The Protocol: Bitcoin Halving Spectacular, With Runes, ‘Epic Sat,’ Stacks Nakamoto

It’s
hard
not
to
draw
parallels
between
the
general
mood
across
parts
of
the
planet
last
week,
when
people
were
jockeying
to
glimpse
the
solar
eclipse,
and
the
excitement
building
this
week
in
the
Bitcoin
community,
as
the
blockchain’s
quadrennial
halving
approaches.
Based
on
the
latest
estimates,
the
halving
would
arrive
sometime
in
the
next
few
days,
possibly
on
the
very

meme-y
date
of
April
20.
That’s
according
to
the

Bitcoin
halving
countdown
clock,
on
the
website
of
the
hashrate
marketplace
NiceHash.

Conversely,
it’s
hard
not
to
draw
a
sharp
contrast
between
this
Bitcoin
halving
and
the
one
that
took
place
four
years
ago,
in
May
2020,
just
as
the
Covid
lockdowns
were
hitting
and
people
were
stuck
at
home
with
little
else
to
do
but
stay
up
late
for
the
livestreamed
geek-outs.
(Remember
when
Zoom
was
just
becoming
a
household
word?)
This
time
around,
IRL
halving
celebrations
are
planned
in
places
like

Denver
and

Costa
Rica.

Another
aspect
that
feels
quite
different:
the
host
of
project
launches
and

strangely
lucrative
on-chain
competitions
timed
to
take
place
right
at
the
moment
of
the
halving
–
to
some
degree
a
reflection
of
the
“building-on-Bitcoin”
trend
sparked
by
last
year’s
release
of
the
Ordinals
protocol
and
unveiling
of

Robin
Linus’s
BitVM.
This
week’s
halving
could
get
weird.
Or
goofy.
Or
maybe
just
awkwardly
technical.
A
list
of
our
preview
stories
can
be
found
below,
in
Network
News.
Happy
halving.

Also
this
week:

Solana’s
patch,
Vitalik’s
privacy
plea,
rare
“Satoshi-era”
bitcoin.
Top
picks
from
the
past
week’s

Protocol
Village
column:
AO
Ventures,
Kraken,
Suku,
Internet
Computer
Protocol,
Layer
N.
$135M
of
blockchain
project
fundraisings:
Nebra,
Berachain,
Puffer,
Crypto
Valley
Exchange,
Mayan
Finance.

Note:
A
roundup
of
CoinDesk’s
Bitcoin
halving
coverage
can
be
found
here
on
our

extra-special
landing
page.

SOL
PATCH:
Developers
behind
the

Solana
blockchain

pushed
out
a
software
update
to
help
address
its
struggles
with
network
congestion
over
recent
months.

PECTRA
=
PRAGUE
+
ELECTRA.
Developers
behind
Ethereum,
fresh
off
this
year’s

Dencun
upgrade,
are
homing
in
on
the
blockchain’s
next
big
upgrade
–
named
“Pectra,”
a
portmanteau
of
“Prague”
(the
Czech
capital)
and
“Electra”
(a
star),
in
accordance
with
the
naming
convention
for
these
things.
Last
week
the
developers
signaled
that
Pectra
is
“likely
to
include

Ethereum
Improvement
Proposal
(EIP)
3074,
a
proposed
set
of
code
changes
for
improving
the
user
experience
(UX)
of
Ethereum
wallets,”
our
Margaux
Nijkerk

reported.

RARE
‘SATOSHI
ERA’
BITCOIN:
An
early
crypto
miner
moved
50
bitcoin

(BTC)
today
after
14
years
of
leaving
the
holdings
untouched,

data
shows,
joining
the
rare
instances
where
bitcoin
from
the
“Satoshi
era”
have
been
transferred,
as

reported
by
our
Shaurya
Malwa.
The
holdings,
worth
over
$3
million,
were
transferred
to
two
wallets,
and
some
of
transfers
were
eventually
sent
to
the
crypto
exchange
Coinbase
(COIN),

analysis
tool
Lookonchain
said
in
an
X
post.

“Privacy
is
normal,”
Ethereum
co-founder

Vitalik
Buterin
wrote
on
X,
after

Wu
Blockchain
noted
that
he
transferred
100
ETH
(about
$325,000)
to

Railgun,
an
on-chain
system
for
private
DeFi
transactions
on
Ethereum
and
Ethereum-compatible
blockchains.
(Possible
translation:
Mind
your
own
beeswax.)

Senior
crypto
engineer
salaries
typically
range
from
$187,000
to
$236,000
at
U.S.-based
companies,
or
$137,000
to
$186,000
at
international-based
companies,
according
to
a

compensation
report
released
last
week
by
the
crypto
investment
firm
Dragonfly.

L2s
LAYER
ON:
High-profile
crypto
projects
keep
launching
their
own
layer-2
chains.

Chart
shows
an
acceleration
in
the
number
of
layer-2
chains
launched
each
quarter,
from
the
just-released
“On-Chain
Report
Q1
2024”
by
QuickNode
and
Artemis,
citing
data
from
L2Beat
(L2Beat/QuickNode/Artemis)

Protocol
Village

Top
picks
of
the
past
week
from

our
Protocol
Village

column,
highlighting
key
blockchain
tech
upgrades
and
news.

Community
Labs
CEO
Tate
Berenbaum
(Community
Labs)

Tate
Berenbaum,
who
reportedly

raised
$30
million
while
still
a
teenager
for
crypto
startup
Community
Labs,
has
launched
of

AO
Ventures,
a
10-week
incubator
program
dedicated
to
fostering
development
on
Arweave
and
AO,
according
to
a
message
from
Berenbaum:
“Over
$35
million
in
capital
has
already
been
committed
to
the
investment
pool.
The
program
will
start
in
April
and
culminate
in
a
Demo
Day
in
June.”

FIRST
ON
COINDESK:

Kraken,
the
second-biggest
U.S.-based
crypto
exchange,
has

developed
its
own
wallet,
catching
up
to
its
rival
Coinbase
in
the
product
arena
and
joining
a
saturated
field
that
also
includes
major
players
like
MetaMask,
Ledger
and
Trezor.
The
new

self-custodial
“Kraken
Wallet”
is
being
releasing
Wednesday
and
will
be
available
to
both
Kraken
users
and
non-users,
CoinDesk
is
first
to
report.
The
wallet
will
initially
support
eight
blockchains
including
Bitcoin,
Ethereum,
Solana,
Optimism,
Base,
Arbitrum,
Polygon
and
Dogecoin.

Suku,
a
provider
of
Web3
tools,
in
collaboration
with
Alchemy
and
Privy,
has
launched

SukuPay,
“a
simple,
free
and
fully
non-custodial
global
money
transfer
solution,”
according
to
the
team:
“Leveraging
account
abstraction,
SukuPay
removes
the
need
for
initial
setup
like
creating
a
wallet
or
remembering
a
seed
phrase,
while
still
providing
a
non-custodial
experience.
With
just
a
phone
number,
users
can
effortlessly
send
and
receive
funds
without
any
fees.
It’s
built
on
the
efficient
Polygon
PoS
network
and
utilizes
the
USDC
stablecoin.”

The
team
behind

Internet
Computer
Protocol
(ICP)
said
that
the

implementation
of
threshold-Schnorr
will
allow
to
etch
Runes,
trade
BRC-20
tokens
and
“unleash
the
full
potential
of
Bitcoin-based
DeFi
and
Web3,”
with
ICP
“primed
to
become
Bitcoin
layer
zero,”
according
to
a
message.

Layer
N,
a
layer-2
network
on
Ethereum,

has
launched
its
testnet,
following
a
$5
million
funding
round
supported
by
Peter
Thiel’s
Founders
Fund.
Designed
as
a
network
of
rollups
with
a
unified
communication
and
liquidity
layer,
Layer
N
aims
to
optimize
the
execution
layer
for
numerous
applications
while
maintaining
user-friendly
experiences.

Feature

‘DePIN’
Is
Venture
Capitalists’
Latest
Crypto
Obsession.
Can
It
Match
the
Hype?

So
much
of
the
cryptocurrency
industry
lives
in
the
ether,
figuratively
or

literally:
data
moving
around
blockchains,
lines
moving
up
or
down
on

price
graphs
and
other
largely
intangible
things.

But
a
hot
emerging
trend
that
has
venture
capitalists
salivating
promises
a
direct
tie
to
the
real
world:
running
infrastructure
with
blockchains.
Projects
like
the
Helium
protocol,
which
drives
a
wireless
network
with
a
token-powered
ecosystem,
or
Filecoin’s
data-storage
platform.

The
not-so-catchy
term
for
all
this
is
decentralized
physical
infrastructure
networks,
which
usually
gets
shortened
as
DePIN.
A
catchy
amount
of
money
has
already
been
invested,
a
sign
venture
capital
firms
see
potential.
According
to
a

Crypto.com
report,
the
top
DePIN
projects
have
raised
more
than
$1
billion
combined.

Click
here
for
the
full
story
by
Lyllah
Ledesma

Money
Center

Fundraisings

Schematic
of
Nebra’s
“universal
proof
aggregation”
protocol
(Nebra)

Nebra,
a
research
and
development
organization
dedicated
to
the
privacy
and
scaling
of
blockchain
technology
through
zero-knowledge
proofs
(ZKPs),
has
raised
$4.5
million
in
a
combined
pre-seed/seed
round
led
by
Nascent
and
Bankless
Ventures,
with
the
participation
of
many
notable
angels
such
as
Tim
Beiko
from
Ethereum
Foundation,
Kartik
Talwar
from
ETHGlobal,
Nick
White
from
Celestia,
Sandy
Peng
and
Haichen
Shen
from
Scroll.

Blockchain
platform

Berachain
closed
oversubscribed
Series
B
funding
round,
securing
$100
million,
according
to
the
team:
“Framework
Ventures,
one
of
the
earliest
VC
firms
to
enter
the
DeFi
space,
and
Brevan
Howard
Digital’s
Abu
Dhabi
branch
co-led
the
round.

Liquid
restaking
protocol

Puffer
has

raised
$18
million
in
a
Series
A
funding
round,
led
by
Brevan
Howard
Digital
and
Electric
Capital.

Mayan
Finance,
a

cross-chain
swap
auction
protocol
on
Solana,
has

raised
$3
million
in
a
seed
round,
led
by
6MV
and
Borderless.

Crypto
Valley
Exchange
(CVEX),
a
DeFi
protocol
set
to
offer
crypto
futures
and
options
trading,
announced
it
has

raised
$7
million
across
pre-seed
and
seed
fundraising
rounds.