The Cross-Chain Roundup #15
The Cross-Chain Roundup #15
Week Roundup (February 27 - March 05, 2023)
This year, we’ve had week upon week of up only, interspersed with the occasional week of sideways mostly. And finally, in the past seven days, we’ve endured a spell of down mostly. Nothing too consternating, though: just a typical correction, and a modest one at that. The rapid decline of Silvergate, crypto’s de facto bank, is being blamed for the slump.
Whatever the cause, it hasn’t dampened the spate of innovation in the cryptosphere of late. Nor has it tempered the enthusiasm for new protocols, L2s, and platforms if this week’s top stories are anything to go by. Oh yeah, this is the Swing newsletter, in case we didn’t make that clear, and it’s your guide to everything of note that’s happening in the cross-chain ecosystem. Here’s what we’ve served up for your delectation this week…
📰Cross-Chain Updates
Uniswap Labs remains one of the most talented EVM-focused dev teams in DeFi and its latest release has inevitably garnered attention. Uniswap’s mobile wallet app, currently available through Apple TestFlight, supports Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Expect the full release on Apple and Android to follow soon.
With the promise of delivering an “omnichain reality,” highly anticipated DeFi project TapiocaDAO has released its beta, which includes support for Arbitrum Goerli, Avalanche Fuji, and Fantom Testnet. As a test case for the viability of omnichain interoperability, based around lending and borrowing, there’s a lot resting on TapiocaDAO’s fortunes. Interest in the testnet – and everything that comes next – has been high.
MetaMask has released an SDK in the Unity Asset Store that will allow developers to connect their games to the MetaMask web wallet. This will enable users to interact with web3-enabled features within the game itself and is sure to usher in a new era for GameFi, powered by the leading web3 wallet. MetaMask has even promised a Web3 Early Adopter Program that will offer a $100K grant and guidance to help gaming developers transition to web3.
In another breakthrough for interoperability, the first transfer between a Cosmos blockchain and a Polkadot parachain has been completed. It’s a critical milestone in advancing cross-chain technology by making it easier for blockchains to talk to one another. Expect this one-off transaction to turn into a trickle and then a torrent.
Not content with releasing a zk blockchain, Polygon is pressing ahead with further applications for zero-knowledge proofs and it’s settled upon digital identity as a particularly promising use case for the versatile technology. Polygon ID is now available under an open source license to the public and is fully self-service. Using the Polygon ID infrastructure stack, anyone can become an issuer, verifier or holder of a web3 identity. This means that off-chain data can now be used for trustless on-chain verifications in the widely-supported Verified Credential format.
Rollups are everywhere right now and Metis has just become the latest network to adopt the scaling technology. It’s opted for an Ethereum Hybrid Rollup, a combination of Optimistic Rollup and Zero-Knowledge Rollup architectures. Hybrid Rollups will combine the scalability and EVM compatibility of Optimistic Rollups with the security, censorship-resistance, and fast finality of Zero-Knowledge Rollups.
Popular Arbitrum DEX Zyberswap has introduced cross-chain swaps with the support of Axelar. More than 25 networks are now supported with the additional integration of Squid Router. Axelar Network is fast becoming the preferred solution for DEXs intent on going cross-chain.
OpenOcean has also gone cross-chain this week with the support of Stargate. As a result, it’s now able to offer swaps that incorporate Ethereum, Avalanche, Optimism, Fantom, Arbitrum, and Polygon. Thanks to the Stargate integration, OpenOcean can offer swaps with deep liquidity of over $450M TVL and fast guaranteed finality.
📜Interesting Reads
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