{"id":148607,"date":"2021-12-31T09:28:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T09:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=148607"},"modified":"2021-12-31T09:28:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T09:28:58","slug":"finance-redefined-polygon-fixes-24b-bug-hoskinson-optimistic-for-cardano-in-2022-dec-24-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/crypto\/finance-redefined-polygon-fixes-24b-bug-hoskinson-optimistic-for-cardano-in-2022-dec-24-31\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance Redefined: Polygon fixes $24B bug, Hoskinson optimistic for Cardano in 2022, Dec. 24\u201331"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the latest edition of Cointelegraph\u2019s decentralized finance newsletter.<\/p>\n

As the calendar year comes to an end, Cardano\u2019s personable leader Charles Hoskinson shares a message of optimism, unity and collaboration for the future of crypto.<\/p>\n

As a gesture of goodwill for the holiday season, this week our long-form DeFi newsletter will be published in full here as an article alongside the regular email. Subscribe below for full access to next week’s edition!<\/p>\n

Polygon fixes potential billion-dollar protocol vulnerability\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Layer-two protocol Polygon announced this week the rectification of a potentially multi-billion-dollar vulnerability in its proof-of-stake Genesis contract through implementing an Emergency Bor Upgrade to the mainnet.<\/p>\n

The incident and subsequent upgrade took place at the beginning of December. If compromised to the fullest extent by a malicious entity, the vulnerability could have resulted in almost $24 billion in financial losses, equating to 92.7% of the network\u2019s native MATIC tokens and effectively causing imminent demise.<\/p>\n

According to a recent blog post from Polygon, two good-willed whitehat hackers, Leon Spacewalker and Whitehat2, discovered the incident on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, respectively, alerting blockchain security platform Immunefi.<\/p>\n

Following procedural investigation and authentication from Immunefi, the information was passed to Polygon, which upgraded the network on Dec. 5, albeit a hacker was able to drain 801,601 MATIC ($2.04 million) before the bug was resolved. <\/p>\n

Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani emphasized the network\u2019s ability to promptly resolve the critical bug, noting in a blog post\u00a0that:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s important is that this was a test of our network\u2019s resilience as well as our ability to act decisively under pressure. Considering how much was at stake, I believe our team has made the best decisions possible given the circumstances.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Leon Spacewalker is set to be rewarded a cool $2.2 million in stablecoins for their efforts, while the second anonymous hacker, Whitehat2, will pocket $1.27 million in MATIC tokens directly from Polygon.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>Here’s how Polygon is challenging the limitations of Ethereum, as told by co-founder Sandeep Nailwal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson predicts DeFi \u201cgreater extinction\u201d<\/h3>\n

This week, in an end-of-year YouTube live stream titled \u201cDApps and Cardano DeFi Alliance,\u201d Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson spoke candidly about the emerging landscape of DeFi projects and creators on Cardano in addition to advising participants about the volatile nature of exponential markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to do this kind of engineering and to do it right, with an eye and foresight for the future. Unfortunately, many of the projects in this space will not stand the test of time. It\u2019s just a fact that we will see a great extinction occur in the next five to 10 years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Broadcasting with evident enthusiasm from \u201cwarm sunny Colorado\u201d \u2014 a location which he humorously describes as \u201calways warm, always sunny, sometimes Colorado\u201d \u2014 Hoskinson predicted a big year ahead for the cryptocurrency space and his beloved Cardano.<\/p>\n

The \u201conly thing that holds us back is us,\u201d he said before exclaiming that empathetic and friendly collaboration is a fundamental component to productive dialogue and progress toward our shared pursuit of a more prosperous financial future.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lR2Ljy1CPTI<\/p>\n

Following the successful launch of Cardano\u2019s smart contracts in September through the Alonzo hard fork, the project has come under scrutiny for tedious developments on its roadmap. Despite this, Hoskinson believes that the user count will exceed 10 times the current 2 million in 2022 because of the vast demand within the nonfungible token space. <\/p>\n

Alongside this, Hoskinson introduced the Cardano DeFi Alliance, an initiative that seeks to construct an open-source library of resources, tools, services and best practices to cultivate the growth of the entire DeFi ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>Cardano\u2019s ADA price eyes 30% rally with a potential \u2018triple bottom\u2019 setup<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Huobi Research predicts rise in play-to-earn games in 2022<\/h3>\n

Huobi Research, the research arm of crypto exchange Huobi, has identified GameFi \u2014 which refers to the combination of gaming and decentralized finance \u2014 as an emerging trend based on its quantitative analysis of on-chain data.<\/p>\n

In an extensive blog post, Huobi detailed GameFi projects\u2019 sharp increases in user activity and volume transacted since June, stating \u201cDApp rankings show that five of the top nine apps are GameFi apps.” Further, “as of early December [2021], GameFi\u2019s weekly active users have reached 9.21 million, a record high.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers noted that these games differ from traditional games, such as World of Warcraft, across three distinctive categories: free trading of game materials, free trading and pricing of game currencies, and protection of property rights.<\/p>\n

Huobi Research argues that GameFi\u2019s ability to \u201csignificantly reduce transaction fees for gold farming,\u201d a term used to denote the conversion of in-game tokens to real-world currency, is the primary reason for its heightened financial appeal:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn GameFi, the owners have the right to decide whether to sell certain resources or not, which lifts the degree of user independence and stimulates market competition, thus saving transaction costs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additionally, developers in the GameFi space have the advantage of deploying private property rights via nonfungible tokens at a lower cost: \u201cThis not only is a comparative advantage that traditional game developers never had, but also reflects the intrinsic value of blockchain technology in the gaming industry,\u201d the firm stated.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/em><\/strong>Korean government tells Apple and Google stores to take down P2E games<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Token performances\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Analytical data reveals that DeFi\u2019s total value locked has decreased by 1.8% during the week to $140 billion, seemingly slowing down for the holiday season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals that DeFi\u2019s top 100 tokens by market capitalization have mainly been bullish over <\/strong>the last seven days.<\/p>\n

SushiSwap (SUSHI) took the lead this week with 42% gains. Oasis Network (ROSE) blossomed 37.5%, while Fantom (FTM) grew 26.1%. Gnosis (GNO) and PancakeSwap (CAKE) claimed fourth and fifth places this week with 25.4% and 3%, respectively.<\/p>\n

Interviews, features and other cool stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n