Welcome to the newest version of Cointelegraph’s decentralized finance e-newsletter.
Because the calendar 12 months involves an finish, Cardano’s personable chief Charles Hoskinson shares a message of optimism, unity and collaboration for the way forward for crypto.
As a gesture of goodwill for the vacation season, this week our long-form DeFi e-newsletter will probably be printed in full right here as an article alongside the common e mail. Subscribe under for full entry to subsequent week’s version!
Polygon fixes potential billion-dollar protocol vulnerability
Layer-two protocol Polygon introduced this week the rectification of a potentially multi-billion-dollar vulnerability in its proof-of-stake Genesis contract by implementing an Emergency Bor Improve to the mainnet.
The incident and subsequent improve passed off in the beginning of December. If compromised to the fullest extent by a malicious entity, the vulnerability might have resulted in nearly $24 billion in monetary losses, equating to 92.7% of the community’s native MATIC tokens and successfully inflicting imminent demise.
All you want to know concerning the current Polygon community replace.
✅A safety accomplice found a vulnerability
✅Repair was instantly launched
✅Validators upgraded the community
✅No materials hurt to the protocol/end-users
✅White hats had been paid a bounty https://t.co/oyDkvohg33— Polygon | $MATIC (@0xPolygon) December 29, 2021
In keeping with a current weblog submit from Polygon, two good-willed whitehat hackers, Leon Spacewalker and Whitehat2, found the incident on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4, respectively, alerting blockchain safety platform Immunefi.
Following procedural investigation and authentication from Immunefi, the knowledge was handed to Polygon, which upgraded the community on Dec. 5, albeit a hacker was capable of drain 801,601 MATIC ($2.04 million) earlier than the bug was resolved.
Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani emphasised the community’s potential to promptly resolve the essential bug, noting in a weblog post that:
“What’s necessary is that this was a check of our community’s resilience in addition to our potential to behave decisively beneath stress. Contemplating how a lot was at stake, I consider our workforce has made the most effective choices doable given the circumstances.”
Leon Spacewalker is ready to be rewarded a cool $2.2 million in stablecoins for his or her efforts, whereas the second nameless hacker, Whitehat2, will pocket $1.27 million in MATIC tokens instantly from Polygon.
Associated: Here’s how Polygon is challenging the limitations of Ethereum, as told by co-founder Sandeep Nailwal
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson predicts DeFi “larger extinction”
This week, in an end-of-year YouTube reside stream titled “DApps and Cardano DeFi Alliance,” Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson spoke candidly concerning the rising panorama of DeFi initiatives and creators on Cardano along with advising contributors concerning the risky nature of exponential markets.
“It’s very onerous to do this type of engineering and to do it proper, with an eye fixed and foresight for the long run. Sadly, most of the initiatives on this area won’t stand the check of time. It’s only a reality that we are going to see a fantastic extinction happen within the subsequent 5 to 10 years.”
Broadcasting with evident enthusiasm from “heat sunny Colorado” — a location which he humorously describes as “at all times heat, at all times sunny, generally Colorado” — Hoskinson predicted an enormous 12 months forward for the cryptocurrency area and his beloved Cardano.
The “solely factor that holds us again is us,” he mentioned earlier than exclaiming that empathetic and pleasant collaboration is a elementary element to productive dialogue and progress towards our shared pursuit of a extra affluent monetary future.
Following the profitable launch of Cardano’s good contracts in September by the Alonzo onerous fork, the venture has come beneath scrutiny for tedious developments on its roadmap. Regardless of this, Hoskinson believes that the person depend will exceed 10 instances the present 2 million in 2022 due to the huge demand throughout the nonfungible token area.
Alongside this, Hoskinson launched the Cardano DeFi Alliance, an initiative that seeks to assemble an open-source library of sources, instruments, providers and greatest practices to domesticate the expansion of your entire DeFi ecosystem.
Associated: Cardano’s ADA price eyes 30% rally with a potential ‘triple bottom’ setup
Huobi Analysis predicts rise in play-to-earn video games in 2022
Huobi Analysis, the analysis arm of crypto change Huobi, has recognized GameFi — which refers back to the mixture of gaming and decentralized finance — as an rising development primarily based on its quantitative evaluation of on-chain knowledge.
In an intensive weblog submit, Huobi detailed GameFi initiatives’ sharp will increase in person exercise and quantity transacted since June, stating “DApp rankings present that 5 of the highest 9 apps are GameFi apps.” Additional, “as of early December [2021], GameFi’s weekly lively customers have reached 9.21 million, a report excessive.”
Thanks @Cointelegraph for overlaying the report.
Learn it ➡️https://t.co/MnG14w5KNW https://t.co/mzFggnLp0z— Huobi Analysis (@Huobi_Research) December 30, 2021
The researchers famous that these video games differ from conventional video games, reminiscent of World of Warcraft, throughout three distinctive classes: free buying and selling of recreation supplies, free buying and selling and pricing of recreation currencies, and safety of property rights.
Huobi Analysis argues that GameFi’s potential to “considerably cut back transaction charges for gold farming,” a time period used to indicate the conversion of in-game tokens to real-world foreign money, is the first purpose for its heightened monetary enchantment:
“In GameFi, the house owners have the appropriate to resolve whether or not to promote sure sources or not, which lifts the diploma of person independence and stimulates market competitors, thus saving transaction prices.”
Moreover, builders within the GameFi area have the benefit of deploying personal property rights through nonfungible tokens at a decrease price: “This not solely is a comparative benefit that conventional recreation builders by no means had, but in addition displays the intrinsic worth of blockchain expertise within the gaming business,” the agency said.
Associated: Korean government tells Apple and Google stores to take down P2E games
Token performances
Analytical knowledge reveals that DeFi’s complete worth locked has decreased by 1.8% through the week to $140 billion, seemingly slowing down for the vacation season.

Information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView reveals that DeFi’s prime 100 tokens by market capitalization have primarily been bullish over the final seven days.
SushiSwap (SUSHI) took the lead this week with 42% beneficial properties. Oasis Community (ROSE) blossomed 37.5%, whereas Fantom (FTM) grew 26.1%. Gnosis (GNO) and PancakeSwap (CAKE) claimed fourth and fifth locations this week with 25.4% and three%, respectively.
Interviews, options and different cool stuff
Thanks for studying our abstract of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Be a part of us once more subsequent Friday for extra tales, insights and training on this dynamically advancing area. Pleased New 12 months!