Developers

Starknet to hand 10% of network fees to devs, with $3.5M in first distribution

The Devonomics initiative from the Starknet Foundation aims to return a portion of network fees to incentivize developers.

Layer-2 network StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation are set to distribute a 10% cut of network fees to developers, a part of a pilot program called “Devonomics.” 

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Dec. 12, StarkWare CEO Uri Kolodny said it was allocating a portion of the network fees, provisionally 8%, to decentralized app builders and 2% to infrastructure engineers and core developers through a transparent and open voting process.

“It’s all about giving the hands-on builders a strong voice in shaping the network,” explained Kolodny.

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Celo Foundation and Google Cloud partner to support sustainable Web3 startups

The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Google’s mobile development platform, Firebase.

The Celo Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to support mission-aligned projects in Celo’s blockchain ecosystem and advance the early adoption of Google Cloud services. The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Firebase usage, thereby enhancing Celo’s mobile-first infrastructure and decentralized applications (DApps).

Firebase is a mobile and web application development platform developed by Google that provides developers with various tools and services for building apps, including authentication, real-time databases, cloud storage and messaging.

According to the announcement, the Google Cloud team will also provide mentorship and guidance to the Celo Foundation’s Founders in Residence program and participate in the virtual Celo Camp accelerator program, which supports entrepreneurs in developing sustainability-focused startups. Additionally, the two organizations aim to co-host targeted workshops and events focused on Web3 sustainability and innovation.

Xochitl Cazador, the Celo Foundation’s head of ecosystem growth, told Cointelegraph that “this new, expanded partnership between Google and the Celo Foundation enhances the ability to collaboratively create broader awareness for blockchain technology and its ability to scale real-world use cases on Celo.”

Cazador further explained that “Google Cloud’s core team will also support the Celo Foundation through joint hackathons, workshops, and events centered on the intersection of Web3 and sustainability. The partnership aims to further amplify both teams’ belief that blockchain technology is well suited to address environmental matters.”

Addressing the challenges that sustainability-focused startups in the Celo Network face, Cazador shared that “highly technical onboarding processes, complex interfaces, and unfamiliar transaction fee currencies present major barriers to entry for such startups in the Web3 space.”  However, Cazador shared that Celo’s partnership with Google Cloud is set to “alleviate the strain on emerging and established projects, thereby allowing ecosystem builders to tackle today and tomorrow’s largest sustainability challenges.”

Related: Celo ecosystem projects raise $77.3M in support of interoperability, ReFi

Celo is a blockchain platform that has achieved carbon negativity through proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. Within the Web3 community, it has gained recognition as a leader in regenerative finance (ReFi), a broad concept that prioritizes sustainability within finance. The platform has a diverse range of over 1,000 projects in more than 150 countries.

In episode 10 of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out podcast, Rene Reinsberg, the president of Celo Foundation and the co-founder of the Celo blockchain, discussed the ReFi movement and Celo’s plans to stay relevant in the multichain world. Reinsberg shared that he sees the increase in layer-1 blockchains and layer-2 networks as an opportunity to bring more people into crypto. 

THORChain mainnet halted amid new vulnerability reports

THORChain has once again halted its network, taking action as a precautionary measure while verifying reports on a potential network vulnerability.

Cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain has paused its network due to new claims of a potential network vulnerability.

THORChain took to Twitter on March 28 to announce it has halted all trading amid reports of a potential vulnerability with a THORChain dependency that may affect the network. The decision was taken as a precautionary measure while the reports are verified, THORChain said.

The announcement came soon after social media reports indicated THORChain’s liquidity platform Nine Realms and the dedicated security team THORSec received “credible reports” of a potential vulnerability affecting THORChain. The THORChain network has reportedly been subsequently halted globally.

“Network preemptively paused by NO’s to investigate the report; updates will follow,” Nine Realms tweeted.

Amid the news, THORChain’s native token Rune (RUNE) has tumbled about 5%, according to data from CoinGecko. At the time of writing, the token is trading at $1.32, down 18% over the past 30 days.

Founded in 2018, THORChain is a decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol that allows users to swap assets between different blockchain networks without using centralized exchanges. THORChain’s settlement layer currently offers swaps between eight chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Cosmos, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Related: DeFi exploits and access control hacks cost crypto investors billions in 2022: Report

The latest halt on THORChain’s network is not the first. The network was paused in October 2022 due to a software bug causing “non-determinism between individual nodes.” The network resumed and became fully functional after 20 hours of maintenance.

In 2021, THORChain also halted its network after the protocol suffered a breach, with hackers stealing $7.6 million in crypto assets.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

In about eight hours after the initial announcement, THORChain reposted a halt update on Twitter, indicating that developers and the security team have managed to identify the disclosure as credible. “However, it would require a malicious node in the last churn,” the update said, adding that that THORChain has resumed trading because “no nodes can exploit the current vulnerability.” 


Technical discussions take center stage at Advancing Bitcoin conference in London

Here’s a look back on the highly technical conference in London, where ordinals, silent payments and the Lightning Network were studied and discussed.

Bitcoin bear market builders convened in London for the Bitcoin-only conference Advancing Bitcoin, which ran from March 2–3.

Common Bitcoin (BTC) conference vernacular like “macro,” “shitcoin” and “debt spiral” was absent from the debate, replaced by computer science terms like “OP_return,” “nonce” and “ordinals” dominating the discussion. The two-day developer conference was technical and thoughtful — a space to get one’s hands dirty writing code.

Fedi’s Leon Johnson organized and kicked off the conference. Source: Michaelayophotography79 

Leon Johnson, a conference organizer and the head of operations at Bitcoin company Fedi, told Cointelegraph that the conference is entering its fourth year and the profile of attendees has slowly evolved:

“In 2019, we had a lot of what I would call hobbyists, enthusiasts, tinkerers. And those same people have now kind of progressed to work for Bitcoin companies.”

True to its name, the conference has advanced Bitcoin hobbyists to Bitcoin companies. Gaming company Zebedee, for example, spun up from interactions at Advancing Bitcoin, Johnson explained.

Alex Leishman, CEO of River — a U.S.-based Bitcoin accumulation and Lightning Network company — told Cointelegraph that the event is a high-quality arena for builders:

“It’s nice to be in workshops and presentations that really dig into the weeds and the inner workings of the innovations happening in the space — whether it’s ordinals, Lightning Network, protocol upgrades — and what those then mean for user experience and for improving the actual products we’re all trying to build.”

True to form, developers and computer scientists pitter-pattered on their keyboards throughout the conference. Attendees as young as 10 constructed hardware wallets from scratch, spun up code, and interrogated the blockchain and Bitcoin mempool. An entire day was dedicated solely to workshops.

Cointelegraph’s Joe Hall was conference compère. Source: Michaelayophotography79

Echoing comments made by other developers and computer scientists, Johnson highlighted that progress is good, but the layer-2 Lightning Network is still in its infancy, and Bitcoin is just a teenager at almost 15 years of existence. So, what does Bitcoin need to mature?

“Bitcoin needs people. We need more than speculators. We need people that care about applications.”

Eric Sirion, co-founder of Fedi and maintainer of the Fedimint protocol, joined in: “Don’t gamble — it’s a bear market, and bear markets are for building.” It’s time to “get out there and inspire people,” he suggested.

Related: UK is ‘likely’ to need digital currency, says BoE and Treasury: Report

Uncle Rockstar (not his real name), the brains behind some of Bitcoin company Strike’s inner workings concluded the first day of talks. Rather than delve deeper into technical specifications, as other talks did, Rockstar chose to chide, reassure and motivate developers, particularly those working on free, open-source software.

Uncle Rockstar (who chooses to hide his features) gives a talk. Source: Alex Waltz

Bear markets can burn out the best of us, he explained during his talk. “It’s OK to take a break and pick up a fiat job before returning to building.” Leishman agreed:

“I think Bitcoin is going to become the money of the world and is going to completely change everything. We can speed that up if we’re smart about how we approach it.”

With Bitcoin’s price continuing to wallow in the low $20,000s, the bear market continues to grind on. Advancing Bitcoin recently announced its intention to travel to Málaga, Spain with the concept in autumn. The Spain edition will focus on businesses and institutions and have less of a developer focus.

ConsenSys zkEVM set for public testnet to deliver secure settlements on Ethereum

ConsenSys will release its zkEVM rollup to its public testnet on March 28, paving the way for an eventual mainnet integration later in 2023.

ConsenSys has announced the upcoming release of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollup to a public testnet on March 28, allowing for stress testing of the layer-2 scaling technology.

ConsenSys’ research and development team has been working on its zkEVM rollup over the past four years. The zkEVM is touted to offer fast finality, high throughput and security of settlements on the Ethereum blockchain.

A private beta launched in Q4 of 2022 gave early access to limited users, which processed over 350,000 transactions and onboarded various decentralized applications (DApps). The testnet allowed Solidity developers to build, test and launch DApps while testing the zkEVM at scale.

ConsenSys zkEVM is the culmination of work from teams at Infura, Truffle and MetaMask, as well as developers on Besu and Gnark. Integrations and features of the rollup were aimed to remove developer complexity, improve security and expedite onboarding times.

An announcement shared with Cointelegraph highlighted zero switching costs as a benefit to projects in the ecosystem. Developers can build on the zkEVM or migrate existing DApps without changing code or rewriting smart contracts. The zkEVM also uses Ether (ETH) for gas fees, cutting out the need for third-party code translation and other middleware solutions.

ConsenSys zkEVM integrates with MetaMask, which is aimed to expedite the onboarding of users. Infura integration also allows developers to ship DApps at scale. Developers will also be able to build, test, debug and deploy Solidity smart contracts with a variety of layer 2 developer environments powered by Truffle.

ConsenSys also aims to keep its zkEVM open-source after launch. Nicolas Liochon, head of research and development at ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that the goal of the public beta testnet is to trial the system under the same conditions it would face on mainnet where the stakes are higher.

“Users and developers will be able to permissionlessly interact with our technology stack allowing us to stress test the system under challenging and adversarial conditions.”

Following integration with the public testnet, ConsenSys will carry out a system outgrade. This is aimed at laying the foundation for a “highly performant, trustless, and decentralized network,” according to Liochon.

The final upgrade will also start its auditing and security process to ensure the zkEVM is safe and secure before a mainnet launch earmarked to take place later in 2023.

ConsenSys is in discussions with leading players in the Ethereum ecosystem to deploy and integrate with its zkEVM testnet. Liochon highlighted the focus on making the scaling rollup EVM-equivalent a key factor in making it easy for DApps and tools to switch to its zkEVM.

Liochon also said efforts to make decentralized and trustless applications available to the public require simpler and cheaper systems. The zkEVM aims to achieve this by building a trustless, censorship-resistance, decentralized and performant execution layer that scales Ethereum.

Collaboration with the wider layer 2 ecosystems is also a focus for ConsenSys. Liochon said the organization is looking to work with innovators in the space to convene the first zkEVM “multi-prover” rollup.

This type of scaling rollup would have multiple prover implementations generating validity proofs of computation.

Provenance Blockchain Foundation announces $50M in grants for blockchain development

The grant program will award $50 million in HASH, Provenance Blockchain’s native token, to developers.

Provenance Blockchain Foundation has announced a $50 million grant program for blockchain developers to support the development of regulated financial services on blockchain. 

The grant program promise to award $50 million in HASH, Provenance Blockchain’s native token, to developers who build core services and experiences that enable the full digitally native lifecycle of regulated financial assets on blockchain technology. Developers will be evaluated based on a range of factors, including their ability to contribute to asset perfection, asset origination, on- and off-ramps, security, compliance, wallets, identity, developer tools and new financial asset use cases. All projects that are awarded grants will have to also undergo Know Your Customer screening.

Beyond the HASH-based grants, the Provenance Blockchain Foundation said it would also offer additional support to developers, including ecosystem introductions, networking opportunities, product promotion and marketing, and technical onboarding assistance. 

The Provenance Blockchain Foundation said its ecosystem would foster open innovation by bringing together developers, financial applications and issuers to facilitate the complete digital lifecycle of financial assets. Through this ecosystem, developers will also have the chance to earn revenue from the services they provide to other participants.

Related: Bosch partners with AI firm for $100M fund to empower Web3 development

Despite being in a bear market, various blockchain companies are investing in building up their ecosystems. 

On Feb. 23, Cointelegraph reported that the Interchain Foundation, the nonprofit organization responsible for the creation of the interchain Cosmos ecosystem, had recently pledged to invest approximately $40 million in 2023 toward the advancement of its core infrastructure and applications. 

Additionally, on Jan. 19, SSV.network — a developer of validator infrastructure — also launched a new ecosystem fund aimed at promoting innovation in Ethereum staking technologies and supporting Ethereum proof-of-stake decentralization. The fund, valued at $50 million, will be solely dedicated to financing projects focused on building applications using distributed validator technology. 

ConsenSys eyes Web3 notification service refinement with Hal acquisition

The acquisition will allow ConsenSys’ Web3 API provider Infura to integrate Hal’s configurable webhooks or notification service in its developer stack.

Blockchain technology services provider ConsenSys acquired Hal, a no-code blockchain development tooling platform, to disrupt alerts and notifications at the protocol level in Web3.

The acquisition will allow ConsenSys’ Web3 API provider Infura to integrate Hal’s configurable webhooks or notification service in its developer stack. As a result, the move will help developers create alerts and notifications at the protocol level for various signals.

According to ConsenSys, Infura offers a suite of tools to connect apps, which the developer community can use to connect apps to the Ethereum network and other decentralized platforms.

A workflow showing how Infura facilitates access to Web3. Source: ConsenSys

Infura co-founder Eleazar Galano revealed the company intends to fill the gaps in the building process of apps for the crypto ecosystem. Speaking about ConsenSys’ acquisition of Hal, Galano stated: 

“Enabling developers a seamless end-to-end experience is a key goal and one of the most important trends is low code / no code solutions.”

In February 2022, ConsenSys acquired Ethereum wallet interface provider MyCrypto to improve the security of MetaMask and its user experience. 

ConsenSys acquired Hal to build upon this year-old initiative and enable MetaMask to offer a dynamic, personalized notification system.

Related: ConsenSys founder ‘bullish’ on Ethereum following crypto winter performance

ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin recently told Cointelegraph that “we’ve retained virtually all of our capabilities” despite having to lay off 11% of its workforce.

Lubin highlighted concerns around raising cash in the crypto ecosystem at the Web3 builder-focused event, Building Blocks 23, in Tel Aviv, Israel. He added:

“And VCs are not kind and generous. They’re going to withhold until some sort of shakeout happens in the tech space, I believe.”

Regarding the job cuts, Lubin believes ConsenSys is now in a stronger position to withstand unforeseen global economic troubles.

Fujitsu launches Web3 acceleration platform for startups and partner companies

Fujitsu’s Web3 Acceleration Platform promised to provide blockchain-based service APIs, high-computing technologies, simulations and AI for developers building Web3 applications and services.

Japanese multinational tech company Fujitsu has announced the launch of a new platform designed to support Web3 developers worldwide. 

According to a report by the Fintech Times, Fujitsu’s Web3 Acceleration Platform seeks to provide a development environment, blockchain-based service APIs, high-computing technologies, simulations, AI, combinatorial optimization, for start-ups, partner companies, and universities building Web3 applications and services.  

The company said on Feb. 8 that its platform aims to support the creation of a diverse ecosystem of Web3 applications across a range of use cases, such as digital content rights management, business transactions, contracts, and processes. It will also offer free access to select participants in its global partner program, the Fujitsu Accelerator Program for containers as a service (CaaS). From March, program partners can access the platform in Japan, with the company planning to expand its availability globally later in the year.

Fujitsu outlined three key themes for its Web3 platform, including “the realization of a co-creation society through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), rights management and utilization of digital content, and the realization of digital trust.” To support the development of its new platform, Fujitsu plans to hold a global planning and development contest, aimed at building and implementing DAO communities and creating new Web3 services.

Related: Cronos Labs to accept second cohort for $100M-backed Web3 accelerator program

Web3-based accelerator programs have grown over the past year. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Web3 accelerator Beacon recently completed its first cohort with 13 companies graduating and showcasing their blockchain-based startups. The cohort, named “Cohort 0,” began in October with 15 companies across the DeFi, gaming, and infrastructure subsectors of cryptocurrency. 

On Jan. 31, Cointelegraph also reported that blockchain startup accelerator Cronos Labs had announced the opening of applications for its second cohort of the $100 million-backed Cronos Accelerator Program.

Cointelegraph reached out to Fujitsu for a comment but had not received a response at time of publication.

The state of Solana: Will the layer-1 protocol rise again in 2023?

Despite the latest FTX-related crisis, Solana still has what it takes to win the layer-1 race, according to the head of strategy at the Solana Foundation, Austin Federa.

About two months after the FTX collapse, the Solana network is stronger than ever, according to Austin Federa, head of strategy and communications at the Solana Foundation. 

Federa defines the recent SOL token price crash as a short-term market reaction to the perceived connection between Solana and the defunct crypto exchange FTX. While FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was invested in many Solana-based projects, Federa pointed out he didn’t have any influence on the network’s operations and fundamentals. 

“The external perception was that there was a very close relationship between the Solana network and FTX, which wasn’t the case,” Federa explained in a recent interview with Cointelegraph. 

According to a recent report by Electric Capital, the Solana network has been experiencing a record inflow of developers contributing to the ecosystem. 

To Federa, developers are increasingly building on the Solana network because of its main value proposition: cheap and fast transactions.

“You can build new types of products and services that aren’t transaction-constrained,” he pointed out.

When asked to address the problem of outages that have plagued the network over the past year, Federa mentioned a number of technical upgrades that should improve the stability of the network in the months to come. One of them is the recent introduction of priority fees, which should reduce the amount of transaction spam on the network. 

Federa also mentioned Firedancer, a new validator client that is expected to go live on Solana’s mainnet by the end of 2023. 

To find out more about how Solana is recovering after the FTX collapse, check out the full interview on our YouTube channel, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

SSV launches $50M ecosystem fund to support ETH staking tech

Vitalik Buterin identified distributed validator technology, or DVT, as a key component of Ethereum’s decentralization efforts.

Validator infrastructure developer ssv.network has launched a new ecosystem fund to support Ethereum proof-of-stake decentralization — a move that the company said would promote innovation around Ether (ETH) staking technologies. 

The ecosystem fund, valued at $50 million, will support projects building applications using distributed validator technology, or DVT, the company announced on Jan. 19. The fund is solely dedicated to backing DVT use cases in support of Ethereum’s long-term decentralization efforts.

DVT is an open-source protocol that allows a validator’s responsibilities to be distributed across multiple nodes. The protocol was a key component of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s roadmap for Eth2, as more DVT implementation means more decentralization.

SSV noted that several venture capital investors — including Digital Currency Group, HashKey, NGC, Everstake, GSR and SevenX — have promoted Ethereum’s use of DVT.

SSV said it had already pledged $3 million toward developer grants and that $1.2 million has been allocated to over 20 proof-of-stake projects, including Blockscape, ANKR and Moonstake.

According to Alon Muroch, the core development lead at SSV, Ethereum is “currently secured by a small group of companies, which, when put together, control the entire blockchain.” He said the aim of DVT technology “is to distribute Ethereum’s security by offering quick and easy access to an open-source, public good which will completely change the way staking is operated today.”

Related: ETH staking on top exchanges contributes to Ethereum censorship: Data

Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake is a multi-phased process designed to enhance the network’s scalability, security and decentralization. The transition introduced ETH staking, where users actively participate in validating transactions. The minimum staking threshold for becoming a validator on Ethereum is 32 ETH.

As of early December, it was reported that demand for liquid ETH staking was on the rise. Blockchain analytics firm Nansen referred to staked ETH as the “first yield-bearing instrument to reach significant scale in DeFi.”