You can deposit Ethereum into Aave, then withdraw stablecoins for yield farming in Yearn, for instance.
On-chain loans have garnered much traction, with total debt outstanding moving toward $2.5 billion.
If you've been following DeFi or Ethereum over the past few months, you've likely heard the term "flash loan" mentioned again and again.
This new DeFi primitive has been at the core of a number of economic exploits and arbitrages.
A thread on the basics of flash loans - 👇
You can deposit Ethereum into Aave, then withdraw stablecoins for yield farming in Yearn, for instance.
On-chain loans have garnered much traction, with total debt outstanding moving toward $2.5 billion.
If your collateral slips below the threshold, you're liquidated, resulting in a fee anywhere from 5-13%.
Flash loans are non-custodial, take place over the course of one block, and require no collateralization.
That's to say, the coins you borrow never appear in your wallet.
So what the hell? What are flash loans used for?
More often than not, arbitrage.
Here's a simple example I spotted in the mempool a few months back:
https://t.co/hiBHuTerQH
More on what's happening in the next tweet.
- Traded that USDC for 2,028,367 DAI in Curve's Y pool
- Traded that DAI for 2,064,182 USDC in Curve's sUSD pool
- Paid dYdX back + 2 wei
All in one block...
Profit: 16,182 USDC
Cost: $60 in gas
Crazy, right?
There are also advanced arb strategies that enabled the "attacks" on Eminence, Harvest, etc.
Let's take a look.
https://t.co/wftj1YuPtG
Bitcoin is resilient around $13k, Ethereum hit $420, and DeFi TVL is at an ATH at $12 billion.
— Nick Chong (@n2ckchong) October 27, 2020
As DeFi continues to grow, decentralized exchanges will remain pivotal.
Here\u2019s a thread on the outlook of the AMM market (Uniswap, Balancer, Sushiswap, LinkSwap, DODO). pic.twitter.com/LPWVkCaKbM
- Borrow 15 million DAI from Uniswap
- Mint EMN
- Burn some EMN for eToken, driving up EMN up the curve
- Sell remaining EMN for DAI
- Make millions
The bug was the bonding curve was steep and could be manipulated.
https://t.co/fP3ae4oDXQ
The bug was that Harvest didn't use the get_virtual_price() function from Curve, allowing for manipulation.
Governance attacks are a good example. They're scary but still kind of sick, to be honest.
On October 26th, a user used flash loans to influence a MakerDAO proposal.
https://t.co/naqLqOi1bS
They
- borrowed $20m worth of WETH from dYdX
- deposited it on Aave to borrow $7m worth of MKR
- Locked MKR in governance
- Voted on a proposal
- Unlocked MKR
- Sent MKR, then ETH back
Flash loans will be similar in concept to flash mints but will involve the minting, then burning of tokens rapidly to accomplish some feat.
More from Crypto
Out of curiosity I dug into how NFT's actually reference the media you're "buying" and my eyebrows are now orbiting the moon
Short version:
The NFT token you bought either points to a URL on the internet, or an IPFS hash. In most circumstances it references an IPFS gateway on the internet run by the startup you bought the NFT from.
Oh, and that URL is not the media. That URL is a JSON metadata file
Here's an example. This artwork is by Beeple and sold via Nifty:
https://t.co/TlJKH8kAew
The NFT token is for this JSON file hosted directly on Nifty's servers:
https://t.co/GQUaCnObvX
THAT file refers to the actual media you just "bought". Which in this case is hosted via a @cloudinary CDN, served by Nifty's servers again.
So if Nifty goes bust, your token is now worthless. It refers to nothing. This can't be changed.
"But you said some use IPFS!"
Let's look at the $65m Beeple, sold by Christies. Fancy.
https://t.co/1G9nCAdetk
That NFT token refers directly to an IPFS hash (https://t.co/QUdtdgtssH). We can take that IPFS hash and fetch the JSON metadata using a public gateway:
https://t.co/CoML7psBhF
Short version:
The NFT token you bought either points to a URL on the internet, or an IPFS hash. In most circumstances it references an IPFS gateway on the internet run by the startup you bought the NFT from.
Oh, and that URL is not the media. That URL is a JSON metadata file
Here's an example. This artwork is by Beeple and sold via Nifty:
https://t.co/TlJKH8kAew
The NFT token is for this JSON file hosted directly on Nifty's servers:
https://t.co/GQUaCnObvX
THAT file refers to the actual media you just "bought". Which in this case is hosted via a @cloudinary CDN, served by Nifty's servers again.
So if Nifty goes bust, your token is now worthless. It refers to nothing. This can't be changed.
"But you said some use IPFS!"
Let's look at the $65m Beeple, sold by Christies. Fancy.
https://t.co/1G9nCAdetk
That NFT token refers directly to an IPFS hash (https://t.co/QUdtdgtssH). We can take that IPFS hash and fetch the JSON metadata using a public gateway:
https://t.co/CoML7psBhF
1/ ERC-20 token standard approve() has caused an unnecessary cost of $53.8M for #Ethereum and #DeFi users
This is bad. Continue reading why and how to avoid this in the future.
👇👇👇
2/ Before you go all rage on the flaws of my analysis, please read the whole Twitter thread for disclaimers and caveats.
3/ approve() is an unnecessary step of ERC-20 tokens when they interact with smart contracts.
You know this because when you do a Uniswap trade you need press two transaction buttons instead of one.
4/ Why there is approve() - you can read the history in this Twitter
5/ I queried all approve() transactions on Google BigQuery public dataset and calculated their ETH cost and then converted this to the USD with the current ETH price.
This is bad. Continue reading why and how to avoid this in the future.
👇👇👇
2/ Before you go all rage on the flaws of my analysis, please read the whole Twitter thread for disclaimers and caveats.
3/ approve() is an unnecessary step of ERC-20 tokens when they interact with smart contracts.
You know this because when you do a Uniswap trade you need press two transaction buttons instead of one.
4/ Why there is approve() - you can read the history in this Twitter
1/ I just spend my Saturday morning on a call with a crypto fund explaining to them how #Ethereum ERC-20 token approve() function works
— \U0001f42e Mikko Ohtamaa (@moo9000) August 29, 2020
I am too old for this shit. pic.twitter.com/7EYfOaRP5L
5/ I queried all approve() transactions on Google BigQuery public dataset and calculated their ETH cost and then converted this to the USD with the current ETH price.
Back with another #FreeLoveFriday. Last time, we covered how Mastercoin/@Omni_Layer pioneered digital asset issuance on blockchains. Today, let’s discuss @Chainlink and the vital role it plays in connecting blockchains to the real world.
I have said repeatedly that digital asset issuance is the killer application for blockchains. The next frontier is bringing real world assets to networks like @AvalancheAVAX, but we often face a significant problem:
Namely, how do you get data from the real world onto blockchains and into applications running on them? More critically, how do you achieve that securely and transparently in real-time? Smart contracts are tamper-proof, but they're only as reliable as their input data.
Enter ChainLink in September 2017, with a whitepaper outlining a vision for a decentralized network of “oracles,” entities that inject facts from the external world into blockchains in a suitable format for smart contracts.
Until ChainLink, oracles were trusted and centralized. This is a huge problem for high-value assets and smart contracts. High value projects, such as @CelsiusNetwork, @synthetix_io, @Aaveaave and others depend critically on oracle data.
Back with another #FreeLoveFriday. My first thread focused on what I love about Bitcoin, and features we borrowed for @AvalancheAVAX. Today, let's focus on @Omni_Layer, or as OGs knew it, Mastercoin https://t.co/fXFgmaeUEz
— Emin G\xfcn Sirer (@el33th4xor) January 15, 2021
I have said repeatedly that digital asset issuance is the killer application for blockchains. The next frontier is bringing real world assets to networks like @AvalancheAVAX, but we often face a significant problem:
Namely, how do you get data from the real world onto blockchains and into applications running on them? More critically, how do you achieve that securely and transparently in real-time? Smart contracts are tamper-proof, but they're only as reliable as their input data.
Enter ChainLink in September 2017, with a whitepaper outlining a vision for a decentralized network of “oracles,” entities that inject facts from the external world into blockchains in a suitable format for smart contracts.
Until ChainLink, oracles were trusted and centralized. This is a huge problem for high-value assets and smart contracts. High value projects, such as @CelsiusNetwork, @synthetix_io, @Aaveaave and others depend critically on oracle data.
1/ Welcome to #DeFi Wednesday.
Let's talk about how interest-bearing cash on a blockchain is going to revolutionise boring corporate treasury management that concerns every company is is a larger business than all crypto trading in the world.
Enter the thread
👇👇👇
2/ Blockchain community is often seen as toxic maxis and redditors who shill other their weekly favourite shitcoin in the hope of getting Lambo.
Sometimes we also do things that progress humanity towards the better future and interest-bearing cash is one of those things.
3/ Less chad and more things that actually matter:
My incomplete theory of interest-bearing cash is also available also as a blog post:
https://t.co/uiG0fZiVyu
It is 15 pages. Pick your slow poison or die fast by continue reading here.
4/ First time in the history we have an ability to create interest-bearing cash-like instruments.
Interest-bearing cash ticks up dollar (euro) balance real-time in your wallet.
Here is a demonstration using @aaveaave aDAI, based on @makerdao DAI, and @TrustWalletApp
5/ Interest-bearing cash is not like your bank's saving account. Your money in a bank is not yours, but bank's. There are some flaws in the current banking system causing a headache for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)
Let's talk about how interest-bearing cash on a blockchain is going to revolutionise boring corporate treasury management that concerns every company is is a larger business than all crypto trading in the world.
Enter the thread
👇👇👇
2/ Blockchain community is often seen as toxic maxis and redditors who shill other their weekly favourite shitcoin in the hope of getting Lambo.
Sometimes we also do things that progress humanity towards the better future and interest-bearing cash is one of those things.
3/ Less chad and more things that actually matter:
My incomplete theory of interest-bearing cash is also available also as a blog post:
https://t.co/uiG0fZiVyu
It is 15 pages. Pick your slow poison or die fast by continue reading here.
4/ First time in the history we have an ability to create interest-bearing cash-like instruments.
Interest-bearing cash ticks up dollar (euro) balance real-time in your wallet.
Here is a demonstration using @aaveaave aDAI, based on @makerdao DAI, and @TrustWalletApp
5/ Interest-bearing cash is not like your bank's saving account. Your money in a bank is not yours, but bank's. There are some flaws in the current banking system causing a headache for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)
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The UN just voted to condemn Israel 9 times, and the rest of the world 0.
View the resolutions and voting results here:
The resolution titled "The occupied Syrian Golan," which condemns Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, was adopted by a vote of 151 - 2 - 14.
Israel and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/HoO7oz0dwr
The resolution titled "Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people..." was adopted by a vote of 153 - 6 - 9.
Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/1Ntpi7Vqab
The resolution titled "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan" was adopted by a vote of 153 – 5 – 10.
Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/REumYgyRuF
The resolution titled "Applicability of the Geneva Convention... to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory..." was adopted by a vote of 154 - 5 - 8.
Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/xDAeS9K1kW
View the resolutions and voting results here:
The resolution titled "The occupied Syrian Golan," which condemns Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, was adopted by a vote of 151 - 2 - 14.
Israel and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/HoO7oz0dwr
The resolution titled "Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people..." was adopted by a vote of 153 - 6 - 9.
Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/1Ntpi7Vqab
The resolution titled "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan" was adopted by a vote of 153 – 5 – 10.
Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/REumYgyRuF
The resolution titled "Applicability of the Geneva Convention... to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory..." was adopted by a vote of 154 - 5 - 8.
Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/xDAeS9K1kW
