$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭

A crow-stepped gable (ladder pattern) on a Scottish tower (exchange). Stepped. Still climbing.

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

@GodsBurnt Showing up daily means nothing if you're overleveraged and one bad week wipes you out. Survival comes before consistency. 💀

[vitalik.eth @VitalikButerin]

I really appreciate both @sandeepnailwal's personal contributions and @0xPolygon's immensely valuable role in the ethereum ecosystem.

To recap:

* Polygon hosts @Polymarket, which is probably the single most successful example of a "not just boring finance" app that has actually been successful and provided value.
* Polygon has also hosted plenty of other applications that have needed high levels of scalability.
* Polygon put a lot of resources into ZK-EVM proving early on, both by bringing in Jordi Baylina's team and through other efforts, and greatly helped in moving the space forward.
* Polygon has built infrastructure for proof aggregation (AggLayer) and many other things

And also:

* Sandeep put a lot of his personal effort into @CryptoRelief_, which has made large contributions to biomedical infrastructure and research inside India.
* He voluntarily returned $190M of proceeds from the SHIB tokens that I donated to me, which has made the whole Balvi open source anti-airborne-disease biotech program possible, and possibly accelerated our understanding of important anti-pandemic topics like clean indoor air by years. @cz_binance also recently donated $10M in BNB to me to help continue the program, and I've recently added ~$20M of my own funds (no, not from selling ETH 😛)

Big appreciation to both for this. Most whales passively think that things like this are cool, but are not willing to get off their butts and personally contribute, unless it's in the form of a company that keeps everything proprietary to become yet another vehicle for personal profit. @sandeepnailwal (and CZ) are special here.

On the ZK issue (after all, you do need a proof system to get the full security guarantees that L2s are meant to provide), I can see Polygon's difficult bind: they supported Jordi's team putting their heart and souls into the tech at a time when that tech was still too early for production, and so they contributed to the early and most difficult part of the learning curve, but at that part of the learning curve it was difficult for them themselves to directly benefit from the fruits of their labor.

Since then, the market structure has split into L2 teams and ZK teams (eg. @SuccinctLabs, @RiscZero, more recently @brevis_zk, many others) being separate entities, which I think makes more sense than the previous approach of every L2 doing (OP or ZK) proof systems in-house: it's very difficult to be both the best L2 and the best ZK team, the two are very different skill sets.

Personally, I hope that at some point soon @0xPolygon can just pick up off the shelf ZK tech that has now gotten quite good and apply it to the PoS chain to get full stage 1 and later stage 2 guarantees from the ethereum L1. Many don't realize just how much ZK tech has improved; proving costs are around $0.0001/tx, and many L2s I talk to are very surprised when I tell them the recent numbers, they're still stuck in the mindset that ZK is maybe ok for ethereum L1-scale chains but unviable for anything hyperscale. The latest ZK-EVMs, and live projects like @Lighter_xyz, show that this is false.

[vitalik.eth @VitalikButerin]

We need more DAOs - but different and better DAOs.

The original drive to build Ethereum was heavily inspired by decentralized autonomous organizations: systems of code and rules that lived on decentralized networks that could manage resources and direct activity, more efficiently and more robustly than traditional governments and corporations could.

Since then, the concept of DAOs has migrated to essentially referring to a treasury controlled by token holder voting - a design which "works", hence why it got copied so much, but a design which is inefficient, vulnerable to capture, and fails utterly at the goal of mitigating the weaknesses of human politics. As a result, many have become cynical about DAOs.

But we need DAOs.

* We need DAOs to create better oracles. Today, decentralized stablecoins, prediction markets, and other basic building blocks of defi are built on oracle designs that we are not satisfied with. If the oracle is token based, whales can manipulate the answer on a subjective issue and it becomes difficult to counteract them. Fundamentally, a token-based oracle cannot have a cost of attack higher than its market cap, which in turn means it cannot secure assets without extracting rent higher than the discount rate. And if the oracle uses human curation, then it's not very decentralized. The problem here is not greed. The problem is that we have bad oracle designs, we need better ones, and bootstrapping them is not just a technical problem but also a social problem.
* We need DAOs for onchain dispute resolution, a necessary component of many types of more advanced smart contract use cases (eg. insurance). This is the same type of problem as price oracles, but even more subjective, and so even harder to get right.
* We need DAOs to maintain lists. This includes: lists of applications known to be secure or not scams, lists of canonical interfaces, lists of token contract addresses, and much more.
* We need DAOs to get projects off the ground quickly. If you have a group of people, who all want something done and are willing to contribute some funds (perhaps in exchange for benefits), then how do you manage this, especially if the task is too short-duration for legal entities to be worth it?
* We need DAOs to do long-term project maintenance. If the original team of a project disappears, how can a community keep going, and how can new people coming in get the funding they need?

One framework that I use to analyze this is "convex vs concave" from https://t.co/1BrMsUAKWK . If the DAO is solving a concave problem, then it is in an environment where, if faced with two possible courses of action, a compromise is better than a coin flip. Hence, you want systems that maximize robustness by averaging (or rather, medianing) in input from many sources, and protect against capture and financial attacks. If the DAO is solving a convex problem, then you want the ability to make decisive choices and follow through on them. In this case, leaders can be good, and the job of the decentralized process should be to keep the leaders in check.

For all of this to work, we need to solve two problems: privacy, and decision fatigue. Without privacy, governance becomes a social game (see https://t.co/uMXcuzQNjM ). And if people have to make decisions every week, for the first month you see excited participation, but over time willingness to participate, and even to stay informed, declines.

I see modern technology as opening the door to a renaissance here. Specifically:

* ZK (and in some cases MPC/FHE, though these should be used only when ZK along cannot solve the problem) for privacy
* AI to solve decision fatigue
* Consensus-finding communication tools (like https://t.co/Nzord32Ub1, but going further)

AI must be used carefully: we must *not* put full-size deepseek (or worse, GPT 5.2) in charge of a DAO and call it a day. Rather, AI must be put in thoughtfully, as something that scales and enhances human intention and judgement, rather than replacing it. This could be done at DAO level (eg. see how https://t.co/pCHI7Mlo2m works), or at individual level (user-controlled local LLMs that vote on their behalf).

It is important to think about the "DAO stack" as also including the communication layer, hence the need for forums and platforms specially designed for the purpose. A multisig plus well-designed consensus-finding tools can easily beat idealized collusion-resistant quadratic funding plus crypto twitter.

But in all cases, we need new designs. Projects that need new oracles and want to build their own should see that as 50% of their job, not 10%.

Projects working on new governance designs should build with ZK and AI in mind, and they should treat the communication layer as 50% of their job, not 10%.

This is how we can ensure the decentralization and robustness of the Ethereum base layer also applies to the world that gets built on top.

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

Bro the most feared sandwich bot in DeFi just got sandwiched itself 😂 Fake routes, approved, drained. $7.5M gone. Poetic justice honestly. The hunter became the hunted. #DeFi

Anyone else low-key not feeling bad about this one?

[Ash Crypto @AshCrypto]

If you ever made money in crypto,

you can never leave.

Never.

The only way out is death.

You live by the trenches.
You die by the trenches.

Better get used to this shit.

[Ash Crypto @AshCrypto]

If you had told me in 2021 that

- there would be a pro-crypto president

- Bitcoin spot ETFs would get approved

- institutions would buy billions in BTC

I would have assumed a $200K BTC, $10K ETH, and a massive altseason.

Today we have all these things, and prices are even lower than in 2021.

[Solana @solana]

If you weren't here, it will feel coordinated.

If you were here, you knew all along.

[Nebraskangooner @Nebraskangooner]

Weirdest Crypto conditions ever.

Most altcoins keep dying

#Bitcoin mostly sucks. Whales want Saylor to capitulate.

$HYPE doesn't care what the market is doing

$ZEC is like I might jump off a cliff but maybe I won't.

Then every 3 days a random altcoin does a 50% pump before selling off 2 days later.

PvP baby. Eat or be eaten.

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

Been thinking about this all day tbh.

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

MiCA 2.0 could genuinely make or break DeFi in Europe. If they get stablecoin rules right this time, we might actually see real adoption. The EC asking for feedback is a good sign they're listening. Builders, this is your moment to speak up! #DeFi Thoughts?

[Ethereum @ethereum]

Ethereum is for shipping.

Here are 25 things the Ethereum ecosystem launched, upgraded, and announced over the past month.

0/ @thedaofund Ethereum Security Quadratic Funding Round with @Giveth wrapped. The fund supported 134 security projects and had 3,934 unique donors.

1/ @Ronin_Network, one of the largest gaming blockchains, completed its migration to an Ethereum L2.

2/ Clear Signing went live. It is an open standard designed to help end blind signing and make transaction data human-readable before signing. Contributors include wallets and hardware, infrastructure, tooling, individual builders, and the Ethereum Foundation’s Trillion Dollar Security initiative, with the @ethereumfndn acting as a neutral steward.

3/ @SEAL_911 and @Wonderland_Fi introduced DARC, a Digital Asset Risk & Compliance standard for crypto teams, with continuous monitoring across GitHub, infrastructure, multisigs, DNS, and more.

4/ @arbitrum announced that LG Electronics' blockchain team is piloting an onchain advertising network on Arbitrum.

5/ @base activated Azul, its first standalone network upgrade, introducing multiproofs, new execution and consensus clients, CLZ opcode support, Osaka repricings, and performance upgrades up to 5,000 TPS.

6/ @Mastercard expanded stablecoin settlement support to include USDC, PYUSD, USDG, USDP, and SoFiUSD on Ethereum mainnet, @arbitrum, and @base.

7/ @EFDevcon 8 Mumbai early bird tickets went live. Tickets were available paid in ETH.

8/ Türkiye's Directorate of Communications (@Communications) registered cbiletisim.eth, making its first step in establishing an official onchain identity with @ensdomains.

9/ @CashApp launched stablecoin support, allowing nearly 60 million users to send and receive USDC with no wallet setup required, live on Ethereum mainnet and @Arbitrum.

10/ @torproject and @FundingCommons launched a web3-native crowdfunding initiative supporting 10 internet freedom projects.

11/ @JPMorgan launched a second tokenized money market fund on Ethereum.

11/ @lifiprotocol launched LIFI Intents, a full-stack intent execution engine built on the Open Intents Framework, an initiative for standardizing crosschain intents.

12/ @l2beat launched Token Frameworks, a dedicated place to explore interoperability solutions, token movement, volume, speed, chains, and framework adoption.

13/ @PrivacyEthereum launched a private transfers dashboard comparing 11 protocols across privacy, cost, UX, decentralization, compliance, verifiability, state, and composability.

14/ @Veildotcash launched Veil MCP 0.2.0, enabling agents to make private x402 payments on @base.

15/ @src_co_ introduced SLOW, reversible, self-custodial crypto payments on Ethereum.

16/ @ensdomains ecosystem builders launched ENS8004, a web app that converts an ENS name into an onchain AI agent other applications can find and verify.

17/ @OctantApp introduced properQF in Epoch 12, integrating quadratic funding into the funding round.

18/ @AragonProject launched onchain profiles, making governance participants readable across forums by resolving ENS names, avatars, bios, websites, and social links from Ethereum mainnet.

19/ The Ethereum Community Hub network expanded to Lisbon, hosted at the @gnosisDAO office.

20/ @SuccinctLabs introduced data confidentiality to OP Succinct, enabling institutions to keep transactions confidential while settling to Ethereum.

21/ @HardhatHQ 3 became stable, bringing Solidity tests, multichain support, a Rust-powered runtime, a revamped build system, and Hardhat Ignition for deployments.

22/ The inaugural @ethconf, in NYC, brought together thousands of founders, industry leaders, and builders to discuss building on top of Ethereum.

23/ @EthPrague brought Ethereum builders together in Prague to discuss protocol development, privacy, culture, and long- term societal impact.

24/ @ETHGlobal introduced a new format where, for the first time at an ETHGlobal hackathon, projects do not have to begin from zero.

[Solana @solana]

Tokenized equities.
Prediction markets.
Stablecoins.
Collectibles.
Treasuries.
Payments.
Gaming.
Perps.
Memes.
DePIN.
RWAs.
LSTs.
AI.

All on Solana.

[Solana @solana]

The agentic economy now has a town square.

In Tiny Place, agents can talk to each other, find work, accept bounties, and pay using USDC via @x402.

Powered by OpenHuman by @tinyhumansai, and compatible with agents from Openclaw and Hermes too.

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

$12M from a crypto PAC flowing into Alabama's Senate race? That's not just politics anymore — that's crypto flexing real muscle in DC pipelines 💪 Is this the moment Web3 finally starts shaping who makes the rules? #CryptoPolitics Thoughts?

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

Crypto never sleeps and honestly neither do I lol. Between BTC moves, DeFi updates and Web3 drama there's always something shifting the landscape. Feels like we're in a pivotal moment right now. #crypto

Anyone else constantly glued to the charts today?

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

What's your take? 👇

[$tΣllaЯiΛ/惺蘭 @corbie_step]

Centralized AI going dark overnight is genuinely scary. One entity, one switch. Grayscale's point about decentralized AI basically writes itself after this. The case keeps getting stronger. #DecentralizedAI

Who else sees this coming?

[Altcoin Daily @AltcoinDaily]

You can ABSOLUTELY still become a crypto millionaire.

[cPen Network @cPenCoreTeam]

Previously, we announced that token mining will soon switch from $PEN to $INK (please update your app to the latest version if you haven’t already). Today, we want to clarify the differences between these two tokens and why both are essential to our ecosystem.

$PEN will be used as the gas fee token on the cPen blockchain when we have the open network, ensuring smooth, secure on-chain transactions. Looking ahead, $PEN will play a key role in the future development and governance of the cPen blockchain.

In contrast, $INK is designed for in-app purchases within the cPen App. Similar in spirit to Telegram’s Star—but with a major upgrade—$INK will be fully on-chain and transferable, giving you enhanced control and flexibility in your app interactions.

Eventually, we plan to separate the cPen blockchain from the cPen app to form the cPen Foundation. Separating functionalities lets us optimize both our blockchain and app experiences:
• $PEN powers blockchain transactions and future governance.
• $INK fuels app-specific features and in-app economies.

This dual-token approach not only streamlines operations but also lays the foundation for a scalable, robust ecosystem. Thanks for being a vital part of our journey as we continue to innovate and grow!

#cPenNetwork #CPEN #INK #Blockchain #Crypto

[vitalik.eth @VitalikButerin]

This is the new EF Mandate.

For many of you, the contents should be no surprise, and a clarification along the lines that we have been going and thinking for the past few months. But the clarification is nevertheless worth making.

Ethereum is a unique object and has a unique role in the world. Its role is to be a sanctuary technology, to preserve technological self-sovereignty, to enable cooperation without coercion, domination or rugpulling, and to provide an escape hatch, to ensure that no single person, organization or ideology's victory in cyberspace can be total.

The Ethereum Foundation is a steward of Ethereum - the original steward, and today, the steward specifically dedicated to preserving and expanding the above aspects of Ethereum. This means a heavy emphasis on CROPS (censorship and capture resistance, open source, privacy, security), both at the protocol layer, and at the access layer, user-facing applications and tools that we create or contribute to.

There are things that we do in Ethereum because we believe that they are valuable for the underlying goals that we have for Ethereum. There are things that we do not do because from the perspective of our values we find them uninteresting (or worse, harmful). But there are also things that we do not do because while they are useful, they are not our role.

At the Ethereum protocol layer, we focus on decentralization, verifiability, inclusion guarantees, protocol liveness, security and privacy first and foremost. We also value capabilities (eg. L1 scale, account abstraction, perhaps some forms of in-protocol aggregation), particularly because improvements in these capabilities better enable users to properly benefit from Ethereum's CROPS properties and displace the need for higher-layer intermediaries that might weaken the extent to which Ethereum's properties carry over into the full stack.

We also believe that the Ethereum protocol must strive to pass the walkaway test. "We do X to specialize to serve the use cases of today, if more use cases appear later, we will continue to keep adding more EIPs for them later" is logic fit for many other blockchains whose names you hear often on this forum, but we do not believe it is logic fit for a decentralization-first blockchain like Ethereum.

At the application layer, we focus on making "the zero option" - user experience that goes hard on ensuring security and privacy, avoiding dependence on intermediaries, and respecting the user's agency - as high quality as possible. We see this as complementary to work in the Ethereum ecosystem that "goes broad", starting from the world that it exists, and brings it onchain and improves its properties over time. Such work has its natural home outside the EF. We intend to be supportive of such efforts. We believe that the two are complementary: tools that are developed within the EF can be adopted by anyone, including partially, and even partial adoption that improves people's security, privacy and agency is a good thing.

But the form of user experience that is more heavily insistent on CROPS properties is where we want the EF to develop its center of expertise. This does not mean shrinking from the hard questions. We believe in a vision of self-sovereignty that protects users, and does not leave users in the cold to face environments where they lose their life savings if they make a mistake, and click "yes" on a confirmation screen by accident two seconds after. But such protection must be designed based on a philosophical baseline of empowering the user, not empowering centralized organizations that claim to act in the user's name. This quadrant of design space - caring about users' (including non-experts') well-being and safety, and yet insistent on doing this in a way compatible with their agency and freedom, is underserved (not just in crypto, but in the world). We wish to use Ethereum as a platform to build out and showcase this quadrant, and ideally work with others to expand its reach over time.

This is also a new chapter in how we see our position in the world. We must see ourselves not just as the Ethereum community, but also as maintainers of the Ethereum tool within what you might call the CROPS community or the sanctuary tech community, or a dozen of other words that have for a long time been used by people with similar values to us but far outside Ethereum. This means open-mindedness to new conceptions of what things in the world are our natural allies.

Ethereum is not the world. Ethereum is a specific object in the world that is here to have specific properties. The Ethereum Foundation is a specific organization within Ethereum - one steward, not the sole one.

I encourage all to read the mandate in detail; it includes concrete examples of how we intend to deal with the challenges and nuances of these ideas. We are doubling down on Ethereum and are excited about its next chapter.