The Protocol: ENS on Bitcoin; Worldcoin, Without the Eyeballs

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COMPETING BLOCKCHAIN IDENTITY PLATFORMS: Almost three years ago, Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, started Worldcoin, a blockchain project famous for its unique metal orb used to scan eyes. Now known as “World Network,” the platform issues digital passports (verified through iris scans) to help online services distinguish humans from bots in an AI-driven internet. As reported by CoinDesk’s Sam Kessler this week, a group of experienced cryptocurrency professionals, including co-founders of decentralized finance leader Lido, are planning to launch “Y” – a rival blockchain identity platform intended to challenge World Network. Kessler obtained an internal document outlining the vision for this new project, which focuses on developing a blockchain-based identity platform that does not rely on World’s eyeball-scanning Orb. Learn more.

Exploring the Possibility of Aave on Spiderchain: The leading decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform, Aave, is engaging its community to assess interest in implementing on the Bitcoin layer-2 network, Spiderchain. The Aave-Chain Initiative (ACI), responsible for the protocol, has put forth a request for feedback on a proposal by Botanix Labs, developers of Spiderchain, to broaden the scope of the lending platform, currently holding over $17 billion in total value locked, into the burgeoning Bitcoin DeFi sector. The prospect of integrating with a Bitcoin layer 2 underscores the demand for transferring functionality prevalent across the crypto landscape to the foundational blockchain. Last week, the price of bitcoin (BTC) surpassed $90,000 for the first time. Developers of projects stemming from other networks might be aiming to leverage the vast reserves held in BTC. Learn more here.

Is there a Decentralized Naming System called Spaces being launched on Bitcoin this Wednesday? Yes, a decentralized naming system called Spaces Protocol is scheduled to launch on the mainnet of Bitcoin (block height 871222) around 2P ET on Wednesday. This new system shares similarities with Ethereum‘s Naming Service but operates on a different blockchain. According to its founder, Mike Carson, Spaces offers several improvements over ENS.

MORPHEUS NOW ACTIVE: Morpheus, a blockchain initiative aimed at decentralizing artificial intelligence, has been activated in real-world applications, as confirmed by its developers on Monday. Similar to other decentralized AI systems, Morpheus aims to combat issues such as centralization, censorship, and data monopolies. The project is constructed using the Lumerin protocol’s codebase, which operates on the Arbitrum blockchain, a layer-2 platform that functions above Ethereum, the largest network for smart contracts. Morpheus’ MOR token is compatible with Arbitrum’s Layer 2, the main Ethereum chain, and DeFi platforms like Uniswap and Aerodrome.

What Zuck Can Teach DAOs About Governance

BANGKOK – It’s all but impossible to carry out a governance attack against Meta.

In Mark Zuckerberg’s business domain, shareholder activism doesn’t really get off the ground. This is due to the dual-class share structure the company employs, where Class-B shares owned by insiders carry more voting power than publicly accessible Class-A shares. As a result, Zuckerberg retains approximately 58% of the company’s voting control.

In the realm of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), comparable to corporations, each token holder gets a single vote.

In July, a significant stakeholder, known as Humpy and often accompanied by his team, the “GoldenBoys,” took control of certain operations. Some referred to this as a “governing maneuver” directed at the lending platform Compound, which raised concerns among many.

In simpler terms, they collectively decided to invest $24 million in COMP tokens into a system known as goldCOMP, which they manage and control. This system produces passive income for the token owners since it’s designed to yield returns over time.

This month, court documents submitted by the FTX estate seemed to reveal the identity of someone known as Humpy, implicating him in having associations with illicit networks. However, Nawaaz Mohammad Meerun, who is believed to be the person behind the alias, has refuted these allegations of criminal affiliations in a statement given to CoinDesk.

Despite others attributing the incident to voter disinterest, OpenZeppelin, a security audit company engaged by Compound’s DAO and actively involved in its governance forum, holds a different perspective.

During a chat with CoinDesk at the recent Devcon event, Michael Lewellen (OpenZeppelin’s lead architect) explained that Humpy’s actions amounted to an attack directly targeting the underlying model.

He stated that governance structures with significant power held by token owners, without any substantial limits to their control, are inherently vulnerable. The issue of when such vulnerabilities will manifest is simply a matter of time.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY BY COINDESK’S SAM REYNOLDS

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