Weekly Layers 1 & 2 Update (Week 11, 15/03/2022 – 21/03/2022)

ETH merges on Kiln testnet ahead of its change to proof-of-stake; Vitalik makes sharding-related proposal EIP-4844. Aptos blockchain from ex-Diem members raises $200M. Layer 2 solution Optimism raises $150M at $1.65B valuation.

Key Takeaways

• Ethereum (ETH) merged on Kiln, its public testnet, ahead of its eventual change to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. Meanwhile, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin introduced EIP-4844, which proposes an upgrade known as Proto-Danksharding. This introduces a new “blob-carrying” transaction type and lays the initial technical groundwork for ETH’s transition to sharding. 
• Former members of Meta’s defunct stablecoin project Diem raised USD 200M to build a new layer 1 blockchain called Aptos. The team launched their public Devnet, welcomed developers, and made their codebase open source. 
• Layer 2 solution Optimism raised $150M in Series B funding at a $1.65B valuation from Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz. 
• Cronos (CRO) saw a +7.52% increase in total transaction to 23.17M, while its TVL grew to $3.27B (+20.75% week-on-week). The total number of wallet addresses now stands at 460,891, up +4.15% from last week.

Highlights

• Bitcoin mining difficulty drops for second time in March
• Number of Bitcoin holders hits an all-time record at almost 40 million addresses
• Bitmain says new liquid cooling miner is its most power efficient model to date
• Nearly $6 Billion in ETH Burned as Ethereum 2.0 Edges Closer
• Almost 10% of the Total Ethereum Supply Staked in ETH2 Deposit Contract
• LayerZero blog : The omnichain future is here
• LayerZero gears up for launch of cross-chain protocol Stargate
• Equilibrium to become Polkadot’s (DOT) 12th Parachain
• Cardano developers propose increasing Plutus script memory
• Fantom’s FTM token rises 10% on upcoming protocol upgrades
• Stellar Development Foundation launches $30M investment fund
• Mina Foundation raises $92M to accelerate adoption of Zero-Knowledge proofs