Bellachan follows Ethereum's Pectra upgrade on "bectra"

Table of Contents

Welcome to Protocol, where Coindesk is a weekly summary of the most important stories in cryptocurrency technology development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, Ethereum Protocol Reporter from the Coindesk technical team.

In this issue:

Berachain taps Ethereum’s Pectra Playbook with the “Bectra” upgrade
Ethereum Foundation takes away some staff in the rebuild of R&D
Elon Musk announces “Bitcoin Style” Xchat, but technology experts are skeptical
According to Zachxbt, Taiwan’s crypto exchange Bitopro was likely hacked for $11 million in May

Network News

Parla Chan Pektra from Beerchan. Vectra:Berachain is preparing to become the first non-etalium layer 1 blockchain to fully activate the new Ethereum execution layer functionality. Named after Ethereum’s recent “Pectra” upgrade, Bectra Hard Fork is now available today, offering more than 100 apps for chain access to tools that allow users and developers to enhance how they interact with the platform. The Berachain consensus model is different from the Ethereum model, so no changes to the Pectra consensus are included. However, it is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible, so developers do not need to rewrite existing contracts. Because over 200 apps already live in Bellachine. For users, an upgrade of Bectra means that all wallets function like smart accounts. They can batch transactions with one click, set spending limits, pay gas with honey (Stablecoin in Berachain) or even set up a recurring payment. Previously, these features required custom contracts or third-party implementations (having security concerns). – Shaurya Malwa read more.

Ethereum Foundation layoffs in restructuring: The Ethereum Foundation has fired some members of its R&D team as part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at refocusing key protocol design challenges, the organization said in a blog post. The shakeup comes as a Swiss-based nonprofit organization tackles ongoing criticism of its management and strategic direction. Some people in the Ethereum community have warned that failure to address important technical hurdles could threaten Ethereum’s position as an industry leader, and organizations have already undergone leadership changes to address these concerns. The Foundation has rebranded its protocol research and development department under the simplified name “Protocol”, and rearranges the group around three main priorities. Scaling the Ethereum base layer, expanding Blobspace (an important part of your data availability strategy), and improving the user experience. These changes have resulted in several staff being fired, but EF has not revealed how many people were affected by these changes – Margaux nijkerk read more.

Technological experts who are not impressed with mask BTC X-Feature: Elon Musk, owner of Billionaire X, shared the launch of a brand new messaging app called Xchat over the weekend. Neither the Bitcoin market nor the tech community is impressed. A key feature of the new product is that it is written in the Rust programming language and uses what Musk advertised as “Bitcoin Style” encryption. It sounds exciting, but the crypto community is not particularly cyclonic, but is questioning the technical promises inspired by the platform’s Bitcoin. “Bitcoin mainly uses signatures rather than encryption. Omcal Godball read more.

Crypto Exchange Bitopro is likely hacked for $11 million, Zachxbt said: Taiwan’s cryptocurrency exchange Bitopro is suspected of losing more than $11.5 million in tokens in the exploit on May 8th. The exploit included unauthorized access to Bitopro’s hot wallets across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and Polygon. The stolen assets were then sold on decentralized exchanges, and proceeds were washed through privacy protocols such as Tornado Cash and Thorchain, and eventually moved to Wasabi Wallet, a Bitcoin mixing service. Bitopro has not issued an official statement entitled to violations since the expected express statement. Users were notified of a temporary suspension of service last month due to “system maintenance,” and there was little social chatter in the popular crypto X circle at the time. – Shaurya Malwa read more.

In other news

Representatives from the Trump organization said the group “knows nothing” about the crypto wallet project known as the “$Trump Wallet.” “The Trump organization doesn’t know anything about the project,” a spokesman for the Trump organization told Koindsk. Meanwhile, the X account, linked to the President’s Memocoin, said the wallet would “come soon” even after some of his representatives denied the rumors.– Helen Brown read more.
World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-backed crypto company, dropped $47 worth of USD1 Stablecoin on each wallet that took part in the WLFI token sale. The move is locked in the US dollar and supported by Treasury and Fiat reserves, USD1 will expand across the blockchain as a result of ChainLink’s CCIP integration. – Shaurya Malwa read more.

Regulation and policy

French authorities have accused 25 people, including six minors, in roles in the middle of a code-tricking in Paris. The majority of suspects were linked to a recent failed attempt to lure the crypto exchange CEO’s family, Paris prosecutors reported Saturday. The investigation focuses on the attempt to lure the daughter and grandchild of CEO Pierre Noizat, CEO of Crypto Exchange Paymium, which occurred on May 13, the report said. – Chamomile Shumba read more.
The US Senate may be rapidly approaching the final vote on regulating stubcoins, a high-water mark in Congress, but France’s representative Hill said the Senate bill has some important differences from similar efforts by representatives, which requires ironing before it becomes law. “The bills are practically similar,” said Hill, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, who has been at the forefront of Congress negotiations for many years at the Atlantic Council event on Tuesday. “There are a few differences that can’t be overcome, but need to be fixed and revealed.” – Jesse Hamilton read more.