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Ethereum's security team is initiating a four-week hackathon to test the blockchain's security. The event is planned for every future hard fork, so we will surely see many of those. The hackathon, dubbed "Attackathon", offers a $2 million reward pool. It aims to be the largest crowdsourced security audit of Ethereum's codebase. Security researchers will search for vulnerabilities in the protocol's code. The Ethereum Protocol Security (EPS) research team outlined the event in a July 8 blog post. "They will follow specific rules set for the competition, and only impactful and rule-compliant reports will be rewarded," the team stated. The event will begin with a technical walkthrough of the blockchain's code. This ensures participants are prepared to identify potential vulnerabilities. Bug bounty platform Immunefi will host the event. They will compile a report detailing discovered vulnerabilities post-event. The EPS team has contributed $500,000 to the prize pool, and they are seeking sponsors to raise an additional $1.5 million by August 1. That is quite a significant amount of money for such an event. Similar hackathons are planned "at every hard fork covering changes to the codebase," according to the team. Ethereum's next "Pectra" hard fork is expected in late 2024 or early 2025. It combines the "Prague" and "Electra" upgrades. Planned updates include a "social recovery" feature. This could eliminate the need for users to remember lengthy private wallet keys. Hackathons are common in the tech world. Crypto projects often offer bug bounties to encourage ethical hacking. Immunefi's website shows most bounties range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The largest, offered by LayerZero, reaches $15 million.

Consensys has unveiled a new product. The MetaMask Delegation Toolkit aims to simplify decentralized app development. It also seeks to improve Web3 user engagement. The toolkit will be available on Ethereum Virtual Machine chains. These include Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Linea, Optimism and Polygon. Dan Finlay, MetaMask co-founder, spoke about the toolkit's potential. "Parts of it can very easily be made chain agnostic," he told Cointelegraph. This suggests possible future expansion beyond Ethereum. A Consensys study highlighted the need for such tools. Only 8% of 15,000 respondents felt very familiar with Web3. Many find crypto overly complex. The toolkit aims to address this issue. It eliminates repetitive user actions. It also reduces direct interactions with Web3 infrastructure. Finlay explained the toolkit's flexibility. "You can invite a person to an experience and give them an allowance," he said. "The enforcement system is totally open-ended." The toolkit offers several key features. It enables instant user onboarding without extensions or downloads. It removes the need for seed phrase management. Gas fee management is also improved. The toolkit allows for gasless transactions. It can also postpone or reassign gas costs. Consensys recently acquired Wallet Guard. This security tool protects digital assets from fraud and theft. It will be integrated into MetaMask. Patrick Berarducci, Consensys' MetaMask lead, commented on the acquisition. He said it would protect users from "malicious DApps and scams."

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has executed a significant ETH transaction. But the transfer has attracted attention due to its destination, rather than the amount. On July 6, Buterin moved 99.9 ETH tokens, that's approximately $300,000. The recipient was a wallet address starting with 0x82 for the Gnosis Safe Proxy. Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence spotted the transaction. On-chain data confirmed it. Buterin used one of his main wallet addresses for the transfer. Reports suggest the recipient is the 2077 Collective. This is a community-driven organization. It promotes Ethereum blockchain adoption. The 2077 Collective comprises creatives, researchers, developers, and marketers. They aim to improve Ethereum's adoption and fuel growth. The organization plans to expand Ethereum's presence within and beyond the crypto space. Large transfers by prominent figures often lead to market speculation. This transaction comes as Ethereum's price shows fragility. As we all witnessed, the cryptocurrency has declined nearly 20% in the past month. Buterin has a history of ETH donations. In 2023, he revealed never selling Ethereum for personal gain since 2018. His transfers have mainly been charitable donations. Arkham Intelligence data shows Buterin's personal wallet holds approximately $1.99 million. The majority is in Ethereum, with 357,273 ETH and various other altcoins. He doesn't appear to be holding any Bitcoin, which seems surprising. Or maybe, not.

Tron founder Justin Sun has announced a new stablecoin project. It is supposed to be a unique solution, aiming to eliminate gas fees for peer-to-peer transfers. The stablecoin will cover fees by itself. That sound a bit fantastic, yet there is a pretty plausible explanation. Sun revealed the plans in a July 6 social media post. He mentioned that the project targets implementation on the Tron blockchain this quarter. Expansion to Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains will follow. Sun stated, "Transfers can be made without paying any gas tokens, with the fees being entirely covered by the stablecoins themselves." Specific mechanics of the system were not disclosed. Sun believes the innovation could boost corporate adoption of blockchain technology. "I believe that similar services will greatly facilitate large companies in deploying stablecoin services on the blockchain, elevating blockchain mass adoption to a new level," he said. Tron currently dominates the peer-to-peer stablecoin transfer market. Analytics firm Artemis reported on June 27 that Tron consistently processes two to three times Ethereum's volume. Over $50 billion of Tether's USDT circulates on Tron. This represents nearly half of USDT's $112 billion total market cap across all blockchains, according to DeFiLlama data. Tron's proposal may compete with existing solutions. PayPal's PYUSD offers free cross-border payments to certain U.S. users. Circle's USDC on Ethereum layer 2 Base also provides fee-less transfers via Coinbase Wallet. There might be a simple explanation of why Tron is so eager to develop such a stablecoin right now. Recent developments may have spurred Tron's initiative. Circle and Binance recently dropped support for USDC on Tron. This potentially created an incentive for Tron to develop its own solution. Tron is exploring additional blockchain integrations. The project is considering a Bitcoin layer 2 solution to support wrapped Tether. This could enable significant capital flow into the Bitcoin ecosystem. Currently, Tron utilizes existing cross-chain protocols. These bridge USDT and other tokens between Bitcoin and Tron networks.

Speculation about cryptocurrency integration in Grand Theft Auto 6 continues to circulate. These rumors have been ongoing for over a year. Now we've got yet another confirmation. Or have we? A recent tweet reignited the discussion. A Twitter influencer known as Gordon claimed Bitcoin support was "confirmed" in GTA 6. The post quickly gained traction, unsurprisingly. Gordon's tweet stated, "GTA 6 will enable cryptocurrency payments." It specifically mentioned Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT. The post included a fabricated game trailer. Despite the viral nature of the tweet, no official confirmation exists. Rockstar Games and Take-Two have made no announcements regarding cryptocurrency in GTA 6. The official trailers and statements contain no mention of crypto inclusion. Previous rumors from May 2023 remain unsubstantiated. The first official GTA 6 trailer, released in December, sparked further speculation. A leaked version featured a "BUY BTC" stamp, likely added by the leaker. The game's planned 2025 release leaves room for potential crypto integration. Such a move could significantly impact cryptocurrency adoption in mainstream gaming, many analysts think, as the game is immensely popular among children and youth. However, all claims of confirmed cryptocurrency features in GTA 6 remain unverified. Official announcements from Rockstar Games or Take-Two are still pending. And it's no wonder, as these guys are never quick to respond. And, honestly, never feel obliged to comment any rumors.