Archive for the ‘Smart Contracts’ Category

Ondo Finance Announces New Token, OMMF, Providing Tokenized … – PR Newswire

GREENWICH, Conn., April 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ondo Financetoday announced a novel token, OMMF, that allows global stablecoin holders to invest in tokenized exposure to US money market funds. OMMF will be purchasable and redeemable for one dollar and backed entirely by US government money market funds. Unlike traditional MMFs, OMMF will be globally transferable 24/7, on the Ethereum public blockchain, and compatible with on-chain financial infrastructure like decentralized lending protocols. In order to hold its constant price, OMMF will make daily distributions in the form of new OMMF tokens to investors.

"As the world moves towards a more digital and decentralized future, OMMF represents a longer-term opportunity to provide savers with a superior way to store and transfer wealth." says Nathan Allman, Founder and CEO of Ondo Finance. "What stablecoins have done for cash, OMMF will do for money market funds, unlocking their potential to be used not just as a store of wealththeir primary current usebut also as a globally-accessible collateral and settlement alternative."

Tokenized money market funds provide the price stability of stablecoins while also passing on yield.

OMMF is Ondo's next step in bringing institutional-grade financial products and services on-chain, for everyone. US money market funds manage more than $5 trillion and serve as a compelling alternative to bank deposits for many investors. OMMF complements Ondo's existing offering, a tokenized US Treasuries vehicle called OUSG, which has found early success helping digitally-native institutions incorporate best practices for cash management.

Ondo will process daily subscriptions and redemptions in stablecoins as well as traditional fiat, and Ondo will offer instant redemption on-chain for certain amounts of OMMF. Investors will receive OMMF tokens on the Ethereum blockchain representing their ownership. These tokens will be transferable between whitelisted investor addresses, as well as any smart contract that passes a compliance review. Ondo envisions investors using smart contracts to engage in on-chain trading, lending, and settlement with the fund tokens alongside traditional crypto assets. OMMF will be backed by an established, yet-to-be-disclosed MMF. Like OUSG, OMMF's assets are ring-fenced and held remotely from Ondo's balance sheet.

"First generation stablecoins were revolutionary," says Justin Schmidt, President and COO. "For the first time, digital cash was available on-chain, globally, 24/7. They were created when interest rates were near zero, so designing them to be able to pass on yield was not a focus. By tokenizing money market funds we are able to deliver the price stability and on-chain utility of stablecoins while providing superior investor protections and passing on yield to holders, creating what we believe is a superior store of value, means of settlement, and form of collateral for the on-chain economy."

About Ondo FinanceOndo's mission is to provide institutional-grade, blockchain-enabled investment products and services. Ondo has a technology arm that develops decentralized finance technology as well as an asset management arm that creates and manages tokenized funds.

Contact:

Email: [emailprotected]Web: https://ondo.financeTwitter: @OndoFinance

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Bitcoin and Crypto Aren’t as Dead as You Think, VC Firm Says – Barron’s

Token prices be damned, crypto is doing just fine. Or so goes the story told by an investor with one of the biggest stakes in the industry.

Thats the major takeaway from a report released Tuesday by a16z crypto, an arm of the prominent venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The VC firm published a new state of crypto index that purports to track the progress of the crypto industry by aggregating metrics such as the number of active crypto wallets and the number of smart contracts in use. The idea, according to the firm, is that crypto token prices alone dont paint an accurate picture of the progress that decentralized finance is making.

For people not really closely following what happens in crypto, prices have remained volatile. Its been that way since the beginning of crypto, says a16z crypto Chief Technology Officer Eddy Lazzarin. But if you look at the underlying technology, it has continued to advance.

Its easy to see why a16z wants to reset the narrative.

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The past 12 months of the crypto industry have been marked by major bankruptcies, plummeting token prices, and the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX amid fraud allegations. The price of Bitcoin, the largest token, has rallied lately, even breaking through $30,000, but it is still down by more than 50% from its 2021 peak of more than $65,000.

In a16zs telling, the state of crypto isnt nearly as dire. In March, the index had a reading of about 1,615, down from a peak of 2,159 in 2021 but still 25 times as much as the reading in January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

The firm itself has a lot at stake: a16z is one of the VC industrys heaviest investors in crypto. Its portfolio includes Anchorage Digital, Avalanche, dYdX, Solana, and Uniswap, among dozens of others.

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Among the metrics that a16z says are already above the 2021 peak are the number of active wallets used to store crypto; the volume in transactions of stablecoins, whose values are most commonly pegged to the dollar; and the number of smart contracts, which are crypto-powered contracts that execute automatically when certain conditions are met.

Lazzarin says such metrics and others are a more appropriate measure of development in the ecosystem than token prices alone and that they set the stage for the development of real-world use cases for crypto.

Bitcoin is mostly held by investors hoping it will appreciate in price. But a16z argues that the crypto industry will have a much broader impact, describing it as an evolution of the internet and a new computing platform.

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Similar stories have been told by crypto proponents for years but havent yet come to fruition. Even though the industry says it wants to cut out financial intermediaries like banks and exchanges in favor of cheaper, decentralized alternatives, most analyses have shown that a small number of firms, including a16z, wield great power over the industry. A U.S. regulatory crackdown, which has limited the options for crypto firms to even get basic banking services, threatens cryptos growth.

Perhaps the biggest near-term threat to many crypto projects is a lack of interest from venture-capital firms themselves. Lazzarin says his firm still sees opportunities in crypto and is continuing to invest, though he admitted that things may have slowed slightly.

A separate report released by Galaxy Digital on Tuesday said VC firms invested $2.4 billion in crypto-focused start-ups and protocols in the first quarter, the lowest amount in more than two years.

The era of growth at all costs is over, at least for now, and venture-backed start-ups need to prepare for a difficult fundraising environment for the foreseeable future, said the report, which noted that VCs have pulled back from other industries as well. The founder-friendly environment of the last several years is in the rearview mirror.

Write to Joe Light at joe.light@barrons.com

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Bitcoin and Crypto Aren't as Dead as You Think, VC Firm Says - Barron's

Comparing Ethereum’s Layer 2 Solutions: A Look at zkSync … – CryptoTicker.io – Bitcoin Price, Ethereum Price & Crypto News

Ethereum has been facing scalability issues, high gas fees, and network congestion. To address these problems, several projects are developing layer 2 solutions that aim to improve the performance and user experience of Ethereum without compromising its security and decentralization. Three of the most prominent layer 2 solutions are zkSync, Arbitrum, and Optimism. In this article, we will compare these solutions in terms of their advantages, disadvantages, and overall performance.

zkSync is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable fast and cheap transactions without compromising security or decentralization. zkSync aims to bring the benefits of blockchain technology to mainstream users by providing a user-friendly interface, low fees, high throughput, and privacy guarantees. zkSync supports smart contracts, NFTs, and various tokens, and is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). zkSync also offers a developer-friendly environment with SDKs, APIs, and documentation to help developers build and deploy scalable applications on zkSync.

Arbitrum is a layer-2 blockchain for Ethereum using optimistic rollups as scaling technology. It processes transactions on its proprietary sidechain and relays the new chain state to the Ethereum mainnet. Arbitrum aims to improve Ethereums performance by providing a more efficient and scalable environment for decentralized applications and smart contracts. Arbitrum benefits from the security and compatibility of Ethereum, but reduces the fees and congestion that users face on the mainnet. Arbitrum has attracted many developers and projects to its ecosystem, and has launched its own token, ARB, which is used for governance and incentives.

Optimism is a layer-2 scaling protocol for the Ethereum network. The scaling solution works by moving transactions and computations from layer-1 (L1) onto a second layer, thus reducing transaction fees and increasing network throughput. Optimism is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which means that any smart contract or decentralized application (dApp) that runs on Ethereum can also run on Optimism with minimal changes. Optimism uses a technique called optimistic rollups, which are batches of transactions that are executed on the second layer and periodically posted to the main chain. Optimism also employs a fraud-proof system, which allows anyone to challenge an invalid transaction and revert it if proven wrong.

At the end of the day, its clear that zkSync, Arbitrum, and Optimism are all promising solutions for Ethereums scalability and cost issues. Each one has its own unique features and drawbacks, so it really depends on what the user is looking for.

Its pretty impressive how the Ethereum community is constantly finding ways to improve the platforms performance and user experience, while still keeping its core values of security and decentralization intact. As Ethereum continues to evolve, were excited to see what new developments will come up in the world of layer 2 solutions. Who knows what the future of decentralized finance and other Ethereum-based applications will look like!

Want to earn the upcoming ZKSync Token Airdrop? Follow these steps to farm for ZKS and earn your share of

NFTs are revolutionizing the way we think about ownership and value in the digital world. However, buying and selling NFTs

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DeFi: Yearn Finance Lost $11M After Attackers Exploited An Outdated Contract – TronWeekly

DeFi protocols Yearn Finance and Aave suffered exploitation to the time of more than $11.6 million owing to a misconfigured yUSDT, blockchain security expert Peckshield revealed.

Initially, the attack was thought to be limited to Aave V1, but later on-chain sleuths found that the latter was instead exploited to mint huge yUSDT from a small $10K USDT.

The huge yUSDT was then cashed out by swapping to other stablecoins. The flash loan exploiter has so far stolen millions worth of USDT, TUSD, BUSD, USDC, and DAI.

Meanwhile, Yearn issued a public statement as its team continues its investigation.

Were looking into an issue with iearn, an outdated contract from before Vaults v1 and v2. This problem seems exclusive to iEarn and does not impact current Yearn contracts or protocols. iearn is an immutable contract predating YFI, it was deprecated in 2020. Vaults v1, with upgradeable strategies, was also deprecated in 2021. Theres no indication its affected. The current version, Yearn v2 Vaults [written in Vyper], remains unaffected as well.

As further information came to light, different security analysts pointed out that the issue is still specific to the liquidity pool and the 2020-launched iEarn legacy protocol. Vaults for Yearn v2 dont appear to be affected.

It seems like the iEarn USDT token [yUSDT] has been broken since deployment, which was *checks notes* over 1000 days ago. It was misconfigured to use the Fulcrum iUSDC token instead of the Fulcrum iUSDT token, white-hat hacker samczsun stated.

For those new, prominent Web3 developer Andre Cronje pioneered two DeFi projects yEarn Finance and iEarn. Cronje renamed iEarn to Yearn Finance [YFI] in July 2020 after it showed success in yield aggregation.

Meanwhile, a similar incident of smart contract exploitation took place a few days back.

Popular decentralized protocol Sushi DEX reported a loss of over $3 million due to a bug on the RouterProcessor2 contract that is used to route trades on the SushiSwap exchange.

The issue seems to only impact customers who approved SushiSwap contracts in the previous four days, according to @0xngmi, a pseudonymous DefiLlama developer.

After the incident, SushiSwap chief developer Jared Grey requested users to remove access to any contracts on the platform as a security precaution.

Grey also assured that the team was working with security teams to mitigate the issue.

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DeFi: Yearn Finance Lost $11M After Attackers Exploited An Outdated Contract - TronWeekly

SureX Launched New Investment Matrix, Leading the New Trend of … – InvestorsObserver

Mahe, Seychelles, April 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With the emergence of the cryptocurrency market, more investors are focusing on this field. However, for novice investors, the cryptocurrency market is full of various uncertainties and risks. How to be in this market with ease? SureX zero-operation financial products are here to provide a reliable alternative for novice investors.

Fascinating Cryptocurrency and DeFi

"DeFi" is an acronym for Decentralized Finance, which allows users to trade and invest without a central authority. This financial model is based on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. And it aims to provide a more secure and transparent financial experience.

In the past, cryptocurrencies have been seen as mysterious digital assets. But with the rise of DeFi, it has gradually become a more open and inclusive investment way. the concept of DeFi has expanded from the early days of cryptocurrencies and smart contracts to a wider range of areas, including liquidity mining, flash loan, decentralized exchanges and more.

The total market capitalization of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has surged along since the crisis that hit Silicon Valley banks in recent weeks, as cryptocurrencies became one of the risk-averse options for investors. Bitcoin has again become the best-performing global broad asset class so far in 2023, ranking first in global broad asset class gains and its Nasdaq far outpacing the second one.

Since the inception of Bitcoin in 2008, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has reached $3 trillion in 2021, driven by concepts such as Defi, which has seen numerous stories of "windfall" until now:

Deal-hunters rewarded millions of dollars in tokens through airdrop farming; someone bought a nameless coin on chain before going to bed and woke up to find that the value of these coins had been equivalent to the total of their 60-year salary; someone held the coin for a month and it went up 1500%, and even more comically after selling the coin, it went up to 3000%; some people use Defi lending + liquidity mining model to earn $20 million in 5 days, with a yield in percent million; someone's token YFI rises over 32,000% in one month, becoming the first cryptocurrency in history to surpass Bitcoin in price.....

Relying on DeFi to manage your money has a higher yield cap than any legitimate and transparent financial product you currently know.

But against the context of such staggering returns, the current state of Defi is caught in a loop of suspended growth for users, with ultra-high barriers (i.e. more learning costs, technical risks, operation mode, etc.) preventing the enter for vast majority of wealth-seekers.

SureX - a crypto exchange built on Inclusive Finance

"How to turn decentralized finance into inclusive finance that benefits the general public?"

This was the initial proposition of SureX Exchange at the beginning of its establishment, and its ultimate mission is "to help more people to receive the DeFi dividend".

As the first exchange to launch Defi and single pledge wealth management, SureX has made a product design that is perfectly compatible with Defi's financial management and community power.

The SureX development team came up with a "spot-blasting" approach to address the high threshold and fees of DeFi. They combined the best of centralized and decentralized finance to create a one-stop access platform for Defi's portfolio of financial products. This platform allows ordinary people to easily participate in the global ecosystem of decentralized finance without the need to master smart wallets and complex on-chain operations. In this way, the barriers to DeFi are significantly lowered and people can more easily participate and invest in cryptocurrencies. At the same time, the SureX platform also offers low fees and high yield financial products, allowing more people to enjoy the benefits of DeFi.

SureX Term Pledge Wealth Management

Simply put, this type of investment is bringing together the funds of a group of dispersed investors and then invested by one institution or team. These funds are put into a securely audited liquidity pool, and then the returns are obtained through on-chain liquidity mining. This approach safeguards investors' funds while earning higher returns.

You can understand it as a time deposit in a bank, as long as you use the funds to subscribe to finance you can collect interest daily. The difference only lies in the need to use cryptocurrency, a minimum of 100USDT to escrow, enjoy a monthly rate of 7.2%, daily settlement and a minimum annualized return of 21%.

SureX Pledge Wealth Management Documentary Trading System

A community of top traders in the industry who will teach you how to start investing in cryptocurrencies and create a long-term stable profit model through low-risk passive investments.

The order-following pledge system is a model similar to that of a fund manager investing on behalf of a professional trader and dealer who develops position strategies, and the user can decide which teacher to follow by using data such as the historical returns of these professionals. The user only needs to follow the order with one click, during which he can check the fluctuation of the return of the financial management.

In this way, all investors need to do is to choose traders they consider reliable.

SureX Bull & Bear Battle

Compared with the traditional trading mechanism, the bull-bear battle has the characteristics of wide audience, quick start and considerable profit. And its the gameplay is simple and rough, even a crypto novice can easily get started in three minutes.

It is divided into "bull side" and "bear side", and adopts the PK matchmaking method. The "bull" side is matched to the "bear" side through the SureX exchange's matchmaking, and the two sides place their orders and become each other's opponents.

Players can choose the currency and time, and decide whether the next market direction will be "bull" (up) or "bear" (down) by betting on different values of USDT. If a player buys in a bull market and the closing price is greater than the opening price, the player wins, and vice versa, the other player wins, and vice versa for the rules for buying in a bear market.

Of course, the novice grows. And SureX has prepared higher latitude products such as futures contracts and liquidity mining system, and is also on track to continue developing more quality services.

All of SureX's products have three distinctive features:

1. High yield

2. Low threshold

3. Low fees and charges

All products revolve around SureX's core philosophy and service tenet: insight into user needs, and fully assist users in financial investment, and to create a simple and professional digital currency trading platform for all decentralized financial participants, serving not only professional traders, but also newcomers to cryptocurrency investment.

The current concept boom of DeFi, Web3, NFT, Metaverse has gave birth to numerous projects, but there is still no excellent intermediate product in the market that meets the usage habits of traditional finance-leaning and Defi novice, which is the problem but also an opportunity for SureX to stand out from the centralized exchanges.

The SureX team believes that complementary and win-win cooperation is the best driving force to build a global inclusive financial ecosystem.

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SureX Launched New Investment Matrix, Leading the New Trend of ... - InvestorsObserver