Earlier this week, one of Polygon’s co-founding member Mihailo Beljic took to Twitter to shed light on a number of issues regarding the Polygon network. Also, this week in the altcoin ecosystem, Algorand announced a rebrand of one of its assets – Algorand wallet. Elsewhere, Umbria Network unveiled a cheap solution to Avalanches cross-chain transactions. Here are the details:
Algorand Wallet relaunches as Pera Wallet
Algorand blockchain’s official mobile wallet has relaunched as Pera wallet. The blockchain said on Wednesday the transformation is aimed at a fresh focus on the community and partner integrations.
Though the wallet is getting a new name and logo, the underlying team that has been developing it over the last three years remains unchanged. Decentralization-focused development company Hipa Labs (part of the project since launch) will, in addition to design and development, also take charge of operations and partnership integrations.
Pera wallet. Source: Twitter
The Algorand team added that Pera Wallet would remain focused and committed to an open-source development future. The wallet will also serve as a principal partner for several other projects developed on the Algorand blockchain.
Pera Wallet further said that over the course of the year, it will add NFT support, enabling users to view their NFTs per account. The feature comes with a composite gallery to view NFTs across different accounts.
Further, within Q1 this year, the wallet plans to add on-ramp and off-ramp integration for fintech firm MoonPay. The wallet additionally plans to launch a web option before the end of the year. With web support, there comes an integrated wallet usable in sync with the mobile app.
To learn more about Algorand visit our Investing in Algorand guide.
Polygon co-founder speaks on network decentralisation and alleviates exit scam fears
On Tuesday, Polygon co-founder Mihailo Beljic addressed a number of issues around centralisation and scamming incidents. Beljic was responding to comments made by Justin Bons, the founder of Netherlands-based investment firm CyberCapital.
Bons censured the Polygon network over security and centralisation concerns. He openly suggested that it would take as little as five people (four being the network’s founders) to compromise the entire network. The investment manager even labelled the network one of the greatest “hack or exit scams” ready to burst.
In response, the Polygon network co-founder said that the network’s use of a multi-sig contract is to better on-chain security and not to diminish it. However, the CyberCapital CIO noted that his primary concern is around the lack of transparency on “their operational security & cryptographic ritual around the creation of this multisig.”
Beljic then replied, assuring Bons that the network’s developers were working on getting rid of the multi-sig, and cited a recent report that provided details (transparency) about the contract’s signers.
The Polygon executive then explained that the multi-sig was essential for any project in early development to ensure user funds are secured, adding that it’s widely used by several bridging and scaling projects.
To accommodate these concerns, the network must move away from centralisation into operation as a DAO, where token holders hold smart contract admin keys. This essentially creates a decentralised system. However, it’s an intensive process that will take a while and could only get rolled out progressively.
To learn more about Polygon visit our Investing in Polygon guide.
Narni bridge launches support for Avalanche and cuts fees by 90%
Cross-chain bridges have recently become points of target for massive hacks, but they have also established themselves as indispensable in enabling users to transfer liquidity across several networks.
Avalanche launched its official bridge mid-last year that enabled users to move tokens cheaply, but the Umbria Network now seems to have an even cheaper solution to Avalanches cross-chain transactions. The Network launched support for Avalanche yesterday on its Narni bridge.
Umbria Network homepage
The bridge promises to offer fees up to 90% lower than Avalanche’s official bridge and bring faster transactions between Ethereum’s mainnet and Avalanche. Umbria says it managed to achieve these better conditions by significantly reducing the computational complexity of bridging.
Via its parent network’s UMBR native token, the Narni bridge can facilitate several crypto coins, including wrapped BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, and MATIC.
The bridge has already provided the best bridging conditions between Ethereum and other blockchains, including Polygon and BNB Chain, where it qualifies as the fastest and most cost-effective bridge. Narni also plans to launch support for eight other bridges for EVM-compatible chains before the end of the year as per its roadmap.
To learn more about Avalanche visit our Investing in Avalanche guide.
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