Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly roundup of the most important stories in cryptocurrency technology development. I’m Ben Schiller, CoinDesk Opinions and Features Editor.
In this issue:
- Merging DAO Governance Tools
- Ethereum Foundation Drama
- Stablecoin USDh arrives on Bitcoin
- $25 million grant program for DePIN
Network News
DAO GOVERNANCE PLATFORM ACQUIRES RIVAL: Agora, a blockchain governance startup, is set to acquire its competitor Boardroom. The company presented the acquisition as a strategic move to improve governance within the broader Ethereum ecosystem, citing expectations for renewed growth in decentralized governance due to President Trump’s promise of regulatory clarity for the blockchain industry. “2025 is the year we will make good governance the norm for all Ethereum protocols,” Yitong Zhang, co-founder of Agora, told CoinDesk. Agora was founded in 2022 by Zhang, Charlie Feng and Kent Fenwick. The trio first began working on governance tools at Nouns DAO, one of the fastest-growing blockchain protocols to come out of the 2021 DAO and NFT hype cycle. Agora was founded on the principle that governance Tokens are at the heart of the value of cryptographic protocols. It aims to provide user-friendly open source governance tools for DAOs like Uniswap and Optimism, both of which currently use Agora to organize token holders and hold governance votes. Boardroom, which predates Agora and has similar goals, has taken a more horizontal approach to blockchain governance. Boardroom has gradually evolved from an Agora-style CAD tooling software to a data feed, similar to a “Bloomberg” for crypto governance data. Agora declined to disclose how much it paid to acquire Boardroom. Boardroom employees have been offered positions at Agora, and Boardroom founder Kevin Nielsen will remain as an advisor. “There are no plans to depreciate Boardroom,” according to Zhang. Instead, the Agora team will keep both platforms running and work with users to determine how the tools could be gradually integrated. Learn more. –Sam Kessler
agitation of ETHEREUM: Konstantin Lomashuk, the founder of the Lido staking protocol, announced plans to build a “second foundation” to advance the Ethereum ecosystem. Over the past few days, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, outlined his plans for a major restructuring of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization responsible for supporting the development of Ethereum. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Buterin shared details of the reorganization, which he said would streamline decision-making processes and address inefficiencies. The announcement sparked criticism, with some saying Buterin’s central role in the restructuring process undermines Ethereum’s decentralization philosophy. The FE has long been scrutinized for its own centralizing influence. Over the past year, the organization has faced increasing pressure to define a clearer vision for Ethereum’s future, as competing networks like Solana move forward. Learn more. –Sam Kessler
BITCOIN GETS A NEW STABLECOIN: The developers of USDh, a stablecoin built on Bitcoin layer 2 Stacks, have reached a deal to provide approximately $3 million in liquidity to the token. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Hermetica has secured liquidity, which it says will make it the largest stablecoin on Stacks, through collaboration with Bitcoin lending protocol Zest. Both plan to offer yield on USDh through loans against sBTC, the bitcoin-backed bridging asset that users can use to park their bitcoin wealth in the Stacks ecosystem. The initial liquidity boost could create a window for higher returns in the near term, Hermetica said, with projections of an annual percentage yield (APY) of up to 50%. It currently offers an average APY of 18%, Hermetica said in an emailed announcement Wednesday. Stablecoins play a vital role in the crypto economy, providing users with a way to hold their assets in a token that is not subject to such large ebbs and flows in value because they are pegged to a fiat currency (usually US dollars). The provision of stablecoins would therefore naturally be an important development in Bitcoin’s evolution into a network capable of supporting DeFi capabilities, a trend that has accelerated over the past two years. It is worth pointing out, however, that the $3 million in liquidity provided by USDh is minimal compared to dominant crypto stablecoins. USDT and USDC have market capitalizations of over $138 billion and $51 billion respectively, highlighting the relative infancy of the Bitcoin DeFi sector. Learn more. –Jamie Crawley
DEPIN GRANT PROGRAM: World Mobile, a decentralized wireless network, announced a $25 million grant program aimed at fostering decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) projects. Tenity, an early-stage investor and global leader in startup innovation and acceleration programs, is a partner in the initiative, which will make available its six international hubs. “By partnering with Tenity, we are ensuring that the World Mobile Chain Grant program not only funds projects, but provides the guidance and resources needed to drive scalable and impactful innovation,” said Micky Watkins, CEO from World Mobile Group. The $25 million offers funding starting at $5,000 and focuses on decentralized communications, on-chain governance, and tokenization of real-world assets. World Mobile is an EVM compatible “layer 3” developed on Base. Learn more.
In Other news
L2s become faster
Letters of Credit for DeFi
Regulation and policy
Calendar
- January 20-24: World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
- January 21-25: WAGMI conference, Miami.
- January 24-25: Bitcoin adoption, Cape Town, South Africa.
- January 30-31: PLAN B Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador.
- February 1-6: Satoshi round table, Dubai
- February 19-20, 2025: ConsensusHK, Hong Kong.
- February 23-24: NFT Paris
- February 23-March 2: ETHDenver
- March 18-19: Digital Asset Summit, London
- May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto.
- May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas.
