Welcome to The Protocol, Coindesk’s weekly roundup of the most important stories in cryptocurrency technology development. I’m Ben Schiller, Opinions and Features Editor at Coindesk.
In this question:
- DAO governance tool merge
- Ethereum Foundation Drama
- Stablecoin USDH comes to Bitcoin
- DEPIN’s $25M Grant Program
network news
DAO Governance Platform Gains Competitors: Blockchain governance startup Agora will gain access to its rival’s board of directors. The company is targeting the acquisition as a strategic move to improve governance of the broader Ethereum ecosystem, citing expectations for new growth in decentralized governance due to President Trump’s pledge of regulatory clarity for the blockchain industry. . Agora co-founder Yitong Zhang told Coindesk: “In 2025 we will make good governance the standard for all Ethereum schemes.” Agora was founded in 2022 by Zhang, Charlie Feng and Kent Fenwick. The trio originally started working on a governance tool on Noun The DAO, one of the buzzword blockchain schemes to emerge from the 2021 DAO and NFT hype cycle. Agora is built on the premise that token governance is core to the value of crypto protocols. It aims to provide user-friendly open source governance tools for Daos such as Uniswap and Optimism, which both currently use Agora to organize token holders and maintain governance votes. Blockchain governance. The board is gradually transitioning from Agora-style DAO tools to data feeds, similar to “Bloomberg” for encrypted governance data. Agora declined to disclose how much it received from the board of directors. Employees on the board already have roles at Agora, and founder Kevin Nielsen will continue to serve as an advisor. “There is no plan to disparage” the board, Zhang said. Instead, the Agora team will keep both platforms running and will work with users to determine how to integrate the tools over time. Read more. – Sam Kessler
Ethereum is in turmoil: Konstantin Lomashuk, the founder of the Lido Staging protocol, has teased his intention to establish a “second foundation” to advance the Ethereum ecosystem. Over the past few days, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined plans for a major reorganization of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization responsible for supporting the development of Ethereum. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Buterin shared details of the reorganization, which he said will streamline decision-making and address inefficiencies. The announcement sparked criticism, with some arguing that Buterin’s central role in the reorganization process undermined Ethereum’s decentralized ethos. EF has long been under scrutiny for its own concentrated influence. Over the past year, the organization has faced increasing pressure to define a vision for Ethereum’s future as competing networks such as Solana have made strides. Read more. – Sam Kessler
Bitcoin gains new stability: The developers of USDH, the developer of Stablecoin built on Bitcoin’s layer 2 stack, have completed a protocol that brings approximately $3 million in liquidity to the token. Decentralized finance (DEFI) protocol Hermetica has gained liquidity through a partnership with Bitcoin lending protocol ZEST, which will make it the largest stablecoin on the stack. Both plans offer USDH through loans against SBTC, a bridge asset that users can use to invest their Bitcoin wealth into the Stack ecosystem. Hermetica said the initial liquidity boost could create a short-term window for higher yields, with forecast annual percentage points (APY) as high as 50%. Hermetica currently offers an average APY of 18%, it said in an email announcement on Wednesday. Stablecoins play an integral role in the crypto-economy, providing users with a way to keep their assets in tokens that don’t easily generate such huge ebbs and flows in value because they are not the same as fiat currencies (usually fiat currencies). USD) peg. Stablecoin provision is therefore naturally an important development in Bitcoin’s evolution into a network that can support Defi functionality, a trend that has been facilitated over the past few years. However, it should be noted that the $3 million in liquidity provided by USDH is small compared to the major stablecoins in crypto. USDT and USDC have market caps of over $138 billion and $51 billion respectively, highlighting the relative infancy of the Bitcoin bias sector. Read more. – Jamie Crawley
DEPIN Grant Program: World Mobile is a decentralized wireless network, announced $25 million grant program Designed to promote the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DEPIN) project. Tenity, an early stage investor and global leader in innovation programs and startup acceleration, is a partner in the program and will provide access to its six international hubs. Micky Watkins, CEO of World Mobile Group, said: “By partnering with Tenity, we ensure that the World Mobile Chain Grants Program not only funds projects, but also provides the guidance and resources needed to drive scalable, impactful innovation.” The $25 million funding, which starts at $5,000, focuses on decentralized communications, chain government and the tokenization of real-world assets. World Mobile is basically “Layer 3” compatible with EVM. Read more.
In other news
L2S is getting faster
defi letter of credit
Regulation and Policy
calendar
- January 20-24: world economic forumDavos, Switzerland
- January 21st to 25th: Wagmi conference,Miami.
- January 24-25: Adopt BitcoinCape Town, South Africa.
- January 30-31: Plan B ForumSan Salvador, El Salvador.
- February 1st to 6th: Satoshi RoundtableDubai
- February 19 to 205, 2025: consensusHongkong.
- February 23-24: Paris NFT
- February 23rd to March 2nd: etdenf
- March 18-19: Digital Asset SummitLondon
- May 14-16: consensusToronto.
- May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025Las Vegas.