Celestia’s mainnet beta is live following the issuance of its native token, TIA.
Scroll Confirms Mainnet Live, as Co-Founder Predicts Speed Gains Over Ethereum
Blockchain data showed that Scroll’s smart contract was deployed on Oct. 8, but the team held off making its official announcement until this week.
Scroll zkEVM Launches, Blockchain Data Shows, Competing With Polygon, Matter Labs
The new Ethereum layer-2 network’s debut adds to the competition among rival providers of so-called “zkEVMs,” including Polygon and Matter Labs.
Ether Trading at 27% Discount to Fair Value, New Research Shows
Ether is trading at a 27% discount to its fair value, according to research firm RXR’s blended Metcalfe law-centric valuation model, which incorporates active user adoption of layer 2 scaling networks.
BNB Smart Chain Optimism-powered layer-2 opBNB hits mainnet
Binance’s Ethereum layer-2 scaling platform, opBNB, is now publicly available, following extensive testing of the OP Stack-based platform.
Manta Network’s L2 hits mainnet to drive ZK-enabled DApp development
Manta Network has launched its zero-knowledge proof layer-2 scaling network, which promises lower fees and higher throughput for developers looking to deploy decentralized applications.
Arbitrum (ARB) falls to all-time low as network usage metrics decline
ARB price slumps to a new low as a decline in TVL, active addresses engaging with its DApps and a general malaise across the crypto market take their toll.
Sei Mainnet is Live After Testnet Sees More Than 7.5M Wallets Created
The trading focused layer 1 blockchain is backed by Jump Crypto and Flow Traders.
Coinbase’s Base launches mainnet for builders, will onboard users in August
Base’s layer-2 mainnet has launched, allowing builders to deploy contracts, while users will be welcomed to the network in August.
Coinbase’s Base network publishes ‘path to mainnet’ outlining roadmap
The testnet must perform the Bedrock upgrade and go through audits and stability tests before mainnet launch.
SUI mainnet goes live as token sees immediate action on Binance, OKX, others
The total supply of the SUI token is capped at 10 billion coins, with tokens running on a delegated proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.
Cosmos-Based DeFi Protocol Quasar Starts Mainnet After Raising More Than $11.5M
Quasar is optimized for managing DeFi investments across multiple blockchains.
Terra lending protocol Mars to launch mainnet
The Mars Hub will launch an independent Cosmos application chain and issue MARS to users who hold the token during the two snapshots on Terra Classic.
‘Performing as expected’ — Aptos Labs defends day 1 criticism
Aptos’ blockchain claims to handle three times the amount of transactions per second than Solana but day one of its launch saw the network transacting a much lower amount.
GEM Digital commits $50M to ParallelChain Lab for L1 protocol development
As a proof-of-stake layer-1 protocol, ParallelChain intends to deliver an architecture that operates in confidentiality while allowing to validate transactions.
The Ethereum Merge is completed: Here’s what’s next
Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge with the Beacon Chain is complete — here’s what the long-term roadmap for the continued development of the protocol looks like.
Ethereum ready for The Merge as last shadow fork completes successfully
The successful completion of the last shadow fork signaled the readiness of the Ethereum network for migrating to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
Cardano’s Vasil hard fork proposal submitted: Countdown commences
From July 3 the four-week window for application developers and exchanges to test the upcoming Cardano upgrade begins before it’s launched onto the mainnet.
Umbrella Network Announces New Launch: Decentralized Oracles On Ethereum Mainnet
Umbrella Network, the decentralized Layer-2 oracle solution, has officially launched on Ethereum Mainnet. The company made this announcement on its blog on Friday.
Umbrella Network is a community-owned Layer-2 oracle network that batches data for providing low-cost, scalable, and secure data. It utilizes the advances in Merkle tree technology to write multiple data points on a single on-chain transaction, making batching data to smart contracts more accurate and cost-effective. Umbrella network believes a community-owned oracle solution is essential to creating a truly decentralized financial system.
Blockchain Oracles Explained
Most blockchains have cryptocurrencies that are used to transfer value and enable the operations of the protocol. Some blockchains also enable Smart contracts.
According to Wikipedia, a smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol that is intended to automatically execute, control, or document legally relevant events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objectives of smart contracts are the reduction of need in trusted intermediates, arbitrations, and enforcement costs, fraud losses, as well as the reduction of malicious and accidental exceptions.
Related Reading | DOTOracle – Rendering Decentralized Solutions to Polkadot and its Ecosystem
However, there needs to be a way for blockchains and on-chain smart contracts to make use of external, off-chain data for smart contracts to have any real-world applications.
Ethereum.org clearly defines what an oracle is, the oracle problem, and how decentralized oracles solve it. “An oracle is a bridge between the blockchain and the real world. They act as on-chain APIs you can query to get information into your smart contracts. This could be anything from price information to weather reports. Oracles can also be bi-directional, used to “send” data out to the real world.”
Blockchain (e.g. Ethereum) transactions cannot access off-chain data directly. At the same time, relying on a single source of truth to provide data is insecure and invalidates the decentralization of a smart contract. This is known as the oracle problem.
This oracle problem can be avoided by using a decentralized oracle that pulls from multiple data sources; if one data source is hacked or fails, the smart contract will still function as intended.
Related Reading | Decentralized Oracle Plugin Offers Solution for XinFin’s Smart Contract
Umbrella Network claims its decentralized network is a superior solution to its competitors. It provides comparatively quick and affordable price feeds. It also says that it would make available more data pairs (currently 1,200 data pairs growing to over 10,000 by end of 2021) than any other oracle in the ecosystem.
According to Cointelegraph, the need for reliable data feeds appears to be growing as smart contract technology becomes more mainstream. For example, Brazil’s main stock exchange is exploring ways to provide data inputs for the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) project.
Umbrella Network Mainnet Launch On Ethereum
Umbrella Network’s mainnet launch on Ethereum means that it deployed Smart contracts on the Ethereum Blockchain. This means that Ethereum-based dApps can communicate with Umbrella Network code in the live environment — requesting and getting data that is reliable, comprehensive, and cost-effective.
ETH price at $3,431 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Speaking on the mainnet launch, founding partner Sam Kim said, “We are absolutely thrilled to be able to achieve this important milestone. We will now be able to serve the needs of the largest DeFi community with our decentralized oracles, and look to address real challenges the community faces when it comes to the high cost, low availability of data offerings in the ecosystem today.”
The company has been busy with acquisitions and new products in recent months. In May, the network launched on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) mainnet. Umbrella network also stated its plans for future cross-chain integration with Polygon, Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche, in the coming months. In the same breath, it mentioned the launch of its in-house developed Token Bridge next week. This enables seamless transfers of $UMB across all supported Blockchains.
Featured image by @UmbNetwork on Twitter, Chart from TradingView.com
China’s Blockchain Infrastructure Services Provider BSN Adds Casper to Network
Casper is an Ethereum competitor that aims to launch in the first quarter of 2021.