Quick Take

• Ethereum developers successfully shadow-fork the Goerli testnet.

• Orbiter Finance adds support for ImmutableX to its bridge.

• Gnosis Safe releases a batched transaction builder.

• Element Finance announces a new NFT PFP collection.

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Goerli Testnet Shadow Fork

The Goerli testnet was successfully shadow-forked as part of a test to experiment different merge scenarios (such as attempted reorgs) in preparation for merging the actual testnet. A “shadow fork” is when the state of an existing network is mirrored onto a merged PoS network. Transactions from the main network can be replayed onto the shadow network as they occur.

Goerli was previously shadow-forked back in January and will be shadow-forked several more times before the merge. Ethereum developer Ben Edgington says that Ethereum mainnet will be shadow-forked in two weeks amid successful shadow-forks of Goerli and devnet-6. Developers are also working on making improvements to the Kiln merge testnet.

Orbiter Finance Adds ImmutableX

Orbiter Finance, a decentralized cross-rollup bridge, has added support for ImmutableX. Users can now bridge funds into or out of Immutable X within 30 seconds and for less than $2 in fees, according to the project. Orbiter Finance also supports bridging between mainnet, zkSync, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and Loopring.

The bridge is currently in an alpha phase and will roll out support for LPs called Makers, which provide liquidity for bridge transfers on the destination chain. Makers collect a fixed withholding fee and percentage-based trading fee for completing transfers. Orbiter also plans to release an SDK for dapps over the next few months.

Gnosis Safe Transaction Builder

Gnosis Safe released a transaction builder for creating custom batched transactions. The application provides a visual user interface with drag and drop functions for adding, editing, reviewing, and executing batches. A batched transaction is when multiple transactions are executed in a single, on-chain transaction.

It can include any type of transaction from token transfers to complex contract operations. Actions such as "Approve" and "Swap" can be bundled into a single transaction so users just have to confirm and execute once. Batching can help save on gas costs opposed to executing individual transactions. Gnosis advises users to be well-versed in transaction building before executing as it a rather technical feature.

Element Finance Drops Elfiverse NFT

Element Finance announced the launch of an NFT collection called Elfiverse. The collection of 5,000 profile picture NFTs will open for minting on April 6th at 12am PST. Element says they will release details on how to qualify for the mint, though it will likely be exclusive to users that have interacted with the protocol in the past.

The drop was released in commemoration of the Element DAO. According to Element CEO Will Villanueva, utility of the NFT will be decided on by the community, which could include leveling-up and voting power in the DAO. Element is an open source protocol for earning fixed and variable yield on crypto assets.

Optimism Deposits And Withdrawals On Houbi Global 

Huobi Global has added support for ETH deposits and withdrawals on Optimism. The exchange already supports ETH deposits and withdrawals on Arbitrum and zkSync. This week, Optimism shipped calldata compression on mainnet, further reducing transaction fees on the network by up to 40%. Optimism is currently the third largest optimistic rollups solution with over a half billion dollars in TVL.