The Protocol: Meet Hoodi, Ethereum’s New Testnet

2 months ago

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's play wrap-up of the astir important stories successful cryptocurrency tech development. I'm Margaux Nijkerk, CoinDesk’s Ethereum Reporter.

In this issue:

Hello, Hoodi: Ethereum Welcomes a New Testnet

Microsoft Raises Alarm of Malware Targeting Coinbase, MetaMask Wallets

Halliday Raises $20M for AI Protocol to Eliminate Writing Smart Contracts for DeFi

Sam Altman's World Network and Razer Want to Defeat Gaming's Bot Problem

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Network news

HELLO, HOODI: ETHEREUM WELCOMES A NEW TESTNET: Ethereum developers launched a new trial network, Hoodi, this week that volition beryllium utilized to transportation retired the blockchain's upcoming “Pectra” upgrade. Pectra volition spell unrecorded connected Hoodi connected March 26, and if each goes well, the long-awaited upgrade volition proceed to Ethereum's mainnet astir 30 days later, according to the network's halfway developers. Hoodi was created following faulty Pectra tests connected Ethereum’s different testnets, Holesky and Sepolia, which failed to finalize decently owed to problems with however they were configured. Test networks similar Holesky, Sepolia, and Hoodi purpose to mimic the main Ethereum web — allowing developers the accidental to trial retired codification changes oregon large upgrades similar Pectra successful a low-stakes situation earlier deploying them to the mainnet. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

MICROSOFT RAISES ALARM OF MALWARE TARGETING COINBASE, METAMASK WALLETS: Tech elephantine Microsoft shared a caller report informing of malware that targets 20 of the astir fashionable cryptocurrency wallets utilized with the Google Chrome extension. Microsoft’s Incident Response researchers raised alarms of a caller distant entree trojan (RAT), dubbed StilachiRAT, which could deploy “sophisticated techniques to evade detection, persist successful the people environment, and exfiltrate delicate data,” the squad shared successful a blog post. The malware was discovered successful November 2024, and it could bargain users' wallet information, and immoderate credentials, including usernames and passwords, stored successful their Google Chrome browser. StilachiRAT targets 20 crypto wallets including immoderate of the astir widely-used ones similar MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom, OKX Wallet, and BNB Chain Wallet. While the malware has not been distributed widely, Microsoft did stock that it has not been capable to place what entity is down the menace and laid retired immoderate mitigation guidelines for existent targets including installing antivirus software. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

HALLIDAY RAISES $20M FOR AI PROTOCOL TO ELIMINATE WRITING SMART CONTRACTS FOR DEFI: Artificial quality (AI)-focused blockchain protocol Halliday said it raised $20 cardinal to assistance money improvement of its Agentic Workflow Protocol (AWP), which aims to velocity improvement of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and debar the request for programmers to constitute astute contracts. The Series A backing circular was led by task superior elephantine Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) crypto arm. "Our ngo is to pioneer the bundle epoch of blockchain, enabling developers to physique applications successful hours, not years," Halliday said successful an emailed announcement. "With Halliday, you tin ne'er constitute a astute declaration again."— Jamie Crawley + AI Boost Read more.

SAM ALTMAN’S WORLD NETWORK AND RAZER WANT TO DEFEAT GAMING’S BOT PROBLEM: Sam Altman’s blockchain project, World Network, is teaming up with gaming hardware steadfast Razer connected a suite of features designed to weed retired bots from video games. “Razer ID verified by World ID” is simply a azygous sign-on mechanics that volition verify existent quality gamers from bots. It's built atop Razer ID, Razer's existing login service, and volition assistance warrant there's "a existent idiosyncratic down each Razer ID account,” according to a connection shared by Razer and World. The collaboration betwixt the 2 firms comes arsenic artificial quality (AI) tools are seeping into each country of online beingness — including wrong of video games, which person been plagued by non-human AI "bots" since agelong earlier the emergence of Altman's ChatGPT. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

In Other News

EOS Network, known for its scalable blockchain infrastructure, is rebranding to Vaulta arsenic it pivots toward Web3 banking. The modulation comes with a token swap that is provisionally scheduled for the extremity of May. It besides comes with the motorboat of the Vaulta Banking Advisory Council, a radical of fiscal and blockchain manufacture experts focused connected bridging the spread betwixt accepted banking and decentralized systems. Members see executives from Systemic Trust, Tetra, and ATB Financial, according to a property merchandise shared with CoinDesk. - Francisco Rodrigues reports.

Solana-based decentralized speech Raydium is acceptable to commencement its ain token issuance level successful the coming weeks to thrust much gross to the already-popular trading service. Raydium's LaunchLab volition initially lucifer the deed token issuance level Pump.Fun, Blockworks archetypal reported. Though developers accidental it volition person respective added features that marque it much appealing for token launches. - Shaurya Malwa reports.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is acceptable to driblet its entreaty against Ripple, ending a four-year ineligible battle, according to the company's CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The XRP token, which is intimately associated with Ripple, jumped 10% connected Wednesday during U.S. greeting hours aft Garlinghouse posted astir the news connected X. - Krisztian Sandor and Helene Braun report.