Welcome to Protocol, where Coindesk is a weekly summary of the most important stories in cryptocurrency technology development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, Ethereum Protocol Reporter from the Coindesk technical team.
In this issue:
- Solana gets major design overhaul
- A new Ethereum node proposal to make them easy to do
- World Network’s $135 million token sale
- Solana Seeker Mobile Early August
Network News
Solana gets major design overhaul: The Solana developers are planning what could be the most ambitious core upgrade of blockchain to date. Replace the current technology stack with a redesigned consensus protocol built for the finality and responsiveness of myopia. The new system, called Alpenglow, was announced on Monday by infrastructure company Anza, a spin-out of Solana Labs. Solana’s famous unique “pre-recorded clock” system – and proposes replacing the existing voting mechanism to reach consensus with Tower BFT. – Shaurya Malwa read more.
A new Ethereum node suggestion to make them easy to do: Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, proposes new designs to reduce the hardware burden to run network nodes, framing them as a step into a completely distributed network that does not require sophisticated infrastructure to help maintain. In a blog post, Buterin introduced the concept of “partially stateless nodes” allowing users to store only a subset of Ethereum data, rather than the entire blockchain clocked at 1.3 terabytes (TB). Shaurya Malwa read more.
Bain Capital Crypto, $135 million token sale to A16z: Sam Altman’s Blockchain Project World Network has raised $135 million in private token sales for WLD tokens. The sale is for venture capital Giants A16Z and Bain Capital Crypto, which will be used to fund the expansion of the network. The funding comes when the group behind the blockchain announces the in-app functionality of the project, and WLD tokens became available to US users earlier this month. – Margaux nijkerk read more.
The Solana Labs mobile team plans to ship seeker phones starting August 4thin addition to sharing new information about some of its infrastructure frameworks and new SKR tokens for mobile users. The news comes as a new iteration of Solana mobile has been in the works for several months so far, with over 150,000 units so far, according to a press release. As Saga, the first model of the mobile phone, originally struggled with sales, Seeker was introduced and created uncertainty for the future. However, after realising that Crypto users could collect certain token airdrops, Saga was eventually sold out.
In other news
- Movement Lab, a scandal-stricken crypto startup supported by Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial, quietly promised early insiders a massive stake on its token. Even before the token launch, Movement Labs committed most of the supply of moves to a few early advisors. This was never disclosed to investors and only emerged through internal documents reviewed by Coindesk. – Sam Kessler read more.
- Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed its peak in January around Donald Trump’s inauguration, winning a fresh record price of $109,400. The largest and oldest cryptocurrency hit $109,486 on Wednesday during early sessions in the US, according to the Coindesk Bitcoin Index. The BTC is currently surged by more than 46% from the April trough, induced by increasing fears about the World Trade War and US tariffs. – Kim Jiang Sandor read more.
Regulation and policy
- The US Senate voted to move forward under the Stablecoin Act on Monday night, eventually removing the procedural barrier that would put the bill fully under it. The senator easily cleared the 60-vote threshold for the vote. This is intended to move the law further into a period of discussion before the final voting series to pass it from the Senate.– Jesse Hamilton read more.
calendar
- May 19-23: Solana Acceleration in New York City
- May 20-22: London Avalanche Summit
- May 27th-29th: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas
- May 27th-29th: Prague, Esprague
- June 8th-22nd: Berlin Blockchain Week, Berlin
- June 30th – July 3rd: Cannes, etccc
- July 16th-18th: Berlin Web3 Summit
- September 22nd to 28th: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- October 1st-2: Token2049, Singapore
- December 11th-13th: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
