The Protocol: Friend.tech Fades as Crypto Craze, but Ethereum Is Scaling This week in blockchain tech: Polygon’s new “chain development kit,” Farcaster’s move to Optimism, Shibarium’s return and Interlay’s new Bitcoin layer-2 network, and Pancake Swap expands to Consensys’s Linea.

Ethereum Handled Friend.tech Frenzy Without ‘Gas Fee’ Spike. Why That’s a Big Deal Friend.tech, Crypto’s latest fad, didn’t drive up congestion and fees on Ethereum the way frenzies have in the past – possibly a sign that the blockchain’s efforts to scale by fostering supplemental “layer-2” networks, like Coinbase’s new Base, are bearing fruit.

Polygon Releases ‘Chain Development Kit’ for ZK-Powered Networks on Ethereum The Chain Development Kit (CDK) will allow developers to build their own customizable chains, and connect to each other through a ZK-powered bridge to form a “Value Layer.”

Ethereum’s Daily Transaction Fees Hits 8-Month Low of $2.8M Ethereum’s daily total transaction fees fell to 1,719 ETH ($2.8 million) on Sunday, the lowest single-day total since Dec. 26.

PancakeSwap Version 3 Goes Live on Ethereum Layer 2 Linea Mainnet PancakeSwap v3 introduces advanced Swap and Liquidity Provision functionalities, enabling users to trade tokens seamlessly and maximize capital efficiency.

Ethereum ‘Restaking’ Takes Shape as Next Big Trend in Blockchain Security EigenLayer’s platform for “restaking” is designed to extend Ethereum’s pooled security from ETH stakers to other blockchain systems – a way for developers to bootstrap new networks without having to create their own communities of network validators.

Trader Joe Debuts on Ethereum, JOE Jumps 3% The DEX’s Liquidity Pool was already available on Arbitrum, BNB Chain and Avalanche.

Ethereum Juggernaut MetaMask’s Origin Story Challenged in New Lawsuit Joel Dietz is suing ConsenSys and his former business partner over his claims to MetaMask, the most important crypto wallet for the Ethereum blockchain.

DeFi Platform Term Finance Brings Fixed Rate Lending to Ethereum Short term, fixed rate loans can now work in harmony with Aave and Compound’s “ultimate liquidity” model.

Curve Debacle Triggers Transaction Frenzy, Sending Ethereum ‘MEV’ Rewards to Record High On July 30, over 6,000 ETH ($11M worth) in so-called Maximal Extractable Value rewards were paid out to Ethereum validators, the most ever for a single day.

Celo Proposal to Migrate to Ethereum Layer 2 Passes The change seeks to simplify liquidity sharing between Celo and Ethereum while boosting security.

Solana-Based NFT Marketplace Exchange.art to Expand into Ethereum Larisa Barbu, COO of Exchange.art, told CoinDesk that the marketplace had planned to expand beyond the Solana ecosystem since its launch in 2021.

Zero-Knowledge Rollup ZKM Sets Out to Make Ethereum ‘Universal Settlement Layer’ With funding from the foundation that oversees development of the Metis layer-2 Ethereum protocol, ZKM is developing a hybrid approach that combines Optmistic and Zero-Knowledge rollups into one.

What Is Ethereum’s ‘Data Availability’ Problem, and Why Does It Matter? Separate “data availability” layers could reduce congestion on the Ethereum network by making it easier for ancillary “rollup” networks to verify that transactional details exist and are available to download if needed — without actually downloading them. The concept might offer an alternative to Ethereum’s own proposed “danksharding” solution, …