Sunsetting Aztec Connect (Aztec Network)
Regulatory Pressure Did Not Shut Down Privacy Tool, Aztec Founders Say
Despite U.S. efforts to sanction Tornado Cash and other crypto privacy tools, Aztec says it shut down its Ethereum zero-knowledge tools for commercial reasons.
Sunsetting Aztec Connect (Aztec Network)

Rolled up paper (Unsplash modified by CoinDesk)
Matter Labs Opens zkSync Era to Users, Claiming First in ‘Zero Knowledge’ Tech on Ethereum
After zkSync Era was launched only for developers last month, the project took the additional step Friday of opening to general users. The latest push comes just days ahead of the rival Polygon system’s planned rollout Monday of its own “zero knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine.”
Rolled up paper (Unsplash modified by CoinDesk)

Shanghai (Unsplash)
Ethereum Network DRPC Aims to Quell Centralization Risks Ahead of Shanghai Upgrade
DRPC developers say Ethereum remains dependent on a few major centralized RPC players, which undermines ecosystem sustainability and security.
Shanghai (Unsplash)

Roadmap
Ethereum Usage Will Drop If the Blockchain Doesn’t Boost Speed: Bank of America
The network has had a first-mover advantage thus far as a platform developers could build apps on, a report from the bank said.
Roadmap

The MetaMask Institutional booth at Paris Blockchain Week 2022 (Helene Braun/CoinDesk)
ConsenSys’ MetaMask Institutional Starts Staking Marketplace With Allnodes, Blockdaemon, Kiln
The new marketplace comes just weeks before Ethereum’s much-anticipated Shanghai hard fork that should spur growth in staking services.
The MetaMask Institutional booth at Paris Blockchain Week 2022 (Helene Braun/CoinDesk)

Bitmain Antminer mining rigs at Consensus 2022 (Christie Harkin/CoinDesk)
Bitcoin Mining Firm Navier Starts Tokenized Hashrate Marketplace for 'Qualified' Customers
The Navier platform is intended to give users more control over their acquired hashrate, and enable them to sell it on.
Bitmain Antminer mining rigs at Consensus 2022 (Christie Harkin/CoinDesk)

censorship
Latest Ethereum Blocks Suggest Validators Are Reversing Censorship
Noncensoring relays such as Agnostic and ultra sound are delivering more data blocks on Ethereum than Flashbots, the one-time king of MEV-delivering relays.
censorship

Polygon Labs
Polygon Partners With Salesforce for NFT-Based Loyalty Program
Salesforce partnership with the blockchain platform marks another major company’s investment into customer engagement initiatives using Web3 technologies.
Polygon Labs

Mathew Imaging/WireImage
Playboy Lost $4.9M on Ether It Accepted as NFT Payments
The company’s net carrying value of digital assets was $327,000 as of December.
Mathew Imaging/WireImage