May 27: drumTaiko, a fully open-source, permissionless Ethereum-equivalent ZK rollup, announced its deployment to mainnet on Monday after two years of project work. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed the first block. “Taiko has deployed Based Contestable Rollup (BCR), a variant of Base Rollup that combines base sequencing and contest mechanisms with multi-proofing,” according to the blog post. “Base Rollup relies on Ethereum block builders to sequence transactions, decentralizing the sequencer set so that the network can inherit liveness and security guarantees from the base layer.” For the first few weeks, block proposals and proofs will be done exclusively by the Taiko team, according to the post. “We want to allow everyone to propose and prove blocks once the network has stabilized.”
Who needs an off-ramp? Ether.fi plans Visa card for cryptocurrency Degeneres
May 24: Liquidity restak startup's latest offering Ether.fi Finally, a cryptocurrency DeGeneres “rich with cash” might help turn blockchain investments into pocket change: Ether.fi Cash is a mobile wallet and Visa credit card that lets you borrow the popular U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin USDC against your decentralized finance (DeFi) investments and repay directly in crypto.
Crypto Governance Advisory Firm MetaLeX Raises $2.75 Million
May 23: Crypto advocates used to argue that “code is law.” Courts and legal experts eventually killed off the phrase. But there's still plenty of money being spent figuring out how the two intertwine. One such effort is the crypto lawyers. Gabriel Shapiro's MetaLeXis a hybrid law firm and technology company focused on the disruption that crypto projects cause as they try to “decentralize.” MetaLeX recently raised $2.75 million in seed funding led by Cyberfund, and is currently valued at $27.5 million, Shapiro said.
ZK Hardware Acceleration Project Cysic Raises $12 Million
May 23 (Protocol Village exclusive): ShishikZK (zero-knowledge) hardware acceleration company announced it has successfully raised $12 million in a Pre-A funding round. The round was led by industry leaders HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures and aims to “facilitate the generation of ZK proofs in a faster, more cost-effective, user-friendly, and decentralized way,” the team said.
EasyA Consensus Hackathon – Call for Participants
This year, Consensus will collaborate with EasyA, the world's #1 Web3 learning app, to host its first-ever in-person hackathon. It will be a 3-day multi-chain IRL hackathon with world-class sponsors from Sui to Stellar to Polkadot, bringing together the world's best developers to build the future of Web3 and raise funds for their projects.
The projects launched by EasyA graduates are worth over $2.5 billion. The EasyA Consensus Hackathon will be the most important hackathon of 2024.
There are still a few spots left for hackers to participate, so if you're interested, please Sign up here!
Dfinity releases “EVM RPC” API that allows ICP to read other chains
May 23: Dfinity FoundationA key contributor to the Internet Computer (ICP), has announced that “EVM RPC Canister,” described as “a new API that allows ICP smart contracts to read and write data on different chains,” is now live. According to the team, “EVM RPC is another major milestone in the development of Dfinity's Chain Fusion framework, allowing Internet Computer smart contracts to directly interoperate with all major blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, other EVMs, and soon Solana, without relying on intermediaries.” Additionally, “ckUSDC, an interoperable stablecoin pegged 1:1 to USDC, is now available across ICP.”
Celo Foundation's Reinsberg Announces TGE Advisory “Bloom”
May 23: Rene Reinsberg, President of Celo Foundation On Thursday, the company announced its Ecosystem Token Generation Event (TGE) advisory, Bloom, at Dappcon in Berlin. According to the team, “Created to guide all blockchain ecosystem projects preparing for the TGE and subsequent product rollout, the foundation will provide strategic and operational support, including access to launchpads, exchange support, and access to fundraising and investor networks. Bloom will increase time and resources for product development and strategy, and remove ambiguity, allowing founders to focus on building projects that generate positive external effects for users around the world.”
Robinhood Wallet to Enable Gasless Swaps with Arbitrum
May 23: Robinhood Wallet The team said they plan to enable gasless swaps on Arbitrum starting Thursday: “Users will be able to swap on Arbitrum without needing ETH for gas, and behind the swaps is a DEX aggregator called 0x. Once the service launches, users will be presented with the best available swap rates, whether for gas or gasless swaps, and there will be no additional fees from Robinhood.”
Horizen Labs launches “ZkVerify” as a “dedicated zero-knowledge proof verification network”
May 23: Horizon LabHorizen Blockchain lead developer, Zakhar Gupta, has launched “zkVerify, a purpose-built zero-knowledge proof verification network designed for payment optimization, to address the biggest cost currently facing zkRollups and zkApps that limits scalability and efficiency,” according to the team. “ZkVerify offloads the computationally intensive proof verification, allowing blockchains to focus on their core functionality. It integrates with multiple SNARK proof schemes, reducing verification costs by up to 91%. It currently supports Ethereum and Bitcoin L2, with plans to expand to other architectures. ZkVerify is currently live on testnet.”
Cross-Chain Protocol Analog Launches $ANLOG Incentivized Testnet
May 23: analogAnalog, a Layer 0 cross-chain communications protocol and Web3 data provider, has launched an incentivized testnet, allocating a minimum of 2% of the token supply to participants, the team said. “Analog's testnet is open to developers, the community, and validators. Participants can complete quests, climb the ATP leaderboard, and share $ANLOG. This will enable developers to build dApps with a range of tools, enabling true interoperability between any blockchain network. Analog's core products form a powerful toolkit for cross-chain development.”
Solana-Based DEX Zeta Markets Plans Its Own Layer 2 Network
May 23: Zeta Marketis a Solana-based DEX for trading perpetual swaps on-chain, but is currently planning its own Layer 2 solution, “ZX,” which the team describes as “optimistic rollup built on Solana.” The mainnet launch is scheduled for early 2025. At the same time, Zeta will also release a detailed Litepaper outlining ZX's architecture and capabilities. According to the press release, “ZX is an optimistic rollup built on Solana that leverages zero-knowledge (zk) proofs to enable trustless on-chain settlements…ZX's key features include high throughput of up to 10,000 transactions per second, sub-10 millisecond transaction confirmations that compete with major centralized exchanges, seamless one-click trading, and up to 50x leverage with multiple collateral options.”
Orderly Network Expands to Polygon PoS
May 23: An orderly networkOrderly Network, which describes itself as a “permissionless liquidity layer for Web3 trading,” has expanded to Polygon PoS by partnering with Quickswap, the leading DEX for Polygon PoS, to launch Falkor. According to the team, “This integration is a testament to our versatility, enabling AMMs like QuickSwap to expand their product offering and offer perpetual futures on Polygon PoS for the first time,” said Arjun Arora, COO of Orderly Network.
HouseParty, River Protocol from HNT Labs, co-founded by Meerkat's Ben Rubin, has launched
May 23: River ProtocolCreated by HNT Labs, which was founded by Ben Rubin and Brian Meek and has raised $33 million in funding from a16z Crypto, Benchmark and Framework, the platform will launch on Thursday. Ben Rubin is the founder of HouseParty and Meerkat. According to the team, “River Protocol was designed for decentralized real-time messaging apps. River leverages EVM-compatible L2 chains, decentralized off-chain nodes, end-to-end encryption and smart contracts from Base. With River, developers can create a wide range of products, including decentralized social networks, community governance platforms, secure messaging apps and co-working spaces.”
HAQQ-evmOS integration enables cross-chain support with Cosmos and Ethereum
May 23: HAQQ NetworkDescribing itself as “an ethics-first Web3 DeFi ecosystem with the highest number of daily active users in Cosmos,” the company announced “an important partnership with evmOS, an EVM-compatible tech stack. The integration of evmOS functionality into the HAQQ network will enable cross-chain compatibility with the Cosmos and Ethereum networks, giving HAQQ users and developers access to a wider range of DeFi capabilities.”
Aptos Announces Launch of TruStake, TruFin’s Institutional Liquidity Staking Solution
May 23: Aptos “The TruStake Aptos Vault allows users to stake APTs while maintaining flexibility and control over their assets – all within a permissioned environment that prioritizes security. Leveraging the scalability and performance of the Aptos blockchain, TruFin's liquidity staking solution gives APT holders the ability to generate staking rewards on their holdings and access additional revenue opportunities across DeFi protocols,” the blockchain said.
Plume, a Layer-2 Blockchain for Real-World Assets, Raises $10M Seed Funding from Haun and Galaxy
May 23: As blockchain races for mainstream acceptance in the U.S. Congress this week, a growing number of compliance-focused crypto projects are hoping a more favorable regulatory environment will lead to a surge in blockchain-based RWAs. One such startup is Decorative feathershas raised $10 million in seed funding for what will be the first Layer 2 blockchain built specifically for RWA. The round was led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, Portal Ventures, and Reciprocal Ventures.
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