The Smart Contract Research Forum (SCRF) is a grants-funded organization dedicated to advancing research while serving the web3 space.
Research Pulse Issue #95
1. “NFT Wash Trading in the Ethereum Blockchain” by Massimo La Morgia, Alessandro Mei, Alberto Maria Mongardini, and Eugenio Nerio NemmiTLDR:Wash trading is a type of market manipulation in which an individual simultaneously buys and sells the same asset in order to create the appearance of higher trading volume and liquidity. This can be done for a variety of reasons, such as to inflate the price of a cryptoasset.Many have hypothesized that the growth of obscure NFT markets in 2021 and 2022 ...
Research Pulse Issue #95
1. “NFT Wash Trading in the Ethereum Blockchain” by Massimo La Morgia, Alessandro Mei, Alberto Maria Mongardini, and Eugenio Nerio NemmiTLDR:Wash trading is a type of market manipulation in which an individual simultaneously buys and sells the same asset in order to create the appearance of higher trading volume and liquidity. This can be done for a variety of reasons, such as to inflate the price of a cryptoasset.Many have hypothesized that the growth of obscure NFT markets in 2021 and 2022 ...
Research Pulse Issue #94
1. “Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Projects: A Study of Key Performance Indicators in Terms of DeFi Protocols’ Valuations (Direct Link)” by Dominik Metelski and Janusz SobierajTLDR:DeFi is a vibrant and nascent area that has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years. Nevertheless, it can be challenging to measure this growth due to the lack of well-established metrics to compare and contrast DeFi protocols.This paper evaluates the most popular metrics currently used by analysts, suc...
Research Pulse Issue #94
1. “Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Projects: A Study of Key Performance Indicators in Terms of DeFi Protocols’ Valuations (Direct Link)” by Dominik Metelski and Janusz SobierajTLDR:DeFi is a vibrant and nascent area that has experienced tremendous growth over the past few years. Nevertheless, it can be challenging to measure this growth due to the lack of well-established metrics to compare and contrast DeFi protocols.This paper evaluates the most popular metrics currently used by analysts, suc...
Research Pulse Issue #93
1. “MinRoot: Candidate Sequential Function for Ethereum VDF” by Dmitry Khovratovich, Mary Maller, and Pratyush Ranjan TiwariTLDR:In Proof-of-Stake networks, there needs to be a process where a single validator is selected to produce a block at a point in time. Often referred to as leader selection, this has been one of the biggest research areas in the field of distributed consensus given how critical this process is to the security of a cryptonetwork.As it is currently implemented, Ethereum ...
Research Pulse Issue #93
1. “MinRoot: Candidate Sequential Function for Ethereum VDF” by Dmitry Khovratovich, Mary Maller, and Pratyush Ranjan TiwariTLDR:In Proof-of-Stake networks, there needs to be a process where a single validator is selected to produce a block at a point in time. Often referred to as leader selection, this has been one of the biggest research areas in the field of distributed consensus given how critical this process is to the security of a cryptonetwork.As it is currently implemented, Ethereum ...
Research Pulse Issue #92
1. “Towards Trust-minimized Blockchain Scalability with EVM-native Fraud Proofs” by Zhe Ye, Ujval Misra, and Dawn SongTLDR:Optimistic Rollup (ORU) systems like Optimism are currently amongst the most popular Ethereum scalability solutions. Dozens of thousands of transactions are processed within these systems on a daily basis.One of the challenges associated with ORUs is the way they are connected to Ethereum’s base layer: all of them must be implemented as a set of smart contracts that enfor...
Research Pulse Issue #92
1. “Towards Trust-minimized Blockchain Scalability with EVM-native Fraud Proofs” by Zhe Ye, Ujval Misra, and Dawn SongTLDR:Optimistic Rollup (ORU) systems like Optimism are currently amongst the most popular Ethereum scalability solutions. Dozens of thousands of transactions are processed within these systems on a daily basis.One of the challenges associated with ORUs is the way they are connected to Ethereum’s base layer: all of them must be implemented as a set of smart contracts that enfor...
Research Pulse Issue #91
1. “Ethereum Proof-of-Stake under Scrutiny” by Ulysse Pavloff, Yackolley Amoussou-Guenou, and Sara Tucci-PiergiovanniTLDR:Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake was a massive engineering feat widely celebrated within the crypto community.Nevertheless, as with any nascent distributed system, there are novel attacks that have emerged with The Merge, especially related to liveness, which is a core property blockchains must retain.We have covered nascent PoS attack types on the forum, notably Re...
Research Pulse Issue #91
1. “Ethereum Proof-of-Stake under Scrutiny” by Ulysse Pavloff, Yackolley Amoussou-Guenou, and Sara Tucci-PiergiovanniTLDR:Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake was a massive engineering feat widely celebrated within the crypto community.Nevertheless, as with any nascent distributed system, there are novel attacks that have emerged with The Merge, especially related to liveness, which is a core property blockchains must retain.We have covered nascent PoS attack types on the forum, notably Re...
