🟣 The proof is in the verifying

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Welcome back to 0xResearch. Here's what we’ve got for you today:

• Healthy consolidation wanted

• Plonky3

• Bracket ETH

• CT: Craig Wright != Satoshi (but we knew that already)

The bitcoin rally that kicked off in earnest over the weekend looks to have legs.

Spot bitcoin ETF inflows switched into high gear on Friday, just as the German government’s supply ran dry. The ETFs collectively notched upwards of $300 million in inflows on Friday and Monday, and $422 million on Tuesday, data shows.

Next up, from a technical analysis perspective, would be a bit of consolidation to digest this move, with a range established above about $62,500. Holding above such levels for a few days will set BTC up nicely for further continuation.

Plonky turns 3

Polygon Labs announced that Plonky3, the latest generation of its zero-knowledge proving system, is now production ready and open-sourced under MIT/Apache licenses. 

Plonky3 is designed to provide developers with a modular and flexible toolkit to create custom zkVMs and zkEVMs, tailored to specific use cases. This new system follows the success of Plonky2, introduced in 2022, which was known for its speed and optimization for commercial hardware. However, it had fixed properties that limited flexibility.

Plonky3, however, offers a more versatile approach since developers can configure it according to their needs and adjust tradeoffs such as speed versus proof size. It supports various finite fields and hash functions, fostering innovation in the zk space.

This modularity has already been embraced by projects like Valida and Succinct Labs’ SP1, which adapted Plonky3 for their own purposes.

SP1, for example, uses Plonky3 to enable arbitrary Rust code execution with the performance and security guarantees of zk proofs.

Polygon Labs continues to champion open source zk technology as the cornerstone for scalable and secure blockchain applications. Like its predecessor, Plonky3 is STARK-based.

Give us all your ETH

There’s now a well-established launch plan for new Ethereum staking infrastructure to suck in capital as a way of testing the waters for product market fit.

Some cases, like Blast, attracted hundreds of millions in ETH before there was even any semblance of a working product. Others, like Index Coop, use ETH deposits as a signaling mechanism to determine sufficient demand for a new index token.

The latest iteration is explored below in a project that will "escrow" ETH derivatives for 90 days, starting at the end of July, before launching their product.

While I’ve previously spoken to the team and presume they mean well, this whole approach is growing a bit tiresome.

— Macauley Peterson (X: @yeluacaM | Farcaster: @Macauley)

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This application is open for students currently enrolled in college or university. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Ronin chain activity spikes:

Despite the slump in gaming activity, Ronin chain is seeing a surge. As of the last couple days, active addresses — while an imperfect metric — are jumping by approximately 400k, with new addresses more than doubling to 150k. The increase in activity can be attributed to transaction growth on Ronin’s flagship game Axie, together with Pixels and Wild Forest. Elsewhere onchain, buzz is building around popular NFT mints like Ragnarok’s Sohee tickets and Tribesters Wildings.

— Donovan Choy (X: @donovanchoy | Farcaster: @donovan)

Liquid staking’s value proposition is easy to understand: Give us your pristine ETH in exchange for a share of network rewards, and receive a liquid derivative to go do other DeFi stuff. As liquid staking’s product market fit caught on like wildfire, the problem for users and DeFi protocols lay in having to choose from a confusing alphabet soup variety of LST/LRTs with fragmented liquidity across DeFi.

What if there was just one trusted, fungible liquid staking token for the sake of convenience? Bracket, backed by Binance Labs, is the latest entrant into the crowded liquid staking market trying to do just that. The project wants to streamline capital efficiency into its own non-rebasing LRT token, "brktETH", which is backed by a diversified basket of other LSTs/LRTs.

The rest of the now-familiar growth playbook applies: gain points on your LRT tokens, along with Bracket points (BARS) on your collateral. As part of Bracket’s plan to create a holistic LSTFi platform, the protocol will also integrate its previous volatility trading product "Passage" to offer familiar DeFi strategies like margin borrowing/lending/swapping and LPing into various pools across DeFi.

— Donovan Choy (X: @donovanchoy | Farcaster: @donovan)

Aerodrome: The Liquidity Hub of Base

Aerodrome is a "MetaDEX" that combines elements of various DEX primitives such as Uniswap v2 and v3, Curve, Convex and Votium. Since its launch on Base, it has become the largest protocol by TVL with more than $495 billion in value locked, doubling Uniswap's Base deployment.

Read more→

Flashvote: Arbitrum Treasury Turbulence

Arbitrum recently released three proposals with the potential to drastically change the future of the DAO and its treasury. These proposals tackle ARB staking, MEV revenue collection and possibly increasing the gas fees.

Read more→

Empire Newsletter: How the crypto conversation has evolved in 2 years

Plus, is crypto sentiment shifting for the better?

Read more →

Can crypto fully realize the open banking fintech vision?

"OpenFi" aims to unbundle to take the "account" out of bank account.

Read more →

The insights, views and outlooks presented in the report are not to be taken as financial advice. Blockworks Research analysts are not registered broker/dealers or financial advisors. Blockworks Research analysts may hold assets mentioned in this report, further outlined in the Firm’s Financial Disclosures.