Ethereum
Ethereum devs grumble as Harvest Finance and Value Defi eye Binance Smart Chain
Cointelegraph By Andrew Thurman
Today, yield aggregator Harvest Finance and multi-service platform Value DeFi — two Ethereum-native decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols accounting for nearly a billion dollars in total value locked between them — announced planned expansions to Binance Smart Chain, the smart contract platform built by crypto exchange giant Binance.
Not everyone in the Ethereum community is ready to take BSC seriously, however.
Harvest, which is among the largest yield aggregators and currently boasts over 830 million in total value locked, said in a statement to Cointelegraph that the protocol is looking to hire two developers to bring Harvest to BSC.
“At Harvest Finance we think this is an opportunity to show that “cross chain” yield farming is not only possible, it will be one of the next major milestones for the yield farming ecosystem,” said Harvest community moderator Red.
Likewise, Value DeFi and its $40 million in TVL said in a Tweet that they were planning to port their yield-bearing governance vault to BSC, confirming earlier team statements on Discord:
Cat is out of the bag on this one. #BSC here we come!
More details on an updated roadmap coming soon pic.twitter.com/CsTdWS6l5C
— Value DeFi Protocol (@value_defi) February 11, 2021
The announcements come during a period of explosive growth for BSC. Projects on Binance Smart Chain such as PancakeSwap have been on a tear as of late, and even before the announced moves the recent run of success has led some members of the Ethereum developer community to ask which is more valuable: a platform scalable enough that all players can feasibly participate, or a credible degree of decentralization?
Testnet or true ecosystem?
BSC, whose architecture is supported by 21 validator nodes all run by Binance or its affiliates, has been characterized by some developers as an elaborate Ethereum testnet, given its cheap transactions and centralization:
Before you complain, BSC is hot rn because no one ever invested much in Ethereum testnets like #goerli and making them profitable as a playground
— I’m just a doggie boi (@fubuloubu) February 10, 2021
According to Scoopy, the semi-anon co-founder of the forthcoming AlchemixFi project, the centralization means that BSC is destined to remain populated with copycat projects originally born on Ethereum.
“My view on the matter is that while it may offer some improvements to user experience with faster and cheaper transactions, it is counter to the decentralized ethos that has inspired countless developers to build on Ethereum,” they said. “Innovation will continue to be centered in Ethereum as a result.”
Other traders and developers are less concerned with originality and thorough decentralization, however. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Red said that even though Ethereum is “the king of kings,” profit maximalism is what motivates Harvest.
“Harvest sees a growing number of projects that are attempting to alleviate the pain associated with high gas costs on Ethereum,” said Red. “[…] Harvest is focused on providing the best sources of yield for farmers. If that yield exists on another chain, and can be safely utilized, we will turn on the tractors.”
More accessibility, more users
Aside from developmental and ideological scruples, BSC’s transaction costs are increasingly difficult to ignore for projects looking to provide value for their users. The recent spike is gas costs is a genuine barrier for retail investors, especially when it comes to more complex contract interactions. Value DeFi specifically mentioned these gas costs as a pain point in their BSC announcement.
Members of the Premia Republic, an all-anon team building the Premia options protocol, said that unless a project is building with explicit decentralization in mind, BSC is simply a path to a larger pool of users capable of using a smart contract product.
“[We] don’t think building on bsc is a bad thing at all. Whether everyone agrees or not, retail and a large portion of the participating market are being priced out of some of the services offered in defi due to gas fees,” they said.
“Some may build/port to bsc because they would like to capitalize on the profits and economic activity happening, but in [our] opinion, you’re simply opening yourself up to an additional market.”
Cointelegraph By Rakesh Upadhyay
Selling pressure from global equities markets continues to weigh on Bitcoin price as traders endeavor to flip the $50,000 level back to support.
Cointelegraph By Andrew Thurman
Paid Network, a DeFi platform aimed at real-world businesses, has been exploited today in an “infinite mint” attack that has sent PAID token prices plunging upwards of 85%.
While the exploit netted nearly $180 million in PAID tokens at the time of the attack — what would have comfortably been the largest exploit of a DeFi protocol — the hacker’s payday will end up being far less. One observer noted that the attacker’s wallet only converted some of their tokens to wrapped ether, leaving the rest in rapidly-devaluing PAID tokens:
Summary of $PAID incident:
Total PAID swapped to WETH: 2079.603371141493
= $3,104,887.33Total PAID left in account: 594,717,455.71
= $24,313,147Total amount in attacker account = $27,418,034.33
Stay Safe. pic.twitter.com/Lz93qGKAq0
— vasa (@vasa_develop) March 5, 2021
The attacker’s wallet still has over 57 million PAID tokens worth $37 million.
The exploit is conceptually similar to an attack on insurance protocol Cover that took place in late December last year. In that instance, the team took a “snapshot” of holders prior to the attack and issued a new token, returning the supply of the token to pre-exploit levels.
The team confirmed on Twitter that they are currently planning for a snapshot and restoration:
We are investigating the issue. We pulled liquidity, are creating a new smart contract, & will be restoring everyone’s original balances to before the hack.
Those with staked, Lpool & UniFarm $PAID will have their tokens be sent to them manually.
We will share more updates soon
— PAID NETWORK (@paid_network) March 5, 2021
However, token holders anxious for a resolution may be out of luck. Some in the community are speculating that the attack on PAID wasn’t an exploit at all, but instead a “rugpull” — a colloquial term for an insider designing contracts to specifically make them exploitable and swiping user funds.
Nick Chong of Parafi Capital noted on Twitter that Paid’s deployer contract, an externally controlled account, transferred ownership of the deployer to the attacker shortly before the mint, indicating that a member of the team either rugpulled, or errantly allowed the attack to take place with a security lapse:
Paid Network’s deployer, an EOA, transferred ownership of a contract to the attacker 30 mins before the minthttps://t.co/h14GdV4fCf
— Nick Chong (@n2ckchong) March 5, 2021
Additionally, a DeFi risk analysis account @WARONRUGS warned of exactly this exploit in late January, noting that the contract owner can mint PAID tokens at any time:
❌ Scam Advisory #86- PAID Network $PAID (0x8c8687fC965593DFb2F0b4EAeFD55E9D8df348df)
Reason: The owner can mint tokens and did mint tokens to fresh wallets who never bought the presale. Contract is behind a proxy.
Likeliness of losing all funds: Very High
DYOR. #WARONRUGS❌ pic.twitter.com/YQunjpWuxY
— #WARONRUGS❌ (@WARONRUGS) January 25, 2021
An on-chain note sent to the attacker has ominously warned that “the LAPD will be in contact with Kyle Chasse very shortly.” Kyle Chasse is the CEO of Paid Network.
Paid Network did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Cointelegraph By Greg Thomson
Singapore-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bybit announced on Friday that it would be suspending services for its customers n the United Kingdom. Bybit offers a range of high-end trading products for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and more.
The move follows a blanket ban on all retail cryptocurrency derivatives trading by the Financial Conduct Authority, and U.K. customers will be given until March 31 to close out positions and withdraw their funds from the platform, a company announcement stated.
The post also affirmed the company’s intention to continue dialogue with regulators in the hope of opening up shop in the U.K. once more.
“We request your immediate cooperation in this matter. We regret this situation, and will seek dialogue with regulators to explore options. We hope to be able to earn the privilege to serve you again in the future,” stated the announcement.
Going forward, new sign-ups to the exchange using U.K.-based mobile phone numbers or IP addresses will be rejected automatically.
In October 2020, the FCA issued an announcement declaring that all retail cryptocurrency derivatives trading, encompassing products such as options, futures and exchange-traded notes, would be banned. The ban went into effect in early January 2021.
Remarkably, the FCA’s decision to ban these products flew in the face of feedback received from industry consultants. The FCA canvassed the opinions of trade bodies, national authorities, exchanges and legal representatives, with 97% of respondents arguing against the prospect of a ban.
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