ConsenSys has announced the upcoming release of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollup to a public testnet on March 28, allowing for stress testing of the layer-2 scaling technology. ConsenSys’ research and development team has been working on its zkEVM rollup over the past four years. The zkEVM is touted to offer fast finality, high throughput and security of settlements on the Ethereum blockchain. A private beta launched in Q4 of 2022 gave early access to limited users, which processed over 350,000 transactions and onboarded various decentralized applications (DApps). The testnet allowed Solidity developers to build, test and launch …

Blockchain technology services provider ConsenSys acquired Hal, a no-code blockchain development tooling platform, to disrupt alerts and notifications at the protocol level in Web3. The acquisition will allow ConsenSys’ Web3 API provider Infura to integrate Hal’s configurable webhooks or notification service in its developer stack. As a result, the move will help developers create alerts and notifications at the protocol level for various signals. According to ConsenSys, Infura offers a suite of tools to connect apps, which the developer community can use to connect apps to the Ethereum network and other decentralized platforms. Infura co-founder Eleazar Galano revealed the company …

Censorship resistance is the foundation of crypto, so for many cryptocurrency purists, the Nov. 23 announcement by ConsenSys, the New York-based company behind the leading Ethereum browser wallet, informing its 20 million MetaMask users that their IP and wallet addresses would be collected was simply a gross violation of the crypto spirit. In the weeks that followed, ConsenSys first reacted by saying the data collected would only be retained for seven days and then that it had updated the MetaMask features to allow users to opt out of Infura. However, the question remains: Have they done enough to establish crypto …

With Ethereum showing resilience through the latest cryptocurrency winter, Consensus founder Joe Lubin says he’s ‘bullish’ over Ether's (ETH) relative stability through compounding macro events. Cointelegraph Magazine editor Andrew Fenton spoke to Lubin at the Web3 event Building Blocks 23 in Tel Aviv, Israel, for an all-encompassing interview around the current state and future of the Ethereum ecosystem landscape. The co-founder of the preeminent smart contract blockchain protocol touched on a number of subjects, including ETH’s market performance over the past year. A myriad of macro events, including the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin Terra/LUNA and the demise of cryptocurrency exchange …

ConsenSys, the parent company behind MetaMask, is letting go of 11% of its workforce, with CEO Joseph Lubin blaming “uncertain market conditions” brought on by recent collapses. In a blog post from ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin on Jan. 18, the blockchain firm CEO said “poorly behaved” centralized finance (CeFi) actors have cast a “broad pall on our ecosystem that we will all need to work through.” Lubin said the decision will impact 96 employees and is part of plans to focus its resources on its core businesses. Today we need to make the extremely difficult decision to streamline some of …

The cryptocurrency community has a tendency to fixate on a new issue every few weeks and then promptly forget about it. The limited attention span of this community misses the ultimate resolution of important issues. Over the Thanksgiving holiday in November 2022, ConsenSys released a disclosure about a privacy policy affecting MetaMask users that sent “Crypto Twitter” into a firestorm. My first reaction was also negative. That’s what a sly fox would say isn’t it? pic.twitter.com/PfKMTiNHoR — J.W. Verret, JD, CPA/CVA (@JWVerret) November 25, 2022 The MetaMask browser extension wallet uses a node called Infura. That node is owned by …

MetaMask users are set to have access to Ethereum liquid staking providers Lido and Rocket Pool courtesy of a new integration unveiled by ConsenSys. MetaMask Staking will unlock the ability for users to stake Ether (ETH) through the Lido and Rocket Pool protocols, touting the service to improve the security and decentralization of the Ethereum blockchain. Users will be able to compare reward rates, network control and popularity of different liquid staking providers, providing additional information to inform staking solution choices. The service begins with a public beta through the MetaMask portfolio decentralized application (DApp). Users will be able to …

According to a new blog post on Dec. 13, Web 3.0 ecosystem developer ConsenSys unveiled its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) network for private beta testing. Designed and operated by ConsenSys, developers can deploy and manage decentralized applications using tools such as MetaMask, Truffle, and Infura as if they were using EVM directly. In addition, users can bridge assets between the Goerli testnet and the zkEVM to test their smart contracts and decentralized applications, or dApps. "Testnet participants can also bridge tokens, transfer tokens, and interact with deployed dApps listed on our upcoming ecosystem portal page. We intend to learn …

After community backlash received from an initial privacy policy revision on Nov. 23, ConsenSys, the parent company of MetaMask, released a statement to reiterate the intentions of its data collection. The company stated that the policy has always relayed how certain types of personal information are automatically collected, which could include IP addresses. According to ConsenSys, the latest updates were in the act of transparency as to how Infura, MetaMask’s default Remote Procedure Call (RPC), works with user data. ConsenSys highlighted that MetaMask itself does not collect IP addresses. Rather the policy says users running the wallet through Infura applications …

Blockchain software technology firm ConsenSys continues working on expanding blockchain interoperability by introducing a new tool to the MetaMask wallet. Metamask users can now bridge across multiple blockchain networks using MetaMask Bridges, which aggregates different blockchain bridges in one place, ConsenSys announced on Nov. 9. MetaMask Bridges supports major blockchains compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), including Ethereum, Avalanche, the Binance Smart Chain and Polygon. The new tool allows bridges of Ether (ETH) and Wrapped Ether (WETH), major stablecoins and native gas tokens, the firm said. The new bridge feature enables Metamask users to move tokens from one blockchain network …

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace LooksRare is the latest in a string of NFT markets to do away with enforcing creator royalties by default following the likes of Magic Eden and X2Y2. The platform tweeted on Oct. 27 that it would not be supporting creator royalties by default, instead choosing to share 25% of its protocol fees with NFT creators and collection owners. Buyers can still choose to pay royalties when purchasing an NFT but will be on an opt-in basis. Explaining the changes, it said 0.5% of its 2% protocol fee would go to collections, as long as that collection …

Blockchain technology firm ConsenSys will spend $2.4 million annually to fund its newly launched MetaMask Grants DAO aimed at driving further development of the Web3 ecosystem. The fund will be led by MetaMask employees who will manage the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The DAO will be responsible for issuing grants to developers working outside of ConsenSys that are building products and services within MetaMask’s ecosystem and the wider Web3 space. The project will initially run for 12 months to assess its viability and success, with the DAO processing votes and proposals publicly through SnapShot on the Codefi Activate platform. ConsenSys …