Protocol Village: Lyra V2 Builds Custom Chain on Optimism's OP Stack

Dec. 20 (PROTOCOL VILLAGE EXCLUSIVE):Lyra V2 has built its own custom chain on the Optimism stack, according to the team: "Lyra now offers ultra fast trading and execution and continues to be fully self-custodial and keeping all funds and financial logic on-chain. Lyra V1 accounted for 60% of the decentralized options volume, trading over $1.5B in notional volume. Lyra V2 has upgraded to a professional-grade UX and is beginning to target centralized exchange users with its new protocol. Key features: portfolio margin, cross-asset collateral, gasless transactions. To road test the new protocol Lyra has launched the BTCETFPVP trading competition."

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Celestia Rival Avail Inks Agreement With Starkware as Blockchain Data Race Heats Up

Dec. 20: Avail, a rival to Celestia in the race to offer data solutions in the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem, reached agreement with top developer Starkware to play a key role in new networks starting next year. Under the agreement disclosed Wednesday, Avail will provide its "data availability" solution to new application-chains built using Starkware’s Madara, a so-called decentralized sequencer. Starkware is the main developer behind StarkNet, a leading layer-2 blockchain in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Kinto, an AML-Compliant L2, Integrates Celestia Modular DA

Dec. 20: Kinto, a layer-2 network built on Optimism's OP Stack that aims to be fully compliant with anti-money-laundering laws, has integrated Celestia Modular DA, according to the team: "By using Celestia as a dedicated DA layer, Kinto can reduce calldata costs by more than ~100x."

Yellow Network Releases Testnet Phase

Dec. 20: Yellow Network, designed as a decentralized clearing network, is releasing its testnet phase, according to the team: "The testnet will use a Clearing system (ClearSync). Focusing on testing key features of the trading terminal, including but not limited to: Opening and closing of clearing channels with counterparts; Off-chain market trading; Settlement of trades using blockchain escrow swaps; Deployment of broker nodes and mining liquidity. Upcoming features include cross-chain settlements and enhanced security measures. The closed beta represents a critical phase in Layer 3 Foundation."

PancakeSwap and BNB Chain Announce Recipients of Meta-Governance Grants

Dec. 20: PancakeSwap and BNB Chain announced the recipients of "Meta-Governance Grants to four protocols: Cakepie, StakeDAO, Breakfast Finance and Redacted Finance. The grants are designed to support early-stage projects and foster innovation in the dynamic realm of DeFi governance. With the introduction of veCAKE and Gauges Voting on PancakeSwap in November 2023, future allocations of CAKE rewards will be governed by forthcoming meta-governance protocols. PancakeSwap invites developers, protocols, and community members to immerse themselves in these groundbreaking advancements."

Web3mine, Innovation Lab for Web3, Emerges From Stealth, Raises $6M Led by 1kx, Protocol Labs

Dec. 20: Web3mine, "an open-source innovation lab building Web3 tools that help humanity transition to community-owned and -governed internet infrastructure, announces its emergence from stealth mode following a successful $6 million seed funding round," according to the team. "The funding round was led by 1kx, a leading Web3 investor, and also included Protocol Labs and a community of angel investors. Vukašin Vukoje, founder: "By providing common infrastructure for storage, compute, and liquidity providers, we’re driving the next iteration of the cloud."

Stellar Plans 1H 2024 for Phased Rollout of 'Soroban' Smart Contracts

Dec 19: Stellar, the layer-1 blockchain, announced that its planned upgrade to introduce smart contract functionality will occur in a phased rollout over the first half of 2024, with the network’s validator vote on the upgrade taking place on Jan. 30, according to the team: "To ensure the launch provides a high-quality experience for builders, Stellar will evaluate trial contract deployment and communicate to developers when the smart contract platform (known as Soroban) reaches a user-ready level of transactions per second facilitation." [XLM]

Pontem to Launch L2 'Lumio' on OP Stack, Compatible With Move, EVM

Dec. 19 (PROTOCOL VILLAGE EXCLUSIVE): Pontem will launch its layer-2 network, Lumio, "to solve Ethereum’s scalability challenges and usher in a Web2-like experience on Web3 for millions of users," according to the team. "Pontem’s L2 can effectively increase transaction bandwidth, uniting the advantages of high TPS chains like Aptos with the security and liquidity of Ethereum with the purpose of scaling Ethereum horizontally to meet the needs of millions and eventually billions of users concurrently." According to a press release seen by CoinDesk, Lumio is based on Optimism's OP Stack framework, and features a "Move and EVM compatible runtime that allows developers to leverage the benefits of the Move language on Ethereum while still supporting the Solidity ecosystem."

Lisk Blockchain to Transition to Ethereum Layer 2 Using Optimism's OP Stack

Dec. 19: Lisk, an open-source Web3 application platform designed for interoperability with sidechains, is "announcing its strategic transition to the Ethereum ecosystem as a layer-2 solution. Powered by Optimism's OP Stack and built on Gelato's Rollup as a Service platform, Lisk is set to be a key player in bringing the Optimism Superchain vision to reality. As part of the move, Lisk will also migrate its native LSK token to the Ethereum ecosystem, making it compatible with more dApps and services." [LSK]

Immutable Announces Launch of Immutable Passport

Dec. 19: Immutable, the Web3 gaming company behind the Immutable X and Immutable zkEVM blockchains, announced the official launch of Immutable Passport inside games and marketplaces, simplifying the sign-up process for players by providing them with a universal profile that enables them to carry their identity, achievements and digital assets across different online games and marketplaces, according to the team.

Shiba Inu Could Soon Offer SHIB Holders a '.shib' Internet Domain

Dec. 19: Shiba Inu developers are working with internet domain player D3 to introduce a “.shib” internet and blockchain domain to the market in the coming months as part of a push toward identity-focused projects. The domains will be tied to Shiba Inu’s existing Shib Name Service (SNS), a product released in November that serves as a means to introduce digital identity verification for all products built on Shiba Inu blockchain and Shibarium, a layer 2 network. $SHIB

Elastos Looks to Capture BTC Staking Demand With Bitcoin Layer 2 Offering

Dec. 19: Blockchain network Elastos is introducing BeL2, a Bitcoin layer-2 network, designed to allow more sophisticated bitcoin transactions than the base Bitcoin blockchain, including smart contracts and irreversible digital agreements, Elastos developers told CoinDesk. The smart contracts can be defined, managed, tracked and modified wholly on Bitcoin without needing an intermediary.

Komodo Adds Fiat On-Ramp Feature

Dec. 19: Komodo Platform, for blockchain development and oriented toward interoperability, sent the following message: "Komodo Platform (web) adds fiat on-ramp feature to elevate DeFi accessibility."

De.Fi Launches The First Security Coin Market Page

Dec. 19: De.Fi, a "Web3 SocialFi and antivirus SuperApp," according to its website, introduced the Security Coin Market Page, according to the team, adding that the move responds to the pressing need for enhanced security tools in a crypto landscape marked by billions in annual losses: "De.Fi provides real-time insights into token safety parameters like Safety Score, Liquidity, Governance. This innovative tool simplifies the search and evaluation of low-risk investments, offering users a safer exploration of the Web3 landscape."

Marginly, 'Leverage Protocol,' Announces Launch on Arbitrum

Dec. 19: Marginly, a novel leverage protocol that enables margin trading through a unique, fully trustless design, just announced their launch on Arbitrum, according to the team: "Marginly provides users of connected trading venues with up to 20X leverage and seamlessly allows DEXs to harness new functionality, leverage liquidity, and high volumes. The Marginly protocol empowers DEXs to expand their product lines without extensive development efforts by serving as a margin trading and derivatives layer on top of AMM liquidity."

Manta Pacific Claims First Among Layer-2 Chains to Transition to Modular Data With Celestia

Dec. 18: Manta Pacific, a layer 2 ecosystem "empowering EVM-native zero-knowledge (ZK) applications with a scalable, cost-effective environment to deploy using Solidity, has completed its transition to Celestia mainnet," according to the team. "It is the first L2 chain to successfully transition to modular data availability (DA), following last month’s mainnet launch of Celestia, a modular DA network. Gas fees across L2 ecosystems have grown substantially, quadrupling in the last quarter. This is becoming more prescient as additional L2s launch on Ethereum and existing ones continue to build on the same settlement layer."

Masa Announces Launch of 'Gas-Free, Self-Governing Avalanche Subnet'

Dec. 18: Masa, a provider of privacy-preserving Web2 and Web3 behavioral analytics for blockchain applications and networks, announced the launch of its "ZK-data network and marketplace on a subnet powered by AvaCloud in hopes of building an open, secure, and incentivized economy for the world’s personal data," according to the team: "The collaboration aims to implement a gas-free, self-governing Avalanche Subnet. This specialized and adaptable blockchain network enables developers to efficiently access and validate extensive amounts of zero-knowledge encrypted data on a large scale, all at an affordable price. Masa is receiving support from the Avalanche Foundation and a strategic investment from Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund." [AVAX]

Tap Protocol, Created by Trac, Raises $4.2M in Round Led by Sora

Dec. 18: Tap Protocol, an "OrdFi-enabling protocol" for Bitcoin Ordinals created by Trac, announced the successful closure of a $4.2 million investment round led by Sora Ventures, according to the team: "This significant financial backing, which included the participation of top-tier venture capital firms and angel investors, sets the stage for substantial growth and expansion for Trac Systems, the German-based company behind the protocol." Trac, according to its website, "aims to enable decentralized tracking of Ordinals metaprotocols."

Metis, Ethereum Layer-2 Network, Creates $100M Fund as Decentralized Sequencer Launch Nears

Dec. 18 (COINDESK EXCLUSIVE): The MetisDAO Foundation, the organization behind layer 2 rollup Metis, said Monday that it has created a roughly $100 million fund to accelerate the growth of its ecosystem. The fund, called the Metis Ecosystem Development Fund (Metis EDF), will allocate 4.6 million METIS tokens, which will all go to “sequencer mining, retroactive funding, deployment of new projects and other endeavors,” according to a press release shared with CoinDesk. [METIS]

MilkyWay, Celestia Liquid Staking Protocol, Launches 'v1' Mainnet on Osmosis

Dec. 18: MilkyWay, a Celestia [TIA] liquid staking protocol, launches its v1 mainnet on Osmosis, the Cosmos DeFi Hub, according to the team: "Users can stake their TIA to receive milkTIA, for use across various Cosmos DeFi protocols. MilkyWay doesn't currently have its own layer 1 chain. Instead, it operates via a combination of smart contracts on Osmosis, a multisig governed by seven highly-reputable operators, and the Celestia authz module. MilkyWay will later transition to a sovereign rollup on Celestia to issue a native liquid staked token, expanding use cases for milkTIA."

Dfinity Foundation Announces 'GDPR-Aligned Blockchain Infrastructure'

Dec. 18: Dfinity Foundation announced the launch of "GDPR-aligned blockchain infrastructure," according to the team: "Blockchains have traditionally struggled to meet the stringent requirements imposed by GDPR, but with this new infrastructure developers and enterprises can now build GPDR-compliant decentralized applications (dApps). The launch marks a major milestone in blockchain technology adapting to the regulatory environment and will allow for new use cases in industries such as medicine, finance, education and more to serve the European market."

Router Protocol to Release 'Cross-Chain Intent Framework'

Dec. 19: Router Protocol, a layer-1 blockchain built using Cosmos technology and designed to address blockchain interoperability, plans to release its "Cross-Chain Intent Framework" on Monday, "driving simplicity and ease within the complex world of staking, dApps and asset custody," according to the team. "Infrastructure and interoperability will be major themes in the blockchain space soon, and Router intends to be a driving factor behind majorly improved user experiences and interfaces."

Cardano Codebase Moves to Member-Based Project Intersect's Stewardship

Dec. 15: Intersect, a member-based organization for the Cardano ecosystem, has announced the planned migration of the core Cardano codebase to its stewardship, according to the team: "Intersect will then support those Intersect members that are maintaining the Repos. From Dec. 16, administration of all 26 Cardano code repositories will transfer to Intersect and its members, further enabling and empowering its distributed development, with the community driving the future direction of the blockchain. This migration forms an essential part of Cardano’s ongoing "Voltaire" era." [ADA]

Privacy-Focused Namada Blockchain Incentivizes Testnet With 'ROID' Points

Dec. 15: Namada, a multi-chain privacy Layer 1, introduced an incentivized testnet offering 3% of its total supply as rewards, according to a message from the team. "The testnet includes an “asteroid mining race” where participants accumulate ROIDs to win part of 30 million NAM tokens." A blog post is here.

Metagood, Behind OnChainMonkey NFTs, Raises $5M Seed Round

Dec. 14 (PROTOCOL VILLAGE EXCLUSIVE): Metagood, "the blockchain technology and digital assets company that launched the innovative OnChainMonkey NFTs and Osura marketplace, announced today the completion of a $5 million series seed funding round. The round was led by Sora Ventures, with participation from ACTAI Ventures, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Bitcoin Magazine Fund, London Real Ventures and Peach.xyz. The new funding will finance new technology and product developments and marketing on Osura and catalyze partnerships with artists."

Provenance Blockchain Foundation Launches 'Hold Module' to Cut Risks of Smart-Contract Bottlenecks

Dec. 14: Provenance Blockchain Foundation announced the launch of Hold Module, "which can be seen as a major change to how financial transactions and smart contracts function in regard to counterparties, and will serve to reduce costs, steps and counterparty risks for those entering into a transaction. It will eliminate a number of risks and bottlenecks typically associated with smart contracts," according to the team.

LayerZero, Cross-Chain Messaging Protocol, Launches 'V2' on Testnet

Dec. 14: LayerZero Labs, a blockchain developer, launched its "V2" upgrade of LayerZero, a protocol to send messages between blockchains, on testnet, according to a press release: "V2 is a protocol upgrade that increases customization capabilities for dApp security and how transactions are executed, as well as helps make the protocol easier to develop on overall." Enhancements include "modular security," "lazy nonce-order enforcement" for higher throughput, a permissionless "executor" to replace the V1 "relayer," and "unified semantics" that "enables developers to build applications that work the same across every blockchain LayerZero has an endpoint on."

Bitcoin Rewards App Lolli Raises $8M Series B Led by Bitkraft

Dec. 14: Lolli, a bitcoin rewards app, has raised an $8M Series B led by Bitkraft Ventures, with investors like Serena Ventures, Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six, Ulta Beauty's Prisma Ventures, Michelle Phan and Logan Paul," according to the team. "The fundraise will contribute to the company’s ongoing expansion, which will include bringing Lolli’s patented multi-currency rewards offering to enterprise partners like exchanges, neobanks, banks, payment companies, and browsers."

Ava Labs' Core Wallet Goes 'Seedless'

Dec. 14: Ava Labs, developer team behind Avalanche blockchain, sent the following message: "Core wallet goes seedless to accelerate Web3 adoption while preserving self-custody and high security. And it’s NOT the usual Account Abstraction-based seedless experience. Core introduces an innovative Seed Abstraction that allows people to use Core-generated seed across various blockchains, from Bitcoin to EVMs, without the complexities of multiple contracts or cross-chain issues." [AVAX]

EOS Ecosystem Gets 'EOS Stable Coin Chain'

Dec. 14: EOS Labs and EOS Network Foundation, supporting the EOS blockchain, will "partner with EOS Stable Coin Chain (ESCC) to revolutionize the EOS ecosystem," according to the team. Features include:

• ESCC Integration: Deployed on EOS with customized EVM architecture, ESCC enhances stablecoin transactions.
• Transaction Efficiency: Lightning-fast processing, low costs and high throughput.
• Financial Innovation: Stablecoins for gas fees ensure predictability and usability.
• Blockchain Solutions: ESCC caters to diverse stablecoin needs, from DeFi to regulated systems.
• EOS-Ethereum Compatibility: EOS EVM integration allows for seamless migration of Ethereum-based apps to EOS. [EOS]

FutureMoney Group Launches $5M DePIN Accelerator With IoTeX Foundation

Dec. 13: FutureMoney Group, a Web3 investment firm, is "launching a $5M Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) accelerator program in partnership with IoTeX Foundation, the organization behind IoTeX, the leading modular Web3 infrastructure platform connecting smart devices and real-world data to blockchains," according to the team. "The accelerator program is focused on startup innovations seeking to unlock the $2.2 trillion potential in DePIN, AI and real-world value in Web3."

Cronos, Partner of Crypto.com, to Start Layer 2 Network With Matter Labs

Dec. 14: Cronos Labs, the developer behind the Cronos blockchain, announced Thursday the launch of a new layer-2 network, joining the growing ranks of second-tier projects that have opted to build auxiliary networks within the dominant Ethereum ecosystem. The new "Cronos zkEVM chain" is launching initially as a test network, based on Matter Labs’ software tools, which can be used to spin up new layer 2 and layer 3 “hyperchains” atop Ethereum. [CRO]

Ethereum's Buterin Floats Prospect of Taking Some Layer-2 Functions Back on Main Chain

Dec. 14: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who argued three years ago for pushing more of the blockchain's computational load onto affiliated networks known as "layer-2 networks" or "rollups," has just outlined a plan to take some of the functions back onto the main chain. His idea for an "enshrined zkEVM" could prove disruptive, since prominent layer-2 projects, including "ZK-rollups" from Polygon, Matter Labs and Scroll, have invested heavily in fulfilling the earlier roadmap. [ETH]

Immutable zkEVM Will Allow Developers to 'Abstract' Transaction Fees

Dec. 14: Immutable, a gaming company, announced that "Immutable zkEVM, a next-gen zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-based scaling platform developed in collaboration with Polygon Labs, will allow developers to completely abstract transaction fees for a frictionless onboarding and enhanced user experience."

Kinetic Launches on Flare With Rome Blockchain Labs

Dec. 14: Kinetic (VC) is launching its platform on Flare network with the support of Rome Blockchain Labs (RBL), according to the team: "The partnership will improve the defi ecosystem within Flare and Kinetic including liquidity provisioning, lending/borrowing and FAssets (bridge crypto assets)."

CORRECTION (15:48 UTC): The item on LayerZero's V2 has been corrected to note that the project did not launch a test network, but that it launched "on testnet." According to the team, V2 was launched on more than 40 testnets, or test networks.