“Also: Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat, Volkswagen and Hivemappr Team Up, and Eigenlabs Layoffs.”, – WRITE: www.coindesk.com
Welcome to the Protocol, Coindesk’s Weekly Wrap-Up of the Most Important Stories in Cryptocurrency Tech Development. I’m Margaux nijkerk, Coindesk’s Tech & Protocols Reporter.
In this Issue:
- Vitalik Buterin’s New Proposal Seeks 16.7M Gas Cap on Ethereum to Rein in Transaction Bloat
- Jack Dorsey Unveils Bitchat: Offline, Encrypted Messaging Inspired by Bitcoin
- Volkswagen Admt Taps Solana-Based HiveMaper Bee Maps for Driverless Data
- Eigen Labs Axes 25% of Staff to Focus on Building EigenCloud
Network NewsNew Ethereum Proposal From Vitalik Buterin: A new ethereum proposal, co-authored by vitalik buterin and toni wahrstaetter, aims to impose a hard cap on the maxumum gas a transaction cantone Make The Chain More VIABLE FOR CERTAIN APPLICATIONS. The Proposal, EIP-7983, Suggests Limiting Individual Transactions to 16,777,216 GAS (2²⁴)-A Sharp Change from the Current Design, WHICH TCHNICALLYTEWS ALLALL Entire Block. As a design choice, that introduces several performance and secular challenges. WHEN A SINGLE Transaction Consumes Nearly All The Available Gas, IT Disrupts the Distribution of Workloads Across The Network and Tends to Make Block Execution Less Efficiency. SO The PROPOSED CAP is Expert to Simplify Engineering Challenge and Aligns with Ethereum’s Shift Toward Modularity, Thought IT May Require Splitting Large Transactions. – Shaurya Malwa Read More.
Jack dorsy unveils Bitchat Whitepaper: Jack Dorsey, Founder of Twitter (Now X) and Fintech Company Block (SQ), Published a whitepaper for BitChat, A Decentralized Messaging Protocol that Enables Fully Encry. BitChat wold Operate Over Bluetooth Low Energy (Ble), ALLOWING NEARBY DEVICES TO FORM A MESH NETWORK THAT RELAYS MESSAGES HOP-BY-HOP, ACCORDING TO THE WHITEPAPER. WHEN A MESSAGE IS SENT, IT Wuld Travel Across Nearby Devices Acting as Tempoury Nodes Unthas Reaches ITS Recipient, Making IT Resilient in Offline or Censord Environmental. While Not Making Explicit References to Bitcoin, The Cryptocurrency or The Blockchain, Dorsey Describes BitChat as A “Decentralized Whitepaper’s Intro in WHICH IT WAS DESCRIBED AS A “PEER-TO-PEER VERSION OF ELECTRONIC CASH.” – Jamie crawley Read More.
Solana HiveMaper and Volkswagen Team Up: Volkswagen Admt, The Carmaker’s Autonomous-Vehicle Testing Subsidiary, Tapped HiveMapper’s Bee Maps to Support Its Self-Driving Operations with Real-Time Mapping Data. Street-level imagery collekted by bee Maps Contributors using hivemapper camera and Drop-OFFS, A BEE MAPS SPOKESPERSON Told Coindesk. The Deal Highlights of the Growing Adoption of CrowdSourced Geospatial Data As Autonomous Ride-Sharing Firms Look for More Precise, Up-To-Date Mapping Infrastructure. It Also ShowCases of the Growth of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (depin), WHICH USE BLOCKCHAIN INCENTIVES TO CrowdSource Real-World Data Collection. HiveMaper is One of the Best-Known Depin Projects in the Solana EcoSystem. Accounting to the Wall Street JournalVolkswagen’s Autonomous Driving Unit Has Been Testing ITS ‘ROBOTAXI’ FLEET IN RECENT MONHS. In april, The Company Also Announced A Partnership with Uber to Launch The Service in US Markets, with Pilot Operations Set for Late 2025 and A Wider Rollut Planned for 2026. Margaux nijkerk Read More.
EigenLabs Lays Off Staff Amid Restructure: Eigen Labs, The Main Developer Firm Beyind Resta Restaging Protocol Eigenlayer, CUT ITS WORKFORCE BY 25%, LOSING 29 RELES, AS CEO SREERAM KANNAN SAID HE RESTRULING Called A “Verifiable” Alternative to Exist, Opaque Cloud Services. The Seattle-Based Startup Said the Dismissals Were Not A Cash-Crunch Respons. The News Comes As The Firm Has Dealt with Its Fair Share of Blowback, from Not Having Certain Key Mechanisms in Place at the Launch Advisory Roles. Eigenlayer Was Once of the Buzziest Projects in Crypto, Reaching $ 20 Billion in Total Value Locked in June 2024. It Now Has $ 12 Billion. – Francisco Rodrigues Read More.
In Other News
- Bit Digital (BTBT) is now Owner of More 100,000 Ether (ETH) After Swaping Out It Bitcoin Stack Along with A $ 172 Million Capital Raise for Evens More of the World From A Holding of 24.434 ETH AS OF THE END OF MARCH, BIT DIGITAL NOW HAS 100,603 ETH ($ 189.2 Million) Making IT One of the Largest Corporate Eth Holders, The Company SAID. Bit Digital Revealed Its Plans to Focus Solely on Eth Staking Last Month in a Move that wasn’t Entirely Unexpectioned Given the More Challenging Environment Bitcoin Mines – Jamie crawley Read More.
- US President Donald Trump’s Media & Technology Group (Nasdaq: DJT) Filed to List A Crypto Exchange-Traded Fund to the Trump brand. The proposed “Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip etf” would Hold a Portfolio of Five Tokens: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (Eth), Solana (SOL) Sec. Eighty-five percent of the Fund’s Holdings would be Split Between Bitcoin and Ether. Solana would make up 8%, Cronos 5%and xrp 2%. – Helene Braun Read More.
Regulatory and Policy
- The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control’s (OAC) Sanctions Against Privacy Tool Tornado Cash Cannot Be Discussed at the Upcomying Trial of Developer Ruper Roman Storm. At at the tuesday in at the tese -wipeli -withechyter sheetheri, the withemeri, the following, Distress, the wather sheether sheether sheether sheether sheether sheether sheether. August 2022, Removed This March and Subsequently Found Illegal by a Texas Court. After Hearing Arguments from Both Prosecution and Defense, Failla Decides to Grant Storm’s Motion In limine Moving to prohibit tastimony about the sanctions Entirely, Arguing that it wold Simplay be too confusing for a jury to do what she described as the “mentaity of the azh. Imposed and Ultimately Removed. – Cheyenne ligon Read More.
- The US Department of Justice (Doj) Charged Two Individuals for awgapro, A Crypto and Investment Ponzi Scheme that Defrauded Investors of Over $ 650 Million. Michael Shannon Sims, A Founder and Promoter of Omegapro, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, Who Led Omegapro’s Operations in Latin America and Some Parts of the Us Money Laundering, Accor for Documents Published. Omegapro Was An International Investment Scheme that Collapsed in 2022. In 2024, Andreas Szakacs, The CO-FOUNDER OF THE SCHEME, WAS Arrested in Turkey for His Involvement. – Parikshit Mishra Read More.
Calendar
- July 16-18: Web3 Summit, Berlin
- Sept. 22-28: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- Oct. 1-2: Token2049, Singapore
- Nov. 17-22: Devconnect, Buenos Aires
- Dec. 11-13: Solana BreakPoint, Abu Dhabi
- Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- May 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami