$200M Nomad Bridge Hack! (+ECB about BTC and the Aptos Blockchain) ??

What happened this week in the crypto space??

GM! ?? This is Mateusz Kara.

And you've just found the best place in the crypto space to know more about the blockchain industry. I'm also giving you updates on my biz.

In Today's edition:

• Nomad Bridge Hack ??
• Ex-Meta employees are launching their own project ??
• ECB bets on CBDCs ??
• Weekly Ari10 Updates ??

Sounds interesting? I think so.?

Let's dive deeper into the crypto rabbit hole:

1/ Another week, another bridge hack

?Last week, the Nomad bridge drained of a $200M exploit. It was one of the fastest and most rapid web3 "bank-runs":?

?Let's dive into the rabbit hole:

1. Nomad is a cross-chain bridge, providing transfers between Avalanche, Ethereum, Evmos, Milkomedia, and Moonbeam networks.
2. How does Nomad work? When investors deposit money on one chain, the funds are frozen in a smart contract, and a wrapped version of the token is paid out on the other chain.
3. If the depositing smart contract got hacked, the wrapped tokens are backed by nothing.
4. That's what happened last week. As you can read on Coindesk, "users were able to withdraw money from the Nomad bridge that didn't actually belong to them."
5. Scammers were sending 0.01BTC and withdrawing 100 BTC (between Moonbeam and Ethereum).
6. But what's the reason? A human mistake. The Nomad team used zero values as initialization values. That's why this hack went so fast (more details here).?
7. How will this situation end? Maybe the VCs that delivered funding to Nomad (OpenSea, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and Polygon) will help here.?

My take:?

?It was challenging to build a secure cross-chain bridge, and no one has succeeded in doing so.?

?How come??

?We must always trust the impartial party (a middle smart contract). In other words, bridges are not a technology that can be trusted. The greatest hacks, including Ronin (+$600M) and Wormhole (+300M), all resulted from insignificant human errors.

?

?

2/ Ex-Meta Employees are building an L1 (source)

?"Aptos Labs, a startup that rose from the wreckage of Meta Platforms Inc.'s failed crypto ambitions, has raised $150 million in new funding, the company announced Monday."

?They are building a cheap, fast, and secure alternative L1 blockchain, operating in their programming language called Move.?

?Interestingly, the most prominent players in the crypto startup delivered funding to Aptos.?

?The Aptos fundraising round, which also included Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo, Franklin Templeton, Griffin Gaming Partners, and Circle Ventures, was co-led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.

?Currently, Aptos Labs are running on a testnet, and the first protocols are being built there. Looks like Starknet in the early days. The mainnet is about to launch in Q4 2022. After that, probably all the active users will receive the token of the Aptos blockchain.

?My take:?

They have a track record, and they are credible, so getting funding was not a problem.?

?

3/ European Central Bank bets on CBDCs over BTC for cross-border payments (source)

?

The European Central Bank sees the opportunity in blockchain technology to increase the speed of the current transaction system, which is not efficient at all.?

?However, the ECB bets on CBCDs (digital currencies controlled by the government blockchains), over BTC.?

?Here's their opinion:?

?"Since the settlement in the Bitcoin network occurs only every ten minutes, valuation effects are already materializing at the moment of settlement, making Bitcoin payments more complicated."

?Coindesk take:?

?"Mitigating risks related to crypto adoption can be fended off by strong regulations and state backing, stated Lowe, adding:

"If these tokens are going to be used widely by the community, they are going to need to be backed by the state or regulated just as we regulate bank deposits."

In Lowe's view, private companies are "better than the central bank at innovating" the best features for cryptocurrency."

?My take:?

Some people say that blockchain technology will be delegalized. Dumb. The history of Uber & LIFT will probably repeat here. In the early days, Uber-type of services were illegal. However, governments saw a massive opportunity, so they created the regulations, enabling Ubers and Lifts of the world to function legally.?

ARI10 COMPANY UPDATE ??

Launching Ari10 Whale Clubs!?

Revealing the Whale Clubs’ details!?

• Whale Club members: 28
• Baby Whale Club members: 126?

Last week, we opened the Telegram Priority Support group for all the Whale Clubs.?

A Mobile App For Ari10 Cryptoterminal Partners

Last week, life became easier for all Cryptoterminal Partners! ???

They can now use the mobile app to run the Cryptoterminal transactions much faster!?

If you are a partner, download the app here.?

Establishing a new point in Cracow!

We've established another #Cryptoterminal point with our partner!?

Visit the brand-new point location in Kraków, Poland!?

Check all the points here.?

Announcing more Payment-Gateway Iteration Ideas

In the upcoming Payment Gateway iterations, we are thinking of adding:?

? more blockchains

? NFT-sale feature

? advanced analytics dashboard (client's panel)?

What else would you like to see??

5 COLD CRYPTO NEWS ??

1. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is building a virtual campus in the metaverse (source).
2. Barcelona sell 25% of Barca Studios for 100m euros to Chilliz Socios (source)?
3. England and Wales law commissions propose recognizing crypto as a new type of property.
4. Polygon established a partnership with Mercedes Benz (source).
5. SEC charges 11 individuals over $300M crypto ‘pyramid scheme’ (source).?

MEME OF THE WEEK ??

And that’s all for today. Thanks for your time, investors & Crypto Geckos! ?? ????

Please rate this newsletter with reaction:

?

?? - well done, Matt

???? - acceptable, it’s OK?

?? - meh, do better…

Thanks for your feedback and see you next week!?

Mateusz Kara