Last Update 2:42 PM September 23, 2023 (UTC)

Web3 | Identosphere Blogcatcher

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Saturday, 28. October 2023

Urbit

Urbit Assembly Lisboa 2023

This year’s Assembly takes place in Lisbon: Europe’s tech and crypto hub. Assembly is the largest annual Urbit conference, bringing together Urbit organizations, developers & enthusiasts from around the world. Buy your tickets now at [assembly.urbit.org](https://assembly.urbit.org) This year we’re doing something new. Immediately following Assembly there will be a week of side events organize
This year’s Assembly takes place in Lisbon: Europe’s tech and crypto hub. Assembly is the largest annual Urbit conference, bringing together Urbit organizations, developers & enthusiasts from around the world. Buy your tickets now at [assembly.urbit.org](https://assembly.urbit.org) This year we’re doing something new. Immediately following Assembly there will be a week of side events organized by you: Urbit Week Lisboa. We value IRL contact, therefore no talks will be live-streamed. Some recordings will be available after the event. Find out more at [assembly.urbit.org](https://assembly.urbit.org) ![Screenshot](https://storage.googleapis.com/media.urbit.org/assembly/assembly-thumbnail.png)

Saturday, 23. September 2023

PIVX

Elevate Your PIVX Journey: Discover the Versatility of the PIVX Toolbox

Are you in search of a more user-friendly way to explore the world of PIVX and make the most out of your experience? Look no further than PIVX Toolbox, a comprehensive platform designed to make your PIVX journey easier and more rewarding. Created and developed by PalmTree, PIVX’s Core team member, this toolbox has become the go-to resource for PIVX users worldwide. When it comes to entering the
Are you in search of a more user-friendly way to explore the world of PIVX and make the most out of your experience?

Look no further than PIVX Toolbox, a comprehensive platform designed to make your PIVX journey easier and more rewarding. Created and developed by PalmTree, PIVX’s Core team member, this toolbox has become the go-to resource for PIVX users worldwide.

When it comes to entering the exciting world of cryptocurrency, the learning curve can sometimes feel overwhelming. But with the PIVX Toolbox at your disposal, you gain access to all the support and information you need to navigate through any challenges you may encounter.

Let’s take a closer look at the various tools available in the PIVX Toolbox and how they can empower you on your PIVX journey:

User-Friendly Interface: The PIVX Toolbox is designed with simplicity in mind. Its user-friendly interface ensures that even newcomers to the crypto space can easily navigate the platform and find the tools they need. It is translated into 13 different international languages, making it more globally accessible.

My Transactions: With the “My Transactions” feature, you can effortlessly track and monitor your PIVX transactions on the blockchain. This tool provides you with valuable insights into the movement of your funds and helps you stay informed about your financial activities.

Masternode Check-Up: If you are a PIVX masternode owner, the “Masternode Check-Up” tool is a must-have. It allows you to perform regular checks on the status of your masternode, ensuring that everything is running smoothly and maximizing your staking rewards.

Am I Forked?: The “Am I Forked?” feature is an essential tool for PIVX users. It helps you determine whether you are on the correct blockchain or if you have inadvertently ended up on a forked chain. By ensuring that you are on the right track, you can safeguard your investments and avoid potential issues.

Rewards Estimator: Curious about how much you can earn through staking or owning a masternode? The “Rewards Estimator” tool provides you with an estimate of your potential rewards based on your PIVX holdings. This valuable information enables you to make informed decisions and optimize your earning potential.

Snapshots: The PIVX Toolbox includes a feature called “Snapshots,” which provides you with easy-to-follow instructions on utilizing blockchain snapshots. A snapshot captures the entire blockchain ledger at a specific block height, including all addresses and associated data. This tool ensures that you can efficiently navigate through different blockchain states and access historical information.

Cold Staking: Last but not least, the PIVX Toolbox offers the “Cold Staking” feature. Cold Staking allows you to delegate your PIVX to a staking node, enabling it to stake on your behalf without the need to transfer your PIVX coins. This secure staking method ensures that your PIVX remains protected while still generating passive income.

With the PIVX Toolbox, you have all these incredible tools conveniently available on a single platform. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced PIVX user, this feature-rich toolbox is here to support you every step of the way.

We value your input! Visit Discord.PIVX.org to share your thoughts on the toolbox and be part of the PIVX community.

PIVX would like to thank PalmTree, PIVX Toolbox wouldn’t be possible without its creator.

Elevate Your PIVX Journey: Discover the Versatility of the PIVX Toolbox was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Friday, 22. September 2023

a16z Podcast

The Engineering Challenge of Rapidly Reusable Rockets

The space industry is evolving rapidly, with the cost of launching payloads to orbit dropping significantly. But who's investing in this sector, and how will it evolve?  In this episode, we delve into the transformative journey of the satellite industry with Andy Lapsa, co-founder of Stoke Space. With over a decade of experience at Blue Origin, Andy is now at the forefront of sustainable spa

The space industry is evolving rapidly, with the cost of launching payloads to orbit dropping significantly. But who's investing in this sector, and how will it evolve? 

In this episode, we delve into the transformative journey of the satellite industry with Andy Lapsa, co-founder of Stoke Space. With over a decade of experience at Blue Origin, Andy is now at the forefront of sustainable space travel, pioneering fully reusable rockets.

Don’t forget to check out Part 1 in this mini series, where we explore the public and private players in space with John Gedmark from Astranis.

 

Resources: 

Learn more about Stoke: https://www.stokespace.com

Find Andy on Twitter: https://x.com/AndyLapsa?s=20

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


Andreesen Horowitz - a16z

Are You Ready To Be a Public Company?

Going public is not the same as being a public company. When you go public, your company’s performance suddenly has a real-time scoreboard: your stock price. It’s easy to think that high growth can make up for a low stock price, especially for founders at fast-growing late-stage startups that are still burning cash. But as...

Going public is not the same as being a public company. When you go public, your company’s performance suddenly has a real-time scoreboard: your stock price. It’s easy to think that high growth can make up for a low stock price, especially for founders at fast-growing late-stage startups that are still burning cash. But as a public company, the reality is that a low or volatile stock price sucks and can hurt your business. It’s bad for employee morale and retention, it’s bad for recruiting and hiring new executives, it’s bad for using your stock for M&A, and it often gives competitors the opening to point at your stock price and say, “the market’s figured it out. They’re a disaster.”

This doesn’t mean a company has to wait until they’re profitable to go public. However, if you are still burning cash as a public company, you need to know how to give shareholders what they need to build a high-confidence model of your business—and seemingly small differences in investor assumptions about your company can result in big impacts on your stock price. Here’s my framework for growth-stage companies that are burning cash and want to know: “am I ready to be a public company?”

Do you have a credible growth story to sustain 20%+ growth in year 6 of your financial model? Do you have the operating leverage and stock burn (annual dilution) public investors expect? Can you accurately forecast your business within +/-10% 4 quarters out—and meet or beat it? Do you have a credible growth story?

Are you sustaining 20%+ growth in year 6 of your financial model? And can you tell a compelling story about what will drive that growth?

As a public company, your stock value depends on your ability to show investors that you have a credible path to grow—especially if you’re not cash flow positive yet. Investors build models over 5–10 years, so as a general rule of thumb, you want your financial model to show that you can sustain 20%+ growth in year 6 if you’re currently burning cash. Otherwise, your combination of growth and profitability is unlikely to get public investors excited. (As a note: while I draw a line in the sand at 20%+ growth in year 6 for high-growth companies, there are plenty of successful, highly valued, more mature companies in the public markets with lower growth and higher profitability.)

But it’s not enough to show some possible scenario where your numbers translate into growing 20%+ in year 6. You need to show that scenario is credible and likely, and that means telling a compelling story about why you’ll keep growing really fast for years to come—by selling additional products or selling your existing product in more places, or both.

The most powerful growth stories prompt investors to dream about what would happen if your company figures out the next product, and the next product after that, and then becomes an industry platform with stickiness and staying power. After all, what is the open-ended upside of the company that started out selling CRM software that then turned into Salesforce with over 6 different products? Those are the stories on which generation-defining companies are made.

You know best what drives your business. If you want investors to understand your business the way you do, share the data that helps them build a model the same way you do. To make this more concrete, here are a few companies I think have told compelling growth stories.

Crowdstrike: product→platform

A platform is a company that has a defensible core product with lasting customer relationships, and something about that core product that gives them the right to win incremental new business from the customer at a lower cost of acquisition than competitors. If you tell investors you’re a platform, the numbers better back the story up. In Crowdstrike’s case, it did.

They told investors they sold a broad security platform with products that spanned endpoint security, IT operations, and threat intelligence. In their S-1, they cited that 47% of their customers (and growing) bought 4 or more of their products, which had increased net dollar retention from 127% to 147%. Customer testimonials backed up the numbers, showing that major enterprises viewed CrowdStrike as a security platform, not just a product.

“CrowdStrike Falcon provides us with the protection as well as a level of functionality and visibility we didn’t find from other providers.”
—Deputy CISO, AWS

“In my career, the deployment of the CrowdStrike Falcon platform was perhaps the easiest global security rollout I’ve seen.”
—CSO, ADP

Generally, a company needs to show a base level of execution selling multiple products before investors will give you credit for it. In CrowdStrike’s case, they had historically proven that they could cross-sell products, and investors could easily see customers were willing to buy additional products and bake that assumption into their models.

Airbnb: network effects

As a 2-sided marketplace, Airbnb initially found product-market fit with budget-conscious travelers who wanted cheaper alternatives to pricey hotels that were better quality or offered more privacy than 12-bed hostels. As their core product improved over time, network effects kicked in, and Airbnb expanded their TAM to include higher-end travel, international travel, and business travel. The more people used Airbnb, the more people listed accommodations on it. The more accommodations that were listed, the more people used Airbnb. A pretty compelling story for sustained growth! And in Airbnb’s case, they also had a compelling second product line—Experiences—to fuel growth in addition to network effects.

Nubank: communicating the growth model to investors

The Brazilian-based fintech company Nubank started with a set of highly engaged users in a large market category (credit cards and personal finance), as shown by a high ratio of DAUs to MAUs—almost 50%. As those customers grew their wealth, Nubank demonstrated strong cohort retention and an ability to sell additional products beyond their entry-level credit card to those same customers. In other words, they had plenty of new customers still to win with low overall penetration of their TAM in their core market, and a proven ability to expand relationships with existing customers. They added to that early success expanding into new geographies, proving that their playbook worked in other markets, and a roadmap for a product line focused on small businesses. This all added up to a compelling story that gave investors clear, logical building blocks for a credible long-term growth model.

Do you have the operating leverage public investors expect?

Can you grow expenses at 85%, or lower, of the rate at which you grow revenue and keep annual stock burn at 2–3%?

Investors want to build a model where they’re confident that as you scale, your costs won’t grow as fast as revenue, so your margin improves. That’s operating leverage.

One rule of thumb for assessing operating leverage as a public company: am I growing expenses at 85%, or lower, the rate at which I’m growing my revenue? For a company growing 50% at IPO, if you grow expenses at 85% of your revenue growth, your margins will have improved by 22% points over the course of 5 years. There is very strong clustering around this 85% ratio among public companies, which we suspect is driven by investors expecting a certain amount of operating leverage and public CFOs who know what numbers “the street” expects. (It turns out public companies don’t do zero-based budgeting after all.)

Another part of establishing operating leverage and cost discipline as a public company is keeping your stock-based comp at the burn levels (annual dilution) public investors expect. Stock-based comp is often a substitute for cash-based comp, so if you have an 85% ratio of expense to revenue growth but are issuing massive amounts of employee stock, then you aren’t really at 85%. Investors might not care about this as much when the market is good because they expect stocks to go up. But when the market is tough, investors tend to pay a lot of attention to stock burn. Best-in-class public tech companies have 2–3% annual stock burn (in the form of RSUs), which is lower burn than most private tech startups are used to. If you’re considering going public, it’s a good idea to start paying attention to, and if possible lowering, your stock burn while you’re still a private company.

Can you accurately forecast your business?

Can you accurately forecast your business within +/–10% 4 quarters out? And can you beat guidance by 4–6% each quarter?

You have to hit your short-term targets to get credit for your long-term growth plans and margin aspirations. Public investors have been conditioned to expect you to beat and raise your financial guidance consistently every quarter. Missing big within the first few quarters can be devastating—not because your business is broken if you miss, but because your stock price will suffer as public investors question your forecasts.

Consistently and accurately forecasting your business is hard, and most companies need to be pretty large before they can consistently predict revenue, future growth, and operating margins. For this reason, we recommend companies do mock “public” guidance and earnings calls for the 12–18 months before going public.

On average, when we looked at the performance of 115 tech companies that went public in the last 5 years, the best performing companies beat their quarterly guidance by 4–6% in the first 4 quarters after they IPO’d. We counsel our companies to set guidance that you can beat by 4–6% and then build in a buffer on top, since missing can really damage investor confidence and, consequently, your stock price. And as we’ve established, a low stock price sucks.

When investors build valuation models, seemingly small differences in their assumptions about your topline growth and margins can have a huge impact on their buy price and, thus, your stock price. At a simplified level, your company is valued as the sum of your future cash flows. Higher topline growth rates combined with higher free cash flow margins at maturity lead to materially different cash flow profiles and, consequently, stock prices.

In the chart above, we show the financial impact of growing at a rate of 25%, 30%, and 35% in the 5 years after IPO—and clearly, higher growth rates compound over time to make a big difference in revenue profiles! If investors also assume a high-growth company has increasingly better margins, the difference in free cash flow generation is even greater—in some cases, great enough to be the difference between public investors valuing you at single- or double-digit revenue multiples. For instance, in the hypothetical examples in the graph above, a company growing at 35% for the first 5 years as a public company with a path to high long-term margins is valued more than 3x higher at IPO than a company growing 25% with lower steady state margins ($14B valued at 20x forward revenue vs. $4B valued at 6x forward revenue). This is the huge effect growth and margin assumptions can have on your valuation at IPO.

All of this is to say: if you’re a growth-stage company considering going public, start practicing being public—which means telling the story of how you’ll continue to grow, establishing operating leverage, and accurately forecasting where you’re going.

Special thanks to Justin Kahl and Santiago Rodriguez for their contributions and feedback on this piece. 


Circle Blog

USD Coin and Euro Coin are now exclusively: USDC and EURC

Circle is on a mission to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. How you find and identify our stablecoin products should reflect the same ease and simplicity. 

Circle is on a mission to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. How you find and identify our stablecoin products should reflect the same ease and simplicity. 


Epicenter Podcast

Misha Komarov: =nil; Foundation – The Marketplace for ZK Proof Generation

Zero knowledge proof systems have found tremendous cryptographic utility in scaling blockchains, due to their ability to prove computational integrity, succinctly. However, despite recent advancements in ZKP R&D, their construction still requires special prover circuits. Their complexity is what gatekeeps zero knowledge technology to a select few astute teams. =nil; Foundation aims to challeng

Zero knowledge proof systems have found tremendous cryptographic utility in scaling blockchains, due to their ability to prove computational integrity, succinctly. However, despite recent advancements in ZKP R&D, their construction still requires special prover circuits. Their complexity is what gatekeeps zero knowledge technology to a select few astute teams. =nil; Foundation aims to challenge this status quo by providing an alternative through their zkLLVM circuit compiler and zk proof marketplace. By commoditising the production of custom proofs, =nil; Foundation unlocks an entire new range of applications employing zero knowledge technology.

We were joined by Misha Komarov, co-founder of =nil; Foundation, to discuss the use cases and challenges of building the first marketplace for (outsourced) zero knowledge proofs.

Topics covered in this episode:

The vision behind =nil; Foundation Use cases for zk tech zkLLVM circuit compiler Homomorphic encryption, ZKPs & privacy solutions ZKP marketplace Why proof markets (currently) run on DBMS Marketplace actors Proof generators vs. PoW miners Infrastructure challenges Future roadmap

Episode links:

Mikhail Komarov on Twitter =nil; Foundation on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/514


bankless

ROLLUP: Ethereum Absorbs Alt-L1s | SEC vs. Stoner Cats | Mark Cuban's -$870k Wallet Hack

WRU 4th Week of September  ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables 🎁 https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables  ------ 📣 LayerZero | Accelerating Web3 Interoperability via GoogleCloud https://bankless.cc/layer-zero  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOU

WRU 4th Week of September 

----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables 🎁 https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables 

------ 📣 LayerZero | Accelerating Web3 Interoperability via GoogleCloud https://bankless.cc/layer-zero 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

🔗 CELO | CEL2 COMING SOON https://bankless.cc/Celo 

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro 2:50 MARKETS 9:15 Fed Rate - No change! (5.25-5.5%) https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/09/20/business/fed-meeting-interest-rates  12:10 U.S. Americans Own Crypto? https://www.coinbase.com/blog/a-call-to-action-mobilizing-52-million-crypto-owners-into-an-army-of-1  15:20 Ethereum’s 1st Merge anniversary!  https://twitter.com/sassal0x/status/1702629393984803041?s=46  16:25  Bye bye ultra-sound money?  https://ultrasound.money/#gas  17:30 L1 is shrinking, but layer-2 networks are maintaining healthy activity  https://l2beat.com/scaling/activity 

20:39 Are all the chains moving to Ethereum? Rollup Migration to Ethereum - 3 New Ethereum Rollups coming from non-Ethereum ecosystems 21:00 1.1 - Astar Network  Sandeep Take  https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1701990949319254345  23:00 1.2 - Canto https://twitter.com/CantoPublic/status/1703809950290718871  24:00 1.3 - Eclipse  https://twitter.com/EclipseFND/status/1704178668543824309  27:35 Ryan Take https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1703882356468117703  28:40 Mert Take https://x.com/0xMert_/status/1704229795079365101  30:00 Frankie Take https://twitter.com/frankieislost/status/1704262750405587248 

37:58 SEC is coming after the Stoner Cats - Gary. V. Cats https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-178 https://x.com/MikeSeligEsq/status/1701978172487606665  https://twitter.com/loopifyyy/status/1701966597445874124  44:00 Hester Pierce Dissented! - Chief Disenting Officer https://twitter.com/NFTherder/status/1702057933389836293  46:25 SEC warns more charges coming to exchanges and DeFi  https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/09/19/us-secs-crypto-enforcement-chief-warns-more-charges-coming-to-exchanges-defi/

49:13 New Airdrop! Optimism also announced OP Airdrop #3 https://twitter.com/optimismFND/status/1703837786703335672  50:10 POL Token is coming! MATIC becoming POL. Polygon 2.0 implementation kicked off!  51:00 https://twitter.com/0xPolygonLabs/status/1702280764677578755  1st PIPs: MATIC to POL and launch of Polygon’s new staking layer!  https://polygon.technology/blog/polygon-2-0-implementation-officially-begins-the-first-set-of-pips-polygon-improvement-proposals-released  51:25 Arbitrum is restarting Odyssey  https://twitter.com/arbitrum/status/1704173003825615353  52:10 Conduit opening Support for Arbitrum:  https://x.com/KAndrewHuang/status/1704848429883732256 

53:18 Coinbase earned 570 ETH of MEV as a result of Curve hack. Should they return it? https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/09/15/coinbase-inadvertently-earned-1m-due-to-hack-but-hasnt-reimbursed-victims/

57:10 Is Ethereum finally getting a privacy L2? Maybe soon? https://twitter.com/aztecnetwork/status/1704433376525242474 

58:25 Infura in its progressive decentralization era https://blog.infura.io/post/progressive-decentralization-of-the-rpc-layer-centralization-to-federation

59:10 FTX sues SBF’s parents - eating their own aims to claw back some of the $26 million in gifts and property https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.deb.188450/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.2642.0.pdf  https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/19/sbfs-parents-sued-by-ftx-for-millions-of-dollars-in-misappropriated-funds.html 

1:00:30 Mark Cuban lost $870,000 in a wallet hack - everyone’s getting hacked https://twitter.com/WazzCrypto/status/1702820716343624168 

1:03:38 New ETH ETFs  https://twitter.com/JSeyff/status/1701612412456280467  1:03:45 Grayscale ETH Futures ETF https://cointelegraph.com/news/grayscale-files-for-new-ethereum-futures-etf 

1:06:25 Questions From The Nation

1:15:30 Takes https://x.com/matthuang/status/1704608186723119329  https://www.paradigm.xyz/2023/09/casino-on-mars  Where do you store your wealth?  https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1703986421378245024 

1:19:50 What Are We Bullish On https://www.bankless.com/choose-your-bull-market-character-class 

1:24:55 Meme of the Week   1:26:15 Risks and Disclosures

------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures 


Defiant

Prisma Finance Pulls In $30M With LST-backed mkUSD Stablecoin

Increased Debt Limit Of $10M Was Hit In Under Two Hours
Increased Debt Limit Of $10M Was Hit In Under Two Hours

Brave Browser

Brave, Electric Coin Co., and Filecoin Foundation announce partnership to bring new privacy tools to Web3

Brave, Electric Coin Co., and Filecoin Foundation are teaming up to bring innovative new privacy features to the Brave browser and its integrated Web3 wallet.

On stage at Messari Mainnet today in New York, Brave, Electric Coin Co. (ECC), and Filecoin Foundation announced that they are teaming up to bring innovative new privacy features to the Brave browser and its integrated Web3 wallet.

Private transactions for all 

With support from ECC, Brave will integrate the Zcash protocol in the browser’s built-in crypto wallet so users can securely store, send, and receive ZEC alongside other cryptocurrencies.

The integration underscores Brave’s commitment to blending privacy, transparency, and user choice. With private transactions possible alongside public ones, users will have greater control over their Web3 activity. 

“I’m excited about integrating Zcash into the Brave web browser because privacy should be normal. The Brave browser is a tool that tens of millions of people are using for everyday communication, web browsing, shopping, and other activities. This gives them access to money that respects their security and consent. I’m thrilled for this launch — and what’s to come — as a result of this partnership with Brave and Filecoin Foundation.”

— Zooko Wilcox, CEO, Electric Coin Co.

“This partnership with like-minded organizations reinforces Brave’s mission for a more private and user-first Web. Not only do we hope to make it simple to use ZEC for private transactions, but we also aim to maximize privacy during key moments of purchase or exchange.”

— Yan Zhu, CISO, Brave

A private and decentralized messaging feature

Brave, ECC, and Filecoin Foundation also teased plans on stage to develop a new, privacy-based feature in the Brave browser that will offer private messages and media transmission via the Zcash protocol. InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) – the technology underlying the Filecoin protocol – will play a crucial role in providing secure storage for the encrypted content.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of this important project. We believe cryptocurrency can be the foundation for a better Internet — an alternative to big tech that puts people in control of their own data, protects user privacy and security, and permanently preserves humanity’s most important information.”

— Marta Belcher, President, Filecoin Foundation

Brave

Brave Software’s fast, privacy-oriented browser, combined with its blockchain-based digital advertising platform, is reinventing the Web for users, publishers, and advertisers. Users can opt into privacy-respecting ads that reward them with the Basic Attention Token (BAT), a frequent flyer-like token they can redeem or use to tip or contribute to publishers and other content creators. Brave is a driving force leading the way for Web3 adoption, directly supporting Web3 into the broader Web through its privacy browser, independent search engine, and browser-native, multi-chain crypto wallet. Brave currently has over 60 million monthly active users and 1.8 million Creators. Learn more at brave.com.

Electric Coin Co.

Electric Coin Co. launched Zcash in 2016 and continues to support the protocol and user experience, alongside other developers and teams. Zcash is a cryptocurrency built to empower economic freedom. It is similar to Bitcoin in its design, but it uses a privacy technology that encrypts transaction information and allows users to shield their assets. Our vision for Zcash is that it will provide equal access to economic systems and give everyone the ability to participate in economic activity. Learn more at electriccoin.co.

Filecoin Foundation

Filecoin Foundation (FF) facilitates governance of the Filecoin network, funds research and development projects for decentralized web technologies, and supports the growth of the Filecoin ecosystem and community. Its mission is to preserve humanity’s most important information. Learn more at fil.org.

Thursday, 21. September 2023

Panther Protocol

Panther Protocol & Privacy Pools: Approaches Compared

Different approaches to private asset velocity in light of the Privacy Pools paper. Introduction Public blockchains inherently champion transparency. The cornerstone of this architecture allows anyone to validate transactions without dependence on centralized intermediaries. This transparency, while advantageous in many respects, also accentuates the pressing need for privacy, especially given
Different approaches to private asset velocity in light of the Privacy Pools paper.

Introduction

Public blockchains inherently champion transparency. The cornerstone of this architecture allows anyone to validate transactions without dependence on centralized intermediaries. This transparency, while advantageous in many respects, also accentuates the pressing need for privacy, especially given the escalating prominence of platforms like Bitcoin and Ethereum, their DeFi applications, and adoption by institutions.

The industry has various challenges to solve to deliver a better product: transaction linkability, network privacy, and private key management are some. There have been commendable strides in these areas, such as the development of Layer-1 blockchains like Zcash, which offers private transactions, and smart contract solutions like Tornado Cash, which breaks the transaction link between deposit and withdrawal addresses on Ethereum. Due to their permissionless nature and approach, these systems are currently not designed for risk management. Notably, Tornado Cash “has also been used by various bad actors. Deposit data suggests that hacker groups have moved funds from illicit sources through the protocol.” (Buterin et al., page 1). While Tornado Cash had its pitfalls, notably its usage by malicious actors (causing the protocol to get internationally sanctioned), the root cause of such vulnerabilities isn't necessarily technological but rather structural and was meant to be exploited.

At its core, the true sentiment we need to grapple with is this: compliance, while ensuring standardized behavior and safeguarding user interests, undeniably carries a cost – both financial and in terms of user accessibility. There's an exclusionary element to compliance, where stringent checks can sometimes inadvertently alienate non-malicious users. Furthermore, the absence of clear regulatory frameworks around decentralization and DAOs has ushered in shades of ambiguity. This uncertain environment is ripe for exploitation.

Historically, many actors in the space prioritized rapid growth over diligent compliance, often underestimating or even ignoring the long-term repercussions of such a strategy. Their motivations were straightforward – to reduce immediate costs and accelerate expansion. But such a strategy is inherently flawed. With today's well-informed user base demanding greater clarity and accountability, the repercussions of neglecting compliance have grown exponentially in magnitude. Simply put, compromising compliance for short-term gains threatens the longevity and credibility of any decentralized system.

It's essential to differentiate between ideologic and economic motives. While the decentralized movement was born from a desire for autonomy and freedom from permissionless surveillance, its sustained growth and mainstream adoption are undeniably tethered to economic incentives. In this case, ideology isn't the dominant force; it's the potential for economic upside. Similarly, while security concerns are paramount, they represent a distinct set of challenges, separate from those posed by compliance.

Thus, as we critique systems like Tornado Cash, it's imperative to understand that their vulnerabilities aren't just a result of technology but are deeply intertwined with larger strategic challenges and a blind eye toward solving compliant access.

Panther Protocol, however, envisions a refined balance. Our goal is to augment data privacy on public blockchains while introducing a flexible approach to compliance, making it accessible to a diverse user base, from individuals to institutional giants.

Panther’s overall approach

Panther Protocol refines and extends the Shielded Pool concept and has developed advanced Multi-Asset Shielded Pools to include compliance features enabled by zero-knowledge proofs.

Users can deposit into a Multi-Asset Shielded Pool (or simply Shielded Pool) only after presenting a ZK proof of their verified status, an action that's verifiable on-chain. Transactional activities like deposits or withdrawals necessitate a ZK proof to vouch for the purity of the associated wallet address. Upon providing the necessary proofs, users activate a zero-knowledge Account (or zAccount), which serves as a unique user identity record, tethering all their transactions. Situations like regulatory scrutiny may necessitate users to reaffirm their credentials, leading to zAccount reactivation. All interactions with the protocol are strictly based on zero-knowledge proofs, ensuring minimal data exposure on-chain. With the zAccount system, all transactions from the same user are interconnected, and a ZK proof can be generated to showcase the volume or assets dealt with, offering a possible avenue for regulatory review.

In a pioneering approach that seamlessly complements the decentralized structure we've discussed, Panther introduces an innovative method to manage compliance risks. At the heart of this strategy is the inclusion of a compliance provider, operating autonomously from the Protocol. This provider's principal role is to authenticate users, offering them a unique set of credentials after a series of verifications. These credentials then serve a dual purpose:

First, they enable users to craft zero-knowledge proofs directly within their browsers—a testament to the strategy's user-centric design. Second, in line with the modern digital identity landscape, these credentials can be seamlessly integrated with blockchain-based DIDs and similar platforms. Panther's vision extends even further. In a move that underscores flexibility and choice, users aren't bound to a single compliance provider. They can seek verification from any compliance provider of their choice. Once verified, users can then present these credentials as an irrefutable attestation to their authenticity, granting them unhindered access to the protocol. This strategic integration ensures multilevel compliance and amplifies user trust, forging a pathway to a more secure decentralized future.


The responsibility of proof in a modern world

In a quest to strike the right balance between privacy and compliance in decentralized finance, Panther unveils a revolutionary approach that aspires to solve the same set of issues as presented in the Privacy Pools paper by thought leaders such as Vitalik Buterin and Ameen Soleimani. As highlighted in their work, "Privacy Pools-like systems allow users to achieve more privacy around their financial transactions data while retaining the ability to prove their disassociation with known illicit activity. We expect that honest users will be incentivized to participate in such a scheme by a combination of two factors: (i) the desire for privacy, and (ii) the desire to avoid suspicion.” (p.8)

Central to the Privacy Pools model is a foundational idea: "Instead of merely zero-knowledge-proving that their withdrawal is linked to some previously-made deposit, a user proves membership in a more restrictive association set." (p.4) However, Panther diverges here, adopting a more tailored approach suited for real-world applicability. Panther operates on the positive constraint that all deposits emanate from verified users with authenticated wallets. This eradicates the need for additional proof during fund withdrawals.

Users can:

Attest ownership of the originating Account for their deposits. Showcase credentials affirming the withdrawal to an address in good standing, either owned by them or a validated Account holder within Panther. When directing withdrawals to other DeFi protocols or centralized exchanges, they can offer proof of 'source of funds', which is verifiable by the receiving party.

Another aspect highlighted in the Privacy Pools paper is the inventive adaptation of the Tornado cash UTXO model. However, one of the challenges presented is the maintenance of reliable and upright Associate Set Providers within a decentralised framework. These systems employ third-party entities known as ASPs to establish association sets. While the association data resides off-chain, its Merkle proof is recorded on-chain, ensuring ASPs maintain data integrity. ASPs might encompass compliance providers or even wallet screening oracle services.

The Privacy Pools paper underscores the necessity of expansive association sets to attain the desired privacy level and to lure good depositors, distancing them from malicious actors. Panther's answer to this is the creation of "Zones". Differently from the association sets of Privacy Pools, Zones are logical divisions within a Shielded Pool, each identified by a unique Zone-ID ingrained in every UTXO commitment. This allows for entities to create and tailor their own Zone, shaping membership criteria, selecting compliance providers, meeting regulatory demands, and even facilitating interactions with other Zone members. Notably, while these Zones provide tailored functionalities, they share the same anonymity set, as they all operate under the unified MASP architecture, reinforcing the strength and integrity of the system.

For instance, as a Zone Manager, an institution would have the capability to:

Designate which Zones can transact their Zone and vice versa. Choose a new compliance provider or integrate an existing one tailored for its Zone. Define KYC renewal durations for Zone members. Set transactional boundaries, including deposit, withdrawal, and internal transfer limits.

The advent of "Zones" thus arms regulated entities and institutions with a formidable toolset, enabling them to seamlessly conduct privacy-preserving on-chain transactions and interact with protocols, welcoming a broader spectrum of participants into the world of DeFi. This agility comes out of Panther’s UTXO design and is instrumental in tapping into new opportunities and maximizing the potential of decentralized finance.

Panther Protocol & the advanced UTXO model

Before the broader public became acquainted with the intricacies of the Privacy Pools paper, which mentions, "The simplified, privacy-preserving coin systems above only support coin transfers in the same denomination. Zcash supports arbitrary denominations through its use of a UTXO model," (p.6) Panther Protocol was already ahead of the curve. Panther crafted a pioneering system that not only facilitated transactions in diverse denominations, but also tackled real-world challenges to amplify on-chain transactional privacy. Additionally, Panther's advanced Shielded Pools are designed to support a wide range of assets, including:

ERC-20: The standard for fungible tokens on Ethereum, allowing for a consistent interface across multiple token contracts. ERC-721: A standard for representing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can be used to represent ownership over unique items or pieces of content. ERC-1155: A more generalized standard that supports both fungible and non-fungible tokens, enabling the creation of multiple token types within a single contract.

With these integrations, Panther Protocol not only serves as a privacy shield for traditional tokens, but also for the blossoming world of NFTs, showcasing its versatility and forward-thinking approach.

Let’s dig a little deeper into Panther User Accounts and how they enable Compliance:

1. User Account UTXOs ( or zAccounts): At the heart of Panther's approach lies the concept of the "User Account UTXO" — a distinctive type of UTXO nestled within the broader UTXO Merkle Tree. This can be imagined as a dynamic address book or user registry that can be activated based on several criteria, such as:

Association with a social network account. Linkage to an Ethereum address. Ties to a user’s KYC records.

2. Activation and Non-Interactive Transfers: Upon Account activation, the user account registry establishes a link between the public root spending key, public reading key, and a "public" Ethereum address associated with the user. This elegant arrangement enables non-interactive transfers within the Shielded Pool, eliminating the need for the sender to fetch the receiver’s pubkeys.

3. Accounts and their utility: The fields encapsulated within the zAccount UTXO pave the way for a myriad of functionalities. For instance:

The "Nonce" serves as a transaction counter for user accounts, helping in linking and ordering transactions under the same Account. Parameters such as "Order" and "Quantity" further enhance transactional clarity. This feature might also be employed for disclosures to provide proof of completeness.

4. Expiry Time & Renewal Mechanisms: Recognizing the absence of a foolproof exclusion proof, Panther has instituted an "Expiry Time"mechanism, which mandates periodic renewals of user accounts. Potential renewal methodologies could range from:

Aligning with KYC renewals. Adopting a permissionless approach. Re-verification of humanity. Using a zk-proof to validate the total volume of transactions remaining under specified limits.

Panther Protocol's nuanced use of the UTXO model paints a future where transactions are not only private but also flexibly aligned with the intricate demands of the world of DeFi.


Navigating the DeFi space with Panther Protocol

Panther's architecture, with its foundational pillars of privacy, is crowned with a structure for on-chain compliance. Yet, one might wonder –what avenues are available to Panther users to leverage the augmented privacy derived from their Panther-based transactions?

This is precisely where Panther distinguishes itself from conventional privacy paradigms:

1. Seamless integration with premier DeFi protocols
Panther has engineered private adaptors in collaboration with eminent DeFi protocols such as Uniswap and Curve. This enables users to execute  ‘one-click’ swaps, instantly privatizing and verifying the transaction from a regulatory standpoint.

2. Diverse platform Adaptors
Our vision goes beyond mere swaps. We anticipate adaptors that bridge Panther with an eclectic range of platforms, spanning from NFT marketplaces to lending hubs and beyond.

3. zTrade: Panther’s Dark Pool
Panther includes an innovative solution for confidential and compliant dark pool transactions. With zTrade, users can preserve their trading strategies, mitigate counterparty risks, and effortlessly execute voluminous trades at pre-negotiated rates, all within the Shielded Pool.

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving world of decentralized technology, the quest for innovation remains perpetual. As the landscape gravitates towards establishing fully permissionless and decentralized privacy solutions, the challenge is ensuring these platforms don't inadvertently provide refuge to malicious actors. Panther recognizes this dilemma and has meticulously worked to strike a balance. By weaving in compliance features, we ensure a blend of unwavering privacy without compromising the ethos of decentralization.

An essential distinction to note is that while Panther's system might appear to have rules-based access on the surface, it operates within a decentralized framework. No centralized entity dictates or establishes the rules. Instead, the rules of compliance, tiers, and other requirements are orchestrated by the Panther DAO or by the institutional entities that will own and oversee the Zones. This approach signifies a pioneering stride in the blockchain world, merging decentralized ethos and structured compliance advantages.

Moreover, as government-issued identities gain traction in various developing nations and blockchain-based DIDs persist, the symbiosis with Panther becomes increasingly potent. We are confident that such integrations will pave the way for scalable, secure, and trustful access methods, aligning with the vision of a more inclusive and transparent decentralized world.

About Panther

Panther is a cross-protocol layer that uses zero-knowledge technology to build DeFi solutions that meet regulatory requirements and satisfy users' on-chain data privacy needs. The goal of Panther is to allow seamless access to DeFi and create a cross-chain-supported architecture that serves different use cases. Panther's zero-knowledge primitives are also generalizable to KYC, selective disclosures between trusted parties, private ID, voting, and data verification services.

Website · One-pager · Lite Paper · Twitter · Telegram · Discord




Defiant

Trading Volume On Social App PostTech Crosses $5M

PostTech Attempts To Enter Hot SocialFi Arena With Combination Of Twitter’s Website and FriendTech’s Trading Features
PostTech Attempts To Enter Hot SocialFi Arena With Combination Of Twitter’s Website and FriendTech’s Trading Features

Making the Wallet Personal

What if you could tailor your wallet to your needs?
What if you could tailor your wallet to your needs?

Andreesen Horowitz - a16z

Investing in Proof of Play


Investing in TipTop

Stuff used to break. If you’re of a certain age—*cough* like I am *cough*—you’ll remember that every city and town would have electronics repair shops. Your TV, VCR, clock radio would stop working, and you’d take it in to get it fixed. Decades ago, electronics chain stores and cell phone carriers figured this out and...

Stuff used to break.

If you’re of a certain age—*cough* like I am *cough*—you’ll remember that every city and town would have electronics repair shops. Your TV, VCR, clock radio would stop working, and you’d take it in to get it fixed.

Decades ago, electronics chain stores and cell phone carriers figured this out and created point-of-sale insurance programs to cover the future cost of fixes.

But then a funny thing happened. Electronics went solid state—no moving parts—and, for the most part, stopped breaking. And so the repair shops more or less went away, and the insurance programs became wastes of money for consumers who would never use them.

It turns out many items people buy these days are like this—other than light wear and tear, electronics, cars, clothes, etc. mainly don’t break, and retain theoretical aftermarket value for a long time.

Buying something is easy, selling it is hard. Of course you can sell used items on eBay or the like, but the overhead of photographing, listing, boxing, and shipping is still considerable, and with no guarantee of a sale.

And it turns out buying something is also not necessarily so easy either. You sink full up front cost into something that you may want to replace in a year or two when a new version comes out. And it’s easy to overextend yourself and fall into too much debt.

What if there were a subscription service for the things you want to buy—a sort of guaranteed trade-in program for everything?

If we know what a used item will be worth in two years—and we often do, thanks to Internet connectivity and global liquidity—what if you just pay for the new item for two years’ use minus the residual value, and then send it back, no questions asked?

TipTop creates tools that reduce the consumer code of owning products. They offer customers a guaranteed buyback price at the time of purchase, so they only pay for the product while they need it.

And this isn’t even for products you’re buying new now—they do the same for products you’ve purchased in the past, via your Amazon and email account receipts.

The result is a massive step function increase in quality of life for consumers, accompanied by a streamlined supply chain of goods for the entire global market. Products of many kinds become easier to buy, easier to sell, they are used longer by more than one customer across their lifecycles, and waste is reduced. Win/win/win/win.

We at A16Z are delighted to lead TipTop’s Series A funding round, and I am delighted to be on the board. TipTop’s founder is Bastian Lehmann, one of the creators of the modern delivery economy with his company Postmates, and he’s assembled a team of top end engineers and designers to execute the TipTop vision.

The app is in the app store—give it a shot, and start saving money today!


Fintech Fuels Global Payments

How cross-border infrastructure, instant payments, and open banking advances are creating a more integrated, financially inclusive world.

How cross-border infrastructure, instant payments, and open banking advances are creating a more integrated, financially inclusive world.


Software Transcends Borders—Why Not Money?

Leia esse artigo em Português.   /   Lee este artículo en Español. Software is inherently global and easily transcends borders—localizing it can be as easy as translating the language. Who is the Google of Brazil? Google. The globalization of money, however, is considerably more challenging.  This is especially true for global businesses, which grapple with multiple...

Leia esse artigo em Português.   /   Lee este artículo en Español.

Software is inherently global and easily transcends borders—localizing it can be as easy as translating the language. Who is the Google of Brazil? Google. The globalization of money, however, is considerably more challenging. 

This is especially true for global businesses, which grapple with multiple bank accounts in multiple currencies, opaque and expensive foreign exchange rates, unpredictable money transfers, weeks-long reconciliations, and more.   

Furthermore, many global software companies monetize with financial services. While embedding financial services is relatively easy in some countries, a global software company that wants to add payments, lending, or some other financial service in multiple countries has to navigate a complex web of local infrastructure companies and regulations. 

This is a persistent problem that has been the driving force behind many ambitious fintech companies over the years. As the company of the future becomes default global, there is now a real catalyst for change. Thus, top entrepreneurs are pursuing cross-border infrastructure that is more easily used and integrated—as well as full-stack solutions for businesses themselves.   

The root of the problem 

Though money predates software by 50 centuries, it is still much more difficult than software to move it around the globe. Why has this been an intractable issue for so long? To understand the persistent “localness” of money, it helps to look at the underlying cultural, infrastructural, and regulatory drivers of monetary policy. 

Payment preferences differ by country

In Mexico, around 90% of the population still uses cash; in Brazil, over 75% of consumers use Pix, the country’s instant payments system; and in Kenya, 96% of households have a mobile money account, M-Pesa. Such preferences are sometimes driven by socioeconomic reasons (lower GDP-per-capita nations generally have very low credit card penetration, for instance), but they are also impacted by the local presence of free and easy rails. In Brazil, for example, Pix became the most popular payment method in the country in just two years—as well as the second-most used instant payments system in the world. The U.K. has had real-time payments since 2005 via the Faster Payments network. Today, U.K. consumers use contactless payments for nearly 90% of in-person transactions.

Payment rails differ by country

Payment rails are the underlying infrastructure that allows money to move. While global rails currently exist in the form of wires or card networks (such as Visa or Mastercard), none of them provide 100% coverage around the world. In addition, a software company that wants to sell its product globally needs to integrate multiple payment methods; if a prospective customer’s preferred local payment method isn’t supported, the company risks losing sales. Today, this complex, interconnected payments system functions similar to the airline industry: although airlines may offer international flights, they can’t cover all possible destinations and routes, necessitating the need for country- or region-specific local airlines. Much like local payment rails, connecting via different airlines is cumbersome. Thus, to make international travel easier and more integrated, airlines created three major air alliances. Now countries in different regions are starting to do the same for payments. 

Regulation differs by country

Each country has its own regulatory bodies and requirements for what licenses a company needs in order to send, receive, or store money. Some countries have opaque regulations seemingly designed to keep new entrants out, while others enact progressive policies and endeavor to attract new companies, as we’ve seen in Brazil and the U.K. Companies that want to help consumers or businesses send and/or receive money across borders need to get a license (or find a partner to borrow the license from) in both the sending and the receiving countries, a process that has historically been a major hurdle to fintech innovation. In addition, compliance, capital requirements, governance, and data storage are all country-specific and require significant local expertise.

The opportunities: global fintech infrastructure

Money moves clumsily across borders, but increased consumer and business demand for better experiences is attracting top entrepreneurs to solve these problems. There are many areas of opportunity here: 

Creating multi-country rails

It continues to be challenging to move money across a single border. Businesses are often left waiting for days for a payment to go through, without knowing the exact foreign exchange fee. Moving money between multiple countries multiplies this problem. Several existing companies have already integrated with various local rails to help companies orchestrate money movement, but opportunity still exists for new players to create seamless and transparent money movement experiences between countries.

Building embeddable payment infrastructure 

Increasingly, companies aim to monetize through financial services, but in many geographies, it is still difficult to find modern card-issuing partners or white label payment acceptance. Furthermore, global software companies are frequently compelled to partner with several different infrastructure providers to cover the necessary geographies, a complex process that requires maintaining multiple vendors.  

Enabling borderless business banking

Businesses operating in multiple countries often open several bank accounts per country—correspondent banks to facilitate international transfers, local banks to take advantage of the best local banking services, additional investment or treasury accounts, and more. This process is slow, hinders cash visibility across the company, incurs high expenses when moving money (even within a single company), and complicates end-of-month reconciliation. The increasing prevalence of open banking in many countries offers new companies the opportunity to create an application layer that offers multi-country account visibility and other services.  

Satisfying global compliance

Know Your Customer or Know Your Business (KYC/KYB) compliance in a single country is often complicated. It not only requires integrating the right data sources, but also creating a process that feels frictionless to the customer while satisfying all compliance requirements. Outside of customer onboarding, complying with local regulations around aspects such as data storage or reporting requirements can be challenging, especially when operating in multiple countries. Though there are best-in-class “as a service” companies that solve this problem in the U.S., globally these challenges remain unsolved, especially for businesses. There is potential to abstract this complexity with software. 

Combatting fraud

The advent of real-time payments in many countries will solve some frustrating payment delays. However, this magnifies another problem: fraud. As generative AI tools become more widespread, the cost to fraudsters of iterating malicious content drops to near zero: they can write and test thousands of phishing attack emails in minutes and continuously tweak the ones that work best. In this new landscape, effective fraud solutions for cross-border payments will become increasingly important.

For all these reasons, there’s a huge opportunity to develop software that makes moving money across borders seamless and transparent—and for making those services trusted and secure. 

Are you building in these areas? We’d love to hear from you.

See a16z.com/global-payments for more. 


Foreign Exchange 101: What Happens When You Send Money Abroad?

$8 trillion moves between different currencies every single day. It’s the biggest market in the world. It’s about 30 times daily global GDP. If you’re new to foreign exchange, but you’ve experienced the pain of it taking a long time and you’re in agony wondering if the money that you sent is ever going to...
An animated guide to the sticking points behind cross-border payments.

$8 trillion moves between different currencies every single day. It’s the biggest market in the world. It’s about 30 times daily global GDP.

If you’re new to foreign exchange, but you’ve experienced the pain of it taking a long time and you’re in agony wondering if the money that you sent is ever going to reach the recipient, and how much money they’re going to get, and who’s taking fees and what those fees are…that’s what I’m here to explain. 

Why is it expensive? Why is it complicated? Why are people trying to disrupt it or not disrupt it? How does this work?

It’s a very, very complicated process because this stuff only exists in digital form. You’re not sending paper currency somewhere. You’re not sending gold and guts to Japan via FedEx. You’re basically shuffling ones and zeros around, but you need to make sure that they’re accounted for correctly.

How does money move from one country to another?

I’ll give you a great example from my personal life: I’m American, my wife is Japanese. We go to Japan a lot. We send money to Japan sometimes. How does it work for me and my wife, sending U.S. dollars to yen in Japan? 

The way that this typically works is there are two banks. We bank with Chase, her family banks with one of the biggest banks in Japan called MUFJ. 

How does the money get from Chase to  MUFJ in Japan? A lot of banks have relationships with each other. So Chase will keep some Japanese yen in what’s called a “nostro” account. It’s a Latin word, it means “our.” They’ll have yen that they keep on deposit, on-demand in a Japanese bank.

Likewise, people in Japan might want tto send money to the U.S. So a Japanese bank will keep a “vostro” account (“your”)—they’ll keep money in U.S. dollars at a U.S. bank.

I go to Chase and say, “Please send money to this Japanese recipient at this Japanese bank.”

And they’re like, “Oh yeah, we know that bank.” They use a messaging service called Swift. Just like you can send an iMessage or an email, a Swift message is a network by which one bank tells another bank: Here’s what money needs to move, here’s how much, and whether to debit the sender or the recipient.

The money gets moved because Chase will tell MUFJ: “Take money from our nostro account in yen, and then move it into this account that you control,” which is pretty basic. MUFJ is just taking money from one account that they control and moving it into another account that they control. And that’s how the whole process works. 

However, that assumes that those two banks have a relationship with each other. In general, it tends to be hard to move money because there sometimes has to be one, two, or three banks involved in the middle.

Most banks don’t have relationships with every other bank in the world. And this is where it gets a bit more complicated and introduces the concept of correspondent banking.

What is a correspondent bank and how does it work?

To move money from one bank to another actually requires a third bank to be involved, which is called a correspondent bank. 

So imagine that I live in Iowa and I bank with Bank Iowa. Bank Iowa almost certainly does not have a nostro account with MUFJ. So they find a correspondent bank that does—that already has nostro and vostro accounts with the recipient. 

Then the correspondent bank will look up what’s the right fee to charge. (And normally the right fee to charge is whatever makes them a lot of money…)

They’ll say: One U.S. dollar is 140 Japanese yen. But you know what? We’ll say that one U.S. dollar is 137 Japanese yen and we’ll take 3 yen as our fee. The correspondent bank will then just shuffle money between these accounts.

Why does sending money overseas take so long?

What is often frustrating for people is that when you send an iMessage from your iPhone to an iPhone in Japan, they’re using the same protocol. They have the same hardware and software. And with messages, you just send them back and forth. It’s a piece of cake. There are no intermediaries involved.

For traditional banking, on the other hand, what makes them slow is that—even though money is effectively all digital, it’s just a message—that’s always going through not just one centralized party, but maybe multiple centralized parties. 

The main way to move money between banks in the United States is the Federal Reserve has a wire system called Fedwire. It closes every day at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

So if I wanted to send money from this country to Japan, but it happens to be 8:00 PM on Friday,  that might not work because there’s no way for my local bank to then wire money to the  correspondent bank. And by the way, it might be a Japanese holiday, so they can’t even receive the money.

So there are all sorts of different reasons why it can take a long time, from national holidays to slow systems to currencies that aren’t traded that often.

There are also all sorts of laws that have to be complied with. So if I go to send money from my little house in Iowa to Japan, my local bank wants to make sure that this is on the up and up. What if I’m laundering money? If it’s a transaction more than $9,999.99, that automatically has a higher set of checks and balances than if it’s under that dollar amount. 

Then the recipient bank will often do the same thing. Some recipient banks in some countries have very, very strong currency controls. They might say, “Why is this money coming in? What is the purpose?” Or: “Why are you sending money out of the country?”

There are lots and lots of different layers involved. It is a complicated process, but once you break it down, it kind of makes sense and you can understand a lot of different ways where it will hopefully be more effective in the future. 

See a16z.com/global-payments for more. 


The UK Is a Fintech Regulatory Superpower

The UK is home to some of the largest payments companies and most successful neobanks in the world, Wise, Starling, and Monzo among them. That success has been bolstered by the fact that the UK is among the world’s most innovative financial services regulatory environments.  Regulation is generally a blocker to innovation. But the UK...

The UK is home to some of the largest payments companies and most successful neobanks in the world, Wise, Starling, and Monzo among them. That success has been bolstered by the fact that the UK is among the world’s most innovative financial services regulatory environments. 

Regulation is generally a blocker to innovation. But the UK has used it to foster domestic competition and successfully grow its global presence. If Europe is the world’s regulatory superpower, then the UK has quietly become Europe’s financial regulatory superpower (even post-Brexit). 

The UK is the goldilocks of financial services: big enough to be meaningful on a global scale, but small enough to make decisions much faster than the U.S. or the rest of  Europe. If you want to see the future of financial services regulation, look to the UK

The foundation: UK’s banking market and infrastructure

In 2010, the UK was dominated by a small handful of large banks. In the wake of the financial crisis, the government nationalized one of the largest banks and had to intervene in several others. To counter this “too big to fail” risk—and to promote the UK as a global tech hub—the UK kicked off a policy initiative to become a global superpower in financial services and technology.

To do this, it played to its structural strengths: 

The UK was an early adopter of fintech infrastructure.

The UK has had real-time payments since 2005, via the Faster Payments network. In 2007, it became one of the first markets in the world to issue contactless (tap-to-pay) cards. (A full 8 years earlier than the U.S.) Today, consumers in the UK use contactless payments for nearly 90% of face-to-face payment transactions. And UK institutions continue to invest: This summer, Mastercard, Barclays and the London Stock Exchange Group announced a £1 billion fintech fund to back British growth-stage fintech companies.

London combines elements of New York, Washington, and the Bay Area.

There are very few cities on the global stage where you could walk from the central bank to Parliament to the head office of the world’s largest banks and tech companies. The UK is a global financial center. 

UK common law is a global standard.

The vast majority of international trade happens in UK law. Common law is very sensible. Judges are required to attempt to make a “common sense” reading of the facts and circumstances. While it uses case law as a base, it is far less mechanical than U.S. law. Therefore, it is generally perceived as fair and neutral.

The UK time zone trades with Asia and the Americas.

The UK is almost ideally placed for international offices for time zone overlap. 

These advantages laid the groundwork for the UK to position itself as a global leader in fintech. UK regulatory bodies have advanced that vision through various initiatives—including advancing Open Banking, enacting trust-instilling consumer protections, and supporting emerging fintech companies at early stages.

How UK regulation spurs fintech Creating a better path to banking licenses 

Becoming a bank has a cold start problem.

You can’t get a license without capital to absorb potential losses and be financially sound. And you can’t get funding to build a bank without getting a license. So the UK did something elegant. It split the process in two.

Many digital banks, like Starling and Monzo, got a banking license “with restrictions” designed for start-up companies that do not yet have the required regulatory capital. This enabled them to unlock further funding as VC-backed growth companies over time.

Giving fintech access to the central bank

In the U.S., only banks can access systems like Fedwire, and funds must be stored at a bank. As we saw with the recent banking crisis, despite protections, this is not always a guarantee of security. Access to the central bank would reduce the risk for fintech company deposits and create pricing competition with the banking sector.

In the UK, fintech companies can get accounts with the central bank and access its payments systems. Companies like Wise, Modulr, and Form3 have unlocked this capability for fintech and non-finance companies. 

Establishing a clear standard for Open Banking 

In the U.S., Open Banking is a market-led movement, which has limitations: conversion via open banking drops below 60% in many cases, especially with the largest banks. In 2018, EU regulators enacted the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which created rules for third parties to access payment account data. If PSD2 got people thinking about Open Banking and the potential for tech to disrupt financial services, the Open Banking Implementation Entity—a UK company that created a model for future data sharing and set Open Banking API standards—clearly defined how it would work. 

Screen scraping (using your login credentials to let software login and retrieve your data) had been around for 5 years—with limited uptake. The whole point of Open Banking was that it was official and secure. 

Companies like Truelayer, Yapily, and Credit Kudos (acquired by Apple) benefited from these standards. In the UK, you can pay your tax bill with HM Revenue and Customs with an open banking initiated payment. The UK has built on this capability with a service called Variable Recurring Payments (VRP), a form of payment instruction that enables a merchant to securely offer subscriptions (or auto-pay) with a single click, direct from a user’s bank account. 

Developing a regulatory sandbox to support financial innovation at early stages

The UK was the first market in the world to create a regulatory sandbox. The Sandbox helps firms at earlier stages of their growth with support, such as individual guidance for how regulation might apply and waivers or modifications to rules if your company tests something novel or innovative. Since its launch, companies as diverse as BNPL provider Zilch, Open Banking provider Bud, the London Stock Exchange, and Barclays have entered the Sandbox.

The sandbox has now been made “digital.” This means companies can access synthetic data based on real bank customers (such as Barclays or Lloyds), allowing them to prove their effectiveness beforehand. The UK has also launched a digital assets Sandbox for tokenized securities, helping to make the complex requirements around securities more available to innovators.

Passing legislation that provides guidelines and consumer protections around digital assets

In June 2023, the UK passed the Financial Services and Markets Act, which classifies crypto as a regulated financial activity and empowers regulators to supervise its adoption. The act provides capital requirements for Stablecoin issuers, defines consumer rights, and gives legal certainty to consumer protections. 

The future of fintech in the UK

The last decade saw a generation of iconic global brands coming to the market. UK regulators’ forward-looking policies—introducing a permanent digital sandbox, providing licensing for digital asset businesses, and introducing innovations like VRP—provide the ultimate “why now.” Moreover, neobanks are profitable in a market with low card-swipe fee revenue, indicating the maturity of the regulation built over the past decade. 

The new and old regulatory innovations are accelerating fintech’s success. The creativity of UK entrepreneurs has and will continue to disrupt the status quo in financial services.

See a16z.com/global-payments for more. 


Why India Leads in Digital Payments

Over the past decade, India’s central bank—the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)—has become one of the most proactive regulators in the world, advancing the digitization of payments and financial services at a rapid pace. Aadhaar, the country’s pioneering digital ID system, and UPI, its real-time digital payments system, are largely regarded as models for delivering...

Over the past decade, India’s central bank—the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)—has become one of the most proactive regulators in the world, advancing the digitization of payments and financial services at a rapid pace. Aadhaar, the country’s pioneering digital ID system, and UPI, its real-time digital payments system, are largely regarded as models for delivering financial services and social benefits more widely and efficiently. Because Indian citizens’ digital IDs are linked to their bank accounts, for example, the government was able to electronically transfer relief funds to around 200 million beneficiaries over the course of the pandemic. Recently, a series of regulations providing more flexibility and guidelines for digital lenders, in particular, has extended fintech’s reach to a larger swath of the population.

When my co-founders and I launched Branch in 2015, our mission was to deliver world class financial services to the mobile generation. Initially, we were focused on Africa—mainly Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria. But around 2017, we began to develop an interest in India.

The foundation: Why is India such fertile ground for fintech? 

At the time, the market seemed poised for a fintech boom for a variety of reasons. 

The groundwork was Aadhaar (“foundation” in Hindi), a nationwide database established by the government in 2009 to enable digital identity verification. The vision: Each Indian citizen would be given a unique, 12-digit identification number, which could be cross-referenced with biometric information (fingerprints, iris scan data, and facial photograph) and basic biographical information held in a centralized government database. By 2019, the government had issued a unique ID to nearly every adult resident in India; today, the system is used by 1.3 billion Indians, over 90% of the population. This helped with fraud and enabled smooth KYC compliance. 

In addition, the government created bank accounts for nearly the entire population. Approximately 80% of Indian adults own a bank account today (although many remain dormant). This made the prospect of reaching people in rural areas—with no access to a bank branch—a real consideration. 

Third, the government was actively trying to remove cash from the system. In November 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a demonetisation initiative aimed at eradicating black money; Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes ceased to exist as legal tenders and ATM withdrawals were capped. In 2016, nearly 90% of all transactions in India were cash-based; as of 2022, cash in circulation in payment systems had declined to 20%

Most importantly, perhaps, was the introduction of UPI in 2016—an instant, free national mobile payment system based on Aadhaar. With UPI, Indians can use an email-like address to transfer money directly from a Aadhaar-linked bank account, without needing a debit card or wallet. UPI has since become the world’s fifth largest payment network by volume, and a model for the rest of the globe. 

Finally, the Indian market has historically been credit-starved. Only 11% of micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India have access to formal credit, and 60% of all credit demand is unmet. It was shockingly difficult for a low income person to access consumer credit at the time, which presented an opportunity for fintech companies like Branch to extend availability to digital lending.

India today: Regulation enables innovation

At present, the revolution is in full swing. Over the past 5+ years, RBI has enacted regulations at a rapid pace. In particular, we’ve seen several relevant developments: 

Co-lending lowers the cost of capital for digital lenders

The introduction of co-lending regulations in 2018, and subsequent amendments to it, have materially lowered the cost of funds for digital lenders. Traditionally, banks have primarily served prime customers, resulting in the lowest cost of funds, while digital lenders have targeted slightly riskier segments and consequently have a higher cost of capital. Since digital lenders have a wider distribution and are better equipped to underwrite riskier segments, combining these strengths with a bank’s lower cost of capital benefits everyone in the ecosystem, including the customer. At present, Indian regulators seem most comfortable with co-lending, compared to other possible partnership models between banks and digital players.

Account aggregators streamline digital underwriting

In 2016, the RBI released licensing regulations for a new kind of entity called account aggregators, which are authorized to collate all financial data (bank accounts, investments, insurance, etc.) in a single database. Digital lenders can then access this comprehensive repository, with customer consent, to assess the customer’s ability to repay. This presented a vast improvement over the previous process—in which lenders needed to request each piece of information from customers—which both eased the process of digital underwriting and reduced drop-offs in the digital application process. 

OCEN digitally connects consumers, lenders, and loan service providers

The Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) is an open protocol which can theoretically bring all lenders and customers together under one roof. (Currently, banks representing ~80%+ of the market share are plugged into this network.) Each lender can choose to plug into this protocol. Similarly, consumer-facing platforms can connect to the protocol, thereby allowing users to access credit from the lenders who choose to lend via this protocol. This has the potential not only to expand the customer base of digital lenders, but also to allow non-lenders to offer financial products on their platforms. 

Digital lending guidelines protect customers and promote trust

In August 2022, the RBI published a set of much anticipated regulations that were tailor-made for digital lenders. The guidelines put requirements in place to protect customers’ interests and established rules around fees, the use of digital signatures, data collection, and more. This both improved customer trust in digital lending and provided authorities with tools to hold errant lenders accountable.

In addition, the Indian government has been working closely with Google Play to protect consumers from unscrupulous lenders. For example, based on government directives, Google Play has been actively blacklisting illegal lending apps that abuse customer trust.  India is also moving towards a whitelist approach, allowing only lending apps that are approved and maintained by a regulated entity to list on Google Play—and removing those that are not. In addition, the government is inclined to reduce the influence of apps with ties to non-friendly nations and restrict data access to such state actors. Such actions are often coordinated with law enforcement agencies, where needed.

At the moment, India is perhaps the fastest growing fintech market in the world. In fact, fintech has a chance of fully driving the economy. The country leads the world in real-time digital payments. 

Since being granted the first-ever E-NBFC (non-banking financial company) license in 2019, Branch International’s growth has been propelled by demand in India. For context, Branch receives around 20,000 new user loan applications from Indian consumers every day. In the U.S., this kind of organic growth in fintech is unusual. In India, it’s unimpressive.  

Going forward, RBI has shown an intent to support fintech innovation within well-defined guardrails

Through proactive engagement and transparent communication, India’s central bank has demonstrated an openness to feedback and consultation with the fintech sector as it advances regulation, both at the policy formulation stage and after changes are enacted. Such pro-innovation measures make India a massive opportunity for fintech, both for founders and the country’s increasingly digital-first population.  

See a16z.com/global-payments for more. 


Fintech Sees Renewed Focus in Colombia

Lee este artículo en Español. Colombia’s finance sector has historically been one of the most regulated in the world. Over the past decade, however, the country has quietly become the third-largest fintech hub in Latin America (trailing only Brazil and Mexico), home to nearly 300 fintech companies. Seventy-six percent of Colombians use fintech services, according...

Lee este artículo en Español.

Colombia’s finance sector has historically been one of the most regulated in the world. Over the past decade, however, the country has quietly become the third-largest fintech hub in Latin America (trailing only Brazil and Mexico), home to nearly 300 fintech companies. Seventy-six percent of Colombians use fintech services, according to an Ernst & Young report, the highest fintech adoption rate in Latin America, and from 2008 to 2022, the percentage of Colombian adults who hold a banking product rose from 55% to over 90%.

Given that the majority of Colombians now have access to a smartphone, the internet, and a basic bank account, the conditions are set for an acceleration of financial innovation and inclusion. That trend is being reinforced by advances in licensing and Open Finance, the promise of ubiquitous instant payments, and regulatory support for innovative fintech solutions. 

In particular, several government actions have expanded fintech’s capabilities in Colombia in recent years.

De novo licenses spur market competition 

For years, it was difficult and expensive to obtain a de novo banking license in Colombia, a response to the government’s historic struggle to tamp down drug trafficking and money laundering. Today, the banking sector in Colombia remains highly concentrated: there are only 29 fully-licensed banks (establecimientos de credito), and the three largest banking conglomerates control over 60% of deposits, according to the International Monetary Fund.

However, a few years ago the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, the local regulator, opened up the market by introducing what’s known as a Compania de Financiamiento license. This license has lighter capital and regulatory requirements, while still allowing its holder to gather deposits via savings or electronic deposit accounts, offer loans backed by these deposits, and issue cards. 

Since then, fintech companies including Rappi, Uala, Bold, Mercado Pago, and Nubank have received approval to offer deposit, transaction, and credit accounts. Not only does this allow new entrants to offer a comprehensive suite of financial products (and capture the full economics that lead to sustainable business models), it also gives Colombian consumers greater confidence that new entrants can be trusted with their money. 

Open banking expands access and inclusion

Alongside opening the market to new entrants, the government has also committed to developing a robust Open Finance framework, following Brazil’s example. Last year, the government included Open Finance in its National Development Plan, a foundational law that sets the economic development program for the next four years. If fully implemented, this will allow Colombians to own and access their banking data regardless of which institution they bank with. In addition, the government has signaled an openness to the potential for full bank account portability, allowing people to migrate account information between banks, just like they do their cell phone numbers when they switch carriers.

Instant, interoperable payments will accelerate digitization

Following the success of Pix in Brazil, the Colombian government has committed to launching its own version of an instant, interoperable and free payment system in the next two years. Recently, the Central Bank governor (who regulates payments) indicated that they will announce the technology partner by October of this year, and that they expect the system to be live before the end of 2024. Considering that most interbank payments still carry meaningful costs (up to $2 per payment), this will be a boon for the further digitization of payments in the country. 

The future of fintech in Colombia

In Colombia, fintech continues to expand its reach—the industry is estimated to be growing at  around 120% a year, and the number of fintech companies in the country has more than doubled in the past five years.

Through recent government actions, Colombia is moving toward a more open and transparent financial system—one where a greater number of fintech companies compete to earn users’ trust, money, and business based on the quality of their products and services. The new superintendent has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to an inclusive agenda that fosters competition and innovation. Now it’s up to founders and entrepreneurs to seize the moment by continuing to build the products that will power the future of banking and finance in Colombia.

See a16z.com/global-payments for more. 


B2B Fintech Drives Market Disruption in Mexico

 Lee este artículo en Español. The world of finance is undergoing a profound transformation, and Mexico is no exception. In recent years, the country has witnessed a burgeoning fintech industry, particularly in the business-to-business (B2B) sector: Mexico’s fintech market now encompasses over 650 companies and counting. This evolution has been accelerated by regulatory changes that...

 Lee este artículo en Español.

The world of finance is undergoing a profound transformation, and Mexico is no exception. In recent years, the country has witnessed a burgeoning fintech industry, particularly in the business-to-business (B2B) sector: Mexico’s fintech market now encompasses over 650 companies and counting. This evolution has been accelerated by regulatory changes that are fostering innovation and competition within the financial technology landscape. 

The fintech revolution in Mexico

Mexico’s fintech ecosystem has experienced remarkable growth, becoming one of the most dynamic in Latin America. A diverse range of startups and companies are offering innovative financial solutions to consumers and businesses. But while B2C (business-to-consumer) fintechs have garnered significant attention globally, the B2B sector is quietly reshaping the financial landscape for enterprises in Mexico today. 

Regulatory changes paving the way

Recognizing the potential of fintech to improve financial services and drive economic growth, the Mexican government has introduced significant regulatory changes in conjunction with the Bank of Mexico (Banxico). The most prominent of these changes was the Fintech Law of 2018. This groundbreaking piece of legislation marked Mexico as the first in Latin America to establish a regulatory framework tailored explicitly for fintech companies and opened the door for new players to enter the market. 

Key regulatory changes included the creation of an open banking system, electronic payment funds, regulatory sandboxes, and digital identity verification.

Open banking: A catalyst for B2B synergies

The introduction of open banking creates new avenues for innovation in Mexico by reshaping how businesses operate and collaborate with one another. With open banking, businesses in Mexico will be able to access a plethora of financial tools and services that were once reserved for larger enterprises. Companies including Jeeves have started testing Mexico’s open banking for its clients in hopes of streamlining the payment and underwriting processes for financial products. Though open banking in Mexico has yet to be widely adopted, we’re hopeful that in the near future it will foster innovation, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness for businesses of all sizes.

Embedded finance: Integrating solutions into mainstream services

Embedded finance represents a paradigm shift in how businesses access financial services. Instead of seeking out financial solutions separately, companies can now seamlessly integrate these services into their existing operations. DiDi Loans, for instance, has integrated lending services into ride-sharing, extending over 5 million loans in just two years. The immense potential of embedded finance is becoming increasingly evident. By tapping into this sector, B2B fintech companies can cater to Mexico’s 4.1 million small and medium enterprises, streamlining their financial processes and enhancing operational efficiencies.

Instant payments streamline business

Instant payments are a game-changer for B2B transactions in Mexico. Traditional payment methods often involve delays due to batch processing and banking hours. Instant payment systems like CoDi and Dinero Movil, also known as DiMo, eliminate these hurdles, enabling businesses to transact in real time. This is especially critical for industries where time-sensitive transactions are the norm, such as supply chain management and manufacturing. Through payment methods such as DiMo, companies can send payments with nothing more than a phone number, greatly streamlining the B2B payment process which traditionally requires Clabes (bank numbers).

The future of B2B fintech in Mexico

In the words of Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez, Mexico’s former Finance Minister: “Fintech is not only about financial inclusion; it’s about creating a new financial ecosystem that can propel Mexico’s economic future.” 

With a favorable regulatory environment, a growing demand for innovative financial solutions, and a dynamic startup ecosystem, the stage is set for continued disruption. Under the promise to usher in a transformative era for business financial ecosystems and make significant contributions to the nation’s economic trajectory, B2B fintech is set to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of finance in Mexico.

See a16z.com/global-payments for more. 


Nym - Medium

Nym Shipyard privacy academy preview

A sneak peek of what’s on at the Nym Massive Open Online Course for the future of privacy. Nym Shipyard is a free, six-week privacy bootcamp, designed to train the next generation of activists, builders and operators to create the private internet in the age of AI. Nym is teaming up with partners from the Universal Privacy Alliance to offer learn-and-earn privacy training for Web3 — and 

A sneak peek of what’s on at the Nym Massive Open Online Course for the future of privacy.

Nym Shipyard is a free, six-week privacy bootcamp, designed to train the next generation of activists, builders and operators to create the private internet in the age of AI. Nym is teaming up with partners from the Universal Privacy Alliance to offer learn-and-earn privacy training for Web3 — and beyond.

Languages: Русский // 日本 // Bahasa Indonesia // Française

Kickstarting the academy on 9 October will be Nym founder and CEO Harry Halpin along with activist and security expert Chelsea Manning. A range of guest speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Register for Nym Shipyard now

The demand for privacy has never been more widespread than today

With hacks and data breaches, the growth of data brokers, censorship, and the explosion of artificial intelligence, people are understandably worried about the impact of technology on their lives. Big tech is meeting these concerns by putting privacy front and centre of their marketing. But behind these slick campaigns, many of these players are at the heart of the digital surveillance economy, and part of the threat to online privacy, not the solution to it.

Privacy should be the default of the internet and not just an afterthought or a marketing slogan.

With more than 10,000 early-bird signups, it’s time to reveal what Nym Shipyard will be all about. Read on:

Nym Shipyard — three stages to become a Nymja

In the age of AI, privacy isn’t only a highly valued resource — it’s a superpower. At Nym Shipyard, you will discover how to reclaim privacy from the bots and algorithms by learning new, practical skills from some of the world’s leading privacy researchers, engineers and CEOs. And you’ll get rewarded for your efforts.

Nym is investing 2.5m NYM tokens for the privacy of future generations. This record reward pool will ensure the next generation of builders and visionaries are rewarded for their work building the private internet.

Nym Shipyard is organised across three stages. These are:

Level 1 — Nymster academy

Dates: 9–22 October

Nymster reward pool: 750k NYM

Level 1 is the beginner stage. It will cover questions such as: what does privacy really mean? How can decentralisation help to build the private internet? And where does the blockchain come in?

You will learn about token economics and the value of staking, you will understand the difference between layer 0 and layer 1, and gain the big picture of what’s at stake for privacy in the age of AI.

Key concepts

Privacy; anonymity; decentralisation; trust; mixnet; blockchain; token economics; metadata; peer-to-peer; staking; layer 0 & layer 1 of the new internet.

Speakers

Nym Founder & CEO Harry Halpin, Chelsea Manning, Jaya Klara Brekke, Sudo and Huxian. Guest speaker — revealed soon…

Level 2 — Cadet academy

Dates: 23 October — 5 November

Cadet reward pool: 750k NYM

Level 2 will dive deeper and cover topics like: what are Nym nodes and how do they protect privacy? What is the decentralised NymVPN and how does it interact with the Nym token economics? How do Nym’s token economics incentivise privacy and counter the prevailing surveillance business model of the internet? During Level 2 you will learn about staking on Nym nodes, bonding your own node, and earning rewards. You will learn all about the NymVPN, privacy-preserving payments, zk-nyms credentials, and anonymous e-cash.

Completing this stage will grant Cadets an exclusive preview of the upcoming NymVPN. You will unlock the Nym ambassador programme as well as Nym community and developer grants — in other words, funding good ideas.

Key concepts

anonymity set; NYM token, Nyx chain, Nym mix nodes, bonding, stake saturation, Outfox and Sphinx encryption, validators, e-cash, zero-knowledge proofs, zk-nyms

Speakers

Nym Chief Scientist Claudia Diaz, Head of Research Ania Piotrowska, Operator devrel Serinko, and founding member of Pineapple Hive Huxian.

Guest speaker — revealed soon…

Level 3 — Nymja Hackathon

Dates: 6–17 November

Nymja reward pool: 1m NYM

The top graduates from Level 2 will be able to join members of the Nym core community and seasoned privacy experts to hack, develop and create magic together, progressing the collective mission towards a future where privacy is default.

This part of Shipyard will run as a distributed hackathon, where participants can choose between three specialisation tracks:

Builders — For privacy-preserving app wizards, working alongside Nym core team members like Lead Engineer Mark Sinclair, devrel Alexia Lorenza Martinel (TypeScript SDK), and Max Hampshire (Rust SDK).

Operators — For top-notch infrastructure operators, honing token economics and operations to prime the mixnet for the upcoming VPN launch, with COO Alexis Roussel, Chief Scientist Claudia Diaz, head of growth in Latin America Daniel Vazquez, developer relations Serinko, community manager Merve, and more.

Visionaries — For privacy-minded creatives working on novel ways to build Nym’s global community, leading the privacy movement and developing further the narrative of the new internet, led by Mykola Suisko founder of the Web3 Privacy initiative, and Huxian, founding member of Pineapple Hive. Guest speakers and jury will be announced soon.

Nym Shipyard is just the beginning. These learning resources will be built out towards a permanent, broader educational platform on privacy primitives. Together, the goal is for Nym Shipyard to equip the next generation with all the tools they need to reclaim privacy online, for everyone.

Register now.

Privacy loves company — and Nym loves you!

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Nym Shipyard privacy academy preview was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Defiant

Ethereum Developers Debate New Standard For On-chain Audit Reports

Developers From Prominent Web3 Security Firms Collaborate On Proposal To Make Smart Contract Audit Reports Easily Accessible On-chain
Developers From Prominent Web3 Security Firms Collaborate On Proposal To Make Smart Contract Audit Reports Easily Accessible On-chain

Brave Browser

Announcing Image and Video results in Brave Search API

The Search team is excited to announce the launch of Image, News, and Video search results in the Brave Search API, which was recently released this past May.

The Search team is excited to announce the launch of Image, News, and Video search results in the Brave Search API, which was recently released this past May. These results will be available in all subscription plans except for Autosuggest and Spellcheck. 

Over the past 4 months, we have been grateful for our Search API users and their insightful product feedback. Image and Video results are our most-requested product updates, and the Search team worked hard to include our independent Image, News and Video search index in API subscribers’ plans. 

What this means for current Brave Search API subscribers

For anyone subscribed to any tier within Data for Search, Data for AI, and Data with storage rights categories, you can now query the images, news, and video verticals directly. There are no changes to your plan’s price due to these upgrades. If you are subscribed only to the Autosuggest or Spellcheck APIs, you will need to upgrade your plans if you’d like these results. 

If you have any questions, feedback or encounter any issues with Image and Video results, please feel free to contact us at searchapi-support@brave.com

Brave’s ongoing mission to improve search

Brave is on a mission to build a user-first Web. That mission starts with the Brave browser and Brave Search. With the release of image and video search, we’re continuing to innovate within the search industry, providing privacy-protecting products for users who want choice and transparency. Users can help us by sharing their feedback or by anonymously opting into our Web Discovery Project to contribute to our search index.

Brave Search is available to everyone at search.brave.com, and is also the default search engine in the Brave browser.

Wednesday, 20. September 2023

Circle Blog

Deploying Programmable Wallets with Next.js + iOS

Discover how a Next.js server interfaces with Circle’s Programmable Wallets API to initialize wallets, then prompts the iOS SDK for PIN & security question setup

Discover how a Next.js server interfaces with Circle’s Programmable Wallets API to initialize wallets, then prompts the iOS SDK for PIN & security question setup


Defiant

Grab Launches Web3 Wallet For Singaporean Users

Grab’s Web3 Wallet Leverages Polygon’s Technology, Supports SGD Payments and NFT Vouchers
Grab’s Web3 Wallet Leverages Polygon’s Technology, Supports SGD Payments and NFT Vouchers

Nouns NFT Holders Opt To ‘Rage Quit’ Through New Fork

Holders Of 294 Nouns NFTs Choose To Redeem Treasury Stakes After Breaking Away From NounsDAO
Holders Of 294 Nouns NFTs Choose To Redeem Treasury Stakes After Breaking Away From NounsDAO

Sequoia

Generative AI Act Two

The post Generative AI Act Two appeared first on Sequoia Capital.
Generative AI’s Act Two By Sonya Huang, Pat Grady, and GPT-4 Animation: James Buckhouse, Midjourney and Runway Published September 20, 2023 One year ago, we published a hypothesis that generative AI would become a profound platform shift in technology. Then came the firestorm.

Scientists, historians and economists have long studied the optimal conditions that create a Cambrian explosion of innovation. In generative AI, we have reached a modern marvel, our generation’s space race.

This moment has been decades in the making. Six decades of Moore’s Law have given us the compute horsepower to process exaflops of data. Four decades of the internet (accelerated by COVID) have given us trillions of tokens’ worth of training data. Two decades of mobile and cloud computing have given every human a supercomputer in the palm of our hands. In other words, decades of technological progress have accumulated to create the necessary conditions for generative AI to take flight.

ChatGPT’s rise was the spark that lit the fuse, unleashing a density and fervor of innovation that we have not seen in years—perhaps since the early days of the internet. The breathless excitement was especially visceral in “Cerebral Valley,” where AI researchers reached rockstar status and hacker houses were filled to the brim each weekend with new autonomous agents and companionship chatbots. AI researchers transformed from the proverbial “hacker in the garage” to special forces units commanding billions of dollars of compute. The arXiv printing press has become so prolific that researchers have jokingly called for a pause on new publications so they can catch up.

But quickly, AI excitement turned to borderline hysteria. Suddenly, every company was an “AI copilot.” Our inboxes got filled up with undifferentiated pitches for “AI Salesforce” and “AI Adobe” and “AI Instagram.” The $100M pre-product seed round returned. We found ourselves in an unsustainable feeding frenzy of fundraising, talent wars and GPU procurement. 

And sure enough, the cracks started to show. Artists and writers and singers challenged the legitimacy of machine-generated IP. Debates over ethics, regulation and looming superintelligence consumed Washington. And perhaps most worryingly, a whisper began to spread within Silicon Valley that generative AI was not actually useful. The products were falling far short of expectations, as evidenced by terrible user retention. End user demand began to plateau for many applications. Was this just another vaporware cycle?

The AI summer of discontent has sent critics gleefully grave dancing, reminiscent of the early days of the internet, where in 1998 one famous economist declared “By 2005, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”

Make no mistake—despite the noise and the hysteria and the air of uncertainty and discontent,  generative AI has already had a more successful start than SaaS, with >$1 billion in revenue from startups alone (it took the SaaS market years, not months, to reach the same scale). Some applications have become household names: ChatGPT became the fastest-growing application with particularly strong product-market fit among students and developers; Midjourney became our collective creative muse and was reported to have reached hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue with a team of just eleven; and Character popularized AI entertainment and companionship and created the consumer “social” application we craved the most—with users spending two hours on average in-app.

Nonetheless, these early signs of success don’t change the reality that a lot of AI companies simply do not have product-market fit or a sustainable competitive advantage, and that the overall ebullience of the AI ecosystem is unsustainable.

Now that the dust has settled for a bit, we thought it would be an opportune moment to zoom out and reflect on generative AI—where we find ourselves today, and where we’re possibly headed. 

Towards Act Two

Generative AI’s first year out the gate—“Act 1”—came from the technology-out. We discovered a new “hammer”—foundation models—and unleashed a wave of novelty apps that were lightweight demonstrations of cool new technology. 

We now believe the market is entering “Act 2”—which will be from the customer-back. Act 2 will solve human problems end-to-end. These applications are different in nature than the first apps out of the gate. They tend to use foundation models as a piece of a more comprehensive solution rather than the entire solution. They introduce new editing interfaces, making the workflows stickier and the outputs better. They are often multi-modal.

The market is already beginning to transition from “Act 1” to “Act 2.” Examples of companies entering “Act 2” include Harvey, which is building custom LLMs for elite law firms; Glean, which is crawling and indexing our workspaces to make Generative AI more relevant at work; and Character and Ava, which are creating digital companions. 

Market Map

Our updated generative AI market map is below. 

Unlike last year’s map, we have chosen to organize this map by use case rather than by model modality. This reflects two important thrusts in the market: Generative AI’s evolution from technology hammer to actual use cases and value, and the increasingly multimodal nature of generative AI applications.

In addition, we have included a new LLM developer stack that reflects the compute and tooling vendors that companies are turning to as they build generative AI applications in production.

Revisiting Our Thesis

Our original essay laid out a thesis for the generative AI market opportunity and a hypothesis for how the market would unfold. How did we do?

Here’s what we got wrong:

Things happened quickly. Last year, we anticipated it would be nearly a decade before we had intern-level code generation, Hollywood-quality videos or human quality speech that didn’t sound mechanical. But a quick listen to Eleven Labs’ voices on TikTok or Runway’s AI film festival makes it clear that the future has arrived at warp speed. Even 3D models, gaming and music are becoming good, quickly.  The bottleneck is on the supply side. We did not anticipate the extent to which end user demand would outstrip GPU supply. The bottleneck to many companies’ growth quickly became not customer demand but access to the latest GPUs from Nvidia. Long wait times became the norm, and a simple business model emerged: pay a subscription fee to skip the line and access better models.  Vertical separation hasn’t happened yet. We still believe that there will be a separation between the “application layer” companies and foundation model providers, with model companies specializing in scale and research and application layer companies specializing in product and UI. In reality, that separation hasn’t cleanly happened yet. In fact, the most successful user-facing applications out of the gate have been vertically integrated. Cutthroat competitive environment and swiftness of the incumbent response. Last year, there were a few overcrowded categories of the competitive landscape (notably image generation and copywriting), but by and large the market was whitespace. Today, many corners of the competitive landscape have more competition than opportunity. The swiftness of the incumbent response, from Google’s Duet and Bard to Adobe’s Firefly—and the willingness of incumbents to finally go “risk on”—has magnified the competitive heat. Even in the foundation model layer, we are seeing customers set up their infrastructure to be agnostic between different vendors.  The moats are in the customers, not the data. We predicted that the best generative AI companies could generate a sustainable competitive advantage through a data flywheel: more usage → more data → better model → more usage. While this is still somewhat true, especially in domains with very specialized and hard-to-get data, the “data moats” are on shaky ground: the data that application companies generate does not create an insurmountable moat, and the next generations of foundation models may very well obliterate any data moats that startups generate. Rather, workflows and user networks seem to be creating more durable sources of competitive advantage.

Here’s what we got right:

Generative AI is a thing. Suddenly, every developer was working on a generative AI application and every enterprise buyer was demanding it. The market even kept the “generative AI” moniker. Talent flowed into the market, as did venture capital dollars. Generative AI even became a pop culture phenomenon in viral videos like “Harry Potter Balenciaga” or the Drake imitation song “Heart on My Sleeve” by Ghostwriter which has become a chart-topping hit. The first killer apps emerged. It’s been well documented that ChatGPT was the fastest application to reach 100M MAU—and it did so organically in just 6 weeks. By contrast, Instagram took 2.5 years, WhatsApp took 3.5 years, and YouTube and Facebook took 4 years to reach that level of user demand. But ChatGPT is not an isolated phenomenon. The depth of engagement of Character AI (2 hour average session time), the productivity benefits of Github Copilot (55% more efficient), and the monetization path of Midjourney (hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue) all suggest that the first cohort of killer apps has arrived. Developers are the key. One of the core insights of developer-first companies like Stripe or Unity has been that developer access opens up use cases you could not even imagine. In the last several quarters, we have been pitched everything from music generation communities to AI matchmakers to AI customer support agents. The form factor is evolving. The first versions of AI applications have largely been autocomplete and first drafts, but these form factors are now growing in complexity. Midjourney’s introduction of camera panning and infilling is a nice illustration of how the generative AI-first user experience has grown richer. Across the board, form factors are evolving from individual to system-level productivity and from human-in-the-loop to execution-oriented agentic systems. Copyright and ethics and existential dread. The debate has roared on these hot-button topics. Artists and writers and musicians are split, with some creators rightfully outraged that others are profiting off derivative work, and some creators embracing the new AI reality (Grimes’ profit-sharing proposition and James Buckhouse’s optimism about becoming part of the creative genome come to mind). No startup wants to be the Napster or Limewire to the eventual Spotify (h/t Jason Boehmig). The rules are opaque: Japan has declared that content used to train AI has no IP rights, while Europe has proposed heavy-handed regulation.  Where do we stand now? Generative AI’s Value Problem

Generative AI is not lacking in use cases or customer demand. Users crave AI that makes their jobs easier and their work products better, which is why they have flocked to applications in record-setting droves (in spite of a lack of natural distribution). 

But do people stick around? Not really. The below chart compares the month 1 mobile app retention of AI-first applications to existing companies. 

User engagement is also lackluster. Some of the best consumer companies have 60-65% DAU/MAU; WhatsApp’s is 85%. By contrast, generative AI apps have a median of 14% (with the notable exception of Character and the “AI companionship” category). This means that users are not finding enough value in Generative AI products to use them every day yet.

In short, generative AI’s biggest problem is not finding use cases or demand or distribution, it is proving value. As our colleague David Cahn writes, “the $200B question is: What are you going to use all this infrastructure to do? How is it going to change people’s lives?” The path to building enduring businesses will require fixing the retention problem and generating deep enough value for customers that they stick and become daily active users.

Let’s not despair. Generative AI is still in its “awkward teenage years.” There are glimpses of brilliance, and when the products fall short of expectations the failures are often reliable, repeatable and fixable. Our work is cut out for us. 

Act Two: A Shared Playbook

Founders are embarking on the hard work of prompt engineering, fine tuning and dataset curation to make their AI products *good*. Brick by brick, they are building flashy demos into whole product experiences. And meanwhile, the foundation model substrate continues to brim with research and innovation.

A shared playbook is developing as companies figure out the path to enduring value. We now have shared techniques to make models useful, as well as emerging UI paradigms that will shape generative AI’s second act.

The Model Development Stack

Emerging reasoning techniques like chain-of-thought, tree-of-thought and reflexion are improving models’ ability to perform richer, more complex reasoning tasks, closing the gap between customer expectations and model capabilities. Developers are using frameworks like Langchain to invoke and debug more complex multi-chain sequences. Transfer learning techniques like RLHF and fine-tuning are becoming more accessible, especially with the recent availability of fine-tuning for GPT-3.5 and Llama-2, which means that companies can adapt foundation models to their specific domains and improve from user feedback. Developers are downloading open-source models from Hugging Face and fine-tuning them to achieve quality performance. Retrieval-augmented generation is bringing in context about the business or the user, reducing hallucinations and increasing truthfulness and usefulness. Vector databases from companies like Pinecone have become the infrastructure backbone for RAG. New developer tools and application frameworks are giving companies reusable building blocks to create more advanced AI applications and helping developers evaluate, improve and monitor the performance of AI models in production, including LLMOps tools like Langsmith and Weights & Biases  AI-first infrastructure companies like Coreweave, Lambda Labs, Foundry, Replicate and Modal are unbundling the public clouds and providing what AI companies need most: plentiful GPUs at a reasonable cost, available on-demand and highly scalable, with a nice PaaS developer experience.

Together, these techniques should close the expectations vs reality gap for models as the underlying foundation models simultaneously improve. But making the models great is only half the battle. The playbook for a generative AI-first user experience is evolving as well:

Emerging Product Blueprints

Generative interfaces. A text-based conversational user experience is the default interface on top of an LLM. Gradually, newer form factors are entering the arsenal, from Perplexity’s generative user interfaces to new modalities like human-sounding voices from Inflection AI.  New editing experiences: from Copilot to Director’s Mode. As we advance from zero-shot to ask-and-adjust (h/t Zach Lloyd), generative AI companies are inventing a new set of knobs and switches that look very different from traditional editing workflows. Midjourney’s new panning commands and Runway’s Director’s Mode create new camera-like editing experiences. Eleven Labs is making it possible to manipulate voices through prompting. Increasingly sophisticated agentic systems. Generative AI applications are increasingly not just autocomplete or first drafts for human review; they now have the autonomy to problem-solve, access external tools and solve problems end-to-end on our behalf. We are steadily progressing from level 0 to level 5 autonomy.  System-wide optimization. Rather than embed in a single human user’s workflow and make that individual more efficient, some companies are directly tackling the system-wide optimization problem. Can you pick off a chunk of support tickets or pull requests and autonomously solve them, thereby making the whole system more effective? Parting Thoughts

As we approach the frontier paradox and as the novelty of transformers and diffusion models dies down, the nature of the generative AI market is evolving. Hype and flash are giving way to real value and whole product experiences.

At Sequoia we remain steadfast believers in generative AI. The necessary conditions for this market to take flight have accumulated over the span of decades, and the market is finally here. The emergence of killer applications and the sheer magnitude of end user demand has deepened our conviction in the market.

However, Amara’s Law—the phenomenon that we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run—is running its course. We are applying patience and judgment in our investment decisions, with careful attention to how founders are solving the value problem. The shared playbook companies are using to push the boundaries on model performance and product experiences gives us optimism on generative AI’s second act.


If you are building in the AI market with an eye towards value and whole product experiences, we would love to hear from you. Please email Sonya (sonya@sequoiacap.com) and Pat (grady@sequoiacap.com). Our third coauthor does not have an email address yet, sadly :-).

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI Generative AI: A Creative New World By Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and GPT-3 Perspective Read AI’s $200B Question By David Cahn Perspective Read Bringing Generative AI to Healthcare By Josephine Chen Perspective Read Retooling the Status Quo David Hsu’s rebellious spirit led him to re-imagine the world of software with Retool. Spotlight Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

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Follow the GPUs Perspective

The post Follow the GPUs Perspective appeared first on Sequoia Capital.
AI’s $200B Question

GPU capacity is getting overbuilt. Long-term, this is good. Short-term, things could get messy.

By David Cahn Published September 20, 2023

The Generative AI wave, which began last summer, has gone into hyperspeed. The catalyst for this double acceleration was Nvidia’s Q2 earnings guide and subsequent beat. This signaled to the market an insatiable level of demand for GPUs and AI model training. 

Before Nvidia’s announcement, consumer launches like ChatGPT, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion had raised AI into the public consciousness. With Nvidia’s results, founders and investors were delivered empirical evidence that AI can generate billions of dollars of net new revenue. This has shifted the category into its highest gear yet. 

While investors have extrapolated much from Nvidia’s results—and AI investments are now happening at a torrid pace and at record valuations—a big open question remains: What are all these GPUs being used for? Who is the customer’s customer? How much value needs to be generated for this rapid rate of investment to pay off?

Consider the following: For every $1 spent on a GPU, roughly $1 needs to be spent on energy costs to run the GPU in a data center. So if Nvidia sells $50B in run-rate GPU revenue by the end of the year (a conservative estimate based on analyst forecasts), that implies approximately $100B in data center expenditures. The end user of the GPU—for example, Starbucks, X, Tesla, Github Copilot or a new startup—needs to earn a margin too. Let’s assume they need to earn a 50% margin. This implies that for each year of current GPU CapEx, $200B of lifetime revenue would need to be generated by these GPUs to pay back the upfront capital investment. This does not include any margin for the cloud vendors—for them to earn a positive return, the total revenue requirement would be even higher.

Based on public filings, much of the incremental data center build-out is coming from big tech companies: Google, Microsoft and Meta, for example, have reported increased data center CapEx. Reports indicate that Bytedance, Tencent and Alibaba are big Nvidia customers as well. On a go-forward basis, companies like Amazon, Oracle, Apple, Tesla and Coreweave should also be important contributors. 

The important question to be asking is: How much of this CapEx build out is linked to true end-customer demand, and how much of it is being built in anticipation of future end-customer demand? This is the $200B question.

The Information has reported that OpenAI is generating $1B in annual revenue. Microsoft has said it expects to generate $10B in AI revenue from products like Microsoft Copilot. Let’s assume Google will generate a similar amount of revenue from its AI products, such as Duet and Bard. Let’s also assume Meta and Apple each generate $10B in revenues from AI. Let’s use a $5B placeholder for Oracle, Bytedance, Alibaba, Tencent, X and Tesla. These are all dummy assumptions—the point is that even if you assume extremely generous gains from AI, there’s a $125B+ hole that needs to be filled for each year of CapEx at today’s levels. 

There is a large opportunity for the startup ecosystem to fill this hole. Our goal is to “follow the GPUs” and find the next generation of startups that leverage AI technology to create real end-customer value. We want to invest in these companies.

The goal of this analysis is to highlight the gap that we see today. AI hype has finally caught up to the deep learning technology breakthroughs in development since 2017. This is good news. A major CapEx buildout is happening. This should bring AI development costs down dramatically over the long-term. You used to have to buy a server rack to build any application. Now you can use the public clouds at a much lower cost. Likewise, today many AI companies are using a large portion of their venture capital on GPUs. As today’s supply constraints give way to a supply glut, the cost of running AI workloads will come down. This should spur more product development. It should also attract more founders to build in this space.

During historical technology cycles, overbuilding of infrastructure has often incinerated capital, while at the same time unleashing future innovation by bringing down the marginal cost of new product development. We expect this pattern will repeat itself in AI.

For startups, the takeaway is clear: As a community, we need to shift our thinking away from infrastructure and towards end-customer value. Happy customers are a fundamental requirement of every great business. For AI to have an impact, we need to figure out how to leverage this new technology to make people’s lives better. How can we translate these amazing innovations into products that customers use every day, love and are willing to pay for? 

The AI infrastructure build out is happening. Infrastructure is not the problem anymore. Many foundation models are being developed—this is not the problem anymore, either. And the tooling in AI is pretty good today. So the $200B question is: What are you going to use all this infrastructure to do? How is it going to change people’s lives? 

If you are building in this space, we’d love to hear from you. Please reach out at dcahn@sequoiacap.com

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI Generative AI’s Act Two By Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and GPT-4 Perspective Read Bringing Generative AI to Healthcare By Josephine Chen Perspective Read Retooling the Status Quo David Hsu’s rebellious spirit led him to re-imagine the world of software with Retool. Spotlight Read Partnering with Harvey: Putting LLMs to Work By Pat Grady and Charlie Curnin News Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

The post Follow the GPUs Perspective appeared first on Sequoia Capital.


bankless

SVM L2 on Ethereum: Bullish or Bearish SOL? with Neel Somani, Founder, Eclipse

Solana on Ethereum? Solana has a virtual machine called the SVM. Proponents say it’s much better than the Ethereum EVM…multi-threaded execution…now it’s coming to Ethereum in the form of an L2.  Today on the show, we brought on CEO & Co-Founder of Eclipse, Neel Somani. Eclipse is not only a new L2 on the scene, it’s also an L2 framework, kind of like the OP Stack. It’s a superchain cont

Solana on Ethereum? Solana has a virtual machine called the SVM. Proponents say it’s much better than the Ethereum EVM…multi-threaded execution…now it’s coming to Ethereum in the form of an L2. 

Today on the show, we brought on CEO & Co-Founder of Eclipse, Neel Somani. Eclipse is not only a new L2 on the scene, it’s also an L2 framework, kind of like the OP Stack. It’s a superchain contender. 

This poses some very interesting questions….who wins? Does this kill Solana? 

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0:00 Intro 7:10 Motivations For Eclipse 10:50 Why is the SVM Great? 16:00 How Fee Markets Work?  19:20 Ethereum & Eclipse Pairing 20:25 What Kind of L2 is Eclipse?  23:25 Celestia For Data Availability?  25:30 Security Trade-Offs?  27:30 Transactions on Eclipse 28:00 Economics on Data Availability  33:50 RISC Zero & Eclipse  36:10 Modular Thesis  41:00 Eclipses's Superchain? 44:35 Eclipse Today? 45:20 Winners vs. Losers  46:40 Eclipse vs. Solana  49:00 Bad for $SOL?  52:45 Eclipse Team 53:45 Solana as an L2 55:00 Eclipse Token? 55:45 Future Ecosystems 57:05 Naming This New Tech  58:50 Roadmap 1:00:30 Neel's Bio 1:01:50 Closing & Disclaimers

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Neel Somani https://twitter.com/neelsalami 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures


Aztec Network

Announcing Aztec Sandbox: The Endgame For Smart Contract Privacy

The most ambitious software release in Aztec Labs’ history Today we’re proud to announce Aztec Sandbox, a local developer testnet for building end-to-end applications on Aztec. Aztec is designed to be the endgame for blockchain privacy — the most complete solution for privacy-first blockchain applications ever attempted. Aztec Sandbox is the first milestone toward that endgame, allowi
The most ambitious software release in Aztec Labs’ history

Today we’re proud to announce Aztec Sandbox, a local developer testnet for building end-to-end applications on Aztec.

Aztec is designed to be the endgame for blockchain privacy — the most complete solution for privacy-first blockchain applications ever attempted.

Aztec Sandbox is the first milestone toward that endgame, allowing developers to write applications that leverage a full suite of privacy primitives:

Private smart contract composability (including public-private composability) Private L1-L2 function calls Private state management Hidden function execution

All enabled by an intuitive software development environment that abstracts the complicated mechanisms necessary to protect user privacy.

⬇️ Download Aztec Sandbox at sandbox.aztec.network.
Background

Aztec Labs has been laying the foundation for a privacy-preserving Ethereum L2 for years.

Yet building the Sandbox has taken just 5 months-a testament to the quality of our team and the ever-improving modularity of Aztec’s technology.

The Sandbox is the first major step on a development roadmap that includes a multi-phase testnet for Aztec’s execution environment, fee model, sequencers, and provers-all culminating in a privacy preserving zkRollup that is fully decentralized at mainnet launch.

What comes in the box?

Aztec Sandbox is a comprehensive software release providing developers with a fast, lightweight local Aztec node, with features similar to Ethereum’s Ganache or Anvil local node packages.

Alongside Aztec’s local node testing environment, the Sandbox includes powerful tools and frameworks that allow developers to write and test smart contracts:

Aztec Node: build and publish rollup blocks with Aztec’s node software Aztec RPC Server: decrypt and store client-side private state, execute private functions and submit transactions to the Aztec Node Aztec.nr: write smart contracts using a comprehensive framework that extends Noir-an open-source zero knowledge programming language-with private smart contract functionality Aztec.js: make RPC calls to an Aztec Node via Aztec’s Typescript wrapper Aztec CLI: interact directly with an Aztec Node using Aztec’s command-line tool Noir VS Code Extension: write Noir conveniently. Syntax highlighting, debugging and [other features] that make writing smart contracts in Noir utterly painless Code examples: get inspired by Aztec Labs-written example private smart contracts and example wallet implementations

Developers should be aware that they are early adopters. You may encounter bugs or hiccups.

No fret.

For support related to Aztec Sandbox, join our Discourse forum, where you can get hands-on support from Aztec Labs’ developer relation teams and build alongside the Aztec developer community.

🗣 Join the conversation on Aztec Labs’ Discourse
Get Started in Minutes

Aztec Sandbox provides a local development system for building and testing Aztec smart contracts in a fast, safe, and free environment.

The process of downloading the Sandbox, installing client libraries, and using it to deploy and use a fully private token contract on a local Aztec node takes less than 10 minutes.

First, navigate to sandbox.aztec.network

Or curl the site:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL 'https://sandbox.aztec.network')"

A package will then download and execute, spinning up two Docker containers:

The Sandbox will create servers on localhost ports 8545 (Anvil) and 8080 (Sandbox); ensure those ports are free to prevent any conflicts.

Within a few seconds the Sandbox should be up and running!

What you can do with it

The Sandbox is the starting point for Aztec smart contract and application developers. The Sandbox helps future-looking developers get a head-start interacting with ZK-native blockchain environments.

And as pioneers in smart contract privacy, developers will need to add a few useful heuristics to their public-blockchain mental models. Some new concepts include:

Private state management Account abstraction models Understanding patterns to keep private information private Transaction paths which span both private and public function execution Organizing contracts into privately executable logic and publicly executable logic
For more about UTXO abstraction and how Aztec makes it convenient to manage manipulating private state, read our blog post here. For more information relating to privacy preservation best practices, seehere. And for more about transaction architecture, see .

Using Aztec.js, developers can build full-fledged applications that let users:

Write, deploy and test private smart contracts Create accounts (choosing one of various account abstraction schemes!) Manage their wallets Send transactions to the network and track their progress Query current chain state such as chain ID, block number, etc.

Learn more about how to write an Aztec smart contract along with ready-made examples and walkthrough guides here.

Use-cases we’re excited to see

Aztec’s smart contract examples include a broad swath of use cases

Public and private token contracts Anonymous DeFi Oracle price feeds Air-drop contracts Two-party private escrow Account contracts that can privately validate account credentials

We’re excited to see other application primitives including private identity, fully on-chain private games, and decentralized finance protocols offering privacy by default.

We can’t wait to see the explosion of higher-order privacy mechanisms that will be created by remixing and composing these basic primitives into complex smart contracts and full-fledged privacy-first applications.

What you can’t do (yet)

The Aztec Sandbox is our minimum viable local developer testnet. While developers can begin writing smart contracts, there is no shared in-production network.

While account creation, wallet management, smart contract creation, and transaction execution are all live, fee estimation, transaction sequencing, proving, and advanced key and address functionality will be released in future iterations of the Sandbox.

🎻 For a full current list of limitations see here.

You can learn how to write and test Aztec smart contracts. You just can’t deploy production applications-yet.

What is Noir’s relationship to all this?

Aztec Labs first developed Noir as a standalone, open-source, universal language for zero-knowledge programming. Noir is designed to be compatible across proving systems while also being verifiable to any chain, not just Aztec.

​​It’s no surprise then, that we’ve chosen Noir as a basis for writing smart contracts on Aztec. Using Noir, we’ve written a collection of functions, types, methods, state variables, annotations, etc. which together provide a rich, syntactically pleasing framework, to aid developers in writing intuitive and legible private smart contracts.

Imaginatively, we called this framework Aztec.nr.

Aztec applications written with the Aztec.nr framework have the advantage of features and tools developers might expect to be packaged with any smart contract framework:

Contracts (including callable contract functions and inter-contract function calls) Persistent state variables Contract address semantics Access to msg.sender and other call context information Access to transaction context information Access to historic blockchain data Events (logs) (both encrypted and unencrypted) Cryptographic primitives Cross-chain (L1 -> L2 and L2 -> L1) message passing

Noir is an open-source language with universal applicability to zero knowledge use-cases. In fact, our hope is Noir’s extensibility allows it to be used even in non-blockchain / web2 applications!

But with Aztec.nr, Noir now fits hand-in-glove with Aztec. Noir developers now have access to the best privacy infrastructure for their applications.

Noir developers: it’s time to come home.

🏃 Get started now at sandbox.aztec.network.
Front-run the future

Joining now as a Sandbox developer represents a significant opportunity to gain early access and bend the blockchain universe toward more privacy, not less.

At Aztec Labs we’ve worked tirelessly to make zero knowledge cryptography accessible to non-cryptographers. Aztec Sandbox now delivers that promise in a developer-friendly package.

We’re thrilled about the opportunity represented by this release to begin democratizing access to fully decentralized privacy-enabled applications.

We hope you are too.

Get started

The fastest way to get going with Aztec Sandbox is our starter page at sandbox.aztec.network, which allows you to download the Sandbox, deploy an example private token contract, and do basic interactions with the contract to transfer tokens between private addresses via the Aztec CLI.

Additional resources: Documentation Discourse

Originally published at https://aztec.network on September 20, 2023.

Announcing Aztec Sandbox: The Endgame For Smart Contract Privacy was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Nym - Medium

Privacy-enhance Cosmos with the Nym Rust SDK

The Nym Rust SDK brings the powerful pattern protection of the mixnet into blockchains. A new tutorial from the Nym core team reveals how Cosmos broadcasts can be run over the Nym mixnet, securing traffic patterns against snooping adversaries. Languages: Française // Türkçe // Bahasa Indonesia // 日本 // 中文 // Русский By using the Nym Rust SDK with the Cosmos SDK, developers can query blockc

The Nym Rust SDK brings the powerful pattern protection of the mixnet into blockchains.

A new tutorial from the Nym core team reveals how Cosmos broadcasts can be run over the Nym mixnet, securing traffic patterns against snooping adversaries.

Languages: Française // Türkçe // Bahasa Indonesia // 日本 // 中文 // Русский

By using the Nym Rust SDK with the Cosmos SDK, developers can query blockchains and request services anonymously via the mixnet, with all traffic patterns fully protected.

Almost all blockchains are vulnerable to traffic analysis with no pattern protection built in, and therefore leak metadata and IP addresses. This information can be used to target, dox or censor users and validators.

While the binary in the following tutorial is built for Cosmos, in theory, the principles should work on enabling pattern protection for any blockchain with the Nym mixnet.

Chains leak metadata

The purpose of the tutorial is not to build production-grade code, but to familiarise developers with connecting Nym to the Cosmos blockchain.

Interoperability is crucial for the future of Web3. If ecosystems remain siloed they will become deserted islands. From the start, Cosmos has sought to resolve dependence on L1 blockchains by enabling an ‘internet of blockchains’ with the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) and CosmWasm smart contracts, allowing projects to interact with one another but retain their own distinct character and utility — like a sprawling archipelago of islands, all connected.

But the design of Cosmos means that all of the network traffic on and between chains — the boats connecting these islands, so to speak — is visible, and therefore vulnerable to attacks, surveillance, and censorship.

This is not only a problem with dApps, decentralised projects and blockchains of Web3, but with the internet as a whole.

However, what makes decentralised infrastructure particularly vulnerable is the sheer amount of traffic that has to move across open networks in interchain and peer-to-peer broadcasts.

It is these patterns of ‘metadata’ traffic that are analysed by criminals, governments, big tech, and shady data broker businesses. And it is precisely these patterns that the Nym mixnet protects.

Build with the Nym Rust SDK on Cosmos

The first part of this tutorial teaches users how to take a first step towards building a service which can interact with a Cosmos SDK blockchain via Nym, thus securing the network layer.

Think of the service you’ll build as a kind of proxy: it interacts with the blockchain on the client’s behalf, shielding the client from the validator that it interacts with. At the same time, the service is also shielded from the client by the mixnet.

Let’s look at an example. Imagine you want to make a transaction. Generally speaking this would entail:

Querying the blockchain for relevant information to construct the transaction; receiving that back from the blockchain; then constructing and signing the transaction and sending this to the blockchain; and receiving a transaction hash back as confirmation.

Using this tutorial, the queries and transactions will be sent from your client via the mixnet and a proxy service rather than directly from you, protecting your patterns of queries and transactions from the blockchain as well as any network observers.

Conversely, the validator would send information and transaction hashes back via the proxy service, which would send this through the mixnet (using something called SURBS) before it reaches your client.

NOTE: if you are a wallet developer and your wallet runs SOCKS5, SOCKS4a, or SOCKS4, check out using the socks client via the SDK instead of the websocket client. There is an example of how you’d connect here.

The tutorial covers writing two pieces of code in Rust.

The first piece of code is a client-side binary for constructing a blockchain query, which sends this to the Cosmos SDK blockchain before passing the response back to the client. The example in this tutorial is to query the balance of an account.

The second piece of code listens out for requests from the mixnet, acts on those requests, and anonymously replies to the client sending those requests.

The tutorial is in five parts:

Prepare your environment Prepare your library Prepare your client Prepare your service Querying the chain

By the end of the tutorial, you’ll have learned how to integrate the Nym mixnet for traffic transport — allowing you to build privacy-preserving apps for real-world use cases much more simply.

Most blockchains are not private — yet

Most blockchains are not designed with privacy in mind. They are designed to be immutable public ledgers that record transactions and remain unchanged and unalterable.

The Nym Rust SDK introduces pattern protection for Cosmos traffic. But it does not provide privacy once information is stored on a given blockchain itself.

Now, if you are simply querying a blockchain, the mixnet will effectively protect those queries. But if you want to write to a blockchain, the mixnet only protects transactions in transit. This means you will need a privacy L1 (such as Anoma or Penumbra) if you want to ensure on-chain privacy.

The Nym Rust SDK is general purpose and can communicate with any blockchain — including those designed with privacy in mind. So integrate Nym for network layer privacy and choose your stack carefully!

The Nym mixnet is a general purpose, advanced privacy system for the whole internet, whether Web 2.0 or Web3, or a dApp, L1, or L2 blockchain. This tutorial shows that privacy primitives are becoming increasingly usable to build with privacy as the default.

Developers! Try the tutorial today, join the Nym dev chat and shield users and operators against global adversaries by taking advantage of the powerful pattern protection offered by the Nym mixnet.

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Privacy-enhance Cosmos with the Nym Rust SDK was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Defiant

Native USDC Rolls Out Across Polkadot Ecosystem

Polkadot Is Circle’s Third USDC Integration In The Past Month
Polkadot Is Circle’s Third USDC Integration In The Past Month

Hackers Compromise Balancer Website In Ongoing Exploit

Decentralized Exchange Balancer Attacked Twice In Two Months
Decentralized Exchange Balancer Attacked Twice In Two Months

Brave Browser

The future of Leo: A roadmap for Brave's built-in AI browser assistant

Brave recently released Leo (our native AI assistant) to Nightly users. We have since incorporated a lot of feedback, and made numerous improvements.

In August 2023, Brave released Leo—Brave’s native AI assistant—on its Nightly channel. Since then we’ve incorporated a lot of user feedback, and made numerous improvements to the feature. There are more changes on the way, and soon we will launch Leo on our full release channel, making it available to our 60 million users.

We thought now would be a great time to share more about how Brave is thinking about Leo, and the future AI integrations within the browser.

Background: Brave as a user agent

Brave has always been a user agent. A user agent is a client application that gives users better control of the content they access on the Internet, without conflicts of interest between server operators – including third parties – and the user. Leo takes this concept one step further, moving beyond the limited stance of browsing content in the way the author or creator intended. With Leo, you’re not passively consuming web pages and videos, rather you’re actively exploring content: asking tangential questions, seeking clarifications, exploring diverse viewpoints, and overall tailoring the Web to your preferences.

Leo “understands” the current page you’re visiting—it’s the next best thing to talking directly with the author. In fact, in many ways it’s better, as Leo can independently analyze and reason about pages, free of the author’s or creator’s biases.

To be clear, Brave isn’t trying to create the world’s leading Large Language Model (LLM) from scratch. Instead, our goal is to link users with top LLMs and harness them in innovative and where feasible, privacy preserving ways. Our goal is to open novel, convenient, and private use cases that are often possible only in the context of a particular user’s browsing session.

As with all Brave products, Leo adheres to Brave’s core values and is built with privacy by design. User inputs are always submitted anonymously through a reverse-proxy to our inference infrastructure, giving users an AI experience with unparalleled privacy. Also, conversations are discarded immediately after the reply is generated and are not persisted on Brave’s servers. As we expand Leo’s development, we will continue to integrate privacy into its features and to innovate with new approaches to give our users the privacy they expect.

General release channel availability: cost and viability 

The first step to opening this amazing feature to our general release channel is to make sure the cost is viable for Brave to offer to its full user base. With more than 60 million users worldwide, the cost of running Leo as-is on our general release channel would be prohibitive without a paid option. For this reason, we’ll soon be offering a premium version of Leo. Alongside the free version of this feature, the premium version will cover the costs of hosting our premium models, and for paying the API access for other premium model choices.

This next update to Leo will include:

A seamless onboarding experience for the premium upgrade, including the ability to pay for premium access with BAT. The ability to select different models directly in the main Leo interface. The addition of integration points from other parts of the browser into Leo. Access to better models such as Llama 2 70B, and Claude Instant (by Anthropic).

Here’s a table that summarizes the free / premium options:

Feature Free Leo Leo premium Models Llama 2 13B
Code Llama 13B Llama 2 13B
Llama 2 70B
Code Llama 13B
Code Llama 70B
Anthropic Claude Instant Rate limits Reasonable rate limits Higher rate limits Quality of conversations Limited by models Very high Privacy Inputs are always submitted anonymously through a reverse-proxy and are not retained. Inputs are always submitted anonymously through a reverse-proxy and are not retained.

We’re targeting mid to late Q4 for the Leo release.

Mobile parity

Mobile parity will most likely follow shortly after the desktop release. 

The focus of the mobile release will be to make sure everything from the desktop release works on Android and iOS.

Roadmap

Major enhancements and features for Leo are described and grouped into categories below. Some of these features will be available with the first release, and others will roll out during each of our browser updates.

Local persistence of conversations, and full-page interactions Ability to store and reference past conversations locally on your device, and continue these conversations at a later date. Ability to sync these conversations across devices using Brave Sync. Full-page interactive UI via a URL like brave://chat (or brave://leo). Better answers Provide Brave Search results to the model for up-to-date information. Provide Brave Q&A and Brave Support to the model for user questions. Provide Brave News results to the model for help answering user questions. Provide cryptocurrency context to the model for help answering Web3-related questions. Provide a generalized extension framework, or adopt an existing form of extensions such as ChatGPT plugins. Richer output Image generation as part of Leo’s possible outputs. Ability to highlight text within a page that’s currently being viewed to support Leo’s claims. Ability for Leo to take actions on a user’s behalf (for example, for Leo to start a Web search, change the current page to dark mode, or change a browser setting). Entity highlighting of response text to link to Brave Search (for example, if an output talked about Brave, it may highlight Brave and make it a Brave Search query). Model expansions Continually add access to the latest-and-greatest models. Expand commercial relationships to offer more model choices for premium users. Larger context sizes. Better language support

Today, if Leo is prompted in another language, it can already answer in that language (such as French and Spanish). However, not all languages are covered, and a page’s context, when used, will likely determine the response language. We’d like to add better handling for languages, and overall to expand the number of languages, and the quality of the output of those languages, by adding better international models.

Chat interface and customization At the time of writing, context for Leo interactions can derive either from the entire page, or it can work with no context at all. In the future, we’d like to make this better via context menus, allowing users to select a specific part of a page to supply the model its interaction context. We’d like to offer access to Leo via omnibox (address bar) suggestions, a new tab card, and more. A CodeLlama integration into developer tools and in the sidebar, with optional injection into the current page context. Model personalization and personification Customize Leo’s tone and summary styles for personalized interactions. User-defined boundaries, mood, and context awareness. Content consumption PDF summarization: the ability to interface with not only web pages and videos, but also with PDF documents. Using accessibility and other information available to help models understand web pages better. Image understanding via drag and drop. Writing tools Tools for filling in editable fields on web pages (such as formatting and generating text). Grammar, spelling, and other suggestions. Content suggestions, and content auto-completion. Local model support We’d like to offer locally running models, and even allow users to configure their own models. Doing so would open more possibilities for assisting users with their local, private Brave data (for example, making a better suggestion bar or autocomplete suggestions). Brave Ads & Brave Rewards integration We may offer a privacy-preserving ad-supported option for those users who don’t want to buy a premium subscription, but still want premium features. Thinking beyond display ads, we’d like the model to help users make purchasing decisions, via context such as detailed product information; this could entail an ad catalog and all knowledge about the products behind those ads, but not advertise or give you phony or biased information (for example, if you were trying to buy a TV, Leo could tell you it knows of a less expensive TV, or one that offers features not available in the TV you’re currently asking about). We’d like to investigate how to tie this recommendation engine to Brave Rewards. In these shopping scenarios, the model would always genuinely act first as the user’s agent. For instance, it might respond that a TV you were viewing had a better price elsewhere than in an online ad you may have seen.

With Leo by their side, users can interact with the Web in groundbreaking new ways. The future of Leo outlined in this roadmap is exciting to us. Unlike other AI assistants, Leo is not a simple chat interface. Leo is a companion for helping you make sense of the Web as you browse, while preserving your privacy and helping you stay in charge of your experience.

We genuinely value insights from our community. For any thoughts or feedback, connect with us on our community question and answer site.

Tuesday, 19. September 2023

a16z Podcast

The Evolution of the Satellite Economy

The cost of launching payloads to orbit has dramatically dropped, igniting a space renaissance. In 2022, a record 186 rocket launches (41 more than the previous year!) underscores this shift. In Part 1 of our satellite economy mini-series, we sit down with John Gedmark, co-founder of Astranis, to reflect on today's innovations, who’s on the other side of the satellite market, the capabilities the

The cost of launching payloads to orbit has dramatically dropped, igniting a space renaissance. In 2022, a record 186 rocket launches (41 more than the previous year!) underscores this shift.

In Part 1 of our satellite economy mini-series, we sit down with John Gedmark, co-founder of Astranis, to reflect on today's innovations, who’s on the other side of the satellite market, the capabilities they’re looking for, competition, and their mission to provide internet access to 4 billion underserved people.

Look out for Part 2, where we tackle the challenges of rapidly reusable rockets with Andy Lapsa from Stoke Space.

 

Resources: 

Learn more about Astranis: https://www.astranis.com

Find John on Twitter: https://x.com/Gedmark?s=20

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


Defiant

Market Rally Stalls Following Latest SEC Filing Against Binance

SEC Asks Court To Compel Binance US To Produce Documents
SEC Asks Court To Compel Binance US To Produce Documents

Ethereum’s New Holesky Testnet Delayed After Launch Failure

Developers Anticipate Relaunch Of Ethereum’s Holesky Testnet Between Sept. 22 and Sept. 28 After Configuration Issues Are Resolved
Developers Anticipate Relaunch Of Ethereum’s Holesky Testnet Between Sept. 22 and Sept. 28 After Configuration Issues Are Resolved

Aztec Network

Aztec Transaction Anatomy

A look into Aztec’s transaction architecture We’ve all heard that “privacy UX sucks.” We tend to agree. Users want to drive a car, not change the oil. We previously discussed how we abstract Aztec’s underlying UTXO architecture with Noir Lang and Aztec.nr, Aztec’s smart contract framework. Today we’ll cover how we improve transaction processing via account abstraction and composable public

A look into Aztec’s transaction architecture

We’ve all heard that “privacy UX sucks.” We tend to agree.

Users want to drive a car, not change the oil. We previously discussed how we abstract Aztec’s underlying UTXO architecture with Noir Lang and Aztec.nr, Aztec’s smart contract framework.

Today we’ll cover how we improve transaction processing via account abstraction and composable public-private design.

To date, protocols focusing on user privacy have exposed the underlying privacy architecture. And it turns out that users don’t like dealing with the nuts and bolts inside the machine.

We think user-friendly abstractions represent the future of intuitive UX in blockchains–a necessary step to bringing crypto to parity with web2. We’ll define transaction paths, explain what they mean, and explore how they future-proof the Aztec experience for developers and users.

Ethereum Accounts, A Primer

In Ethereum, every account is controlled by a private key, commonly derived from a mnemonic. If you’ve ever created an Ethereum wallet, you’ve seen the list of words you need to engrave, memorize, or at minimum jot down to secure your account.

Note that we’re talking about Ethereum externally-owned accounts here (EOA’s), not contract accounts, since on Ethereum, EOA’s are the only accounts that can initiate transactions.

When you initiate a transaction on Ethereum, the network expects a signature from the private key that controls the account. If you create a signature that matches the public key associated with the transaction, the transaction is submitted with a transaction payload that instructs the Ethereum Virtual Machine on exactly what functions to execute.

Account Abstraction, aka “Seed Phrases Ain’t It, Chief”

At Aztec Labs we’ve been thinking hard about forms of account authentication beyond signatures. The use of seed phrases has significant issues:

No recovery: if you lose your phrase you may lose access to your account forever Confusing hygiene: you should never, ever, ever copy your phrase to your computer’s clipboard using the copy and paste feature Single point of failure: anyone who has your key has full access to your account
📕 Read this post by Santiago Palladino for more about the account abstraction designs being developed for Aztec on our Discourse forum

So how do we get around seed phrases and private keys as the sole forms of account validation? Seed phrases are just one very secure but very flawed form of account validation. There are myriad methods of account validation, spanning the spectrum from very secure to totally insecure, from intuitive to confusing, including but not limited to:

Key sharding Plaintext passwords TouchID and other biometric signature schemes

Keep in mind account validation can be as secure as you want it to be. One simple account validation scheme would be: “If you click the ‘yes’ button the account is validated.” It wouldn’t be secure AT ALL, but you could do it!

Account abstraction is confusing as a term, since it encompasses “everything but seed phrases,” but the holy grail of authentication would include three factors:

Something you know (like a password) Something you have (like a hardware wallet or Yubi Key) Something you are (like biometrics or a decentralized proof of identity scheme)

Aztec allows for combining all three.

But Aztec’s improvements to Ethereum go beyond the implementation of alternate authentication schemes.

Aztec’s transaction anatomy is also a bit different — users send proofs of computation rather than signing transactions from an EOA.

Here is the flow diagram for an Aztec transaction:

User connects wallet to app User expresses transaction intent App supplies transaction info to wallet Wallet executes function Prove account interaction Prove function Wallet generates kernel proof App receives kernel proof Wallet broadcasts transaction to network Aztec node includes transaction in rollup block Ethereum finalizes L1 block

We’ll talk through each in turn.

Anatomy of a private Aztec transaction

Before we carve the patient open and look at its guts, know that there are two transaction paths within Aztec: private transactions and public transactions, each with their own attributes.

At the center of these transactions is something called the kernel circuit. The kernel circuit is the beating heart of the Aztec system, and validates private transactions. We’ll get back to it in a second.

For now let’s talk about what a blockchain transaction in general is:

Authorization: typically a signature, but as we’ll see can be many things Intent: typically a transaction payload that includes instructions such as FROM, RECIPIENT, SIGNATURE, and fee information

We already discussed how Aztec allows for new forms of authorization, but how does it process transactions?

Aztec is a completely new execution environment beyond the EVM, and uses client-based zero knowledge proofs to prove individual transactions. That means the application developer’s job is to constrain functions appropriately and prove user intent.

Application developers can constrain user intents by writing smart contracts using Aztec.nr. In the private transfer example, the circuits behind the smart contract are checking a few conditions:

Does the user own >10 DAI? If so, destroy 10 DAI of their notes by creating nullifiers against them Create a new 10 DAI note for the transfer recipient Broadcast and encrypt the message containing the 10 DAI note

The nullifier, new note, an encrypted log are all made public, but kept encrypted, such that the public information tells you nothing about what happened. Roughly all an observer can see is “a transaction happened here but I’m not sure what.”

That’s the core of Aztec’s value proposition — we know with mathematical certainty transactions are happening that follow blockchain rules, but we can’t derive any information about those transactions.

📕 See our previous piece on how Aztec’s privacy abstraction works
Public Transactions

The path for public transactions is slightly different, as Aztec relies on the familiar Ethereum account-based model for public transactions.

The key to Aztec’s public transactions are unconstrained functions–Aztec’s public VM bytecode. Unconstrained functions just do “normal code stuff.” And by “normal code stuff” we mean simply execution code rather than proving execution as in Aztec’s private execution path. Unconstrained functions don’t lay down constraints. They just executes code.

If Aztec is a world computer, then unconstrained functions are the instructions the computer understands. Just like the EVM executes Solidity, the Aztec VM executes Aztec bytecode.

One key difference between the private and public execution paths is when code gets executed. In the private transaction example, code must be executed and proven locally–that is, before proof of the transaction is sent to Aztec’s network of nodes.

In the public execution path, the wallet has to receive authorization, but doesn’t process the transaction, instead sending transaction details onward to an Aztec node which then creates a proof of execution and inserts the proof into a block.

Because privacy is no longer a concern with public transactions, they can be sent unencrypted to the node to do efficient batch processing, rather than relying on a user’s local device.

Conclusion

Privacy UX sucks. Zero knowledge is complicated. Our goal is two-fold:

Simplify DevEx with tools like Aztec.nr — a smart contract framework that makes it intuitive to reason about private state management Simplify UX with abstractions that help users access the blockchain with better tools than EOA signature validation

Great privacy-first applications will be built on the backs of best-in-class tooling that makes it easy to build powerful software that makes preserving privacy smooth and intuitive for users.

That means more code, less cryptography.

Keep in touch

To learn more about Aztec generally, keep up to date on our Discourse, where we discuss major protocol decisions like upgrade mechanisms and decentralizing sequencers.

For more technical news on Aztec and Noir, join our e-mail newsletter:

📬 Subscribe here to the Aztec Labs Developer Dispatch, the latest news and releases about Aztec and Noir
Join our team

Aztec Labs is on the lookout for talented engineers, cryptographers, and business people to accelerate our vision of encrypted Ethereum.

👪 If joining our mission to bring scalable privacy to Ethereum excites you, check out our open roles.

And continue the conversation with us on Twitter.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Bruno Lulinsky and Maddiaa for input on this piece.

Aztec Transaction Anatomy was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Horizen - Blog

Horizen and Pyth Network Join Forces to Amplify Decentralized Oracle Services for EON, Horizen’s EVM-Compatible Smart Contracting Platform

Pyth Network Price Feed is now LIVE on Horizen EON! The new Pyth integration on EON will support a comprehensive range of applications across the fast-growing EON ecosystem including DeFi, gaming, and NFTs. We are excited to announce our collaboration with the Pyth Network, a specialized oracle solution, to provide decentralized oracle services for EON, […] The post Horizen and Pyth Network J

Pyth Network Price Feed is now LIVE on Horizen EON! The new Pyth integration on EON will support a comprehensive range of applications across the fast-growing EON ecosystem including DeFi, gaming, and NFTs.

We are excited to announce our collaboration with the Pyth Network, a specialized oracle solution, to provide decentralized oracle services for EON, Horizen’s EVM-compatible smart contracting platform. This collaboration will bring accurate and trusted on-chain market data to EON, empowering developers to enhance their smart contract capabilities and expand the possibilities for DeFi, gaming, and NFT applications.

Horizen’s EON is an EVM-compatible smart contracting platform that enables developers to build fully customized blockchains with flexibility in consensus, speed, privacy, and crypto-economies. With the integration of Pyth Network’s decentralized oracle services, EON will gain access to reliable market data, unlocking unlimited possibilities for DeFi integrations and expanding its ecosystem.

“Partnering with Pyth Network aligns with our mission to provide a secure and scalable ecosystem for decentralized applications. By leveraging Pyth Network’s specialized oracle solution, we can enhance EON’s capabilities and offer developers the trusted market data they need to build innovative solutions for DeFi protocols.”

Rob Viglione, Co-Founder of Horizen and CEO of Horizen Labs

The Pyth Network’s oracle solution uses the Wormhole messaging protocol to aggregate and publish data at sub-second speeds, making it available across blockchains. It offers low latency and robust market data, crucial for developing financial products in the DeFi space. Pyth Network has also established partnerships with major industry players such as Binance, KuCoin, and OKX.

“We’re excited to see the Pyth oracle and its 350 Price Feeds going live on Horizen EON — over the past year, zk solutions have been steadily growing in adoption and enabling DeFi to happen there is of first order. As the leading oracle network on various Ethereum L2s and zk-chains, we look forward to seeing EON developers grasp the opportunity to be #PoweredByPyth and build the future of finance on-chain.”

Marc Tillement, Director, Pyth Data Association.

Currently, Horizen’s EON Alpha is live on mainnet and its permanent public testnet, Gobi, bolstered by an array of products, integrations, and tools, including Pyth Network. With the collaboration between Horizen and Pyth Network, the EON ecosystem is prepared to welcome a myriad of dApps and services in the coming months.

The integration of EON’s compatibility with the EVM, Horizen’s capability for zero-knowledge cross-chain transactions, and Pyth Network’s decentralized oracle services promise to establish a customizable, permissionless, and interoperable blockchain environment, designed to cater to the diverse needs of both developers and end users.

About Horizen

Horizen is a layer 0 public blockchain that underpins the zero-knowledge network of blockchains powered by the largest node system and a massively scalable cross-chain protocol, Zendoo. Offering unparalleled tools for developers to custom-build private or public blockchains and dApps, Horizen features unmatched flexibility. EVM-compatible through its sidechain EON, developers building on Horizen enjoy complete freedom to customize their blockchains in terms of consensus, speed, privacy, and crypto-economies, without compromising decentralization.

For more information, visit https://horizen.io/ 

About Pyth Network

Pyth Network is a distinct oracle solution specifically designed to manage latency-critical financial data, which is commonly safeguarded within the confines of centralized entities. Operating one of the broadest and most dependable oracle networks, Pyth Network draws price data from over 90 leading institutions across both cryptocurrency and conventional finance industries. It employs the Wormhole messaging protocol to accumulate and broadcast data at lightning-fast speeds, enabling data availability across more than 30 blockchains. Built on its own application-specific blockchain: Pythnet, Pyth Network provides credible and confirmable market data to decentralized applications.

For more information, visit https://pyth.network/ 

The post Horizen and Pyth Network Join Forces to Amplify Decentralized Oracle Services for EON, Horizen’s EVM-Compatible Smart Contracting Platform appeared first on Horizen Blog.


Circle Blog

Now available: USDC on Polkadot Asset Hub

Polkadot USDC is now available for developers and users of the Polkadot network! Circle Account and Circle APIs make it easy to access Polkadot USDC and transfer to parachains in Polkadot via the XCM protocol.1

Polkadot USDC is now available for developers and users of the Polkadot network! Circle Account and Circle APIs make it easy to access Polkadot USDC and transfer to parachains in Polkadot via the XCM protocol.1


Global Digital Finance

Improve, Eliminate, Delegate

Summary: Reflections on advancing digital asset regulation in 2023. How can we eliminate roadblocks and engender robust and transparent markets? Like so many of us who have busy lives and demanding careers, we preciously guard our time for private life and relaxation. For me, having an overabundance of free time between jobs was daunting in its […] The post Improve, Eliminate, Delegate appe

Summary: Reflections on advancing digital asset regulation in 2023. How can we eliminate roadblocks and engender robust and transparent markets?

Like so many of us who have busy lives and demanding careers, we preciously guard our time for private life and relaxation. For me, having an overabundance of free time between jobs was daunting in its own way. I am sure that many of you, in a period of calm, also tend to want to take stock of your life, read books, clean out your closets, listen to podcasts, and do all the “things” there normally isn’t time for, while paradoxically filling the time we wish to have more of. 

Eventually I found a balance where I enjoyed the calm and time for positive self-reflection through lots of running and reading. Like many of you, I could not escape thinking about my profession, which frankly, I love. I contemplated how we can build on the solid work already undertaken this year in the nascent regulation of digital assets, through further collaboration and analysis, while eliminating barriers and roadblocks that aren’t helping to engender robust, fair, liquid, open and transparent markets.

Improve 

 “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” -Winston Churchill

In discussing digital assets and the events of the past year, the saying, “don’t throw out the baby with the bath water”, is often used to emphasise the importance of not discarding the positives that DLT has delivered in seeking to improve financial markets through removal of bad practices such as fraud and market manipulation (to name just a couple) and increase participation in the financial system.

This can also be applied to regulation. There is a tendency to think that because there is new technology, the governing policies and regulations must also be completely new, yet this is not always the case. 

The Great Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 led to many useful reforms and strong global principles and standards in the (global) financial services sector. These provide a solid foundation that can be modified, improved, and built upon for the regulation of new technologies within financial markets. 

Many global standard setting bodies (GSSBs) have already begun to consult on and modify their principles and recommendations to provide guidance for emerging regional frameworks. There are a few foundational pieces of work by the GSSBs that have been set out over the past few years such as FATF policies[1], FSB recommendations[2], and IOSCO principles[3] aiming to improve their existing guidance and requirements and mitigate any unintended gaps.

At a regional level, financial regulators around the world seek to implement the improvements made by the GSSBs while also enhancing and modifying local frameworks. In Europe, work on digital assets frameworks has been predominately grounded in MiFID II. The EU’s MiCA Regulation aims to complement MiFID II, and the UK’s recent consultations have also indicated that they will seek to improve upon these frameworks, and others that are already implemented in the region.

North America has taken approaches that vary widely by country. The US and Canada have drawn predominately on both existing securities and commodities frameworks. Some, such as Bermuda have been amending existing regulation for specific topics such as issuance or custody.

The Asia-Pacific region has also drawn on securities regulation, as well as payments regulation. The UAE is racing ahead with a bold new approach for virtual assets while balancing these with strong securities laws and a common law framework. South America, by contrast has seen some countries jumping straight to using digital assets as legal tender and/or as a permissible mode of payment.

From these few examples of recent policy developments, it is clear there are frameworks that should be built upon. Regulation does not need to start from a blank sheet of paper, and market participants must continuously improve and implement best practices from the responsible innovation of the previous decade. 

Eliminate

“Their knowledge of their tools is purely empirical; and they have a firm belief in the mummery that surrounds them.” – Isaac Asimov, Foundation

The dangers of trust without a comprehensive understanding of digital assets and regulation are hazardous, and this is arguably evident in the rhetoric from all sides. It often appears that many are blind in their beliefs and will trust without question the technology or the current regulation from those who have taught it to them. While much of this works and appears to have a high degree of social utility, many do not have a true grasp on why it works, or how to closely interrogate any individual component to ensure it works in the future with a higher degree of social utility. 

Danger may present itself in overzealous faith in DLT, especially when compounded by new regulations that are not proportional and are ill-fitting to new digital technologies. If those who work in technology regulation allow ‘mummery’ to induce a haze of belief in the infallibility of innovation, bad actors will continue to undermine the ecosystem. Blind belief must be eliminated, and replaced with verifiable transparency, compliance, and technical understanding from both regulators and market participants.

Despite much work in 2023 to advance legal definitions, there remains a lack of clarity for many market practitioners. Unclear or undecided legal status for digital assets is a clear barrier for the market. There are other missing pieces as well such as a lack of a global taxonomy for digital assets that prevent clear dialogue and comprehensive development of global frameworks.

The persistent use of the term “crypto” when referring to any kind of digital asset muddies the waters and puts Shiba Inu coin into the same bucket as a fully reserved fiat stablecoin or a bank issued digital bond. That is not a particularly helpful association, and a comprehensive global taxonomy could serve to eliminate some of this conflation and confusion. 

While it is important not to blindly believe in technology, it is also important not to vilify it. In a truly technologically neutral approach DLT is not a cult, to be either worshiped or rallied against. DLT-specific risk should be assessed based on its implementation model, lifecycle activity, and network archetype and then the risk management and controls configured accordingly, with regulatory treatment to match.

So, what isn’t working? Ideologically, blind belief, while either favourable or punitive towards digital assets and DLT can be harmful to the market as a whole. From a legal and regulatory lens, lack of clarity both in the terms used, and the legalities that apply must also eventually be replaced by specificity and global consensus.

Delegate 

“In dealing with the future… it is more important to be imaginative and insightful than to be one hundred percent ‘right.’” – Alvin Toffler

Beyond the foundational aspects of existing regulation and the problems still to be eliminated, what are aspects of the digital assets market that are not ‘solvable’ so to speak, by immediate regulation?[4]

DeFi is one such still evolving area where it may be prudent for regulators to delegate further analysis and research before imposing requirements. Recently, IOSCO published their consultation on DeFi[5], and the BiS also published a report on the future of DeFi[6]. Yet it is still evolving rapidly and difficult even to define. Even if the right definition is agreed upon, an enterprise that is truly decentralised in nature would present regulatory challenges and a unique and imaginative approach may be necessary. 

Another item that can, and perhaps should be delegated, is RegTech. The ability for regulators to access, analyse and interpret the digital assets market is imperative. There are many RegTech solutions being created by the private sector, and regulators who leverage those innovations to implement outsourced technology, will have a fresh capability for digital supervision and this is pivotal to complete the ecosystem. 

These are only two areas where perhaps creativity is needed to solve the problem. As progress is made, neither the public nor private sector may always have the ‘right’ answer, however with insight, and imagination, these answers can evolve to contribute to the broader framework in innovative ways.

My reading, running, and at times, at times self-absorbed reflections left me a singular conclusion – it is clear there is much to be improved upon, but not in the sense that what already exists is not beneficial or useful.

There is a wealth of knowledge and existing regulation that can be drawn from to build a comprehensive global digital assets framework. Dogma towards both technological developments and unclear policies should be eliminated to better support the further digital development of the global financial services ecosystem and mitigate risks.

While there are areas where regulation may not provide the (optimal) solution for society, further discovery through cross-sector, multi-jurisdictional, and public private sector cooperation remains pivotal to the success of a robust, transparent, viable, and innovative digital assets market for everyone.

Improve, Eliminate, Delegate.

By: Elise Soucie – Director of Policy & Regulation GBBC Digital Finance

The post Improve, Eliminate, Delegate appeared first on GDF.


bankless

Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum For The Future

Vitalik live from Permissionless! On this Episode we discuss what's next for Ethereum. What type of use cases can we create because of the unique properties of crypto? What would Vitalik's new startup be? And we explore what it will look like to successfully navigate the next bull market. This episode was filmed at permissionless. For the full episode in video form, check out the recording here:

Vitalik live from Permissionless! On this Episode we discuss what's next for Ethereum. What type of use cases can we create because of the unique properties of crypto? What would Vitalik's new startup be? And we explore what it will look like to successfully navigate the next bull market.

This episode was filmed at permissionless. For the full episode in video form, check out the recording here: https://blockworks.co/event/permissionless-2023/livestreams?room=37736 

------ 🎁 Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables  https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables 

------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/ 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

6:12 Improving Existing Things vs Building New

16:55 Has Vitaliks Expectation of Ethereum Changed?

30:44 Where Would Vitalik Start a Startup

36:27 What Fear is Being Missed?

47:20 Navigating the Next Bull Market

----- RESOURCES

Vitalik:

https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠ 


Defiant

One Year After The Merge: ETH Supply Shrinks But Challenges Remain

Nearly 1M ETH Has Been Burned Since Ethereum Transitioned To Proof-of-Stake, But Lido’s Dominance Of LST Sector Continues To Concern Decentralization Advocates
Nearly 1M ETH Has Been Burned Since Ethereum Transitioned To Proof-of-Stake, But Lido’s Dominance Of LST Sector Continues To Concern Decentralization Advocates

Monday, 18. September 2023

Defiant

friend.tech Trading Volumes Cross $220M

Token-gated Social Media App friend.tech Is Raking In More Fees Than Uniswap
Token-gated Social Media App friend.tech Is Raking In More Fees Than Uniswap

Aztec Network

Announcing Fernet: Aztec’s Decentralized Sequencer Selection Protocol

Toward a fully decentralized privacy-first Layer 2 Today, Aztec Labs is thrilled to share the winning proposal from Aztec’s Sequencer Selection Request for Proposals (RFP) — “Fernet”. At the heart of Fernet’s design is a fully permissionless, random leader election. This allows anyone to participate in building Aztec blocks and operating the network, cementing Aztec’s position as a decentra

Toward a fully decentralized privacy-first Layer 2

Today, Aztec Labs is thrilled to share the winning proposal from Aztec’s Sequencer Selection Request for Proposals (RFP) — “Fernet”.

At the heart of Fernet’s design is a fully permissionless, random leader election. This allows anyone to participate in building Aztec blocks and operating the network, cementing Aztec’s position as a decentralized Layer-2 zk-rollup.

📕 Read the 3-minute summary of Fernet’s decentralized sequencer selection protocol
Why Fernet?

The Aztec Labs team, with input from various industry leading experts, chose Fernet over the B52 protocol (and other designs submitted during the RFP process) due to its simplicity, safety, and ease of implementation.

📕 Read our previous announcement sharing B52 & Fernet as the two sequencer selection finalists

The random leader election in its design ensures that all participants have an equal opportunity to contribute. This not only fosters inclusivity and decentralization but also contributes nicely to the network’s censorship resistance properties, alongside features like forced transactions.

The Aztec Labs team could speak for hours on the tradeoffs and why this decision was made. We would love to engage in discussions, Twitter Spaces, or otherwise! Please reach out to our team for more information if you are curious and would like to discuss further.
Dive Deeper with BlockScience

To provide a comprehensive and independent perspective on our decision, we engaged BlockScience — a third-party firm specializing in complex systems engineering.

We’re excited to present BlockScience’s detailed report contrasting B52 and Fernet, shedding light on the broad set of considerations and trade-offs between random leader elections and enshrined MEV auctions.

This report — in addition to significant internal debate and research — culminated in our choice of Fernet.

📑 Read the BlockScience Report

We will be hosting a Twitter Spaces with BlockScience tomorrow, Tuesday September 19th, at 11am EST to answer questions from our community and discuss their report!

Acknowledgements

We are very appreciative of the numerous individuals that lent their expertise, feedback, and insights. Their collective input was pivotal in not only the decision but also refining Fernet’s final design, including but not limited to:

Santiago Palladino, Aztec Engineer, the primary author of the Fernet protocol BlockScience Espresso Systems Yuki Yuminaga at Fenbushi Capital Josh Bowen and the Astria team Mike Neuder & George Kadianakis at the Ethereum Foundation a16z research What’s next?

We invite you to explore the latest draft of Fernet and share your feedback. There are some outstanding design decisions, such as whether to implement slashing 👀, that may be of interest.

We also encourage you to participate in our other RFPs, such as our upgrade mechanism design and our prover selection protocol (coming soon™).

📕 Read the 3-minute summary of Fernet’s decentralized sequencer selection protocol
About BlockScience

BlockScience® is a complex systems engineering, R&D, and analytics firm. Our goal is to combine academic-grade research with advanced mathematical and computational engineering to design safe and resilient socio-technical systems. We provide engineering, design, and analytics services to a wide range of clients, including for-profit, non-profit, academic, and government organizations, and contribute to open-source research and software development.

Keep in touch

To learn more about Aztec generally, keep up to date on our Discourse, where we discuss major protocol decisions like upgrade mechanisms and decentralizing sequencers.

For more technical news on Aztec and Noir, join our e-mail newsletter:

📬 Subscribe here to the Aztec Labs Developer Dispatch, the latest news and releases about Aztec and Noir
Join our team

Aztec Labs is on the lookout for talented engineers, cryptographers, and business people to accelerate our vision of encrypted Ethereum.

If joining our mission to bring scalable privacy to Ethereum excites you, check out our open roles.

And continue the conversation with us on Twitter.

Announcing Fernet: Aztec’s Decentralized Sequencer Selection Protocol was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


bankless

188 - The Next Ethereum Upgrade: Blobspace 101 with Domothy

Dom, aka Domothy, is a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation who is working on the research and development of some key Ethereum protocol upgrades like EIP4844, danksharding, and MEV Burn. We last had Dom on Bankless about that last one, MEV Burn, and this time we’re bringing him around to fully understand an incoming new property of Ethereum that EIP4844 is going to introduce… a new resource mark

Dom, aka Domothy, is a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation who is working on the research and development of some key Ethereum protocol upgrades like EIP4844, danksharding, and MEV Burn. We last had Dom on Bankless about that last one, MEV Burn, and this time we’re bringing him around to fully understand an incoming new property of Ethereum that EIP4844 is going to introduce… a new resource market… called BLOBspace…  kind of like Blockspace… but for Blobs!

What are blobs? What is Blobspace? How is it different from blockspace and blockspace markets? What will it do for Ethereum and its rollups? These are the questions we explore with Dom today. 

------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-blobspace 

You know how we say blockchains sell blocks? Well, soon Ethereum’s going to be selling more than just blocks. It’s going to be selling blobs too. 

We’re just a few months out from the biggest Ethereum release since the merge and no one’s fully mapped out the implications. But it’s going to be huge. 

- Ethereum’s getting a new product to sell… it’s called Blobspace - The cost of transacting on L2s is about to drop toward zero… - The economics of ETH gas and the burn are about to change forever…

Blobspace, EIP4844, proto-danksharding…that’s what the geeks call this new ETH feature upgrade. 

This is everything you need to know about Blobspace with Ethereum Researcher Domothy in this absolute banger of an episode. 

------ 🎁 Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables  https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables 

------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/ 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 7:20 Why We’re Doing This Episode 8:45 Blobspace  9:40 History of Blobspace  11:30 Sharding & Dead Ends  14:00 Execution Sharding  16:50 Layers of a Blockchain 21:00 Ethereum Rollups  22:50 Vitalik’s Thought Process  26:10 Ethereum Development Hidden Genius 30:00 Current State of Ethereum  34:00 What is a Blob? 39:25 Blobspace Explained  44:20 Validator’s Perspective  47:00 Data Availability vs. Storage  56:31 User’s Perspective  1:00:30 How a Blob Becomes a Blob 1:04:00 Properties of Full Danksharding  1:05:20 New Math & Tech Behind Blobs?  1:12:00 L2 Blobspace & Scaling Factors  1:15:40 Blobspace Economics  1:20:00 Block vs. Blobspace Balancing  1:23:20 L2s Competing For Blobspace  1:32:10 Ethereum Subsidiaries   1:39:00 What’s Next? 1:41:30 Closing & Disclaimers

----- RESOURCES

Domothy  https://twitter.com/domothy  

Domothy article on Blobspace https://domothy.com/blobspace/ 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠ 


Brave Browser

Enter to win the Brave $2,500 college scholarship, and get your original art in front of Brave's 60 million users

Brave is kicking off the 2023 back-to-school season with an opportunity for all US full-time college students who are at least 18 years old to enter to win a scholarship.

Brave is kicking off the 2023 back-to-school season with an opportunity for all US full-time college students who are at least 18 years old to enter to win a scholarship.

From September 18 to October 18, 2023, US college students can submit their best photo art to Brave. The winner will have their photo art seen by Brave’s 60 million worldwide users as a featured background on the Brave browser new tab page. They’ll also win a $2,500 scholarship to use toward tuition, books, or anything else college requires!

To enter the scholarship contest, applicants must:

Choose one (1) original piece of abstract landscape, nature, and/or architecture photo art (no people or personally identifiable info can be visible), with a minimum resolution of 2560x1440 pixels

Submit the photo as a JPEG file via either 1) a post to one of Brave’s official social media handles on Twitter (@brave) or Instagram (@bravebrowser) with the hashtag #BraveScholarship; or 2) the scholarship Web form

Provide us with their name, university name, email address, and home address (provided on either the scholarship Web form, or during the winner confirmation process*)

A panel of judges will review the submissions and select one winning photo using the criteria set forth in the Official Rules. Brave will notify the winner on November 6, 2023, via the email contact information provided in the entry process. We will announce the winner on or around that same date, and the winner’s original photo art will be featured on rotation on the Brave new tab page.

See the Brave $2,500 College Scholarship page for the Official Rules and more information.

Important note:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Open to residents of the United States who are at least 18 years old at the time of entry and are enrolled at an accredited college or university in the United States. Begins 12:01am PST on September 18, 2023 and ends 11:59pm PST on October 18, 2023. To enter, entrants must upload an uncompressed landscape, nature-themed, or architectural photograph to the form accessible on the Brave Scholarship webpage, or else post the photograph on Instagram or Twitter tagging @bravebrowser or @brave. One winner will win a $2,500 cash prize. See the Official Rules to learn more. Sponsor: Brave Software, Inc.

*Note: name, university name, university email address, and home address will not be shared publicly, and will only be used in connection with administering the contest.

Photos featured on the Brave’s new tab page

Photo by Sean O’ Riordan

Photo by Spencer Moore

Photo by Aleks Eva

Sunday, 17. September 2023

Defiant

Mainstream Brands Are Joining Web3 In The Bear Market

Sean Li is the CEO and Co-founder of Magic Labs, which is a wallet that enables passwordless login and Web3 onboarding without seed phrases. Despite not being as well known as other Web3 wallets, Magic Labs recently raised $52M from PayPal Ventures, onboar...
Sean Li is the CEO and Co-founder of Magic Labs, which is a wallet that enables passwordless login and Web3 onboarding without seed phrases. Despite not being as well known as other Web3 wallets, Magic Labs recently raised $52M from PayPal Ventures, onboar...

Saturday, 16. September 2023

Defiant

Mark Cuban Loses $870,000 In Wallet Hack

While The Exploit Vector Remains Unclear, Billionaire Investor Mark Cuban Is Moving His Digital Assets To Coinbase Custody
While The Exploit Vector Remains Unclear, Billionaire Investor Mark Cuban Is Moving His Digital Assets To Coinbase Custody

Epicenter Podcast

Robbie Ferguson: Immutable - The Web3 Gaming one-stop-shop

Apart from its numerous financial applications, blockchain technology could also disrupt the gaming industry, causing a paradigm shift towards true digital ownership, one that would create new incentive models for both players, as well as developers. Up until recently, technological barriers seemed cumbersome for most game developers, but the advancements of layer 2 scaling solutions made on-chain

Apart from its numerous financial applications, blockchain technology could also disrupt the gaming industry, causing a paradigm shift towards true digital ownership, one that would create new incentive models for both players, as well as developers. Up until recently, technological barriers seemed cumbersome for most game developers, but the advancements of layer 2 scaling solutions made on-chain integrations viable. Immutable set out to create an all-in-one platform for developers, empowering them to create a lush gaming ecosystem to seamlessly onboard Web2 players.

We were joined by Robbie Ferguson, co-founder of Immutable, to discuss the state of Web3 gaming and Immutable's contribution to this paradigm shift.

Topics covered in this episode:

Robbie’s background and founding Immutable The pitfalls of centralised in-game asset marketplaces Web3 game development challenges Onboarding the Web2 gaming scene Immutable’s value prop Integrating Polygon’s zkEVM with the STARK-powered Immutable X Immutable SDK & DevEx AppStore’s Web3 policies Immutable Passport Enforceable royalties $IMX

Episode links:

Robbie Ferguson on Twitter Immutable on Twitter Gods Unchained on Twitter Guild of Guardians on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/511

Friday, 15. September 2023

Urbit

Urbit Meetup - Berlin

Let's smoke shisha and shoot the breeze. We'll be at the Mirror Lounge in Kreuzberg. Come hang out with us.
Let's smoke shisha and shoot the breeze. We'll be at the Mirror Lounge in Kreuzberg. Come hang out with us.

bankless

Why MetaMask Snaps is a Big Deal with Co-Founder, Dan FinIay

MetaMask just released MetaMask Snaps at Permissionless II. Why is this such a big deal? Is this crypto’s “Chrome extension” moment? Is this how we onboard crypto’s next billion users? We welcome creator and Co-Founder of MetaMask, Dan Finlay on the show to help us explore all of these questions and much more.  ------ 🎁 Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables  https://b

MetaMask just released MetaMask Snaps at Permissionless II. Why is this such a big deal? Is this crypto’s “Chrome extension” moment? Is this how we onboard crypto’s next billion users? We welcome creator and Co-Founder of MetaMask, Dan Finlay on the show to help us explore all of these questions and much more. 

------ 🎁 Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables  https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables 

------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/ 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 5:05 MetaMask Snaps Explained  7:55 Extensions  10:50 MetaMask Snap Demo 22:40 Sci-Fi Snaps 26:23 Mobile  27:10 Chrome Extensions  28:45 Permissionless Snaps?  32:34 Snaps Multi-Year Journey  38:28 Are Snaps Secure?  42:55 What Info Should Snaps Have?  46:30 Smart Contract Wallets  48:25 Account Abstraction Wallet  50:24 Safe UX  52:50 What Devs Need to Know  54:50 Closing & Disclaimers 

----- RESOURCES

Dan FinIay https://twitter.com/danfinlay 

MetaMask Snaps https://metamask.io/snaps/  

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures 


Defiant

Latest CFTC Enforcement Actions Challenge Core Tenets of DeFi

Crypto Advocates Continue To Call For Clear Rules To Support U.S. Web3 Industry and See Path Forward Through Persistent Engagement With Regulators
Crypto Advocates Continue To Call For Clear Rules To Support U.S. Web3 Industry and See Path Forward Through Persistent Engagement With Regulators

Polygon Targets Q4 For MATIC Token Migration

Polygon Publishes Proposals Outlining Migration To POL Token and Staking Layer Deployment
Polygon Publishes Proposals Outlining Migration To POL Token and Staking Layer Deployment

ZRX-backed Loan On Aave V2 Gets Closer To Liquidation

Lending Market Has Been Frozen Since November 2022 But Limited Liquidity For 0x Protocol’s Governance Token Could Result In Bad Debt If ZRX Drops Sharply
Lending Market Has Been Frozen Since November 2022 But Limited Liquidity For 0x Protocol’s Governance Token Could Result In Bad Debt If ZRX Drops Sharply

Thursday, 14. September 2023

Sequoia

Generative AI for Healthcare Perspective

The post Generative AI for Healthcare Perspective appeared first on Sequoia Capital.
Bringing Generative AI to Healthcare By Josephine Chen Animation: Matt Hamel Published September 14, 2023 Where startups have traditionally struggled, LLMs have the potential to unlock growth and disruption.

Healthcare is a massive market rife with administrative inefficiencies. Of the over $4T in annual spend in the U.S. alone, $300B of that is administrative opex, mostly in repetitive, labor intensive processes. Generative AI is especially well suited to attack the labor costs of this services-heavy industry. As we have seen in legaltech, LLMs may unlock growth and disruption in a traditionally difficult vertical for software. Right now, the main applications of this technology target cost saving and automation in back office operations and making workflows more efficient for frontline staff, but the dream is for generative AI to dramatically improve patient outcomes.

We are already seeing innovative companies attack specific use cases, such as medical scribing, patient engagement and other workflows like prior authorization—and new opportunities are being discovered every day. The battle is already brewing. Faced with the familiar incumbents’ advantages in distribution, new entrants must lean on all their speed, ambition and creativity to break through, succeed and endure. 

Market Background

Over the past decade, many new healthcare software companies confronted unfavorable market dynamics. Providers operate with razor thin margins and are often unwilling to spend on the promises of long-term cost efficiencies. Payors also suffer low margins and are a concentrated buyer group, with the top 5 players commanding more than 50% market share. These organizations can be slow moving and sales cycles can be incredibly long, creating roadblocks for upstarts.

It is no surprise that the biggest success stories in digital health have largely sidestepped these barriers by: 

Benefiting from one-time regulatory changes (Epic, Cerner, Aledade) Focusing on healthcare delivery within specific verticals of care (Maven for fertility, Livongo for diabetes, Hinge/Sword for MSK, Lyra/Headway for mental health) Delivering a product experience adjacent to care (Zocdoc to help patients find doctors and book appointments, Doximity to help doctors connect with each other) 

On the other hand, success in attacking core healthcare operations are few and far between, with the rare bright spots generally emphasizing revenue enablement over cost reduction (e.g., Viz, Cedar). The picture is even dimmer on the payor side. Frustrated with the intransigence of payors to adopt new technology, some startups have marched into the payor market instead, often with similarly disappointing outcomes.

GenAI tackles these constraints directly. It overcomes the buyers’ “poverty trap” by delivering large and immediate value, while maintaining robustness to unstructured data and operating environments. Its novelty factor and recognizable impact help to galvanize buyers, especially those who hope to appear innovative among peers. Most importantly, new entrants can leverage genAI to get a foot in the door and a chance to attack the broader healthcare software stack. The companies in our landscape represent these opportunities across six broad categories of front and back office operations.

Front Office

Patient-facing workflows are well-suited to LLMs because they are natural language interfaces that require the flexibility to address a wide range of conditions and special cases. There is also the potential for alignment here between care providers, payors and pharma companies, creating vectors for monetization. 

Patient Engagement
There are 3 parts to patient engagement—pre-consultation discovery, patient intake and post-consultation care adherence. Discovery and intake are good fits for generative AI, which can access unstructured data to reduce search friction and help patients find the right provider more easily. 

The best opportunity here is to improve post-visit care adherence. Patients take only half of the medication prescribed for chronic conditions leading to more than $100B in unnecessary health expenses. The solution can be as simple as automating the texts and calls that remind patients to go to follow up appointments, take medications and answer their basic questions. These tasks are currently done by legions of nurses and case managers. Cleveland Clinic, for example, gets 6M calls every month. Because payors bear the cost of non-adherence from aggravated ailments while pharma loses revenue for drugs not taken, there may be creative go-to-market angles here that startups can leverage.

Documentation
Patient-doctor interactions during consultations generate a load of manual process work, particularly transcribing these conversations into EHR fields and coding them appropriately. This taxes already overworked medical professionals and is often blamed for elevated professional burnout rates. There are an estimated 100K medical scribes today, up from 20K in 2016. With an average spend of $40-50K per scribe per year, this seemingly narrow use case costs at least $4B, exclusive of physicians’ opportunity costs. 

In the long term, players here have strong platform potential. They can deepen their features on the captured data, providing better referencing and workflows and eventually becoming a first-class system of record. Some documentation companies are already expanding downstream into areas such as coding and billing.

This is not a new insight, but there is a clear “why now.” The last generation of startups fell short because the tech was not ready, but the problem lends itself well to today’s LLMs, particularly Whisper and GPT4 models. Ironically, the risk now is that it is too easy and the tech will almost surely commoditize. In the market of smaller health systems and clinics, startups will need to go beyond the scribing wedge to create an all-in-one suite for provider operations. 

Clinical Decision Making
As shown in legaltech, genAI can provide an interface to organize, retrieve and synthesize complex medical facts, notes and research. Physicians have traditionally been reluctant to embrace new workflows, but other use cases are potentially open to attack. For instance, one could envision LLMs empowering physicians to query a vast corpus of drug information or providing more personalized care for a patient. 

Back Office

Much of the back office workload stems from the conflicting incentives between payors and providers. Providers often get paid for the service, rather than the outcome. Payors are naturally skeptical of what providers represent as necessary and would rather not pay for a service or drug. As a result, payors force providers through complex frameworks and arduous processes to justify their reimbursement requests and deny more than 1 in 10 claims. Payors are also burdened by the need to manually review and adjudicate claims. Both sides thus employ thousands of nurses and administrative staff to handle these tasks.

Prior authorization
Prior authorization is the arduous process insurance companies impose on physicians to seek approval before they can prescribe certain drugs to a patient or schedule certain procedures. In 2021, physicians submitted more than 35 million prior authorization requests to Medicare Advantage payors, of which 2 million were denied. AI-enabled automations arm the providers, patients and pharma companies—whose incentives are all aligned—against this death by administration. LLMs have been able to generate prior authorization forms with remarkable accuracy out of the box, which is why so many startups have started here.

There is a risk that this need may get regulated away. As the number of prior auths have grown so egregiously over the last few years, regulatory intervention looks increasingly likely. New policies that reduce the burden of prior auths overall would dramatically reduce the value of these products. And, as with AI-scribes, the technology to generate a prior authorization form is also fairly commoditized, so companies have to build out additional workflows to endure.

Coding
Medical coders read physician notes and look at labs to identify the right code for the diagnosis and procedure. These codes are then used for insurance billing. The medical coding market in the U.S. is worth around $21B, comprising about 35K medical coders. Despite all that labor, almost $20B of revenue is lost by U.S. hospitals annually due to coding errors, which has led to a cottage industry of local consulting firms that help providers “discover” missing revenue.

While most of the traditional solutions are rule-based, multimodal LLM models can collate unstructured physician notes, lab panels, and imaging to determine the right diagnosis codes. Automation can also reduce the administrative back and forth with payors and will be a natural lead into the massive opportunity that is revenue cycle management. Incumbents in the documentation space will also have a formidable advantage here.

Revenue Cycle Management
Medical billers create and submit a medical claim to the payor once they get the codes for the procedures/office visit. While claim submission is automated, following up on them is not. The combination of investigating and appealing rejected claims, verifying eligibility and benefits of all treatments and dealing with payors is probably the most significant administrative headache for provider systems. Eleven percent of all healthcare insurance claims were denied in 2022. 

There are two ways to attack the RCM market: workflow automations or handling the billing itself. Automation comes with some tech risk and significant amounts of incumbent advantage (e.g., UiPath incorporating LLMs), while billing suffers from protracted sales cycles. The best entrypoint may be to expand into RCM over time from adjacent use cases.

Conclusion

Disruption in healthcare has historically been difficult and the windows of opportunities fleeting and narrow, but generative AI may finally provide the unlock. We are excited to meet teams who dare to reimagine the next decades of healthcare.


If you are a founder working with generative AI to improve healthcare workflows, I’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to josephine@sequoiacap.com.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI Generative AI: A Creative New World By Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and GPT-3 Perspective Read Generative AI Is Exploding. These Are The Most Important Trends To Know Konstantine Buhler on the 2023 AI 50 list Perspective Read The New Language Model Stack By Michelle Fradin and Lauren Reeder Perspective Read AI Recruits a New Hybrid Workforce by Konstantine Buhler Perspective Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

The post Generative AI for Healthcare Perspective appeared first on Sequoia Capital.


Aztec Network

Introducing Aztec.nr: Aztec’s Private Smart Contract Framework

Noir gets extended with smart contract functionality Today we’re announcing Aztec.nr, a powerful new smart contract framework for Aztec applications. Aztec.nr enables smart contract developers to intuitively manage private state. In other words, Aztec now has a smart contract language. 👀 Explore the Aztec.nr Github repo here Aztec.nr is a framework built on top of Noir, an open-sourc
Noir gets extended with smart contract functionality

Today we’re announcing Aztec.nr, a powerful new smart contract framework for Aztec applications. Aztec.nr enables smart contract developers to intuitively manage private state.

In other words, Aztec now has a smart contract language.

👀 Explore the Aztec.nr Github repo here

Aztec.nr is a framework built on top of Noir, an open-source, universal zk programming language to which Aztec Labs is a core contributor.

Aztec.nr allows developers to write private smart contracts in Noir and extend their functionality with templated functions that simplify state management.

Last week we teased how simple and intuitive private state management would be on Aztec.

📕 Read the first post in this series: Privacy Abstraction with Aztec

Today we’re explaining how Aztec.nr works and showing how you can get started building smart contracts and full-fledged privacy-preserving applications on Aztec.

The point of Aztec.nr

The Aztec.nr framework helps you deal with complex note management that is critical to privacy preservation within smart contract development.

But it does so in a way that makes it so that developers don’t have to rebuild smart contract functionality from scratch every time they write a Noir program.

Without Aztec.nr, you wouldn’t be able to emit events, make calls to other contracts, or even have the notion of a contract or an address. You’d have no msg.sender or access to historic blockchain.

Aztec.nr takes Noir — a general zero knowledge programming language — and gives it the smart contract functionality and syntax developers might expect coming from Solidity.

Developers can now access a complete set of smart contract features:

Contracts (including callable contract functions and inter-contract function calls) Persistent state variables Contract address semantics Access to msg.sender and other call context information Access to transaction context information Access to historic blockchain data Events (logs) (both encrypted and unencrypted) Cryptographic primitives Cross-chain (L1 -> L2 and L2 -> L1) message passing

For examples of Aztec.nr at work, check out examples of:

a swap contract a lending contract a card game contract How we got here

At Aztec Labs we harbor two very strong beliefs:

Privacy is the major unlock for the next leg of adoption. Having every single address, transaction, and balance exposed in plaintext is a non-starter for everyday users, businesses, and institutions coming on-chain. Privacy UX has to be better than the existing state of the art in blockchains. Privacy-preserving technology is only useful if the experience of using it isn’t better than what is available today.

The Aztec.nr framework is a major step in improving the developer experience for managing private state — functionality that “vanilla” Noir doesn’t have.

For example for a simple private token contract, Aztec.nr includes helper functions like:

get_balance increment decrement etc.

In other words, the kinds of functions you might expect to call in a standard token contract!

Let’s walk through this private token contract to show you how Aztec.nr helps with abstracting private note management:

Follow along in the Github repo of our private token contract example here
How private notes can be managed

Say Alice wants to send funds to Bob. Practically, she would have to aggregate all of the existing non-nullified notes they have of the asset she were sending, add up the values, and once she had enough notes to send the amount, create a change note to reconcile her balance.

For example, say Alice had two UTXO’s of 0.25 ETH each, and wanted to send 0.4 ETH to Bob. In order to spend the note Alice would have to sum the two 0.25 ETH notes together, nullify them both, and create a change note for herself of 0.1 ETH.

Thankfully, Aztec.nr makes it easy to manage notes. Take for example the decrement and decrement_by_at_most functions written by the Aztec Labs team for the private token example above.

Here’s how decrement_by_at_most works:

Follow along with the decrement_by_at_most example here.

1. Find notes to decrement. The function begins by getting some notes that add up to max_amount or less from the set of notes owned by owner.

2. Destroy selected notes. It then iterates over these selected notes and destroys them, adding their values to a variable decremented.

3. Handle Change: If the total value of the destroyed notes (decremented) is greater than max_amount, it creates a new note with the excess value (change_value) and assigns it back to the owner.

4. Return the Decrement: Finally, the function returns the total value that was decremented, which is stored in decremented.

The decrement example is a perfect showcase for how Aztec.nr makes it easy to manage notes and nullifiers with built-in get, insert, replace, and remove functions.

If a dev wanted to write this without Aztec.nr (as in, write it with “vanilla” aka non-smart-contract Noir), they would have to write their own Merkle trees to insert and prove membership of notes and support non-membership checks for nullifiers.

But as a developer, you don’t have to worry about rebuilding core privacy primitives — the Aztec Labs team has already done all of that work on your behalf.

You just focus on smart contract logic.

When will I get to play with all this cool tech?

Soon, anon, soon.

We’ll soon release a local developer environment for developers to write and test Aztec smart contracts against a local instance of an Aztec node.

Developers will soon get a full-fledged development kit for building smart contracts and applications on Aztec, supported by Aztec.nr’s functionality.

But for now, you can preview what comes in the box.

Explore the Aztec.nr Github repo here

Start familiarizing yourself with Noir syntax, since Aztec.nr is simply a smart contract framework written in vanilla Noir.

To get started learning Noir, check out:

The Noir starter repos The official Noir docs

Finally, sign up for Aztec Labs’ developer e-mail list to stay apprised of all technical developments across Noir and Aztec:

📬 Subscribe here to the Aztec Labs Developer Dispatch, the latest news and releases about Aztec and Noir

To learn more about Aztec generally, keep up to date on our Discourse, where we discuss major protocol decisions like upgrade mechanisms and decentralizing sequencers.

Join our team

Aztec Labs is on the lookout for talented engineers, cryptographers, and business people to accelerate our vision of encrypted Ethereum.

If joining our mission to bring scalable privacy to Ethereum excites you, check out our open roles.

And continue the conversation with us on Twitter.

Introducing Aztec.nr: Aztec’s Private Smart Contract Framework was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Zcash Foundation

The Zcash Foundation’s Q2 2023 Report

The Zcash Foundation is committed to transparency and openness with the Zcash community and our other stakeholders. Today, we are releasing our Q2 2023 report, which provides an overview of the work undertaken by the Zcash Foundation’s engineering team, as well as an overview of other activities during this period. The report also provides a […] The post The Zcash Foundation’s Q2 2023 Report app

The Zcash Foundation is committed to transparency and openness with the Zcash community and our other stakeholders. Today, we are releasing our Q2 2023 report, which provides an overview of the work undertaken by the Zcash Foundation’s engineering team, as well as an overview of other activities during this period.

The report also provides a financial update, describing our income and expenditure, with a detailed breakdown of our expenses, and a snapshot of the Foundation’s financial position, in terms of liquid assets and liabilities that must be met using those assets.

You can download the Q2 2023 report here.

Our previous quarterly reports can be found here.

The post The Zcash Foundation’s Q2 2023 Report appeared first on Zcash Foundation.


Circle Blog

USDC is now available on NEAR

NEAR USDC is now live! We’re announcing that USDC is now available natively on NEAR and accessible from Circle Account and Circle APIs. Developers can now take advantage of the speed and scalability of the NEAR blockchain to build fast, user-friendly apps with USDC and coded in popular programming languages like JavaScript and Rust.

NEAR USDC is now live! We’re announcing that USDC is now available natively on NEAR and accessible from Circle Account and Circle APIs. Developers can now take advantage of the speed and scalability of the NEAR blockchain to build fast, user-friendly apps with USDC and coded in popular programming languages like JavaScript and Rust.


bankless

ROLLUP: CFTC's Attack On Crypto | FTX Offloading Billions | Live From Permissionless!

WRU 3rd Week of September Live From Permissionless! ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool Claimables 🎁 https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables  ------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc

WRU 3rd Week of September Live From Permissionless! ----- Check your wallet with our brand new tool Claimables 🎁 https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables  ------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro 3:45 Permissionless Recap 9:06 MARKETS https://pro.kraken.com/app/trade/btc-usd  https://pro.kraken.com/app/trade/eth-usd  https://pro.kraken.com/app/trade/eth-btc 

12:08 Friend.Tech vs Ordinals https://twitter.com/tyler_did_it/status/1700515163906912637?s=46  https://dune.com/dgtl_assets/bitcoin-ordinals-analysis  https://twitter.com/0xcygaar/status/1700557505330307308?s=46 

19:43 CFTC settled charges against DeFi https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8774-23  https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/mersingerstatement090723  https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1699912782416658605  https://twitter.com/antonttc/status/1699935302616482204?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g  https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1699934869118190054?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g  https://twitter.com/CFTCpham/status/1699936965259673934 

28:44 Gary Doubles Down https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/gensler_testimony_9-12-23.pdf  https://twitter.com/WatcherGuru/status/1701609274278080516?s=20  https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1701287340314878430?s=20 

33:16 Spot Bitcoin ETF https://blockworks.co/news/franklin-templeton-bitcoin-etf  https://www.youtube.com/live/EdDsqW9CYys?si=SnCsraZBGR_0Z8Tx&t=12259 

35:11 FTX Offloads Billions https://twitter.com/milesdeutscher/status/1701261775600025906  https://twitter.com/nobrainflip/status/1700586113251906017 

40:42 Ethereum News https://twitter.com/mikeneuder/status/1701224774884643167 

43:48 Metamask Snaps https://metamask.io/snaps/ 

45:42 Vitalik Hacked https://twitter.com/OlimpioCrypto/status/1700677246393155657  https://warpcast.com/vitalik.eth/0xb23618  https://x.com/TimBeiko/status/1700659107764785336?s=20 

50:21 Espresso is partnering with Offchain Labs https://twitter.com/EspressoSys/status/1701318209624834466?t=w9VTlOJo75aT8H8olmw2QA&s=19 

52:04 NFT News https://twitter.com/huntersolaire_/status/1701191292221292978?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g 

54:33 Jailed for 11,196 Years https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66752785 

55:45 FBI Investigates DCG https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-07/winklevoss-claims-fuel-us-investigation-of-barry-silbert-s-dcg-crypto-empire?sref=QkiN9npb 

57:10 Claimables Launch! https://www.bankless.com/claimables?ref=home-promo-banner  https://twitter.com/NiftyMateo/status/1701315423495487677?s=20 

58:27 Blockworks Analytics https://x.com/blockworksres/status/1701990215907475499?s=20 

59:29 LayerZero x Google Cloud https://medium.com/layerzero-official/layerzero-x-google-cloud-7b4784873071 

1:04:02 Questions From The Nation https://discord.com/channels/615592155481767941/1058053004705669211/1149342327240933538 

1:05:59 What Are We Bullish On

1:10:01 Meme of the Week https://x.com/josephdelong/status/1701937546484158876?s=20 

1:10:38 Risks and Disclosures ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures 


Defiant

Sony Unveils Plans To Develop Blockchain

Sony Network Communications and Startale Labs To Build Infrastructure Supporting Sony’s Web3 Ambitions
Sony Network Communications and Startale Labs To Build Infrastructure Supporting Sony’s Web3 Ambitions

LayerZero Taps Google Cloud Oracle For Message Verification

Airdrop Farmers Fret Over Video Of LayerZero Team Member Denying Token Rumors
Airdrop Farmers Fret Over Video Of LayerZero Team Member Denying Token Rumors

Sequoia

David Hsu Retool Spotlight

The post David Hsu Retool Spotlight appeared first on Sequoia Capital.
Retooling the Status Quo By Emma Starer Gross Photography: Mark Davis Published September 13, 2023 David Hsu’s rebellious spirit led him to re-imagine the world of software.

David Hsu looked out the window of his childhood bedroom in Palo Alto. It was 2017, and for the greater part of the year, the room had served double duty as Hsu’s living quarters as well as the headquarters for his peer-to-peer payments startup, Cashew. Hsu’s parents had welcomed their son and the Cashew team into their home, sharing meals, couch space and the washing machine with the 20-something-year-olds. 

A few months earlier, Cashew had been accepted to Y Combinator, but more recently, on Demo Day, when participants present their companies to potential investors, the Cashew team remained seated. They had nothing. Unable to make Cashew’s financial model work, Hsu and his team had burned through half their cash, and would ultimately decide to call it quits.

Hsu recalls the pain of this moment. “Our peers were up on stage raising all this money, and we felt like we let all the people who believed in us down,” he says. “I remember thinking, ‘What are we doing? Why are we burning away our savings, working on an app that loses money on every transaction?’” Mulling it over in his childhood bedroom, with its walls covered in punk-rock posters—relics that reflected his teenage rebelliousness and fighting spirit—Hsu decided he wasn’t done yet. 

“Failure is something you can recover from,” Hsu says. “I thought, ‘Okay, what did we learn? And how can we apply that to what’s next?’” From this soul searching, Retool was born. 

Retool is a software development platform that offers drag-and-drop, customizable building blocks for developers to quickly assemble commonly-used software systems—admin panels, support dashboards, customer portals and more—so that they can focus on core features that set their businesses apart. “Our view was that the way people were building software was ridiculously inefficient,” Hsu says. “There’s no need for everybody to be constantly writing all this boilerplate code.” While critics bristled initially at this belief and found elements of Retool’s business counterintuitive, Hsu stuck to his guns. Today, the platform launched from Hsu’s childhood bedroom powers tens of thousands of companies including Disney, Airbnb and Mercedes-Benz.

“Failure is something you can recover from. I thought, ‘Okay, what did we learn? And how can we apply that to what’s next?’”

David Hsu

When Hsu was 16, his parents told him they’d had enough. His grades were terrible and his friend group—fellow punk-rock fans who favored mosh pits and garage jam sessions over school—was, in their eyes, even worse. Hsu’s parents, who had immigrated from China to the United States for post-graduate studies, had tried everything, from curfews to taking away Hsu’s bicycle (Hsu simply walked instead). They informed their son they were moving him to Saratoga, a quaint suburb near Palo Alto. No more wayward friends, no more East Bay counterculture to distract him. 

Hsu acknowledges that, angry as he was, the change helped. With fewer diversions, he started thinking about his future. Hsu was already an avid Hacker News reader and remembers an essay where Paul Graham, the venture capitalist who co-founded Y Combinator, described the creation of startups as “almost a measurement of the accuracy of your worldview. In a startup, there’s nowhere to hide,” Hsu says. “You can’t hide behind the work of others, you can’t fake your way to long-term success. You have to work hard (since otherwise you fail), you have to be smart (since otherwise you fail), and you have to be correct often enough (since otherwise you fail). But if you do it right, the impact of your work is remarkable: you can create something that actually puts a dent in the universe.” As a rebellious teenager who dreamed of having an impact and proving to others that his worldview was correct, Hsu was enamored by this challenge.

This fascination was heightened by the fact that Hsu’s high school experience coincided with the rise of Twitter and the Arab Spring. “I watched as this website, which was created in a matter of days, just miles from where I lived, topple a dictator halfway around the world,” Hsu says. “Technology could change peoples’ lives for the better, and that was exhilarating to me.” 

The Silicon Valley founder trope would suggest Hsu might forgo or drop out of college to focus on technology. Instead, he did the opposite. He hunkered down, was admitted to Oxford to study philosophy and computer science, graduated high school early, and spent a gap year in China. “I wanted to learn more about the innards of computers,” Hsu says. “But I also wanted to leave the bubble of Palo Alto.” 

As for his interest in philosophy, Hsu says it stemmed from Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. He recalls a particular chapter about the relationship between ants and anthills. In it, a crab, anteater and tortoise discuss the paradox of how individual ants (who are not intelligent), when formed into a colony, can demonstrate signs of intelligence at the colony level. “This phenomenon is similar to neurons in the brain, where any individual neuron isn’t doing anything particularly smart,” Hsu says. “But then you put all the neurons together and you create a brain. That’s pretty smart.” Back in 1979, Hofstadter also used this logic of emergent intelligence to predict computers gaining the power to think like humans. “These philosophical ideas about humanity and science really interested me,” Hsu says. And then, of course, “the other reason I chose this area of study was that philosophy is kind of a big f*** you to your parents.” 

“I wanted to learn more about the innards of computers. But I also wanted to leave the bubble of Palo Alto.”

David Hsu

“What’s the worst that could happen?” 

It was 2015 and Hsu, now in his senior year at Oxford, had gone out for ice cream with classmates. “We wanted to pay each other back,” Hsu says, “But England didn’t have an easy way for people to send money to each other.” Venmo, so popular in the United States, didn’t exist in the U.K. Hsu turned to his friends: “I was like, ‘It can’t be that hard. I bet we can build something similar.’” 

One year earlier, on a whim, Hsu had joined his college’s Ball Committee, which organized the school’s seasonal dances. He quickly realized that ticketing for the balls was an unwieldy process. “Technology is unevenly distributed across the world,” Hsu says. “In the U.S., you have good ticketing platforms, but there wasn’t anything good in England.” So Hsu, having never built a production ticketing system before, decided to engineer a system where students could RSVP to the balls, buy tickets in advance, and check in by scanning their wristbands by the door. “It wasn’t particularly complicated, but attendees were shocked: there were no queues for purchasing tickets, the site handled thousands of concurrent users successfully, and scanning the wristband admitted you directly to the ball,” Hsu says. “If I had been back in Silicon Valley and built a ball ticketing site, no one would have cared. But at Oxford, where there were very few computer scientists, the skillset I had was valuable, and I was happy to have found a use for it.” 
Back at the ice cream parlor, Hsu saw a similar opportunity and laid out his argument: there was a need in the U.K. for a peer-to-peer payments system. No one had built one; why shouldn’t they? What’s the worst that could happen?

“It’s a terrible idea,” John Collison said. The Stripe co-founder sat across from Hsu in Mountain View, at Y Combinator’s office. It was the winter of 2017, and in the time since the ice cream outing, Hsu had graduated from Oxford, launched Cashew, gained a small, local following for the app, and been accepted to Y Combinator.  

Hsu had 30 minutes booked with Collison. He spent the first three minutes pitching Cashew. Collison, in turn, took the next three explaining why it wouldn’t work: Cashew lost money on every transaction with fees paid to credit card providers, and while this was negligible in the startup’s early stages, if the app’s adoption continued, the cost would become a death sentence. Building out a business model that could offset transaction costs in the U.K. would be next to impossible. “I had arguments against what he said, but he rebutted each one,” Hsu says. “He was like, ‘no, nope, no, no, no.’ After maybe 10 minutes of our 30-minute allotted time, there was nothing left to say.” 

Had Hsu taken a page from his philosophy textbook, perhaps he would’ve listened to Collison. Hsu says one of his main takeaways from studying philosophy relates to the idea that reality isn’t objective. “People see the world from different angles,” Hsu says. “The way we react to things, evaluate pros and cons, and generate opinions is based on our own axioms and lived experiences. There’s no one ‘right way’ or ‘right reality.’ And so approaching situations with empathy and humility, seeing the world through someone else’s perspective, and then often revising your previously held beliefs, is critical.”

Still fresh from uni, however, this lesson hadn’t fully registered. Hsu left his meeting with Collison (respectfully) defiant and determined to prove him wrong. “And then, of course,” Hsu says, “he was right.” 

By the spring of 2017, the company was hemorrhaging money in transaction fees and its bank account was rapidly dwindling. The Cashew team had attempted to cut its losses by convincing retailers to take payments via a Cashew digital wallet, but its development proved costly and time-intensive. “Looking back, I was incredibly naive,” Hsu says. “I had a pie-in-the-sky sort of attitude about what I thought of as this rebellious undertaking that everyone said wouldn’t work. Cashew had started as a project with friends, right? But after Y Combinator invested in us, after I moved back home, it was like, ‘Okay, this is real now. It’s time to get serious.’” 

While Cashew’s Achilles’ heel was its financial model, Hsu recognized that the internal systems the team had developed to support the app were powerful. The process of building these systems, however, had been repetitive and inefficient. “I remember always thinking, ‘I wish there was a faster way to build this software,’” Hsu says. “And so, post-Cashew, we had this idea of, ‘What if we took the code that we already had from Cashew and repurposed it? What if we gave it to other developers so they didn’t have to build the same internal systems from scratch?’” Hsu says. “This was the provenance of Retool.” 

“I remember always thinking, ‘I wish there was a faster way to build this software.’”

David Hsu

As with Cashew, Hsu’s new idea—offering visual building blocks for engineers—had its share of naysayers. “Most people thought it was a pretty bad idea,” Hsu says. “Why would engineers buy something they could build themselves? Why not target non-coders? Why give engineers a vitamin when you could give non-coders a lifesaver?” 

Companies offering low-code or no-code solutions were trending at the time, but Hsu’s take was that, in the case of what Retool was looking to solve for, targeting non-coders was unrealistic. “Yes, these are building blocks, but they’re not one size fits all. They require customization and stitching together into a system that is fairly complex,” Hsu says. “You need to be able to talk to your computer, and to code, to achieve this.” 

As for the argument of why engineers wouldn’t simply build the features Retool was offering themselves, Hsu’s view was that a company’s edge is its core product, not its internal systems. “Why not provide building blocks for those internal systems so that engineers can focus on their company’s core product, the custom stuff that’s fun, creative, exciting and differentiating?” 

While the echoes of “this won’t work” from a previously failed endeavor might have stopped someone else, Hsu’s individualistic streak won out again. But he was also no longer the “pie-in-the-sky” college graduate who pitched John Collison and plowed ahead despite his warnings. His experience with Cashew had taught him “just because you’re a contrarian, it doesn’t mean you’re right,” Hsu says. “To know whether you’re a contrarian and right, or a contrarian and wrong, you have to take the time to fully understand the world in which you’re operating, the customers you’re serving and the business you’re building.” 

To achieve this, Hsu began talking to other engineers to see if a product like Retool might be useful to them. “I remember one day going into Y Combinator in Mountain View and going around to all the other startups asking, ‘Is it just us, are we the weird ones, or would this be helpful?’ And they responded enthusiastically to the idea,” Hsu says. 

Bryan Schreier, the Sequoia Partner who led Retool’s Series A funding, was one such early enthusiast. “I used to work at Google, and I managed a large team of engineers who built internal tools. Despite being mission-critical, those engineers couldn’t wait to graduate and take on higher-value work. And when they did leave internal tools, they went on to build Gmail and Google Drive. If we had had something like Retool, we could have liberated all those engineers and the team wouldn’t have needed to exist at all,” says Schreier, “so for me, it was just clearly obvious that a company should address this space.” 

“If we had had something like Retool, we could have liberated all those engineers and the team wouldn’t have needed to exist at all, so for me, it was just clearly obvious that a company should address this space.”

Bryan Schreier

This support from the YC collective left Hsu determined to pursue Retool in earnest. “Later that day, during the 20-minute drive home to Palo Alto, I had this conviction that our contrarian view was right. That the way engineers built software was ridiculous. We could build a company to change that,” says Hsu.  

When he returned to YC for Demo Day in the summer 2017, Hsu stood confidently in front of an audience of investors. The team had already signed a large enterprise customer to a $1.5 million pilot. Redemption achieved. 

In keeping with his commitment to know his own company nuts to bolts, instead of hiring a head of sales at the onset, Hsu took on the role himself. “I’d never done sales before and always pictured that scene in Glengarry Glen Ross where it’s all about charisma and closing,” Hsu says. “In reality, sales hinges on empathy and being able to explain your product. It’s about figuring out what a win-win situation could look like for both of you to work together.” 

Each time a customer signed up for Retool, Hsu remembers “it felt unbelievable.” But these achievements were ones he and his team barely acknowledged. After the failure of Cashew, Hsu was skeptical of success. “I didn’t want to celebrate prematurely. Every customer felt like it might be our last. Eventually someone’s going to find out that we’re writing code from my parents’ house!” 

Parental HQ notwithstanding, Retool’s users grew steadily in numbers, and Hsu’s approach to his new venture reinforced just how far he had come from his Cashew days. “With Retool, we prioritized having a sustainable business from the get-go, so we cared quite a bit about unit economics and stayed very lean as a company. Compared to Cashew, where every transaction cost us money, this was a pretty different mindset. Here, people were paying us to use the software we wrote—in my childhood bedroom. Wow.”

Today, Retool has tens of thousands of customers; it’s helped businesses save hundreds of millions in operational costs; it boasts use cases including forecasting for the Olympics and operating networks of satellites. But Hsu’s focus on pragmatism with respect to his business remains strong. “Yes, Retool’s much larger now,” Hsu says. “But even today, we don’t want to oversell ourselves.” As Retool’s customer base grows, Hsu feels it’s more important than ever to remain empathetic and open-minded in order to understand their increasingly varied and complex needs. 

For example, in 2017, a customer suggested that Retool be able to connect to application programming interfaces (APIs) as opposed to just a company’s databases. “For a while, we pushed back on this,” Hsu says. “We were like, ‘We think connecting to databases alone is fine and this is a request we can ignore.’ But then we self-reflected and thought, ‘Actually, you know, why not? Is it a core belief of ours that Retool must not connect to APIs? No.’ So we changed our mind, and today APIs are our most popular resource.”

“Our approach was, rather than immediately jumping on the AI bandwagon, let’s talk to our customers and understand how we could use AI to actually deliver value to them.”

David Hsu

The ability to connect to APIs has proven fruitful in other ways, perhaps most significantly in putting the pieces in place to help Retool’s customers make use of AI—a shade of Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach prediction realized. “There’s a lot of hype around AI, and we’ve seen a lot of startups in Silicon Valley try to rebrand themselves as AI companies,” Hsu says. “Our approach was, rather than immediately jumping on the AI bandwagon, let’s talk to our customers and understand how we could use AI to actually deliver value to them.” They found that most of their customers were interested in AI, but weren’t sure how to approach it or how it could help them. 

As a result of these conversations, Retool developed a suite of AI features that work in tandem with its current library of tools. “These features fall into two categories,” says David Dworsky, Retool’s Product Manager for AI. “The first category helps engineers build applications faster—so using AI to assist with code generation, query generation and debugging. The second category helps companies expedite AI-powered workflows that are specific to them. So if you’re an insurance company, using AI to match a claim with a policy. Or if you’re a fintech company, using AI to flag fraudulent transactions.” 

Because Retool is already connected to its users’ databases and APIs, “you can start stitching AI actions together with that data in literally a matter of minutes, without having to become an AI expert,” Dworsky says. “And we’re enabling these actions to be backed by whatever vendor a company wants to use—OpenAI, LLaMA, Cohere, etc. Our key insight here was to maintain flexibility behind the scenes, while making our AI features really intuitive to use.”  

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For 16-year-old Hsu, a teenager with punk aspirations, siloed from friends and under the rule of parents, the prospect of founding a startup and getting to be his own boss was enticing. But today, at 28, Hsu recognizes that the job demands more than just rebellion. “Yes, you have to have your own differentiated view of the world and stand by it,” Hsu says. “But, when it comes to every element of your business, you have to be open-minded. You have to acknowledge when you are wrong, be willing to change your beliefs, and take a philosophical approach to understanding your customers and the world.” 

Hsu no longer works out of his childhood bedroom: Retool now operates out of offices in San Francisco, New York and London. While the Retool of today differs from the company at its outset, Hsu has made sure its humble beginnings aren’t forgotten, documenting the company’s journey via photos. “That’s a piece of advice I have for founders,” He says. “Take pictures every step of the way. Five, six years out, you can look back and see how far you’ve come.” 

In the case of Retool, the photos on its walls show a team that has expanded from a nonconforming party of just a few, to hundreds of people around the globe who recognize the value of thinking outside the box, and the possibilities that come with questioning, retooling—and occasionally rebelling against—the status quo. 

Written by:

Emma Starer Gross is a Senior Story Hunter at Epic, currently based in Los Angeles. She has written for The Huffington Post, The Cut, Atlas Obscura, and The LAnd.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #AI #Enterprise Ryan Dahl of Deno: Revisionist Engineering Spotlight Read Augmenting Human Intellect, No Code Required Notion is growing an enduring business by nurturing the creative community. Spotlight Read Linear: Designing for the Developers Spotlight Read Airbnb: Building (and Rebuilding) User Trust to Revolutionize Travel Crucible Moments: EP2 Podcast Listen

The post David Hsu Retool Spotlight appeared first on Sequoia Capital.


Circle Press

Circle and Grab Pilot Web3 Experiences in Singapore

SINGAPORE, September 14, 2023 — Circle Internet Financial (Circle) announced a partnership with Grab today to pilot Web3 customer experiences in Singapore through the integration of Circle’s new Web3 Services platform in the Grab app.

SINGAPORE, September 14, 2023 — Circle Internet Financial (Circle) announced a partnership with Grab today to pilot Web3 customer experiences in Singapore through the integration of Circle’s new Web3 Services platform in the Grab app.


Brave Browser

Brave and ZebPay partner to bring Brave Rewards earning to India

Today we are excited to announce our partnership with ZebPay, one of India's leading crypto exchanges.

Today we are excited to announce our partnership with ZebPay, one of India’s leading crypto exchanges. ZebPay represents a new custodial account provider option for Brave Rewards users in India, and is available in Brave version 1.58 on both desktop and Android.

With this partnership, Brave Rewards users in India will now be able to connect a ZebPay account to Brave Rewards in order to begin earning Basic Attention Tokens (BAT). Existing users in India with previous earnings will also be able to connect a ZebPay account and have their balances redeemed for BAT and transferred to their ZebPay accounts.

In the near future, creators will also be able to connect a ZebPay account to their Brave Creators account, allowing them to receive BAT contributions from Brave Rewards users.

“We’re thrilled to partner with ZebPay to enable our millions of Brave users in India to benefit from their Brave Rewards experience,” said Brendan Eich, CEO and co-founder of Brave. “With this custodial integration, users can seamlessly access their BAT payouts in their ZebPay account and get rewarded for their online attention.”

“We are excited to be the exclusive partners for Brave Rewards in India,” said Rahul Pagidipati, CEO of ZebPay. “This strategic partnership not only reinforces our commitment to empowering users but also demonstrates our unwavering support of the crypto ecosystem in India. By enabling users to seamlessly transfer Brave Rewards to ZebPay, we are unlocking a new realm of possibilities for crypto enthusiasts. This is a testament to ZebPay’s vision of creating a more inclusive and accessible crypto ecosystem where users can fully harness the potential of their digital assets.” 

Brave provides users with a better Internet experience by protecting their privacy. The Brave browser blocks invasive ads and trackers, which provides a faster (3-6x) and more private Internet experience, as well as less battery drainage. Brave users can earn BAT for seeing privacy-preserving ads in Brave. Online creators can also earn BAT from Brave users with Brave Creators by publishing great content across a range of platforms including YouTube, Twitter/X, Vimeo, Github, Twitch, or their own website.

Instructions

To connect a ZebPay account to Brave Rewards, first make sure you’re on the latest version of Brave (version 1.58 or above). On Android, some users may only see Brave version 1.58 on the app store in a few days.

Open the Brave Rewards panel by selecting the BAT icon in the URL bar. Select “Connect account”, and then select ZebPay as your account provider. Follow the steps on ZebPay. If you don’t already have a ZebPay account, create one and then complete these steps. Make sure to complete all ID verification steps for your account on ZebPay. Voilà! Once your ZebPay account is connected, you’ll see a “Connected” status and a ZebPay zebra icon in the Brave Rewards interface.

If you have any questions, join us on the Brave Community forums.

About Brave

Brave Software’s fast, privacy-oriented browser, combined with its blockchain-based digital advertising platform, is reinventing the Web for users, publishers, and advertisers. Users can opt into privacy-respecting ads that reward them with the Basic Attention Token (BAT), a frequent flyer-like token they can redeem or use to tip or contribute to publishers and other content creators. Brave is a driving force leading the way for Web3 adoption, directly supporting Web3 into the broader Web through its privacy browser, independent search engine, and browser-native, multi-chain crypto wallet. Brave currently has over 60 million monthly active users and over 1.8 million Creators.

You can learn more about Brave at brave.com, or follow the company on Twitter @brave

About ZebPay

ZebPay is India’s oldest crypto asset exchange, with more than 7 million downloads. Founded in 2014, ZebPay aims to be the leading blockchain asset solution provider and the #1 financial advisor for all Indians invested in the crypto space. The company’s mission is to help its members achieve financial freedom in the Web3 economy. ZebPay’s secure and compliant exchange is available via the web and on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. ZebPay members can invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many other crypto assets, trading both crypto-fiat and crypto-crypto pairs. ZebPay OTC, a bespoke trading desk for high-volume clients, serves both individuals and institutions.

For more details please visit: https://zebpay.com

Wednesday, 13. September 2023

Zcash Foundation

The Zcash Foundation bids farewell to Deirdre Connolly

Deirdre Connolly joined the Zcash Foundation in May 2019. Over the past four years, she has been a key member of the Foundation’s engineering team, helping it grow from two people to nine.  Deirdre has been a key contributor to the development of both the Zebra node and the Foundation’s FROST implementation. She co-authored the […] The post The Zcash Foundation bids farewell to Deirdre Conn

Deirdre Connolly joined the Zcash Foundation in May 2019. Over the past four years, she has been a key member of the Foundation’s engineering team, helping it grow from two people to nine. 

Deirdre has been a key contributor to the development of both the Zebra node and the Foundation’s FROST implementation. She co-authored the FROST specification (and will continue to contribute to that effort), and has served as a ZIP editor since 2020, helping steer Zcash through the lengthy and challenging NU5 upgrade. 

Outside her work with the Foundation, Deirdre co-hosts the Security Cryptography Whatever podcast, and is fascinated by isogeny-based cryptography. She has also held a long-standing interest in quantum-resistant cryptography, and she has been tempted away from the Zcash Foundation by an opportunity to pursue this topic more deeply. 

Her departure is bittersweet in that, while we are disappointed that her future career path lies outside the Zcash Foundation, we are pleased that she has found an opportunity that will allow her to further develop her talents as a cryptographer, and that she will continue to contribute to Zcash as a member of the Zcash Foundation’s Technical Advisory Board. 

On behalf of the Zcash Foundation team members past and present, and the Zcash community as a whole, we want to thank Deirdre for her contributions to Zcash and the broader mission of financial privacy.  

The post The Zcash Foundation bids farewell to Deirdre Connolly appeared first on Zcash Foundation.


Defiant

SEC Reaches $1M Settlement With Ashton Kutcher’s Stoner Cats NFT Project

Accused Of Selling Unregistered Securities, Stoner Cats Raised $8M In 2021 To Finance Animated Web Series
Accused Of Selling Unregistered Securities, Stoner Cats Raised $8M In 2021 To Finance Animated Web Series

Nym - Medium

Introducing Speedy Mode on NymConnect!

A new feature for NymConnect boosts speed by 10x and offers a tantalising look at holistic privacy for the upcoming Nym VPN. Blink and you’ll miss it! Ahead of the Nym VPN launch by the end of 2023, a lightning-fast new feature 10 times faster than the default mixnet option in NymConnect. With the upcoming Nym VPN, this feature is the first step towards letting users pick the privacy protect

A new feature for NymConnect boosts speed by 10x and offers a tantalising look at holistic privacy for the upcoming Nym VPN.

Blink and you’ll miss it! Ahead of the Nym VPN launch by the end of 2023, a lightning-fast new feature 10 times faster than the default mixnet option in NymConnect. With the upcoming Nym VPN, this feature is the first step towards letting users pick the privacy protection that’s most suitable for their needs. Quick: say hi to Speedy Mode.

Languages: Bahasa Indonesia // Русский // 中文 // Française // 日本 // Türkçe

NymConnect with Speedy Mode

The new Speedy Mode option in NymConnect sends traffic through the mixnet, but without cover traffic. This means that it does not protect traffic patterns from global adversaries, only against local adversaries, similarly to a dVPN. By default, Speedy Mode is not enabled, and users will have to switch the option on — allowing users to decide whether they want to optimise for speed or optimise for privacy.

The Nym mixnet is designed to be a privacy layer for the whole internet. But this can only be achieved if it is fast enough to support a wide range of use cases. Right now, the Nym mixnet works and can be integrated with any SOCKS5-compatible application.

However, the mixnet is slow and its utility is limited to use cases where speed is not so much of the essence, like email.

NymConnect with Speedy Mode will solve this by optimising latency across use cases. The first step will allow users themselves to manually optimise for privacy and latency depending on what they are using the mixnet for. As the system moves towards a full-stack VPN, some of this will be automated.

According to recent load testing benchmarking, the default mixnet currently averages download and upload speeds of 100KBps. Ping times were typically in the range of 800–1,000ms.

Those same tests found average upload and download speeds of Speedy Mode were 1,000 KBps, while ping times were as low as 200ms.

The default option in NymConnect will be complete privacy protection via the regular mixnet. But if users want to optimise for a specific low-latency use case, they can “dial down” the mixnet by reducing cover traffic and enabling Speedy Mode.

Dial down cover traffic, dial up the speed!

Users in Speedy Mode can still trust the mixnet to provide robust privacy protections because data still travels through three hops. The majority of VPNs offer just one hop, merely obscuring your IP from your internet provider and little else.

To achieve the breakneck 10x pace of Speedy Mode, the cover traffic feature of the regular mixnet, where dummy data packets are mixed in with real data, has been dropped. However, cover traffic will still be sent when accessing the default mixnet.

Quickly now, without delay

A feature of the default mode is that packets are sent at randomised, delayed intervals through the mixnet. This provides extremely strong privacy protection. To whizz data along faster, Speedy Mode does not delay these packets, optimising for speed instead.

Bigger packet sizes, better speeds

The default mixnet splits content up into tiny packets of 2KB before sending these across the mixnet. To make things faster, Speedy Mode uses slightly larger packets of 16KB. These are still small enough to throw off snooping adversaries but because they’re larger, fewer of them need to be created.

Geo-optimisation

The mixnet splits up and casts your data far and wide all around the world. This makes it near-impossible to track metadata. For this reason, the default mixnet does not operate with geo awareness switched on. However, sending packets across the whole world is not particularly efficient for connectivity or usability.

When operating in Speedy Mode you will be switching on geo-awareness. Behind the scenes, Speedy Mode contacts mixnet gateways and locates the closest to your region and then identifies which Network Requesters are nearby. All other nodes are then grouped by region based on the selected gateway for that session, meaning the nodes used to mix traffic will be closer, and the mixnet will be much, much faster.

Only the first hop can assess your location. This cannot subsequently be linked to any of the other hops, nor your final recipient, so your communications remain safe, unlinkable and untraceable.

How to turn on Speedy Mode in NymConnect

Switching Speedy Mode on couldn’t be simpler.

Open NymConnect, click the menu icon, and navigate to ‘Privacy Level’.

Hit ‘Enable’ and that’s it — NymConnect is in Speedy Mode!

Split tunelling: the optimised Nym VPN

The upcoming VPN will put holistic privacy in the hands of you, the user.

Just like NymConnect, users will be able to opt for the default Nym mixnet for hardcore pattern protection against the most powerful adversaries. Or they will be able to optimise for speed instead of privacy where that makes sense, such as for streaming video via Speedy Mode.

But Nym VPN will eventually go even further into the application level.

With split tunelling, users will be able to select the level of privacy protections for each individual app across their whole stack.

In short, your crypto wallet could run over the highest possible privacy settings via the default mixnet, while your web browser could run in Speedy Mode for content streaming! The choice is yours.

Speedy Mode is a proof of concept, so please test it! As NymConnect is still in beta, it should not be used for strong privacy protections yet, and that goes for Speedy Mode too. Speedy Mode is a work in progress, and Nym needs your help to determine the privacy implications, so feedback is essential.

Send your feedback via error reporting in the NymConnect app or the feedback channel on Discord.

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Introducing Speedy Mode on NymConnect! was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Circle Blog

Beyond Borders: Blurring the lines between digital and real-world with Rajah Caruth

See how Circle supports those who move the world forward. In a world where technology knows no boundaries, Circle is on a mission to redefine the global financial landscape. Breaking down traditional barriers, Circle is paving the way for anyone from almost anywhere to access greater opportunities. We’ve done it in finance with USDC — a digital dollar designed to transcend geographic
See how Circle supports those who move the world forward.

In a world where technology knows no boundaries, Circle is on a mission to redefine the global financial landscape. Breaking down traditional barriers, Circle is paving the way for anyone from almost anywhere to access greater opportunities. We’ve done it in finance with USDC — a digital dollar designed to transcend geographical confines — and that’s precisely what NASCAR driver Rajah Caruth did in racing. Circle is proud to sponsor him. Learn more.


a16z Podcast

AI x Crypto

with @alive_eth @danboneh @smc90 This week's all-new episode covers the convergence of two important, very top-of-mind trends: AI (artificial intelligence) & blockchains/ crypto. These domains together have major implications for how we all live our lives everyday; so this episode is for anyone just curious about, or already building in the space.  The conversation covers topics ranging

with @alive_eth @danboneh @smc90

This week's all-new episode covers the convergence of two important, very top-of-mind trends: AI (artificial intelligence) & blockchains/ crypto. These domains together have major implications for how we all live our lives everyday; so this episode is for anyone just curious about, or already building in the space. 

The conversation covers topics ranging from deep fakes, bots, and the need for proof-of-humanity in a world of AI; to big data, large language models like ChatGPT, user control, governance, privacy and security, zero knowledge and zkML; to MEV, media, art, and much more. Our expert guests (in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi) include: 

Dan Boneh, Stanford Professor (and Senior Research Advisor at a16z crypto), a cryptographer who’s been working on blockchains for over a decade and who specializes in cryptography, computer security, and machine learning -- all of which intersect in this episode; Ali Yahya, general partner at a16z crypto, who also previously worked at Google -- where he not only worked on a distributed system for a fleet of robots (a sort of "collective reinforcement learning") but also worked on Google Brain, where he was one of the core contributors to the machine learning library TensorFlow built at Google.

The first half of the hallway-style conversation between Ali & Dan (who go back together as student and professor at Stanford) is all about how AI could benefit from crypto, and the second half on how crypto could benefit from AI... the thread throughout is the tension between centralization vs. decentralization.  So we also discuss where the intersection of crypto and AI can bring about things that aren't possible by either one of them alone...

pieces referenced in this episode/ related reading:

The Next Cyber Reasoning System for Cyber Security (2023) by Mohamed Ferrag, Ammar Battah, Norbert Tihanyi, Merouane Debbah, Thierry Lestable, Lucas Cordeiro A New Era in Software Security: Towards Self-Healing Software via Large Language Models and Formal Verification (2023) by  Yiannis Charalambous, Norbert Tihanyi, Ridhi Jain, Youcheng Sun, Mohamed Ferrag, Lucas Cordeiro Fixing Hardware Security Bugs with Large Language Models (2023) by Baleegh Ahmad, Shailja Thakur, Benjamin Tan, Ramesh Karri, Hammond Pearce Do Users Write More Insecure Code with AI Assistants? (2022) by Neil Perry, Megha Srivastava, Deepak Kumar, Dan Boneh Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot's Code Contributions (2021) by Hammond Pearce, Baleegh Ahmad, Benjamin Tan, Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, Ramesh Karri Voting, Security, and Governance in Blockchains (2019) with Ali Yahya and Phil Daian   
 

As a reminder: none of the following should be taken as investment, legal, business, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information -- including to a link to a list of our investments – especially since we are investors in companies mentioned in this episode.

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


Defiant

Crypto Assets Slump Ahead Of US Inflation Report

US Court Will Deliver Verdict On FTX’s Planned Asset Sales On Wednesday
US Court Will Deliver Verdict On FTX’s Planned Asset Sales On Wednesday

zkSync Airdrop Farmer Deploys 21,877 Wallets

Determined zkSync Era Airdrop Opportunist Launched Private DEX and Token To Trade Between Wallets
Determined zkSync Era Airdrop Opportunist Launched Private DEX and Token To Trade Between Wallets

Tuesday, 12. September 2023

Defiant

Hyped Banana Token Launch Wrecked By Contract Bug

Telegram-based Trading Bot Plans To Relaunch BANANA Token After Miscoded Taxes Lead To Unintended Inflation
Telegram-based Trading Bot Plans To Relaunch BANANA Token After Miscoded Taxes Lead To Unintended Inflation

CoinEx Exchange Hacked For $28M

HK-based Crypto Exchange CoinEx Says It Will Compensate Affected Parties After Multiple Hot Wallets Were Drained
HK-based Crypto Exchange CoinEx Says It Will Compensate Affected Parties After Multiple Hot Wallets Were Drained

PIVX

Empowering the PIVX Community: Introducing PIVX DAO Tutorials.

The PIVX community is dedicated to decentralized governance, allowing members to actively participate in shaping the project’s future. However, navigating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) can be challenging, leading to reduced engagement. To address this issue, a comprehensive suite of PIVX DAO tutorials was created, aiming to empower the community and promote active participation in

The PIVX community is dedicated to decentralized governance, allowing members to actively participate in shaping the project’s future. However, navigating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) can be challenging, leading to reduced engagement. To address this issue, a comprehensive suite of PIVX DAO tutorials was created, aiming to empower the community and promote active participation in the DAO.
Let’s explore the significance of these tutorials and their impact on the PIVX community.

Voter apathy can hinder the effectiveness of any DAO, including PIVX. The tutorials will educate community members on launching proposals, voting, and tracking progress. The objective is to enhance the community’s understanding and knowledge of the DAO, creating a more inclusive, engaged, and empowered PIVX community.

The tutorial series comprises of six videos, each focusing on a crucial aspect of participating in PIVX’s decentralized governance. These videos will provide clear instructions on creating proposals, voting, and tracking their progress.

The topics covered include:**
1- Introduction
2- Setting up a PIVX Wallet
3- How to launch a pre-proposal
4 -How to launch a proposal on chain
5 -Monitoring your proposal
6 -How to promote your proposal
7 -Feedback and Followup

The tutorial videos are hosted on PIVX’s YouTube channel.

The PIVX DAO tutorials aim to bridge the knowledge gap, increase voter participation, and attract new members to the community. By providing educational materials, these tutorials will empower the PIVX community to actively contribute to the project’s future.

PIVX community would like to thank CryptoSi, host of SmartReach and DAOWatch for creating these videos.

** Please note, as each Video goes live, the YouTube links will be added to the list of topics above for easy search and viewing purposes. We suggest Bookmarking this page.

Empowering the PIVX Community: Introducing PIVX DAO Tutorials. was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Horizen - Blog

Horizen Partners with Tatum to Enabling Blockchain Application Development and Integrations on EON, Horizen’s EVM-Compatible Smart Contracting Platform 

We are elated to announce our strategic partnership with Tatum, the pioneers in simplifying blockchain application development. This collaboration aims to make it much easier for developers to build using Horizen ecosystem by integrating Tatum’s easy-to-use blockchain development tools and framework. By leveraging Tatum, EON will offer developers the ability to seamlessly integrate blockchain f

We are elated to announce our strategic partnership with Tatum, the pioneers in simplifying blockchain application development. This collaboration aims to make it much easier for developers to build using Horizen ecosystem by integrating Tatum’s easy-to-use blockchain development tools and framework. By leveraging Tatum, EON will offer developers the ability to seamlessly integrate blockchain functionalities into their applications, coded in JavaScript.

Horizen’s EON chain, known for its scalability, EVM-compatibility and user-friendliness, will now benefit from Tatum’s expertise in streamlining complex blockchain operations into concise lines of code. This partnership promises to revolutionize the blockchain development landscape, offering developers a more efficient and user-friendly approach to integrating blockchain features into their applications.

The collaboration between Tatum and Horizen will help developers in these three key areas: 

JavaScript Capabilities: Tatum will enable its JavaScript SDK to facilitate rapid and efficient development of Web3 applications on EON. Access to RPC Nodes: the introduction of the Horizen RPC on Tatum’s infrastructure ensures developers have a reliable and cost-effective way to build on EON.  Blockchain Data Retrieval via API: developers will benefit by directly accessing EON’s comprehensive blockchain data like querying token balances or monitoring transactions across multiple addresses.

“This collaboration with Tatum is a monumental step towards our vision of creating a more inclusive and dynamic blockchain ecosystem. By combining our strengths, we aim to offer developers a seamless experience, reducing the technical time from months to mere days.”

– Rob Viglione, Co-founder of Horizen and CEO of Horizen Labs.

“Horizen’s EON chain has enormous potential to accelerate building dApps at scale. Our partnership will ensure that developers, irrespective of their blockchain experience, can effortlessly integrate blockchain functionalities, driving the next wave of blockchain innovations.” 

– Jiri Kobelka, Tatum CEO

EON Alpha is currently live on mainnet and on its public testnet, Gobi. As the blockchain realm continues to evolve, partnerships like these are pivotal in shaping a future where blockchain technology is accessible, efficient, and integral to every digital solution.

For more information about this collaboration and the endless possibilities it brings, visit https://www.eon.horizen.io/ and https://tatum.io/.

About Horizen

Horizen is a layer 0 public blockchain that enables the zero-knowledge network of blockchains powered by the largest node system and a massively scalable cross-chain protocol, Zendoo. Horizen offers tools for developers to custom-build private or public blockchains and dApps with a level of flexibility unmatched by others. Horizen is EVM-compatible through its sidechain EON. By building on Horizen, developers have the freedom to fully customize their blockchains, including consensus, speed, privacy, and crypto-economies. Blockchains built on Horizen produce massive throughput without compromising decentralization.

For more information, visit https://horizen.io 

About Tatum

Tatum is an open-source software development kit (SDK) that provides the infrastructure and a unified framework for 65+ blockchain protocols, allowing any developer to build Web3 applications with no blockchain experience.

It eliminates common obstacles like running nodes and learning to code for individual blockchains by providing a comprehensive suite of easy-to-use features that speed up app development.

For more information, visit https://tatum.io

The post Horizen Partners with Tatum to Enabling Blockchain Application Development and Integrations on EON, Horizen’s EVM-Compatible Smart Contracting Platform  appeared first on Horizen Blog.


Circle Blog

Native USDC Now Available on Noble

Noble USDC is now available for developers and users of the Cosmos ecosystem! Circle Account and Circle APIs make it easy to access Noble USDC and securely transfer to appchains in Cosmos via the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.

Noble USDC is now available for developers and users of the Cosmos ecosystem! Circle Account and Circle APIs make it easy to access Noble USDC and securely transfer to appchains in Cosmos via the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.


bankless

Surveillance Finance 101 with Seth Hertlein and Michael Mosier

Seth Hertlein, VP Global Head of Policy at Ledger, and Michael Mosier, Co-Fouder of legal boutique Arktourous, Build Exante - FinCEN, Treasury, and Chief Technical Counsel at Chainalysis join us on today’s show to explain the modern financial surveillance apparatus. FATF, FinCEN, AML/KYC, OFAC...the blacklists, the greylists. How does it all work? Who makes the rules? ------ 🎁 Check your wallet

Seth Hertlein, VP Global Head of Policy at Ledger, and Michael Mosier, Co-Fouder of legal boutique Arktourous, Build Exante - FinCEN, Treasury, and Chief Technical Counsel at Chainalysis join us on today’s show to explain the modern financial surveillance apparatus. FATF, FinCEN, AML/KYC, OFAC...the blacklists, the greylists. How does it all work? Who makes the rules?

------ 🎁 Check your wallet with our brand new tool: Claimables  https://bankless.cc/GetClaimables

------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 ⁠

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⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum

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🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 9:10 Financial Surveillance  13:10 Data Collection 17:10 The Bank Secrecy Act  20:30 SARS 23:10 Understanding the Enforcers  30:30 Goals for FINCEN 38:55 OFAC Explained  51:11 Strict Liability  56:26 Process of Getting OFAC SDN List  1:00:50 Tornado Cash 1:11:05 What Should We Do?  1:21:05 Closing & Disclaimers 

----- RESOURCES

Michael Mosier https://twitter.com/m_mosier_  

Seth Hertlein https://twitter.com/SethHertlein  

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠ 


Defiant

SOL Drops Ahead Of Court Verdict On FTX Asset Sales

If Approved On Wednesday, FTX Plans To Offload Between $100M and $200M Worth Of Crypto Per Week Through Galaxy Digital
If Approved On Wednesday, FTX Plans To Offload Between $100M and $200M Worth Of Crypto Per Week Through Galaxy Digital

test

test this gets updated still updates
test this gets updated still updates

Monday, 11. September 2023

Sequoia

Partnering with Co:Helm: The Co-Pilot for Health Care

The post Partnering with Co:Helm: The Co-Pilot for Health Care appeared first on Sequoia Capital.
Partnering with Co:Helm: The Co-Pilot for Health Care

Abdel, Zahid and their team are giving clinicians a second set of hands—and fixing one of the biggest pain points for patients.

By George Robson Published September 11, 2023 Co:Helm co-founders Zahid Mahmood and Abdel Mahmoud.

When your doctor orders a scan, prescribes a new medication, or tells you you need a surgery, you usually want to move as quickly as possible. But you also want to know it will be paid for, which for many patients in the U.S. means first getting your insurance company to sign off. In this “prior authorization” process, the insurer’s clinicians review your medical records—often a massive amount of different kinds of information, from test results to doctors notes, PDFs to imaging files—and compare them with a set of care guidelines to make a decision.

It is a time-consuming, manual process—and not just for the insurance company’s doctors and nurses, but for those on the provider side, as well, who sometimes spend hours responding to requests when they would otherwise be treating patients. Meanwhile, those patients have to wait for even the simplest approvals; in some cases, care is delayed as much as a month. And the problem is not just about speed, but also cost: One-quarter, or $950 billion, of U.S. health care spending goes to administrative expenses, with as much as $570 billion lost to inefficiencies that don’t improve patient outcomes.

We at Sequoia have seen again and again, across industries, that AI can be a powerful tool for solving just such challenges. But in this case, the trouble has been that while people with expertise in health care or AI are relatively easy to find, people with both are quite rare.

Luckily for us, though, Co:Helm co-founders Abdel Mahmoud and Zahid Mahmood applied to Arc

Born in Libya, Abdel came to the U.K. as a refugee at 8 years old. By 15, he had his own software business—and by 18, he had joined the prestigious Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he became the youngest infantry officer in the U.K. Then Abdel became a doctor. He loved helping patients, but grew frustrated with the mountains of paperwork that kept him from spending more time with them, and eventually left medicine, returning to University College London for a master’s in computer science and going on to work in product at Facebook and Google.

Zahid, too, founded a company as a teenager—the first of his now-four founder journeys. He started the other two as side projects during a successful run as a software engineer building payment platforms for large insurance companies, which gave him deep expertise in the industry. He and Abdel became friends at UCL, and now they are teaming up to give doctors and nurses the extra set of hands that Abdel, when he was treating patients, always wished he had.

Co:Helm is an LLM-powered co-pilot for administration, handling all the work that comes before the clinical decision-making. Where it might take a nurse several hours to track down, organize and summarize hundreds of pages of records they need, Co:Helm can do it in seconds, allowing clinicians to increase their output tenfold and focus on what matters most: helping patients.

With partners including one of the top U.S. health plan administrators, Abdel, Zahid and their team will soon be making a difference for millions of patients, and the waitlist is growing quickly. We are proud to lead this seed round and help them hit the gas pedal as they hire across engineering, sales and GTM, and regulatory roles. And while they are starting with prior authorization, there is a long list of pain points Co:Helm will ultimately be able to address, from case management to underwriting and beyond. 

Fixing these problems will take grit, imagination, and both high IQ and EQ—but as we’ve seen ever since meeting Abdel and Zahid, those are defining qualities of the Co:Helm team. Throughout Arc, they also proved themselves to be great students: humble, eager for feedback, and serious about continuously improving their product. They have truly been a joy to work with, and we look forward to the joy of helping them build better health care.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email Related Topics #Funding announcement #AI #Healthcare Generative AI Is Exploding. These Are The Most Important Trends To Know Konstantine Buhler on the 2023 AI 50 list Perspective Read The New Language Model Stack By Michelle Fradin and Lauren Reeder Perspective Read Bending the Arc: Founders Share Their Journeys News Read Generative AI: A Creative New World By Sonya Huang, Pat Grady and GPT-3 Perspective Read JOIN OUR MAILING LIST Get the best stories from the Sequoia community. Email address Leave this field empty if you’re human:

The post Partnering with Co:Helm: The Co-Pilot for Health Care appeared first on Sequoia Capital.


bankless

187 - The Ethereum Attestation Service

On today’s episode we welcome Bryce Patrick and Steve Dakh from the Ethereum Attestation Service. EAS is a new public good, open, permissionless, and token free. Is this the key unlock for decentralized identity through crypto?  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-eas/  ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT toda

On today’s episode we welcome Bryce Patrick and Steve Dakh from the Ethereum Attestation Service. EAS is a new public good, open, permissionless, and token free. Is this the key unlock for decentralized identity through crypto?  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-eas/  ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2   ⁠ 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 7:27 What is an Attestation? 11:51 Attestations as a Primitive 14:35 What Are The Good For? 19:15 Defining Identity 22:39 Primitive Before the App 25:55 What is EAS? 30:31 Attestation Form Factors 36:51 Use Cases 40:19 EAS Growth Goals 42:17 Why Do We Need Attestations? 46:10 Why Build This on Ethereum? 52:46 Who is Using EAS and For What? 1:00:04 Web2 vs Web3 Attestations 1:05:17 Decentralized Reputation 1:08:05 The App Layer on Top of EAS 1:15:08 Privacy 1:19:48 Comparing To Sign In With Ethereum 1:21:22 How is it Funded? 1:25:08 Soulbound Tokens 1:30:00 Closing and Disclaimers ----- RESOURCES

EAS https://twitter.com/eas_eth  https://attest.sh/ 

Steve Dakh https://twitter.com/stevedakh  ----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Sunday, 10. September 2023

A16Z Crypto Substack

magic, secrets, minimal viable security; mixtapes

Feature: Secrets, and how to prove them — a magician’s guide to zero knowledge proofs with Michael Blau Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (or so science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously said). One such area of sci-fi-like progress is that of
Feature: Secrets, and how to prove them — a magician’s guide to zero knowledge proofs

with Michael Blau

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (or so science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously said). One such area of sci-fi-like progress is that of zero-knowledge proofs (or ZKPs), a cryptographic tool that addresses two critical challenges in web3: scalability, and privacy. In particular, ZKPs could be the key to unlocking lower transaction fees and designing new privacy-preserving applications — ushering in many more crypto users. But beyond crypto, ZKPs can also help transmit sensitive data securely, combat illicit finance through privacy-preserving regulatory solutions, and fight disinformation.

But what are ZKPs, really? There are many clever explanations out there, but even with the wealth of analogies available — from Waldo to Ali Baba’s Cave — it’s not easy to find an accurate, easy-to-grasp explanation of zero-knowledge proofs. Especially one that fully captures their superpowers, including for those who aren’t cryptography researchers or engineers.

So in this post and special demo, a16z crypto partner Michael Blau combines his background in magic with his work in crypto to explore a new analogy for demystifying ZKPs: a magic trick. Magic tricks, and magicians hiding secrets, can serve as a helpful mental model for understanding the key properties of ZKPs. Which makes sense, since zero-knowledge proofs in practice are indistinguishable from magic…

read more/ watch here
share: on Twitter | Farcaster | LinkedIn

Resource: ‘Back to school’ special playlists The latest in crypto research

Tim Roughgarden

With the goal of advancing the science and technology of the next generation of the internet, last year we introduced a16z crypto research — a new kind of multidisciplinary lab dedicated to helping shape crypto and web3 as a formal area of study. One of our goals was to help bridge the worlds of academic theory with industry practice, and one of the ways we do so (besides working with our portfolio and publishing our own work) is by bringing together the very best research talent across disciplines relevant to the space.  

To that end, we’ve now hosted two immersive summer programs at the a16z crypto office — where we invite both established and emerging researchers to present their work and ideas, collaborate on some of the hardest problems in the ecosystem, and sharpen each other’s ideas by spending time with one another. You can watch many of the seminars (and listen in on our in-room conversations!) from summer 2022 here, and from fall 2022/ spring 2023 here

Now, we’re releasing new talks from the latest summer 2023 program & cohort. The initial drop included talks from a16z crypto research partners Joe Bonneau on distributed randomness beacons and Lera Nikolaenko on distributed data storage; as well as talks from Matt Green (Johns Hopkins) on “going beyond zero knowledge: next steps for compliance and constrained encryption on blockchains”; Sarah Meiklejohn (University College London, Google) on distributed key generation; and Ittai Abraham (Intel Labs, former VMWare; also Decentralized Thoughts blog) on “it’s all about trust”. The second drop, themed “cryptography week”, features talks from Dan Boneh (Stanford, a16z crypto); Elaine Shu (CMU); Foteini Baldimitsi (GMU); and Ron Rothblum (Technion), here. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified about the next drops as we will be releasing these talks regularly there. 

watch the summer playlist so far
share: on Twitter | Farcaster | LinkedIn

Bonus playlist: ‘web3 with a16z’ podcast, now also on YouTube

Sonal Chokshi

You can now listen to all episodes of our podcast “web3 with a16z” on YouTube, here… Including our most recent episode, which discusses, and debates! — with Solana Labs co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko (and a16z crypto’s Ali Yahya and Guy Wuollet) — the endgame for blockchain scalability, modular vs. monolithic architectures, hardware vs. software innovation, and much more. 

Other recent episodes cover other blockchain ecosystems, company building in crypto, and the journey from web2 to web3; navigating strategy, competition, moats, network effects in both theory and in practice; community and marketing in web3; and more. Also catchup on or revisit episodes on specific trends A to Z: AI & crypto, decentralized creativity & collaboration, entertainment & technology, metaverse, NFTs, policy, programming languages, security, web3 gaming, and several others. 

listen to the playlist here

PSA: The 3 types of secrets humans have to securely store, and how 

Eddy Lazzarin, Matt Gleason

We live in a digitally active world, and as our online accounts and information online increases, so does our need to hold on to secrets so no one can access that data. There are 3 main types of secrets most people have to hold for online access:

Passwords — which people use to access various websites and services. These must not only be kept secret, but be unique from service to service.

TOTP codes — which are often generated by an authenticator app or TOTP (time-based one time password) system. These provide two-factor authentication, where a second layer of security (hence the “two”, and “multi-” if more layers) helps protect access. 

Seed phrases — “mnemonic” codes or recovery phrases that give direct control of all crypto wallets derived from that seed phrase. This reflects one of the empowering features of crypto wallets: Once you enter your seed phrase, you have total control of your assets without needing to move them from one custodian to another. 

Note, these “secrets” aren’t all specific to crypto/ web3; anyone using the internet today should be using these practices (or something custom tailored for their needs)! And while our recommendation would be to harden everything to the maximum extent possible, the practical reality is that purchasing hardware wallets, webauthn keys, and machines with TEEs isn’t easy to do for most people (at least, not yet). Furthermore, losing secrets can sometimes be a greater risk than having them compromised: some information, once lost, can’t ever be found. 

So one could consider this a “minimal viable security” approach. That minimum setup — using things many people already have — would be to use a well-vetted password manager to store your seed phrases and passwords; and a TOTP app on your phone to store and use TOTP codes for 2FA (two-factor authentication). Here’s more on why and how:

Do NOT use text messages on your phone (SMS) as a second factor for authentication. SMS is a very weak choice for 2FA, given the rise of SIM swapping/ jacking: where a hacker pretends to be you to your mobile provider (“I lost my phone and need help accessing it…”); then reroutes your phone number to their device; and then can then access any accounts linked to that phone. That’s why we recommend using authenticator apps (like Authy, Google Authenticator, etc.). Not all services allow two-factor authentication, unfortunately; so you should still make sure you’re using strong, unique passwords.  

Store your passwords in a password manager. This is mostly to make having unique passwords for all internet services possible; otherwise most people default to reusing passwords across sites. A password manager secures each online account with a unique, complex password — and uses one strong “master password” to encrypt all the stored passwords (see for example 1Password, Bitwarden, or Dashlane). 

Your master password should be at least 16 characters — preferably a randomly generated passphrase of at least 5 words, which is usually around 30 characters, but easier to remember. This is not an arbitrary recommendation; the GPU costs for computers to guess passwords by brute force goes up exponentially the more characters and words there are in a password. That’s why longer is better. Finally: Never forget the master password! If you have to, you can write down a password hint with pen and paper, store that in the safest place you can think of, and remember where it is.

Store an encrypted copy of your backup codes/ TOTP in cloud storage, and print them out in a secure hard safe. But what about storing your TOTP codes in a password manager? Some password managers do support this, but it is better to use two different applications so that both security “factors” — password, and TOTP — remain separated. So then where should you store seed phrases? While the answer is a bit more complicated, the short answer is: in your password manager. (If you have a crypto wallet with a lot of assets in it, consider a more complex scheme; otherwise, this approach should work for most).

related:

📑 Wallet security: the ‘non-custodial’ fallacy (with Nassim Eddequiouaq & Riyaz Faizullabhoy)

🎧 Bridge hack, wallet hack (with Matt Gleason)

☑️ 16 steps to securing your data, and life (a16z)


-- Sonal Chokshi and a16z crypto teams


You’re receiving this newsletter because you signed up for it on our websites, at an event, or elsewhere (you can opt out any time using the ‘unsubscribe’ link below). This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should NOT be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, the content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors in any a16z funds. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for additional important details, including link to list of investments.


Circle Blog

Circle wins top honor for developer relations

In the five years since its introduction, USDC has become a key component for driving the future of payments and digital financial innovation. In addition to issuing USDC - one of the most widely used, programmable digital dollars on the internet - Circle is also focused on providing trusted, robust blockchain infrastructure services for Web3 developers. This is a core pillar of our str

In the five years since its introduction, USDC has become a key component for driving the future of payments and digital financial innovation. In addition to issuing USDC - one of the most widely used, programmable digital dollars on the internet - Circle is also focused on providing trusted, robust blockchain infrastructure services for Web3 developers. This is a core pillar of our strategy to advance global, mainstream utility and adoption of digital assets like USDC and public blockchain-based payments. Circle’s Developer Relations program, or DevRel, is vital to this effort and we are proud that it’s been honored as the Best New DevRel Program of 2022 by DevRelCon.


bankless

David's Takes: The Burning Man Network State

FULL ARTICLE: https://www.bankless.com/davids-takes-burning-man David just got back from the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, where, for one week of the year, tens of thousands of people congregate for the annual Burning Man festival. The parellels Crypto and Burning Man are strong, but it's not until participating in both that you can concretely grasped why. So, David went to Burning Man to go see

FULL ARTICLE: https://www.bankless.com/davids-takes-burning-man

David just got back from the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, where, for one week of the year, tens of thousands of people congregate for the annual Burning Man festival.

The parellels Crypto and Burning Man are strong, but it's not until participating in both that you can concretely grasped why. So, David went to Burning Man to go see what all of the excitement was about.

And Bankless Nation… like Crypto, Burning Man is a rabbit hole. 

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/ 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum ⁠ 

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures 


Defiant

Hacker Steals Over $700K After Hijacking Vitalik’s X Account

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter (X) Account Posted A Phishing Scam That Led To Many Users’ Wallets Being Drained Of Tokens and Valuable NFTs
Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin’s Twitter (X) Account Posted A Phishing Scam That Led To Many Users’ Wallets Being Drained Of Tokens and Valuable NFTs

Friday, 08. September 2023

Epicenter Podcast

Stani Kulechov: Lens Protocol – Decentralised Social Media Primitive

Social media revolves around content creation, and while the content itself could be tokenised through NFTs, SocialFi aims to take it a step further. The recently released friend.tech app went to show that users might be interested in something more than just content - creator shares. This implicitly links back to handles and profiles, and we can slowly start to unveil the primitives of social med

Social media revolves around content creation, and while the content itself could be tokenised through NFTs, SocialFi aims to take it a step further. The recently released friend.tech app went to show that users might be interested in something more than just content - creator shares. This implicitly links back to handles and profiles, and we can slowly start to unveil the primitives of social media. Lens Protocol predates the friend.tech venture, in both timeline, as well as scope. While social media became synonymous with monopolistic central entities, Lens Protocol aims to build the decentralised bedrock for Web3’s social layer. These primitives would not only be interoperable with any Web3 application, but they would redefine content creation, feed generation and monetisation.

We were joined by Stani Kulechov, founder of Lens Protocol & Aave, to discuss decentralised social graphs and how to leverage smart contracts to build the primitives for Web3's social layer.

Topics covered in this episode:

The vision behind Lens Lens V2 and smart contract capabilities Social media development platform Defining the Web3 social media primitive Feed generation algorithm on Lens Integrating on-chain and off-chain infrastructure The tragedy of the commons in decentralised social media Can a public good architecture also accommodate private goods? Growth model, sponsored transactions and monetisation Governance and decentralised social media

Episode links:

Stani Kulechov on Twitter Lens Protocol on Twitter Aave on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst & Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/512


Defiant

Ether Turns Inflationary As On-chain Activity Slides

Deepening NFT Bear Market and Fading Memecoin Craze Contribute To Reduced ETH Burn Rate
Deepening NFT Bear Market and Fading Memecoin Craze Contribute To Reduced ETH Burn Rate

CFTC Fines Opyn, ZeroEx and Deridex

Regulator Charges Popular DeFi Protocols 0x, Opyn and Deridex With Offering Illegal Digital Asset Derivatives To U.S. Customers
Regulator Charges Popular DeFi Protocols 0x, Opyn and Deridex With Offering Illegal Digital Asset Derivatives To U.S. Customers

bankless

ROLLUP: Solana’s MakerDAO & Visa Win | Base L2 Halted | Uniswap Court W | Justin Bieber NFT Drop

WRU 2nd Week of September ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/ ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING

WRU 2nd Week of September

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro 3:55 MARKETS 5:25 L2 TLV and Scaling Factor  https://thedefiant.io/starknet-activity-surges-on-token-speculation  7:15 Crypto wealth stats - David how many crypto millionaires do you think there are? https://www.henleyglobal.com/publications/crypto-wealth-report  9:10 U.S. deficit explodes despite growing economy https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1698391469881455098  https://twitter.com/jasonfurman/status/1698391482724442607  13:40 Wen BTC ETF? https://twitter.com/EricBalchunas/status/1696887691122548798  https://twitter.com/JSeyff/status/1697360209453187085  https://twitter.com/EricBalchunas/status/1699480838868517273  17:35 Uniswap Spot volume surpassed Coinbase in spot trading volume in 2023 https://twitter.com/RasterlyRock/status/1694039760745152761 

20:25 Maker DAO’s endgame on Solana? https://twitter.com/RuneKek/status/1697623700013822244  28:50 Vitalik sold his entire remaining stake of 500 MKRs https://twitter.com/OnchainDataNerd/status/1697941332826923348  https://twitter.com/aeyakovenko/status/1698182686568018238   31:00 Justin Leroux https://twitter.com/0xMidnight/status/1697634909706215604  32:00 Foobar https://twitter.com/0xfoobar/status/1698832035647787513  38:55 Visa expanded its stablecoin settlement to Solana https://twitter.com/cuysheffield/status/1699031134229926284 

41:39 Base had a delay in block production https://twitter.com/buildonbase/status/1699192035553812658  

46:00 Court sides with Uniswap over class action suit https://twitter.com/eleanorterrett/status/1696918343943340235   https://www.docdroid.net/APrJolt/risley-v-uniswap-pdf  https://twitter.com/haydenzadams/status/1696991910370411003   https://twitter.com/BillHughesDC/status/1696998957526696405 

52:20 Roman Storm Pleads Not Guilty https://cointelegraph.com/news/tornado-cash-cofounder-pleads-not-guilty  50:20 Polygon launches their “Supernets” kit for  https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1696618823422529898 54:35 Arbitrum released Stylus https://twitter.com/OffchainLabs/status/1697232795268177987  https://twitter.com/CryptoIsCute/status/1697647185561866382  56:30 StarkWare's Stone Prover now open sourced https://twitter.com/Starknet/status/1697504345485381652  57:00 RocketPool two major upcoming upgrades  https://twitter.com/drjasper_eth/status/1698554983837282750  57:30 Kevin Owocki is returning to Gitcoin https://twitter.com/owocki/status/1699056199445221437  58:14 Justin Bieber is releasing NFT collection  https://anotherblock.io/drops/justin-bieber-company  1:00:20 Fidelity released an Investment Thesis for Ethereum https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1697364409755029860  1:03:10 Binance is delisting privacy coins in Belgium  https://twitter.com/mister_ch0c/status/1699290391168618722  1:04:00 MetaMask introduced bank and PayPal cash-out options https://portfolio.metamask.io/ 

1:07:19 Questions From the Nation

1:13:50 Takes of The Week https://twitter.com/pythianism/status/1699594987892256889  https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1696957206116315566 

1:18:30 What Are We Bullish On? https://twitter.com/ckc12_rb/status/1675159167940587520  https://twitter.com/cathsimard_/status/1675150596570230785  https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1675165817569439744  https://twitter.com/cathsimard_  https://twitter.com/mattmedved/status/1697795471803297847  

Ryan: Bankless is releasing Claimables!  https://imgur.com/a/w9f2r0B 

Meme of The Week & Moment of Zen https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1699782057793372342

------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠ 


Defiant

Ark Invest and 21Shares Apply For Spot ETH ETF

Ark 21Shares Ethereum ETF Would Directly Hold Ether
Ark 21Shares Ethereum ETF Would Directly Hold Ether

Arcade Facilitates $1.1M Loan Against Supreme T-Shirt Collection

Collection of 291 T-shirts Was Authenticated By 4K Protocol
Collection of 291 T-shirts Was Authenticated By 4K Protocol

Thursday, 07. September 2023

Aztec Network

Privacy Abstraction with Aztec

Smart contract privacy without the brain damage Aztec’s architecture is a departure from the current trend in blockchains of horizontal scaling via more general-purpose EVM-compatible execution environments. At Aztec Labs we joke we’re the first protocol not to build a zkEVM. Instead, we are focused on one thing: becoming the ultimate destination for developers who understand and need
Smart contract privacy without the brain damage

Aztec’s architecture is a departure from the current trend in blockchains of horizontal scaling via more general-purpose EVM-compatible execution environments. At Aztec Labs we joke we’re the first protocol not to build a zkEVM.

Instead, we are focused on one thing: becoming the ultimate destination for developers who understand and need smart contract privacy.

We are building a network and set of tools that gives developers everything they need to build privacy-first apps with:

Anonymity by default Private state read/write functionality Private smart contract function execution

In this piece you’ll learn why privacy on account-based systems like the EVM doesn’t really work, why Aztec therefore isn’t EVM-compatible, and how Aztec makes dealing with the unique architecture of private state environments as intuitive as possible for smart contracts developers used to EVM-like environments.

Why do this at all?

Since day 1, Aztec Labs has pursued smart contract privacy: private compute that doesn’t rely on trusted third parties or trusted hardware security modules.

And in a world with fully on-chain smart contract privacy, private state has to be a first-class citizen.

That means no EVM, no Solidity, and no account-based blockchain architecture, all of which are privacy-leaking.

Privacy isn’t EVM-compatible

Now you might find yourself asking, “Wait, why doesn’t the EVM support privacy?” And in fact there have been Solidity smart contracts that run on the EVM and provide primitive, non-programmable privacy functionality like mixing.

But we’re not talking about that.

We’re talking about smart contract privacy — an entire system that incorporates programmable privacy within the contract itself — at the level of state variables and functions.

In Ethereum’s model, state variables are stored in a public account-based tree, and to edit one of those variables you need to broadcast to the world exactly which leaves of the tree you’d like to edit, what they contain, and how you’d like to edit them.

This has some drawbacks.

The current and historic values of every state variable are public The functions invoked to execute state changes are public The state variables modified by those functions are public

Et cetera.

UTXO’s and nullifiers, name a more iconic duo

Instead of this nakedly public way of doing things, Aztec relies on an encrypted UTXO (Unspent Transaction Object) data architecture — the same technology Bitcoin uses to store network state.

The foundation of Aztec’s privacy design is an append-only data tree containing encrypted UTXO’s and another data tree containing their nullifiers. And we owe the original UTXO-nullifier design to the pioneers who created the ZCash protocol.

UTXO’s are also referred to as “notes,” and we’ll refer to them as such for the rest of the piece.

For a layman’s explanation of our UTXO architecture, see this post.

In order to manipulate an owned note (which as a reminder are encrypted UTXO objects), users take the following steps:

A function is called The function requests an edit to a private state The function asks the user’s note database for all notes belonging to that private state The user (in reality the user’s Aztec node) proves on their local machine that each of the retrieved notes exists as a leaf in the tree machine without revealing which leaf The user does an action: read, change, or delete values inside the note The user furnishes a nullifier, which prevents duplicate action and prevents the user from reading the same leaf ever again The user inserts a new leaf, containing a new value, as a way of updating the private state’s value A short history lesson

You can trace our obsession with notes back to our initial desire for smart contract privacy.

And one of the things “smart contract privacy” requires is hidden function inputs.

We started with zkSNARKs, which allow us to hide function inputs.

We then built Noir, an intuitive, open-source universal ZK language for writing functions whose inputs can be hidden. But Noir doesn’t have a built-in notion of state storage and state variables.

So now, we’re introducing a smart contract framework that creates state variable structs on top of Noir.

Let variables be variables!

So to have privacy, you need private state, and for private state you need private state variables.

But what are private state variables? Well they can’t be notes.

Notes stores data or information, and when combined with nullifiers they can preserve privacy, but notes are constant and immutable.

Variables are variable! They can be modified by the functions of a contract. So how can we create the concept of a private state variable using notes as a building block?

Well, as we saw above, notes can be destroyed and created. To create the abstraction of a private state variable, maybe we can cleverly destroy and create notes behind the scenes.

That’s exactly what Aztec does: declare a named private state variable, then write functions which read current state, edit that state, and write the updated state at the end.

Behind the scenes, these private state variable structs are figuring out:

which notes they need to gather as leaves in the private state tree which notes they need to prove existence of in the tree which notes they need to nullify any new notes that need to be created and inserted into the tree

But to a developer, the variables just look like variables.

Private token contract example

To be less abstract, let’s think about the bread and butter of blockchain: a private token contract. The first thing a dev would wish to declare is a private_balance state variable.

Aztec allows a dev to declare a private_balance state variable, and then modify the balance in a transfer function.

Behind the scenes, the private_state struct that’s been exposed can figure out how to create and destroy notes in a way that represents adding-to or subtracting-from a user’s balance, all while not leaking that user’s balance (by emitting nullifiers from the function).

You can represent anything as a private state variable:

Values: an object with a value and owner field, like a banknote / $100 bill NFTs: an object with a unique identifier, or that contains all the unique attributes of an NFT Accounts: an object owned by one or many owners and more! Votes, DeFi positions, identity objects, and anything else you can dream of

Private state variables store data or information, and can be programmed with two useful properties:

They can be mutable (updateable) or immutable (non-updateable); and They can either comprise a single note (be a singleton) or comprise a group of notes describing a state variable (in this case a type of private state variable called a set)

It’s important to note (!) that notes are just used to store information, and don’t store functions or contracts. We will cover private and public execution in a future piece.

In case you can’t tell, managing UTXO’s would normally be a little bit complicated, and involves a few “gotchas” including how to:

Search the tree for one’s own notes efficiently Combine notes Make change from combined notes Destroy and update notes with nullifiers

Unlike Ethereum accounts, which can simply be credited and debited, notes have to be created, combined, and nullified, which represents a distinctly different mental model. And where Ethereum values are just that — values — notes contain values.

Luckily, we at Aztec Labs have designed Aztec as a network with abstraction in mind. Our aim is to eliminate these difficulties and make writing Aztec smart contracts as similar to writing Ethereum smart contracts as possible.

Finally, while one of the benefits of our architecture is helping smart contract developers manage note complexity, one of the primary goals of this design is to abstract notes entirely from dApps.

Application developers rejoice! You’ll never have to think about UTXOs or notes at all, instead being able to call functions you would expect, like token.transfer(amount) or token.getBalance().

Passed around specific notes in an application would be extremely painful, and our smart contract framework helps abstract that completely from the dApp layer.

In the next post, we’ll cover Aztec’s smart contract framework and how it assists developers in managing private notes.

Start learning Noir today

Aztec Labs is a core contributor to Noir, the universal language of zero knowledge. We’re building an Aztec smart contract framework on top of Noir that extends its functionality beyond zk circuit writing language and toward private smart contracts.

Get started with Noir, read the docs, and get ahead of learning the prerequisites for building on Aztec.
Jump into the conversation

The Aztec Labs team is committed to building our privacy technology publicly. Bringing a fully decentralized L2 with smart contract privacy to market means there is plenty of debate about network design.

Join the conversation at discourse.aztec.network and participate in the design of Aztec’s network and economics.
Join our team

Aztec Labs is on the lookout for talented engineers, cryptographers, and business people to accelerate our vision of encrypted Ethereum.

If joining our mission to bring scalable privacy to Ethereum excites you, check out our open roles.

And continue the conversation with us on Twitter.

Privacy Abstraction with Aztec was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Defiant

MetaMask ‘Sell’ Feature Enables Ethereum Users To Cash Out

Early Users Praise Speedy Transactions But Decry High Fees
Early Users Praise Speedy Transactions But Decry High Fees

Greylock Partners

Seth Rosenberg is Greylock’s Newest General Partner

Seth Rosenberg is Greylock's newest general partner The post Seth Rosenberg is Greylock’s Newest General Partner appeared first on Greylock.

Product-Led AI

Greylock general partner Seth Rosenberg outlines how founders combining product and domain expertise with a fundamental understanding of human behavior can build defensible, AI-first businesses. The post <span>Product</span>-Led AI appeared first on Greylock.

The post <span>Product</span>-Led AI appeared first on Greylock.


Zcash

Building sustainability and resilience into ‘Dev Fund 2’

In November 2024, the current Zcash development fund will expire. Conversations about a new dev fund have begun, and community […] The post Building sustainability and resilience into ‘Dev Fund 2’ appeared first on Electric Coin Company.

In November 2024, the current Zcash development fund will expire. Conversations about a new dev fund have begun, and community sentiment seems to favor changes regarding who receives Zcash issuance and how much issuance they receive. There’s little support for carrying over the current structure into a new dev fund, and there is a vocal minority who advocates against any new dev fund.

A little over a month ago, I gave a presentation at Zcon4, the annual conference hosted by the independent Zcash Foundation, about the importance of the Zcash dev fund and why it’s Zcash’s superpower. I made the argument that every decision is about balancing trade-offs and that the community needs to consider this in structuring funding and governance.

For context, here’s a common view of how Zcash community funding works today: 80 percent of Zcash issuance is distributed to miners, while 20 percent is devoted to Zcash development funding. Importantly, 8 percent of the total block reward (or about 40 percent of the current dev fund) goes into the Zcash Community Grants organization, which exclusively funds independent third-party developers. ECC (through the Bootstrap org) receives 7 percent of the total rewards, and the remaining 5 percent goes to the Zcash Foundation.

While this view of funding and governance is accurate, there are alternate views that are also accurate. 

Tradeoffs in the current dev fund structure

“There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”

Thomas Sowell

The Zcash Community Grants organization actually receives its funding through the Zcash Foundation; it doesn’t receive funds directly. It was set up this way for good reasons (mainly, creating a wholly new and separate entity is expensive), and Exhibit B represents this flow of money. 

In ZIP 1014, the community stipulated that the Zcash Foundation must not interfere with Zcash Community Grants’s decisions, and both the Zcash Foundation and Zcash Community Grants should be commended on their financial transparency. In a majority of cases, this structure in which money flows through the Zcash Foundation to the ZCG to independent developers and teams is just fine. 

But the tradeoff is that the Zcash Foundation is beholden to US laws* which means that any organization or team that is downstream of the Zcash Foundation is also constrained. 

In my Zcon4 presentation, I highlighted two recent examples of the real-life implications of this structure.

In 2022, a person living in Iran who goes by Bitcoin Buddy applied for a grant to become a Zcash ambassador. They wrote about living under a theocratic dictatorship and incompetent kleptocracy that inflicts poverty and allows women to be attacked in the streets. Their goal was to tell their community about Zcash and frame it as an alternative or an “escape” from the oppressive Iran ruling regime. I suspect Zcash Community Grants would have liked to fund Bitcoin Buddy, but it couldn’t because its money flows through the Zcash Foundation, which is based in the US, is subject to the laws of the US, and would find its nonprofit status at jeopardy by funding a person or project in Iran. In another example, a team of engineers who wished to remain anonymous applied for funding to build and implement new code on Zcash. However, because the team refused to give information like names and home addresses, a US KYC (Know Your Customer) requirement, its application was rejected.

If these scenarios alone don’t demonstrate the need for changes in a “Dev Fund 2,” consider that ECC, the organization I lead, is also based in the US and subject to the laws of the US, which means that all dev fund monies are constrained by the laws of a single government and regulatory framework.

It’s worth noting that miners, who receive 80% of all Zcash issuance, live outside the control of the US government and are not bound by rules on how they use that issuance.

A metric for Zcash sustainability and resilience

One useful way to address trade-offs is to look at a metric: the number of independent and sustainable organizations that support Zcash.

Exhibit A shows us that the number is three: ECC, Zcash Foundation, and Zcash Community Grants. Exhibit B illustrates that there are only two, and Exhibit C suggests that all of these organizations are consolidated and beholden to one entity, the US government. (I don’t count miners as supporters of Zcash because, to my knowledge, none of the large commercial miners do anything to improve Zcash. And in fact, most sell it at the end of each day to buy Bitcoin.)

There’s an ineluctable trade-off between independence and accountability. For any circle in these illustrations, you can choose independence or accountability, but only one attribute, not both. 

In Exhibit B, for example, the Zcash Foundation serves a valuable role, which is that it holds Zcash Community Grants accountable to its charge. But because it’s downstream of the Zcash Foundation, Zcash Community Grants isn’t actually independent.

At the blockchain level you can create accountability by the community as a whole adding and removing recipients of a dev fund, but below the blockchain level independence and accountability are a trade-off.

Failure modes

As a security engineer, I really like thinking about failure modes. In Exhibit D, I break them into four categories.

The first two failure modes, external and internal attacks, are pretty self-explanatory. Either could have a huge impact and even cause catastrophic failure of a project. US policy appears to be lining up against crypto as an industry, but for now, I still categorize these failure modes as “rare.”

Category 3, however, is common. Sadly, two-thirds of everyone who sets out to do anything never quite finishes, because success requires a mix of vision, timing, talent, and luck. When designing governance, we must be aware of and protect against a simple law of the universe: No matter how well-intentioned and skilled a person or team appears to be, there’s a not-insignificant chance they will fail to live up to expectations. 

The last failure mode, Category 4, is 100% likely. Every person and every group of people is a special interest with differing motivations, differing blindspots, and differing values and perspectives. Systems of governance must be resilient enough to produce good results in spite of this universal law.

Designing the next Zcash dev fund

Even with guaranteed failure modes and complex tradeoffs, it’s possible to design a governance system that increases the sustainability and resilience of Zcash.

As I said at Zcon4, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” The next dev fund the Zcash community implements needs to (1)  include more, independent teams than the current iteration, and (2) at least one of those teams should be headquartered outside the US.

No governance model is perfect, but my opinion is that these two recommendations will foster lasting benefits for Zcashers and the future of Zcash. I have extremely high confidence in the voice of the community, and I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation into 2024 and beyond!

*The Zcash Foundation recently announced that it has begun the process of setting up an operational nonprofit entity in the Cayman Islands, so that’s excellent news!

The post Building sustainability and resilience into ‘Dev Fund 2’ appeared first on Electric Coin Company.


Circle Press

OKX & Circle Launch USDC Experience on OKX Wallet & OKX DEX Aggregator

Launching today and continuing until October 5, OKX and Circle's joint 'USDC Zero Network Fee Campaign' enables OKX Wallet Smart Account users to enjoy zero network fee transactions The OKX DEX aggregator becomes one of the first decentralised exchanges to enable USDC cross-chain swaps across Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum and OP Mainnet, with support for more blockchains expecte
Launching today and continuing until October 5, OKX and Circle's joint 'USDC Zero Network Fee Campaign' enables OKX Wallet Smart Account users to enjoy zero network fee transactions The OKX DEX aggregator becomes one of the first decentralised exchanges to enable USDC cross-chain swaps across Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum and OP Mainnet, with support for more blockchains expected soon

San Francisco, September 7, 2023 — OKX, a global leading Web3 technology company, and Circle Internet Financial (Circle), a global fintech firm and issuer of USDC, today jointly announced cutting-edge USDC features on the OKX Wallet and the OKX DEX aggregator, marking a new milestone in the Web3 landscape. OKX and Circle are enabling USDC transactions without network fees and integrating the OKX DEX aggregator with Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). 

The 'USDC Zero Network Fee Campaign' enables OKX Wallet's Smart Account users to conduct USDC transactions without network fees from September 7 to October 5, 2023, with further details available here. OKX Wallet's Smart Account feature, powered by account abstraction technology and launched on August 2, 2023, enables seamless transactions across multiple blockchains using stablecoins like USDC.

The integration of the OKX DEX aggregator with Circle’s CCTP, a permissionless on-chain utility that enables USDC to move natively between blockchains, provides a more streamlined experience for users trading USDC pairs. The integration also marks a significant step towards cross-chain USDC utility across Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum and the OP Mainnet ecosystems. As new CCTP routes become available, the OKX DEX aggregator is expected to support additional blockchains for USDC cross-chain functionality.


Sequoia

Crucible Moments Essay

The post Crucible Moments Essay appeared first on Sequoia Capital.
Crucible Moments: The Pivotal Decisions That Define Us

By Roelof Botha Published September 7, 2023

In 2012, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noticed something strange. The GPUs his company was producing for gaming consoles and computer graphics were starting to pop up in research labs and academic circles. Machine learning computations that had been taking weeks to complete shrunk to hours when run on Nvidia processors. There were no commercial applications for this technology—but Jensen saw a far-off opportunity and pounced, leading what he calls a “wholesale pivot” to reorient Nvidia toward enabling AI. Most saw this as profoundly risky. It took a full decade, until ChatGPT launched in 2022, to comprehend the magnitude of Jensen’s audacious decision.

This is what we at Sequoia call a crucible moment—an inflection point where a choice you make today has an outsized bearing on your trajectory for years or even decades. Crucible moments define companies. They also shape our careers and lives. 

I can identify a handful of decisions that disproportionately influenced the trajectory of my life. I grew up in South Africa. The country’s history cast a shadow, and I always felt that the innovation pushing the world forward—which I longed to be a part of—was happening elsewhere. Leaving my home, where I had deep roots, and setting off for the unknown in California was unnerving and lonely. It was full of risk. But it was also full of promise. Embracing uncertainty and moving to the heart of Silicon Valley just as the internet was taking off in the late 1990s profoundly altered the course of my life.

I faced another crucible moment soon after arriving in California for business school. A currency collapse in South Africa in 1998 wiped out my savings. I had a stark choice to make. I could rejoin McKinsey (where I’d worked briefly in South Africa), which generously offered to pay for my education. Instead, I was drawn toward a scrappy startup I’d met that was facilitating payments over the nascent internet. The company was burning cash and had offered me a scant salary to work part-time while finishing my degree. But it was building a magical product with transformational potential. It wasn’t the obvious choice, but I joined PayPal—and once again my life changed course. 

At Sequoia, we have had the privilege of partnering early with many of the most iconic founders of the past half-century. Time and again, we’ve seen how their willingness to make bold decisions in crucible moments—to optimize for long-term impact over short-term wins—is what enables them to build legendary companies. 

Sometimes these moments are proactive, like Jensen pivoting to AI long before its time. Sometimes external factors create a forcing function for transformational change. A powerful example is Brian Chesky radically repositioning Airbnb through the pandemic. Airbnb’s revenue plunged 80% as lockdowns took hold—just as the company was preparing for an IPO. Less than two years later, after doubling down on its community and adapting its product for long-term stays, Airbnb went public at a valuation double its initial plan. That’s the impact of a crucible moment. 

Crucible moments typically don’t announce themselves. They can sneak up on you. I believe learning to recognize them and having the courage to act decisively—even when it requires defying conventional wisdom—is the single biggest determinant of sustained success.

Following through on the initial insight often requires making painful changes. You may discover you need a new set of capabilities on your team—or that capabilities you’ve toiled to build no longer serve you. In every case, navigating a crucible moment requires conviction and the grit to overcome naysayers, near-term obstacles, and the possibility of failure. 

For over 50 years, Sequoia has faced its own crucible moments. When I joined in 2003, the scars of the 2000 dot-com crash remained fresh. Most firms had afforded themselves a “mulligan,” telling LPs that funds raised in the lead-up to the crash had been written off. Sequoia chose to do the opposite. We forfeited fees and reinvested proceeds until the funds yielded gains for our LPs. The decision established a defining principle that we would not let our clients lose money and helped crystallize core values of performance and stewardship that still guide us today.

More recently, we have made foundational changes: we established the Sequoia Capital Fund, an innovative open-ended structure designed to weather short-term market fluctuations in order to attain the best long-term performance. The trust we earned with LPs following the dot-com crash and our continued performance allowed us to pioneer this approach. And in early 2023, after 15 years of growing leading firms under the Sequoia banner in China and India, we collectively decided to become fully independent partnerships across all five business units. Separating was not an obvious choice given each unit’s success—and yet it was the right decision for enduring impact in the coming decades.

Recognizing the opportunities and risks inherent to crucible moments is core to how we work with founders. Each company will face a unique set of pivotal decisions that shapes their trajectory, and we spend most of our time helping identify and navigate them. Occasionally, we convene our companies to help them see around corners when seismic shifts create a crucible moment for everyone—as we did in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, at the start of pandemic in 2020, and early in the 2022 market correction.

Most recently, we convened founders at our AI Ascent event in March, 2023 to call attention to the collective crucible moment we all currently face. The era of low-cost capital and easy fundraising has ended; meanwhile, an era of unprecedented innovation potential and productivity growth driven by AI is just beginning. The convergence of these factors requires us to adapt. How we do will define the next decade. Careers will be made. Companies will be formed that change how we live, work and play.

We created our new podcast series, Crucible Moments, to offer a window into this mindset and this critical aspect of company-building. Legendary founders like Max Levchin of PayPal, Jack Dorsey of Block, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe, Brian Chesky of Airbnb and Julia Hartz of Eventbrite will bring you inside their decision-making and reveal how they navigated the crucible moments that shaped their journeys. Jensen will break down that pivotal pursuit of AI; you’ll learn how Airbnb navigated the pandemic to emerge stronger, and much more.

At Sequoia, we help the daring build legendary companies from idea to IPO and beyond. We hope this series will prove useful and inspiring to a new generation of ambitious founders—and anyone curious for a new perspective on how to navigate the most important decisions you face when the answers are unclear. 

Listen here, at CrucibleMoments.com, or on Spotify, Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Share Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn Share this via email PayPal: A Merger of Enemies That Reshaped Silicon Valley Crucible Moments: EP1 Podcast Listen Airbnb: Building (and Rebuilding) User Trust to Revolutionize Travel Crucible Moments: EP2 Podcast Listen

The post Crucible Moments Essay appeared first on Sequoia Capital.


Nym - Medium

Announcing Nym Shipyard — the MOOC for privacy in the age of AI with 2.5m token reward pool

Announcing Nym Shipyard — the MOOC for privacy in the age of AI with 2.5m token reward pool Join the next generation of Builders, Operators and Creatives and learn the skills needed to privacy-enhance our world. Prepare yourself for the next big thing in Web3 and the digital landscape — privacy. Languages: 中文 // Русский // 日本 // Türkçe // Español // Bahasa Indonesia // Française The
Announcing Nym Shipyard — the MOOC for privacy in the age of AI with 2.5m token reward pool

Join the next generation of Builders, Operators and Creatives and learn the skills needed to privacy-enhance our world.

Prepare yourself for the next big thing in Web3 and the digital landscape — privacy.

Languages: 中文 // Русский // 日本 // Türkçe // Español // Bahasa Indonesia // Française

The patterns of our online behaviour have become food for machines. Machines are phenomenal at detecting, analysing and predicting patterns and as a result, privacy is becoming an extremely scarce and highly valued resource. Only pattern protection privacy can cloak, conceal, and guard against these data-hungry algorithms and restore anonymity to the people in the age of AI.

You can get ahead of the game now by registering for Nym Shipyard — the global privacy bootcamp which will equip thousands of attendees with new, practical skills and knowledge from world-leading privacy researchers and engineers (MIT, UCL, KU Leuven, LSE alumni). Even better: you’ll get rewarded from a 2.5m NYM token pool for doing so!

Nym is putting up a major reward pool to train the next generation of Builders, Operators and Creatives with privacy superpowers: learn all about pattern protection and the privacy challenges of the next decade, gain the skills to operate profitable nodes, and learn how to expertly build privacy-enhanced apps.

Join the six-week Nym Shipyard MOOC starting this Autumn.

All skill levels are welcome! You will be guided through the appropriate learning experience. Early bird registrations will open soon…

Keep me posted

This is the second Nym Shipyard. This year will be bigger. It will be harder. And it will be more rewarding.

What to expect at Nym Shipyard: 2.5m NYM token reward pool Learn practical skills from world-renowned privacy researchers and engineers Specialised Builder, Operator and Visionary tracks Quests, quizzes, tasks and AMAs 2–3 hrs per week to qualify for graduation Mentorship on staking, bonding and bridging NYM tokens Guidance on starting your Nym node operator business Build on Nym to ensure privacy for wallets and dApps Set up your own privacy guild or DAO Graduate to Nymja stage and gain access to grants, delegations and more. Key dates Early bird registration opens 18 September 2023 General registrations opens 25 September 2023 Kick start October 2023 Wait, what is Nym Shipyard?

Nym Shipyard is a six weeks long, learn-and-earn, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

It’s a unique opportunity for anyone to educate themselves and learn about pattern protection and privacy in the age of AI. It is free of charge and accessible to all levels of skill.

After the overwhelming success of Nym Shipyard last year, this year the rewards have increased more than 10x in order to scale the skills needed to meet the next major privacy threat of the digital age: Artificial intelligence.

Starting this autumn, thousands of participants will gather from across the world to learn about topics such as: pattern protection, mixnets, zk-technologies, digital rights and anon-credential systems. There will be weekly masterclasses by core team members and renowned guest speakers in the world of Web3 and AI.

Nym Shipyard is designed to be accessible: all skill levels are welcome and the stages only require 2–3 hours per week to graduate. You will have the chance to complete quests, tasks and other extracurricular activities, and get directly rewarded with NYM tokens during each stage. The more energy and work you put in — the more rewards you can earn from the overall pool of 2.5m NYM.

Early-bird registrations will open shortly. Limited seats available.

Register your interest here.

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Announcing Nym Shipyard — the MOOC for privacy in the age of AI with 2.5m token reward pool was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Circle Blog

What you need to know: USDC on NEAR

Welcome to #StableSeptember, a series where we provide a preview of what it means to bring native USDC to new blockchain ecosystems. Take a look below for what you need to know about the upcoming launch of USDC on NEAR. 

Welcome to #StableSeptember, a series where we provide a preview of what it means to bring native USDC to new blockchain ecosystems. Take a look below for what you need to know about the upcoming launch of USDC on NEAR. 


Horizen - Blog

Node Software Upgrade: ZEN 4.1.0 is Available to Download

All exchange partners, mining pools, node operators, and full node wallet users must upgrade to ZEN 4.1.0 before block #1422426, which will occur on Sep 19th, 2023 at approximately 19:00 UTC.   ZEN 4.1.0 will perform a network upgrade on the Horizen mainnet via Hard Fork at block #1426200 which will occur Sep 26th, 2023 […] The post Node Software Upgrade: ZEN 4.1.0 is Available to Downlo

All exchange partners, mining pools, node operators, and full node wallet users must upgrade to ZEN 4.1.0 before block #1422426, which will occur on Sep 19th, 2023 at approximately 19:00 UTC. DOWNLOAD ZEN 4.1.0 NOW

 

ZEN 4.1.0 will perform a network upgrade on the Horizen mainnet via Hard Fork at block #1426200 which will occur Sep 26th, 2023 at approximately 10:00 UTC.

Related to ZenIP-42204 to remove shielded transactions with transparent inputs from the Horizen Mainchain Shielding of Coinbase transactions will not be possible anymore once the hard fork activates. Coinbase transactions continue to mature after 100 confirmations of blocks.  The Community Fund, Secure Node and Super Node addresses will be rotated with this Hard Fork. See Table Below. *Vout addresses changes 

An update of s-nomp for mining pools using it will be required for compatibility with 4.1.0.

requireShielding in the coin configuration will have to be set to false once the Hard Fork activates Coinbase reward addresses for Community Fund, Secure Node and Super Node will change with the Hard Fork

If you are not using s-nomp as your mining pool software, please refer to this example pull request for the required changes

Updated wallets incorporating changes for compatibility will be provided with the Mainnet release in September.

Next Deprecation will happen at block #1466716 which will occur Dec 6th, 2023 at approximately 14:00 UTC

DOWNLOAD ZEN 4.1.0 NOW   ZEN 4.1.0 Main New Features Shielded Pool DeprecationZenIP-42204Mempool LimitSecurity restriction to avoid abnormal mempool growth.
Added strict limit to the size of the mempool
Default: 400 MBP2P Alert System RemovalDeprecated due to non-usageP2PKIndex Pay 2 Public Key Transactions in Explorer.
Restart Zend with -reindexfast to include P2PK transactions in the explorer index.HorizenDAOWas approved and merged the ZenIP-42203 proposed late in December, to further decentralize the Horizen ecosystem via the upcoming launch of a DAO. This will give the community more involvement in ecosystem governance.Community Fund
Addresses RotationThe Community Fund, Secure Node and Super Node addresses will be rotated with the Hard Fork.

See Table Below. *Vout addresses changes

*Vout addresses changes

TypeOldNewTreasuryzshX5BAgUvNgM1VoBVKZyFVVozTDjjJvRxJzsq5TpKdHRTXTaeKeToTiPTE4Re4279nUj3Secure Nodeszsx68qSKMNoc1ZPQpGwNFZXVzgf27KN6a9uzstp5e9WBs5wUQcrNHx2S1UmkaN4koPVBBfSuper NodeszszMgcogAqz49sLHGV22YCDFSvwzwkfog4kzsvR2ihXmtjGrmAyFWytLdj76VvdFxVUJpP

If you have any questions or you need further support , please reach out to us on our Discord.

The post Node Software Upgrade: ZEN 4.1.0 is Available to Download appeared first on Horizen Blog.


Defiant

Coinbase and Aave Form Coalition to Promote Tokenized Assets

Members Include Circle, Centrifuge and Goldfinch
Members Include Circle, Centrifuge and Goldfinch

🤡 Crypto is a Theater: Lessons from the ‘20 - ’23 Bull & Bear Cycle

If you feel like the 'crypto for good' ethos is getting buried by scandals and theatrics- you're not alone. It's as if we've switched from a Shakespearean tragedy, where the FTX scandal is the cunning antagonist, to a Greek drama, where the chorus amplifi...
If you feel like the 'crypto for good' ethos is getting buried by scandals and theatrics- you're not alone. It's as if we've switched from a Shakespearean tragedy, where the FTX scandal is the cunning antagonist, to a Greek drama, where the chorus amplifi...

Zaisan

GameFi Explained: Understanding Web3 Gaming

With the gaming market set to grow at 13.4% yearly until 2030, gaming is bigger than ever. And in a digital era marked by blockchain innovation, GameFi emerges as a game-changer, blending gaming with Web3 technologies. This article sheds light on what GameFi is, explaining its core elements, the exciting opportunities it offers players and […] The post GameFi Explained: Understanding Web3 Gaming

With the gaming market set to grow at 13.4% yearly until 2030, gaming is bigger than ever. And in a digital era marked by blockchain innovation, GameFi emerges as a game-changer, blending gaming with Web3 technologies. This article sheds light on what GameFi is, explaining its core elements, the exciting opportunities it offers players and publishers, and the complex challenges it faces.

GameFi isn’t just a passing trend; it’s a dynamic system that lets players earn while they play, provides publishers with new ways to make money, and creates special communities. But it also needs to deal with tricky issues like regulations, market ups and downs, and security concerns. As GameFi continues to evolve, it’s not just changing how we see gaming; it’s a symbol of the resilience and innovation of our digital world. The future of gaming has arrived, and GameFi is leading the way, ready to transform the gaming industry in ways we are only beginning to understand.

What is GameFi?

At its core, GameFi represents the usage of novel web3 aspects in traditional games, referring to things like changes in ownership of in-game assets as well as changes in reward mechanisms.

Some of the key components of GameFi include play-to-earn models as well as tokenised assets, both of which we will explain below to give you a better understanding of what GameFi is about.

Play-to-earn models

Play-to-earn models are models for games in which players get rewarded for playing the game. These rewards can then be exchanged for real money (or cryptocurrencies).

In contrast to traditional gaming models such as pay-to-play or free-to-play models, where players either purchase the game upfront or invest money for in-game benefits, play-to-earn models harness the power of blockchain technology to establish an entirely new dynamic. While pay-to-play and free-to-play models have effectively catered to gamers’ preferences for years, the introduction of play-to-earn models represents a shift in how players perceive their gaming experience and their potential to make money while gaming.

Play-to-earn models approach this differently and compensate players for their time spent in the game. This compensation usually happens in the form of digital assets, both in the form of ‘regular’ tokens as well as non-fungible tokens. Players can also receive certain rewards for reaching specific milestones, achievements, levels, etc. After a player receives these rewards, they can either use them again in the game or sell them on a marketplace.

All in all, this kind of model provides a greater incentive for the players to continue playing, and it allows game publishers to push players in certain directions by changing the reward structure.

Tokenised assets

Closely related to these play-to-earn models are tokenised assets. In a GameFi context, tokenised assets are actually the same as regular in-game assets, with the only difference being that instead of the game developers controlling the assets, the user controls the asset.

And this opens up a whole barrage of options. First of all, when players purchase in-game assets, their financial investment doesn’t simply disappear within the gaming ecosystem. Instead, they can sell or trade these items outside the game environment, linking their tokenised assets to real-world financial opportunities. While platforms like Steam currently allow the sale of in-game assets, these transactions are limited to the platform’s ecosystem. Tokenised assets have the potential to break down these barriers, offering a more versatile and user-friendly solution.

Secondly, tokenised assets empower players with greater influence over the in-game economy. Traditionally, game economies are subject to the control of developers. While this dynamic still holds true to some extent in play-to-earn games, players are gaining a voice in determining the value and significance of different aspects of the game, including specific items or features.

Thirdly, by tokenising assets, game developers can hand out limited in-game assets more transparently and easily. Blockchain technology can prove the scarcity of the items, adding more trust and also making it easy to verify the authenticity of in-game items in marketplaces and inventories.

These tokenised assets are key to play-to-earn models, as well as to GameFi as a whole.

Alien Worlds is one of the largest GameFi games in the world in terms of transaction volume. Opportunities of GameFi

There are a variety of opportunities opened up by GameFi, ranging from new ways to make money for both players and game publishers to the opportunity to create new kinds of exclusive communities. Let’s dive into each of these below!

Earn money while playing

GameFi offers gamers a unique chance to turn their favourite pastime into a potentially lucrative venture. Unlike traditional gaming, where the fun is its own reward, GameFi lets players earn real money while they enjoy virtual adventures. This shift is exemplified by play-to-earn models, which allow players to collect valuable in-game items and cryptocurrencies as they play.

Another fascinating aspect of this is the creation of limited special items. Game developers can use blockchain tech to make unique, scarce digital goods that players can get through in-game achievements or events. These limited items create a buzz, making players compete to get them, and they often become valuable assets that can be sold for profit on secondary markets. Furthermore, they can be used by game developers to incentivise player behaviour or to generate hype around certain events.

Secondary market fees for publishers

For game publishers, GameFi opens up a new way to make money through secondary market fees. As players actively trade and sell tokenised in-game items on external marketplaces, publishers can charge small fees for each transaction. These fees, although tiny individually, add up significantly as more and more trades happen within the game’s ecosystem.

These secondary market fees offer publishers a steady income source that goes beyond the traditional game purchase or in-game purchases model. This consistent revenue stream enables publishers to invest more in game development, enhancing the overall gaming experience and attracting a wider audience.

The secondary market also creates a lively ecosystem, encouraging players to actively participate in trading and investing in virtual assets. This dynamic player-driven economy enhances the game’s long-term appeal.

Exclusive communities

Another benefit of GameFi is the ability to create exclusive communities within gaming ecosystems. As players accumulate achievements, assets, and more, they become part of a unique group of individuals who share similar experiences or possess similar skills and/or items. These communities can be built around the shared ownership of rare in-game items, achievements, and a mutual interest in exploring the possibilities of GameFi.

These exclusive communities offer several advantages. They enable players to verify and show off their in-game achievements and items transparently, thanks to blockchain technology. This transparency builds trust among players and makes it easy to confirm the authenticity of in-game items in marketplaces and player inventories.

Game developers can also use these exclusive communities to foster direct communication with their player base. This direct engagement allows for real-time feedback, which can be invaluable in shaping game development and ensuring a responsive and player-centric gaming experience.

Challenges of GameFi

As with any new technology, challenges are part of the adoption process. GameFi is no exception to this, so it is important to consider the following three challenges related to GameFi.

Regulatory issues

One of the foremost challenges facing GameFi is the ever-evolving landscape of regulatory frameworks. Governments and regulatory bodies worldwide are still grappling with how to classify cryptocurrencies, decentralised applications, and blockchain-based assets. This ambiguity can result in uncertain legal status and potential compliance challenges for GameFi projects.

Moreover, the integration of real-world financial incentives, such as cryptocurrencies, within gaming environments can raise concerns about consumer protection, taxation, and money laundering. Navigating these complex regulatory waters requires a delicate balance between innovation and adherence to evolving legal standards, making it essential for games using GameFi components to stay informed and proactive in addressing regulatory challenges.

Market volatility

GameFi’s reliance on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology also exposes it to the inherent volatility of these markets. The value of cryptocurrencies can experience rapid fluctuations, impacting the real-world value of in-game assets and player earnings. Players and developers alike must grapple with the potential for sudden wealth fluctuations, which can pose financial risks and affect the overall stability of the GameFi ecosystem.

These fluctuations in prices of both cryptocurrencies and assets related to the game can heavily influence interest, player behaviour, and overall sentiment. To mitigate these challenges, developers may need to implement strategies like stablecoin integration or token stabilisation mechanisms within their games. Such measures can help shield players from extreme volatility while maintaining the economic incentives that make GameFi appealing.

Security concerns

As GameFi relies heavily on blockchain technology, the security of smart contracts, wallets, and decentralised applications becomes paramount. Malicious actors are constantly probing for vulnerabilities and exploits, and the financial aspect of GameFi makes this even more appealing. Incidents like hacks, exploits, or scams can erode player trust and confidence in the platform.

It is key to invest in robust security measures, including rigorous code audits, multi-layer authentication protocols, and secure wallet integrations. Additionally, educating players about safe practices in handling cryptocurrencies and in-game assets can help protect them from potential security breaches. After all, you decide for yourself how secure you store your assets.

The post GameFi Explained: Understanding Web3 Gaming appeared first on Zaisan.


Defiant

Starknet Activity Surges On Token Speculation

Ethereum Layer 2 Open-sources Tech Stack In Preparation For Decentralization
Ethereum Layer 2 Open-sources Tech Stack In Preparation For Decentralization

Vitalik Buterin Co-authors Paper Addressing Blockchain Privacy

‘Privacy Pools’ Aim To Facilitate Compliance Without Sacrificing Privacy
‘Privacy Pools’ Aim To Facilitate Compliance Without Sacrificing Privacy

Wednesday, 06. September 2023

Defiant

Unstoppable Domains Launches On-Chain Encrypted Messaging

Users can send and receive messages between web3 domain names
Users can send and receive messages between web3 domain names

Nym - Medium

Mixnets: what are they good for?

Real-world use cases show how people are using the Nym mixnet to privacy-enhance their lives. The Nym mixnet is an extremely powerful, highly novel technology that’s unparalleled in scope for privacy. Not only does the mixnet encrypt message content, unlike any other technology available today it also protects patterns of messages from analysis or surveillance. Languages: Türkçe // Français

Real-world use cases show how people are using the Nym mixnet to privacy-enhance their lives.

The Nym mixnet is an extremely powerful, highly novel technology that’s unparalleled in scope for privacy. Not only does the mixnet encrypt message content, unlike any other technology available today it also protects patterns of messages from analysis or surveillance.

Languages: Türkçe // Française // 日本 // 中文 // Русский // Bahasa Indonesia

Soon, Nym will release a VPN that makes accessing the mixnet as simple as a single click. But the mixnet is already shielding users from surveillance, whether by guarding validator privacy on blockchains, or helping people gain real financial privacy by obscuring crypto wallet traffic.

Read ahead for more on how the mixnet protects communication patterns — the VPN, private crypto wallets, and shielded validators — how these protections are helping people, and why they matter.

Nym use case #1: Nym VPN: the world’s most powerful VPN — coming soon

Approximately 1.6 billion people use a VPN today, and by 2027 the value of the VPN market is estimated to soar to US$107.5 billion globally. With a fifth of the world’s population actively using a VPN, there’s not just a thirst for protecting online privacy, there’s a clear need for it. As governments work in lockstep to meddle with the freedom of communication or to access information without censorship, the VPN market is only going to grow even further.

The upcoming Nym VPN will combine the features, ease of use and speed of VPNs with the unparalleled privacy and trust offered by the Nym mixnet. It will solve three major vulnerabilities with most existing VPNs by offering:

Pattern privacy Every online interaction leaks data about data, called ‘metadata’, which is used to infer information from patterns and de-anonymise people. The Nym mixnet splits data into smaller, identically sized, encrypted packets, which is then mixed in with dummy traffic and dispersed through Nym nodes around the world at randomised intervals. Finally it is decrypted and reassembled, preventing the observation of metadata and providing pattern privacy. Privacy when paying If you use a traditional bank card to buy a VPN you’re doxxing yourself. Nym VPN subscriptions will be available with completely anonymous credentials and payment methods for total, holistic privacy. A decentralised, trustless model Centralised VPNs are extra vulnerable to data breaches. Having a single point of failure also opens VPNs to vulnerabilities as with the zero-day vulnerability found with Atlas VPN that leaked users’ IP addresses. There is no centralisation in the Nym mixnet whatsoever, unlike even Tor, the previous gold standard for online privacy. Unlike Tor, the Nym mixnet directory authority is decentralised and it is the Nym token economics that governs reputation and rewards on the mixnet.

Today, individuals and organisations are already communicating securely through Telegram and Element via the Nym mixnet by using NymConnect.

See also: What does it take to build the world’s most powerful VPN?

With Nym VPN, users will be able to access the mixnet with all the simplicity of a VPN — curtailing censorship and giving people unfettered access to whatever services they wish to use, free from interference and overreach.

Nym use case #2: financial privacy with crypto wallets on the Nym mixnet

Gain real financial privacy and safeguard your crypto finances from attackers and surveillance and join the users already protecting their wallets with NymConnect. Developers and project owners: check the developer portal to learn more about integrating your wallet with NymConnect.

All Web3 wallets, or ‘light nodes’, communicate with validators, or ‘full nodes’, when they sign transactions and retrieve data. This means the transaction information of hundreds of thousands of people hurtles across open networks every minute of every day. And the patterns of this traffic are entirely exposed, putting people’s identities, digital assets, social graphs and more at risk.

Furthermore, every single crypto transaction is recorded on the blockchain forever. This is by design to keep blockchains ‘immutable’ i.e. permanent and tamper-proof. But because blockchains are public ledgers, these transactions are also visible to the whole internet forever — exposing transactions (peer-to-peer broadcasts) to anyone who cares to look.

Without a privacy-minded approach to crypto, users are at risk of being deanonymised through their transactions and targeted for attacks or hacking. Wallets are a high-value target for hackers — and recently Atomic Wallet users were robbed for an estimated $35m.

The NymConnect app is already integrated with Monero, Blockstream Green, Electrum and now, Alephium to obfuscate traffic to and from wallets over the mixnet via the SOCKS5 proxy.

See also: How can I use Monero over the Nym mixnet?

Privacy-enhanced wallets obscure users from would-be snoopers, whose surveillance may be the first step in scoping accounts to target for theft. Whether on hot or cold wallets, crypto phishing schemes are becoming much more sophisticated — and the best way to start protecting yourself is to avoid being a target in the first place.

Any wallet that can run with SOCKS5 can be integrated into NymConnect.

Nym use case #3 Layer-0 infrastructure privacy

Many of the most popular crypto projects, such as Ethereum, Polkadot, and Cosmos, use a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm to determine who will create the next block on the blockchain.

These rely on validators to coordinate with one another, leaving all of these traffic patterns open to analysis.

The end result is compromised privacy, which leaves validators at risk of DDoS attacks to force them offline, or subject to doxxing and targeted censorship. Even privacy-minded projects fail to address the fundamental problems of the network layer.

To answer these problems and build pattern privacy, Nym partnered with Chainsafe for a LibP2P module that cloaks validators on the Ethereum chain and Aztec to further protect transactions on Ethereum.

A proof of concept on the Cosmos Broadcaster that runs via the Nym mixnet has been completed and will soon be merged on GitHub. Keep an eye out for an upcoming blog post for more details.

Connect with Nym and build the future private internet

Nym can and will be the privacy layer for the whole internet, whether Web 2.0 or Web3, Layer-1 or Layer-2, nestled at the very bottom of the stack and cloaking all that sits above it.

Any and all apps, wallets, blockchains, dApps, or other internet traffic can be privacy-enhanced by running it through the Nym mixnet. This is because the mixnet is ‘Layer 0’ infrastructure, the network layer that sits below absolutely everything else, even protocols.

As Edward Snowden said at the launch of the Nym mainnet, privacy for Bitcoin “is an open disaster.” Like everything online, a fundamental problem is the transparency and lack of privacy around the network infrastructure layer, i.e. Layer 0 — precisely the layer that the Nym mixnet addresses.

Achieving infrastructure privacy online is key to toppling the surveillance economics of the internet and replacing it with a decentralised model that values people’s dignity and rewards privacy-minded humans for building a better internet.

See more: Nym: Layer 0 privacy infrastructure for the whole internet

Builders: get in touch now to integrate the Nym mixnet with your project, and tap into powerful, unparalleled privacy protection. Follow Nym on social media, subscribe to the newsletter, and join the community.

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Mixnets: what are they good for? was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Panther Protocol

Monthly Update: August 2023

This month, we completed Stage 0 of our v1 testnet, launched Testnet Stage 1, saw the DAO put across two crucial PIP's and more! Let's recap august.

Dear Panthers,

This month, we completed Stage 0 of our v1 testnet, launched Testnet Stage 1, saw the DAO put across two crucial improvement proposals (one of them forming a solid alliance!), and expanded the information available in the Panther-verse.

Let’s recap everything that happened in August.

Tech Updates Stage 0 is complete, but the Miner will keep going!

We are proud to announce that Stage 0 of the v1 Testnet was successful! We're thrilled by the engagement we registered during it, and invite you to be a part of the journey towards Panther’s v1 launch.

Importantly, the Miner will continue working during the whole Testnet, with rewards not exhausted yet. However, browser mining has been discontinued, and only the desktop version will remain available.

Here’s, so far, how mining testing is going:

Mining Testnet results. v1 Testnet: Stage 1 Stage 1 is LIVE!

After a successful Stage 0, we are debuting Stage 1 of Panther’s Testnet. At this stage, you’ll test two of Panther’s very anticipated innovations: third-party compliance integrations and zero-knowledge accounts.

Stage 1 is public and will have dedicated rewards. Differently from Stage 0, users are rewarded for completing the product flow. However, we encourage the community to try to find and submit bugs, as well as to provide feedback. This process ensures that the Testnet returns a bug-free protocol, ultimately improving our product and its users’ experience. Furthermore, it works only on desktops, and not mobile devices.

At this stage, you’ll be testing two features that allow Panther to combine privacy-preserving DeFi access with compliance capabilities:

Third-party compliance integrations Panther Accounts

Users can visit the Testnet link for Stage 1 in the info repository on our docs to test the onboarding functionality. This involves creating a Panther Account, undergoing a simple verification process (name and email required, ID NOT required) with PureFi, and activating their Account.

Stage 1 of Testing showcases our first-ever third-party integration: PureFi!

To share feedback, testers will be using a dedicated form as the only accepted procedure. The steps mentioned in the form’s description are needed to make this interaction both efficient and productive.

v1 Testnet documentation

Our Testnet documentation page will compile all the relevant links and info as our Testnet release progresses. This will guide users through our Testnet's development, ensuring easy access to the latest updates, key milestones, and important information.

Click here to view the v1 Testnet page on our docs.

This chart containing all relevant Testnet information will be updated as our Testnet release progresses. Panther’s compliance integrations

We recently shared an in-depth article on Panther's compliance integrations. These integrations are a major milestone for the protocol and will be tested at Stage 1 of Panther's Testnet!

Panther’s privacy-preserving compliance integrations.

Panther recognizes the need for a robust solution that safeguards privacy and also ensures compliance with regulatory standards. This keeps malicious actors away from the protocol while adhering to  the Web3 ethos of decentralization and anonymity.

The Panther team and DAO have meticulously discussed ways to address this challenge, with ongoing conversations around regulatory best practices. As a result, we’ve designed an approach to bring compliance to the protocol while retaining neutrality.

Within Panther's solution, compliance providers need to be able to process users' data without the protocol learning it, proving a user's ownership of their wallet and giving them a zero-knowledge proof attesting to the validity of their statements. This allows users to access Panther while maintaining the protocol's neutrality.

Panther's strategy hinges on three core components:

1) Third-party compliance vendor integrations, maintaining neutrality and decentralization.

2) Panther accounts (zAccounts), creating a ZK bridge between verification and privacy.

3) Zones, logical partitions within Shielded Pools.

This article sheds light on Panther's simple yet elegant solution to the privacy-compliance paradox, adding yet another innovative feature to Panther’s groundbreaking solution. Read it in full here.

Governance Advanced Staking, extended!

Panther's Advanced Staking program is live again for the next two months, as decided by Panther’s latest DAO proposal to extend Advanced Staking through PIP-18.

The initial "Advanced Staking" program was launched via PIP-9, PIP-10, and prolonged via PIP-13.

PIP-18 comes after a previous proposal to extend Advanced Staking with PIP-16, in which the necessary quorum was not met. However, the DAO retained the option to re-submit.

Advanced Staking will be running for an additional 2-month period, with stakes accepted until October 28, 2023 and rewards accrued at an APR of 15% for the locking period of 60 days.

PIP-18 on Snapshot Compliance vendor integration

The community also recently passed PIP-17, which introduces PureFi Protocol as a third-party compliance integration. This makes PureFi the first issuer of compliance credentials for Panther Protocol, and brings us closer to Panther's ultimate goal of creating a cross-chain architecture that allows users to access DeFi without exposing their data or activity.

PIP-17 also marks a significant step towards Panther v1 by enabling secure and compliant DeFi.

PIP-17 - Compliance Vendor Integration Ecosystem And yes, we’re integrating PureFi!

Panther welcomes PureFi as the protocol’s first compliance vendor.

PureFi has gained recognition in the Web3 space for its innovative use of verifiable credentials and zero-knowledge proofs in a decentralized manner.

The protocol aims to become a one-stop decentralized compliance solution that onboards institutional money to DeFi. To achieve this, PureFi has focused on implementing zero-knowledge and self-sovereign identity (SSI) technologies.

The Panther community has been discussing compliance-related topics on the Panther forum for the past few months. During this discussion, multiple compliance vendors have been mentioned, and through PIP-17, PureFi was proposed as the best solution for Panther Protocol based on, but not limited to, the following criteria:

Decentralization. Protocol-level integrations. On-chain support for ZK-compatible attestations and signatures. Fees paid (in $ZKP) on-chain by the protocol, enabling further utility for our token.

As such, this integration will be of great importance as we progress towards Panther v1. Panther’s compliance integrations and PureFi’s flow can already be tested at Panther’s Testnet Stage 1.

In time, we’ll publish a blog post with all the details about the integration, which are also found at PIP-17.

Events ParisDOT conference

At ParisDOT Conference, our Co-Founder Anish Mohammed shared his expertise on Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs) during a panel with HydraDX, Parity Tech, Bifrost Finance, and DIA!

Take a deep dive into this exciting DeFi trend:

Media Router Protocol interview

Co-founder Anish Mohammed also participated in a Twitter Spaces organized by Router Protocol to discuss Panther. For those who missed it, you can listen to the recording starting at 2 hours and 13 minutes in:

Tune into our Twitter Spaces marathon, "Router Cross Connect: A Web3 Fusion".

Hear from the leaders of various Web3 projects in panel discussions on August 8th.

⏰ 2 PM UTC onwards.

📍 Venue: https://t.co/aY2puvHDYt pic.twitter.com/ahU7ub8OIN

— Router Protocol (@routerprotocol) August 5, 2023
Gotbit.io interview

Anish also participated in another Twitter Spaces with Gotbit Hedge Fund. For those interested, catch up on the discussions at the 30-minute timestamp:

https://t.co/fbMgzBAhk2

— Gotbit Hedge Fund (@gotbit_io) August 8, 2023
About Panther

Panther is a cross-protocol layer that uses zero-knowledge technology to build DeFi solutions that meet regulatory requirements and satisfy users' on-chain data privacy needs. The goal of Panther is to allow seamless access to DeFi and create a cross-chain-supported architecture that serves different use cases. Panther's zero-knowledge primitives are also generalizable to KYC, selective disclosures between trusted parties, private ID, voting, and data verification services.

Website · One-pager · Lite Paper · Twitter · Telegram · Discord


Circle Press

Legend Trading to Offer Rapid USDC Trade & Settlement in APAC & LATAM

Legend Trading, a top-rated U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency trading firm that serves over 800 institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals, is working with Circle, the global fintech firm and issuer of USDC, to expand rapid, user-friendly access to USDC for institutional customers. The collaboration is designed to enhance the accessibility and utility of digital dollars in Latin America (LAT

Legend Trading, a top-rated U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency trading firm that serves over 800 institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals, is working with Circle, the global fintech firm and issuer of USDC, to expand rapid, user-friendly access to USDC for institutional customers. The collaboration is designed to enhance the accessibility and utility of digital dollars in Latin America (LATAM) and Asia-Pacific (APAC), two rapidly growing markets.


Defiant

Visa Taps Solana For Merchant Settlements In USDC

SOL Rallies 5%
SOL Rallies 5%

Tuesday, 05. September 2023

Defiant

Stake Crypto Casino Resumes Operations After $41M Exploit

Affected Users To Be Reimbursed
Affected Users To Be Reimbursed

Gitcoin Founder Kevin Owocki To Return

Crowdfunding Project Has Faced Community Criticism Over Recent Initiatives
Crowdfunding Project Has Faced Community Criticism Over Recent Initiatives

SEC Settles Landmark NFT Enforcement Action For $6M

Crypto Lawyers Mull Broader Implications Of Impact Theory Case
Crypto Lawyers Mull Broader Implications Of Impact Theory Case

a16z Podcast

Salary Transparency: Clarity or Chaos?

With recent landmark legislation being passed around salary transparency, many companies are playing catch up as they interpret and implement changes. In this episode, members of the a16z People Operations team,  Shannon Schiltz and Brandon Cherry explore how companies can best prepare themselves to not just survive, but thrive in this new environment.   Topics Covered: 00:00 - Salar

With recent landmark legislation being passed around salary transparency, many companies are playing catch up as they interpret and implement changes.

In this episode, members of the a16z People Operations team,  Shannon Schiltz and Brandon Cherry explore how companies can best prepare themselves to not just survive, but thrive in this new environment.

 

Topics Covered:

00:00 - Salary transparency legislation

01:52 - The culture around pay transparency 

03:39 - What is the legislation?

07:01 - How are companies reacting?

11:03 - Structuring a compensation philosophy 

12:30 - Pay ranges

15:35 - Exceptions to the pay range

18:17 - Leveling staff

22:30 - Ranges and roles and company growth

28:24 - Location based pay

30:05 - What should employees look for when applying for work?

32:19 - Job postings

35:05 - Reviewing compensation ranges 

35:42 - At what stage do you hire help?

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


Circle Blog

Circle’s response to EBA on money laundering & terrorist risk factors

On August 31, Circle submitted its comments to the amendments made by the European Banking Authority (EBA) to extend the scope of its money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) guidelines to Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs). The EBA amendments will set common regulatory expectations of the steps CASPs should take in order to identify and mitigate these risks effectively.

On August 31, Circle submitted its comments to the amendments made by the European Banking Authority (EBA) to extend the scope of its money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) guidelines to Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs). The EBA amendments will set common regulatory expectations of the steps CASPs should take in order to identify and mitigate these risks effectively.


Circle Press

Visa Expands Stablecoin Settlement Capabilities to Merchant Acquirers

Following a Crypto.com issuer pilot, Visa expands stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle’s USDC, adding pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei, and utilizing the Solana blockchain.

Following a Crypto.com issuer pilot, Visa expands stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle’s USDC, adding pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei, and utilizing the Solana blockchain.


Circle Blog

Now Available: USDC on OP Mainnet

OP Mainnet USDC is now live! We’re announcing that USDC is now available natively on OP Mainnet and accessible to all developers and users – no bridging required. Circle Account and Circle APIs now fully support OP Mainnet USDC, making it easy to access USDC liquidity and benefit from OP Mainnet’s fast and efficient network.

OP Mainnet USDC is now live! We’re announcing that USDC is now available natively on OP Mainnet and accessible to all developers and users – no bridging required. Circle Account and Circle APIs now fully support OP Mainnet USDC, making it easy to access USDC liquidity and benefit from OP Mainnet’s fast and efficient network.


Defiant

Vitalik Offloads MKR After MakerDAO Founder Pitches Solana Fork

Ethereum Founder Urges Reflexer To Expand Market Share By Embracing Liquid Staking Tokens
Ethereum Founder Urges Reflexer To Expand Market Share By Embracing Liquid Staking Tokens

Monday, 04. September 2023

bankless

186 - The Blockchain Trilemma - ETH Vs SOL Vs ATOM with Mike Ippolito

Today we're joined by Mike Ippolito, co-founder at Blockworks, who's here to breakdown his take on the Blockchain trilemma and how Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos chains all attempt to solve it. This wide ranging interview asks great questions and shines a light on what a multi-chain future might look like. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/deb

Today we're joined by Mike Ippolito, co-founder at Blockworks, who's here to breakdown his take on the Blockchain trilemma and how Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos chains all attempt to solve it.

This wide ranging interview asks great questions and shines a light on what a multi-chain future might look like. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-blockchain-trilemma/  ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT ------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/ ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

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🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader ----- Resources:

On the margin podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-margin/id1558223079 

Mike: https://twitter.com/mikeippolito_  -----

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 6:13 Intro To Mike 11:16 The Three Frontiers 19:11 Recap and Overview 25:58 Different Approaches to The Scalability Trilemma 31:42 Explaining PEPC 36:13 A Point By Point Walkthrough 45:29 Ethereum Vs The Invisible Hand 56:58 Should The Free Market Be in Control? 1:01:11 Moloch 1:08:13 Solo Validators 1:10:31 Defining Decentralization 1:15:49 Power Law Winners 1:19:03 Roll Apps vs App Chains 1:29:09 Defining Soverign Rollups 1:33:29 Sequencer Incentives 1:36:20 Exploring The Superchain 1:41:31 Price Discovery on Chain 1:44:15 Making Crypto Accessable 1:48:50 Permissionless Panel 1:51:29 Outro and Disclaimers

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Sunday, 03. September 2023

Greylock Partners

Runtime Cloud Security

The post <span>Runtime</span> Cloud Security appeared first on Greylock.

The post <span>Runtime</span> Cloud Security appeared first on Greylock.

Saturday, 02. September 2023

PIVX

Exciting Update: PIVX Masternodes on the Rise.

The PIVX masternode network is experiencing remarkable growth and success. The latest statistics reveal the following: Current $PIVX Masternodes: 1738 ⬆️ Estimated annual reward: 18.14% Current $PIVX locked in Masternodes: 22.81% These figures highlight the increasing participation and confidence of the PIVX community. Masternode owners play a vital role in securing the network and thus en

The PIVX masternode network is experiencing remarkable growth and success.

The latest statistics reveal the following:
Current $PIVX Masternodes: 1738 ⬆️
Estimated annual reward: 18.14%
Current $PIVX locked in Masternodes: 22.81%

These figures highlight the increasing participation and confidence of the PIVX community. Masternode owners play a vital role in securing the network and thus enjoy decentralized governance. It’s important to note that masternode rewards vary based on the number of active masternodes in the PIVX network.

Sources:
PIVX Masternodes: https://pivx.org/masternodes ↗
Rewards Estimator: https://toolbox.pivx.org/en/rewards/

Exciting Update: PIVX Masternodes on the Rise. was originally published in PIVX on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Friday, 01. September 2023

Epicenter Podcast

Stephane Gosselin: Frontier Research - Solving Ethereum's MEV Problem

The maximal extractable value (MEV) problem, if left unchecked, could represent an existential threat to Ethereum’s core values. One might argue that it is a natural result of solving market inefficiencies, but it entices to centralisation and collusion in order to extract the highest amount of value. Additionally, through front-running and back-running, it creates unnecessary overhead, which caus

The maximal extractable value (MEV) problem, if left unchecked, could represent an existential threat to Ethereum’s core values. One might argue that it is a natural result of solving market inefficiencies, but it entices to centralisation and collusion in order to extract the highest amount of value. Additionally, through front-running and back-running, it creates unnecessary overhead, which caused up to 2.4% of the total network congestion back in DeFi summer of 2020 (according to Flashbots’ research). As current infrastructure cannot eliminate MEV altogether, Flashbots and other research groups have tried to come up with solutions to address its aftermath.

We were joined by Stephane Gosselin, co-founder of Flashbots and Frontier Research, to discuss the MEV landscape, what research breakthroughs have been recorded and how they impact DevEx and UX.

Topics covered in this episode:

Reflecting on ‘Frontrunning the MEV crisis’ Decentralising the MEV ‘supply chain’ The vision behind Frontier Research Request-for-Quotation (RFQ) explained Block building Uniswap X and how it might impact LPs & block building Decentralising block building Proposer-builder separation (PBS) MEV burn How MEV influenced different applications’ UX Intents

Episode links:

Stephane Gosselin on Twitter Frontier Research Frontier Research on Twitter Flashbots

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/511


Defiant

Swift Could Support Interconnected CBDCs Via Chainlink

Study Details Experiments In Tokenized Asset Transfers With Over A Dozen Participating Financial Institutions
Study Details Experiments In Tokenized Asset Transfers With Over A Dozen Participating Financial Institutions

Starknet Foundation and Argent Form Startup Studio

Hito Studios Aims To Help Entrepreneurs Weather Bear Market: Argent CEO
Hito Studios Aims To Help Entrepreneurs Weather Bear Market: Argent CEO

Aztec Network

Q&A with Aztec Developer Advocate, Meredith Darden

7 years of experience building blockchain communities. Privacy advocate. Previously at Oasis Network. Alyssa (Aztec): Hey Meredith! So the idea of this interview is to get a sense of your career path, your role at Aztec, and what you’re excited about as a new member of our commercial team! Can you start by sharing your web2 background and how it helped lead you to web3? Hi there, and

7 years of experience building blockchain communities. Privacy advocate. Previously at Oasis Network.

Alyssa (Aztec): Hey Meredith! So the idea of this interview is to get a sense of your career path, your role at Aztec, and what you’re excited about as a new member of our commercial team!

Can you start by sharing your web2 background and how it helped lead you to web3?

Hi there, and yes! I was previously working in real estate, and funny enough I was an Assistant Leasing Manager for ~7 apartment complexes here in Baton Rouge. In a way, I was “Community Manager” — doing marketing and other leasing work.
I wanted to start investing, but wasn’t exactly sure about what to invest in. I started doing copious amounts of research and stumbled upon crypto. I had heard of it like most people, had seen it in the news, and just generally heard all the crazy stories about how crypto was being used back in those days. This was around 2016, and I was young and excited.

Alyssa: How about what falling down the web3 rabbit hole looked like for you?

It took me a while to piece together what a smart contract or protocol was, and why these systems made sense for this transparent blockchain context as opposed to what we have in web2 — where everything is off-chain and we don’t have much control or flexibility.
Once I really started understanding what this technology meant for the future of society, for my children, I was inspired. I was working full time, mom of two, and staying up until 2:00 or 3:00am every single night on Reddit, on Facebook groups, on Twitter. Learning everything that I could — reading white papers. Since then, I’ve remained extremely passionate and curious.

Alyssa: How do you feel about the industry’s evolution over the past ~8 years?

Of course there’ve been periods when I’ve been disappointed in the industry, and seen the exact behaviors that we wanted to avoid from the traditional finance sector/web2 world replicated in this space that I saw as a shining beacon.
But I’ve really enjoyed most of it, and now I’ve reached a point where I fully acknowledge that things are shifting rapidly, and people are going to make mistakes. Web3 is a place where we can learn and improve together.

Alyssa: Why did you decide to join Aztec?

I’m super passionate about privacy in general. I was previously working at another privacy project called Oasis. And before that, I did work for PIVX — also centered around privacy. This has been a major theme in my excitement about what blockchain means.
There’s this public side of things which is great. But to expand these really cool use cases, some degree of privacy is needed. Having more control over our privacy is an opportunity in web3.
I’ve been super passionate about projects that are building in this direction and I became involved with the Universal Privacy Alliance (UPA). That’s how I got Aztec-pilled.

Alyssa: Would love to hear more about how you got Aztec-pilled, what did connecting with the project and team look like?

I was already very impressed with Aztec when Bruno and I had the opportunity to work on an ETHDenver event together - it was a mini-summit that I organized with about seven other members of the UPA.
While we were in Denver, I went to the Aztec meetup and got to chat with some of the other teammates. I felt synergy as it was clear to me that this team cared about doing things the right way, not the easy way.
I’ve always wanted to serve a community actively working towards putting privacy tools in the hands of developers, so that privacy can be leveraged by everyone else. In my core, I want to make sure that I’m a part of that privacy piece, specifically. This is why joining Aztec — where we’re paving the way to programmable privacy — made sense for me.

Alyssa: What are you focused on as Developer Advocate and what do you enjoy most about the role? Would be great to hear more about your work right now.

Yea! The title Developer Advocate is a new one for me. I’ve had many different ones, and in web3 we’re often required to wear many hats.
I’ve been a Community Lead, Social Media Strategist, and Marketing Manager. I’ve also had plenty of different hybrid roles across the projects I’ve been fortunate to be involved with.
As a Developer Advocate, I believe my core responsibility is to speak up for developers and make sure their feedback is being heard by the internal Aztec team…
…and also educate developers about what we’re building. We accomplish this through Discord, community events, 1:1 meetings, diving into GitHub — looking far beneath the surface of what people say to try to piece together: Where are we lacking? How can we improve? And conveying that to our team.

Alyssa: What does a robust, healthy developer community for a project like ours look like? What does it have and what does it need to have?

We can learn from a book that Bruno recommended to me when I first started at Aztec, it’s called Producing Open Source Software. When you look at how this book outlines everything that matters for an open source software project, including building the community, you can learn a lot.
First of all, you want to have a place where people can openly and freely contribute in a way that make sense for them — not putting the barrier too high on how people can get involved, or the time commitment. If they want to tinker with Noir or Aztec for 30–45 minutes a week — they’re still welcomed in our community. We leave expectations at the door.
For any developers engaged with our community, of course we want to provide a supportive environment that includes educational content, tooling, funding, listening to their feedback, and connecting them with fellow devs. Also seeding inspiration/ideas.
If you have a developer community where people feel like they belong, heard, and accepted, that’s key.

Alyssa: Wow, it’s really inspiring to hear you talk about it.

And what about beyond web3? Just general interests and maybe hobbies. Are they pretty tech focused given you work in blockhain?

I’m a big time reader. I’ve read 39 books this year, and I’m working on a couple more. It’s my little escape — I read a mix of fiction and non-fiction to balance things.
I’m learning how to garden as well. I live in the south so I’ve been growing okra, peas, tomatoes, and carrots. My garden is flourishing, so I’m happy about that!
I also very much enjoy cooking, taking care of my family — that’s not necessarily a hobby but definitely my primary interest…taking care of my 3 kiddos and teaching them.
I’m hoping to foster in them a curiosity about life, so a lot of my newer interests overlap with the stuff they want to do!

Alyssa: Aw, I bet. That’s awesome. Anything else you want to share? How can people keep up with you?

Anyone who’s interested in building on Aztec and/or using Noir, don’t be afraid to reach out. Don’t let what is a seemingly steep learning curve deter you from getting your feet wet.
If anyone is interested in building with us or just joining our developer community, and wants to learn about the resources available, they can reach out to me on Twitter (@merfymerf), on Telegram (@Meredithdarden), via email (meredith@aztecprotocol.com) — all are fine.
The link to join our Discord server can be found in the docs, I’m in there as well. I’d love to help out however I can.

Alyssa: Amazing. Thank you so much.

Thank you!

Q&A with Aztec Developer Advocate, Meredith Darden was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Defiant

Markets Erase Weekly Gains After SEC Delays Bitcoin ETF Decisions

Bullish Momentum From Grayscale’s Legal Victory On Tuesday Gives Way To Regulatory Pessimism
Bullish Momentum From Grayscale’s Legal Victory On Tuesday Gives Way To Regulatory Pessimism

Zcash Foundation

Zcash Foundation August 2023 Newsletter

Learn more about last month’s Zcon4 conference in Barcelona! View the photo album, read summaries from ZK Week organizers, catch up on some big Zebra news…and more! The post Zcash Foundation August 2023 Newsletter appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

Learn more about last month’s Zcon4 conference in Barcelona! View the photo album, read summaries from ZK Week organizers, catch up on some big Zebra news…and more!

Zcash Foundation August 2023 NewsletterDownload

The post Zcash Foundation August 2023 Newsletter appeared first on Zcash Foundation.


BlueYard Capital

clock.bio

As humans age the chances of dying from specific diseases (cancer, coronary, neurological, etc.) increase, where the rate of aging is controlled by genetic pathways and biochemical processes conserved in evolution. Although the hallmarks of aging (including several cellular and molecular processes such as genomic instability, telomere attrition, stem cell exhaustion etc.) have been a major focus o

As humans age the chances of dying from specific diseases (cancer, coronary, neurological, etc.) increase, where the rate of aging is controlled by genetic pathways and biochemical processes conserved in evolution. Although the hallmarks of aging (including several cellular and molecular processes such as genomic instability, telomere attrition, stem cell exhaustion etc.) have been a major focus of research for many decades, the scientific pathways behind reversing aging are complex and remain elusive. Recently several approaches to cell rejuvenation have been based on partial cellular reprogramming (demonstrating that reprogramming cells to pluripotency can reverse age-related cell phenotypes), although there are still many challenges when trying to reprogram cells including the loss of somatic identity etc.

Clock.Bio is taking a new approach to cellular reprogramming in order to develop novel, anti-ageing therapeutics and drugs with technology developed at Cambridge University. Their initial goal is to identify the entire set of rejuvenation programs in human cells. They will leverage Bit.Bio’s opti-ox technology to screen for rejuvenation biology and identify repair mechanisms that can reverse the hallmarks of aging. In addition to opti-ox the company leverages tools such as CRISPR/a to modulate genes and combinations of genes, attempting to understand the full biology of reversal of aging.

Our Thesis

Aging is core to many human ailments and by reversing aging we can potentially cure age related conditions. By leaning on Bit.Bio’s opti-ox technology and by tapping into the company’s screening, synbio stack and customer relationships, Clock.Bio will be able to accelerate data collection and conduct relevant anti-ageing screens, giving them a head start in the race for anti aging solutions. Ultimately we believe that by screening for therapeutic leads (existing and novel small molecules, cell and gene therapies, etc.) and creating specific rejuvenation effects on cells, Clock.Bio are well positioned to bring a number of antiaging assets into the clinic.

We are excited to be backing the entire Clock.bio team on their longevity mission to extend healthspan by 20 years or even more. Read more about the company’s pre-seed round here as well as their white paper here.

Thursday, 31. August 2023

Defiant

PayPal’s Stablecoin Sees Minimal Activity Three Weeks After Launch

Only 10 Wallets Hold More Than 3,000 PYUSD
Only 10 Wallets Hold More Than 3,000 PYUSD

USDC To Expand Native Support To Base and Optimism

Deployments Come As USDC Seeks To Reverse Declining Market Share
Deployments Come As USDC Seeks To Reverse Declining Market Share

Urbit

Urbit Meetup in Paris

Curious what the future of the Internet looks like? Join us on August 31st in Paris! Whether you're a tech enthusiast, an established Urbit aficionado, or a newcomer to the scene, our community is meant to welcome and engage everyone. If you're confused about what Urbit is, no worries, most people are at first. Drop by and we'll give you our best explanations of what Urbit is and how it's going
Curious what the future of the Internet looks like? Join us on August 31st in Paris! Whether you're a tech enthusiast, an established Urbit aficionado, or a newcomer to the scene, our community is meant to welcome and engage everyone. If you're confused about what Urbit is, no worries, most people are at first. Drop by and we'll give you our best explanations of what Urbit is and how it's going to change the internet as we know it. We'll introduce Urbit, help you boot your own ship and make sure you go back home all set! In the meantime, you can join us on [Twitter](https://wwww.twitter.com/urbitparis)! See you there!

Defiant

US Judge Tosses Class Action Lawsuit Against Uniswap Labs

Plaintiffs Had Sought Damages For Scam Tokens Traded On Leading Decentralized Exchange
Plaintiffs Had Sought Damages For Scam Tokens Traded On Leading Decentralized Exchange

Nym - Medium

Token swaps on Nym Wallet — coming soon!

Token swaps on Nym Wallet — coming soon! A new interface will make swapping the native NYM token and the Ethereum NYM token simple for everyone. The NYM token powers the Nym mixnet, a global system providing layer-0 privacy, and is available across several chains. NYM holders will soon be able to swap NYM tokens, whether they are Ethereum ERC-20 or native NYM tokens on Cosmos, by using a si
Token swaps on Nym Wallet — coming soon!

A new interface will make swapping the native NYM token and the Ethereum NYM token simple for everyone.

The NYM token powers the Nym mixnet, a global system providing layer-0 privacy, and is available across several chains. NYM holders will soon be able to swap NYM tokens, whether they are Ethereum ERC-20 or native NYM tokens on Cosmos, by using a single, easy to use interface.

Languages: Русский // 日本 // 中文 // Türkçe // Bahasa Indonesia // Française

Currently, users need command line knowledge, extensions, and a bridging setup in order to swap tokens. But by the end of 2023, this new interface will allow tokens to be swapped from Ethereum to the Cosmos Nym blockchain directly from the Nym Wallet, empowering NYM holders to contribute more actively to the mixnet by bonding and delegating much more easily.

Everyone in the ecosystem will be able to effortlessly swap native NYM tokens on Cosmos for Ethereum tokens and vice versa, drastically improving usability for holders, traders, operators, and delegators.

Nym Wallet: A ‘one swap shop’

Currently the NYM token is siloed between the ERC-20 token and the native NYM token on Cosmos. Token swaps on Nym Wallet, which will be live and usable by the end of this year, will dissolve these barriers by allowing users to painlessly switch between the two as little or as often as they desire.

Right now the NYM token exists on the Ethereum chain as an ERC-20 token, as well as on the Cosmos chain as the native NYM token.

The ERC-20 token is easier to acquire because Ethereum ERC-20 tokens are more readily listed on most exchanges.

However, an essential component of the Nym token economics is delegating tokens to mix node operators. This measures reputation, but it also incentivises and rewards contributors to the ecosystem for providing good mixes, keeping the mixnet running smoothly.

See also: Nym is not a blockchain, but it is powered by one

The Nyx blockchain that powers the Nym mixnet is built on Cosmos, the ecosystem of interoperable blockchains, which is highly efficient and low-latency. For this reason, the native NYM token is minted on Cosmos, and this is what operators receive as their rewards.

But only native NYM tokens — that is, on Cosmos — can be delegated. While that will remain the case for now, the new token swap interface simplifies converting ERC-20 to Cosmos.

Swapping between ERC-20 and the native token is currently time-consuming. To date, the workaround has been somewhat laborious, involving multiple ecosystems and using Gravity Bridge, an Ethereum to Cosmos bridge that uses the Inter Blockchain Communication protocol.

Token swapping made simple

A survey earlier this year revealed that the Nym community had some concerns about the usability of the NYM token.

Nym’s mission is to build the privacy layer for the whole internet and it is crucial that barriers to entry are as low as possible.

This new feature will make buying into the core Nym ecosystem, and therefore contributing to the success of the Nym mixnet, much, much easier — helping to transform the surveillance economics of the internet into a model that values privacy.

See also: A breakdown of the smart contracts that run the Nym token economics

By implementing token swaps directly in the wallet, Nym is taking one more step towards a seamless user experience, empowering more people to build the private internet whether they are technically minded or not. Simplifying the usability of tokens will help to lay the groundwork for one of the world’s most powerful VPNs: the Nym VPN app, which will launch by the end of the year.

Keep an eye out for the Nym Wallet token swap feature by the end of 2023.

In the meantime, sign up to the Nym newsletter, follow Nym on socials, and join the community to receive updates as they happen.

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Token swaps on Nym Wallet — coming soon! was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


a16z Podcast

A True Second Brain

How many people spend more time organizing their “second brains”, instead of leveraging the information within them?  With consumer AI now capable of processing simple language prompts and interfacing with unstructured data, is the landscape of information management on the brink of a transformative evolution? Founders of Mem, Kevin Moody and Dennis Xu, plus writer Nat Eliason, explore what

How many people spend more time organizing their “second brains”, instead of leveraging the information within them? 

With consumer AI now capable of processing simple language prompts and interfacing with unstructured data, is the landscape of information management on the brink of a transformative evolution?

Founders of Mem, Kevin Moody and Dennis Xu, plus writer Nat Eliason, explore what’s gotten in the way of a true second brain, and how AI may finally unlock what “knowledge management” tools have promised for so long. 

 

Topics Covered:

00:00 - A true second brain

02:45 -  Knowledge management

06:01 - Thiago Forte's ‘Building a Second Brain’

10:24 - Digital hoarding

12:53 - The fun of organizing 

14:16 - Levels of utility

19:09 - Can the unstructured nature of AI help?

21:46 - What does a second brain unlock? 

25:23 - Time spent  searching for information

31:07: LLMs and technology unlocks

34:22 - Personalization 

36:24 - Is the second brain a new PA and EA?

38:57 - Challenges

44:32 - Moats and differentiators 

 

Resources:

Link to Mem’s website: https://mem.ai Find Kevin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinfmoody Find Dennis on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DennisHXu FInd Nat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nateliason Nat’s course on Effortless Output in Roam: https://www.effortlessoutput.com/

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


bankless

ROLLUP: What Grayscale's Win vs The SEC Means For The Next Bull Market

WRU 1st Week Of September ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2     ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask&nbs

WRU 1st Week Of September ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 AAVE V3 is Here! http://app.aave.com/  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2     ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap   

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 5:24 MARKETS https://pro.kraken.com/app/trade/btc-usd  9:36 Layer 2 Check https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary  13:45 Anthony's Bullish Predictions https://twitter.com/sassal0x/status/1696162071715422442?s=20  32:41 Grayscale Beats the SEC https://www.bankless.com/grayscale-beats-the-sec https://www.docdroid.net/vrehbKf/dc-cir-22-1142-01208547571-0-pdf  36:53 Takes on the Case https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1696544309699363201?s=20  43:27 Are NFTs Securities? https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-163  45:59 IRS Proposal for Digital Brokers https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1705  49:37 US HOSTILITY TO CRYPTO https://twitter.com/zkmattwyatt/status/1695190244516319564?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g  https://twitter.com/AntonioMJuliano/status/1695160970111300053  54:29 Roman Storm Released on Bail https://twitter.com/brianeklein/status/1694779420731658700?s=20  55:26 Farcaster V3 https://twitter.com/dwr/status/1695187576003645873  57:41 Lido Almost 33% https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1696220879976284511  1:09:10 AMEX Gives out POAPS https://twitter.com/mamb0san/status/1695458362237034957  1:09:46 X Gets Currency Transmitter License https://twitter.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1696587745089540494  1:11:47 DCG to Deliver Recoveries https://twitter.com/DCGco/status/1696506972781138275?s=20  1:14:28 Bitboy Crypto Boots Bitboy https://twitter.com/Bitboy_Crypto/status/1696184571279159401?t=R1qQjJ06kpariGkBKzbjrw&s=19  1:17:01 Instadapp Multisig https://twitter.com/Instadapp/status/1696537797916799035?s=20  1:20:56 Questions From the Nation https://discord.com/channels/615592155481767941/1058053004705669211/1145795932575760565  https://discord.com/channels/615592155481767941/1058053004705669211/1146193895345111162  1:31:13 Takes of The Week https://twitter.com/neerajka/status/1346836020927619077?s=46  https://twitter.com/cburniske/status/1695583389167075822?s=20  https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1696618835518857610?s=20  1:35:29 What Are We Bullish On? 1:39:08 Meme of The Week https://twitter.com/CryptoCred/status/1696041243061420108  1:40:17 Check out The Daily Gwei! 1:42:00 Moment of Zen ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠  

Wednesday, 30. August 2023

Defiant

LINQ Sees Impressive Growth With ‘Decentralized Liquidity’ Model

Taxes On LINQ Transactions Are Used To Add Liquidity With LP Tokens Distributed To Tokenholders
Taxes On LINQ Transactions Are Used To Add Liquidity With LP Tokens Distributed To Tokenholders

Tether's CTO Explains Why USDT is Still Not Audited

Today we are joined by Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino. We discuss Tether's banking partners, its reserve composition, its latest attestation, and why the stablecoin issuer still hasn't presented an audit. Ardoino puts some of the blame on auditing firms. ...
Today we are joined by Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino. We discuss Tether's banking partners, its reserve composition, its latest attestation, and why the stablecoin issuer still hasn't presented an audit. Ardoino puts some of the blame on auditing firms. ...

bankless

Scaling Ethereum To The Next Level with zkEVM

Joining us today for this deeply technical conversation is RiscZero CEO Brian Retford and Justin Drake. RiscZero is attempting to create a zkEVM for Ethereum that will require such low compute requirements that validators could be run on smart watches and mobile phones. Moderated by Justin Drake, we take a look at the implications this tech can have on the future of Ethereum. ----- 🏹 Airdrop H

Joining us today for this deeply technical conversation is RiscZero CEO Brian Retford and Justin Drake. RiscZero is attempting to create a zkEVM for Ethereum that will require such low compute requirements that validators could be run on smart watches and mobile phones.

Moderated by Justin Drake, we take a look at the implications this tech can have on the future of Ethereum. ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2   ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠ 

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap  

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- TIMESTAMPS  0:00 Intro 7:47 Validator On Your Smartwatch 12:16 Bandwith Requirements 15:00 Implications for mainnet scaling 18:57 Is This Our Multi-Core Moment? 21:35 What is RiscZero? 27:57 Why Build a zkEVM? 32:00 TLDR Summary 35:42 The 3 Steps To Snarks 41:40 Performance Unlocks 43:59 How close are we to all this? 51:54 How Secure is This? 57:34 Licensing this Tech 59:59 RiscZero Business Model? 1:03:53 What’s Next on The Roadmap? 1:06:15 Core Values of RiscZero 1:07:54 How Does Ethereum Look in 5 Years?

---------- Resources:

The Sci-Fi roadmap to Ethereum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NXxcGe7Ts 

Brian: https://twitter.com/BrianRetford 

Justin: https://twitter.com/drakefjustin 

------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 


Verida

New on Verida Missions: Earn XP by Inviting Friends & GateKeeper Credentials Update

Verida Missions is the incentivized testnet platform for the Verida Network, serving as a gateway for users to explore and experience the benefits of self-sovereign identity and data ownership in the web3 landscape. Unlocking the Power of Personal Data Ownership with Verida Verida empowers individuals to regain control over personal data. Through Verida Missions, those interested in web3’s

Verida Missions is the incentivized testnet platform for the Verida Network, serving as a gateway for users to explore and experience the benefits of self-sovereign identity and data ownership in the web3 landscape.

Unlocking the Power of Personal Data Ownership with Verida

Verida empowers individuals to regain control over personal data. Through Verida Missions, those interested in web3’s privacy-focused data management actively shape data ownership’s future. Earning Verida XP along the way, participants can engage in various activities, playing a pivotal role in stress-testing the Verida Network, contributing to its development and advancement.

To get a better understanding of Verida Missions, you can refer to the launch article.

The Verida Wallet has recently been updated for iOS and Android. So a reminder to please update your wallet to the latest version. This update addresses minor bug fixes and optimizations.

Earn more XP by Inviting Friends to Verida Missions

Our new “Refer a Friend” activity in Verida Missions gives you an opportunity to get rewarded for being at the forefront of the movement empowering individuals to take control of their personal data.

Refer a friend to join Verida Missions

Here’s how it works:

1. Get Your Link: Connect with your Verida DID in Verida Missions, and copy your unique referral link.

2. Spread the Word: Share the link with friends — the tech-savvy, the curious, the privacy-conscious.

3. Boost Your XP: When your friend creates a new DID using your referral link, you will earn 100 XP* in Verida Missions.

* At this stage, the 100 XP will be rewarded for the first referral only.

Update on Claiming the GateKeeper Adopter Verifiable Credential Claim a GateKeeper Adopter Credential on Verida Missions

The GateKeeper activity has garnered immense interest, with over 5,000 credentials claimed by users. However, some users encountered issues while claiming the credential. Rest assured, we’re actively collaborating with the GateKeeper and Polygon ID teams to address these concerns. We If you’re facing issues, follow these steps to assist us in resolving them:

Update Your Verida Wallet: Ensure you’ve updated Verida Wallet to the latest version (0.4.2) to benefit from bug fixes and optimizations. Consult Our Guides: Refer to the user guide and troubleshooting guide for updated advice. Report Issues: If you still encounter challenges, report the issue to help us further investigate and resolve it. What are you waiting for?

Verida Missions offers an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of the data ownership revolution. By participating, you contribute to the evolution of decentralized identity and data management. With the latest release, you can update your Verida Wallet, invite friends to Verida Missions, and even claim your GateKeeper Adopter Credential. Participate now to help shape a future where data is truly in the hands of individuals.

Learn more about Verida Subscribe to Verida Build on the Verida Network Download the Verida Wallet Join the Verida One wait list Follow us on Twitter Join the conversation on Discord Explore developer documentation Ask us a question on Telegram

New on Verida Missions: Earn XP by Inviting Friends & GateKeeper Credentials Update was originally published in Verida on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Tuesday, 29. August 2023

Defiant

OpenSea Unveils Standards For Redeemable NFTs

Marketplace Aims To Simplify Process Of Offering Perks To NFT Holders
Marketplace Aims To Simplify Process Of Offering Perks To NFT Holders

dYdX Community Votes On Appchain Migration and V4 Deployment

If Passed, dYdX V4 Will Launch On Dedicated Cosmos-based Blockchain
If Passed, dYdX V4 Will Launch On Dedicated Cosmos-based Blockchain

Aave Launches sDAI Pool As MakerDAO Weighs Reducing Yields

sDAI TVL Is Up $900M Since MakerDAO Boosted DAI Savings Rate In Early August
sDAI TVL Is Up $900M Since MakerDAO Boosted DAI Savings Rate In Early August

Markets Soar On US Court Ruling In Grayscale’s Favor

Bitcoin Surges 7% To $28,000, Ether Rallies 5%
Bitcoin Surges 7% To $28,000, Ether Rallies 5%

Elon Musk’s X Obtains License To Enable U.S. Crypto Payments

Social Media Giant Formerly Known As Twitter Could Be Poised To Bring Crypto Payment Services To Its 450M Active Users
Social Media Giant Formerly Known As Twitter Could Be Poised To Bring Crypto Payment Services To Its 450M Active Users

Aztec Network

NounsDAO Private Voting Final Update

Progress for Private Voting Private voting is the “real-world” default, and for good reason! Public voting has been problematic for DAOs, creating things like 11th hour problems, vote coercion, and bandwagon effects. When NounsDAO recognized the need for confidential governance within their own community, Aztec Labs and Aragon ZK Research (AZKR) joined forces to answer the call. We ha

Progress for Private Voting

Private voting is the “real-world” default, and for good reason! Public voting has been problematic for DAOs, creating things like 11th hour problems, vote coercion, and bandwagon effects.

When NounsDAO recognized the need for confidential governance within their own community, Aztec Labs and Aragon ZK Research (AZKR) joined forces to answer the call.

We have now published two final reports on our research results and what’s next for NounsDAO private governance.

🤖 Read the technical report here.
👪 Read the general report here.

In short, our proposal was to provide privacy-first governance, including:

Anonymity: Each participant is hidden Vote confidentiality: Each vote is hidden Outcome confidentiality: The outcome of the vote is hidden (other than pass/fail)
Now, at the conclusion of this research sprint, we are presenting our findings in the form of both technical and general reports.

The Aztec team focused on implementing storage proofs in Noir, while AZKR explored the design and implementation of the voting solution powered by these proofs.

In practice, prove that you’re a Noun without saying which Noun you are, then use that proof to vote in the DAO.

The general report also details the primary research questions addressed. TL;DR:

Is it possible to build a voting system on Ethereum that’s user-friendly, trustless, fair, weighed, and ballot-secret? Yes, very! If these properties can’t all be met at the same time, which of them are incompatible, and why? All of them can be met. What is needed to make the full combination of properties available to the Nouns community? Present our findings to date + bring TBD multisig and vote aggregation solutions to production.

You can review the code and general report for AZKR’s early roadmap for what is currently called zk-POPVOTE (zk Proof-based On-chain Private Voting), which is a continuation of the project we’ve started together.

🐦 Join the Twitter Spaces we’ll host on September 5th at 12:00 UTC here

At Aztec Labs, we will continue contributing to the development of the Noir programming language, and we look forward to building privacy-preserving infrastructure to empower private governance.

Resource List Read the technical report. Read the general report. Read Aragon’s announcement blog. Check out the code in GitHub. Join the Twitter Space on September 5th at 12:00 UTC. Get started with Noir — the universal language of ZK. Meet Aztec and build with us

Aztec is a first-of-its-kind public-private hybrid zkRollup bringing together the best of Ethereum smart contracts and encrypted execution.

It is a culmination of Aztec Labs’ long-term vision: a collectively-owned, fully decentralized L2 on Ethereum with encryption as a first class citizen.

We at Aztec Labs are thrilled to be able to build this together with you, and we can’t wait to see you in the forum.

Join our team

Aztec Labs is on the lookout for talented engineers, cryptographers, and business people to accelerate our vision of encrypted Ethereum.

If joining our mission to bring scalable privacy to Ethereum excites you, check out our open roles.

NounsDAO Private Voting Final Update was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Brave Browser

vBAT Sunset Deadline and Supported Regions

As a followup to our February blog post regarding the changes to Brave Rewards, today we are announcing the expected vBAT sunset deadline: October 31, 2023.

As a followup to our February blog post regarding the changes to Brave Rewards, today we are announcing the expected vBAT sunset deadline: October 31, 2023.

If you’re a Brave Rewards user without a custodial account connected, soon you will see vBAT-related notices appear across the Brave Rewards interface that look like this:

Users in unsupported regions will still have the option to contribute their vBAT balances to Verified Creators of their choice before the deadline. For a refresher, see our original blog post.

Update on supported regions

As promised, we’ve been working with our custodial account provider partners to widen regional support for Brave Rewards before saying goodbye to vBAT. Since the announcement in February, we’ve been able to re-enable support for the following regions:

Croatia Greece Slovakia Slovenia Taiwan 

You can find the latest list of supported regions for each custodial account provider here.

Finally, we’re delighted to confirm that users in India with vBAT will soon be able to connect an account from one of our new custodial partners to Brave Rewards, allowing them to redeem their balances for BAT before the deadline. More information to come!

If you have any questions, join us on the Brave Community forums.

Monday, 28. August 2023

A16Z Crypto Substack

going from web2 to web3, how to pitch, trend updates

💸 Feature: On financial freedom, web2 to web3, & company building big to small David Marcus, Sonal Chokshi This wide-ranging conversation on our recent episode of the ‘web3 with a16z’ podcast covers company building big to small — including what is the right cadence, and when is the right time in product development, to ship — as well as views on scaling, remote work (yay or nay?), and more.
💸 Feature: On financial freedom, web2 to web3, & company building big to small

David Marcus, Sonal Chokshi 

This wide-ranging conversation on our recent episode of the ‘web3 with a16z’ podcast covers company building big to small — including what is the right cadence, and when is the right time in product development, to ship — as well as views on scaling, remote work (yay or nay?), and more.

We also touch on the journey from web2 to web3, and the journey from payments to crypto — including why bitcoin — since our guest is David Marcus, CEO and co-founder of Lightspark (previously head of Novi/Diem/Libra, head of Facebook Messenger, former president of PayPal). From the tension between centralization vs. decentralization and the role of platforms in power, we also talk about the importance of financial freedom and American innovation.    

listen here
share on Twitter | on Farcaster | on LinkedIn

💎 Resource: On ‘protodanksharding’, ‘danksharding’, and ‘data availability sampling’ … in 30(ish) minutes

Valeria Nikolaenko

In just 36 minutes, a16z crypto research partner Valeria Nikolaenko describes and explains protodanksharding, danksharding, data availability sampling, rollups (how they work, types)… all of which are important for future upgrades to Ethereum, and for understanding networking/ blockchain scalability. Nikolaenko also highlights some of the best data availability schemes so that others can improve on them, incorporate those ideas into their own projects, or do further research. For more on why these topics matter — as well as more resources for understanding and applying them — see also this past edition 🧩 of our newsletter (and check out this paper 📄). 

watch here 
share on Twitter | on Farcaster

▶️ How to: On preparing to pitch

Arianna Simpson

Startup fundraising can feel like “as much fun as chewing glass”, observes Simpson in this talk (first delivered at our Crypto Startup School) — it can be that daunting for some. So she covers the process of pitching from start to finish — before making a deck, before the pitch, during the pitch, and following up after — including especially how to craft a narrative for your product and team. Why is this a big market/ vision/ opportunity? Why are you the right team to bring it to market? And what is the one question Simpson likes to ask every founder? (Hint: the answer will be the key theme throughout your pitch).  

watch this video  
share

🌐 Trend: On stateless blockchains

Miranda Christ and Joe Bonneau

As blockchains grow to support more users and more frequent transactions, so too grows the amount of information (the “state”) that validators have to store to verify transactions. For example: in Bitcoin, the state consists of a set of unspent transaction outputs; while in Ethereum, the state consists of an account balance for each account, as well as code and storage for each smart contract. These storage burdens will become unwieldy as blockchains grow (given enough accounts or everyday transactions), making it difficult to become a validator — posing a potential threat to decentralization. 

While it’s tempting to turn to cryptography as a solution — where tools such as Merkle trees and zero-knowledge proofs have previously helped us achieve the implausible — to create “stateless” blockchains, they remain far from practical despite substantial research (e.g., Boneh et al, Buterin, Srinivasan et al, Todd). In fact, argue the authors of this piece (including a16z crypto research intern & PhD student Christ), stateless blockchains won’t ever be feasible without additional measures to manage the state. But such “impossibility results” shouldn’t be discouraging, because they can direct researchers and builders to pursue more fruitful paths…

read the post “On the impossibility of stateless blockchains” 

watch the video “On limits on revocable proof systems, with implications for blockchains”

check out the full paper “Limits on revocable proof systems, with applications to stateless blockchains”

share on Twitter | on Farcaster

🗞️ News & moves: IRS guidance on staking; crypto & banks; more

Our ongoing regulatory updates — as curated by the a16z crypto regulatory team — cover news, guidance, legislation, and frameworks released by agencies, associations, governments, banks, and other entities around the world as they impact the crypto industry in terms of regulation and policy. The last update covered notable news and moves from July through mid-August:
catch up here

crossover event

You’re receiving this newsletter because you signed up for it on our websites, at an event, or elsewhere (you can opt out any time using the ‘unsubscribe’ link below). This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should NOT be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, the content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors in any a16z funds. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for additional important details, including link to list of investments.


Defiant

DeFi LPs Turn To Liquidity Managers To Tackle Uniswap V3 Complexity

Projects Like Arrakis, Gamma and Maverick Offer Automated Investment Strategies For Retail Investors
Projects Like Arrakis, Gamma and Maverick Offer Automated Investment Strategies For Retail Investors

Panther Protocol

Testnet Stage 1: User onboarding is now LIVE! Here’s how to test.

Today we are debuting Stage 1 of Panther’s Testnet. At this Stage, you’ll test third-party compliance integrations and zero-knowledge accounts.

Panther community,

After a very successful Stage 0, today we are debuting Stage 1 of Panther’s Testnet. At this Stage, you’ll test two of Panther’s very anticipated innovations: third-party compliance integrations and zero-knowledge accounts.

Stage 1 is public and will have dedicated rewards. It will work only on desktop, not mobile devices. Differently from Stage 0, users will be rewarded for completing the product flow. However, we encourage the community to try to find and submit bugs, as well as to provide feedback. This process ensures that the Testnet returns a bug-free protocol, ultimately improving the protocol and its users’ experience.

Let’s dive deep into Stage 1:

(Note: For this Stage, the Panther Miner used in Stage 0 will be shut off for two days. We’ll put out an announcement when it is back to activity).

Why Stage 1 matters

At this stage, you’ll be testing two features that allow Panther to combine privacy-preserving DeFi access with compliance capabilities:

Third-party compliance integrations

Panther has built a system that retains neutrality by plugging directly into compliance providers and integrating them into the application’s flow. These systems can capture certain types of user data and issue a zero-knowledge proof attesting that users have been verified without the protocol learning any information from them.

The Panther DAO has been commissioned to select a compliance vendor that aligns with its interests, a discussion taking place in Panther’s forum. For the sake of this Testing exercise, an integration has been built that uses PureFi’s system. PureFi is a multi-vendor compliance provider that has demonstrated interest in partnering with Panther through the DAO discussions.

Registering using these integrations is a multi-step process that connects a user’s Panther Account with the verification performed by PureFi.

It consists of:

a. Creating a Panther Account by connecting your wallet (e.g., Metamask).
b. Undergoing a basic verification on PureFi’s site (opened in a pop-up tab).
c. Completing the verification process in the Panther dApp by providing the created proof of verification. This process involves downloading files on your browser (around 30MB), which can sometimes take 2-3 minutes (depending on IPFS’ responsivity at the time. In case of trouble, reloading may help.)

The above activates the user’s Panther account created in step (a) above, and issues account creation rewards to the user.

Panther Accounts

Within Panther, users are identified through their Panther Account (which has a corresponding zAddress), a concept similar to a bank account in that it englobes all of a user’s transactions within a single reference point. Accounts attest to users’ compliance verification while retaining zero-knowledge properties. In other words, they prove that a user has passed verification (as well as the type of verification passed), but they do not store any private information about users.

We posted an article further expanding on the rationale behind both of these components, as well as Panther’s compliance focus. Check it out here!

Testing and providing feedback

As we mentioned, Testnet rewards are automated, and as such, the Testnet itself will reward users for going through the Account creation flow. However, the goal for the Testnet is to debug and enhance the protocol before v1’s launch.

Our expectation is that users submit bugs and share ideas to enhance end-to-end functioning, interaction and usage of wallets, UI/UX flows, and let us know about any component that doesn’t look or feel as expected. We have created the following spreadsheet containing all the details that users can test, which includes functional and visual components. Note that every testing case is numbered to facilitate the process of providing feedback.

Spotting and fixing any possible bugs within the Testnet will make the first version of the protocol more sustainable in the middle term while allowing users to receive their earned rewards.

How to test

Users can visit the Testnet link for Stage 1 found in the info repository on our docs to test the onboarding functionality. This involves creating a Panther Account, undergoing a simple verification process (name and email required, ID NOT required) with PureFi, and activating their Account. We recommend that you test along with reviewing the testing spreadsheet so that you can keep track of everything you need to test.

To share feedback, testers will be using a dedicated form as the only accepted procedure. The steps mentioned in the form’s description are needed to make this interaction both efficient and productive.

Users will be rewarded with 100 $tzZKP (test $zZKP) sent to their wallet as soon as they complete the onboarding process and successfully activate their Panther account. tZKP tokens will be used to interact with the protocol during later stages. Interactions with the protocol also accrue rewards for users in the form of tPRP, which will be used in the second stage. As such, testers will receive 500 tPRP.

Remember that, to test, you will need to use the Mumbai Polygon Testnet. To use this network, you may also use a faucet (such as this one) to obtain test MATIC to pay for transactions.

Important note (do not skip this!)

It’s possible that, during testing, you might encounter a set of RPC errors derived from the Mumbai testnet network itself. These errors are due to infrastructural challenges and outside Panther’s control.

If at some point (such as while logging in or trying to switch networks) you encounter an error that prevents you from signing transactions (which might even cause your wallet extension to crash needing a browser or PC restart), please:

Visit https://chainlist.org/chain/80001/ to see a list of Mumbai network working nodes. Identify a working node. Note that, since this is a Testnet product, privacy is non-essential. Access your wallet’s Network settings, and edit the Mumbai network to use the working RPC’s server address. If needed, change the Chain ID to “80001”. Re-start the product flow.

If the problem persists even after trying a new valid RPC, please use the official form to fill out a bug report.

Thank you for testing!

The Panther community has done a great job testing Stage 0. We’re sure this will be a constant as we progress through the different stages of our Testnet leading up to v1.

We’re looking forward to receiving your feedback. If you have any further questions, please reach out through our official channels below!

About Panther

Panther is a cross-protocol layer that uses zero-knowledge technology to build DeFi solutions that meet regulatory requirements and satisfy users' on-chain data privacy needs. The goal of Panther is to allow seamless access to DeFi and create a cross-chain-supported architecture that serves different use cases. Panther's zero-knowledge primitives are also generalizable to KYC, selective disclosures between trusted parties, private ID, voting, and data verification services.

Website · One-pager · Lite Paper · Twitter · Telegram · Discord


Defiant

DeFi Sector Increasingly Sees Real-World Assets As Growth Area

With US Interest Rates Above 5%, DeFi Protocols Look To Address Demand For Lucrative Off-chain Yields
With US Interest Rates Above 5%, DeFi Protocols Look To Address Demand For Lucrative Off-chain Yields

DEX Traders Turn To Telegram Bots To Gain An Edge

Bot Users Near 90,000 As Spike in Memecoin Trading Sparks Demand
Bot Users Near 90,000 As Spike in Memecoin Trading Sparks Demand

Base Inks Profit Sharing Deal With Optimism

Coinbase’s Layer 2 Network Will Receive OP Tokens For Governance Participation
Coinbase’s Layer 2 Network Will Receive OP Tokens For Governance Participation

Aztec Network

Noir Now Supports Visual Studio Code

Nearly 400 Installs of our Visual Studio Code Extension to Date Brand new to Noir? Start building your application with the universal language of zero-knowledge, supported by best-in-class developer advocates and developer relations engineers at Aztec. Get started here. Noir was designed to be developer-first. This means simple and familiar Rust syntax, and now the support of the world

Nearly 400 Installs of our Visual Studio Code Extension to Date

Brand new to Noir? Start building your application with the universal language of zero-knowledge, supported by best-in-class developer advocates and developer relations engineers at Aztec. Get started here.

Noir was designed to be developer-first. This means simple and familiar Rust syntax, and now the support of the world’s most popular code editor. In just a matter of weeks, the extension has gone from ~70 to nearly 400 downloads.

Even if you’re new to the language — you won’t feel like you’re learning to program again, you’ll just start programming in zero-knowledge.

The following features should sound very familiar:

Syntax Highlighting

Differentiate key words from each other with color.

Error Messaging

There are safety checks built into the language that will prevent certain mistakes (and subsequently, unexpected behaviors) before you make them. Noir x VS Code will let you know what they are instantly on file save, before you switch to terminal and compile.

Code Templates

Save time and key-strokes by utilizing quick code templates. Insert code snippets instead of writing function definitions repeatedly.

The Latest

As of the latest version of the extension (version 0.0.4), you can run Noir tests, compile and execute Noir programs — all just one click away.

v0.0.4 is best paired with Nargo v0.10.3. Install Nargo with `noirup -v 0.10.3` and try it out.

Looking Ahead

More features could be tackled like hover tooltip, auto formatting, and proving on click.

Want to contribute? Leave a message on the GitHub quest board.
Brand new to Noir? Start building your app with the universal language of zero-knowledge, supported by best-in-class developer advocates and developer relations engineers at Aztec. Get started here.

Noir Now Supports Visual Studio Code was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


bankless

185 - The Superchain Explained with Jesse Pollak & Ben Jones

On today’s episode we brought on repeat Bankless guests, Ben Jones, Co-Founder of Optimism and Creator of Base, Jesse Pollock.  ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-superchain  ----- Base! Coinbase’s Layer 2 has almost hit 1 million users in 2 weeks. It has more transactions per second than Ethereum mainnet. Jesse digs into th

On today’s episode we brought on repeat Bankless guests, Ben Jones, Co-Founder of Optimism and Creator of Base, Jesse Pollock. 

------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-superchain 

----- Base! Coinbase’s Layer 2 has almost hit 1 million users in 2 weeks. It has more transactions per second than Ethereum mainnet. Jesse digs into the magnitude of this development. Base chain was built on Optimism’s tech stack. This is just 1 chain of many thousands we’ll see over the coming years. How do we tie them all together? Ben dives into all things Superchain. The Superchain is how we bring 1 billion people onchain.

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap  

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 7:42 Base Launch Reflection  9:53 Optimism’s Reflection  11:35 Coinbase x Optimism Collaboration 17:14 OP Stack Incentives  23:43 Base’s Impressive Numbers  26:26 Explaining the Superchain   31:40 Why Join the Superchain?  33:55 The Law of Chains  45:26 The Coinbase Onchain Formula 51:15 Base Part of Optimism Governance  58:40 What About Other L2s?  1:04:56 Optimism Collective’s Fee  1:08:25 The Tech Behind the Superchain 1:13:34 Superchain Timeline  1:15:45 Fault Proofs 1:18:36 Risk Profile of Base     1:22:15 Optimism’s Governance Minimization  1:24:10 Wen Fault Proofs & Stages  1:30:00 How Many Clients Does Optimism Have?  1:33:36 Near Term Focus For Base 1:37:01 Near Term Focus For Optimism 1:38:27 Closing & Disclosures 

----- RESOURCES

Jesse Pollock https://twitter.com/jessepollak 

Ben Jones https://twitter.com/ben_chain 

The Law of Chains https://gov.optimism.io/t/law-of-chains-v0-1-full-draft/6514 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures


BlueYard Capital

Cytosolix

Due to abnormal metabolism, certain diseased tissues, most notably solid tumors, produce an acidic extracellular microenvironment that is still little understood. Nevertheless, today all drugs in oncology are developed by R&D teams using the same classic textbook definition of tumor acidity which leads to (among other issues) poor tumor targeting and specificity, resulting in a paradoxical sit

Due to abnormal metabolism, certain diseased tissues, most notably solid tumors, produce an acidic extracellular microenvironment that is still little understood. Nevertheless, today all drugs in oncology are developed by R&D teams using the same classic textbook definition of tumor acidity which leads to (among other issues) poor tumor targeting and specificity, resulting in a paradoxical situation: despite an increasing number of promising oncology treatments, most cancer therapeutics or chemotherapy agents still have significant toxicity issues and severe side effects, mainly due to off-target effects, ie. where drugs kill healthy cells.

The Cytosolix team has spearheaded a decade-long research program at the Engelman Lab at Yale that recently resulted in a paradigm shift in our understanding of tumor acidity by discovering that the tumor micro-environment is much more acidic than previously thought, opening up the possibility to create better acid-targeting cancer therapeutics. Based on this discovery, Cytosolix has developed a platform focused on small molecules, called TAP (tumor-activated permeability), and has developed a unique chemical library over the past decade as part of its goal to make order of magnitude better cancer therapeutics.

Our Thesis

In an era when a single blockbuster therapeutic for cancer can be worth billions of dollars in annual revenue, we believe Cytosolix’s TAP platform has the potential to be applied to nrealy all solid tumor targeting small molecules that are already approved and in development, meaning that Cytosolix could receive a part of the upside from a number of existing drugs if TAP is genuinely effective. Moreover, the company’s first oral lead small molecule has been shown to enhance in vivo biodistribution to tumor cells by several orders of magnitude, compared to the original drug, which could translate to a significant efficacy benefit and the company’s own best-in-class drug. Cytosolix will pursue several more candidates during the seed phase.

We look forward to joining Colin, John and the Cytosolix team on their journey.

Saturday, 26. August 2023

Defiant

IRS Sets Sights On Decentralized Exchanges and NFTs With Proposed Tax Rules

DEXs Catering To U.S. Users Could Be Classified As Brokers And Required To Implement KYC Procedures
DEXs Catering To U.S. Users Could Be Classified As Brokers And Required To Implement KYC Procedures

PEPE Drops 20% After Team Sends 16T Tokens To Exchanges

Owners Of PEPE Multisig Wallet Reduce Signing Requirements
Owners Of PEPE Multisig Wallet Reduce Signing Requirements

Friday, 25. August 2023

Epicenter Podcast

Marko Baricevic: Cosmos SDK - The Internet of Appchains

From the very beginning, Cosmos set out to provide an alternative to the monolithic blockchain architecture proposed by Ethereum. Cosmos SDK was the cornerstone of this vision, as it allowed developers to spin up blockchains effortlessly. Its modularity enabled custom, self-sovereign chains to become a reality. And, instead of being a jack of all trades, those chains were centred around a sole pur

From the very beginning, Cosmos set out to provide an alternative to the monolithic blockchain architecture proposed by Ethereum. Cosmos SDK was the cornerstone of this vision, as it allowed developers to spin up blockchains effortlessly. Its modularity enabled custom, self-sovereign chains to become a reality. And, instead of being a jack of all trades, those chains were centred around a sole purpose, thus transforming them into appchains. In turn, as the ecosystem grew, appchains had to be interoperable with one another, but this was already a core feature of Cosmos, via IBC. Before Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, appchains were thought to be a much-needed scaling solution. However, with the advancements of zero knowledge technology, the Cosmos SDK now faces another set of challenges as it navigates the market demand for L2 scaling solutions.

We were joined by Marko Baricevic, Cosmos SDK product lead, to discuss the development philosophy behind the Cosmos Hub and how appchains evolved over time.

Topics covered in this episode:

Marko’s background Cosmos SDK’s history and high-level overview Cosmos SDK modules and VMs Ethereum’s & Cosmos’ development philosophies Cosmos SDK value prop and use cases Cosmos SDK vs. other frameworks (e.g. Substrate) Token value accrual and the fragmentation dilemma Using the Cosmos SDK to build rollups Cosmos SDK vs. Avalanche’s HyperSDK Adoption of fraud proofs and validity proofs by the Cosmos SDK

Episode links:

Marko Baricevic on Twitter Cosmos on Twitter Cosmos SDK on Twitter Interchain Foundation on Twitter Binary Builders on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Meher Roy & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/510


Defiant

Perps Come First: How to Build a Winning DeFi Ecosystem in 2023

Alexi Atlas Believes Perpetual Exchanges Hold The Key To New User Acquisition For New DeFi Ecosystems
Alexi Atlas Believes Perpetual Exchanges Hold The Key To New User Acquisition For New DeFi Ecosystems

bankless

ROLLUP: Under Attack - Crypto, Freedom, & Privacy

WRU 4th Week Of August ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2    ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankl

WRU 4th Week Of August ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2    ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask  

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE https://bankless.cc/uniswap%E2%81%A0   

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro

5:14 MARKETS

7:22 L2 Economics https://dune.com/niftytable/rollup-economics  https://twitter.com/0xbreadguy/status/1686040103989190656?s=46 

14:39 Why Did We Dump? https://watcher.guru/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/TOTAL_2023-08-18_09-54-05.png 

16:50 Arthur Hayes Article https://cryptohayes.medium.com/kite-or-board-64bc45d49931 

21:03 Mantle DAO staked 40K ETH https://twitter.com/LidoFinance/status/1693578509413654990?s=20 

24:12 Tornado Cash Case https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1702  https://www.coincenter.org/new-tornado-cash-indictments-seem-to-run-counter-to-fincen-guidance/  https://twitter.com/NeerajKA/status/1694474067678822410?s=20  https://twitter.com/sethforprivacy/status/1694434785454698979?s=20  https://twitter.com/sethforprivacy/status/1694434807004991545?s=20  https://twitter.com/sethforprivacy/status/1694434795646808118?s=20  https://twitter.com/jchervinsky/status/1694423912321274148?s=20  https://twitter.com/ameensol/status/1694396049430118521?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g  https://twitter.com/ameensol/status/1694736128220483629?s=20 

45:45 Coinbase Tornado Cash Lawsuits https://twitter.com/billhughesdc/status/1692256433818001792?s=46&t=LKBC7Qtm18FnZ380xCF2pA  https://twitter.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1692260842585350334 

51:43 Friend.tech continue shaking with CT https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1693799871197622344?s=20  https://twitter.com/sassal0x/status/1693803825747107973?s=20  https://twitter.com/moonoverlord/status/1693364919637344535?s=46  https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1693759402908815480?s=20  https://youtu.be/AVZlvnex4Gw?si=7m3COBp9iOe3HXqM  https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1694157222597521893?s=46 

53:18 Is Binance in trouble? https://www.wsj.com/finance/binance-cryptocurrency-russia-sanctions-ddb948c3  https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling/status/1694042353797824764 

58:19 Coinbase and Circle formally melding https://twitter.com/jerallaire/status/1693719963565969654?s=46&t=iahr7Lh5v08SSM_Ery-bGw 

59:05 Dencun Devnet! https://twitter.com/parithosh_j/status/1691927807230677133?s=20 

1:01:08 EigenLayer Updates https://restaking.nethermind.io/ 

First Squad Block Proposed  https://twitter.com/trustlessstate/status/1694511259020837036?s=46 

Scroll Entering Beta https://twitter.com/Scroll_ZKP/status/1692194581918745066?s=20 

Farcaster news https://twitter.com/dwr/status/1691480693443108864?s=20  https://twitter.com/dwr/status/1694020862545109272?s=46 

OP Stack Encrypted Mempool  https://twitter.com/project_shutter/status/1693986910795186647?s=20 

Airdrops https://blog.connext.network/announcing-the-next-airdrop-be764b1c548  https://imgur.com/Je2IGRB  https://earni.fi/account 

Starkware Stone https://twitter.com/StarkWareLtd/status/1693991491713261809 

Fire Wallet Released https://twitter.com/_joinfire/status/1691847167382618455?s=20 

Balancer Hacked https://twitter.com/Balancer/status/1694014645378724280 

NFT Stuff https://twitter.com/punk9059/status/1693357671850688809?s=46 

Bitcoin stuff https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-employee-nft-marketplace-sentenced-prison-first-ever-digital-asset-insider  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-17/sec-said-to-be-poised-to-allow-us-debut-of-ether-futures-etfs-eth#xj4y7vzkg  https://twitter.com/EricBalchunas/status/1692314639235735836?s=20  https://twitter.com/CoinDesk/status/1693989173106266413?s=20 

Releases https://twitter.com/RiscZero/status/1694047369028059218 

Takes of the Week https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1694705374941560893?s=20 

What are you bullish on? https://twitter.com/hildobby_/status/1694357014086815757?s=20 

MEME of the Week https://twitter.com/BoysClubWorld/status/1694446626591363150/photo/1 

Moment of ZEN https://twitter.com/Permissionless/status/1693355946779812009?s=20 

------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 


Defiant

Uniswap Spot Volume Surpassed Coinbase In 2023

Leading Decentralized Exchange Processed $110B Of Trades In Q2
Leading Decentralized Exchange Processed $110B Of Trades In Q2

Lido Set To Complete Final Token Unlock

Leading Liquid Staking Protocol Had Sold 10M LDO To Dragonfly Last Year To Weather Bear Market
Leading Liquid Staking Protocol Had Sold 10M LDO To Dragonfly Last Year To Weather Bear Market

Thursday, 24. August 2023

Urbit

Urbit Mexico City

Join us at the next Urbit meetup in Mexico City. Everyone is welcome, whether you're a dedicated Hoon developer, looking to connect with others, or just curious about the future of the internet. We'll meet on the second floor of Starbucks Alfonsa Reyes in Condesa starting at 6:30 PM. We heard your feedback about the inconvenience at our previous venue, so this time we're doing it in a public place
Join us at the next Urbit meetup in Mexico City. Everyone is welcome, whether you're a dedicated Hoon developer, looking to connect with others, or just curious about the future of the internet. We'll meet on the second floor of Starbucks Alfonsa Reyes in Condesa starting at 6:30 PM. We heard your feedback about the inconvenience at our previous venue, so this time we're doing it in a public place - no registration or ID required. If you don't have an Urbit ID yet, this is a great opportunity to get one and start exploring the network! --- Únase a nosotros en la próxima reunirse de Urbit aquí en la Ciudad de México. Todos son bienvenidos, ya seas un desarrollador dedicado de Hoon, busques conectarte con otros o simplemente sientas curiosidad por el futuro de Internet. Nos reuniremos en el segundo piso de Starbucks Alfonsa Reyes en Condesa a partir de las 6:30 PM. Escuchamos sus comentarios sobre el inconveniente en nuestra ubicación anterior, por lo que esta vez lo haremos en un lugar público, sin necesidad de registrarse ni de identificarse. Si aún no tiene una Urbit ID, ¡esta es una gran oportunidad para obtener una y comenzar a explorar la red!

Defiant

Four Bills That Will Define The Future Of Digital Assets

FIT for the 21st Century Act, RFIA, DAMS, and DCEA Could Finally Bring Regulatory Clarity To The U.S. Crypto Industry
FIT for the 21st Century Act, RFIA, DAMS, and DCEA Could Finally Bring Regulatory Clarity To The U.S. Crypto Industry

bankless

Is friend.tech Good or Evil?

Friend.tech has dominated the crypto landscape as of late and it’s now breaking out into multiple mainstream non-crypto audiences. Should we pat ourselves on the back? Or do we need to more carefully reflect on the consequences of this new financialized social application?  Ryan and David give their raw thoughts on these questions and much more.  ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join

Friend.tech has dominated the crypto landscape as of late and it’s now breaking out into multiple mainstream non-crypto audiences. Should we pat ourselves on the back? Or do we need to more carefully reflect on the consequences of this new financialized social application? 

Ryan and David give their raw thoughts on these questions and much more. 

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT

------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro 5:28 RSA’s survey  https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1693799871197622344  6:15 Sassal’s take https://twitter.com/sassal0x/status/1693803825747107973  9:00 How friend.tech works 13:00 Is anyone using friend.tech? https://imgur.com/uLOTIYB  15:10 Non-crypto influencers using friend.tech https://imgur.com/iq0lwlS  https://www.bankless.com/can-friend-tech-go-mainstream  17:00 Anti-friend.tech takes https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1693759402908815480  https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1693977201618653260  This is a glimpse of a brand new SocialFi stack! https://twitter.com/nnnnicholas/status/1691591282395619686  37:00 David’s friend.tech conclusion (as of today) 43:52 Market Maximization & Financialization   45:31 Net Good vs. Net Bad?  49:53 Meme of the episode 51:31 Sleeping Dragon 52:46 Closing & Disclosures 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠ 


Verus

Verus Internet Protocol (VIP) — Provable, Decentralized Cross-chain Communication

Verus Internet Protocol (VIP) — Provable, Decentralized Cross-chain Communication Written by Mike Toutonghi, lead developer of the Verus Protocol. How it started Bitcoin proved that decentralized, secure, permissionless and provable agreement on a worldwide blockchain network of participants is possible. How it’s going Beyond Bitcoin, most leading blockchain networks today were init
Verus Internet Protocol (VIP) — Provable, Decentralized Cross-chain Communication Written by Mike Toutonghi, lead developer of the Verus Protocol. How it started

Bitcoin proved that decentralized, secure, permissionless and provable agreement on a worldwide blockchain network of participants is possible.

How it’s going

Beyond Bitcoin, most leading blockchain networks today were initially centralized through ICOs or large pre-mines, rather than a fairly launched protocol. In some cases, the ICO or pre-mined share of ownership was further entrenched by switching from proof of work, as a way for anyone to earn, to pure proof of stake, where owning the network currency is required to earn and those with the most earn the most. As part of prioritizing early growth to capture maximum crypto market share, these platforms generally abdicated the hard work of designing or implementing core protocol primitives, such as currencies or identities, beyond one native currency, as originally conceived in Bitcoin.

Instead, the popular VM model of many blockchains today, which generally provide a shared “computer” or VM on top of a decentralized blockchain, leaves building critical primitives as someone else’s problem, usually companies and app designers, basically writing centralized apps. Instead of a secure set of underlying rules for currencies, we get best practices and the evolutionary legacy of thousands of “dApps”, which ironically, are mostly just partial or full re-implementations of the secure primitives missing in the consensus-based L1 protocols themselves.

As a result of the focus on pumping and market capture vs. evolving what we could learn from Bitcoin with sustainable, decentralized, more secure primitives and better protocol design, billions of dollars of value has been lost or transferred from naive early users who bought into the pumped crypto hype to hackers, scammers, VCs, centralized exits, and MEV-exploiters who all leveraged the mass of weaknesses they either failed to protect against or in some cases created and obscured themselves on systems that don’t define or enforce even the most common core primitives, currencies or identities. A great deal of loss has been due to obviously poor cross-chain “bridge” design, with the most common problem being bugs in complex smart contract workflow, followed by stolen or compromised private keys of contract owners / controllers, and in some cases, outright theft by contract controllers.

The lack of agreement on basic primitives and how to represent them in a globally resolvable way has held back general, robust solutions to the fundamental problem of interoperability between blockchains and other financial networks today. To complicate our collective challenges, adding full primitive support in the protocols is hard work, especially in an industry where just a year of development is considered a massive investment that must be rewarded by timely exit liquidity. Consequently, an abundance of shortcuts and heavily marketed yet hastily built solutions still dominate the popular narrative, as hacks, rugpulls, and losses continue to pile up.

The solution

Verus was founded by technology veterans and others who believe humanity can do better than being exploited by the technology these same veterans had been building for corporations over decades. The Verus PBaaS protocol was designed, built, and tested over more than 5 years by a self-selected and often volunteer group of technology, finance, legal, operations, or just life veterans and newbies alike. Early Verusians shared a common vision and made it reality, achieving a fairly launched, community driven project without VCs or ICO participants who may want to exit and a truly decentralized unlimited scale network that all humanity can use and build upon without paying rent to anyone.

It has taken exactly as long as it has to realize the vision laid out 5 years ago, which is more clearly relevant today than ever. Along the way, that vision has grown and evolved as new community members contributed their own vision to help us improve, making the Verus PBaaS protocol, of which VIP is a small part, a major milestone for the crypto industry and a move back to the original intent of decentralized networks that was pioneered, if not fully realized by Satoshi Nakamoto in Bitcoin. Verus has taken Nakamoto consensus to the next level with consensus driven functional protocols for network primitives that are needed in any network hoping to securely enable financial applications.

To ensure maximum decentralization, the Verus Internet Protocol (VIP) takes a maximally decentralized, validator driven approach to its multi-network bridging by incorporating and accounting for currencies, identities, namespaces, and the concept of connected networks themselves in the L0 and L1 consensus protocols. The Verus Internet Protocol provides just enough structure to interoperate with any system that can control funds based on logic and exposes a provable representation of currencies and/or identities.

By grounding interoperability in a cryptographically provable, hierarchical namespace of self-sovereign, worldwide resolvable identities, VIP enables the first high-throughput, unlimited scale, decentralized, multi-protocol, non-custodial, auditable and transparent, currency and identity aware cross-blockchain communications protocol.

A cross-chain protocol with same chain properties

VIP can be seen as a cross-chain protocol that operates on proof of proof of consensus (PoPoC). VIP has the following properties:

Transactions that include cross-chain operations, cross-system currency transfers, or new currency and identity definitions, are standardized in the protocol, as are the semantics of their cross-chain use, fee models, cross-system, name-centric provable routing, and MEV-resistant bundling and rollup properties. These characteristics can be and have been implemented on UTXO, VM-based, and transparently centralized networks. VIP supports direct or indirect system<->system communication, including cross-system export and import of currency and identity definitions, as well as revocation, recovery, and controlling keys. All cross-chain or DeFi functions in the protocol are accessible to full or lite node clients and applications by simply creating standard transaction inputs and outputs that specify the operations. Available APIs on every node or FOSS API server simplify the creation of transactions with cross-chain outputs in response to command requests or JSON RPC calls. Transactions with Identity, DeFi, or cross-chain operations, including all inputs and outputs, even exports and imports of all currencies, are checked for validity by miners and stakers with network consensus, just as single currency inputs and outputs are in today’s single currency blockchain networks. Cross-chain protocols operate in the same way as on-chain DeFi protocols and are processed on chain by miners and stakers with a bundle->export->import workflow, enabling high-throughput DeFi and cross-chain operations. In PBaaS, exports, imports, and DeFi operations are all solved simultaneously and processed with at per-block or larger granularity in an MEV-resistant manner as part of the core protocol, recognizing and enabling the need for beneficial arbitrage, while eliminating toxic MEV such as front-running and sandwiching once and for all. All cross-chain operations are proven based on one of the following proof models, which are configurable on a per system/chain basis: Decentralized consensus-achieved, witness enhanced, cross-chain cryptographic proofs. (auto-notarization) Decentralized consensus-achieved, witness-dependent, cross-chain cryptographic proofs. (notary dependent notarization) Semi-centralized or centrally controlled gateway proofs

Full auto-notarization is only available between Verus and PBaaS chains, and operates faster with but is not dependent on notary witnesses. When auto-notarization is applied to other gateway connections, the protocol will fall back to the closest it can come between auto-notarization and notary dependent, which may evolve towards less dependence on the notaries in future versions. Whether you auto-notarize or depend on notary witness confirmation, all forms of notarization operate similarly. We’ll start with the basic workflow, then highlight differences:

“Earned” and “Accepted” notarizations — VIP broadly defines two types of cross-system notarizations, earned and accepted. Generally, one side of a connection will create “earned” notarizations, which on PBaaS chains or for the Ethereum bridge, are created by miners and stakers adding a notarization output to the coinbase. Earned notarizations, which can only be created by Verus or PBaaS chain miners and stakers, include a way to agree or disagree with specific past notarizations, and are subject to further “confirmation” rules, which may vary depending on if the rules are “auto”, centralized, or “notary confirm”. Once a new, earned notarization is confirmed, the proof of confirmation is sent to the “notary” system, which is typically a launch chain, and in the case of the ETH bridge, is Ethereum, along with any notary signatures necessary to prove confirmation, which are typically present. The new, confirmed, earned notarization is entered on the notary chain as an “accepted” notarization, and is entered as “agreeing” with a prior accepted notarization along with proof of the agreement. If the prior accepted notarization it agrees with is not yet confirmed, then it may be considered newly confirmed.

2. Once an earned notarization has been agreed to by a new earned notarization, alternating between PoW and PoS blocks to help further decentralized requirements for agreement, and by following all notarization rules, notary witnesses may sign signifying they agree with the notarization as well. Although they can disagree with a signature, no signature is also a valid way to disagree.

3. After validators and notary witnesses have agreed, or in the case of auto-notarization, a longer validation period with more agreement has passed, the prior notarization agreed with by a new notarization that has passed all necessary agreement, is confirmed. Once that happens, the blockchain is considered final up to the point of that confirmation and will resist reorganizations to any point behind.

The primary difference between notary confirm notarization and auto-notarization is the amount and type of evidence required to enter a potentially confirmed notarization. Most notably, “notary confirm” always requires a quorum of signatures from the specified notaries, whereas auto-notarization requires more multi-stage evidence in the face of randomized proof selection, potential fraud proofs and disagreements. Fully centralized gateways still operate on cryptographic proofs, but they only need notaries to agree on the cryptographic roots in order to consider them true and do not need cryptographic proof to establish the notarization proof root.

Once a proof root has been established by notarization, this root is used to cryptographically prove bundles of transactions exported from one chain or system and imported to another. Even Ethereum transactions are proven in both directions using the same workflow, although Ethereum transactions are validated using PATRICIA Trie proofs, while PBaaS chains use the Verus Merkle Mountain Range (MMR) method, both being cryptographically sound. Cross-chain bundles of transactions follow the same bundling protocol when sourced from Verus or PBaaS chains as is followed in DeFi to prevent MEV.

Transactions are always delivered to the destination network with bundles in the order they were created on the source network and according to the enforceable rules of the source network. Since a relayer may add arbitrage transactions when the destination is a PBaaS chain, but may not affect the provable source contents of a relayed bundle from one network to another, no restriction is placed on who relays a valid bundle of transactions. Since validators who relay and mine or stake transaction bundles into a block may earn a validation fee from the import transaction itself, validators or notaries will generally shuttle transaction bundles between chains and networks out of self interest, while having no ability whatsoever to censor or modify protocol level bundles.

What witness / notaries do NOT do

Witnesses / notaries have no control over what transactions are or are not included or the order in which they arrive from one system to another, as all of that is dictated by the protocol. By default, notaries cannot create notarizations and can only witness the validity of notarizations already created and agreed to by both proof of work and proof of stake validators.

Witness notaries’ primary role is to agree or disagree with the network validators’ earned notarizations, which are earned on one blockchain and accepted on another chain or system. As long as validators enter valid notarizations as part of the merge mining or staking process, confirm other notarizations entered by past validators, and a majority of notaries sign and witness their recognition of those events, a proof root that can be used by anyone to prove committed bundles of cross-chain transactions is established on both systems for the other. As the protocol ensures via cryptographic proof validation that the cross-chain bundles are the exact bundles in the order they were packaged on the source system, importing cross-chain transaction bundles is a permissionless operation that anyone, usually a validator, can perform, which relies on the proof established in relation to a confirmed, notarized proof root.

Do auto-notarization and notary-confirm notarization options have different security considerations?

Yes. Proper planning and selection of options and witness ID structure during the launch of a blockchain network or gateway can ensure that security levels meet network demands. There are security tradeoffs between auto-notarization and notary-confirm options, which basically are a tradeoff between a permissionless model where proof root determination is enhanced, but not dependent upon multisig agreement of notary witnesses, auto-notarization vs. a model where establishing any cross-network cryptographic proof root requires the honest participation of a majority of the notary witnesses, which can be represented by revocable and recoverable IDs, allowing for further decentralization, even while requiring participation of a quorum.

Determining which option to choose, how many and what notaries to choose, what other safeguards can further enhance security, and then understanding the resulting security profile from each set of choices, is important when launching a blockchain or gateway. The following outlines the current high-level security considerations when configuring a new chain or gateway.

Currently, Verus VIP supports 2 proof models for interchain communication, the Verus PBaaS Merkle Mountain Range proofs, which also assume the Verus Proof of Power protocol, and Ethereum PATRICIA Trie proofs that enable interfacing with VIP between any PBaaS chain, and any Ethereum VM + PATRICIA Trie compatible network.

Since Verus PBaaS is the only interface to fully support notarization finalization using full auto-notarization, it is important to understand the differences between PBaaS and Ethereum proof protocols. At present, there is no objective proof protocol implementation for Ethereum that is known and implemented, which can operate without dependence on some set of notary witnesses. At this time, auto-notarization, when applied to Ethereum, is more similar to notary-confirm, with additional revocation safeguards that could address more edge-case threat models.

As new proof algorithms evolve for Ethereum, enabling trustworthy cross-chain proof models in both directions that are both timely and do not need to be backed by witness signatures, it will be possible to update the protocols to remove dependence on witnesses over time. To ensure maximum decentralization on the Ethereum bridge, the network itself can permissionlessly propose contract upgrades, and if affirmatively voted on by Verus validators, an upgrade and new contracts can eventually change the cross-chain proof conditions.

Auto-notarization of one PBaaS chain on another (PBAAS_AN) differs from and Ethereum interface or notary-confirm (NC) in that, if there are enough validated blocks, both mined and staked, as well as validator agreed notarizations, PBAAS_AN allows validators to finalize a notarization and submit it to the alternate chain. If there are disagreements about the correct notarization, the process becomes an on-chain proof competition, requiring each party to represent a growing, actual chain with both proof of work and proof of stake with an eventual winner. NC still has the miners and stakers create and earn from earned notarizations, but it also must have agreement from specified notaries to finalize any notarization and cannot finalize cross-chain proof roots without that agreement.

Improvement over common cross-chain protocols

Since Verus VIP does not ever have any identity, multisig or otherwise, hold custody over any funds when crossing from one decentralized network to another, even in the context of the Verus Ethereum contracts, threats caused by malicious notaries or stolen keys to drain funds on decentralized bridges or currencies are simply not viable against the Verus VIP protocol.

Cross-chain notarizations must first be entered by an earning validator, either PoW or PoS, and must also be agreed to by another validator, alternating between work and stake in eligibility. Only after that happens can notary witnesses apply their signature and agree to make that a confirmed notarization candidate. Still, what happens if a majority of notaries are malicious and colluding, or if some entity was able to somehow steal a majority of the notary private keys?

If the majority of notary witnesses are honest and operate their witnessing nodes according to the protocol, the security of such a model should be sufficient for any level of cross-chain transaction proof. If, however, a majority of the notaries were colluding and malicious or if their keys were stolen, Verus VIP still provides ways to ensure that the protocol responds to such a situation without risk of loss. Although there are ways to mitigate such a form of attack, even if no mitigation were available, such malicious or fraudulent notary witnesses would need the following in order to attack a PBaaS cross-chain connection:

Colluding, malicious notaries Fake validators with more combined hash + stake power than the publicly validated chain making earned notarizations Developers helping them by creating an alternate protocol for the shadow chain

While you may recognize these requirements as very close to the requirements of attacking any blockchain, the Verus VIP protocol provides a way to even defend against such an unlikely scenario. VIP provides for revocation of all VerusIDs, including notary IDs, even those that are used for Ethereum protocol bridges. Furthermore, each PBaaS chain, including Verus, has a network agreed multisig chain oracle that can separately pause cross-chain notarizations or transactions temporarily, which also can be overridden by network validators.

To enable yet another layer of safeguards, the Verus VIP protocol does not confirm any notarization that has first been agreed to by validators, then agreed to and signed by all notaries on either the earned or the accepted chain, until a second such notarization confirms the first. This ensures that every notarization on any chain is first made public, given a period of time before confirmation, and finally, if nothing stops it, confirmed.

Meanwhile, with basic monitoring by witnesses to see if their own identities have signed for anything they do not actually agree with, meaning their keys were stolen, notaries can auto-revoke their own identities and prevent stolen key attacks from being anything more than an inconvenience. Additional monitoring by chain oracle controllers to look for clear discrepancies between soon to be confirmed notarizations and chains that they monitor can also use the oracle notification network to pause cross-chain transactions, providing yet another line of defense for each chain on the network.

While there are numerous capabilities and safeguards built into the Verus VIP protocol beyond those described in this document, by separating the proof root notarization process and using cryptographic proof as the foundation of a provable, high throughput, cross-chain export/import protocol, VIP enables the most secure, scalable, decentralized and multi-modal cross-chain protocol ever designed for blockchains and the Internet of Value.

Try the Verus Protocol Yourself! ✅

Look up docs.verus.io to use many API commands (e.g. launching currencies, tokens & liquidity pools).

Or look up the complete command list here.

Join the community. Learn about the protocol. Use Verus & build.

➡️ Join the community on Discord

Follow on Twitter

Go to verus.io

Verus Internet Protocol (VIP) — Provable, Decentralized Cross-chain Communication was originally published in Verus Coin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


a16z Podcast

Wartime vs Peacetime: Ben Horowitz on Leadership

In this exclusive conversation from a16z’s Bio and Health BUILD Summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde. They discuss everything from the inspiration behind Ben’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, how the open Internet was secured, the difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs, scaling culture, and understanding how bio & healthcare differs fro

In this exclusive conversation from a16z’s Bio and Health BUILD Summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde. They discuss everything from the inspiration behind Ben’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, how the open Internet was secured, the difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs, scaling culture, and understanding how bio & healthcare differs from other forms of technology.

 

Topics Covered:

00:00 - Introduction

02:09 - What are the most important lessons for a CEO?

08:45 - Surprising leaders in history

11:41 - Wartime CEO vs the peacetime CEO

14:54 - Cultures role

20:59 - Communication and scaling 

25:39 - Culture as a moat

27:46 - The interplay between startups and incumbents

30:22 - Advice for founders on navigating AI

 

Resources:

Find Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz Find Jorge on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jorgecondebio Ben’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


Defiant

Farcaster To Migrate From Ethereum To Optimism Superchain

Social Graph Project Will Offer Permissionless Onboarding Following Layer 2 Migration
Social Graph Project Will Offer Permissionless Onboarding Following Layer 2 Migration

dYdX Declares War On MEV Ahead Of Appchain Migration

Ethereum Users Have Lost $450M to Maximal Extractable Value Since September 2022
Ethereum Users Have Lost $450M to Maximal Extractable Value Since September 2022

Wednesday, 23. August 2023

Defiant

EigenLayer Pulls In $160M Of Deposits Within Two Hours

Ethereum Restaking Protocol Launches ‘Eigen Worlds’ NFT Collection
Ethereum Restaking Protocol Launches ‘Eigen Worlds’ NFT Collection

DoJ Charges Tornado Cash Founders with Money Laundering and Sanctions Violations

Treasury Adds Roman Semenov To Specially Designated Nationals List
Treasury Adds Roman Semenov To Specially Designated Nationals List

bankless

David's Take: This is the Last Cycle

FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.bankless.com/the-last-crypto-cycle  Is crypto entering its last market cycle before its mature era begins? For today's take, David makes the case that crypto will always have a Wild West, yet there are signs all around us that the ecosystem is trending toward being more dependable and safer. In other words? Crypto's growing up! ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is

FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.bankless.com/the-last-crypto-cycle 

Is crypto entering its last market cycle before its mature era begins?

For today's take, David makes the case that crypto will always have a Wild West, yet there are signs all around us that the ecosystem is trending toward being more dependable and safer. In other words? Crypto's growing up!

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle ⁠ 

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap 

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 


Nym - Medium

Nym: Layer 0 privacy infrastructure for the whole internet

The chain-agnostic Nym mixnet solves the transport layer privacy problem for any Layer 1 chain or Layer 2 dApp, wallet or app Every single internet application and service whether Web 2.0 or Web3 suffers from the same common issue: network traffic is exposed. This is an underlying problem in the design of the internet itself. But Nym, with its mission of complete privacy online for everyone,

The chain-agnostic Nym mixnet solves the transport layer privacy problem for any Layer 1 chain or Layer 2 dApp, wallet or app

Every single internet application and service whether Web 2.0 or Web3 suffers from the same common issue: network traffic is exposed. This is an underlying problem in the design of the internet itself. But Nym, with its mission of complete privacy online for everyone, everywhere, solves this ‘transport layer privacy problem’ by obscuring network traffic for any web service, chain, dApp, wallet or app. Read on to learn why Nym is the ‘Layer 0’ privacy stack for the whole internet:

What is Layer 0 — and where does the Nym mixnet fit in?

The internet is split into different layers with different functions, and the underlying network infrastructure layer is Layer 0.

Languages: 日本 // Türkçe // 中文 // Русский // Française

The Nym Mixnet is also Layer 0. It addresses the network layer, or transport layer of the internet: think of this as the roads and highways of the web.

Just like in the physical world, these roads and highways are all completely visible.

Now imagine looking at all these roads and highways from above. While it might be difficult to identify drivers, concealed in their vehicles, there are plenty of other identifiers that could help an observer paint a revealing profile of that motorist.

Even if this observer couldn’t see inside the car, they can see how big the car is, the colour of the vehicle, where it’s going, time of departure, and time of arrival. Together, this information can reveal a lot about that drivers’ relationships, state of mind, habits, career, and life.

These roads and highways are essentially the core communication protocols of the internet, like TCP and UDP.

As data packets speed along these highways, the behaviour of this data can be monitored and information built around how they travel along it, just like the example of a driver on a real road. This is called metadata, in other words, data about the data.

The Layer 0 Nym mixnet solves this by obfuscating the metadata. The Nym mixnet encrypts internet traffic into identically sized packets, mixed with ‘dummy’ packets of data that contain nothing whatsoever. These are all then sent through three layers or ‘hops’ into mix ‘nodes’ that are distributed around the world, at randomised times and intervals, before they are reassembled and decrypted on the receiving side. This makes network traffic observation near-impossible.

To return to the highways analogy: imagine if all cars travelling on a packed highway looked exactly the same. They travel through tunnels at random intervals, and it’s impossible to see when they departed or where they were going or when and where they ended their destination. Unique identifiers, like their colour or type of car, are stripped away. Suddenly, it would be a lot more difficult to make any inferences or guesses about the habits of that driver or their relationship to others.

By obfuscating metadata at the network layer — Layer 0 — this is what the Nym mixnet achieves.

What is Layer 1 and why does it need L-0 privacy protection?

Web3 promised to jettison the centralisation that plagued Web 2.0, where power is concentrated into the hands of governments and corporate monopolies. Transparency is a core part of this proposition, but transparency runs both ways and currently, traffic is visible and vulnerable to analysis.

See also: Nym mixnet is not a blockchain — but it is powered by one

The Web3 world of blockchains, decentralisation and distributed apps is split into various layers.

To use another metaphor, think of a building. Before anything can be built on top of this structure, it needs foundations at the very bottom.

Right at the bottom of this stack is Layer 0, the foundational, network layer for privacy.

Blockchains are Layer 1. These distributed ledgers are the systems on which other apps and services or blockchains are built. Right now, these are vulnerable to traffic analysis and attacks at the network layer, Layer 0.

In order for a blockchain to function, they need peer to peer transactions as well as broadcasts to signal that these transactions are taking place. They also need coordination between validators, which confirm (or validate) transactions.

Even if the blockchain itself is designed with security in mind, currently, traffic between peer to peer transactions and coordination between validators is exposed.

The Layer 0 Nym mixnet provides cover. Again, it protects metadata information from leaking by obscuring network traffic.

Without Layer 0 privacy infrastructure, blockchain traffic can be analysed, opening the infrastructure to attack, whether that is from DDoS attacks, targeted censorship, or exposing the behaviour of validators or end-user transactions.

Nym is chain-agnostic, so Nym can be integrated with any blockchain to obfuscate the traffic on it. In short: the Nym mixnet provides network-level, Layer 0 privacy for any Layer 1 blockchain.

What is Layer 2, and why does it need L-0 privacy protection?

Layer 2 means the tokens, other blockchains, and dApps that run via smart contracts hosted on the Layer 1 blockchain.

No changes are needed to the Layer 1 blockchain to build these applications or services, they simply nestle on top of the layer beneath them.

For example: Bitcoin is a Layer 1 blockchain, but the Lightning Network payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin is Layer 2.

See also: A breakdown of the smart contracts that run the Nym token economics

Integrating Nym obscures traffic to and from Layer 2 applications or tokens or services.

Additionally, developers can privacy-enhance existing apps or build new privacy-enhanced apps with the Nym Layer 0 mixnet.

This means that when users run an application, no matter where it lies or what blockchain it’s hosted on, the traffic will be run through the Nym mixnet, offering Layer 0 protections to both the Layer 1 blockchain and the Layer 2 application, protecting metadata across the whole stack.

A holistic approach to privacy

The internet is fundamentally broken and does not preserve privacy. By design, traffic data is visible, and powerful interests like governments and corporations take advantage of this fact. They monitor traffic, collect metadata, and build detailed profiles based on it — which can be more exposing than the contents of a message.

Because Nym addresses the network layer of the internet, the Nym mixnet is a holistic approach to privacy for Web 2.0 and Web3.

The aim of Nym is to protect network traffic for all of the internet.

Learn more about how Nym supports interoperability from Head of PR at Nym, Candice Teo:

Builders: strengthen the foundations of your project by integrating the Layer 0 Nym mixnet today. Learn more at the Nym Developer Portal. To find out about updates, news, and integration opportunities, sign up to the newsletter, follow Nym on socials, and join the Nym community.

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Nym: Layer 0 privacy infrastructure for the whole internet was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Defiant

friend.tech Crosses 100,000 Users As Crypto Community Debates Its Longevity

Social Trading App Rebrands Shares as Keys
Social Trading App Rebrands Shares as Keys

Tuesday, 22. August 2023

bankless

Vance Spencer: The FAANG of DeFi (S.M.E.L.L)

On the show today, we’re bringing Vance on to talk about S M E L L. Not an odor, but instead 5 different assets. The FAANG of Crypto? We walk through all 5 assets and talk about the merits of each, along with the other subjects running around the current crypto meta. Let Vance loop you into what he thinks is worth paying attention to. ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT tod

On the show today, we’re bringing Vance on to talk about S M E L L. Not an odor, but instead 5 different assets. The FAANG of Crypto?

We walk through all 5 assets and talk about the merits of each, along with the other subjects running around the current crypto meta.

Let Vance loop you into what he thinks is worth paying attention to.

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠ 

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE https://bankless.cc/uniswap%E2%81%A0  

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 06:37 Takes on Friend.Tech 13:02 Good Or Bad For Crypto? 17:40 The SocialFi Narrative 20:17 S.M.E.L.L 23:23 Synthetix 27:55 Maker 35:34 Ether 41:26 Lido 47:10 ChainLink 50:48 Can They Outpace ETH? 56:35 Where's Uniswap 59:22 Solana? 1:01:29 Closing and Disclaimers ----- RESOURCES

Vance Spencer  https://twitter.com/pythianism 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 


Defiant

Yuga Labs To Block OpenSea After NFT Marketplace Abandons Royalty Enforcement

OpenSea Has Raked In Over $100M In Fees From Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, BAKC and Otherside NFTs
OpenSea Has Raked In Over $100M In Fees From Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, BAKC and Otherside NFTs

Coinbase Invests In USDC Issuer Circle

USDC Will Expand To Six New Chains; Centre Consortium To Dissolve
USDC Will Expand To Six New Chains; Centre Consortium To Dissolve

Greylock Partners

Securing AI

AI represents a new and unsecured risk surface area. As enterprises work to define their production roadmap for LLMs, security is rapidly becoming a top priority. The post Securing <span>AI</span> appeared first on Greylock.

The post Securing <span>AI</span> appeared first on Greylock.


Defiant

Balancer Discloses Critical Vulnerability With $33M At Risk

Team Warns Users To Withdraw Assets From Affected Liquidity Pools
Team Warns Users To Withdraw Assets From Affected Liquidity Pools

Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich on Friend Tech and You’re Not

We may well be in the depths of a bear market, but social trading app Friend.tech has been making waves since launching on base just two weeks ago. Youtubers have predictably released a barrage of videos on how to make a fortune overnight, but others are s...
We may well be in the depths of a bear market, but social trading app Friend.tech has been making waves since launching on base just two weeks ago. Youtubers have predictably released a barrage of videos on how to make a fortune overnight, but others are s...

Ethereum Layer 2 Throughput Hits Record High

Newer L2s Like Base and zkSync Era Continue To Gain Traction
Newer L2s Like Base and zkSync Era Continue To Gain Traction

friend.tech Closes In On Ethereum With $1.7M In Daily Fees

Paradigm’s Involvement and Airdrop Speculation Fuel Web3 Social Trading Platform’s Rapid Growth
Paradigm’s Involvement and Airdrop Speculation Fuel Web3 Social Trading Platform’s Rapid Growth

Monday, 21. August 2023

Defiant

Reimagining Work and Community: Unveiling the Cabin Lifestyle and Polycentric Governance

Today we're joined by the driving force behind a venture that has redefined the concept of modern travel and community: Jon Hillis, the founder of Cabin, a network city for remote workers in nature, who is actively working to grow a global network of neigh...
Today we're joined by the driving force behind a venture that has redefined the concept of modern travel and community: Jon Hillis, the founder of Cabin, a network city for remote workers in nature, who is actively working to grow a global network of neigh...

bankless

184 - Why Facebook’s Stablecoin Failed, with David Marcus

David Marcus started a company that was acquired by PayPal, he then became President of PayPal (running the company), then he joined Facebook as VP of the Messenger app, and that’s when he started Facebook’s Libra project. Currently, he’s the CEO and Co-founder of Lightspark, a company that builds out Bitcoin Lightning tech. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://ww

David Marcus started a company that was acquired by PayPal, he then became President of PayPal (running the company), then he joined Facebook as VP of the Messenger app, and that’s when he started Facebook’s Libra project. Currently, he’s the CEO and Co-founder of Lightspark, a company that builds out Bitcoin Lightning tech.

------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan & David unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-david-marcus 

----- From whitepaper to being summoned in front of Congress in 3 weeks…what really happened to Facebook’s stablecoin endeavors and what can we learn from it?

This episode is a post-mortem of Facebook’s highly ambitious crypto project from 2019. They tried to build a stablecoin but the U.S. government stopped it. 

Topics covered in today’s episode:  1) Facebook’s Libra project…why did it fail? Who tanked it? The U.S. gov? The banking lobby? Why can’t the West seem to innovate its banking systems? 2) Why SuperApps won’t work? 3) Why our David Marcus thinks the money layer of the internet will be built on crypto…but more specifically…on Bitcoin!

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 7:20 The Libra Project  9:10 Facebook’s Involvement  9:59 Super App Thesis 12:05 Getting Government Approval  14:39 Messaging & Payments Intersection  16:45 Releasing the White Paper  18:05 Libra’s Government Reaction   19:50 Summoned to Congress Experience 21:25 U.S. Crypto Competition  25:40 Government Money Power Structure  30:00 FedNow  42:40 Will Twitter/X Become a Super App? 48:18 Bear Case for Super App 51:42 Lightspark 54:35 Bitcoin vs. Stablecoins 58:15 Why Lightning Uses Bitcoin 1:06:25 Bitcoin vs. Ethereum 1:11:37 The Future in 5-10 Years  1:14:40 Closing & Disclaimers

----- RESOURCES

David Marcus  https://twitter.com/davidmarcus  

Lightspark https://twitter.com/Lightspark  

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠  


Brave Browser

Leo, Brave's browser-native AI assistant, is now available in Nightly version for testing

Today we're excited to announce that Leo, the AI assistant built natively in the Brave browser, is now available for testing and feedback in the Nightly desktop channel (starting with version 1.59).

Today we’re excited to announce that Leo, the AI assistant built natively in the Brave browser, is now available for testing and feedback in the Nightly desktop channel (starting with version 1.59).

Building on the success of the Brave Search AI Summarizer, we’ve made Leo available as a companion in the browser sidebar. Leo allows users to interact with the web pages they’re visiting—for example, by asking for video transcripts or interactive article summaries—without leaving the page itself. Leo can also suggest follow-up questions, augment original content, and even help with reading comprehension. Leo can answer questions just like other AI-powered chatbots, but directly within the experience of a web page.

What is Brave Leo?

Brave Leo is a chat assistant hosted by Brave without the use of third-party AI services, available to Brave users on the desktop Nightly channel. The model behind Leo is Llama 2, a source-available large language model released by Meta with a special focus on safety. We’ve made sure that user inputs are always submitted anonymously through a reverse-proxy to our inference infrastructure. In this way, Brave can offer an AI experience with unparalleled privacy.

We’ve specifically tuned the model prompt to adhere to Brave’s core values. However, as with any other LLM, the outputs of the model should be treated with care for potential inaccuracies or errors.

How to try Leo and share feedback

Leo is available today for all users of the Brave browser desktop Nightly channel. Nightly desktop users can access Leo via the button in Brave Sidebar.

Are you a Brave Nightly user? Please tell us what you think of Leo!

A note on anonymity

Leo is free to use for any desktop Nightly user, and no user login or account is required. Chats in Leo cannot be used for training purposes, and no one can review those conversations, as they’re not persisted on Brave’s servers—conversations are discarded immediately after the reply is generated. For this reason, there’s no way to review past conversations or delete that data—it isn’t stored in the first place.

What data does the Brave browser send?

If you use Leo, the browser shares with the server your latest query, your ongoing conversation history and, when the use case calls for it, only the necessary context from the page you’re actively viewing (e.g. the article’s text, or the YouTube video transcript).

How can I get better results out of Leo?

As with any AI, the more specific you are with your prompts and context, the better the results Leo can provide. Remember to give Leo clear, detailed instructions and, if you don’t get exactly the answer you’re looking for, to try wording your query/prompt a different way.

Does Leo have access to live information?

For now, Leo does not have access to live information. However, in future releases we do plan to offer a version of Leo with some level of access to current information. This will be powered by our own independent Brave Search.

What’s next for Brave Leo?

In addition to incorporating live information, we’ll be making improvements to Leo’s accuracy and user experience. We hope to release Leo to all Brave browser users in the coming months.

Saturday, 19. August 2023

bankless

David and Anthony Discuss the Crypto Meta

David speaks with Anthony from the Daily Gwei about the current crypto meta, price swings, and emerging narratives from around the Ethereum sphere. ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CR

David speaks with Anthony from the Daily Gwei about the current crypto meta, price swings, and emerging narratives from around the Ethereum sphere.

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ 📣 SAFE CORE | Smart Wallet Infrastructure https://safe.global/core 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 ⁠ 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum ⁠ 

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle ⁠ 

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- RESOURCES

Anthony Sassano  https://twitter.com/sassal0x 

Daily Gwei https://twitter.com/thedailygwei 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 


Defiant

Binance Bridge Hacker Hit By $30M Liquidation On Venus

BNB Chain Core Team Intervened Manually To Ease On-chain Volatility
BNB Chain Core Team Intervened Manually To Ease On-chain Volatility

Parallel’s PRIME Token Doubles After Beta Launch

Long-awaited NFT Trading Card Game Draws Praise From Community
Long-awaited NFT Trading Card Game Draws Praise From Community

Spark Protocol Users Max Out $200M DAI Debt Ceiling

Decentralized Stablecoin Sector Heats Up With crvUSD and GHO Growing Quickly
Decentralized Stablecoin Sector Heats Up With crvUSD and GHO Growing Quickly

Markets Crater After Weeks Of Sideways Action

Over $1B Of Leveraged Positions Were Liquidated On Thursday
Over $1B Of Leveraged Positions Were Liquidated On Thursday

THORChain Processes Record Volume After Introducing ‘Streaming Swaps’

RUNE Is Up 40% This Week With A Lending Platform Expected To Launch Within Days
RUNE Is Up 40% This Week With A Lending Platform Expected To Launch Within Days

Friday, 18. August 2023

Zcash Foundation

Opening Applications for the Second Round of Zcash Minor Grants

Earlier this year, we launched the Zcash Minor Grants program. Ten minor grant applications were submitted to a poll of the Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP), and four grants were approved. Feedback from the community was overwhelmingly positive. Therefore, we are today opening applications for a second round of the Minor Grants program. The maximum […] The post Opening Applications for the

Earlier this year, we launched the Zcash Minor Grants program. Ten minor grant applications were submitted to a poll of the Zcash Community Advisory Panel (ZCAP), and four grants were approved.

Feedback from the community was overwhelmingly positive. Therefore, we are today opening applications for a second round of the Minor Grants program.

The maximum grant size is $25,000, and the total budget for this round is $75,000. We will again be engaging the Zcash community, and taking advantage of the “wisdom of the crowd” by polling ZCAP regarding which grants should be funded.

If you are interested in submitting a Minor Grant application, please read this blog post carefully.

The Application Process

Applications must be submitted via the ZF grants platform, and applicants must agree to sign ZF’s grant agreement, and undergo the ZF KYC process if their application is successful.

The deadline to submit a grant application is 20:00 UTC on Monday 18th September.

ZF will review all applications, and will reject any grant applications that are deemed unsuitable (see the FAQs section below for examples of why ZF may judge a grant application to be unsuitable under this program). Suitable applications will then be submitted to a poll of ZCAP to determine which should be funded. Applicants who are members of ZCAP will not be eligible to participate in this poll. 

Applicants should feel free to submit a grant application in their native language. ZF will translate it to English (likely using an online tool, such as Google Translate) and make both the original and translated application available to ZCAP. 

We aim to publish the list of suitable grant applications, and open the ZCAP poll by 2nd October. The ZCAP poll will remain open for approximately two weeks, and we plan to announce the results on 16th October. We will keep applicants and the community apprised of any changes or delays to this timeline via the Zcash Community Forum. 

To be eligible for funding, a grant application must receive greater than 50% approval from the participants in the ZCAP poll. Eligible grants will then be funded in order of priority determined by the level of ZCAP’s approval, and as the total budget permits. There will be no partial funding of grants. 

Grant payments will be made in the form of shielded ZEC. Successful applicants will be required to provide a z-address or u-address. Approved grantees will also be required to submit KYC documents before receiving payment. 

Example of how the ZCAP poll will work

In the example below, ten suitable grant applications for varying amounts were voted on in a ZCAP poll that had a turnout of 134 with a $75,000 USD total budget.

Grant name Amount ZCAP Approval Votes ZCAP Approval (%) Eligible for funding? Funded? Cumulative funding Alpha $15,000 128 96% Yes Yes $15,000 Beta $9,000 127 95% Yes Yes $24,000 Gamma $1,200 109 81% Yes Yes $25,200 Delta $25,000 102 76% Yes Yes $50,200 Epsilon $20,000 97 72% Yes Yes $70,200 Zeta $18,000 91 68% Yes No - Theta $1,800 88 66% Yes Yes $72,000 Kappa $5,500 72 54% Yes No - Sigma $1,000 62 47% No - - Omega $12,000 57 43% No - -

In this example, the approval threshold to be eligible for funding would be 68 votes. 

The Zeta and Kappa grants would not be funded because there would be insufficient funding remaining in the budget (after funding grants with higher approval ratings) to fund those grants. 

However, the Theta grant would be funded because, while it achieved a lower approval rating than Zeta, it is small enough that it could be funded out of the remaining budget. 

The Sigma and Omega grants would not be eligible for funding because they failed to achieve a greater-than-50% approval rating in the ZCAP poll. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Zcash Foundation’s mission?

Our mission at the Zcash Foundation is to build financial privacy infrastructure for the public good, by helping sustain and improve open financial networks that allow anyone and everyone to protect their own privacy, on their own terms. While our primary focus is the Zcash protocol and blockchain, we also support broader applications of zero knowledge proofs, as well as other approaches to financial privacy.

 

Do grant applications have to be Zcash-related? 

No. Any project that aligns with the Zcash Foundation’s mission is suitable for the Minor Grants program. We would especially like to attract grant applications that are not directly Zcash-related but explore broader applications of zero knowledge proofs or other approaches to financial privacy, in line with our charitable purpose. 

 

How does the Minor Grants program relate to Zcash Community Grants?

The Minor Grants program is entirely separate from the Zcash Community Grants program (ZCG). ZCG is intended to fund Major Grants for teams that are carrying out large-scale, long-term projects. By contrast, the Minor Grants program is intended to provide a source of funding for smaller, more short-term grants for both teams and individuals. We also hope that the Minor Grants program can provide an opportunity for teams to demonstrate their ability to deliver on a Minor Grant before applying for a Major Grant. 

 

Under what circumstances would ZF reject a grant application as unsuitable?

Here are some examples of why ZF may reject a grant application:

The grant’s purpose is not congruent with the Foundation’s mission. The grant does not, in our estimation, represent value for money. We have reason to believe that the applicant is not capable of delivering on the grant. The purpose of the grant would violate U.S. law or contravene the Zcash Foundation’s obligations under U.S. IRS 501(c)(3).

 

Can applicants remain pseudonymous?

Applicants can keep their identity private but they must undergo the ZF KYC process if their application is successful, which includes disclosing and verifying their identity to ZF. 

 

Where is the funding for this program coming from?

This program is being funded by the Zcash Foundation, from its slice of the Dev Fund. 

 

My application to the ZCG program was rejected. Can I re-apply to the Minor Grants program?

Yes. 

 

Can current and former recipients of ZCG grants apply for a Minor Grant?

Yes. 

 

Can I submit multiple Minor Grant applications?

You may only submit one Minor Grant application at a time (i.e. per round). 

 

Can I specify multiple milestones as part of my grant?

No. There is no “milestone” option for Minor Grants. Grant payouts will either be paid upon award of the grant (i.e. up-front) or upon completion of the grant. Note that members of the Zcash Community Advisory Panel may look less favorably on applications that request up-front funding.

 

I have a question that’s not answered here.

You can post questions to this topic on the Zcash Community Forum. Alternatively, you can email minorgrants@zfnd.org

The post Opening Applications for the Second Round of Zcash Minor Grants appeared first on Zcash Foundation.


Epicenter Podcast

Sandeep Nailwal: Polygon 2.0 - The New Value Layer of the Internet?

What started out as Matic Network, in 2017, and later rebranded to Polygon, in 2021, it is now facing another major milestone: Polygon 2.0. Apart from a tokenomics update, their plans include building an aggregation layer for every scaling solution that will settle on Ethereum. This will not only provide crucial rollup interoperability, but it will also further offload Ethereum by recursively comb

What started out as Matic Network, in 2017, and later rebranded to Polygon, in 2021, it is now facing another major milestone: Polygon 2.0. Apart from a tokenomics update, their plans include building an aggregation layer for every scaling solution that will settle on Ethereum. This will not only provide crucial rollup interoperability, but it will also further offload Ethereum by recursively combining multiple proofs into a single one.

We were joined by Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, for a fascinating discussion on Polygon’s future revamp, their views on infrastructure decentralisation and interoperability.

Topics covered in this episode:

Sandeep’s background and the vision behind Matic Polygon 2.0 ZK rollup vs. Validium Multi-purpose sharding Tokenomics Staking decentralisation Interoperability The multi-chain future outlook Blockchain adoption and use cases

Episode links:

Sandeep Nailwal on Twitter Polygon on Twitter Polygon Labs on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Meher Roy & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/509


a16z Podcast

From Big Bang to James Webb: Exploring Space with Nobel Laureate John Mather

From artificial limbs to memory foam, many inventions have emerged from our quest to understand the cosmos.  In this episode we explore cosmic history, space's impact on technology, and the enduring human fascination with space exploration. To take us on this journey is astrophysicist John Mather, a Nobel Prize winner for his work on the COBE satellite and a key figure in the James Webb Spac

From artificial limbs to memory foam, many inventions have emerged from our quest to understand the cosmos. 

In this episode we explore cosmic history, space's impact on technology, and the enduring human fascination with space exploration. To take us on this journey is astrophysicist John Mather, a Nobel Prize winner for his work on the COBE satellite and a key figure in the James Webb Space Telescope project.

Prepare to be intrigued and left with a sense of wonder about the universe's influence on our world.

 

Topics Covered:

00:00 –  Innovations through the pursuit of space

03:52– John’s early life 

06:44 – Proving The Big Bang Theory 

13:30 – The mysteries of quantum mechanics

15:10 –  Leading the James Webb Telescope

17:12 – Images from James Webb

20:32 – Are we alone? 

24:20 – New telescopes

25:18 – Engineering in space for earth

29:31 –  What would you like to see solved in your lifetime?

32:24 – What came before The Big Bang? 

25:04 – Misconceptions about space

37:17 – Can humans be a multiplanetary species?

38:20 - Private vs public spending in space

40:24 – What’s the future of space exploration?

 

Resources:

COBE satellite imagery: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/cobe_20th.html Images from the James Webb Telescope: https://webbtelescope.org/images Exoplanet transmission spectrum: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/032/01G72VSFW756JW5SXWV1HYMQK4

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain


Nym - Medium

How to use Telegram in Iraq with NymConnect

Iraq recently blocked (and then un-blocked) Telegram in the country. Here’s how citizens can connect to Telegram via the Nym mixnet. This is a Nym Community post by privacy researcher Saliveja. Languages: Française // Русский Earlier this month, the telecoms ministry of Iraq blocked Telegram, claiming that it violated the integrity of Iraqi citizens’ data by allowing private informati

Iraq recently blocked (and then un-blocked) Telegram in the country. Here’s how citizens can connect to Telegram via the Nym mixnet.

This is a Nym Community post by privacy researcher Saliveja.

Languages: Française // Русский

Earlier this month, the telecoms ministry of Iraq blocked Telegram, claiming that it violated the integrity of Iraqi citizens’ data by allowing private information to remain on the platform without their consent.

This week the service was restored following conversations with Telegram, which complied with the ministry’s requests.

The situation in Iraq demonstrated just how quickly the basic web services people rely on can be switched off and on, stifling communication. With NymConnect, citizens can always access Telegram via the Nym mixnet no matter the state of the political situation. Here’s how:

Privacy-enhanced Telegram

This was not the first time Iraq has banned applications or cut the internet. During the 2019 protests, Iraq banned applications such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, while internet access was also shut down to curtail organisation and prevent reporting. The Iraqi government has advanced its technological capabilities over the years, and this has been used to suppress dissent.

The purpose of the following manual is not to promote Telegram but so citizens can use it with the Nym mixnet if they wish to, should a situation like this occur again.

NymConnect is a one-click interface enabling you to privacy-enhance everyday applications by running them through the Nym mixnet. This privacy-enhances Telegram at the network level and allows users to access the application from locations like Iraq.

See also: Element (Matrix) over the Nym mixnet: private, decentralised and secure messaging

Configure Telegram with NymConnect on desktop: Download and install NymConnect. For more releases, check out Github. NymConnect is available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS. On Linux make sure NymConnect is executable. To do this, open a terminal in the same directory and run: chmod +x ./<YOUR-NYM-CONNECT-VERSION>.AppImage Start NymConnect

Telegram is added to NymConnect by default.

Click connect — the host and port will now be displayed. Open Telegram’s proxy settings.

Linux: Telegram -> Settings -> Advanced -> Connection type -> Use custom proxy

MacOS: Telegram -> Settings -> Advanced -> Data & Storage -> Connection Type -> Use custom Proxy

Windows: Telegram -> Settings -> Data and Storage -> Use proxy

Add a proxy with the Add proxy button. Select SOCKS5 and make sure the port details are the same as those generated by NymConnect. Alternatively, follow this link: https://t.me/socks?server=127.0.0.1&port=1080 Save the proxy settings in Telegram.

Telegram is now running through the Nym mixnet and is privacy-enhanced!

This allows you to connect from regions which have blocked Telegram.

Note: if you remain idle on Telegram for a while you might lose connectivity and your messages might not get through via the SOCKS5 proxy. If that happens, reconnect NymConnect and reset the proxy again.

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

How to use Telegram in Iraq with NymConnect was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


bankless

ROLLUP: Friend.Tech | SBF to Jail | SEC vs Coinbase

WRU 3rd Week Of August ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask  ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum 

WRU 3rd Week Of August ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE ⁠https://bankless.cc/uniswap  

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 3:46 MARKETS 4:52 L2 Beat Check https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary  5:44 US GDP Aint Bad https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/atlanta-fed-model-lifts-us-third-quarter-gdp-view-58-2023-08-16/  8:38 Base Activity UP https://l2beat.com/scaling/projects/base  13:51 Permissionless Party! https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1141000052253397112/1141127988935655485/BK_invite.jpg?width=1620&height=2096  18:00 Friend.Tech https://twitter.com/BanklessHQ/status/1690137625414569986?s=20  https://twitter.com/_ThePinkyToe/status/1691818070317081080?s=20  https://twitter.com/0xfoobar/status/1689961952007561216  24:36 FriendMEX https://friendmex.com/  https://twitter.com/nnnnicholas/status/1691591282395619686?t=aB2QdT8F3LV0pNh1rZCCDA&s=19  31:31 SEC vs. Coinbase https://dailyhodl.com/2023/08/14/blockchain-association-supports-coinbase-in-amicus-brief-filing-says-sec-short-circuiting-legislative-process/  https://twitter.com/MetaLawMan/status/1690355411373772800  35:36 SBF In Jail https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939/gov.uscourts.nysd.590939.200.0.pdf  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-existence-is-pretty-bleak-the-harsh-conditions-sam-bankman-fried-will-face-behind-bars-202511231.html  https://twitter.com/MetaLawMan/status/1691200324269228032  41:37 Fraud Proofs! Do they matter? https://twitter.com/MattFiebach/status/1691600391635427360?s=20  https://twitter.com/koeppelmann/status/1690395159538634753?s=20  https://twitter.com/DCbuild3r/status/1691610447663735288?s=20  50:21 Gitcoin partnered with Shell https://twitter.com/gitcoin/status/1691092823872073728  https://imgur.com/ekdl7LP  https://twitter.com/owocki/status/1691488210315288576  54:56 CoW Swap releases TWAP orders https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1692152855694803112?s=20  56:07 Visa testing onchain payments https://twitter.com/digitalmustafa/status/1689741716084215809?s=20  58:24 Argentina's Pro Crypto Candidate https://www.thestreet.com/cryptocurrency/argentina-pro-bitcoin-candidate-javier-milei  1:00:05 Donald Trump's Crypto Wallet https://twitter.com/ArkhamIntel/status/1691875444809781337?s=20  1:01:59 3AC in trouble again https://twitter.com/CoinDesk/status/1691791478815641859?s=20  1:03:38 Bankless Airdrop Hunter! https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT  1:09:26 BitGo Raises https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/08/16/bitgo-raises-100m-after-scrapping-prime-trust-deal-bloomberg/  1:12:35 Questions from the Nation https://discord.com/channels/615592155481767941/1058053004705669211/1138917318899027988  1:17:54 Takes Of The Week https://twitter.com/pythianism/status/1690106630610829312?s=46  1:20:10 What Are We Bullish On 1:25:21 Meme Of The Week https://twitter.com/josephdelong/status/1691961456491639022?s=20  1:26:40 Outro and Disclosures ----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠   


Defiant

Wintermute Proposal To Borrow YFI Draws Fire From DeFi Community

CEO Evgeny Gaevoy Insists Deal Would Benefit All Parties
CEO Evgeny Gaevoy Insists Deal Would Benefit All Parties

Coinbase Wins Approval To Offer Crypto Futures To US Clients

Bitcoin and Ether Futures Will Be Supported At Launch
Bitcoin and Ether Futures Will Be Supported At Launch

Thursday, 17. August 2023

Defiant

Bitcoin Hits Two-Month Low Under $28,000

Investors Shed Risk Assets As Hawkish Fed Minutes Send Government Bond Yields To 15-Year Highs
Investors Shed Risk Assets As Hawkish Fed Minutes Send Government Bond Yields To 15-Year Highs

The Rise & Fall of Decentralized Finance

Is DeFi dead? With dwindling trading volumes, disappearing users, and declining value deposited in DeFi apps, it's a question many are asking. By the end of today’s video, you’ll be better equipped than MOST to answer it. We’ve come a long way since th...
Is DeFi dead? With dwindling trading volumes, disappearing users, and declining value deposited in DeFi apps, it's a question many are asking. By the end of today’s video, you’ll be better equipped than MOST to answer it. We’ve come a long way since th...

Dexalot Awarded $3M Grant By Avalanche Foundation

AVAX Tokens Will Be Distributed As Trading Rewards If Orderbook-based DEX Hits Volume Milestones Over The Next 12 Months
AVAX Tokens Will Be Distributed As Trading Rewards If Orderbook-based DEX Hits Volume Milestones Over The Next 12 Months

bankless

David's Takes: A Hitchhiker's Guide to Riding an MEV Bot

Welcome to David's takes. A new format with David and RSA where we explore David's weekly articles in 30 minutes or less. This week, we’re diving into one gigantic metaphor. Ethereum as a reserviour of liquidity. So sit back, relax, and enjoy "A Hitchhiker's Guide to Riding an MEV Bot". Read David's article here: https://www.bankless.com/a-hitchhikers-guide-to-riding-an-mev-bot/  If yo

Welcome to David's takes. A new format with David and RSA where we explore David's weekly articles in 30 minutes or less.

This week, we’re diving into one gigantic metaphor. Ethereum as a reserviour of liquidity. So sit back, relax, and enjoy "A Hitchhiker's Guide to Riding an MEV Bot".

Read David's article here: https://www.bankless.com/a-hitchhikers-guide-to-riding-an-mev-bot/ 

If you're looking for a more technical explanation check out our recent episode with Dan Robinson: https://youtu.be/h4gzZib0j48 

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2   ⁠ 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask  

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum   ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

🦄UNISWAP | ON-CHAIN MARKETPLACE https://bankless.cc/uniswap%E2%81%A0   

👾STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader  ----- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:00 Why did David Write This? 6:17 A Reserviour of Liquidity 9:25 The Ships Metaphor 13:36 Offchain Signed Orders 17:17 Intents 22:07 Dutch Auctions 24:06 Impications Of This? 28:25 How This Impacts Bridges 30:30 What's Left To Unpack? 33:15 Closings And Disclaimers ----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures


Zaisan

Why NFTs Without Utility are Worthless

In the ever-changing world of digital assets, there’s a simple truth: NFTs without a purpose are basically worthless. As NFTs continue to make waves and redefine ownership, one key factor sets apart the impactful from the forgettable – utility. Just like a strong foundation supports a tall building, utility gives NFTs a solid footing, turning […] The post Why NFTs Without Utility are Worthless a

In the ever-changing world of digital assets, there’s a simple truth: NFTs without a purpose are basically worthless. As NFTs continue to make waves and redefine ownership, one key factor sets apart the impactful from the forgettable – utility. Just like a strong foundation supports a tall building, utility gives NFTs a solid footing, turning them from a short-lived hype into powerful tools for creativity, connection, and progress.

In this article we will take a look at the different types of utility an NFT can have and how this contributes to the value of an NFT.

Key takeaways NFTs derive their value from the utility they provide, rather than having an inherent value Utility in NFTs can come in many forms, such as digital art and collectibles, memberships and access, loyalty rewards, asset ownership, and more The value of an NFT is affected by (changes) in the value of the underlying utility. As the utility evolves, the value of the NFT may fluctuate, emphasising the importance of assessing long-term viability and potential growth The ecosystem in which an NFT resides is a key contributor to its success or failure Understanding NFTs and their characteristics

To understand what gives an NFT value it is important to first take a look at what NFTs are exactly. In essence, an NFT is nothing more than a certain token on a certain blockchain that holds some data. This token can be sold, held, and traded, and whatever data it holds is up to its creator. This should make it obvious that the NFT itself has no inherent value. Its value comes from the utility the creator or community attaches to it.

But what does utility mean in this context? It means that the NFT should give the holder the ability to do something with it in a specific ecosystem, ranging from utility in a big metaverse to utility in a small restaurant. And the specific utility can be very broad as well, ranging from the ability to use a tokenised in-game item in a certain game, to gaining exclusive access to a certain event. And since everything is easily verifiable and accessible on a blockchain, anybody or any ecosystem can add utility to (a certain set of) NFTs at any time. Tomorrowland NFT holders could for example get special discounts on Lollapalooza tickets. This ability to add a diverse range of utilities to an NFT, along with easily verifiable ownership and their transparent nature has opened up many opportunities.

Now you have a better understanding of what gives an NFT value and what utility in an NFT context means, let’s take a look at different kinds of utility that can be attached to an NFT.

Different types of NFT utility

As already mentioned, NFTs can get their value from a variety of different types of utility. We have summarised the 4 main types of NFT utility and will describe each of them below:

Ability to collect Providing access Rewarding loyalty Asset tokenisation Ability to collect

One of the key ways NFTs gain value is through collecting and owning digital art and collectibles. It’s a lot like the joy people get from collecting physical things, whether it’s art, cards, or other treasures. But with NFTs, there’s a modern twist – they live on the blockchain. Think of it like owning a piece of digital art that’s securely stored online. This similarity brings a similar kind of fun – the excitement of collecting, the satisfaction of completing a set, or having something really unique. Plus, NFTs can also be seen as investments, with their prices going up and down over time. And, there’s a social aspect too. Collectors can connect with each other, just like people who share a love for collecting physical items.

The blockchain part makes digital collecting even cooler. Even though you can’t hold NFTs like physical objects (although you can display your NFTs in a digital frame!), you can easily prove they’re real, trade them with others from anywhere in the world, and even use them in different online places, like games. Furthermore, the digital world opens up new opportunities. It gives you a chance to do things with your collectibles that would not be possible in the ‘real world’, like combining and staking your collectibles.

In some cases, an NFT can also represent a digital twin of a physical and tangible item, further blurring the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds. However, we will explain this further in the asset tokenisation section below.

Providing access

Another way NFTs bring value is by providing access. This can be access to anything, ranging from access to a certain membership, to a certain subscription, or perhaps access to exclusive events or experiences.

These kinds of NFTs come in various shapes and sizes, ranging from membership NFTs offered by the famous Tomorrowland festival, which give holders access to exclusive raffles, tours, festival tickets, and more, to NFT subscription boxes which give holders special NFTs on a monthly basis. Another great example are the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, which essentially serve as entry tickets to the BAYC ecosystem.

Within this category of NFTs the specific utility that an NFT offers varies a lot depending on the party offering the NFT. However, it always boils down to specific access in a certain way.

Rewarding loyalty

Unlike NFTs focused on providing utility by providing certain access that are typically bought, loyalty reward NFTs are earned, typically through ongoing engagement. The utility lies in the added value they bring to holders’ experiences, creating a sense of exclusivity and pride among the loyal community. And for businesses, it is an innovative way to leverage web3 technologies to increase customer loyalty.

The adoption of NFTs for loyalty rewards introduces numerous advantages over traditional loyalty programs. Unlike conventional loyalty schemes that are often limited to a single company, NFT-based loyalty programs have the potential to facilitate collaborations between multiple businesses. For example, multiple businesses in a certain area, or various businesses in the same industry. This opens the door to more diverse and appealing rewards that can be redeemed within a broader ecosystem, further enhancing customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Moreover, NFT loyalty rewards bring a higher level of flexibility. Unlike traditional loyalty points or perks, NFTs are tradable assets, enabling customers to access a marketplace where they can buy, sell, or exchange rewards. This feature empowers customers to maximise the value of their loyalty programme participation. Unwanted or duplicate rewards can be converted into money or points, granting customers greater control over their loyalty benefits.

With increased adoption of NFTs in loyalty programs, customers are set to enjoy richer, more personalised experiences, while companies benefit from heightened brand loyalty and deeper customer relationships. And in terms of utility, the better the rewards, the greater the utility of loyalty reward NFTs for customers and companies alike.

Asset tokenisation

The last type of utility is by far the broadest category and it refers to the ability to tokenise any asset, either physical or digital, and tangible or intangible. This asset usually already has a certain type of utility, but by using NFTs to tokenise them they get even greater utility.

We will take a deeper look at how that works and what is possible. It is important to first understand the difference between the tokenisation of an asset using fungible tokens, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Let’s take a hotel as an example. Let’s say you want to tokenise the hotel rooms of a hotel, and want token holders to receive part of the revenue that these hotel rooms generate. One of the ways in which that could be done is using fungible tokens. In this case you could create a certain amount of tokens, for example 1000, and then every token would receive 1/1000 of the total revenue from the hotel rooms. This is an example of using fungible tokens to tokenise something.

Another way in which this could be done is by tokenising each specific room. In this case, every token would be unique and represent a specific room in the hotel. Each token would then earn (part of) the revenue generated by the room represented by the NFT they hold. This is an example of using non-fungible tokens to tokenise something, and what we will focus on in this section.

The utility of tokenised assets extends far beyond their non-tokenised counterparts. By leveraging NFTs, these assets can unlock numerous advantages, such as fractional ownership, granting more people access to valuable assets, increased liquidity as they can be easily traded on various marketplaces. As well as heightened transparency through the immutable nature of the blockchain, and reduced transaction costs compared to traditional intermediaries. And in addition to these points, the underlying asset, as well as any rights or claims tied to the NFT, are of course key in determining its value and utility.

Conclusion

NFTs have emerged as a game-changer in the digital world, thanks to their wide applicability. Furthermore, their value lies in their utility, and this utility can be anything, ranging from the ability to collect to providing access to a wide range of experiences, subscriptions, and memberships.

In the ever-evolving NFT landscape, the value of these digital assets hinges on the ecosystem in which they reside. A focus on tangible utility and long-term viability is critical to weather market fluctuations and ensure sustained success. As the market matures, NFTs continue to expand into new industries, creating unique opportunities for creators, collectors, and businesses.

The transformative potential of NFTs is boundless, offering novel ways to interact with and monetise digital content, democratise ownership of valuable assets, and to foster deeper connections between brands and their customers. As time moves forward, the fusion of creativity, technology, and utility in the NFT space promises to reshape ownership paradigms and unlock endless possibilities in the digital age. Embracing this transformative potential, we step into an era where NFTs redefine value, ownership, and the way we engage with the digital world.

The post Why NFTs Without Utility are Worthless appeared first on Zaisan.


Defiant

Shibarium Botches Launch With Bridged ETH Unrecoverable

Users Of Layer 2 Network From Shiba Inu Face Stuck Transactions
Users Of Layer 2 Network From Shiba Inu Face Stuck Transactions

Wednesday, 16. August 2023

Defiant

Singapore Finalizes Regulatory Framework For Stablecoins

Hong Kong and Singapore Vie For Regional Crypto Hub Status
Hong Kong and Singapore Vie For Regional Crypto Hub Status

Sei Network Launches Token and Mainnet Beta

Community Fumes Over Miniscule Airdrop As Layer-1 Blockchain Trades At $2B Valuation
Community Fumes Over Miniscule Airdrop As Layer-1 Blockchain Trades At $2B Valuation

PayPal Teams Up With Ledger On Fiat Onramp For US Users

Global Payments Firm Launched Ethereum-based Stablecoin Last Week
Global Payments Firm Launched Ethereum-based Stablecoin Last Week

Linea Completes Public Mainnet Rollout

Users Can Now Bridge ERC-20 Tokens To Consensys’ Layer 2 Network
Users Can Now Bridge ERC-20 Tokens To Consensys’ Layer 2 Network

Urbit

Reassembly 2023

Tacen is proud to host Reassembly 2023 in Cheyenne, WY! Join us August 16-18 for focused discussions and exciting presentations on clean-slate OS, next-generation networks, and the future of modern computing. We will be bringing world-class experts to present their big ideas and new breakthroughs regarding all things related to the Urbit universe. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind chance to see everyo
Tacen is proud to host Reassembly 2023 in Cheyenne, WY! Join us August 16-18 for focused discussions and exciting presentations on clean-slate OS, next-generation networks, and the future of modern computing. We will be bringing world-class experts to present their big ideas and new breakthroughs regarding all things related to the Urbit universe. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind chance to see everyone gathered all in one place. Breakfast, lunch and refreshments provided for attendees. Details on accommodations group rates, schedules, and online viewership to follow. Confirmed speakers: [~hodzod-walrus](https://urbit.org/ids/~hodzod-walrus), [~harden-hardys](https://urbit.org/ids/~harden-hardys), [~littel-wolfur](https://urbit.org/ids/~littel-wolfur), [~dachus-tiprel](https://urbit.org/ids/~dachus-tiprel), [~nomryg-nilref](https://urbit.org/ids/~nomryg-nilref) and more to come! ![Screenshot](https://storage.googleapis.com/media.urbit.org/site/events/FwSOS1vXsAIgmZc.jpeg)

bankless

DeSci: How Blockchains are Powering Science 3.0 | Zuzalu #7

In this episode, we delve into the world of DeSci, or Decentralized Science, which serves as a bridge between technologies like Synthetic Biology, Longevity, and Ethereum. DeSci aims to revolutionize the current scientific system, highlighting its flaws such as friction, corruption, and outdated practices. By utilizing blockchain technology, DeSci seeks to improve scientific institutions and proce

In this episode, we delve into the world of DeSci, or Decentralized Science, which serves as a bridge between technologies like Synthetic Biology, Longevity, and Ethereum. DeSci aims to revolutionize the current scientific system, highlighting its flaws such as friction, corruption, and outdated practices. By utilizing blockchain technology, DeSci seeks to improve scientific institutions and processes.

The conversation with pioneers Boris Dyakov and Mikey Fischer sheds light on the vast potential of DeSci and its ability to transform scientific progress. It goes beyond mere improvement, presenting a paradigm shift in the way science is conducted. The second conversation with Alok Tayi of VibeBio illustrates a fascinating use case for using DeSci to solve diseases that are underserved in TradSci.

DeSci envisions open and modular scientific data, akin to the accessibility of financial tools in the blockchain world. Additionally, the emergence of DAOs in DeSci brings opportunities for capital allocation and funding clinical trials. Join us on this exploration of the frontier of Scientific Progress, where traditional and decentralized science collide.

------ Timestamps

0:00 Intro 1:30 Scientific Progress

5:30 BORIS & MIKEY 8:50 Overcoming TradSci 13:00 Open Science 16:25 VitaDAO 19:00 What is DeSci? 23:23 Bullish on Science 28:30 Onboarding Scientists 34:00 The New Infrastructure 35:00 AI and Science

43:00 ALOK TAYI 44:10 Vibe Bio 47:00 The Long Tail of Disease 52:00 Inflection Points 54:00 Solving Disease 59:45 The Power of DAOs 1:07:45 Governance and Structure 1:11:30 The Crypto Value Add 1:14:00 Regulation 1:19:00 A New Primitive

------ Resources

Boris Dyakov https://twitter.com/BJ_Dyakov?s=20

Mikey Fischer https://twitter.com/0xMikeyF?s=20

Alok Tayi https://twitter.com/aloktayi?s=20

DeSci Ethereum Foundation https://ethereum.org/en/desci/

Gitcoin DeSci Fund https://bounties.gitcoin.co/grants/5105/the-decentralized-science-community-fund

Vibe Bio https://www.vibebio.com/

------ Not financial or tax advice. Bankless content is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time we may add links in this newsletter to products we use. We may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless team hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.


Defiant

Bitcoin and Ether Hold Up Amid Market Selloff

Crypto Market Maker GSR Scales Back Operations
Crypto Market Maker GSR Scales Back Operations

Vitalik Buterin

What do I think about Community Notes?

Tuesday, 15. August 2023

Panther Protocol

Enabling compliance while preserving privacy: Panther’s compliance integrations explained

Panther is pioneering privacy-preserving access to DeFi while enabling new compliance mechanisms. Here’s how.

The Web3 ecosystem almost unanimously agrees on the benefit of users preserving their privacy while retaining permissionless access to distributed ledger technology.

This shared understanding, however, tends to face an equally strong pushback (particularly from regulatory authorities) when we are reminded that privacy, without checks and balances, can become a shield for illicit activities. Indeed, the purpose of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is not to enable criminal actors to surpass Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) regulations or to find a way around sanctions. Rather, permissionless tools are preferred by the Web3 ecosystem based on its initial ideology, centered on the pursuit of individual freedoms and the attempt to decentralize currency and eliminate intermediaries on the Web.

For most people, privacy and compliance seem to be at odds. However, the latest technological advances, such as zero-knowledge proofs, are paving the way for innovation. Combining these technologies with an approach based on ZK disclosures and decentralizing access to compliance, Panther is pioneering privacy-preserving access to DeFi while enabling new compliance mechanisms.

Here's how.

Understanding risks and challenges

To avoid a scenario where a malicious actor can exploit the protocol to commit crimes, it's important to first understand the different regulations, their purpose, and the risks a privacy-preserving solution needs to address.

Some of the most important regulations are:

Conceptualizing a solution

Considering the difficulties in developing a decentralized solution that preserves privacy and enables compliance, Panther designed an approach that utilizes three essential components. These elements collectively form a pathway to achieve compliance by leveraging the protocol's zero-knowledge characteristics.

Panther's solution is based on:

Third-party compliance vendor integrations

Panther has built a system that retains neutrality by integrating compliance providers that accept multiple types of verification. These systems are called "multi-compliance vendors" as they allow users to choose from various compliance providers while retaining a decentralized approach.

At v1, there will be just one verification level available for all users.

The Panther DAO has been commissioned to select a multi-compliance vendor that aligns with its interests, a discussion taking place in Panther's forum. When integrating these providers, the following requirements are taken into consideration:

Ability to blacklist PEPs or newly flagged individuals based on unverified identities. Blacklists for verified EoAs. Ability to perform checks to create an "allowlist" that works on- and off-chain. Preferably, maintaining an on-chain verification list through oracles/smart contracts. Performing validations at deposit and withdrawal. Optionally, allowing users to register multiple addresses. This is suggested so that users can break the on-chain link between their transactions by withdrawing and depositing from different addresses. Optionally, using a zero-knowledge proof to allow users to create new accounts once they have passed verification.

Within Panther's solution, compliance providers need to be able to process users' data without the protocol learning it, proving a user's ownership of their wallet and giving them a zero-knowledge proof that attests to the validity of their statements. This allows users to access Panther but maintains the protocol's neutrality. The diagram below exemplifies this process:

Panther's flow for user verifications. zAccounts
Once they complete the verification process with a multi-compliance vendor, users can create a zero-knowledge zAccount.

Within Panther, users are identified through their zAccount, a concept similar to a bank account in that it englobes all of a user's transactions within a single reference point. zAccounts attest to users' compliance verification while retaining zero-knowledge properties. In other words, they prove that a user has passed verification (and the type of verification passed), but they do not store any private information about users.

As you saw in the diagram above, Panther is interested in allowing users to have multiple accounts for withdrawals and depositing, all of which would be connected to their zAccount. This would prevent users from creating obvious, observable on-chain links between their public wallets and zAccounts.

Zones
When creating a zAccount, users are onboarded onto a Zone with particular specifications.

Although they primarily serve a different purpose (which will be covered in an upcoming article), Zones also play a part in the design of Panther's compliance integrations.

This is because Panther's overall compliance solution covers multiple Zones. Zones are logical partitions of liquidity within Shielded Pools, each managed by a different ZM (Zone Manager). ZMs can determine what compliance information their Zones require from users and control the integration of specific compliance vendors into their Zones to fit their particular goals.

The requirements ZMs set for users, the types of verifications these users undergo, and other factors related to Zones also influence users' transaction limits, the types of movements they're allowed to do, and other variables. As such, Zones are also vital in Panther's design to enable compliance.

Conclusion

With a first-of-its-kind approach to zero-knowledge DeFi access with enabled compliance, Panther attempts to create a new approach to DeFi for institutions and retail users alike. The protocol's unique architecture offers a comprehensive solution for regulated entities to function in the DeFi space while remaining neutral at a protocol level.

Panther has also given much thought to flexibility, enhancing the possibilities for users and Zone Managers. The protocol is committed to aligning the needs of users, regulators, and institutions in the DeFi space. Its vision puts users in control of who views their data while remaining able to comply with regulations, two characteristics previously never combined in the DeFi space.

About Panther

Panther is a cross-protocol layer that uses zero-knowledge technology to build DeFi solutions that meet regulatory requirements and satisfy users' on-chain data privacy needs. The goal of Panther is to allow seamless access to DeFi and create a cross-chain-supported architecture that serves different use cases. Panther's zero-knowledge primitives are also generalizable to KYC, selective disclosures between trusted parties, private ID, voting, and data verification services.

Website · One-pager · Lite Paper · Twitter · Telegram · Discord


Defiant

Gitcoin’s Collaboration With Shell Angers Crypto Community

Oil Giant Will Contribute To Climate Rounds For The Next Four Quarters, GTC Drops 8%
Oil Giant Will Contribute To Climate Rounds For The Next Four Quarters, GTC Drops 8%

Nym - Medium

Help build censorship resistance with the Nym censorship test!

A new test will help Nym core team gauge if the Nym mixnet is being censored — and if so, how to fight it. Governments everywhere are attacking freedom of information. To keep the Nym mixnet operational in the face of future attacks or shut-offs, it’s critical that censorship resistance is built into the very fabric of the mixnet and continuously improved. In order to understand the current

A new test will help Nym core team gauge if the Nym mixnet is being censored — and if so, how to fight it.

Governments everywhere are attacking freedom of information. To keep the Nym mixnet operational in the face of future attacks or shut-offs, it’s critical that censorship resistance is built into the very fabric of the mixnet and continuously improved. In order to understand the current level of censorship, the Nym core team has built a censorship measurement test. Community members are strongly encouraged to download and run the test, and share their results!

Languages: Русский // Türkçe // 中文 // Française // Tiếng Việt // 日本

The Nym mixnet is a global, decentralised, trustless, layer-0 infrastructure for the private internet. It obscures network traffic from observers, and allows users to communicate securely and access information free from interference. However, this infrastructure only has value provided people can actually use it.

The Nym mixnet splits data into equally sized, encrypted packets before dispersing these via ‘hops’ through nodes all over the planet and decrypting them at the receiving end. This is a powerful privacy-preserving feature. But it is possible that observers can mark this traffic as unusual, and respond by blocking or limiting access to the parts of the network they suspect are tied to Nym.

The purpose of this Censorship Measurement test is to ascertain if any part of the Nym mixnet is currently being blocked by governments and, if so, how they are doing it.

Built with Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) software, gathering this data will lay the groundwork for fighting back against censorship today while building a more censorship-resistant mixnet tomorrow.

Download the repository here. Read on for how to run it:

How to run the Nym Censorship Measurement Test

Two tests are included in the repository.

The first test evaluates connectivity to the validator API, a step that allows users to access the Nym network. The validator API allows the Nym client to retrieve crucial information like the list of active relay nodes, gateways, network topology, and the necessary credentials for access.

Once this initial test has successfully fetched the list of available gateways, a second test determines that gateways can be reached.

Because the Nym mixnet works by routing packets through a gateway before they can enter the mixnet, users need to connect to at least one gateway.

To run the test, first, ensure that both docker and docker-compose are installed. If you don’t have docker or docker-compose, then you can download Docker Desktop here, which contains both.

Download and extract the Nym CensorshipMeasurements repository.

To start the test, make sure Docker Desktop is running and open your Command Line Interface.

Navigate to wherever you extracted the CensorshipMeasurements folder with the command:

cd CensorshipMeasurements

With Docker running, enter the following into the command line:

docker-compose up

This will build the image, compile the binaries for the test, and run the test.

Results will be found in the CensorshipMeasurements folder in /results in the report.jsonl file.

To build the image again, you can enter the following in your command line instead:

docker-compose up -- build

And that’s all.

NOTE: If the docker-compose up command returns a ‘Docker daemon’ error, this means that you forgot to open your Docker Desktop application before running the command.

Share your report to build global censorship resistance

Please share your report.jsonl file with Nym via email or in the General channel of the Nym Matrix server! Be sure to indicate which country the measurement was taken in.

It’s extremely important that Nym community members and operators submit this data so that the core team can analyse if the mixnet is being blocked and where.

If Nym is being blocked, the core team will analyse how this is taking place and take steps to build more censorship resistance into the mixnet.

It is probable that censorship resistance with the Nym mixnet will be a continuous process, like a game of cat and mouse.

But in order to understand how to circumvent censorship as it occurs, Nym first has to know that it’s taking place and how it’s happening, so download and run the Nym Censorship Measurement test today!

Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Help build censorship resistance with the Nym censorship test! was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


bankless

Tim Beiko & Justin Drake: The Sci-fi Roadmap to Ethereum

In today’s podcast, Justin Drake and Tim Beiko help us explore Ethereum's uncharted roadmap.  You know about EIP-4844. You know about Proposer-Builder Separation. But the Ethereum roadmap does not stop there. It continues! Each component of the Ethereum roadmap has deeper frontiers than what you may be familiar with. 4844, PBS, these are just the first stops on a longer track of Ethereum’s

In today’s podcast, Justin Drake and Tim Beiko help us explore Ethereum's uncharted roadmap. 

You know about EIP-4844. You know about Proposer-Builder Separation. But the Ethereum roadmap does not stop there. It continues! Each component of the Ethereum roadmap has deeper frontiers than what you may be familiar with. 4844, PBS, these are just the first stops on a longer track of Ethereum’s Sci-Fi roadmap. 

Other areas Justin, Tim, and David explore statelessness, how VCs are subsidizing Ethereum L1 R&D efforts, enshrined rollups, how all of this stuff leads to Ethereum needing fewer and fewer honest actors to work trustlessly, what quantum computing has to do with the Ethereum roadmap, trustless mempools and so much more. 

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is HERE, join your first HUNT today https://bankless.cc/JoinYourFirstHUNT

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🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 5:50 Ethereum Roadmap Completion 8:30 Immediate Dev Priorities  9:50 Danksharding & Rollups as 1st Class Citizens   11:50 Why Prioritize L2s  14:50 Snarkifying the EVM  17:39 Enshrined Rollup Use Cases   20:00 EVM to zkEVM 24:48 Summary So Far  27:15 EIP-4844  28:25 Proposer-Builder Separation 37:37 MEV Burn 40:38 Statelessness  43:33 Cryptography vs. Crypto Economics  45:00 Quantum Mechanics 50:25 Statelessness Ethereum Unlock 53:10 Cryptography & Sustainability  55:55 Closing & Disclaimers 

----- RESOURCES

Justin Drake  https://twitter.com/drakefjustin  

Tim Beiko https://twitter.com/TimBeiko   

Ethereum Discord  https://discord.gg/CetY6Y4  

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠ 


Defiant

y00ts NFT Collection to Migrate to Ethereum

y00ts Will Join Sister Collection DeGods And Return Polygon Grant
y00ts Will Join Sister Collection DeGods And Return Polygon Grant

Binance To Launch opBNB Layer 2 Network Later This Month

Early Users Can Claim Genesis NFT
Early Users Can Claim Genesis NFT

Verida

Revolutionizing Gaming: Verida and Gamer31 Join Forces to Provide Privacy Centric Gaming…

Verida and Gamer31 Join Forces to Provide Privacy Centric Gaming Experiences Revolutionizing Gaming: Verida and Gamer31 Join Forces to Provide Privacy Centric Gaming Experiences We’re thrilled to unveil an exciting collaboration that is set to reshape the gaming landscape — the partnership between Verida and Gamer31. This partnership combines Verida’s web3 wallet and database storage network with
Verida and Gamer31 Join Forces to Provide Privacy Centric Gaming Experiences Revolutionizing Gaming: Verida and Gamer31 Join Forces to Provide Privacy Centric Gaming Experiences

We’re thrilled to unveil an exciting collaboration that is set to reshape the gaming landscape — the partnership between Verida and Gamer31. This partnership combines Verida’s web3 wallet and database storage network with Gamer31’s innovative gaming identity solutions to enable secure and privacy-centric gaming experiences.

Gamer31, the Gaming Identity Provider, is on a mission to redefine how gamers establish their identities and reputation. Leveraging data from renowned gaming and streaming platforms like Steam, Twitch, and beyond, Gamer31 issues unique identities. These identities empower players and streamers alike to proudly showcase their reputation and expertise, gain the opportunity to monetize their skills, unlocking a realm of exclusive opportunities for web3 gaming.

The Power of Polygon ID and the Verida Network

Central to the partnership is Polygon ID, a decentralized, private, self-sovereign identity framework which facilitates secure and trusted connections between users and applications. With Polygon ID’s verifiable credentials stored securely on the Verida Network, gamers can confidently engage with off-chain applications and smart contracts, all while safeguarding their private data. Polygon ID introduces a new level of trust and confidence in the web3 gaming experience.

Unlocking Opportunities with Verida Wallet

Our partnership brings the power of Gamer31’s Gaming Reputation credentials to the forefront. By issuing these credentials from platforms such as Steam, Twitch, and Supercell, Gamer31 bridges the gap between elite gamers and game publishers.

Gamer31 Gaming Reputation Ecosystem

With the integration of Polygon ID in Verida Wallet, users can securely receive and store these Gamer31 issued credentials on the Verida Network, with the ability to verify them privately, presenting a comprehensive solution that truly puts control in the hands of the user.

This achievement empowers gamers and streamers, providing them the means to distinguish themselves and secure entry to exclusive opportunities curated by game publishers in a privacy-preserving way.

Together, Verida and Gamer31 are enhancing the gaming experience, championing decentralized identity, and shaping the future of gaming for gamers, by gamers.

About Gamer31

Gamer31 is a Gaming Identity Provider. Gamer31 grant users unique identities derived from data extracted from renowned gaming and streaming platforms such as Steam, Twitch, and more.

With Gamer31-issued identities, players and streamers gain the opportunity to monetize their skills, amplifying their visibility within the gaming community and unlocking a realm of exclusive opportunities in web3 gaming.

About Verida

The Verida Wallet is a self-custody web3 mobile wallet. It’s more than just crypto, it’s a gateway to a new world of decentralized identity. Users can manage their identity, sign into apps, manage their personal data, their credentials, receive messages and manage crypto. The wallet connects users to the self-sovereign Verida Network, the most secure, encrypted decentralized storage solution for web3. This ensures all user data and credentials are secured by a user’s private key.

Revolutionizing Gaming: Verida and Gamer31 Join Forces to Provide Privacy Centric Gaming… was originally published in Verida on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Monday, 14. August 2023

Defiant

CRV Emissions Drop By 16% As Token Turns Three

Curve To Deploy On BNB Chain After Binance Labs Invests $5M
Curve To Deploy On BNB Chain After Binance Labs Invests $5M

Aztec Network

Announcing Aztec Grants: Wave 3

The Last 12 Months of Aztec Grants It has been almost a year since Aztec Labs formally announced the first iteration of the Aztec Grants program, and since then, a lot has happened. Aztec Labs has been running full-steam ahead towards building the Aztec rollup, a programmable zkRollup supporting both public and private smart contract execution. The Noir programming language has continued to
The Last 12 Months of Aztec Grants

It has been almost a year since Aztec Labs formally announced the first iteration of the Aztec Grants program, and since then, a lot has happened.

Aztec Labs has been running full-steam ahead towards building the Aztec rollup, a programmable zkRollup supporting both public and private smart contract execution. The Noir programming language has continued to improve on tooling, developer experience, and functionality. And the developer community around our ecosystem has grown significantly — in fact, we were named the fastest growing developer community earlier this year by Electric Capital’s Developer Report.

In the meantime, the Aztec Grants program has funded over 50 independent contributors across our ecosystem. Before announcing the next wave of grants, we wanted to celebrate some of the grantees who have been working alongside us for the last 9 months and the projects they have been building towards.

Celebrating Some Recent Aztec Grantees

Many grantees are independent developers or small teams of independent devs. Here are some of the projects that they’ve been working on:

Halo2 Backend for Noir

The Mach34 team and Ethan000 are developing an additional proving backend for Noir. As a reminder, Noir is proof system agnostic, so this backend will allow for the verification of Noir circuits using the Halo2 proving backend. The version that is being worked on is the Axiom and PSE version — not to be confused with the original Halo2 proving system developed by the zCash team.

One additional thing to note is that some of you may recognize the Mach34 team from their work on BattleZips! BattleZips is a set of implementations of the game Battleship in various ZK languages, intended to demonstrate how a web3 app can be built in a way that’s comparable in usability/performance to a web2 application. If you’re interested, check out the BattleZips-Noir video tutorial series.

DarkSafe Module

Colin Nielsen is building DarkSafe, a Gnosis Safe module which allows for private multi-sigs using Noir’s secp256K1 signature verification, Merkle Tree membership proofs, and Gelato relays.

This Dark Safe module is intended as a proof-of-concept, but this signature verifier could be a simple module in Gnosis’ API — any Safe could install this module as a plug-in, and have this as a way to sign transactions from their Safes.

Ethereum Storage Proofs

Aragon ZK Research (AZKR) and Aztec Labs jointly participated in the NounsDAO proposal and won the proposal to implement a private voting MVP for NounsDAO using Storage Proofs. While Aztec led the research to unlock these proofs in Noir, AZKR focused on designing and implementing the voting solution using the proofs.

Aztec donated Aztec’s portion of the winnings to the Gitcoin ZK round, and we ultimately funded AZKR with an additional grant to generalize the work that’s being done around private voting for NounsDAO (detailed above) into more general libraries that can be used by other projects.

Dark Forest Circuits in Noir

The Dark Forest strategy game, developed by 0xParc, is one of the most well-known zero-knowledge projects that exists today. Originally written in Circom, it’s a major Schelling Point for early ZK enthusiasts.

Aztec has funded SleepingShell, an independent developer within the Noir community, to complete the re-write of Dark Forest circuits in Noir.

Noir Implementation of Semaphore

Semaphore is a proof-of-membership protocol developed by the Ethereum Foundation’s PSE group. Semaphore can be used to anonymously prove that individuals are part of a group. Semaphore is used across the ZK landscape for projects building private identity, authentication, governance, and social applications. The goal for this project is to reach feature-parity with the Semaphore CLI.

Simon Oswald and Stefan Velkoski were formerly part of the Polygon Nightfall team. They have extensive Circom experience from their time at Polygon, where Simon was a core contributor to Polygon Nightfall’s zero-knowledge circuit infrastructure.

Noir Puzzles

RareSkills provides educational bootcamps to help teach programming languages related to crypto. The company has applied its puzzle format to Noir.

Other Grants

Finally, since the mentions above are a non-exhaustive list of projects built over the last few months, we also wanted to share the repositories of some other projects from our recent wave of grants. This list is also by no means inclusive of all projects we’ve funded over the last 9 months but should still give you an idea of the types of projects we are aiming to fund.

BigInt library zkPic (inspired by Using ZK Proofs to Fight Disinformation) Noir MIMC-Sponge implementation BN254 pairings library Fog of War Chess Treesitter Noir Emacs syntax highlighting Introducing Aztec Grants Wave 3

Now, as our community has gotten larger, we’re seeing more people organically contribute to the language without grants as a motivating factor — useful libraries are being built for the benefit of the Noir community, explanatory materials are being written to educate and expand the ecosystem of developers interested in Noir, and projects are springing up in places we didn’t expect led by teams we didn’t know about!

With the third wave of our grants program, we want to keep attracting developers interested in contributing to the Noir language, and we want to provide an avenue for independent developers to get rewarded for work in Noir already in progress or completed. Importantly, we want to make the process as easy and painless as possible.

In this Grants wave, we are funding retroactive grants for completed and in-progress libraries that benefit the Noir ecosystem and projects built using Noir. This Aztec Grants funding wave is open through the end of the 2023 calendar year.

If you are a maintainer of a non-Noir-specific project that our developer community uses frequently — like the Chumsky parser tool or the js-libp2p library — a grant could make sense for you. But some more Noir-specific ideas that might be good for a retroactive funding application can be found here, including:

JSON Parser — Spec out, design, and/or implement a JSON parser that can handle Noir’s data types. zkPatreon — Trustlessly and privately unlock token-gated content using Ethereum Storage Proofs in Noir. Noir Mutator Tool — A mutation testing tool that generates mutated code of Noir programs with injected bugs and verifies if existing tests catch the issues. KZG Verification Libraries — A library for verifying Kate-Zaverucha-Goldberg polynomial commitments in Noir. Documentation improvements An Ethereum history API — Trustlessly and privately prove any piece of information that exists on Ethereum (e.g. token ownership, historical prices, protocol interactions, etc.) using Ethereum Storage Proofs in Noir. WebAuthn Applications — With ecdsa_secp256r1 usable in Noir, the design space of applying WebAuthn in Web3 gets interesting (e.g. account abstraction with zkTouchID).

However, we encourage you to consider this a starting point. The Grants program is meant to be inspiring, not limiting.

After all, the best projects come from unexpected places.

Hit these links to start building in Noir:

Introducing Noir

Noir Starter Github

Awesome Noir Github

Announcing Aztec Grants: Wave 3 was originally published in The Aztec Labs Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Zcash Foundation

Zcash is moving to Zebra

by Alan Fairless, Jack Gavigan, Andrew Miller and Zooko Wilcox Following conversations at Zcon4 in Barcelona, the Zcash Foundation (ZF) and Electric Coin Co. (ECC) are excited to announce that we’ve agreed to move core Zcash protocol work from zcashd to Zebra! 🦓🛡️ Zebra is a brand new Zcash full node implementation written from the […] The post Zcash is moving to Zebra appeared first on Zcash Fo

by Alan Fairless, Jack Gavigan, Andrew Miller and Zooko Wilcox

Following conversations at Zcon4 in Barcelona, the Zcash Foundation (ZF) and Electric Coin Co. (ECC) are excited to announce that we’ve agreed to move core Zcash protocol work from zcashd to Zebra! 🦓🛡️

Zebra is a brand new Zcash full node implementation written from the ground up in Rust. Both the ECC and ZF teams believe the modern architecture and good engineering in Zebra will provide a safer and more efficient implementation of the Zcash core protocol. 

Zebra was created by ZF with significant support and assistance from ECC developers, and relies on Zcash core libraries authored at ECC. Both organizations’ teams will collaborate to identify what functionality needs to be added to Zebra to address the necessary use cases, and to encourage and support key users to migrate to Zebra. Zcashd will continue to be supported during the transition, which will take an undetermined amount of time. ECC plans to continue independently supporting core Zcash protocol upgrades, such as its planned implementation of proof of stake, using Zebra.

ECC engineers built the original Zcash full node (“zcashd”) and have maintained and supported it through 69 releases and 6 network upgrades since 2016. This original implementation inherits the Bitcoin codebase and has grown challenging to maintain. Today’s announced transition will reduce the time it will take to deploy new features for Zcash, and allow more engineering time toward wallet SDKs and a transition away from PoW consensus. For ECC, this is part of its strategy of “Decentralize Zcash and Focus ECC”. For ZF, this marks a significant milestone for the Zebra project.

As part of this transition, Zooko at the Electric Coin Company has gifted a zebra suit previously seen on stage at Zcon1, to Jack Gavigan of ZF.

The post Zcash is moving to Zebra appeared first on Zcash Foundation.


Experimental Mining Support in Zebra

Zebra can now generate block templates, so mining pool operators can use it as a backend for their mining operations. We have successfully mined blocks on Testnet using block templates generated by Zebra (with a fork of s-nomp acting as a mining pool) but didn’t have any hash power to mine blocks on Mainnet. We […] The post Experimental Mining Support in Zebra appeared first on Zcash Foundation.

Zebra can now generate block templates, so mining pool operators can use it as a backend for their mining operations. We have successfully mined blocks on Testnet using block templates generated by Zebra (with a fork of s-nomp acting as a mining pool) but didn’t have any hash power to mine blocks on Mainnet. We would therefore like to invite any mining pool operators or solo miners to try Zebra and let us know on our Discord or the Zcash Community Forums about how it performs (and whether their profits have increased!).

Teor, one of our engineers, mined the first block on Testnet with Zebra

 

Brief Technical Background

Zebra implements the getblocktemplate RPC together with its associated RPCs. You can find the instructions for mining in The Zebra Book. In a nutshell, you need to compile Zebra with the getblocktemplate-rpcs feature flag and adjust the config file to suit your setup. You can find the recommended system requirements here. The Zebra Book also contains other useful details. For example, you can enable metrics via Prometheus and Grafana.

With each Zebra release, along with our regular Docker images, we also publish ones that have the .experimental suffix in their name. These images let you instantly run Zebra with mining support enabled. You can read more about them in the docs here. If you’re compiling Zebra yourself, you can enable freshly implemented terminal-based progress bars that will let you easily see Zebra’s syncing status and a bunch of other metrics directly from the terminal.

 

The post Experimental Mining Support in Zebra appeared first on Zcash Foundation.


a16z Podcast

Classroom 2050: Unleashing AI, XR, Gaming

With students learning in more places and different ways than we have ever seen, the pace of change in education is dizzying. Can this progress narrow learning gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 or will it fuel divides? How can we make the most of this once-in-a-generation opportunity? Join our panelists from Khan Academy, PrismsVR, and Minecraft Education as we discuss the classroom of the future, and

With students learning in more places and different ways than we have ever seen, the pace of change in education is dizzying. Can this progress narrow learning gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 or will it fuel divides? How can we make the most of this once-in-a-generation opportunity?

Join our panelists from Khan Academy, PrismsVR, and Minecraft Education as we discuss the classroom of the future, and how important technologies including AI, XR, and gaming should play a role in it.

 

Topics Covered:

00:00 – The classroom of 2023

04:30 – Data on the current classroom

05:40– Developing the next gen of STEM talent

08:00 –  AI in the classroom 

13:10 – The role of gaming in the classroom

16:00 – Misconceptions of technology in classroom

17:51 – The ways teachers and students use AI

21:15 - The future role of a teacher

24:25 – Personalization and ownership in education

27:11 – Getting hardware into the classroom

29:54 - Misconceptions of teacher’s abilities and appetite for tech

31:25 – Why implement these changes now?

36:05 – Call to action for the classroom of 2050

 

Resources:

Find Sal Khan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/salkhanacademy Find Romy Drucker on Twitter: https://twitter.com/romydrucker Find Allison Matthews on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-matthews-4050677/ Find Anurupa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anurupa-ganguly-92790379/ Learn more about Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/ Learn more about The Walton Family Foundation: https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/ Learn more about Minecraft Education: https://education.minecraft.net/en-us Learn more about Prisms VR: https://www.prismsvr.com/ Watch more panel discussions from The Aspen Ideas Festival 2023: https://www.aspenideas.org/

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

 


bankless

183 - Why VCs Suck | 1confirmation's Nick Tomaino & Richard Chen

Today on the Pod, we're discussing Why VCs Suck. And who better to answer that question than VCs themselves? We're joined by Nick Tomaino and Richard Chen of 1Confirmation to discuss the role of VCs in crypto, the outlook on the markets, and how retail should prepare for the next cycle. ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-1conf ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter

Today on the Pod, we're discussing Why VCs Suck. And who better to answer that question than VCs themselves?

We're joined by Nick Tomaino and Richard Chen of 1Confirmation to discuss the role of VCs in crypto, the outlook on the markets, and how retail should prepare for the next cycle.

------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-1conf ----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is launching TOMORROW  https://bankless.cc/HuntersGonnaHunt  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 ⁠ 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum ⁠ 

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle ⁠ 

👾POLYGON | VALUE LAYER OF THE INTERNET https://polygon.technology/roadmap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku  ----- Timestamps

0:00 Intro 6:00 Nick and Richard from 1Conf 7:20 The Price Cycle 11:50 The Signal Cycle 15:55 Tourist vs Purist 20:00 Why Do VCs Suck? 28:15 Raising vs Returning 32:40 How Transparency Shapes Crypto 38:30 VC Report Card 43:45 Holding Retail Accountable 48:30 Advice for Retail 51:15 How to Not Be Exit Liquidity 59:00 Should We End VCs? 1:03:10 How 1Conf Works 1:07:40 Crypto Native VCs 1:12:30 Looking to the Next Cycle 1:17:08 Prediction Markets 1:20:00 Crypto is Ready 1:24:00 Actually Using Crypto 1:28:20 L2s vs Alt L1s

----- Resources

Nick Tomaino https://twitter.com/NTmoney?s=20 

Richard Chen https://twitter.com/richardchen39?s=20 

1confirmation https://www.1confirmation.com/ 

Richard's Article https://showerthoughts.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-the-current-crypto-vc 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 

Saturday, 12. August 2023

bankless

Would You Live Forever? The Science and Ethics of Longevity

In this video, we delve into the frontier of longevity and the pursuit of living forever. The discussion of longevity sparks different reactions among people, with some rejecting the idea outright, deeming it unnatural or immoral. At Zuzalu, two distinct groups emerged—the Health and Wellness tribe, focused on healthy lifestyles, and the longevity tribe, resembling crypto enthusiasts, passionate

In this video, we delve into the frontier of longevity and the pursuit of living forever. The discussion of longevity sparks different reactions among people, with some rejecting the idea outright, deeming it unnatural or immoral.

At Zuzalu, two distinct groups emerged—the Health and Wellness tribe, focused on healthy lifestyles, and the longevity tribe, resembling crypto enthusiasts, passionately researching the silver bullet for eternal life.

We explore the two conversations of slowing down aging and accelerating rejuvenation, with a particular focus on the latter. Interviews with Patrick Linden, author of "The Case Against Death," Sergio Ruiz, an epigenetic reprogramming expert, and Michael Greer, founder of the Humanity app, shed light on the socio-cultural reactions, DNA reprogramming, and AI-driven longevity scoring.

While the pursuit of longevity faces regulatory challenges, its potential to eliminate diseases and revolutionize healthcare holds transformative power. The quest for extended health spans offers tremendous benefits for humanity's future.

------ 🚀Join Ryan & David at Permissionless II in September. https://bankless.cc/GoToPermissionless 

------ 📣 STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum 

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 

👾POLYGON | VALUE LAYER OF THE INTERNET https://polygon.technology/roadmap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

------ TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro 1:30 Wellness vs Longevity

7:00 PATRICK LINDEN 9:30 The Pursuit of Immortality 12:30 We Want Choice 16:30 How Long Would You Live? 23:20 Now is the Time 27:00 Health is Longevity 33:30 Increasing Healthspan 36:30 The Case Against Death 41:40 How to Not Die

46:00 SERGIO RUIZ 48:45 Healthspan and Lifespan 52:50 Longevity Research 57:45 Epigenetic Reprogramming 1:05:30 Feeling Young 1:09:30 Longevity Escape Velocity 1:14:30 Challenges and Obstacles 1:18:30 The Economic Case

1:28:00 MICHAEL GEER 1:31:50 A Billion Years of Health 1:38:45 Utilizing Technology 1:43:45 Using AI for Health 1:46:15 Good Metrics to Track 1:52:00 Defining Health 1:55:00 The Humanity App 2:01:30 More Users, More Wearables 2:08:45 Get Healthier

------ RESOURCES:

Patrick Linden https://twitter.com/DrPatrickLinden?s=20 

Sergio Ruiz https://twitter.com/Sergio_A_Ruiz?s=20 

Michael Geer https://twitter.com/Geeria?s=20 

The Case Against Death https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543163/the-case-against-death/ 

VitaDAO https://www.vitadao.com/ 

Animal Free Precision Medicine https://www.afpm.bio/ 

Humanity App https://www.humanity.health/ 

------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 


A16Z Crypto Substack

a jolt of energy; AI and crypto

1. Feature: Making SNARKs more accessible, more auditable, and more widely usable for more developers with Justin Thaler, Sam Ragsdale, Michael Zhu et al We recently released two new innovations that can significantly speed up scaling and building applications in web3: Lasso and Jolt, which together represent a fundamentally new approach to SNARK design.
1. Feature: Making SNARKs more accessible, more auditable, and more widely usable for more developers

with Justin Thaler, Sam Ragsdale, Michael Zhu et al

We recently released two new innovations that can significantly speed up scaling and building applications in web3: Lasso and Jolt, which together represent a fundamentally new approach to SNARK design. 

Why does this matter? So much work over the past few years has gone into increasing the efficiency and usability of verifiable computing in general, and SNARKS specifically, to deliver on the promise of trustless distributed systems. At a very high level, SNARKs — which have many applications both in web3 and beyond — compress arbitrary computations so that anyone can quickly verify that they were done correctly. For crypto and web3, they move expensive computations off-chain and only carry out verification on-chain.

Lasso and Jolt represent a new paradigm for implementing streamlined zkVMs (zero-knowledge virtual machines) because they avoid the need for circuits that have to be optimized tediously by hand. Until now, building with SNARKs required specialized expertise that very few developers have. But Lasso accomplishes a much more streamlined approach by performing “lookups” [see more on lookup arguments in the posts below] against massive structured tables with less computational waste. This was previously impossible because prior lookup arguments required (super)linear preprocessing or prover time. Meanwhile, Jolt-based VMs are simpler, faster, and more easily auditable. 

Together, Lasso and Jolt help unlock more compute-intensive applications — allowing many more kinds of applications to be built than are possible now. Importantly, this approach helps make SNARK design more widely usable, and the SNARK toolchain much more accessible to more developers, by allowing SNARKs for existing popular programming languages (not only those designed for the task). Many instructions across different instruction sets are similar, allowing significant code re-use… a hallmark of web3 and open source. 

An analogy here might be to the early days of semiconductor engineering: Before chip design was accelerated and democratized through CAD and a broader ecosystem of tooling, many circuit designs were hand-coded and optimized in a bespoke manner; we are in a similar moment with SNARKs today. And while there is a long way to go to get there, Lasso and Jolt could help set us on that path. Right now, Lasso is 10x faster than existing approaches and should get to 40x once optimized (and beyond, once Jolt is further built). To that end, we welcome more developers and builders to contribute to this body of open source work, which is available to anyone! For more details and to learn more:

Read this backgrounder for developers and others — also includes details on how the a16z crypto engineering team helped translate theory to code, as well as a list of suggested directions for builders

Read this overview of Lasso and Jolt — from the a16z crypto research partner leading this approach

Check out and contribute to the codebase — including how to implement a new instruction 

Check out the research papers behind Lasso and Jolt — which includes co-authors from Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown University, Microsoft Research, and New York University 

See this video playlist with overview presentations — as well as short clips on the paradigm shift, “lookup singularity”, and more

share~

on LinkedIn | on Farcaster | on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/succinctjt/status/1689657797385027585

https://twitter.com/samrags_/status/1689630176483708928

https://twitter.com/moodlezoup/status/1689658073642835968

https://twitter.com/tim_roughgarden/status/1689658568079720448

https://twitter.com/eddylazzarin/status/1690043381102129158

2. Trends: AI & crypto

with Ali Yahya, Dan Boneh, Sonal Chokshi

This week's all-new episode of “web3 with a16z” covers the convergence of two top of mind trends: artificial intelligence/machine learning, and blockchains/crypto. The conversation covers topics ranging from deep fakes, bots, and the need for proof-of-humanity in a world of AI; to big data, large language models like ChatGPT, user control, governance, privacy and security, zero knowledge and zkML; to MEV, media, art, and more.

The first half is about how AI could benefit from crypto, and the second half on how crypto could benefit from AI — but the thread throughout is the tension between centralization vs. decentralization. We also discuss where the intersection of crypto and AI can bring about things that aren't possible by either one of them alone. Together, the fields of AI and crypto have major implications for how we all live our lives everyday; so this episode is for anyone just curious about, or already building in the space. 

listen here


builder of worlds

--Sonal Chokshi and a16z crypto teams

You’re receiving this newsletter because you signed up for it on our websites, at an event, or elsewhere (you can opt out any time using the ‘unsubscribe’ link below). This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should NOT be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, the content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors in any a16z funds. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for additional important details, including link to list of investments.

Friday, 11. August 2023

Horizen - Blog

ZenIP 42206 Explained: Redirect Horizen Secure Node Rewards into Horizen EON

Better utilizing Horizen block rewards to enhance the security of EON network and drive greater growth for the Horizen ecosystem HCC has recently submitted ZenIP 42206 which proposes redirecting the portion of the Horizen mainchain block reward currently paid to Secure Nodes to an EON Forger Subsidy Fund.  The purpose is to drive the success […] The post ZenIP 42206 Explained: Redirect H

Better utilizing Horizen block rewards to enhance the security of EON network and drive greater growth for the Horizen ecosystem

HCC has recently submitted ZenIP 42206 which proposes redirecting the portion of the Horizen mainchain block reward currently paid to Secure Nodes to an EON Forger Subsidy Fund. 

The purpose is to drive the success of the Horizen EON network by increasing the security and decentralization of the network. 

Read the full ZenIP 42206   Why Should We Make This Change?

The Horizen main blockchain currently has a block reward that’s paid toward 4 different entities:

Miners (60%) Horizen Treasury (20%) Super Nodes (10%) Secure Nodes (10%)

Secure Nodes are No Longer Needed and Currently Causing A Burden

This allocation structure was created prior to Zendoo’s implementation. Zendoo has increased the requirements of mainchain nodes so that the Secure Node minimum requirements are no longer sufficient to provide any benefit to the Horizen chain. Furthermore, with the removal of the shielded pools on mainchain, the need for Secure Nodes is diminished. The subpar performance and the lack of usage of Secure Nodes pose a burden to the chain.

There is a Strong Need for Forger Nodes in EON

Meanwhile, there is a strong need for forger nodes in Horizen sidechains for enhancing the security of the network, and for decentralization. The current Secure Node operators are well-equipped to provide this type of support. 

The Timing is Right to Optimize the Allocation of Horizen’s Block Reward

Therefore, it’s necessary to update and optimize the allocation of Horizen’s block reward to reflect and better support recent developments of the project – the current Secure Node reward can be put to better use securing and supporting the EON network.   

What Will This Change Entail?

A number of things will happen:

There will be a DAO-controlled address called “EON Forger Subsidies” set up on both EON and the Horizen blockchains.  The 10% of the block reward currently paid to Secure Nodes will be redirected to the “EON Forger Subsidies” address on the Horizen mainchain, and held there until both of the following are true:  Forging on EON becomes open to the public A mechanism to automatically forward transfer 10% of the block reward to the EON chain’s “EON Forger Subsidies” address has been added to the mainchain After the automated forward transfer is set up, there will be an automated distribution of funds based on block forging, with an equal amount of ZEN paid out for each EON chain block forged. All block subsidies will be distributed at the end of each Sidechain Consensus Epoch. The Secure Node tracking service will be deprecated Secure Nodes operators will no longer be eligible to receive block reward allocations but will have the option to choose to migrate to EON to be eligible for forging subsidies. The following are more FAQs to address the questions we have received from the community

Q: Why redirect Secure Nodes instead of Super Nodes?

A: We’ve said from the early days of Horizen that we wanted to dedicate Super Nodes to a special purpose in the Horizen ecosystem. We want to maintain that goal and reserve Super Nodes for a higher value potential use in the future. Furthermore, unlike Super Nodes, the Secure Node hardware requirements are no longer sufficient to support their function on the Horizen mainchain and are causing a burden to the blockchain. 

Q: Will Secure Node operators be able to become node forgers for EON and continue to earn rewards?

A: Yes! Anyone who wants to support the EON network and get rewarded can participate. 

Q: How do I become an EON node forger and what are the requirements?

A: Participants who want to run EON forger nodes would have to set them up. Instructions on how to do so and the requirements are forthcoming.

Q: How much reward the EON forgers will be able to earn?

A: We cannot estimate the exact reward amount at this moment.

What’s Next?

ZenIPs are for the community to approve or decline. Please join the conversation and make this decision with us. We will be hosting a series of town halls on Discord to have live conversations about this decision, but we recognize that it can be difficult to match global time zones. So to ensure that we can include everyone, we will be recording a new episode of the Beyond the Horizen podcast with our co-founder Rob Viglione. We will collect your questions and feedback for the podcast in the coming days. There will also be a community poll to collect votes from the community, please stay tuned. 

We highly encourage you to read the full ZenIP on GitHub to get a complete understanding of what this means. We also hope to see you all join the discussion on the #zenip channel on our Discord server. 

The post ZenIP 42206 Explained: Redirect Horizen Secure Node Rewards into Horizen EON appeared first on Horizen Blog.


Epicenter Podcast

Stephen Young & Storm: NFTFi – P2P NFT Lending Protocol: From PFPs & Art to RWA

After a 2021 frothy bull market, NFTs are currently experiencing the depression phase of the market cycle. However, despite the fact that only NFT art has truly found its product-market fit, NFTs in general represented the consumerist moment for crypto. In addition, they also provided a solution for tokenising real world assets (RWA) and intangibles, potentially penetrating markets worth hundreds

After a 2021 frothy bull market, NFTs are currently experiencing the depression phase of the market cycle. However, despite the fact that only NFT art has truly found its product-market fit, NFTs in general represented the consumerist moment for crypto. In addition, they also provided a solution for tokenising real world assets (RWA) and intangibles, potentially penetrating markets worth hundreds of trillions of dollars. Moreover, similar to digital art, the advent of AI poses a challenge when it comes to establishing provenance, but this represents another utility for NFTs, as they can be traced back to their origin, given the public nature of blockchains.

We were joined by Stephen Young and Storm from NFTFi, to discuss the general state of the NFT market, future prospects for NFT development and how their P2P NFT lending platform unlocks new sources of liquidity in this bear market.

Topics covered in this episode:

Stephen’s & Storm’s backgrounds and what allured them to NFT finance NFT market overview Tokenised real world assets (RWA) NFTFi’s peer-to-peer vs. peer-to-pool models How other DeFi derivatives apply to the NFT market NFT vs. fungible token market size Blur’s Blend NFT royalties NFT lending protocols differences How escrow contracts affect NFT ownership and utility NFTFi roadmap Interest rates for different collections NFT art market AI art Collateralizing RWA

Episode links:

Stephen Young on Twitter Storm on Twitter NFTFi on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/508


bankless

ROLLUP: Base Kicks-Off Onchain Summer

Bankless Weekly Rollup Second Week of August, 2023 ------ 🚀Join Ryan & David at Permissionless II in September. https://bankless.cc/GoToPermissionless  ------ 📣 STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2   ⁠ 🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOU

Bankless Weekly Rollup Second Week of August, 2023

------ 🚀Join Ryan & David at Permissionless II in September. https://bankless.cc/GoToPermissionless 

------ 📣 STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2   ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask  

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

👾POLYGON | VALUE LAYER OF THE INTERNET https://polygon.technology/roadmap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

------ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 2:37 MARKETS 4:07 Layer 2 TVL https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary  15:42 DAI Savings Rate https://twitter.com/RuneKek/status/1688235137178509312?s=20  19:26 Coinbase Q2 Earnings https://twitter.com/ramahluwalia/status/1687268549797019648?s=20  24:28 Paypal Launches Stablecoin https://etherscan.io/token/0x6c3ea9036406852006290770bedfcaba0e23a0e8  https://twitter.com/0xCygaar/status/1688592430315036672?s=20  https://twitter.com/sassal0x/status/1688716600294383616?s=20  https://twitter.com/RyanSAdams/status/1688586469370216450?s=20  34:32 Base Kicks off Onchain Summer! https://twitter.com/BuildOnBase/status/1689321221715017728  https://www.geckoterminal.com/dex-rankings  https://l2beat.com/scaling/projects/base  https://dune.com/tk-research/base  40:31 Vitalik and Jesse At Permissionless https://twitter.com/Permissionless/status/1687130264089042945?s=20  42:25 Arbitrum Releases BOLD https://twitter.com/offchainlabs/status/1687137574052143116?s=46  https://twitter.com/terencechain/status/1689025407499345920?s=20  https://www.youtube.com/live/4yzPYr5HRfU?feature=share  47:31 Polygon Vs zKSync https://mirror.xyz/0x70DF15b0208eFCeFaA541Da9A0ED6C4A884554Fc/gNi8coqXjd1ybFsQBAG7QARUkPHZECu7ihIRkpiVx2Y  https://twitter.com/gluk64/status/1687263207860166656?s=20  49:31 Is Curve Gonna Make it? https://etherscan.io/address/0x9e2b6378ee8ad2a4a95fe481d63caba8fb0ebbf9  https://etherscan.io/tx/0x23c4799784c91023204bd68a94ec7a963486f2485dc43c13d8b804d5301b8041  https://twitter.com/CurveFinance/status/1688221472815284224?s=20  https://twitter.com/lookonchain/status/1687294816890347520  54:28 Fantom Becoming a Layer 2?  https://www.theblock.co/post/243220/fantom-optimistic-rollups-ethereum  56:11 Hacker Hotline https://twitter.com/samczsun/status/1688613385565528064  58:03 NFT Stuff https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1689187495190069250?s=20  1:00:49 Is Biden a Bitcoin Maxi? https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1687120734793986048?s=46  1:01:46 Huobi Insolvency https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1687764670340591618  1:02:45 Gary Pivots to AI https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-03/sec-chairman-gary-gensler-discusses-the-risks-to-finance-in-ai  1:03:59 This is Just Weird... https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/21/ftx-lobbyist-tried-to-buy-island-nauru-create-superspecies-lawsuit.html  1:05:06 Wallets 2.0 https://twitter.com/goldfinch_fi/status/1688961804515647488  1:08:05 Turnkey https://twitter.com/turnkeyhq/status/1688910588246933509  1:08:35 RAISES https://medium.com/@puffer.fi/a-push-for-decentralization-puffer-finance-raises-5-5m-to-redefine-liquid-eth-staking-936a61b750f7  1:12:57 Questions From The Nation  https://discord.com/channels/615592155481767941/1058053004705669211/1138316265962876988  1:15:50 Takes Of The Week https://twitter.com/davidfbailey/status/1689051629146767360?s=46  https://twitter.com/dankrad/status/1689634128101310464?s=20  https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1687448061860003840?s=20  https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1687609256269230080?s=20  1:21:43 What Are We Bullish On? 1:25:53 Meme Of The Week https://twitter.com/divine_economy/status/1689650898975481856?s=20  1:26:39 Disclosures ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Thursday, 10. August 2023

Nym - Medium

Nym is not a blockchain — but it is powered by one

Nym mixnet is not a blockchain — but it is powered by one How the Nym mixnet and the Nyx blockchain combined solve some of the toughest problems for privacy The Nym mixnet is often confused for a blockchain, but it is best understood as a separate infrastructure that is serviced by a blockchain, namely: Nyx. This article will go over the architecture of Nym and Nyx to clarify what each
Nym mixnet is not a blockchain — but it is powered by one How the Nym mixnet and the Nyx blockchain combined solve some of the toughest problems for privacy

The Nym mixnet is often confused for a blockchain, but it is best understood as a separate infrastructure that is serviced by a blockchain, namely: Nyx. This article will go over the architecture of Nym and Nyx to clarify what each of these do and how, in combination, they solve some of the hardest problems for providing people with actual privacy — even in the age of AI.

Nym: the decentralised, incentivised privacy mixnet

The Nym ‘mixnet’ is a decentralised global privacy system that solves one of the core problems of the internet: that traffic patterns are entirely visible.

Translations: Русский // 日本

Governments and large tech companies able to observe large parts of network traffic can record and analyse traffic patterns, which often reveal more than even the content of a message. These small bits of information are like digital footprints left behind after every online interaction. They don’t mean much in their own right but when collated, they are used to build up revealing user patterns and profiles that can be exploited and deanonymise people.

To solve this problem, the Nym mixnet encrypts internet traffic into identically looking packets. These packets are sent through three layers of what are called mix ‘nodes’ in a series of ‘hops’ at randomised times and intervals, before finally being reassembled and decrypted on the receiving end.

The mixnet thereby protects almost any type of internet traffic as it is routed through open networks, making tracking near-impossible for adversaries. The mixnet protects people’s IP addresses and metadata about their given location, the timing of messages, and the kinds of device they are using, as well as communication patterns from observers.

The Nym mixnet is trustless, decentralised and permissionless.

‘Trustless’ means that you do not need to trust any aspect of the infrastructure with your data. All content is encrypted in several layers. Each node only knows the next hop in the network and never holds any information that can deanonymise people.

‘Decentralised’ means that the mixnet is operated independently and collaboratively by node operators and token holders all over the world.

‘Permissionless’ means anyone can join as an operator or token staker and participate in running the network. Permissionlessness is essential for the network to be truly decentralised as it means there is no centralised authority that can determine who joins as a node operator.

Although in theory a mixnet could run without a blockchain, it would run into a major problem: in order to know which ‘nodes’ are operating in the network so that it can send traffic through them, something called a ‘directory authority’ is needed. This directory authority helps systems understand which nodes are operational and where traffic can be distributed. But if this information is stored in a single centralised location, it becomes more vulnerable to attack or compromise, and for observers of the network to monitor traffic.

Achieving a decentralised and permissionless mixnet is no small feat and this is where the Nyx blockchain comes in.

What is the Nyx blockchain?

With her black robe studded with colourful stars, the ancient Greeks saw the goddess of the nighttime, Nyx, as the precursor to life itself. It’s this celestial deity of umbra and shadows that the Nyx blockchain is named for. And this Nyx blockchain solves a set of key problems for the Nym mixnet:

Ensuring that the mixnet network directory is decentralised and permissionless. Operating the token economics of the mixnet to incentivise and reward operators for providing privacy instead of grabbing user data. Facilitating the vesting of the NYM token.

Nyx is a general purpose layer-1 production-ready blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK. It is written to Rust, and compiled to WebAssembly, and mints all NYM tokens. Like Ethereum addresses begin with ‘0x’, all Nyx addresses begin with ‘n’.

The Nyx blockchain is integral to ensuring the Nym mixnet is decentralised and permissionless. And it does so through clever token economic design.

The Nyx blockchain provides the decentralised directory authority of Nym mix nodes via smart contracts that keep tabs on which mix nodes have bonded to the network.

Read more: A breakdown of the smart contracts that run the Nym token economics

Here’s what the process looks like.

When operators spin up the Nym mixnet code, the software will remain inactive until the operator ‘bonds’ NYM utility tokens via their Nym wallet or CLI. Operators must bond these tokens to actually join the network, route traffic, and ultimately earn rewards.

This ‘bond’ signals a smart contract on the Nyx blockchain that the operator is live on the mixnet. They will then have the chance to be selected to perform work in the mixnet through a selection algorithm that hourly checks the node’s reputation and performance and changes the topology of the mixnet ‘active’ set accordingly. This means the pathways of the mixnet are continuously changing, making it near impossible for an attacker to establish a malicious path of nodes.

Operators are then rewarded in NYM tokens for the amount of work they have performed. In order to increase their chances of being in the active set, node operators can increase their reputation by attracting stake from NYM token holders, who in return will earn a share of operator rewards.

No user data ever touches the blockchain. The Nyx blockchain only manages the directory of nodes and their delegations and rewards.

In summary:

Nym is a mixnet that mixes up and obfuscates user traffic. It is operated by a global system of mix nodes, which route this traffic. Nyx is a blockchain that runs the smart contracts that manage the Nym token and token economics. The token economics serve as a reputation and reward system and enables a fully decentralised and permissionless directory authority. Join the Nym Community

Discord // Telegram // Element // Twitter

Privacy loves company

English // 中文 // Русский // Türkçe // Tiếng Việt // 日本 // Française // Español // Português // 한국인

Nym is not a blockchain — but it is powered by one was originally published in nymtech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


bankless

Austin Federa: Is SOL Money?

Bankless hasn’t had the most coverage of Solana, the network, and SOL, the asset, but in this episode that changes. Our guest, Austin Federa is Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation and is the host of the Validated podcast.  David was recently a guest on Austin’s podcast where they went back and forth on some of the cultural and philosophical differences between the Solana and Ethereum

Bankless hasn’t had the most coverage of Solana, the network, and SOL, the asset, but in this episode that changes. Our guest, Austin Federa is Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation and is the host of the Validated podcast. 

David was recently a guest on Austin’s podcast where they went back and forth on some of the cultural and philosophical differences between the Solana and Ethereum projects. Today is a continuation of that episode. 

Despite some differences in community perspectives, Austin brings a fresh perspective on the design philosophy that relates Solana the network to SOL the asset and so much more.  

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is coming soon! Become a Citizen for full access:  https://bankless.cc/HuntersGonnaHunt 

------ 📣 STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum  ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

👾POLYGON | VALUE LAYER OF THE INTERNET https://polygon.technology/roadmap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 6:50 Programmable SOL Values 8:10 SOL’s Story Arc 12:25 SOL’s Architecture & Utility  17:30 SOL’s Economic Sustainability Model   19:20 SOL’s Triple Point Asset Thesis 25:15 Solana’s LSDs  28:48 Solana’s MEV Philosophy  33:56 End Game of Solana MEV 40:00 Ethereum vs. Solana 50:00 Market Cap, Values, & Layers Debate 1:00:15 Closing & Disclaimers  

----- RESOURCES

Austin Federa https://twitter.com/Austin_Federa 

157 - Will Solana Make It with Anatoly Yakovenko https://youtu.be/zlx64JjXlgQ  

Solana is Launching a Phone? | Co-Founders Anatoly & Raj https://youtube.com/live/9wfNeVTtBz0  

The Philosophy of Ethereum According to Bankless' David Hoffman https://solana.com/validated/episodes/the-philosophy-of-ethereum-according-to-bankless-david-hoffman  

----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures ⁠ 

Wednesday, 09. August 2023

bankless

Arbitrum's BOLD New Bet with Ed Felten & Raul Jordan

What did the Arbitrum L2 just unlock with its BOLD release? What stage of L2 is Arbitrum in? What is next for decentralizing the Arbitrum stack? We brought on Ed Felten and Raul Jordan to help answer these questions and much more.  Ed Felten is a Co-Founder of OffChain Labs, the organization that created Arbiturm.  Raul Jordan is one of the Co-Founders of Prysmatic Labs, the Ethereum

What did the Arbitrum L2 just unlock with its BOLD release? What stage of L2 is Arbitrum in? What is next for decentralizing the Arbitrum stack? We brought on Ed Felten and Raul Jordan to help answer these questions and much more. 

Ed Felten is a Co-Founder of OffChain Labs, the organization that created Arbiturm.  Raul Jordan is one of the Co-Founders of Prysmatic Labs, the Ethereum consensus client which not too long ago got acquired by Offchain Labs. 

----- 🏹 Airdrop Hunter is coming soon! Become a Citizen for full access:  https://bankless.cc/HuntersGonnaHunt 

------ 📣 STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader 

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2  ⁠

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING ⁠https://bankless.cc/MetaMask 

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum 

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

👾POLYGON | VALUE LAYER OF THE INTERNET https://polygon.technology/roadmap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku 

----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 7:30 What is BOLD? 9:20 Are L2s Decentralized? 19:30 BOLD Timeline 23:40 What Does BOLD Solve? 27:15 How Does BOLD Work?  31:35 Why Use BOLD? 38:00 Shared Sequencing  42:30 Why Was BOLD Hard to Build? 48:50 Will BOLD Be Open-Source? 50:00 Are L2s Secure? 52:30 Staking $ARB 1:00:20 Arbitrum's New Tech  1:03:50 Ethereum's Overarching Roadmap 1:06:30 Closing & Disclaimers

----- RESOURCES

BOLD, Permissionless Validation for Arbitrum Chains https://offchain.medium.com/bold-permissionless-validation-for-arbitrum-chains-9934eb5328cc 

Ed Felten https://twitter.com/EdFelten 

Raul Jordan https://twitter.com/rauljordaneth 

----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here:  https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 

Tuesday, 08. August 2023

Greylock Partners

Greylock’s First Researcher In Residence

Greylock is hiring an AI researcher to join us in the newly created role of Researcher in Residence. The post Greylock’s First <span>Researcher</span> In Residence appeared first on Greylock.

Scala Project

V8 Menger — Mainnet

V8 Menger — Mainnet Introduction The Scala community is buzzing with excitement as the countdown begins for the much-anticipated release of V8 Menger. This upcoming version promises to bring a slew of new features and enhancements that will elevate the user experience and bolster the network’s security and sustainability. Unveiling V8 Menger V8 Menger is set to introduce a range of
V8 Menger — Mainnet Introduction

The Scala community is buzzing with excitement as the countdown begins for the much-anticipated release of V8 Menger.

This upcoming version promises to bring a slew of new features and enhancements that will elevate the user experience and bolster the network’s security and sustainability.

Unveiling V8 Menger

V8 Menger is set to introduce a range of innovative features that will shape the future of the Scala ecosystem. Let’s delve into some of the key highlights.

Diardi V2: Enhancing Network Security and Decentralization

At the heart of V8 Menger lies Diardi V2, a powerful upgrade that introduces 32 notary miners. These miners are poised to play a pivotal role in fortifying the network’s security and decentralization.

By harnessing the collective power of these notary miners, Scala aims to ensure the robustness of its infrastructure and the integrity of its transactions.

Introducing “Felidae”: Multi Proof-of-Work Algorithm

Scala is also proud to unveil a groundbreaking addition to its arsenal: the “Felidae” PoW algorithm.

This new in-house proof-of-work algorithm is still heavily optimized for mobile/ARM devices while being lighter and faster. It should also help prevent the centralization caused by some miners.

For those eager to dive into the technical intricacies, a comprehensive overview of “Felidae” is available on the official GitHub repository here.

Revamped Block Rewards

The approach to block rewards takes a transformative turn with the V8 Menger release. Inspired by the practices of prominent projects like Monero, Scala is implementing an eroding curve for block rewards.

This strategic move aligns with the project’s long-term sustainability goals, ensuring that rewards are distributed in a manner that supports both miners and the overall health of the ecosystem.

For an in-depth exploration of these features and their significance, readers can refer to the official Medium post here.

Mark Your Calendars: Important Dates

We have meticulously planned the rollout of V8 Menger, and here are the key dates to remember.

August 14, 2023: Official Release of New Executables

On this date, users will have the opportunity to access the new executables, marking the commencement of a new era for Scala. Mining, sending, and receiving XLA will be powered by the latest advancements introduced in V8 Menger.

September 14, 2023: Hardfork and mainnet

We understand the importance of a seamless transition. To ensure a smooth upgrade process, the community, exchanges, and mining pools will have one month to migrate to the V8 daemons and applications. The Scala team will be actively engaging with these stakeholders, providing guidance and assistance to facilitate the switch.

Your Burning Questions Answered

To address common queries, we have compiled a brief FAQ.

Is V8 Menger a hardfork?

Yes, V8 Menger represents a hardfork. Users are required to install the new executables to access the upgraded network.

Do I need to create a new wallet?

No, there’s no need to generate a new wallet. Existing wallet addresses and seed words can be seamlessly used to access your coins.

What if I don’t upgrade during the transition period?

Don’t worry, you won’t lose access to your wallet or coins. However, installing the new executables is essential to regain access to the network.

Embracing a Bright Future

The Scala community is eagerly awaiting the dawn of the V8 Menger era. These enhancements symbolize a pivotal step forward in the evolution of the network, and the community’s role is integral to its success. As we embark on this journey together, stay tuned for further updates, insights, and exciting developments.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated community for their unwavering support and enthusiasm. Your commitment fuels our determination to push boundaries, elevate experiences, and carve a remarkable path for Scala.

Let’s celebrate the upcoming release and collectively shape the future of blockchain technology. Stay engaged, stay informed, and stay empowered. Together, we’re building something extraordinary.

Thank you for being an indispensable part of the Scala journey!

V8 Menger — Mainnet was originally published in Scala on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Circle Press

Circle Launches Web3 Wallet Service for Developers

Allows developers and businesses to integrate crypto wallets into their applications, simplifying user access to digital assets and digital currencies like USDC

Allows developers and businesses to integrate crypto wallets into their applications, simplifying user access to digital assets and digital currencies like USDC

Monday, 07. August 2023

a16z Podcast

The True Cost of Compute

With software becoming more important than ever, hardware is following suit. As the world generates more data, unlocking the full potential of AI means a constant need for faster and more resilient hardware.  But how much does this all really cost? In this final segment of our AI hardware series, we tackle that question head on.  Be sure to check part 1 and 2, where we explore the eme

With software becoming more important than ever, hardware is following suit.

As the world generates more data, unlocking the full potential of AI means a constant need for faster and more resilient hardware. 

But how much does this all really cost? In this final segment of our AI hardware series, we tackle that question head on. 

Be sure to check part 1 and 2, where we explore the emerging architectures and the momentous competition for AI hardware.

 

Topics Covered:

00:00 – The cost of compute

02:20 – Is this sustainable?

03:23 – The cost to train a model

05:39 – Computation requirements

09:05  – The relationship between compute, capital, and technology

11:15 – GPT4 commenting on the technology with help from ElevenLabs

 

Resources: 

Find Guido on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/appenz/ Find Guido on Twitter: https://twitter.com/appenz

 

Stay Updated: 

Find a16z on Twitter: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: https://a16z.simplecast.com/

Follow our host: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio

Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.


bankless

182 - In Defense of Lido, w/ Hasu

Lido has over 30% ETH staked. Should we be alarmed? Joining us is Hasu to shed some light on this question. In this wide ranging interview we discuss the State of Staking, the state of Lido, Idealist vs Pragmatics and asking the question - is Lido's reputation unfair? ------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-hasu ----- 🚀Join Ryan & David at Permission

Lido has over 30% ETH staked. Should we be alarmed? Joining us is Hasu to shed some light on this question.

In this wide ranging interview we discuss the State of Staking, the state of Lido, Idealist vs Pragmatics and asking the question - is Lido's reputation unfair?

------ ✨ DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode: https://www.bankless.com/debrief-hasu ----- 🚀Join Ryan & David at Permissionless II in September. https://bankless.cc/GoToPermissionless  ------ 📣 STADER LABS | ETHX LIQUID STAKING https://bankless.cc/Stader  ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🐙KRAKEN | MOST-TRUSTED CRYPTO EXCHANGE ⁠https://k.xyz/bankless-pod-q2 

🦊METAMASK PORTFOLIO | MANAGE YOUR WEB3 EVERYTHING https://bankless.cc/MetaMask  

⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum   ⁠

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle  ⁠

👾POLYGON | VALUE LAYER OF THE INTERNET https://polygon.technology/roadmap 

🗣️TOKU | CRYPTO EMPLOYMENT SOLUTION https://bankless.cc/Toku  ----- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro 4:34 Is Lido's Perception Unfair? 9:08 Is Lido Too Big To Fail? 15:57 What Can An Entity Do With 33%? 21:27 TLDR Recap and Overview 24:11 When Does Lido Risk Become Systemic 32:54 Lido Is Not One Entity 36:40 Node Operators vs DAO 41:19 LDO Governance 49:39 Is Lido Forkable? 52:37 The Path To 5,000 Operators 58:46 Distributed Validator Technololgy 1:08:16 Addressing The Critics 1:17:31 The Staking Social Layer 1:24:40 Is Lido Treated Unfairly? 1:26:47 Can We Keep Ethereum Decentralized? 1:30:07 Risks and Disclaimers ----- Resources

Hasu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hasufl  Uncommon Core v2: https://www.ucc2.xyz/  Hasu last on Bankless: https://youtu.be/1qqkoGatPdE 

----- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 

Sunday, 06. August 2023

A16Z Crypto Substack

building community, followings, buzz

1. 📣 Talks track: On marketing, content, community building, more Whether you’re interested in joining a web3 community, contributing to an existing project, or building something new, there’s lots to keep on top of in crypto. Over the last few weeks, we published
1. 📣 Talks track: On marketing, content, community building, more

Whether you’re interested in joining a web3 community, contributing to an existing project, or building something new, there’s lots to keep on top of in crypto. Over the last few weeks, we published all 30+ talks from our most recent Crypto Startup School (CSS), a program that connects builders with the resources, expertise, and networks they need to navigate the industry.

This week we’re highlighting strategies for social media, content marketing, community building, and more. Web3 projects that are owned and guided by communities have created a new design space for marketers, from running discord channels to distributing rewards to community members. The question isn’t how can we adapt traditional marketing to web3? It’s how can web3 revamp traditional marketing?

Speakers at this year’s Crypto Startup School distilled their expertise – across media, developer relations, community building, and more – into frameworks for companies of all industries, sizes, and stages.

Watch these recently released talks to learn more:

Launching and marketing your project (▶️): New opportunities and recurring themes in web3 marketing with Amanda Cassatt, founder and CEO of web3 marketing agency Serotonin. 

Editorial content strategies and tactics (▶️): Frameworks for crafting editorial content for teams of all sizes with a16z crypto editor-in-chief Sonal Chokshi. 

How to build a social presence (▶️): Building your social media following in web3 and beyond with a16z crypto social lead Ish Verduzco.

A conversation with Greg Solano, cofounder of Yuga Labs (▶️): A chat about the early days of Bored Ape Yacht Club and the development of its community.

A conversation with Kevin Rose, founder of PROOF (▶️): A Q&A on the challenges and opportunities of community engagement in web3.

Check out the rest of the CSS presentations