If the token matches the unrealized VC returns of Sei (approximately 10 times), it should exceed $10. Therefore, the bullish price for BERA will be between $10 and $15, while the bearish price will be between $5 and $10.

ChainCatcher news, Gink, the chief researcher of the Web3 governance research institution AW Research, has joined ZEROBASE as the strategic director and will participate in building modules such as ZEROBASE staking/zkdarkpool/payment/governance.Gink stated: "Decentralization is a process of continuous optimization. Our goal is to find the best balance between privacy protection, regulatory compliance, and user experience, providing truly needed privacy protection solutions for high-value scenarios.At ZEROBASE, we believe that true decentralization is not just about the implementation of technology, but also about a profound understanding and meeting of user needs. We are committed to building an ecosystem that protects privacy while complying with regulatory requirements, allowing every user to find their own value within this ecosystem."

ChainCatcher news, according to information disclosed by Cointelegraph on the X platform, a close associate of Ledger founder Eric Larcheveque responded to kidnapping rumors, stating that he is currently safe.Relevant information shows that Gregory Raymond, co-founder of The Big Whale, verified on his X account that Eric Larcheveque is not involved in the kidnapping rumors about him. He also cautioned to be careful with the information that has been released, as it may threaten the ongoing investigation in France and could even endanger others' lives.Previously, some media reported that Ledger founder Eric Larcheveque was suspected of being kidnapped, with the kidnappers demanding a ransom in Bitcoin.

ChainCatcher news, former Ethereum Foundation core researcher Danny Ryan posted on X platform stating: "Regardless of what the future holds for Ethereum, whether I am here or not, I want to publicly and clearly express my respect and admiration for Aya Miyaguchi's leadership and friendship. There are many reasons why Ethereum has thrived over the years, and Aya has played a significant role in that. She possesses a deep strategic mind and a pure heart. Not many people have the opportunity to work closely with her, but I have. My success in Ethereum has always been tied to her support and guidance.Even if you wish to see changes in the Ethereum Foundation, even if your criticisms are well-founded, please look forward and help build a positive future. Please put away the weapons that harm."

ChainCatcher news, Ethereum Foundation researcher Alex Stokes announced that he will co-lead Ethereum Research with barnabe.eth. He also introduced the Ethereum Foundation's newly launched research department, Ethereum Foundation Research, which will consist of five teams:Application Research Group (ARG): Helping to translate theory into practice;Consensus Development: Many interests focused on improving the consensus layer;Cryptography: Using interesting mathematics to reduce trust in each part of the stack;Protocol Security: Ensuring the security of the software and specifications behind the network using various tools and bug bounty programs;RIG: Economic/game theory perspectives reinforce Ethereum's unique mechanisms.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, recently Check Point discovered a macOS malware named "Banshee" that mimics Apple's encryption algorithms to evade antivirus detection and targets cryptocurrency wallets and browser credentials. However, Apple security researcher Patrick Wardle stated that the threat has been overstated by the media and its actual harm is limited.Banshee was previously operated as "Stealer-as-a-Service," but it was terminated in November 2024 due to source code leakage. Wardle pointed out that the software's encryption methods are quite basic, and the latest macOS systems can defend against such threats by default, posing almost no risk to ordinary users. He emphasized that instead of focusing on specific malware, it is better to concentrate on basic security practices.

According to ChainCatcher news, in an article by Zhong Yi from the China Financial Forty Forum, titled "Cryptocurrency is 'Not What It Used to Be'", it points out that the development of cryptocurrency has now given rise to at least three different types with distinct characteristics. Based on their design mechanisms and functions, private cryptocurrencies can be mainly divided into three categories: Store of Value Cryptocurrencies, Utility Tokens, and Stablecoins.As of December 28, 2024, the CoinGecko website has recorded 16,022 types of cryptocurrencies across 1,200 exchanges worldwide, with a total market capitalization of approximately $3.43 trillion and a trading volume of about $165.3 billion in the past 24 hours. In relative terms, this market capitalization is equivalent to 5% of the total market capitalization of the U.S. stock market and 35% of the Chinese stock market. In early 2014, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies was only $10.6 billion, and over the past ten years, the cryptocurrency market has achieved more than 300 times growth.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the smart contract of the blockchain company Virtuals Protocol was accidentally found to have vulnerabilities by security researcher Jinu (pseudonym) during a review. Virtuals Protocol quickly released a fix and restarted its bug bounty program. On December 3, Jinu stumbled upon the issue while reviewing the contract and immediately reported it to Virtuals Protocol, only to learn that the company did not have an active bug bounty program, which meant his discovery did not qualify for a reward. According to Jinu, the Virtuals Protocol team also closed the Discord group specifically for reporting the vulnerability.In a post on the X platform, Jinu stated, "This vulnerability could impact the Virtuals ecosystem; if exploited, it would prevent the generation of AgentTokens until the contract is fixed." After making this information public on the X platform, Virtuals Protocol contacted Jinu and promptly released a fix. Despite the timely release of the fix, Virtuals Protocol has not yet announced a bug bounty reward for Jinu. In the message to the researcher, the company thanked Jinu for reporting the issue and apologized for the previous communication breakdown.

ChainCatcher news, Delphi researcher Robbie Petersen released a cryptocurrency market forecast for 2025 on the X platform, with the following key points:As the MEV supply chain matures, roles such as exchanges and validators will face more competition, while the front end will maintain its monopoly; the total market value of the DePIN market will grow fivefold by 2025; the application of crypto payment infrastructure in proxy trading is limited, and traditional payment channels will continue to prevail in 2025; stablecoins will no longer just be the lubricant for DeFi but will become a true medium of exchange; the number of active stablecoin addresses will exceed 50 million by 2025, with the stablecoin market experiencing multifaceted warming; the boundaries between wallets and applications are becoming blurred; chain abstraction at the wallet layer is gradually becoming irrelevant as practical applications of universal L2s emerge.

ChainCatcher news, StarkWare announced that computer science professor Moni Naor has joined its scientific committee as a chief researcher. At StarkWare, he will primarily focus on topics such as Bitcoin cryptography and the decentralization of Starknet.StarkWare stated that Moni has made pioneering contributions to computer science, including groundbreaking research on public key systems resistant to chosen ciphertext attacks, non-malleable cryptography, visual cryptography, and innovative methods for verifying human users (leading to the concept of CAPTCHAs). The first mention of proof of work was proposed by him together with Cynthia Dwork.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, Bitcoin has retreated after hitting an all-time high, with some traders seeking to hedge against deeper pullback risks after the original cryptocurrency surged above $100,000 for the first time. According to data from Amberdata, which tracks digital asset market data, the largest open interest in put options was for strike prices of $95,000 and $100,000 in the past 24 hours, with increased demand for put options in the $75,000 and $70,000 range as well.Luke Nolan, a research assistant at crypto asset management firm CoinShares, stated, "When we break it down by expiration date, we can see that the open interest in put options is mainly concentrated at the end of December and the end of January next year, with some in the end of February next year, which logically makes sense to hedge against any pullback or unexpected situation that may arise from this significant surge."