A little bit of chit-chat
Since September 1, there has been a significant increase in the utilization of ATOM to pay gas fees on Osmosis. It now represents approximately 14% of all transactions.
IBC Week
This week saw two important announcements in the world of the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC), with Penumbra and Union Labs revealing their advancements, underscoring the growing momentum in the IBC landscape.
Penumbra took strides in enhancing privacy on the Interchain by integrating IBC and ICS-20 token transfers into its testnet. This integration is set to offer decentralized token transfers from any IBC-compatible chain directly into Penumbra's multi-asset shielded pool. In a significant feat, they demonstrated the integration by linking their testnet with the Osmosis testnets. Prioritizing user-centricity, Penumbra's platform simplifies the process of transferring funds, with the action of moving tokens either shielding or unshielding them.
Union Labs, on the other hand, has successfully integrated IBC with Ethereum. This significant breakthrough has been achieved, mainly, through their three tools Voyager, an in-house relayer enabling efficient transfers between chains; Galois, which underscores their Zero-Knowledge proof endeavors specifically for consensus verification; and CometBLS, a refined version of Tendermint optimized for zero-knowledge proving.
This week's announcements highlight the vibrant potential of IBC even beyond Cosmos.
Optimistic!
The Cosmos SDK has introduced a new feature, Optimistic Execution (OE), aimed at enhancing block building speeds. OE enables the advanced processing of blocks even before their consensus validation. In testing, the Sei Network recorded block time reductions of around 300ms.
The integration of the ABCI++ protocol facilitates this enhancement. Prior to this, blocks and transactions were executed at the final step of the ABCI process. With ABCI++, blocks can now be executed in tandem with the voting process, potentially streamlining block times.
The foundation of OE's functionality is supported by CometBFT v0.38, which is aligned with ABCI++. In scenarios where a block is rejected after Optimistic Execution, systems are in place to abort and discard results, ensuring consistency. With plans to incorporate OE in the forthcoming v0.50 release of the Cosmos SDK, further developments and refinements are anticipated.
Wrap Up
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