🦉Gnosis Weekly Recap ~ 28 February 2025

🛡️ Gnosis VPN: Bringing Web3 Privacy to Everyday Users

In a recent AMA session hosted this week with Sebastian Burgel (VP of Technology at Gnosis), we discussed the proposed development of Gnosis VPN, alongside Tino (CTO at HOPR) and Rich (governance lead at HOPR). The session highlighted how this initiative perfectly aligns with Gnosis's 3.0 vision of making decentralized technology accessible to everyday users.

What is Gnosis VPN?

Gnosis VPN builds upon HOPR, a mixed network infrastructure that has been in development for 4-5 years and currently runs approximately 400 nodes in production. Sebastian explained that HOPR provides stronger anonymity than Tor by mixing data packets through intermediate nodes, making them indistinguishable.

The vision is to transform this underlying infrastructure into a user-friendly VPN service that anyone can use without understanding the technical aspects of the crypto ecosystem.

Development Roadmap

Tino outlined the two-year development plan with key milestones:

1. MVP (Next 9 Months): Eliminating the requirement for users to run their own HOPR node, which currently requires around $2,000 worth of HOPR tokens. This will open access to thousands of potential users by November 2024, targeting a DevConnect release.
2. Version 1: Improving scalability, adding mobile platform support (iOS and Android), and implementing Web3-native payment options.
3. Version 2: Developing full censorship resistance—making the VPN immune to shutdown attempts by governments, ISPs, or companies.

Alignment with Gnosis 3.0

This initiative perfectly embodies Gnosis's 3.0 vision of moving beyond infrastructure to build practical applications that bring real value to mainstream users. As outlined in Gnosis's recent strategy, the organization is pivoting from being purely infrastructure-focused to creating user-facing applications that bridge the gap between blockchain technology and everyday utility.

Sebastian noted: "We want to present the first properly decentralized Web3 product that is not just self-referentially financial in nature, but something that provides real value to the average human. VPN is something that makes sense to people."

Community Support

The proposal (GIP-122) has received nearly unanimous support from the Gnosis DAO community. The initiative represents a collaboration between the HOPR team and Gnosis, exemplifying the collective approach outlined in the Gnosis 3.0 structure.

Rich also mentioned that HOPR has applied to become a Gnosis delegate, aiming to represent HOPR node runners in Gnosis governance decisions.

Looking Forward

The development of Gnosis VPN represents a significant step toward making privacy-preserving technology accessible to mainstream users without requiring technical knowledge of blockchain systems. This aligns perfectly with Gnosis's strategy of building practical applications on top of its robust infrastructure and creating tangible value for users outside the traditional crypto space.

As Sebastian concluded: "By providing a truly anonymous and Web3-native trust-minimized VPN service, we hope we can contribute towards that future of Web3 infrastructure, which empowers the individual and not just large corporations and institutions."

For more information on Gnosis's vision and ecosystem, visit gnosis.io.

🦉Updates

🔒Safe Addresses Targeted Lazarus Attack on Bybit

This week, Safe released an official statement regarding the recent security incident affecting Bybit. Forensic findings have confirmed that the North Korean Lazarus Group conducted a targeted attack on Bybit by compromising a Safe{Wallet} developer's machine, which led to the proposal of a disguised malicious transaction.

Key Points from Safe's Statement:

• The attack was executed by the Lazarus Group, a state-sponsored North Korean hacker group known for sophisticated social engineering attacks on developer credentials, sometimes combined with zero-day exploits
• External security researchers found NO vulnerabilities in the Safe smart contracts or the source code of the frontend and services
• The Safe{Wallet} team has completed a thorough investigation and has restored Safe{Wallet} on Ethereum mainnet through a phased rollout
• All infrastructure has been fully rebuilt and reconfigured, with all credentials rotated to ensure the attack vector has been completely eliminated
• While the Safe{Wallet} frontend remains operational with additional security measures in place, users are advised to exercise extreme caution and remain vigilant when signing transactions
• Safe has committed to leading an industry-wide initiative to improve transaction verifiability, which they acknowledge is an ecosystem-wide challenge

A full post-mortem will be published by the Safe{Wallet} team once the final investigation results are available. Safe reaffirms its commitment to security, transparency, self-custody, and advancing the industry forward despite this challenge.

Gnosis Delegate Selection Process - Action Required 🗳️

We're excited to announce that GIP-101, the Gnosis Delegate Selection Process, is now live! 🚀

This important initiative aims to strengthen GnosisDAO governance by electing 10 Delegates who will each receive 5,000 GNO delegation for a six-month period.

⚠️ Action Required by March 3rd ⚠️

If you've previously delegated your voting power on the GnosisDAO Snapshot Space, you must redelegate in the new space to maintain your delegations.

Without redelegation, you'll retain your own voting power, but your delegates will not receive the delegated voting power they usually enjoy.

How to Redelegate: 🔄

1. Visit the Delegates page in the delegates.gnosis.eth space: https://snapshot.box/#/s:delegates.gnosis.eth/delegates
2. Click the "Delegate" button in the top right
3. Alternatively, call the setDelegate() function on the DelegateRegistry contract (0x469788fE6E9E9681C6ebF3bF78e7Fd26Fc015446) from the addresses holding your GNO
4. Use space ID: 0x64656c6567617465732e676e6f7369732e657468
5. Insert your chosen delegate's address

Key Updates: 🔑

• 🆕 New dedicated Snapshot space for delegate selection: delegates.gnosis.eth
• ⚖️ Weighted-voting options to allow for multiple delegate preferences
• 🏆 10 delegates from 19 candidates will receive 5,000 GNO of additional voting power
• 💬 New Delegate Communication category on the Gnosis forum
• 🔍 Range of delegate platforms to increase transparency around voting activity

GIP-101 aims to stimulate governance participation by distributing more voting power across diverse voices. This initiative will help overcome quorum challenges and open GnosisDAO to its next generation of participants, ensuring a healthy governance process with social mobility and diverse representation.

Timeline: ⏰

The delegate selection process begins on March 3rd! To ensure your redelegations count in the first delegate selection, please complete them before the proposal goes live.

For more information, visit: https://forum.gnosis.io/t/gnosis-dao-delegate-program-application-thread/8711/

Stay engaged and make your voice heard in shaping the future of GnosisDAO! 🌐

🔹 Pectra Hardfork & Gnosis Validators: What's Changing? 🔹

The upcoming Pectra hardfork has sparked discussions in the Gnosis community, particularly around how it impacts validators. With Ethereum increasing its max validator stake to 2048 ETH, many have asked: Will Gnosis Chain follow? 🤔

Big News for Validators! 🚀

Gnosis validators will soon be able to stake up to 64 GNO per validator, thanks to EIP-7251. This upgrade reduces the need to run multiple validators, lowers operational complexity, and enables auto-compounding rewards—a major improvement for long-term stakers.

Other validator-focused changes in Pectra include:

✔️ Cheaper signature aggregation (EIP-7549) – Reduces computational overhead for attestations.

✔️ Streamlined withdrawals (EIP-7002) – Enables smoother exits via the execution layer.

✔️ Faster validator activation (EIP-6110) – Speeds up onboarding for new validators.

Timeline 📅

The upgrade goes live on Chiado Testnet on March 6th, with Gnosis Mainnet expected to follow in early April. If you're a validator, now's the time to prepare!

Are you planning to increase your stake? Join the discussion on Discord and share your thoughts! 🦉💬 Follow the Gnosis Chain Validator Newsletter for updates

🏛️ GnosisDAO Accepts 7.5% Ownership in karpatkey DAO

We're excited to announce that GIP-121 has officially passed on Snapshot, confirming GnosisDAO's acceptance of a combined total of 7.5% ownership stake in karpatkey DAO! 🚀

What This Means:

• GnosisDAO will receive a 5% allocation from karpatkey DAO's upcoming airdrop
• This adds to the existing 2.5% allocation established in GIP-20
• The allocation recognizes GnosisDAO's role in incubating karpatkey since 2021

About karpatkey:

karpatkey has grown to become the leading DAO service provider for active, non-custodial treasury management, serving multiple major DAOs including ENS, Balancer, dYdX, CoW, Lido and Aave.

Their impressive track record includes:

• Managing over $2 billion in assets
• Executing more than 10,000 DAO transactions with zero funds lost
• Continuing to thrive even during bear market conditions

Next Steps:

• The KPK token will be deployed on Ethereum Mainnet with a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens
• GnosisDAO's 5% allocation will follow a 2-year vesting plan, beginning on TTE or 1 year after the proposal passes (whichever comes first)
• The original 2.5% allocation from GIP-20 has already vested
• Governance processes for karpatkey DAO will be introduced gradually in the coming weeks

This partnership continues the successful tradition of GnosisDAO incubating and spinning off successful projects, following in the footsteps of CowDAO and SafeDAO.

View the full proposal details: GIP-121 on Snapshot

✍️ Gnosis is Hiring!

🦉GnosisDAO

Ecosystem Growth Associate

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Head of Prediction Markets

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Legal Associate

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💳 Gnosis Pay

Compliance & Money Laundering Reporting Officer

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Customer Relations Agent

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🔬Gnosis Labs

LLM Engineer

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💡 Marketing

Head of Marketing and Communications

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Product Designer (Mid-level)

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🏗️ Infrastructure

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🌍 Ecosystem Friends

💼 Monerium | Growth & Community Manager

Monerium is looking for a Growth & Community Manager to drive engagement, expand our reach, and strengthen our presence in the Web3 space. 

👉 Apply here. 📩

🙏 Thank you

To get more involved in the Gnosis ecosystem, explore the links below!
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