#the fact they need to translate their tweets to Thai first…

[jeffbiblesupremacy]

Studio on Saturn via twitter

[longinglook]

I’m replying to a bunch more wru asks under the cut, so if you’ve sent me one that I haven’t answered yet, it’s probably down here!

I don't know if it was on purpose but FTTT's story has been mostly character driven so far so the jealousy storyline they tried to push in the last minute is out of place. I also agree that there are most likely scenes missing after what happened in the first part of the episode. I can definitely tell that some things aren't going the way they planned and I'm not talking only about SaiZon but about all couples.

Yeah something was definitely missng there plot wise, and as you said I think the show had been mostly character driven and it was working fine like that. They tried to add drama for the sake of having drama in it and edned up ruining the characters they had so nicely built. The show has been all over the place this entire time, but corona must have really screwed things up for them at the end. Hopefully they do get to shoot some more material to fill the holes that were left. I’m still very doubtful we’ll get the apology scene that was very much needed there.

fighter getting drunk, seeing tutor with the kid and then going to tutor and breaking down crying would have had done the same for the story progression as whatever they tried to do today and it wouldn't have harmed the character development of either characters but considering the article i read about thai and rape culture in the media i'm not even surprised that someone thought this was a good idea

I agree 100%. I think that their whole reasoning behind it was to bring Fighter to some sort of “breaking point”, because apparently just seeing Tutor with someone else wouldn’t have done it. I hated that part as well, I don’t think Tutor would ever use someone to get back at Fighter or piss him off so I’m going to erase that from my memory as well. I think that Fighter breaking down could have easily been justified just by him getting drunk and going to Tutor’s to beg him to get back together. Once Tutor refuses, you have the whole scene where Fighter cries. No need for any of this manipulation and assault. Sadly it seems that the writers didn’t see a problem with it. They didn’t even have Tutor ask for an apology, they didn’t make Fighter provide one. 

I can’t believe they thought this kind of behavior would make sense coming from Fighter. We’ve seen repeatedly how Fighter has had pretty good impulse control around Tutor, stopping when kisses get too intense because he doesn’t want to “break his promise”, so this was just so out of character. Let’s say he was blinded by jealousy and alcohol, the moment he snapped out of it he would have apologized for sure. The fact that he didn’t in my opinion shows that the writers don’t consider this to be a serious matter. It should have happened right after he stopped, still in that scene, so there is no excuse as to why it’s missing.

but this is exactly what i mean even if they are side characters there are side characters that are important because they are tied to the main characters and then there are just random side characters to fill space and to make the series look more alive but whyru just forgot about all of them. i mean a lot of things went wrong so i guess i will try not to be too harsh but i hope the director can do a better job next time.

For sure! If you’re going to have a ton of side characters, make sure you can handle them. Make sure they have a backstory and enough screen time for people to remember them, to show respect both for the audience and for the actors. The show didn’t go the way they were planning to, and hopefully they get the chance to reshoot and release a new cut over on netflix, but there is a lot of work to do and we just can’t be sure of what was due to covid and what was due to bad writing.

most of the mess in bl series could be avoided if they just consulted an actual lgbt+ representative. i know one person can't represent all of us but it's a start. or honestly any sane person could do it. also how many times have people complained about problematic plot elements like this before? and it's not just international fans i have seen many viral thai tweets as well. you would think someone who spends as much time on twitter as the director of whyru would know better.

I think someone from the crew ism’t straight? But yeah apparently that wasn’t enough. Up until yesterday the show had been doing a good job with this sort of issues, even in ep. 12 the conversation with Fighter’s father was excellent, but they really fucked everything up with part 1. In that case it’s not necessarily about lgbt+ rep, since that scene would have been just as awful with a straight couple, it’s about working with someone who is able to recognize assault and realize that it shouldn’t be treated that lightly, that these characters wouldn’t normally behave like that, and that an apology scene from Fighter would have been needed. I’m staying off of twitter for a while because I honestly can’t watch clips of this episode without feeling sick.

It broke my heart to see Fighter begging his father to be happy. No child should have to BEG their parents just to be happy. I'm a mom and if my daughter would stand bevor me and plead under tears that I should just let her be happy it would destroy me. But this jerk didn't show any reaction. I don't get how to be so cold-hearted. In particular, when he claims that he does everything only for his son. He is no father. He ist just a self centric, control freak with no affection

Hopefully that was the last we’ll ever see of him. I’m pretty sure Fighter is going to tell Tutor that his father had a change of heart or something. because Fighter’s words seemed to have an effect on him and he left without saying anything. Still, I completely understand what you’re saying. He went way too far with his control tendencies, he made both his son and Tutor suffer just because he wasn’t okay with Fighter living his life and being happy for once. I hope Fighter will truly be happy after this and his father will leave him alone and lean to be more accepting. If not, I’m sure that Tutor’s mom and sister are ready to dote on him like a second son.

so apparently the subs for fighter's text messages are completely wrong he doesn't say anything about the beach or zon he is telling him he left and that he hopes he will get better soon and that he is sorry if he made him feel uncomfortable. this is not a small mistake, this is a complete different translation like what the hell. i mean part one is still shit but it makes more sense and explains why tutor was crying after reading the last message.

Yeah I saw that! It looks like there was a second version that included those texts but got scrapped last second and they didn’t get around to editing the subs. I’m sure someone on twitter/youtube will upload a revisited version to fix where the subs were off throughout the episode.

Please tell me, i'm not the only one who felt it's gotten worse when tor replied his kiss. Just because he kissed tor softly didnt mean fight didnt force himself on tutor, right? I'm so afraid everyone will take his action as some kind of 'you said you didnt love him but actually you love him, right?'

Yeah no, it was still forced and non consensual. It started with Fighter physically dragging Tutor to the bedroom while Tutor struggled to get free and told him to stop, so basically everything that happened after was assault no matter what. Tutor barely kissed back, it might have been just out of habit, it does not mean he was okay with it. No matter how soft Fighter was kissing him, he was still holding him down and pushing him, so yeah. Not good. Tutor laying still was a way to show Fighter just how much NOT into it he was. He wasn’t reciprocating anything, he wasn’t responding to his touch, it’s the exact opposite of what we’ve seen in all their heated scenes. I can’t believe anyone could look at it and think that Tutor was okay with it. One thing I will say is that Tutor didn’t look too scared, he was more angry and frustrated. He was probably aware of how out of it Fighter was in that moment, and all it took to get him to stop was Tutor’s voice. The writers want us to feel like Tutor wasn’t that shaken by it because he still loves Fighter and he knows he was just reacting to seeing Tutor with his student, but it’s still really bad. The whole love thing, the I don’t love you anymore line, in my opinion it was meant as a lie to get Fighter to leave him alone and finalize this break up once and for all. I don’t think Tutor ever stopped loving Fighter, even in that moment.

I think they were trying to make the scene In P1 not look as bad as it is by confusing the viewers with Tutor kissing back and letting Fighter in the end but it still is what it is and then right after that they gave us the whole sentimental scene and Fighter crying I like that scene if only it did not start the way it did. And so they expected us to forget or turn a blind eye but I don't think it's gonna work for most people.

[read question above for the first part of the question]

I was definitely unable to properly enjoy that scene after the assault. I think it was an important scene, I liked the writing of it, I liked the flashbacks with the added frames revealing just how gone Fighter was for him since day one. It just didn’t have to be triggered by that. It could have easily existed on its own. I will not be able to rewatch it sadly, and I am so mad because I think Zee was at his best there. Incredible acting, too bad it had to follow that unforgivable scene. Even just a single apology could have made things better. It would have shown that the writers acknowledge how serious that was. But no, it happened and then it was brushed off, then why having it in the first place?

[southeastasianists]

If you were stationed at the Tham Luang caves in the far north of Thailand for a week, as I was, you’d have thought the operation to rescue 12 boys and a football coach trapped underground for more than two weeks was the only thing that mattered in the world.

Inundated caves. Jagged rock. Monsoon rains. Emaciated children. Race against time. Eyes of the world. Fate of the boys. Death-defying mission. Precarious escape. Helicopter evacuation. Elon Musk. Buddhist monks. Cave boys. Manchester United. World Cup seats. Navy Seal dies. Prime minister visits. Heroes – many, many heroes, plus a new tourist attraction.

It was a whirlwind of well-worn words and phrases as hundreds of reporters tussled for something unique that might impress their overlords – editors sitting at desks far away.

For plenty, truth and sensitivity went out the window, casualties of the chase. Rumours almost evolved into facts, then melted back into nothingness as the next big “could be” came along.

When a helicopter buzzed over the media pit late on Day 2 of the rescue, reporters scrambled. “Fifth boy free!” they cried. Cameras fired up, presenters wiped their brows, tweeters tweeted and old-fashioned hacks, myself included, began filling in details on story templates they’d prepared.

The appearance of a helicopter on Day 1 meant a boy had been spirited to safety. So today’s helicopter meant that too, right? But what if this helicopter was on a different mission? What if a rescue diver had died?

Two days after the emaciated boys emerged, a friend messaged asking where I was. When I told him I was still in Mae Sai, he responded with typical cheek, but only half kidding: “They are all out now. You lot can go home.”

When I finally made it back to Phnom Penh, I climbed the stairs to an old haunt where I knew I’d find a familiar face – someone to ground me after a week on a story high. When I told an old friend where I’d just come from (the most important place in the world), he, too, was unimpressed.

“Oh, that. Jesus, is it over? It’s been driving me mad for weeks. Every time I turn on the television or look at a newspaper…” His words trailed off, his eyes red with World Cup all-nighters that might’ve been as much to blame for his mood as the endless saga of the Cave Boys. “They’re all out safe days ago, right? How much more detail do we need?”

I had already written a couple of stories about the ethics of staking out a hospital, of haranguing desperate families and of distracting divers as the rescue mission balanced on a knife’s edge.

But this weary friend’s dressing down took my mind to another questionable element of the coverage given to the Cave Boys: the cost. Not just the financial cost, but the opportunity-cost, as well.

How many stories had gone untold as the world’s media gathered in Mae Sai and stood side-by-side getting spoon-fed the same quotes, the same information, at the same press conferences, where they’d all capture almost identical photos and video?

Why is round-the-clock coverage of the rescue so important – especially when experts have already revealed a four-hour window when the boys are likely to emerge? And why does every outlet have to be on the story?

I can only guess that, like just about everything in our world, the answer is money.

Streaming and piracy have stolen the market for human eyes and brains seeking to be entertained by a screen, and events like the Tham Luang cave rescue give television networks a chance to win back some of their lost pie.

Building the suspense with ongoing coverage is vital to keeping the viewer – and thereby advertisers – engaged.

So TV bosses spent small fortunes to fly in production teams and their gear from around the world. They rented hotel rooms, vans, drivers, local producers, fixers, translators, security. When fatigue became an issue, they flew in a new team to rotate the first one out.

The outlay for some would run easily into the tens of thousands. But they couldn’t miss the story.

For newspapers, putting a reporter at the scene is an investment in legitimacy, allowing stories to start with the dateline – “Mae Sai, THAILAND” – which would in theory lead to more people paying to read.

And for online-only outlets, a reporter on the scene equals a live blog, which equals clicks and hits that translate directly into advertising dollars.

It’s all a bit cart before horse.

Media as a business is old news, sure. But being inside the machine reporting what might, if you subtract Trump, turn out to be the biggest news story of the year spoke to that idea like never before.

The world hung on the fate of 13 young souls for three weeks. But during that same time, how many boys drowned in the Mediterranean, were killed in Yemen or starved to death in South Sudan? Where was the wall-to-wall coverage on those stories? What made the story of the Cave Boys so special?

I suppose it all comes down to dollars. Reporters chase stories for editors who chase dollars for their bosses. Those other stories of other horrors from around the world have largely run their course for now, at least until events there strike a new level of horror. Then the world might be ready to tune back in.

Matt Blomberg is a freelance journalist based in Cambodia.

[evanvanness]

Annotated edition for the May 31, 2020, Week in Ethereum News

Here’s the most clicked for the week:

I think the Societe Generale bond issuance paying Banque de France with a CBDC digital euro hadn’t been hyped at all, hence why it led the list.  In fact, I don’t think anyone had noticed the press release until Julien Bouteloup tweeted it a week after it had gone out.

Given France’s history protecting domestic industry, you would expect Tezos to be getting these projects due its (probably inaccurate) reputation as being a French project.  And I bet Tezos will get some involvement in the future from the French government linked projects, but it’s still notable that these things are still on Ethereum when Tezos has been live for nearly 2 years (though with very little use).

Meanwhile, alongside yesterday’s announcements of Starkware and OMG, Vitalik tweeted that “initial deployment of ethereum's layer 2 scaling strategy has *basically* succeeded.”   That’s not wrong, but it’s prone to misinterpretation.

The history of layer2 in blockchain is not a particularly successful one.  I’d argue that the question isn’t whether it works, per se, but can it work in a way that gets users over the long haul.  Sure, we’re starting to see that (loopring is live with a million trades on its rollup!) - and we appear to be on the verge of real apps running on layer2 - but there’s a long history in Bitcoin and Ethereum of unrealistic expectations for layer2.  

Here’s the high-level things for Eth holders reads:

8 things you should consider before staking

Devcon6 will be in Bogota in 2021

Liquidity mining: now you earn Balancer tokens for supplying liquidity or Compound tokens for supplying/borrowing

Lots of folks are considering whether to stake, how much to stake, whether to use a staking service, etc etc.  Cayman’s post was a pretty good primer on these questions.   Eth2 staking will lock your ETH up for awhile.  The return is likely to be quite good, though as more people lock up ETH, the return declines.  So it’s hard to say exactly what the return will be - and you won’t be liquid for a long while.

Eth2′s beacon chain is designed for decentralization, with penalties for being offline or doing something wrong (eg, double signing) going up exponentially if they are part of an attack (”correlated”).

That is to say, you should be totally fine staking at home even with mediocre residential connection - going offline usually just means you miss rewards.  And even if you go offline when AWS goes down, as long as you bring your connection back up quickly, you should be relatively ok.    

Staking services should professionalize the staking in ways that ameliorate some risks but which might provide hidden risk if they don’t make sure to think about the risks.   Do they do their staking in the cloud, especially something like AWS east?  Do they spread across different clients?  How much of a honey pot are they?  

Meanwhile, Devcon will be in Colombia but postponed until next year.

Finally, of my 3 high level articles to read: liquidity mining.  DeFi apps like Balancer and Compound are decentralizing themselves by giving tokens to their users, to bootstrap the things the network needs to be example.  By no means are these the first examples of giving away tokens to users, but these are 2 notable examples of a trend to keep an eye on.

Now for the annotations.  A few sections I don’t have anything to add: 

Eth1

Latest core devs call, discussion of EIPs for inclusion in Berlin hard fork, whether or not to include 2046 (static call to precompile gas reduction) and 2565 (modexp reprice). Working toward an ephemeral testnet for Berlin.

Latest fee market change (1559) call. Notes from the EIP1559 call

Discussion thread on meta transactions, oil, opcode repricing

Snap sync mainnet benchmarking, single peer on AWS

I basically say the same thing in this section every week.   People are implementing the EIPs and figuring out which ones will be ready to go for Berlin.  EIP1559 will not be ready until the hard fork after Berlin.  Then in the longer-term, there’s lots of work on Stateless Ethereum (or the non-preferred nomenclature: 1.x 🤮) and that’s in discussion.  

And then Peter is working on a new sync (formerly known as leaf sync) which seems to cut bandwidth way way down.

Eth2

Latest what’s new in eth2, features a Schlesi testnet postmortem

The new multi-client testnet is Witti. Here’s a guide to staking

Latest eth2 implementer call. Notes from Ben and Mamy

Cross-shard transaction simulation

8 things you should consider before staking

RocketPool is going to wrap the ETH locked up in Eth2 staking, thus giving liquidity to eth2 stakers

New multi-client testnet.  They’re basically going to spin them up, try to break them, and not worry about rescuing them if they go down, since you can spin a new one up.  This one is called Witti.

RocketPool deciding to tokenize the 32staked eth is interesting.  It’s basically inevitable - anything that can get wrapped, eventually will get wrapped.  This may end up being the decentralized way to get liquidity for your staked ETH if plans change and you decide you need liquidity for your 32 staked ETH.  There will almost certainly be centralized ways - exchanges eventually offer staking and let you trade IOUs.  Of course, that depends on how much you trust the exchange.

Layer2

Raiden v1 is live on mainnet for DAI and WETH, with some token limits

Deconstructing a state channel app and how a dev interacts with a state channel wallet

A zk-rollups to scale blockchain explainer

Understanding optimistic rollups by building one

Dharma and Interstate open source their Tiramisu optimistic rollup for token transfers

Raiden shipped with the training wheels on!  

Not much else to say around layer2 besides what I said above.  Gotta get users.

This newsletter is made possible by Chainlink!

Connect your smart contract to decentralized oracles that provide the most tamper-proof and accurate market price data, as well as on-chain verifiable randomness that’s provably fair.

Stuff for developers

Array slices in Solidity v0.6

Truffle v5.1.27 – debugger support for Solidity inline assembly

Upgradeable contracts using diamond standard

web3j now includes abi v2

Typescript types for Solidity AST

i18n translation strings for Defi, available as npm package

Build your first Harberger tax app tutorial

eth95: retro UI for calling contract functions

secp256k1 twist attacks

BLS12-381 pairing-friendly curve in JavaScript, now with hash-to-curve v7 and 50 pairings/sec

Ecosystem

Devcon6 will be in Bogota in 2021

All the projects from EthGlobal’s Hack Money

A surprising 120 submissions for Hack Money!

I’m not surprised Devcon got pushed to 2021, but I am disappointed.   I’d like to see a prediction market on when the next ETH event is which has more than ~400 attendees.  

We’re also getting out of the spring conference season (note for southern hemisphere readers: sorry, I know it’s fall for you), so I’m curious whether we’ll see online conferences continue to pop up for every day of the week.  I suspect not, but it is open real estate at the moment.

Enterprise

First Central Bank Digital Currency public blockchain transaction is on Ethereum: Societe General issued €40m of covered bonds as security tokens and paid with Banque de France digital euros. While the press release does not make it clear, the transaction was on Ethereum mainnet

It actually took me the better part of an hour to find the link that confirmed that this was on Eth mainnet.

DAOs and Standards

Summoning the spirit of DAO ops

ERC2680: eth2 standard wallet layout and naming format

ERC2678: EthPM v3

EIP2681: Limit account nonce to 2^64-1

EIP2677: Limit initcode size

Application layer

Enjin plugin for Minecraft to tokenize Minecraft items on your server

Umbra: stealth payments to ENS names, running on Ropsten testnet

How does NexusMutual become an efficient version of Lloyd’s of London?

Maker’s Oasis now makes it easy to leverage up with ETH

DeFi777 – wrap your erc20 tokens as erc777 tokens, then swap through ENS names

RenVM brings BTC, BCH, and ZEC to Ethereum as ERC20 tokens

Mstable basket of stablecoins live on mainnet, includes yield from Compound/Aave plus swap fees – there’s a zero slippage stablecoin trade with 30 basis points of fees

Centrifuge’s Tinlake asset factoring is on mainnet, with factoring for freight shipping and Spotify payments

4/8 arbitrarily classified as DeFi this week.

Zero slippage stablecoin trade is an interesting approach - of course, as a liquidity provider, you’re assuming those stablecoins stay stable.  As a user, you want tiny slippage and tiny fees for going between two things that are supposed to represent the same value.   As a liquidity provider you want as much fees as possible, especially since you’re assuming the risk of pegs slipping or being broken.

Also just wait until Centrifuge’s factoring gets pushed as collateral for Maker.  I’m curious what the response will be - or is it hohum since some trusted assets have already been added?

Tokens/Business/Regulation

Liquidity mining: now you earn Balancer tokens for supplying liquidity or Compound tokens for supplying/borrowing

Zap your liquidity around in one transaction

Ryan Sean Adams: Eth is doubly undervalued

Gavin Andresen: crypto markets take a long time to reflect reality

People seem to call it maximalism these days when you point out that anything is overvalued, but I thought Gavin’s post was a concise reflection of the irrationality of crypto markets.

General

LadderLeak and ECDSA explainer

Hundreds of thousands of Thai users switching to Minds, a Twitter/Facebook hybrid social network incentivized through an ERC20 token

I checked out Minds.  They did a token sale two years ago, though you can still buy it on their site now.  It’s an interesting concept, you can get paid to post, except you have to pay to be a paid member first.  I couldn’t quite work out what the incentives were for me, but social networks need to get traction in one niche and then expand, and it seems like they may be getting that in Thailand.  I’d like to see more social network attempts using tokenized incentives.

Housekeeping

Follow me on Twitter @evan_van_ness to get the annotated edition of this newsletter on Monday or Tuesday. Plus I tweet most of what makes it into the newsletter.

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Permalink: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-may-31-2020/

Dates of Note

Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):

June 1-6 – DAO Rush Week

June 3 – BlockVigil’s free remote developer bootcamp begins

June 16 – deadline to apply for Gitcoin’s Kernel incubator

Oct 2-Oct 30 – EthOnline hackathon

[bangkokjacknews]

Thai cops having sex with hookers to 'prove' prostitution charges

Though no Thai government has ever conducted a formal survey, in 2014 UNAIDS estimated that some 123,530 sex workers operate in #Thailand, with sex industry contributing to 10 per cent of the revenue that the country generates from tourists.

Another study in 2003 estimated that Thailand’s sex industry generates an annual US$4.3 billion dollars. While sex work is evidently a pillar of the country’s economy and touches the lives of a great number of people, sex work remains outlawed in Thailand. This contradiction drives sex workers into precarity: they are excluded from government welfare and have no legal recourse if exploited by law enforcers or clients. In this investigative report, Prachatai spoke with sex workers, government officials and NGO representatives to find out how sex workers navigate their grey status under the law. How do they maintain dignity in a society that attributes little value to their work and lives? “Prostitutes just sell themselves” ‘Prostitutes sell only themselves, but wicked women sell the nation,’ a famous Thai Rat newspaper cartoonist once tweeted — as if the business of sex workers merely involves sleeping with clients and reaping the money. Such a prejudiced view overlooks the fact that sex workers who work the market best rely on well-practiced skills like any good businessmen, be that in negotiating, bargaining or advertising themselves well. All these factors are crucial in enticing customers to return. In this industry, standing out is crucial. For most sex workers, most clients come from low-income backgrounds such as taxi drivers, labourers, and young adults. One session may reap only 500-800 baht. Making a living then relies on being able to win multiple clients. Some sex workers operate in multiple locations to maximize client numbers, for example by wandering tourist spots when their usual base is quiet. Kam, a 24-year old independent sex worker, usually waits for clients at her usual spot in Bangkok from early evening until 3 AM. On a good day, she makes between 3000-4000 baht a night. But on a quiet evening where she has only one or two clients — or none at all — Kam turns to advertising her services online. Young and beautiful, Kam could likely find steady employment at a ‘massage’ parlour or even a high-class bar. But she explains that operating as an independent sex worker provides freedom. “It’s liberating. If on any given day I’m busy, or I’m on my period, or if I’m feeling lazy, I just won’t come. I don’t have to ask anyone for leaving. I don’t have to have my pay cut. Nobody else is directing my life. I keep every single baht that I make from clients. Nobody else gets a cut.” But with this freedom comes certain instabilities, least of all the risks of encountering authorities. https://bangkokjack.com/2018/11/04/truth-about-thai-prostitutes/ While images of police officers raiding brothels have repeatedly made headlines in Thai media, officials usually do not obstruct the industry. But at irregular intervals each year, public pressure on the police to show the fruits of their work escalates crackdowns on sex workers. Sex workers themselves have no way of knowing when these periods of heightened surveillance will come — that is, when they may inadvertently appear on front page news. Another inescapable risk in sex work comes in the form of undesirable clients. Sometimes a client may be intoxicated, refuse to use protection, or refuse to pay the fee. In dealing with these situations, workers sometimes risk physical danger. Without legal protections, the best sex workers can do is spread warnings of such individuals by word of mouth. In the face of the risks of working independently, many sex workers trade their freedom for the relative safety that comes with fixed employment in businesses such as ‘karaoke’ bars, ‘massage’ parlours or brothels. Though sex workers with fixed employment can be safe from undesirable clients as there is security staff in their workplace, the threat from state authorities still exists. Illegal trade and ‘legal’ operation So-called ‘karaoke bars’ commonly feature karaoke machines as décor, even though few or no customers visit such venues to sing, but rather to buy sex service. Why the farce? While prostitution is prohibited under Thai law, ‘karaoke bars’ and ‘massage parlours’ can be legally registered as normal businesses. When arrests of sex workers occur at such premises, authorities usually treat the act of prostitution as an exchange between the sex worker and the client — an exchange to which the owner of the premise was not a party. Even so, cases of clients being charged are few and far between, giving rise to the popular quip that, ‘employing sex workers is legal, being a sex worker is illegal, clients get off scot-free.’ Brothel operators are only accused of crimes when simultaneously breaking other laws, such as the employment of underage workers or illegal migrants. In June 2016, an undercover police investigation into a Huai Kwang district massage parlour, “Nataree’, resulted in the arrest of 119 employees, seven of whom were underage (of this seven, six were Burmese migrant workers). While the employees were accused of engaging in prostitution, the brothel owner was accused of crimes related to human trafficking. Undercover police investigations, where officers may pose as customers, have drawn criticisms for being hypocritical, if not themselves instances of illegal behaviour. Questionable behaviour has included the inviting of media to photograph sex workers during sting operations, and officials themselves persuading sex workers to engage in intercourse. Decha Kittwitthayanon, a lawyer and academic, has documented cases where officers have utilised the services of sex workers, before using the discharge and condoms filled with semen as evidence of illegal activity. “The Supreme Court reasoned that having intercourse with sex workers was a necessary and appropriate action for finding evidence of the activities of criminals. They pointed out that officials had no other choice but to use such measures.” Chantawipa Apisuk, the director of Empower Foundation, an organisation that has promoted the rights of sex workers in Thailand for more than 30 years, points out both the cruelty and lack of reasoning behind sting operations. “I don’t think sting operations should happen because things that were used to protect yourself from diseases become instead things that result in your arrest. They simply become wrongdoers.” “But officials say that if they don’t , they won’t be able to make arrests. But that makes me ask, why do they need to be arrested? Everybody has sex. I have sex. So why is having sex for work wrong?” Jet (pseudonym), a former ‘bar girl’ turned volunteer at Empower Foundation, tells a harrowing story where one official went as far as to solicit an underage sex worker. “Once a police officer posed as a client and asked a brothel owner whether there were any workers under the age of 18. When the owner said there weren’t any, the officer asked them to find one, and the owner did so. At first, the girl didn’t dare to go , not because she was afraid of the police, but of meeting a nasty client. “But the officer persisted, kept flirting, acted sweet to befriend the girl until finally, she began to trust him — began to feel that, ‘This guy is a good person. He probably wouldn’t hurt me’. Simply, she grew fond of the officer. In the end, when she agreed to go with the officer, she was arrested. “But do you know the saddest part? The officer that she trusted was the one who interrogated her. He took notes on the interrogation right to the girl’s face.” Unfortunately, arrests of sex workers can have far-reaching complications for their careers. Jet reports that most sex workers who are implicated in sting operations choose to leave the industry. Those who desire to keep working struggle to find work, since employers fear they will draw the attention of authorities. Jet added that sting operations at brothels have increased in frequency ever since the Trafficked in Persons 2016 report ranked Thailand as among those countries with the highest incidents of human trafficking. She also warns the government against blurring sex workers who voluntarily enter the industry with victims of human trafficking. Chantawipa argues that if the junta was committed to ending human trafficking, it would invest funds into exposing the networks of influential people and even state officials who benefit from the market — rather than chasing and arresting petty actors who may not even be victims of human trafficking, but rather voluntarily sell sex. However, the Thai Royal Police have proved unresponsive to criticisms of their sting operations against sex workers. During a meeting with the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a representative of the Royal Thai Police went as far as to deny the issue’s existence. “In the case of sting operations, I insist that the Office of the Royal Thai Police has never included them in official policy, and has never supported officers to use such measures,” claimed Maj Gen Kraibun Suadsong. This article was first published in Thai on Prachatai and translated into English by Catherine Yen. – You can follow BangkokJack on Instagram, Twitter & Reddit. Or join the free mailing list (top right) Please help us continue to bring the REAL NEWS - PayPal Read the full article

[beertengoku]

{:en}If you’ve been to a Japanese beer festival at all in the last 20 years, then you’ve more than likely seen Sankt Gallen there. That person serving the beer, who could pass for a Japanese rockstar, is the brewer and owner of Sankt Gallen, Iwamoto-san. You’ve also probably met Nakagawa-san, more commonly known as Miki, the hard-working person behind Sankt Gallen’s PR effort across SNS. She often posts updates about new bars, new beers, and also videos from inside the brewery itself.

While the current brewery has been in operation since 2003, Sankt Gallen’s roots are much older. The Japanese government didn’t relax the beer licensing laws until 1994, Iwamoto-san was brewing in San Francisco for his father’s dumpling (gyoza) restaurant. Wanting to move back to Japan and open his own brewery, Iwamoto-san took the first step by opening a pub in Roppongi which sold Sankt Gallen beer imported from the US. The selling of homebrew was as illegal then as it is now, but Iwamoto-san managed to make his own non-alcoholic beer for sale at the bar.

The pub is no longer there. However, it is an important part of brewing history. It was where Bryan Baird and his wife Sayuri would meet when they lived in Tokyo before the days of Baird Beer. Most of the stories remain secret from those days but the memories brought an even larger smile than usual to Iwamoto-san’s face. BeerTengoku commented that he was the “otosan”, or father figure, of Japanese craft beer seeing as he has been around for so long, to which a wry smile creeped across his face.

Iwamoto-san is a Fukuoka native but there was never any thought of opening a brewery in that part of Japan. Tokyo was too great a pull on him and remains one still. The area of Atsugi at the time had nothing in the area in terms of craft beer. What it did have was cheap land, easy access to Tokyo, and also the offices of Iwamoto-san’s father’s chain of dumpling stores. The Tanzawa ridge looms over the Sankt Gallen brewery, and the water from the mountains also supplies the brewery with its water

Iwamoto-san’s passion for brewing beer comes through whenever he’s given the chance to speak about it, and if you give him the chance then prepare to learn …. a lot! Having started out as a homebrewer in the States, he jokes he’s earnt his brewer’s license enough times to start at least four breweries. He estimated that he’s brewed about 6000 batches of beer, and only had to dump less than 10 in that whole time which were down to problems with the yeast.

When asked about the change in becoming a homebrewer to a professional brewer and what is needed, without missing a beat in the conversation he said “passion”. You can have all the money in the world but if you don’t have passion for the brewing process then you can’t make beer people want to drink. Some of the tasks are cumbersome and tiring but he learnt that during his dumpling-making days that these tasks help you to improve upon your techniques. Of course, brewing courses help but they can’t replicate the ins and outs of what is needed.

The first building, which was built in 1993, stands behind the current brewery, though it’s no longer owned by Sankt Gallen. The move to the current building occurred in 2003 to cope with the larger demand for the beers. If you’ve seen the UK TV show Doctor Who, then Sankt Gallen’s brewery is very much like the TARDIS. It looks tiny from outside, yet walk inside and you’re greeted by a small pilot system, where contract brews are first tested out and then scaled up. Then the wall of brite tanks, fermenters, and the brewing system greets you in its shining stainless steel splendour. Each of the brite tanks hold 2kL of beer (2,000L) while the fermenters hold 4kL (4,000L), with the brewing system being the original one installed back in 2003.

Sankt Gallen brew three to four times a week, though more often than not, they brew double batches to ensure supply can keep up with demand. On top of that, Sankt Gallen also contract brew for bars and restaurants in the Kanto area, with The Aldgate in Shibuya and 800 Degrees in Shinjuku being repeat customers. While Miki tweets away about places to drink Sankt Gallen, it’s surprising that there are only five full time workers at Sankt Gallen, with no one in charge of sales themselves.

From the beginning, Sankt Gallen have never been about pushing their beer on bars or shops. When Sankt Gallen first started, there were only three dedicated craft beer bars in Tokyo compared to 250+ at the time of writing, Iwamoto-san knew that a bottling line was important for the growth of the brewery. At 1,000 bottles an hour, or 330L, it would take almost the whole day to bottle up one whole fermenter. But along with the keg filling station in the brewery, all five staff are busy with getting beer out before thinking about sales. The most surprising thing about their sales ethos is that they don’t do follow-up visits to push sales.  With this in mind, the ethos behind the beer is that if people want to drink it, then they will order it.

The astute reader may have noticed how there are no weizens, saisons, or Belgian style beers in the Sankt Gallen lineup. Pretty much every single Japanese craft brewery has at least one, if not more, of those styles as part of their regular lineup. The simple reason is Iwamoto-san suffers a similar condition as to famed BeerTengoku writer, Joe, in that the yeast traditionally used in those beers causes intestinal issues. Moreover, he finds the distinctive aroma from weizens – the banana and clove – is also off-putting. Iwamoto-san’s dedication to producing beer that he is happy for others to drink means he cannot guarantee that the beer produced is up to his high standard. This dedication also means the only fruit beers from Sankt Gallen are their orange gold and pineapple sweet – other fruits just don’t bring enough to be added to their beers.

That’s not to say that the offerings at Sankt Gallen are your standard ones – Sankt Gallen were one of the first Japanese breweries to offer up an IPA – their Yokohama XPA brewed with water sourced from Yokohama – before many other breweries knew the style would take off so well. Their sense of humour is not lost either with annual productions for April Fool’s being sold out as soon as they are announced. Their most famous limited edition beer is the うん, この黒 (Un kono kuro) which translate to “poo black”. The reaction to this beer was hilarious – numerous drinkers thought that, somehow, poo had made its way into the beer. In fact the real story is far less twisted. Black Ivory coffee, a Thai strain of coffee that is produced by salvaging the beans from the poo of elephants that have digested the bean, was used in the fermenter. 5kgs were used during the process due to the prohibitive costs and also Amazon being the only supplier of the coffee in Japan.

Sankt Gallen have also earnt themselves an enviable reputation for their annual stout releases – which should have been on sale and probably sold out way before this interview is up. Each year, the base stout recipe is infused with a variety of flavours, and each one also brings a new flavour to the batch as well. In the past, Iwamoto-san has experimented with mint, sesame seeds, strawberries, a smoked version, and oranges. The 2018 version was based around the Chinese dessert – an homage to the dumpling restaurant days – annin tofu, or almond tofu. Having tried some, the nuttiness complimented the base stout well though but it’s unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.

When it comes to the future of Sankt Gallen the need to expand looms over the brewery. They are already at capacity in terms of the amount of beers that can be brewed and space for fermenters so it’s hard to see how the space can be utilised any more efficiently than it is now. Wanting to stay in the area, Iwamoto-san is looking at purchasing land nearby, in the hope of both expanding the brewery and offering a taproom on-site. Beers can already be purchased directly at the brewery now so what better way to try the beers fresh than on tap? This has also led to the idea of re-opening a bar in the nearby area as well. Sankt Gallen used to have a bar in the local area, before the current craft beer boom, but it was sold and is now a coffee shop. Iwamoto-san was coy about giving up the location of the bar – Yokohama is one train journey area but is already dense in craft beer bars, Atsugi and Ebina are also possible locations – though he did say it would be in the Kanto area.

Wherever they end up, as one of Kanagawa’s biggest and best known breweries, they are going to become easier and easier to find. If you’re not too sure where, then check out their SNS feeds – one of the best up-to-date resources to find their beers across Japan.{:}{:ja}過去20年間に日本のビール祭りに行ったことがあるなら、あなたはサンクト・ガレンをもっと見たことでしょう。 日本人のロックスターに合格できるビールを提供している人は、サンクト・ガレンの醸造業者であり、オーナーである岩本さんです。 あなたはまた、おそらく、サンクト・ガレンのSNSを通じたPR努力の背後にいる勤勉な人であり、より一般的に三木として知られる中川さんに会ったこともあります。 彼女はしばしば、新しいバー、新しいビール、そしてビール醸造所自体の中のビデオに関する最新情報を投稿します。

現在の醸造所は2003年以来稼動していますが、サンクト・ガレンの根はずっと古いものです。 日本政府は1994年までビール免許法を緩和しなかったが、岩本さんは父親の団子（餃子）レストランのためにサンフランシスコで醸造していました。 岩本さんは日本に戻って自分の醸造所を開けたいと思っていましたが、米国から輸入されたサンクト・ガレンビールを売った六本木のパブを開いて、最初の一歩を踏み出しました。 自家製醸造の売却は、現在と同じくらい違法であったが、岩本さんはバーで売るために自分の非アルコール性ビールを作りました。

そのパブは、もはや存在していません。 しかし、それは醸造の歴史の重要な部分です。 そこはBaird Bairdと彼の妻SayuriがBairdビールの時代以前に東京に住んでいたとき出会ったところでした。 その話のほとんどは、その当時から秘密に残っているが思い出は岩本さんの顔に、通常よりも大きな笑いをもたらした。 BeerTengokuは、彼が日本のクラフトビールの「オトサン」または父親の姿であるとコメントしました。 彼はあまりにも長い間、日本のクラフトビールに従事しており、それによって苦笑が彼の顔に刻まれました。

岩本さんは福岡出身ですが、日本の醸造所を開設する考えは一度もありませんでした。  東京は彼を引き入れるには余りにも大きかったが、まだ残っています。 当時の厚木地区には、クラフトビールというものはありませんでした。 そこは、安い土地であり、東京へのアクセスが簡単で、岩本さんの父親の餃子店のチェーンの事務所でした。 タンザワ尾根は、サンクト・ガレン醸造所を横切っており、山からの水も醸造所に水を供給しています。

岩本さんのビール醸造への情熱は、それについて話す機会があるたびに表現されます。 そして彼にチャンスを与えれば学ぶ準備をする必要があります。…たくさん！ 米国で家庭醸造業者として出発した後、彼は自分の醸造者の免許を所持して、少なくとも4つの醸造所を始動することができる十分な時間があったと冗談します。 彼は約6000バッチのビールを醸造しているし、酵母の問題に至るまで、その時間全体で10回以下のダンプしかしていなかったと推定しました。

家庭の醸造者が専門家の醸造業者となって、それには何が必要なのかについての質問を受けた時の会話でビットを逃さず、彼は「情熱」だと言いました。  あなたは世界のすべてのお金を持つことができますが、醸造プロセスに情熱を持っていなければ、人々が飲みたいビールを作ることはできません。 タスクのいくつかは面倒で疲れていますが、彼は餃子作りの日にこれらのタスクが技術を向上させるのに役立つということを学びました。 もちろん醸造過程が役立ちますが、それらは必要なものの内面と外面を複製することはできません。

1993年に建設された最初の建物は現在の醸造所の後ろにありますが、もはやサンクト・ガレンの所有はありません。 現在の建物への移動は、ビールの需要の増加に対応するために2003年に発生しました。 英国のテレビショー「Doctor Who」を見たことがあるなら、サンクト・ガレンの醸造所はTARDISに非常に似ています。 それは外からは小さいように見えますが、内部を歩いて、小さなパイロットシステムで挨拶されます。 そこでは、契約している醸造所が最初にテストされ、次にスケールアップされます。 その後、ブライトタンク、発酵槽、醸造システムの壁が、輝くステンレス鋼の素晴らしさとしてあなたを迎えます。 各ブリットタンクには2kLのビール（2,000L）が含まれており、発酵槽には4KL（4,000L）が含まれており、醸造システムは、2003年に最初にインストールしたシステムです。

サンクト・ガレンは週に3〜4回は醸造しましたが、彼らは供給が需要に追いつくことができるように二重バッチを生産しました。 さらに、サンクト・ガレンは関東地方のバーやレストランで醸造を請け負い、渋谷のThe Aldgateと新宿の800 Degreesをリピート顧客としています。 三木は、サンクト・ガレンを飲む場所についてつぶやきますが、サンクト・ガレンにはフルタイムの労働者がわずか5人しかいないことは驚くべきことです。販売担当者は誰もいません。

最初からサンクト・ガレンは、彼らのビールをバーやショップに強要したことはありません。 サンクト・ガレンが最初に始めたとき、東京には単3か所のクラフトビールバーがあり、文章を書いている時点では、250以上でした。岩本さんはボトルリングラインが醸造所の成長に重要であることを知っていました。 1時間に1,000本のボトル、すなわち330Lで、1つの発酵槽全体を瓶詰めするのにほぼ一日��かるでしょう。 しかし、醸造所で樽充填場を沿って5人のスタッフ全員は、ビールを得ることに忙しいです。 彼らの販売精神に関する最も驚くべきことは、販売促進のためのフォローアップ訪問をしていないことです。 これを念頭に置いて、そのビールの背後にある気風は、人々が飲みたいなら、それを注文するということです。

賢明な読者は、サンクト・ガレンのラインナップにヴァイツェン、セゾン、ベルギースタイルのビールがないことに気付いたかもしれません。 ほとんどすべての単一の日本のクラフトビール醸造所は、それらのスタイルのうちの少なくとも1つを通常のラインナップの一部として持っています。 シンプルな理由は、岩本さんがBeerTengokuの著名な作家Joeと同じような状況にあり、伝統的にそれらのビールに使われている酵母が腸の問題を引き起こすということです。 さらに、彼はヴァイツェンから独特の香りを見つけます。バナナとクローブも入れません。 他の人がそれを飲むことを好む岩本さんのビール生産への献身は、生産されたビールが、自分の高い基準を満たしていることを保証することはできません。 この献身はまた、サンクト・ガレンからの唯一のフルーツビールが彼らのオレンジゴールドとパイナップルスイートであることを意味します。他のフルーツは、彼らのビールに追加することができるように持って来ません。

それはサンクト・ガレンでの提供があなたの標準的なものであると言っているわけではありません。サンクト・ガレンは、IPAを提供する最初の日本の醸造所の1つでした。彼らの横浜XPAは、他の多くの醸造所がそのスタイルがとてもうまくいくことを知る前に、横浜から供給された水で醸造されました。 彼らのユーモア感覚は、April Foolが発表されるとすぐに売り切れになる年間生産で失われることはありません。 彼らの最も有名な限定版のビールは、「うん、この黒」であり、 “poo black”に翻訳されています。 このビールの反応は面白かったです。数多くの飲む人は、何とか、プーがビールに入ったと思っていました。 実際には、本当の話ははるかに少ないねじれています。 豆を消化した象のうんちから豆を回収して生産されたタイのコーヒーであるBlack Ivoryコーヒーを発酵槽で使用しました。 5kgは禁止コストのために工程中に使用され、Amazonは日本で唯一のコーヒーサプライヤーでした。

サンクト・ガレンはまた、毎年の猛烈なリリースのためにうらやましいほどの評判を得ています。 彼らの毎年の激しいリリースは、このインタビューが始まる前に売り切れになっていたはずです。 毎年、基本的なスタウトレシピには様々な味が注入され、それぞれの味もバッチに新しい風味をもたらします。 過去に岩本さんは、ミント、ゴマ、イチゴ、燻製、オレンジを試しました。 2018年のバージョンは、中国のデザート（餃子のレストランの日々への敬意）、アンニン豆腐、またはアーモンド豆腐の周りに基づいていました。 いくつか試してみたところ、風味は基本スタウトをうまく補完しましたが、すぐにはいつでも繰り返すことはまずありません。 今年のバージョンは、バナナチョコレートスタウトであり、現在販売中です。

サンクト・ガレンの将来に関しては、醸造所を拡張する必要があります。 彼らはすでに醸造することができるビールの量と発酵槽のスペースの観点から見ると能力を備えているので、今よりも効率的にスペースを有効活用する方法を知ることは困難です。 この地域に滞在したいと考えている岩本さんは、醸造所の拡張と現場でのタップルームの提供を希望して、近くの土地を購入しようとしています。 ビールはすでに醸造所から直接購入することができますので、蛇口からビールを新鮮にお誘いための方法は何ですか？ これにより、近くのエリアでもバーを再開する考えが導かれました。

サンクト・ガレンは、現在のクラフトビールブームの前に地方のバーを持っていましたが、売却され、現在はコーヒーショップです。 岩本さんは、バーの位置を放棄することに冷淡ました。

横浜は、鉄道旅行地域の一つであるがクラフトビールバーはすでに密集しています。厚木と海老名も可能ですが、関東地方にあると言いました。

彼らがどこでも終わったら、神奈川で最も規模が大きく、有名なビール醸造所の一つとして、より簡単に見つけることができるようになります。あなたがどこにあるかわからない場合は、そのSNSのフィードを確認してください。日本全域でビールを見つけることができる最新の資料の一つです。{:}

{:en}Sankt Gallen Interview{:}{:ja}サンクト・ガレン・インタビュー{:} {:en}If you’ve been to a Japanese beer festival at all in the last 20 years, then you’ve more than likely seen Sankt Gallen there.

[evanvanness]

Annotated edition of May 10 Week in Ethereum News

I’ve started thinking of the annotated version as aimed at Eth holders.  There’s a large group of people who hold ETH who want to stay up to date on what is happening, but also have jobs outside of the industry and may not understand all the tech nuances nor have time to spend.  So the annotated edition will try to give you more narrative, more context, some opinion, maybe some 🌶️, as well as pointers to what might you want to read

Fun fact: you can find the #MostClicked and #MuchClicked on Twitter by just searching the hashtags. The usual caveats apply: the things most clicked are the things people hadn’t otherwise seen (not necessarily the most important), and my tweets auto-delete after a month or two, so the data only goes back a couple months.

Before clicking send, I knew for sure which would be the most clicked item this week.  I was right.

How did I know it would be the most clicked?  Because even among Ethereum enthusiasts it’s an undercommunicated thing how low eth issuance will be.  It is planned to sustainably be so low that it might at some points go negative (and perhaps be negative over long periods of time, which worries me a little!).  Perhaps part of the reason we don’t communicate this that loudly is because we just aren’t there yet.   But unlike Bitcoin which has no path to long-term sustainability, Eth has a logical plan to have very low issuance.  

As I said, I forgot this last week, but if I were clicking a few things this week:

chart of ETH issuance over time

A review of hardware for eth staking

MyCrypto’s history of Eth hard forks to celebrate 10m blocks

I might also check out the stuff about personal tokens, because personal money is an interesting subject to think about, even if you’re skeptical like I am.  The idea of “what is money” can take you down some fun intellectual rabbit holes: 

75 interesting uses of social money by Roll 

Personal tokens were the topic du jour, check out this overview from Dan Finlay

A little light this week on the high-level stuff.  The chart of Eth issuance I already discussed.  The hardware for Eth staking is a worthwhile jumping off point if you’re planning on staking.   And the hard fork history is worth knowing, or if you know it, then it’s a fun trip down memory lane.

Eth1

Step by step guide to running a Hyperledger Besu node on mainnet

Nethermind v1.18.30 query the chain and trace transactions within minutes with Beam sync

A primer on block witnesses

Installation guide to running eth1 nodes (or eth2 testnet) on RaspberryPi4

So this week we have a guide to running the ConseSys’s Besu client (part of Hyperledger) which is a Java client aimed at enterprise, but which can run mainnet.   More Nethermind and Besu nodes are good for client diversity.  So is OpenEthereum (formerly known as Parity), which had a release yesterday.

And if you like running nodes on RaspberryPi4, check that out.

This newsletter is made possible by Celer!

Celer has just released a new state channel mainnet upgrade enabling everyone to easily run a layer-2 state channel node and to utilize the low-cost and real-time transactions enabled by Celer. Game developers with no blockchain knowledge today monetize their games through CelerX gaming SDK that leverages the underlying layer-2 scaling technology with ease. Celer has also released the world’s first skill-based real money game apps where players can join multi-player game tournaments and win cryptocurrency prizes, Follow us on twitter, blog, discord and telegram.

Yay, thanks Celer! 

Eth2

Danny Ryan’s latest quick eth2 update – bug bounties doubled, latest IETF BLS standard

PegaSys’s Teku client is now syncing the Schlesi testnet – which has been much more stable than expected

Latest Prysmatic client update – reducing RAM usage, slashing protection

SigmaPrime’s Beacon fuzzer update, struct-aware, bugs found in Teku and Nimbus

Latest Eth2 networking call, gossipsub v1.1. Ben’s notes

Python notebook to simulate a network partition

Apostille, an Eth1x64 variant

Scoping what is necessary to port eth1 to an eth2 shard and turn off proof of work

Lots of talk of go-live this week. Is it July, q3, or q4?  We need to get audit reports and have multi-client testnets running long-term, though last I checked the Schlesi testnet has been quite stable.  And since publishing the newsletter, now PegaSys’s Teku client is fully validating on Schlesi.

Layer2

Demo of Synthetix on the OVM includes paper trading competition with 50k SNX prizepool. The details of how the Optimistic Virtual Machine enables EVM-in-EVM

Gods Unchained building an NFT exchange with StarkWare

Exit games in state channels

Celer Network’s Orion upgrade makes it easy to run a state channel node

I’m going to set up a Celer node later this week if I have a chance.

Also check out the Synthetix trading competition and help stress test the OVM.

Stuff for developers

Solidity v0.6.7, EIP165 (standard interface detection) support. Also survey results on what devs love and hate about Solidity

Solhint v3 – Solidity linter removes styling rules and recommends prettier Solidity instead

Open Zeppelin ethers.js based console

Etherplex: batch multiple JSON RPC calls into single call

Time-based Solidity tests with Brownie

MythX now has 46 detectors

Quiknode has an online tool to test endpoints

Reading Eth price from Maker’s medianizer v1

Build an app with Sablier’s constant streaming tutorial

Building a bot using MelonJS to automate your Melon fund

StarkWare found a vulnerability in Loopring’s frontend where passwords were being hashed to only 32 bit integers

Even the frontend bugs can get you!  

Ecosystem

A chart of ETH issuance over time. The best I’ve seen

Ethereum Foundation’s q1 grants list

A guide to bulk renewing your ENS names

ethereum.org looking for Vietnamese, Thai, Danish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Finnish, or Ukranian translators

A review of hardware for eth staking

A reminder that many ENS names have now expired and need to be renewed! There’s a 90 day grace period, but do it before you forget.

Enterprise

PegaSys’s Hyperledger Besu suite available on Azure Marketplace and Microsoft’s blockchain devkit now supports Besu

Quorum v2.6 – breaking database schema changes, update to geth v1.9.x

Microsoft continues to make the Ethereum dev experience better, with their VScode extension. 

Governance, DAOs, and standards

How to start a MolochDAO

Options for delegated voting in KyberDAO

EIP2633: Formalized upgradable governance

EIP2628: Header in StatusMessage

I oppose any sort of “formalized upgradeable governance” and I think most do.

Application layer

Use POAP for sybil-resistant voting or to determine Discord channel access

Yield: a revised implementation of Dan Robinson’s yTokens for fixed rate, fixed term loans that give a yield curve

Comparing total value locked in DeFi to unique active addresses

75 interesting uses of social money by Roll

Personal tokens were the topic du jour, check out this overview from Dan Finlay

Strike: perpetual swaps with 20x leverage

POAP as a quasi-KYC layer is pretty interesting to me.  Seems like there are some good uses in Ethereum land.

i’m excited to hear that DeFi will get a yield curve!

Tokens/Business/Regulation

Nic Carter: are stablecoins parasitic or beneficial?

OpenRaise: a continuous offering fundraiser for DAOs

dxDAO’s kickstarter using OpenRaise sold out before public announcement – though the curve is still live, plus a secondary Uniswap market

dxDao’s token is an interesting bit.  Most of the token supply goes to the DXDAO, but it’s an interesting experiment in building completely decentralized apps as a Dao with a community that lately has been burgeoning.  It’s also a bit of a check on rent-seeking because it is a credible threat to excessive fees.

One fun note is that the Uniswap market occurred almost immediately and (almost by definition) trades at a substantial discount to the main market.

General

Aggregatable Subvector Commitments, the future may not involve Merkle trees

This week, Ethereum mined its 10 millionth block.

Here’s MyCrypto’s history of Eth hard forks to celebrate 10m blocks

IPFS releases Testground suite for p2p networking tests

PayPal blocked tokenized real estate startup RealT despite a lack of chargebacks, so they’re switching to Wyre

10,000,000 blocks of Ethereum mainnet!

Capricious censorship in web2 and payments!  I’ve been in PayPal’s shoes managing a card not present merchant account, and so I’m somewhat understanding to them.  You’re trying to keep your fraud rate down in a system that sometimes seems rigged against you.  In RealT’s case, they likely also had large amounts coming through which combined with crypto seems scary to Paypal, even with a low chargeback rate.  

It’s not really anyone’s fault.  The system sucks, and this is why Ethereum matters.

Final note that you can see below in the calendar: RAC’s $TAPE dropped yesterday.  It’s a tradable ERC20 token sold on Uniswap (ie, a pre-set price curve).   Of course the price went from $20 to $1000, as the token is redeemable for a limited edition cassette tape of RAC’s new album Boy.

Housekeeping

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Permalink: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-may-10-2020/

Dates of Note

Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):

May 11 – RAC’s $TAPE

May 12 – MakerDAO Sai shutdown deadline

May 22-31 – Ethereum Madrid public health virtual hackathon

May 29-June 16 – SOSHackathon

June 17 – EthBarcelona R&D workshop