TLDR CRYPTO 2024-07-18

open-to-the-public investment round.

This century will be defined by lithium. Don't miss your chance to

invest in the future.

GERMAN BITCOIN SALE NETTED 'UNPRECEDENTED' €2.6 BILLION: DRESDEN PROSECUTOR

German authorities have finished its "emergency sale" of ~50k Bitcoin, netting an "unprecedented" €2.6B ($2.88B). The funds are held in custody pending the conclusion of ongoing criminal trials. The sale was expedited because of BTC's volatility.

POKÉMON TO LAUNCH NFTS

The Pokémon Company is set to launch official Pokémon NFTs that enable "users" to trade digital cards on blockchains. The company allegedly filed a patent application, "WO2024090317A1", which uses smart contracts to manage transactions and rewards, thereby improving player engagement and service integration.

INTRODUCING PAULY: THE POLITICAL TRADING AGENT

Pauly is an AI agent on RoboNet designed to trade on US Election markets via Polymarket. It combines data from presidential speeches and other unique sources. Pauly's mission is to make history with each trade by assessing political markets for opportunities and executing optimal trades.

NEXUS 2.0 ZKVM

Nexus 2.0 introduces a new prover frontend, backend, and SDK. The frontend uses the Jolt arithmetization system, which speeds up verifiable computation. HyperNova folding on the backend uses recursive ZK proofs to check many extensive constraints simultaneously. Developers can leverage the Nexus SDK to perform asynchronous proof generation and abstract the complexities of the zkVM.

NIC'S STABLECOIN SYLLABUS

Nic Carter, partner at Castle Island Ventures and Bitcoin influencer, has open-sourced his stablecoin syllabus. It includes whitepapers, blogs, papers, and data tools to get readers up to speed on the stablecoin industry.

THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF (RE)STAKING

Over $111 billion of ETH is staked, representing 28% of the total supply. Stakers are issued rewards from issuance, priority fees, and MEV. Restaking has grown to $19.4 billion on Ethereum and offers benefits like unified security and efficiency while introducing risks such as impacts on base chain security, centralization pressures, and complexities for node operators. Cosmos introduced replicated security in 2023, allowing Cosmos Hub stake to secure consumer chains and mandatorily restake ATOM.

NATE SILVER JOINS PREDICTION MARKET STARTUP POLYMARKET AS MORE PEOPLE BET ON NEWS

Nate Silver, a statistician and journalist known for founding analytics site FiveThirtyEight, has joined Polymarket as an advisor, as the company focuses on prediction markets for news events. Polymarket has risen to prominence as the leading prediction market for the 2024 presidential election, with over $400 million in trading volume in 2024, all secured by smart contracts on Polygon. Silver expects investors to use prediction markets to understand and hedge against political risks.

HOW MANY WEB3 USERS ARE REAL

Chaos Labs developed a Sybil Detection Platform to enhance risk models by identifying wallet and whale concentration in DeFi applications, which it has since refined to apply across various verticals, including social applications. Its clustering algorithms help optimize incentive strategies and explore non-DeFi use cases, revealing that some application user bases could be over 98% Sybil, posing challenges in distinguishing genuine user interactions from AI-driven activities.

DON'T BUILD AN ONCHAIN GAME

This retrospective post from an onchain gaming developer highlights what they would do differently if they could start again.

ELI5 - L3S

If L2s are onchain hubs, L3s are "onchain servers" that settle to L2s but have full customization and unique capabilities.

AGAINST CHOOSING YOUR POLITICAL ALLEGIANCES BASED ON WHO IS "PRO-CRYPTO"

This article argues against choosing political allegiances based solely on candidates' stances on cryptocurrency, warning that the approach could lead to support for policies that ultimately conflict with the broader values of freedom and decentralization that underpin the crypto movement.

US MOVES TO RECOVER $2.5 MILLION WORTH OF CRYPTO LOST TO PIG BUTCHERING SCHEMES

The U.S. Attorney's Office in DC has initiated a "civil forfeiture" to recover $2.5M in USDT lost to pig butchering scams, aiming to seize crypto from Thai accounts linked to fraudulent investment schemes.