The Cross-Chain Insider — LI.FI’s Weekly Cross-Chain Newsletter
Last Week In The Multi-Chain Ecosystem (11th to 17th April 2022)
Bridge Updates
1) Li.Finance is Now LI.FI 🦎
LI.FI is a B2B focused company catering to decentralized applications looking to go cross-chain. With this rebranding, LI.FI aims to break down the messaging to the core: simplifying cross-chain strategies for dApps, wallets, and DeFi protocols.
2) Multichain anyCall is Live 👏🏻
anyCall is a generic cross-chain messaging protocol for cross-chain dApps. It can send cross-chain messages and call contracts from chain A to chain B and enables the easy calling of contracts native to one blockchain from any other blockchain. Cross-chain Curve gauges are the first use-case of Multichain’s anyCall.
3) Ronin Bridge Exploit Update 🧐
The FBI alleged that North Korea-based Lazarus Group is behind the Ronin bridge exploit, leading to a $625M+ of fund loss. The Ronin team confirmed that this does not affect lost user funds which will be reimbursed through the recent fundraising.
Learn more about the hack 👇🏻
4) Connext Announces Amarok Upgrade 🦊
Connext launches the Amarok Upgrade, their first major network upgrade. The upgrade involves extensive changes to Connext’s core protocol to improve the user experience. With Amarok, the Connext team seeks to rearchitect the protocol and fix issues faced by key stakeholders of the network (end users, developers, routers).
5) cBridge Enables $GEL Transfers b/w Ethereum <> Fantom 🚀
cBridge now supports Gelato Network’s $GEL transfers between Ethereum and Fantom.
Multi-Chain Ecosystem Updates
1) Ethereum Merge Postponed 🤔
The Merge, originally planned to go through in Q2 of 2022, has been postponed to have enough time to fix issues and ensure everything is tested. The actual launch date is yet to be announced.
Learn more about the Merge 👇🏻
2) Thorswap V2 Beta is Now Live 🚀
Thorswap, a cross-chain DEX aggregator, has launched V2’s Open Beta, bringing an improved and user-friendly cross-chain trading and LP experience.
3) Metis Storage Layer is Now Live 🥳
Metis has launched its native storage layer, making transactions on Metis more efficient and significantly less costly.
4) Anchor x Acala Partnership 🤝🏻
Anchor Protocol has announced a partnership with Acala, following the protocol’s move to join Wormhole. This partnership aims to grow the decentralized stablecoin space by establishing liquidity pools of aUSD (Acala native stablecoin) and increasing the use of UST across the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem.
5) Cosmsos Completes Theta Upgrade ✅
Cosmsos has completed the Theta network upgrade. With this upgrade, Interchain Accounts, which allow ecosystem chains to securely control accounts on other ecosystem chains instead of simply transferring tokens from one chain to another, now become available.
6) Arweave is now Live on Avalanche 🎉
Arweave, an information storage network, is now natively live on Avalanche. Users can now buy permanent storage using $AVAX tokens on Avalanche.
7) Uniswap Launches Swap Widget 🦄
Uniswap has launched Swap Widget, allowing users to swap tokens anywhere across the web seamlessly. The Swap Widget is already available on websites like OpenSea marketplace, FWB homepage, and Oasis app.
8) 1inch is Now Live on Fantom 👏🏻
1inch has deployed its DEX Aggregation Protocol and the Limit Order Protocol on Fantom, extending support to another L1.
What’s Popping on Twitter?
Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge will not happen in June, as previously projected. “It won’t be June, but likely in the few months after,” said Tim Beiko, member of Ethereum’s AllCoreDevs team, and this sent Twitter into a frenzy.
Last week, Ethereum passed a major milestone, conducting the first shadow fork of the Ethereum Mainnet. Shadow forks enable developers to break a small section of Nodes into a devnet and conduct a dry run of the network in a more realistic post-merge environment.
However, while shadow forking the Ethereum Mainnet, some clients experienced implementation issues— Nethermind and Besu stopped at the transition. This is unfortunate because for The Merge to go through, the shadow forks and testnets need to experience the merge without any bugs.
As per Tim Beiko, we’re “in the final chapter of PoW,” but a date for The Merge will only be set “once client teams are confident that the software implementations have been thoroughly tested and are bug-free.”
The Merge is a significant event, and with billions of dollars on the line, rushing such an event could be catastrophic. While we would’ve liked to see The Merge take place in Q2, this ‘delay’ is not really a delay since the Ethereum team had officially set no dates. To track the progress, you can follow the Merge Mainnet Readiness Checklist.
Interesting Reads
1) Bridging Mega-Issue 🌉
2) State of Crypto Bridges Today
3) Walkthrough of Harmony’s Horizon bridge
4) How Cross-Chain Increases Capital Efficiency on Layer-2
Additionally, here are some podcasts you must check out!
- Optimistic Cross-Chain Bridging with Pranay Mohan of Nomad
- $1B in Bridge Hacks…Is the Future Still Multi-Chain?
If you Liked What you Read
- Follow us on Twitter for daily updates and announcements 👐🏻
- Join us on Discord to hang out with other UX Maxis 🙌🏻
- Join us on Telegram for your weekly dose of the multichain ecosystem! 🌌
Disclaimer: This newsletter is only meant for informational purposes. While many projects featured in the newsletter are our partners, we encourage you to do your own due diligence before using or buying tokens of any protocol mentioned above.
P.S. if you found the content to be useful, pls gib x50 claps 👏🏻
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