Bessie Liu

Jack Kubinec

SafeDAO, the organization governing the smart wallet platform Safe, may soon vote on the possibility of making its SAFE token transferable.



SAFE tokens, introduced in 2022, are a form of digital assets designed for governance within the SafeDAO ecosystem. Over the past two years, recipients of these tokens have been able to use their allocations to vote on proposals that affect the development and operational decisions of the SafeDAO platform.



Initially, these tokens were non-transferable; they couldn’t be bought, sold or traded on any platform. This design choice was likely aimed at ensuring that only stakeholders with a long-term interest in the platform’s success could influence its direction, rather than speculative traders.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-launches-cctp-solana">Solana welcomes Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol</a>



If enacted, the decision to make SAFE tokens transferable will mark a notable shift in SafeDAO’s strategy. Allowing transfers will increase liquidity, making it possible for people to buy and sell SAFE tokens, and will widen participation in governance by attracting a larger and more diverse group of token holders.



André Geest, the head of governance at <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/safe">Safe</a>, told Blockworks that this newfound flexibility could allow the project’s DAO treasury to fund interesting projects within the ecosystem. It could also enable the organization to set up a rewards program and incentivize the usage of safe smart accounts.



“The token also plays a role in this future design space,” Geest said. “When you think about security abstraction, the token could play a role in curating registries. When it comes to payment abstraction, it could help facilitate fee transfers, for instance.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Making sure tokens are safe</h2>



An initial vote to make SAFE tokens transferable in 2022 <a href="https://snapshot.org/#/safe.eth/proposal/0x1b48a83c44e323275a605b244a05bde89918fb9ec86be7bb83792eb26e544441">failed</a> after some community members <a href="https://forum.safe.global/t/sep-2-community-initiative-to-unpause-token-contract-enabling-transferability/1131/236">said</a>, amid hundreds of forum replies, that SafeDAO should first more clearly define its mission and operations.



Geest explained that the 2022 vote hadn’t passed due to a combination of both internal and external factors.



“It was seen that the DAO was not mature enough, in the sense that it didn’t yet have a North Star. Also, one could say that the DAO didn&#8217;t have a market fit or a product fit,” Geest said.&nbsp;



Additionally, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ftx-meltdown-timeline">following the collapse of FTX</a>, many participants <a href="https://x.com/corbpage/status/1589625760331223040?s=20">believed</a> token transfers should be suspended until market conditions improved.



In response, a second proposal <a href="https://snapshot.org/#/safe.eth/proposal/0xdcd7f8cb197c7132296d802e538df2a565fbe4f8af400f1afbed06b54a808060">passed</a>, outlining five milestones the DAO should meet before SAFE tokens would become transferable — ending the SAFE claim period, ratifying a constitution and then a governance framework, voting on how funds should be spent and deciding on the token’s utility.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/safe-social-recovery-eases-private-key-management">Safe social recovery eases private key management</a>



Fifteen months later, SafeDAO has finally ticked off all five of the milestones, and a Snapshot vote is slated to go live that would make SAFE transferable.&nbsp;



Luuk Weber, a SafeDAO delegate with experience in multiple <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/daos">DAOs</a> dating back to 2019, called SafeDAO’s milestone system the “most structured approach I&#8217;ve seen in any DAO when it comes to aligning on operating logic prior to token transferability.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Today, a proposal to make the SAFE token transferable has entered the review phase of Safe governance. Should it be approved in the forthcoming governance vote, <a href="https://twitter.com/safe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@safe</a> will have a transferable token as early as April 23. The only steps left after today are the following: 1. At… <a href="https://t.co/qsEy2cVARM">pic.twitter.com/qsEy2cVARM</a>&mdash; Daniel (@danftz) <a href="https://twitter.com/danftz/status/1772262229485781183?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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“A lot of work has gone into these milestones from a lot of people, there was really heavy lifting from all parts, I think there’s genuinely a very positive sentiment to the progress that has been made, and the progress Safe has made with the product,” Geest said. 



Outside of the DAO, Safe has continued its development of smart accounts that make use of tools like account abstraction to let users <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/safe-web3auth-ethereum-smart-accounts">create wallets with only an email</a>. Worldcoin <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/product/composability-world-app-protocols-powering-worldcoin-first-wallet">uses</a> Safe to create wallets for its users inside of the World App.



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SafeDAO may finally vote to make SAFE tokens transferable

Macauley Peterson

A major impediment to Web3 mass adoption remains the friction of using a crypto wallet, one that makes the user experience convenient while also keeping assets safe.



Some of the problems are technical — private key management, multiple blockchains, fiat on-ramps — but many shortcomings stem from unintuitive design.



Zeal, a new entrant into the wallet space, aims to tackle both. Developed by an 11-person team of product and engineering pros from Revolut, Spotify and Coinbase, the wallet <a href="https://twitter.com/zealwallet/status/1737866933985595819">demonstrates</a> features that should appeal to Web3 newcomers and veterans alike.&nbsp;



Project lead Hannes Graah (pronounced like “gray”) first became curious about the crypto scene in 2015 while working at Spotify, and got more engaged with Ethereum in 2017 as the growth lead at neobank <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/revolut">Revolut</a>. But it was only on the heels of 2020’s DeFi summer that his crypto journey began in earnest.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/will-defi-summer-return">DeFi summer is over. Will it ever return?</a>



“All of a sudden, all these things that used to be promises on white papers or ideas turned out to actually be tangible products,” Graah told Blockworks.



“The financial building blocks of traditional finance now existed also in decentralized shapes and forms — the zero-to-one moments of trading as an AMM, of lending as lending protocols — those are the core pillars of traditional finance, and now they existed also in a decentralized shape,” he said.



Graah and a few colleagues first launched DeFi protocol Gro, which was a decentralized risk and yield tranching protocol, organized as a <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dao">DAO</a>. But as interest rates fell, it became difficult to attract capital and make fully automated on-chain strategies competitive with off-chain options.&nbsp;



The Gro DAO <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gro-dao-shutdown-total-value-locked-defi-sector">recently voted to wind down</a> and is allowing members to <a href="https://medium.com/gro-protocol/beyond-gro-dao-winding-down-f078dd85f9e4">redeem</a> capital from its treasury.&nbsp;



“We always had an idea that we wanted to build something that lets normal people access <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/defi">DeFi</a>, and we started thinking about that in the context of yields, but now DeFi yields and [traditional finance] yields have to some degree converged,” Graah explained.



As interface builders for Revolut, the next logical step was to tackle the broader challenge of how to make DeFi apps more accessible to newcomers.



“Revolut experiences, like neobanks in <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web2">Web2</a>, are highly curated. They are king-made specific services, often built by the developer of the neobank,” Graah said. “Web3 is open finance where you have access to all kinds of products that are built, and right now we don&#8217;t do any curation of that.”



Zeal is a browser wallet, like <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/metamask">MetaMask</a>, and will connect anywhere MetaMask does. A mobile version is also in the works. But there are some key differences.



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/wallets">wallet</a> will route token trades via 1inch and 0x aggregators to find the best price, and it handles multichain transfers with built-in bridging using Socket.tech.



It launches with zero-fee fiat on- and off-ramps to connect to users’ bank accounts in the UK and wider Europe.



Today, most users must use a crypto exchange intermediary that sometimes raises red flags with banks, or dedicated on-ramp services that charge fees.



“What boggles my mind is that now, 15 years after the Bitcoin white paper [which] said that it was going to be peer-to-peer digital cash — and I still can&#8217;t just send you some digital dollars today,” Graah said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-evolution-white-paper">How Bitcoin has evolved since Nakamoto’s white paper debut</a>



But he goes much further.



“Why shouldn&#8217;t you be able to pay for a coffee with tokenized treasuries? Why are there these weird walls between different asset classes, when all asset classes should be liquid and interchangeable — you should be able to use your asset classes to spend on whatever.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Addressing wallet pain points</h2>



Zeal is a self-custody wallet but users don’t need to store a seed phrase. It onboards users with a passkey, such as one generated by the fingerprint sensor on a phone or computer.



In the background, the wallet deploys <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/safe">Safe</a> smart contract wallets to every EVM chain it supports. It also abstracts away gas tokens — the smart contract deployment happens without the user having to worry about obtaining any ether.



If you want to use a new <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/evm">EVM</a> chain, the same wallet address will be there waiting. That’s a neat trick —&nbsp;dealing with cross-chain Safe deployments <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/20m-tokens-lost-as-market-maker-wintermute-takes-blame">once tripped up major market maker</a> Wintermute, resulting in a multimillion dollar loss.



“We&#8217;re now at a point where all the technologies are finally in place to build the product experiences that can deliver things for people,” Graah said.



Safe itself is also working on bringing better UX for end users, with <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gnosis-visa-debit-card-debut">integrations like Gnosis Pay</a> that provide users an IBAN and physical debit card.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">&#39;&#39;2024 will be the year that seed phrases can finally become a historical practice for most.&#39;&#39; Gnosis Co-Founder <a href="https://twitter.com/tw_tter?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@tw_tter</a> shared her views in <a href="https://twitter.com/CoinDesk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CoinDesk</a>&#39;s Blockchain Tech Predictions for 2024 article! Read the full article here 👇<a href="https://t.co/r1GkPe7gGk">https://t.co/r1GkPe7gGk</a>&mdash; GnosisDAO (@GnosisDAO) <a href="https://twitter.com/GnosisDAO/status/1737827575790243885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Zeal plans to offer cards for point-of-sale transactions as well, but its first iteration focuses on the wallet experience, including things like “safety checks” to help users avoid scams and mistakes —&nbsp;features which currently require additional extensions such as <a href="https://www.joinfire.xyz/">Fire</a>.



By using Safe, an open-source standard securing billions of dollars, users gain peace of mind.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/safe-web3auth-ethereum-smart-accounts">Safe wants Ethereum users to create wallets with emails — not seed phrases</a>



“If, let&#8217;s say, the worst case scenario — Zeal disappears off the face of the Earth — then it&#8217;s still just a normal, good old Safe,” Graah said.



All of this boils down to making cryptocurrency more useful to normal, non-technical users. That’s not just good business, but good policy, and will appeal to regulators, Graah said.



“If we keep on building wallets and treating cryptocurrencies like it&#8217;s a casino, then it&#8217;ll also be considered a speculative asset in a casino,” he said.



“We have to make cryptocurrency into money and make it useful so that it&#8217;s not just something that&#8217;s exciting during a bull market, but it&#8217;s something that I can use in my daily life.”



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Gone crypto: From Revolut to Zeal

Wallet infrastructure provider Safe has collaborated with digital asset bank Sygnum and cryptocurrency recovery group CoinCover, to introduce Safe{RecoveryHub} — a handful of social recovery options for crypto wallets.



Lost or forgotten private keys has left an estimated <a href="https://github.com/jconorgrogan/Lost-ETH">$1.92 billion worth of ether</a> in the lurch. When a user first signs up for a crypto wallet, they generate a public key — a string of random letters and numbers — with which they can receive crypto, and a private key, used to send or otherwise prove ownership of the tokens by cryptographically signing transactions.



Key management systems in Web3 have very few recovery solutions, meaning that if a user loses their private key, they will no longer be able to access their assets.&nbsp;



“Social recovery” has been the exception. The point is to provide a means to recover a missing private key through “recoverers” such as families, friends and collaborators.



Safe{RecoveryHub} users can provide recoverers access to their accounts only in the event that a recovery is taking place. They will also be able to set up more than one recoverer for added security, similar to how a crypto wallet operate as a 2/3 multisig, for example.



Lukas Schor, the co-founder of Safe told Blockworks that Safe{RecoveryHub} consists of two main components. The first is a Safe module that enables the execution of recovery transactions for the popular multisig solution.



The social recovery process, in this instance, is initiated when a user loses access to their Safe and depends on their previously selected recovery setup option.



“When the user utilizes their own, fully self-custodial setup, they can go through every step of the process through our interface or alternatively fully on-chain today and create the recovery transaction, replacing lost access keys with new keys that the user controls,” Schor said. “When the user chooses a third-party option, then there likely will be some authentication or identification process before the third party will initiate the recovery on behalf of the user.”



Once the recovery transaction is created, the user will have an option to veto the transaction. If they do not do so, then the recovery transaction will be executed and they will be able to generate new owner keys, which will allow them to access their smart accounts again.



Schor notes that the <a href="https://github.com/gnosis/zodiac-modifier-delay/tree/main">timelock module</a> used for social recovery has been built by the Gnosis Guild, and has been used and in production for multiple years now.&nbsp;



“Only the user, individual or organization, can activate [or] deactivate the module and set the parameters. Only the Safe account can cancel any recovery attempt. Only the set recoverer can initiate a recovery transaction,” Schor said.



Martin Koeppelmann, co-founder of Gnosis, told Blockworks that technology must account for human error, as simple mistakes can have catastrophic consequences.&nbsp;



Safe’s “framework for recovery options is an important step towards further adoption,” Koeppelmann said. “What is equally important is that it’s done in a way so that users don’t have to make compromises about still being in full control of their funds.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Previous attempts at social recovery</h2>



Safe’s is not the first company that has attempted social recovery. Hardware wallet firm Ledger similarly <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ledger-delays-recover-service">attempted to introduce social recovery</a> earlier this year.&nbsp;



Ledger users had the option to provide KYC information to custodians, and their private keys would be split into three different parts, stored separately on what they said are “cryptographically secure” Hardware Security Modules.



In the case of Safe, a user could choose to trust a custodian or a third party to store their keys, but they also offer the users the choice to store their keys with family members or friends.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/Kwss-pdcLfr5pM0iBoo_Q-xfXNWQSMPR3gqwe-u1WsfoHIhjzH1WiNveu8CJtO4lX8JTjT2NLpKzemzWVc_7HEv4xs6O3c4NnXLOqi6wtgPCZH65H1fXOTdAlV3SiZn7XjfdFEwrzYFb-_C8pX2XhDI" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Safe</figcaption></figure></div>


Schor notes that there is no single way to solve the issue of recovery in the Web3 space, and the Safe{RecoveryHub} is just one viable solution.&nbsp;



He adds that there are larger issues around of recovery schemes, such as limitations around privacy, accessibility and availability — particularly for new users.&nbsp;



“From highly heterogeneous use cases like investing, social networking, and gaming to a highly diverse set of users ranging from everyday individuals and professionals to organizations, recovery needs to be able to cater all these different needs,” he said.&nbsp;



This sentiment is shared by Hannes Graah, the founder and builder of the Zeal wallet, who notes that self-custodial arrangements should be easier to use than a normal bank in order to achieve mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.



“It’s promising to see Safe’s social recovery initiative consider a wide range of trust models from trusted parties like family and friends to backup devices and not simply assume that everyone has a close circle they can rely on,” Graah said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Advances around account abstraction</h2>



Social recovery is focused on key management and it should not be confused with the wider work that is being done around ERC-4337, or <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/account-abstraction">account abstraction</a>.



The purpose of ERC-4337 is to enable a more secure and user-friendly method for managing Ethereum accounts. The model allows users to execute transactions, including smart contract interactions, directly from their wallet. This enhances security and simplifies the process, making Ethereum more accessible and safer to use.



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-erc4337-account-abstraction-smart-contract">Ethereum’s ERC-4337 Account Abstraction Smart Contract is Live</a>



ERC-4337 is more of a stepping stone that can enable tools such as socially recoverable multisigs.



For example, if a wallet holder dies (and therefore their account has been inactive for a set period of time), account abstraction could enable funds to be transferred to a beneficiary automatically.



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Safe social recovery eases private key management

Sebastian Sinclair

San Francisco-based peer-to-peer startup Utopia Labs said Monday it would wind down all services beginning next month in a move that’s being canvased as a pivot away from its current business model.



“For the supporters of Utopia — we&#8217;re not shutting down the company, rather, moving away from our existing product and our existing direction,” Kaito Cunningham, Utopia’s CEO said in a statement.



All services will be suspended on Nov. 6, though provisions have been put in place for users to export financial data, a company banner on its website reads.



Having secured significant funding of $23 million in June 2022 from prominent investors, including Paradigm, Circle and Coinbase, the decision to discontinue its product offerings raises questions about Utopia&#8217;s future endeavors.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/utopia-labs-crypto-payments">Cunningham told Blockworks</a> in August it could be a decade before crypto payments gain significant momentum. He labeled the current state as far from reality, pointing to regulatory ambiguity as one of the challenges.



Initially developed in secret in 2013 and formally released in November 2019, Utopia touts itself as a crypto payment and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">stablecoin</a> offramp/onramp. Its main value proposition centers around facilitating on-chain funds to off-chain counterparties.



Use cases include everything from companies seeking to pay their employees in digital assets by attempting to reduce friction among middlemen to venture capital funds sending USD Coin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdc">USDC</a>) to portfolio companies.



Utopia&#8217;s solution was developed using <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/safe">Safe</a>, a decentralized custody and asset management system based on <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a>. Utopia also collaborated with Bridge, a platform assisting developers in transitioning between dollar denominations, encompassing stablecoins, to facilitate its financial transfers.



As of this week, gasless transactions will be turned off while the platform endeavors to respond to support messages. No bugs are expected to be fixed by its engineering team, while its platform will remain “freely available for use until the end of the month.”



Further details on the company’s pivot are expected to be shared in the coming weeks and months, Cunningham said.



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Utopia Labs to sunset services next month, signaling business model shift

Safe, previously known as Gnosis Safe, is developing a standard with the goal of transitioning the Web3 space to modular smart accounts.



As Ethereum co-founder contended in a June blog post, smart accounts are critical to bringing on more users into the blockchain Web3 space. A smart account, in essence, enhances how a user manages their digital assets via the use of smart contracts. 



Richard Meissner, co-founder of Safe, told Blockworks that when the team began its work, it sought ways to extend smart account functionality.&nbsp;



“The challenge was that these modules bring an inherent risk because the more powerful it is, the more you expose your underlying logic and your account could be abused,” Meissner said.&nbsp;



With growing interest from the Web3 community in account abstraction and smart contract wallets over recent months, Meissner said it was a good opportunity to begin delving into these problems.



Along with co-founder Lukas Schor, Safe released a <a href="https://github.com/safe-global/safe-core-protocol-specs/blob/main/whitepaper.pdf">whitepaper</a> for a “Safe Core Protocol” that explores different ways to streamline <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-are-smart-contract-wallets">smart account</a> solutions. Beyond general security concerns, the whitepaper addresses potential solutions to ecosystem fragmentation.



Today, there are multiple ecosystem initiatives around smart accounts and smart contract wallets, all of which have slight differences between them. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/smart-contract-wallets-will-make-defi-less-cumbersome">Instadapp</a> and <a href="https://metamask.io/news/latest/account-abstraction-past-present-future/">MetaMask</a>, for example, are all looking at ways to incorporate the technology into their respective infrastructure stacks.



Meissner told Blockworks that “over the next couple of months, it will be an important task to look at where we can further line up to prevent fragmentation.



Seeking a solution



The whitepaper introduces the concept of a “Manager” which is responsible for managing “Accounts”, “Registries” and “Modules.” 



An abstraction layer — a separation layer between different components of a system — is used to navigate the complexities between fragmentation, interoperability and security.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/U2XUpTEz1jvvwO1x-Pb1eo8SCG7pIbiVl2Rthnsa0MVm8Ah-oxwK0iJ-S_FrznJL4xNR3YNjCJ-MPof30R5Dojw8LNAzWZZV_unn36NYkqH4439WO2r2aqK8vaT-isfN5CmPJTcNFcEpw5RbNvUEKR8" alt=""/></figure>



Per the paper, smart account users can choose to opt into a protocol by enabling the Manager, which will then give it access to functionalities enabled through Modules. To ensure the security of these Modules, Registries exist to enforce standards.&nbsp;



Schor told Blockworks that the Safe Core Protocol aims to address issues around interoperability and security.&nbsp;



“In the long run, we want you to be able to plug your different smart accounts into the same protocol, it’s all interoperable, and it all leverages the same security properties,” said Schor.



Over the next few months, the team will seek community feedback on the proposed protocol.



“We wanted to get the white paper out early even though we&#8217;re still working on the actual implementation to get early community feedback,” Schor said. “It gets harder to change things as we go along, so we want to get feedback as early as possible when things are still very flexible.”







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Safe is designing a new standard for modular smart accounts

Dapp (dencentralized app) development team Smol recently released MultiSafe, which enables users to keep the same address across multiple blockchains.



The newly launched dapp builds on the work of Safe, previously known as Gnosis Safe, which develops modular infrastructure for user access and management of their crypto holdings.&nbsp;



One of its most well-known products, Safe Wallet, is a smart contract wallet designed to simplify the user experience of having multiple owners or signers — known as a multisig.&nbsp;



The problem, according to Smol core contributor <a href="https://twitter.com/draper_forms">draper</a>, was that when people use different addresses for their Safe across different chains and layer-2s, things can get confusing.



“We built MultiSafe to be the simplest way for anyone to deploy a Safe on the most used chains and have the same address on all of them. Users can deploy a totally new safe or clone an existing one in just a couple of clicks,” draper said.



MultiSafe was officially announced on Aug. 11. At the time, the team wrote that its release “continues Smol&#8217;s mission of creating simple to use and functional dapps designed to solve crypto pain points.”



So how does MultiSafe work?



MultiSafe is designed so that users can deploy a new Safe across multiple different chains within seconds whilst keeping the same address.&nbsp;



“If you already have a safe, you can ‘clone’ that safe onto other chains and keep the original address,” draper explained. “Under the hood, MultiSafe is using Safe’s own factory system which allows anyone to deploy Safe related contracts to any chain.”



This is accomplished by taking advantage of Safe’s deterministic logic, they said. This means users will be given the same address as their existing Safe accounts on different chains.&nbsp;



The Smol team has already built and shipped seven different <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dapps">dapps</a> — and according to draper, is in talks with other teams about future projects. 



“We’re already getting a nice amount of interest from other projects and protocols for us to integrate with them,” draper said.



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Smol built an app to keep your cross-chain crypto under one address

Ben Strack

The CEO of startup Utopia Labs believes that the widespread adoption of seamless crypto payments may still be a decade away. However, that hasn&#8217;t stopped the company from taking strides to expedite this future through its latest initiatives.



Last month, Utopia Labs launched a product giving businesses the ability to send <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdc">USDC</a> to any US bank account. Entities are also able to send the stablecoin to USD accounts, such as ones offered by payments company Wise.



Utopia’s offering is built on top of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/safe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Safe</a>, a decentralized custody protocol and asset management platform on Ethereum. Utopia works with Bridge — which lets developers convert between dollar formats, including stablecoins — to help it move money.  



“We’ve kind of skipped the intermediary process where retail users…go directly from self-custody right to [their] bank,” CEO Kaito Cunningham told Blockworks in an interview.



The world won&#8217;t migrate straight to crypto, said Andy Bromberg, CEO of the Eco App and a contributor to the Eco protocol.



“Building bridges like this are key to doing so — allowing companies to operate between the two paradigms and interface with counterparties in both,&#8221; Bromberg said.&nbsp;



When a user makes a payment of USDC through Utopia, an on-chain liquidation address is created to be associated with each bank account. There is a 0.3% fee for each transaction.&nbsp;



“Today, you&#8217;d have to sign up for an exchange, trade the on-chain funds for fiat and withdraw to your own bank account, and then send onwards to the counterparty,” Bromberg noted. “But Utopia is now allowing all of that in a single flow.&#8221;&nbsp;



Use cases for the product include venture capital funds sending USDC to portfolio companies, or DeFi projects off-ramping on-chain revenue. Cunningham said companies can even pay their Amazon Web Services (AWS) bill using crypto.&nbsp;



<a href="https://collective.xyz/">Collective</a> and PleasrDAO are users, Utopia Labs noted in a <a href="https://twitter.com/utopialabs_/status/1682104697619095553">tweet</a>.&nbsp;



“We are actually talking to companies where they are questioning if they even need to have a bank account anymore,” Cunningham said. “Because they make all their money in crypto and the only use cases in which they need to interact with the real world are service providers and payroll use cases.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Looking ahead</h2>



While Utopia currently uses the Ethereum blockchain, it is set to make the offering available on most other blockchains soon, Cunningham said.



Utopia also seeks to add support for other stablecoins going forward, including tether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdt">USDT</a>) in the coming weeks.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/usdc-market-cap-falls">Why USDC’s market cap is half of what it was a year ago</a>



“I believe in a multi-stablecoin future,” Cunningham told Blockworks. “We went with USDC first because that was what Bridge had provided in terms of [infrastructure].”



The Utopia Labs CEO said it might take 10 years before crypto payments see major traction. He called that future “not a reality at all” today — citing regulatory uncertainty among the hurdles.



“Crypto has to communicate with fiat for us to accelerate that future, and we think…it doesn’t have to be a separate product,” Cunningham said. “It should be ingrained and embedded within the users’ workflows.”



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Businesses can send USDC to any US bank account — with more stablecoins to come

James Cirrone

Gnosis Pay, a payments solution tied to Gnosis Chain, is set to come out in a little over a week.



It’s the latest in a series of developments for Gnosis, which was founded in 2017 and shifted into a DAO in 2020. GnosisDAO later created the Gnosis Chain and incubated Gnosis Safe, and both products appear to have continued to drive demand.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Gnosis Safe, now known as Safe, <a href="https://forum.gnosis.io/t/gip-29-spin-off-safedao-and-launch-safe-token/3476">spun</a> off from the GnosisDAO in 2022, and now stores more than $39 billion of assets, according to its <a href="https://safe.global/">website</a>. Another <a href="https://dune.com/safe/all">estimate</a> shows that the US value of all the ERC-20 tokens in Safe accounts is approximately $58 billion.



With Gnosis readying its payment product — which appears to feature either a credit or debit card — and Safe <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gnosis-spinoff-safe-gets-100m-to-further-ecosystem">receiving $100 million as part of their rebrand</a> last July, it’s about time to take a closer look at these intertwined entities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Safe partners with Monerium for European transactions</h2>



Safe said Thursday it will include on- and off-chain euro payment capabilities through a partnership formed with stablecoin issuer Monerium.&nbsp;



Monerium’s fiat solution is set to be integrated on Safe’s platform, making Safe accounts “seamlessly connected to the SEPA payment system, eliminating the need for additional off-chain bank accounts, ramps, or centralized exchanges,” a statement said.



Safe accounts will be able to receive euros from external bank accounts because the Monerium integration will convert the fiat into its euro stablecoin, EURe. And if a Safe account holder wants to send its EURe, a similar process will happen in reverse, the statement said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">MakerDAO wants to deploy Spark Lend on Gnosis Chain</h2>



According to a proposal on the MakerDAO forum by Karpatkey, a DAO that provides treasury management for other DAOs, Spark Lend could be expanding to Gnosis Chain.



Spark Lend, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/makers-spark-protocol-dai">created through the launch of the Spark Protocol</a> in May 2023, is a lending engine powered by Maker, and users can <a href="https://www.sparkprotocol.io/">borrow</a> DAI from Maker at a 3.43% interest rate.



Gnosis and Maker have had a longtime partnership: GnosisDAO contributed around $140 million to Maker’s vaults, and GNO, Gnosis’s native token, was already listed as collateral on Spark Lend, according to Karpatkey.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">.<a href="https://twitter.com/karpatkey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@karpatkey</a> has put forth a proposal to launch Spark Protocol on <a href="https://twitter.com/gnosischain?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@gnosischain</a>! The formidable Maker-Gnosis strategic partnership could reach new milestones, with <a href="https://twitter.com/GnosisDAO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GnosisDAO</a> embracing Endgame and the launch of the first DAI-centric lending protocol on Gnosis Chain. ↓ <a href="https://t.co/7PP5GlmZbv">pic.twitter.com/7PP5GlmZbv</a>&mdash; Maker (@MakerDAO) <a href="https://twitter.com/MakerDAO/status/1676619439587065858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Gnosis chain security upgrade</h2>



Gnosis <a href="https://twitter.com/gnosischain/status/1675957560397152273">selected</a> Succinct Labs’ Ethereum ZK Light Client as the solution to secure its mainnet omnibridge.



The Gnosis Omnibridge <a href="https://docs.gnosischain.com/bridges/tutorials/using-omnibridge/">bridges</a> ERC-20 tokens between Gnosis Chain and a number of other chains, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and the POA Network.



Gnosis told its users that this will increase security for anyone who bridges “assets or data from Ethereum into Gnosis Chain.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">What does this mean for users? Users who bridge assets or data from Ethereum into Gnosis Chain will now have additional security from <a href="https://twitter.com/SuccinctLabs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SuccinctLabs</a>’s OmniBridge ZK Validator Smart Contract. ✅ Feel more confident about bridging assets to the Gnosis ecosystem.&mdash; Gnosis Chain 🦉 (@gnosischain) <a href="https://twitter.com/gnosischain/status/1675957569775603713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The ZK Light Client has been around eight months in the making, with Succinct’s first demo application dropping in November 2022, according to a <a href="https://twitter.com/SuccinctLabs/status/1587903196671844352">tweet</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Gnosis Pay coming soon</h2>



Though public details surrounding Gnosis Pay have been scant, the product’s launch site offers some solid indications.



There’s an image of the front and back of an upcoming credit or debit card emblazoned with Gnosis’ insignia.



And a hint was dropped about Gnosis Pay in Karpatkey’s Spark Lend proposal.



“This month Gnosis Pay will be launching, allowing the issuance of credit cards. This opens up [sic] many collaboration opportunities with Spark i.e. allowing users to spend from their collateral in Spark,” Karpatkey wrote.



Gnosis Pay was set to launch in mid July, more or less coinciding with the EthCC conference in Paris.



Updated July 10, 2023 at 6:30 pm ET: Clarified Karpatkey&#8217;s role in MakerDAO.



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Since Gnosis spinout, Safe locking down ERC-20 tokens

<div id="highlights-block_6334bede2148f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The token will provide retroactive rewards that will be partially vested over a four-year period</li>
 <li>Core contributors are given &#8220;backloaded vesting&#8221; for their token allocations</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Leading Ethereum-based digital asset management platform Safe — formerly Gnosis Safe — has launched its governance token, SAFE, following its latest rebrand.



The SAFE token will be used to ensure the decentralized governance of SafeDAO.



The token can now be claimed via an airdrop facilitated by Safe’s core team, appointed Safe guardians, investors who participated in the protocol’s $100 million fundraise and 55,000 Safe users. Eligible users will have until Dec. 27, 2022, at 12:00 pm CET to claim their tokens.



The launch of SafeDAO’s SAFE token was unlike traditional airdrops.



The token provides retroactive rewards that would partially vest over a four-year period, and core contributors will be given &#8220;backloaded vesting&#8221; for their token allocations.



Nick Ducoff, a venture partner at G20 Ventures, complemented the approach SafeDAO took, and <a href="https://twitter.com/nickducoff/status/1575106896075243520" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> that this should become the new standard for DAO token launches.



Ducoff told Blockworks that the four-year vest with a one-year cliff and ensuing monthly vesting is already a market standard in traditional tech companies that should be used by DAOs.



“Part-time contributors and bounties probably should have little to no vesting, because it is often the only payment those contributors are receiving for their services, and many need to be able to sell them — even if they believe in the organization — to pay bills and eat,” Ducoff said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">Added Ducoff: “We want a more diverse contributor base, so we shouldn’t limit contributors to those that can long hold a token and don’t need the money, but we also want contributors who are building for the long-term value of the DAO.”</blockquote>



Drawing on the likes of ENS and LooksRare, Ducoff said without vesting options of airdropped tokens, it is possible that token recipients would sell immediately, causing prices to drop. 



“You could argue that’s ok, because they went from short-term holders to long-term holders, but while ENS found a group of long-term holders and delegates, LooksRare eventually petered out,” he said.



The SAFE airdrop is also only eligible to contributors or delegates within the ecosystem, and DAO participants will be asked to review and sign legal documents.



Ducoff believes DAO governance should involve a legal process because “while employee/core contributor contributions are likely inherently owned by the DAO, contributions by contractors are not without clear assignment of IP [intellectual property],” he said.&nbsp;



And the initial airdrop of SAFE tokens will be non-transferable, and it will be up to the community to determine whether that changes.



A move that Ducoff believes can help the token pass the Howey Test — an SEC method to determine whether a financial instrument, including a digital asset, is a regulated security.



“I’d be cautious about discussing when the future vote about transferability might occur — and keep it rather opaque such that people are taking these tokens with no expectation of profit,” he said.



Although Ducoff thinks that SafeDAO’s approach to launching its governance token is a good starting point, he acknowledges that the market is still in its early stages.&nbsp;



“These are all experiments,” he said. “They will learn from it and adjust &#8211; and because of the composability and transparency of the blockchain, others can learn too, accelerating the innovation in the space.”



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Has SafeDAO Set the New Standard for Launching Governance Tokens?

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_62fcdb453f067" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>NFTfi is to become the first NFT lending platform to offer its users NFT rights management enabled loans</li>
 <li>Gnosis Safe recently rebranded to Safe following $100M raise</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The NFT lending protocol NFTfi and digital asset manager Safe, formerly Gnosis Safe, partnered to develop a new product for non-fungible token owners intended to provide added value to digital assets.



Usually, an NFT owner’s rights — to display an NFT, access token-gated content, sign transactions with it or receive an airdrop, for example — are tied to the blockchain address associated with the wallet holding the NFT.&nbsp;



When that digital asset is transferred out of that wallet, such as in the case of an NFT-collateralized loan or NFT rental, the holder may essentially be giving up physical ownership.&nbsp;



The challenge is to improve NFT rights efficiency. The solution proposed by NFTfi and Safe is an NFT Rights Management Wallet to allow Safe Ethereum wallet users to segregate and delegate certain rights and permissions associated with an NFT to other Ethereum addresses.&nbsp;



As part of the partnership, Safe announced an investment of an undisclosed amount in NFTfi, which will become part of the Safe product suite. Gnosis Safe recently rebranded to Safe following a <a href="https://snapshot.org/#/gnosis.eth/proposal/0x5187694133abfb3d140acce3b9ac2ecf033c657c816a18dc25d2e0c1a2a29ec7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">community vote</a> to spin-off and a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gnosis-spinoff-safe-gets-100m-to-further-ecosystem/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$100 million injection of capital led by 1kx</a> crypto fund.  



Web3 development studio BootNode led the technical implementation of the open-source NFT Rights Management Wallet product.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What are the benefits of a NFTfi NFT wallet?</h3>



Stephen Young, CEO of NFTfi, told Blockworks that the Rights Management Wallet is not use case specific, and that the long-term vision is to “usher in a new era of utility” and “unlock tremendous value for the entire NFT space.”



The immediate benefit for NFTfi, according to Young, is that it makes loans more convenient and cheap. If an NFT is used as collateral in a secured NFT loan, it is moved to an escrow third party wallet for the duration of the loan.&nbsp;



Programmable NFT assets plus rights management technology, on the other hand, would permit the NFT owner to delegate transfer rights to NFTfi, instead of transferring the asset for the loan period, while still retaining full NFT ownership.&nbsp;



As NFT financial products such as loans, liquidity tools and derivatives become more robust, NFTfi aspires to become the leading settlement layer for NFT financial transactions, added Young.&nbsp;



“It pursues a platform strategy in which external developers and teams can build agreement types, such as rentals or options, and use NFTfi&#8217;s existing distribution and liquidity to build profitable services on top” Young said.



Lukas Schor, the co-Founder of Safe, confirmed that the investment in NFTfi was not financed through the recent funding round because it occurred before the official spin-off from Gnosis and before the funding round was concluded.



When asked why Safe is focusing on NFT rights management, Schor said that Safe has already “gained significant traction with big treasuries” and that NFTs are an “important driver for retail users to adopt more secure self-custody setups.”&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“With NFTs we think the awareness of retail to seek out more robust options is much higher. Besides the monetary value, NFTs also have emotional, sentimental and cultural value which make them irreplaceable in case they’d get lost,” Schor added. </blockquote>



In a statement shared with Blockworks, Manu Garcia, the CEO and co-founder of BootNode said that the project will enable rights efficiency, “which is to NFTs what capital efficiency is to DeFi.”



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