TLDR Crypto 2022-09-29

(1) Deposit your $NEAR into Meta Pool - they’ll distribute it across best performing validators. Start earning staking rewards.

(2) Receive stNEAR: staked NEAR (stNEAR) is a liquid token that represents your $NEAR staked via Meta Pool + accruing staking rewards. You can use stNEAR across the largest ecosystem of DeFi apps.

(3) Participate in DeFi: deploy your stNEAR into a growing number of DeFi platforms for maximum capital efficiency and additional APY.

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The Punk 2924 was recently purchased for 3,300 ETH, around $4.5 million USD. The purchase was the ninth-highest CryptoPunk sale of all time in terms of USD value. The Punk is one of twenty-four Ape CryptoPunks and the only Ape CryptoPunk with the 'Hoodie' trait. The artwork for Punk 2924 is available in the thread.

SWIFT is working with Chainlink on a cross-chain interoperability protocol. The protocol will enable SWIFT messages to instruct on-chain token transfers and allow the interbank network to communicate across all blockchain environments. The partnership will help bridge the gap between traditional and digital assets for TradFi institutions. It will help accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology and benefit various institutions across capital markets.

Circle is expanding USDC to Arbitrum, Near, Optimism, Polkadot, and Cosmos. It will use a tool called the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol to enhance USDC transactions between different blockchains. Stablecoins are now a $150 billion asset class and they serve as an important bridge between traditional finance and the crypto space. USDC's market position is being challenged by DeFi platforms issuing their own stablecoins and by other stablecoins like Tether and Binance's BUSD.

Lightning Labs' Taro enables minting, sending, and receiving assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. It leverages Taproot, a major upgrade to Bitcoin that went live last year, to issue assets in a private and secure manner without bloating the Bitcoin blockchain. Taro does not require a separate blockchain nor does it add extra data directly on-chain. Its alpha release allows developers to issue tokens on testnet and test applications with testnet coins.

Ethereum users can now use their ENS domains or MetaMask to communicate with ethereum.email. ethereum.email allows people to use their Ethereum wallets for email. The service provides trustworthy and transparent communications to the Ethereum community. ethereum.email communications are all verified, private, and end-to-end encrypted.

Chainlink has become a fundamental building block for DeFi since its launch. Many DeFi protocols rely on Chainlink's price oracles to provide accurate pricing data. Chainlink is developing products that will help traditional systems move to the blockchain. It is planning to launch staking and the Cross Chain Interoperable Protocol in the near future. More information about these two products is available in the thread.

Safe is launching the Safe Token to steward SafeDAO. SafeDAO will govern the Safe protocol, interfaces, Safe token supply, and ecosystem growth. Safe is widely used in web3 to secure self-custodial accounts. It aims to make ownership in web3 more accessible, collaborative, and secure. Safe Tokens are now claimable to eligible Safe users and to previously appointed Guardians. Claims can be made until December 27.

Stanford University blockchain researchers introduced a research proposal last week that entertains the possibility of creating reversible transactions on Ethereum. The crypto community is divided over the proposal as while a method of helping victims of hacks or mistakes would be helpful, immutability is regarded as one of the most important features for cryptocurrencies. Allowing reversible transactions violates the censorship resistance that blockchains offer. The researchers stress that the proposal is still in its very early stages and that it is for a new token standard rather than a replacement for current standards.

Google's head of strategy, web3, and cloud believes in a decentralized, multichain future.

Eclipse allows developers to easily deploy their code as a customizable rollup.

This Twitter thread contains links to 10 resources on ZK proofs covering topics like regulation, privacy, applied ZK, interactive proofs, and more.

The Metablock MEV Dashboard shows aggregated MEV stats on Ethereum.

Crypto Punk 2924 sold for around $4,451,000.