Etherscan, the leading blockchain explorer and analytics platform for Ethereum, has announced that it has acquired SolScan, the most popular explorer for Solana, in a deal worth $50 million. This is the first major acquisition in the blockchain space that involves two different platforms, and it signals a new era of interoperability and collaboration.
Etherscan and SolScan have been working together since 2023, when they launched a cross-chain bridge that allows users to seamlessly transfer assets and data between Ethereum and Solana. The bridge has facilitated over $10 billion worth of transactions and enabled new use cases such as decentralized finance, gaming, and NFTs.
The acquisition will allow Etherscan and SolScan to leverage their respective strengths and resources to provide a more comprehensive and user-friendly service for both developers and users. Etherscan will integrate SolScan’s features and data into its platform, while SolScan will benefit from Etherscan’s security, scalability, and reliability. The two explorers will also work on developing new tools and solutions for the emerging blockchain ecosystem.
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Etherscan’s founder and CEO, Matthew Tan, said: “We are thrilled to welcome SolScan into the Etherscan family. SolScan has been a pioneer and innovator in the Solana space, and we share a common vision of building a more open, transparent, and inclusive blockchain world. Together, we will be able to offer a more holistic and integrated experience for our users across multiple chains.”
SolScan’s co-founder and CTO, said: “We are honored to join forces with Etherscan, the most trusted and respected explorer in the industry. Etherscan has been an inspiration and a partner for us since day one, and we are excited to continue our journey with them. By combining our expertise and technology, we will be able to deliver more value and innovation to the blockchain community.”
In a surprising move, Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, announced that he will sell 315,000 shares of his company worth $215 million to buy more Bitcoin personally. This decision comes after MicroStrategy has already accumulated more than 120,000 Bitcoins as part of its corporate treasury strategy.
Saylor explained his rationale in a blog post, saying that he believes Bitcoin is the best store of value and hedge against inflation in the current economic environment. He also said that he is confident in the future growth and innovation of MicroStrategy, and that he will continue to lead the company as its largest shareholder.
According to Saylor, selling some of his shares does not reflect any change in his long-term vision or commitment to MicroStrategy. He said that he is simply reallocating some of his personal wealth to Bitcoin, which he considers to be a superior asset class. He also said that he will not sell any more shares for at least one year, and that he will donate 10% of the proceeds to charitable causes.
Saylor’s announcement has sparked mixed reactions in the crypto community. Some praised him for his boldness and conviction in Bitcoin, while others criticized him for diluting the value of MicroStrategy and creating a conflict of interest. Some also questioned the timing and legality of his move, as it coincides with a recent SEC investigation into MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin purchases.
Regardless of the opinions, Saylor’s move is undoubtedly a significant event in the history of Bitcoin and corporate adoption. It shows that Saylor is willing to put his money where his mouth is, and that he is not afraid to take risks and challenge the status quo. It also shows that Bitcoin is becoming more attractive and mainstream as an alternative investment for individuals and institutions alike.
Ethereum core devs chart an ambitious 2024
Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has been undergoing a series of upgrades and innovations in the past few years. The most notable ones are the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, the implementation of sharding and rollups to improve scalability and efficiency, and the introduction of new features and standards to enhance interoperability and usability.
However, the Ethereum core developers are not resting on their laurels. They have a bold vision for the future of the network, and they are working hard to make it a reality. In this blog post, we will introduce you to two of the most influential and active core devs in the Ethereum community: Dencun and Pralectra. We will also explore their plans and projects for 2024, which promise to bring Ethereum to new heights of innovation and adoption.
Dencun: The mastermind behind EIP-1559 and EIP-3675
Dencun is a pseudonymous developer who has been contributing to Ethereum since 2017. He is best known for proposing and leading the development of two of the most impactful Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) in recent history: EIP-1559 and EIP-3675.
EIP-1559, which was activated in August 2021, introduced a new fee mechanism that dynamically adjusts the gas price based on network demand and burns a portion of the fees, creating a deflationary pressure on ETH supply. EIP-3675, which was implemented in December 2021, finalized the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake by merging the Ethereum mainnet with the Beacon Chain, the backbone of the new consensus protocol.
Both EIPs have been widely praised by the Ethereum community for improving the security, sustainability, and user experience of the network. They have also boosted the value proposition of ETH as an asset, as evidenced by its strong performance in the market.
Dencun is not done yet. He is currently working on several projects that aim to further enhance Ethereum’s capabilities and competitiveness. One of them is EIP-4488, which proposes to reduce the gas cost of call data, the data that is passed to smart contracts when they are executed. This would lower the barriers for developers and users to deploy and interact with complex applications on Ethereum, such as decentralized exchanges, lending platforms, gaming dapps, and more.
Another project that Dencun is involved in is EIP-6484, which suggests introducing a new opcode called BASEFEE that would allow smart contracts to access the current base fee of the network. This would enable new possibilities for fee management and optimization, such as fee abstraction, fee delegation, fee rebates, and more.
Pralectra: The pioneer of zk-SNARKs and zk-rollups
Pralectra is another pseudonymous developer who has been working on Ethereum since 2018. She is a leading expert and innovator in the field of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), a cryptographic technique that allows users to prove that they know some information without revealing it.
Pralectra has been instrumental in bringing ZKPs to Ethereum, both at the protocol and application levels. She is one of the main contributors to EIP-1962, which added support for various ZKP primitives to the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), enabling developers to use them in their smart contracts. She is also one of the co-founders and core developers of ZKSync, one of the most popular and advanced zk-rollup solutions on Ethereum.
ZKSync is a layer-2 scaling platform that uses ZKPs to compress and verify transactions off-chain, while maintaining security guarantees from the mainnet. ZKSync can process thousands of transactions per second with minimal fees and latency, while supporting smart contracts, token transfers, NFTs, and more.
Pralectra is constantly pushing the boundaries of ZKPs and zk-rollups on Ethereum. She is currently working on ZKSync 2.0, which aims to bring full EVM compatibility and programmability to zk-rollups, allowing any existing or future dapp to run on ZKSync with zero friction or compromise. She is also working on ZKPorter, a new scaling technique that combines zk-rollups with data availability sampling, resulting in an exponential increase in throughput and a significant decrease in cost. ZKSync 2.0 and ZKPorter are expected to launch in 2024, marking a new era of scalability and privacy for Ethereum.
Dencun and Pralectra are just two examples of the many talented and dedicated core developers who are making Ethereum better every day. They represent the ethos and vision of Ethereum: a decentralized, open-source, community-driven platform that strives for innovation and excellence.
As we enter 2024, we are excited to see what Dencun, Pralectra, and the rest of the Ethereum core devs will bring to the table. We are confident that they will continue to surprise and delight us with their groundbreaking ideas and implementations. We are proud to support and celebrate their work, and we invite you to join us in following their progress and achievements.
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