Welcome to The Protocol, Coindesk’s weekly summary of the most important stories in the technological development of cryptocurrency. I am Ben Schiller, Coindesk’s editor of meaning and functions.
In this number:
- DAO control tool Fusion
- Ethereum Foundation drama
- StableCOin USDH is coming to Bitcoin
- 25 million dollars grant program to Depin
Network news
DAO GOVERNANCE PLATFORM CONVERS RIVE: Agora, a Blockchain Governance Startup, is ready to acquire his competitor Boardroom. The company framed the purchase as a strategic feature to improve control within the wider Ethereum ecosystem, citing expectations of renewed growth in decentralized management due to President Trump’s promise of regulatory clarity for the blockchain industry. “2025 is the year when we make good governance to the standard of all protocols in Ethereum,” Agora co-founder Yitong Zhang told Coindesk. Agora was founded in 2022 by Zhang, Charlie Feng and Kent Fenwick. The trio initially began working on management tools at Nouns Dao, one of the more lively blockchain protocols that emerged from the 2021’s Dao and NFT-hype cycle. Agora was founded on the condition that token control is central to the value of cryptoprotocols. It aims to provide user-friendly, open source control tools for DAOs such as Uniswap and Optimism, both of which are currently using Agora to organize token holders and hold control reconciles. Boardroom, which was before Agora and has similar goals, took a more horizontal approach to blockchain control. Boardroom is gradually changed from a DAO tool software in Agora-style to a DataFeed-similar to a “Bloomberg” for crypto control data. Agora refused to state how much it paid to acquire Boardroom. BoardROOM’s employees have been offered roles at Agora, and Boardroom’s founder, Kevin Nielsen, remains as an advisor. “There is no plan to write off” boardroom, according to Zhang. Instead, the Agora team will keep both platforms running and will work with users to determine how the tools can be gradually integrated. Read more. – Sam Kessler
Ethereum Unrest: Constantine Lomashuk, the founder of the Lido effort protocol, has teased his intention to build a “other foundation” to promote Ethereum’s ecosystem. Over the past few days, Ethereum’s co -founder Vitalik Butterin has outlined plans for a major restructuring of the Ethereum Foundation (EC), the nonprofit organization responsible for supporting Ethereum’s development. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), butterin shared details of the reorganization that he said would streamline decision -making processes and address inefficiency. The message has triggered criticism in which some claim that Barterin’s central role in the restructuring process undermines Ethereums ethos on decentralization. The EC has long been examined for its own centralizing influence. Over the past year, the organization has faced increasing pressure to define a clearer vision of Ethereum’s future as competing networks like Solana make progress. Read more. – Sam Kessler
Bitcoin gets new stableecoin: The developers of USDH, a stableecoin built on Bitcoin Layer 2 stacks, have made an agreement to bring about $ 3 million in liquidity to the token. Decentralized Finance (Defi) Protocol Hermetica has secured liquidity, as it says it will make it the largest stablecoin on stacks, through collaboration with the Bitcoin lending protocol Zest. The two are planning to offer returns on USDH through lending against SBTC, the Bitcoin-backed bridge asset that users can use to place their Bitcoin wealth in the Stacks Ecosystem. The initial liquidity lift could create a short -term window with higher returns, said Herm Metica, with projections of an annual percentage yield (APY) as high as 50%. It is currently giving an average apy of 18%, Herm Metica said in an email message on Wednesday. Stableecoins play an integrated role in the crypto economy, allowing users to keep their assets in a token that is not prone to such significant ebb and flows in value because they are linked to a Fiat currency (usually the US dollar). Provision of stablecoins would therefore of course be an important development in Bitcoin’s development into a network that could support defi capacities, a trend that has taken off over the last few years. However, it should be pointed out that the $ 3 million in liquidity that USDH provides is small compared to the dominant stableecoins in crypto. USDT and USDC have market values of over $ 138 billion and $ 51 billion respectively, highlighting the relative early start of the Bitcoin defic sector. Read more. – Jamie Crawley
DEPIN SUBMISSION PROGRAM: World Mobile, a decentralized wireless network, has announced a $ 25 million subsidy program aimed at promoting decentralized physical infrastructure network (Depin) projects. Tenity, an investor in an early phase and global leader in innovation programs and acceleration of startups, is a partner in the initiative that will make its six international hubs available. “By working with Tenity, we ensure that the World Mobile Chain Grant program not only finances projects, but provides the necessary guidance and the necessary resources to drive scalable, effective innovation,” said Micky Watkins, CEO of the World Mobile Group. The $ 25 million offers funding from $ 5,000 and focuses on decentralized communication, on-chain management and tokenization of real world assets. World Mobile is an EVM compatible “Layer 3” developed on base. Read more.
In other news
L2S gets faster
Credit card to defi
Legislation and politics
Calendar
- 20-24. January: World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
- 21-25. January: Wagmi-Conference, Miami.
- 24.-25. January: Adoption of Bitcoin, Cape Town, South Africa.
- 30.-31. January: Plan B Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador.
- 1-6. February: Satoshi Roundtable, Dubai
- 19-20. February 2025: Consensushk, Hong Kong.
- 23-24. February: NFT Paris
- 23. Feb-2. March: ETHENVER
- 18-19. March: Digital Asset Summit, London
- 14.-16. May: Consensus, Toronto.
- 27-29. May: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas.
