The Latest Tech News in Crypto and Blockchain

Nov. 28: Chainlink, the biggest blockchain oracle project, announced that the “v0.2” upgrade of its native staking mechanism is now live. According to a press release: “V0.2 features an expanded pool size of 45 million LINK in total, representing 8% of the current circulating supply, increasing the accessibility of Chainlink Staking to a more diverse audience of LINK token holders. Staking is a core initiative of Chainlink Economics 2.0, which is bringing a new layer of cryptoeconomic security to the Chainlink Network. Specifically, Chainlink Staking enables ecosystem participants, such as node operators and community members, to back the performance of oracle services with staked LINK and earn rewards for helping secure the network.” There will be a nine-day Priority Migration period for existing v0.1 stakers, then progressively expanding to a broader scope of participants, with Early Access starting Dec. 7 and General Access on Dec. 11. (LINK)

Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here.

Nov. 29. “Toniq, a company building professional tools and services on the decentralized web, announced the launch of Bioniq, the world’s fastest Bitcoin-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, on the Internet Computer,” according to a press release.

Nov. 28: Intersect, a member-based organization for the Cardano ecosystem, has announced a funding pool of 2 million Australian dollars to support projects that empower the community and foster active participation in the evolution of Cardano, according to the team: “Nearly 100 grants are planned to supercharge and expand community-led decision making for Cardano. The application window for various grant categories is now open, with this round focused on projects that create robust ways for the community to discuss improvement proposals for Cardano.” (ADA)

Nov. 28: Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led a $5 million seed round into Setter, a consumer app that allows brands to explore Web3-powered commerce. The app by New York-based Setter plans to help brands innovate how they promote exclusive products and provide customers with limited edition drops, the firm said in an emailed announcement on Tuesday.

Nov. 28: Cube.Exchange, a digital asset trading platform fusing TradFi with Web3, has emerged from private beta and launched into early access, according to the team: “Cube.Exchange‘s unique market structure, where users retain ownership over their assets through use of a proprietary MPC vault, ensures control of them and means withdrawals and trades are only possible if explicitly authorized. Most importantly, users’ assets are protected even in the event of insolvency.”

Nov. 28: Magic Eden, a cross-chain NFT platform, announced the rollout of Magic Eden Wallet, “the first digital wallet to be integrated directly with an NFT platform,” according to the team. “Magic Eden aims to be the leading wallet for cross-chain collectors by making it easier than ever for anyone to collect any NFT on any chain, and to view and manage their entire digital collection without having to switch between multiple wallets. The full desktop browser extension is expected to launch to the general public in early 2024.”

Nov. 28: Econia, an on-chain order book on the Aptos blockchain, announced its mainnet launch, according to the team: “This follows the platform’s successful testnet phase, which saw substantial engagement: over $7.6B in trading volume + 1000 active users. Econia enables unrestricted market registration, allowing for a wide range of trading pairs. Notably, its front-end partners and market makers are initially concentrating on the APT – lzUSDC pair, employing the Stargate bridge for the seamless integration of USDC into the Aptos ecosystem.” (APT)

Nov. 28: Contango, a decentralized market known for building perpetual contracts (perps) on top of money markets, has recently announced its permissionless integration with SparkLend, according to the team: “Spark Protocol is governed by SparkDAO – the first functioning SubDAO of the MakerDAO ecosystem. Following this integration, users who trade Spark perpetual contracts on Contango can receive the upcoming SPK airdrop on Ethereum, according to the specified formula approved by Maker Governance. This is because all trades on Contango are made possible by borrowing and lending through SparkLend.”

Nov. 28: Nansen, the blockchain analytics firm, has launched the Nansen 2 upgrade, according to the team: “This advanced version offers faster, smarter tools, elevating wallet and token analytics. Smart Segments enable personalized research by grouping wallets based on their activities. Enhanced AI features like Smart Search and Signals provide effortless data queries and highlight unusual token/NFT activity for actionable insights.”

Nov. 28: Pimlico, a ERC-4337 infrastructure provider, which recently closed a $4.2 million seed funding round led by a16z crypto, is integrating Safe accounts via the newly launched ERC-4337 module from Safe, the leading smart account infrastructure provider. According to the team: “Safe’s module enables developers to turn the Safe smart account standard into an ERC-4337 smart account. Embedded in the Safe developer stack, Safe{Core}, the module will allow non-Web3 developers to offer Web3 functionalities in their Web2 consumer applications easily.”

Nov. 28: SSV.Network, a decentralized Ethereum staking infrastructure provider, has surpassed 2,000 validators with over 50,000 ETH staked since the first staking app went live, according to the team, claiming it’s “one of the fastest staking environments to hit 2K validators and $100 million TVL.”

Nov. 28: Truflation, an independent provider of verifiable economic data and indexes, is integrating with layer-1 blockchain Injective to provide data feeds for the pricing of real-world assets (RWAs) across the Injective ecosystem, according to the team: “Through this integration, any exchange or front-end application built on Injective’s platform can now effortlessly launch RWA-based indexes in a fully decentralized and on-chain environment. Truflation’s data is already powering Injective’s Helix DEX, while it also plans to launch the first futures commodity index exchange on Injective.” (INJ)

Nov. 28: Just a month after CoinTR announced hiring of government officials, positioning itself as a compliant exchange in Turkey, they are now announcing a new partnership with EOS to lead Web3 innovation in the country. According to the team, partnership highlights include: “synergistic market growth, Turkish Web3 incubator launch, CoinTR Launchpad, EOS staking pool, ecosystem support.” (EOS)

Nov. 27: Movement Labs announced the launch of M2, “the first Move Virtual Machine L2 for Ethereum, scaled with Celestia as modular DA,” according to the team: “M2 will enable developers to launch secure, performant and high-throughput Move VM rollups as easily as they do smart contracts. M2 integrates Celestia for data availability, Snowman for shared sequencing, and the Move Virtual Machine for execution, which is capable of 145k+ transactions per second as well as localized fee markets to mitigate gas spikes.”

Nov. 27: Telos, a “delegated proof-of-stake” layer-1 blockchain, announced two key hires: “1) Lee Erswell as new CEO. Lee joins Telos after building the Swapsicle DEX and helping it recently surpass over $1M in TVL. His focus will be on bolstering Telos’ DeFi ecosystem and overseeing the project’s ZK infrastructure development. 2) Justin Edwards as head of gaming. Justin has over two decades of experience in technology/gaming, having been part of the team at Jagex that built RuneScape, before leading Lockwood Publishing as it built out popular F2P mobile games. Last year, Justin served as COO of DCL and led operations for the entire virtual world’s ecosystem.”