Introduction and methods

THORChain is a bond testing network, run autonomously by anonymous operators. If the network were launched without a prior distribution phase, THORChain's treasury could dictate the genesis node operators, eroding the network's decentralised qualities.

In contrast, the IOU RUNE on two networks, Binance Chain and Ethereum, circulated for acquisition without permission for 18 months prior to the launch of the multi-chain network. Thus, anyone could have acquired enough RUNE to run a THORNode.

THORChain is extremely strict about having no third-party dependencies, preferring to manage everything internally. There are no oracles, no offshore security, no dependence on external liquidity.

However, BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE have privileged access to the "minting" function of the state machine. Anyone presenting these tokens can mint fresh RUNE, as well as make THORChain state dependent on these two networks.

In fact, 6 months ago, a white hat found a critical vulnerability, which was almost exploited but quickly circumvented, around this minting functionality in Binance Chain. Binance Chain vulnerability

ETH.RUNE also has unfavourable features for long-term holders, with the transferTo() function facilitating user impersonation. ETH.RUNE is designed to be redeemed to THOR.RUNE without delay.

It is therefore important to remove support for fresh RUNE minting, dependencies on BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE, as well as dependencies on Binance Chain and Ethereum networks.

In this dashboard, we are gonna explore if there has been an uptick in the amount of $RUNE being upgraded recently after the deprecation announcement. As well, we will take a look at both the $RUNE volume and number of wallets upgrading.

Results

Since the beginning of the upgrades launch, it was a big increase on the wallets interest during the first 2/3 months from around 200 daily active wallets in May 2021 to more than 400 in July 2021. Registering the highest peak so far on July 2nd 2021 with 1210 active wallets upgrading RUNE. After the break, the numbers remained similar during September and November 2021, but the activity decreased in 2022. During the first months, the daily active users was around 50, but it increased on mid March to 200. But the activity comeback to the poor numbers on April 2022. Now, since June, it seems like the activity has increased a little bit again maybe due to the recent deprecation announcement.

If we split the upgrades by chain, we can see how practically from the beginning until the end the BNB chain dominated it with around 80-90% of the daily upgrades depending on the day. However, during the past few days, the situation was reverted and now, 70% of the upgrades are done from Ethereum chain. However, in general terms, more than 90% of the wallets done the upgrade from BNB chain.

The volume of $RUNE ugpraded vary over time. There are some specific days when the volume spiked to millions. However, in the major of the cases, the volume doesn't exceed the 500k RUNE. So far, there have been 4 main days when the volume spiked:

• June 16th 2021: 19.5M RUNE
• October 26th 2021: 31M RUNE
• January 3rd 2022: 198M RUNE
• June 14th 2022: 54.5M RUNE

As it can be seen, one of the highlighted days represents a recent date and maybe in this case, it could be related to the deprecation announcement as well.

Taking into account the chain origin of he upgrades, we can see how in this case, the dominance is again in favour of BNB chain. However, in this case, there are more volatility in the percentages. In this case, almost 97% of the RUNE upgraded is from BNB chain.

Conclusions and insights

In this dashboard we have analyzed the RUNE upgrades activity due to the recent wrapped versions deprecation announcement. After the analysis of the active wallets as well as the volume fo RUNE upgraded, the main insights found are:

• Since June, it seems like the activity has increased a little bit again maybe due to the recent deprecation announcement.
• From the beginning until the end the BNB chain dominated it with around 80-90% of the daily upgrades depending on the day. However, during the past few days, the situation was reverted and now, 70% of the upgrades are done from Ethereum chain. It seems like the deprecation announcement had a repercution here.
• In June 14th 2022 it was registered one of the main days in terms of volume, being upgraded more than 54M RUNE.
• During the recent days, there is no a clear dominance about the procedence of the RUNE volume upgraded.

Source: Medium-Upgrading to native RUNE