The Protocol: Solana Community Approves Alpenglow Upgrade

3 hours ago

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's play wrapper of the astir important stories successful cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a newsman astatine CoinDesk.

In this issue:

Solana Set for Major Overhaul After 98% Votes to Approve Historic 'Alpenglow' Upgrade
Ethereum Foundation to Unload Another 10K ETH Following SharpLink Deal
‘OP_CAT Isn’t My Invention. It’s Satoshi’s,’ Says Bruce Liu arsenic OPCAT_Labs Pushes to Reboot Bitcoin’s Code
Ethereum to Close Its Largest Testnet, Holesky, After Fusaka Upgrade

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Network News

ALPENGLOW APPROVED BY SOLANA COMMUNITY: The Solana assemblage voted overwhelmingly successful favor of the long-awaited Alpenglow upgrade, bringing the web 1 measurement person to the astir important method translation successful its history. According to Solana Status connected X, 98.27% of SOL stakers that voted approved the proposal, with lone 1.05% voting against and 0.36% abstaining. In total, 52% of the network’s stakers participated successful the vote. The upgrade introduces a caller consensus protocol designed to dramatically amended transaction finality and web efficiency. At the bosom of Alpenglow are 2 caller components, Votor and Rotor, which volition regenerate Solana’s existing systems, Proof-of-History and TowerBFT. Currently, Proof-of-History timestamps transactions to sphere their bid without slowing the network, portion TowerBFT handles the voting process among validators. Alpenglow volition overhaul some systems. Votor volition slash transaction finality times from implicit 12 seconds to astir 150 milliseconds, delivering near-instant confirmation for users. Rotor, scheduled for a aboriginal rollout, volition minimize information transfers betwixt validators, a important betterment for high-demand applications specified arsenic decentralized concern (DeFi) and blockchain-based gaming.With support secured, Solana is present preparing to instrumentality the upgrade, a milestone expected to unlock greater speed, resilience, and scalability crossed its ecosystem. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

EF TO SELL 10K ETH OVER NEXT FEW WEEKS: The Ethereum Foundation (EF) shared successful a station connected X connected Tuesday that it plans to merchantability 10,000 ETH done centralized exchanges implicit the adjacent respective weeks to enactment enactment toward probe & development, ecosystem grants and related donations. According to CoinMarketCap, the ETH volition magnitude to astir $43 cardinal astatine Tuesday’s prices. “Conversions volition instrumentality spot implicit aggregate smaller orders, alternatively than arsenic a azygous ample transaction,” the EF wrote successful the station connected X.The quality follows the EF’s rollout of a caller treasury policy successful June that caps yearly operational spending (opex) astatine 15%, establishes a multiyear reserve buffer and sets a gradual gait toward adjacent leaner spending long-term. The instauration sold an further 10,000 ETH to SharpLink Gaming successful July, making the online casino selling steadfast the archetypal publically traded institution to bargain ETH from a cardinal steadfast successful the network’s ecosystem. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

A CHAT WITH BRUCE LIU ON OP_CAT: Without OP_CAT, Bruce Liu says Bitcoin is arsenic "useful arsenic a jumbo pitchy without wings" susceptible of overmuch much than it’s allowed to do, but stuck connected the crushed portion Ethereum and Solana soar. Liu, the laminitis of OPCAT_Labs, says a azygous opcode, OP_CAT, could alteration bitcoin from static integer golden into programmable wealth that rivals different layer-1 chains. OP_CAT is simply a long-disabled opcode successful Bitcoin’s codification that, if re-enabled, would let developers to concatenate information successful scripts and unlock caller possibilities, from vaults and covenants to decentralized exchanges and zero-knowledge proofs. The Bitcoin blockchain, if OP_CAT was re-enabled, would beryllium arsenic programmable arsenic Ethereum oregon Solana, said Liu. "OP_CAT is not caller code. It was ne'er deleted, conscionable commented retired and disabled. We are not adding my opcode oregon idiosyncratic else’s. It’s Satoshi’s,” Liu told CoinDesk during an interrogation connected the sidelines of BTC Asia successful Hong Kong. — Sam Reynolds Read more.

HOLESKY SUNSET IS COMING AFTER FUSAKA UPGRADE: A caller slate of Ethereum testnets is replacing Holesky, the once-massive staging crushed present acceptable for shutdown aft 2 years of service.The wind-down volition hap 2 weeks aft the Fusaka upgrade is finalized aboriginal this year, astatine which constituent lawsuit and infrastructure teams volition cease providing support. Fusaka is acceptable to marque Ethereum rollups cheaper and faster by spreading retired the “data retention work” much evenly crossed validators. Holesky went unrecorded successful 2023 to stress-test Ethereum’s proof-of-stake machinery astatine scale. It rapidly became the largest nationalist testnet, providing thousands of validators with a level to proceedings upgrades earlier they were deployed connected the mainnet. Major milestones, specified arsenic the Dencun and Pectra upgrades — which lowered transaction costs and upgraded validator efficiency, among different features — were tally done Holesky first. However, cracks began to look arsenic the web aged. Holesky encountered “inactivity leaks” aft Pectra’s activation successful aboriginal 2025, a word referring to validators going offline successful ample numbers, which created a important backlog for those attempting to exit. The effect was months-long queues that made it impractical to trial the afloat validator lifecycle. For developers needing accelerated feedback loops, Holesky had go much of a roadblock than a tool. — Shaurya Malwa Read more.

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In Other News

Digital plus concern steadfast Galaxy Digital (GLXY) is bringing its banal onto blockchain rails arsenic equity tokenization gains steam.The Nasdaq-listed institution is moving with blockchain steadfast Superstate to marque its Class A communal banal disposable arsenic tokens connected the Solana web done Superstate’s Opening Bell platform. The statement preserves the afloat rights of SEC-registered equity portion allowing investors to clasp and transportation shares on-chain, the firms said. Tokenization of accepted assets has gained traction crossed the fiscal assemblage arsenic firms experimentation with moving equities, bonds and money-market funds onto blockchain infrastructure. A slew of tokenized equity products deed the marketplace successful the past fewer months predominantly for EU investors, including by Robinhood, Gemini with Dinari and xStocks by Kraken and Backed Finance. However, immoderate offerings drew concerns specified arsenic constricted shareholder rights and fragmented regulations. Unlike synthetic oregon wrapped tokenized stocks that run without issuer involvement, Galaxy’s shares are issued straight on-chain and tracked by Superstate arsenic a transportation agent, signaling changes to the shareholder registry instantly arsenic tokens determination betwixt verified wallets. This attack seeks to harvester compliance with blockchain features specified arsenic accelerated settlement, transparency and around-the clock-availability, the firms said. — Kristzian Sandor Read more.
Ondo Finance launched its tokenized equity level dubbed Ondo Global Markets, offering non-U.S. investors entree to much than 100 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on-chain. The tokenized equities, archetypal announced successful February, person gone unrecorded connected Ethereum and are backed by securities held by U.S.-registered broker-dealers, the steadfast said.The offering includes crypto token versions of Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and the QQQ ETF among others. Investors successful Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and Latin America tin mint and redeem shares astir the timepiece during trading days, with entree to underlying speech liquidity. The work is not disposable for U.S. users. The tokens are designed to determination freely betwixt wallets, exchanges and decentralized concern (DeFi) protocols. The steadfast has besides partnered with BitGo, Ledger, Chainlink and different infrastructure providers to enactment the rollout.— Kristzian Sandor Read more.

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Regulatory and Policy

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde urged European Union (EU) lawmakers to enforce stringent requirements and safeguards connected overseas stablecoins.
Lagarde argued they should comply with the bloc’s regulatory standards earlier operating connected EU soil, she said successful a speech astatine a European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) league successful Frankfurt. The ECB president cautioned that during a stablecoin run, investors would beryllium much apt redeem successful jurisdictions with stronger protections, specified arsenic the EU, wherever Markets successful Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regularisation prohibits redemption fees, perchance depleting section reserves. "The hazard of liquidity mismanagement crossed jurisdictions is 1 we person seen before. Banking groups, for example, are already required to guarantee that reserves are disposable successful the portion of the radical wherever and erstwhile they are needed," Lagarde said. — Jamie Crawley Read More.
The U.S. authorities has begun utilizing blockchains to disseminate cardinal economical data, starting with the U.S. Department of Commerce's merchandise of gross-domestic merchandise (GDP) numbers, which was described arsenic a "proof of concept" for doing much successful the future. "We are making America’s economical information immutable and globally accessible similar ne'er before, cementing our relation arsenic the blockchain superior of the world," Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said successful a connection that announced the caller attack to distributing the data. In a deliberate effort not to prime blockchain favorites, the section enactment retired past week's information connected Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, TRON, Stellar, Avalanche, Arbitrum One, Polygon PoS and Optimism, identifying the transaction hashes for each successful its announcement. The bureau said it besides sent the information done Chainlink and Pyth and noted that exchanges Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken helped out.— Jesse Hamilton Read more.

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