LPU THORChain Updates (Aug 2023)

In this series, LPU aims to give regular condensed “state of THORChain” updates. Enjoy!

1. Savers Yield Adjustment

On 27-Jul, a node vote was started to further adjust Savers Yield. The proposal was implemented three days later after receiving no dissenting votes.

2. Savers and POL for Stablecoin Pools

On 28-Jul, a node vote was started to enable Savers and POL for stablecoin pools. After three days without dissent, this was passed. Code for Savers/POL for stablecoins was merged in v1.119. Initially, Savers will only be offered for stablecoin pools which are used for the internal TOR accounting unit, namely BEP2 BUSD, ERC20 USDC & USDT, and AVAX C-Chain USDC. On 18-Aug, the first stablecoin Saver deposit was received: https://viewblock.io/thorchain/tx/69E5CC89B2EC2E979AEA6F3934D0965A65B998A2AA59EA2CA798D8C02903E6B2

Status of Savers end-Aug:

https://thorchain.net/thorfi/savers

POL will not be enabled until Synth cap are almost reached, and will likely have a safety measure where no higher than 33% of total POL can be in stablecoin pools.

In parallel, the Treasury created & seeded three new stablecoin pools: GUSD, USDP and LUSD. This will be monitored for future consideration as anchor pools for TOR.

3. ADR 011 Lending

On 8-Aug, ADR 011 for Lending was released: https://gitlab.com/thorchain/thornode/-/blob/develop/docs/architecture/adr-011-lending.md. On 9-Aug, >67% nodes voted yes. Devs were ready to launch Lending on 16-Aug, but with the TSS-related Node Churn pause (see point 5 below), it was decided to resolve the TSS security issues first (with v1.119) before launching Lending.

On 20-Aug, Lending was finally launched, with THORSwap and Lends as the first two supporting interfaces. First loan transaction: https://thornode.ninerealms.com/thorchain/tx/a9c9e34c34f5948c3cc6909caca79483a22aba30f0943490ed2a0954222328ea

Status of Lending end-Aug:

https://thorchain.net/thorfi/lending

More information: https://dashboards.ninerealms.com/#lending

4. Chain Halt and Synth Refund Bug

On 8-Aug, an eagle-eyed node noticed a potentially bugged transaction and executed a chain pause for further investigation. This is the first time this function has been used in the wild, a great example of THORChain’s security design at work.

Investigations revealed a bug with Synth minting when Hard Cap was reached; and trading was re-enabled (with Synths minting halted) an hour later. Patch v1.118 was quickly deployed, adopted by all nodes, and Synth minting was re-enabled less than 24 hours later.

5. TSS Security Disclosures

On 13-Aug, Node churning was paused to avoid potential security vulnerability related to TSS keygens. After more discussions with the wider security research community, on 16-Aug, TSS keysigns were deemed to be potentially vulnerable as well. As such, all swapping and LP activities were halted.

THORChain was ready early with the patch, but being fully open-sourced, any published patch may allow potential exploiters to back-engineer the vulnerability, and put other TSS projects in danger. Eventually, there was the green light to publish patch v1.119 on 17-Aug, and after >50% of nodes upgraded, trading was re-enabled around an hour later.

Finally, after adoption by 100% of nodes, churning was re-enabled on 18-Aug.

On 22-Aug, another TSS disclosure was received, and again node churning is paused until it is deemed a non-security risk. Swaps, LPs, Savers and Lending are functioning as normal. On 24-Aug, churn was re-enabled.

6. Multinode Environments

Starting on 24-Aug, multiple nodes operated by single node operator will be evenly assigned to multiple Asgard vaults to increase security.

7. Treasury Update

On 29-Aug, a Treasury Update was published:

https://twitter.com/THORChain/status/1696403582415966354

Feel free to hop into the TC University Discord to chat about this, or any other THORChain questions that you may have.

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