Web3 Builder News: 7/22-7/28

Colosseum announces Solana Radar Hackathon, Vitalik published “Exploring circle STARKs”, "ELI5"s about Zero Knowledge and Fully Homomorphic Encryption

Grants & Accelerators

• Drift Foundation announces the Grants Program to fund initiatives accelerating the growth of Drift's ecosystem and strengthening its community.

Hackathons & Events 🧑‍💻

• Colosseum introduces the Solana Radar Hackathon, running September 2 - October 8, 2024.
• OpenBuild announces the Fuel Developer Season, a 6-month series including bootcamps, workshops, meetups, and hackathons.
• Avalanche announces the Developer Workshop In London on August 14, introducing devs to Avalanche, the Avalanche Academy, and how to launch their own L1.

Research 🧑‍🔬

• Vitalik Buterin published “Exploring circle STARKs”, introducing a new cryptographic protocol called Circle STARKs that promises to improve blockchain security and efficiency.
• Umbra Research published “A Sandwich-Resistant AMM”, introducing an AMM design that protects swappers from frontrunning attacks.
• terence published “Builder Bidding Behaviors in ePBS”, exploring how the Ethereum block builders change their bidding strategies in a new system called ePBS.
• EugeRe published “Enabling standardized on-chain executions through modular accounts”, leveraging multiple ERC standards (ERC 7579, ERC 1271, ERC 4337, ERC 165) to create a robust and standardized on-chain execution environment.
• Technical University of Munich, Flashbots, and Ethereum Foundation published “Who Wins Ethereum Block Building Auctions and Why”, examining the builder market to derive the features that play a significant role in builders' ability to win blocks and earn profits.
• simbro published “A design for APS-burn in the context of a Decentralized L2”, proposing a new way to manage who gets to create the next block in a decentralized blockchain system.
• Wyatt Benno published “Proof Composition Using Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machines: #RunawayZK”, leveraging NIVC-based zkVM for proof composition to accelerate the development of more efficient, flexible, and powerful zero-knowledge systems.
• maxkoeg published “ePBS Metagame: SSP peacekeeping and alternative public service”, exploring how new Ethereum protocol changes will impact the behavior of people and organizations using the blockchain.
• CeciliaZ030 published “Rollup-Centric Considerations of Based Preconfirmations”, discussing how Taiko Labs is working on improving the efficiency and profitability of building blocks on their blockchain network.

Tooling 🛠

Ethereum

• Shadow introduces univ3.xyz, a dashboard that collaborated with Uniswap on custom shadow events for Uniswap v3 pools.

L2s

• Nethermind Starknet introduces entro, a Python library for Starknet searchers to interact with the Blockchains.

Education/Mechanism 🧑‍🏫

• Helius explains ZK Compression and how Solana works.
• RareSkills shares all the kinds of errors that can happen when a smart contract is called, and how the Solidity Try / Catch block responds to each of them.
• Pavel Paramonov explains Solana’s transaction flow.
• 0xCygaar shares the beginner’s guide to account abstraction.
• Wei Dai shares crypto infra "ELI5"s about ZK(Zero Knowledge) and FHE(Fully Homomorphic Encryption).
• Helius explains the fundamentals of zero-knowledge proofs.
• ddimitrovv22 shares the differences between opcodes CREATE and CREATE2, and the comparison on security.
• Sigma Prime shares a few tips and tricks on how to enhance your Solidity testing using Foundry/Forge.
• vectorized.eth shares a treat for Solidity developers to improve storage efficiency.
• Aryan Godara shares deliriuse’s article that explores the source code of the EVM.

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Infrastructure 🏗

L2s

• Base announces that fault proofs are now live on Base testnet, marking a step forward towards Stage 1 Decentralization.

Solana

• Lumio launches its Layer-2 solution on Solana's public devnet. Lumio is a rollup technology suite that enables developers to build with any VM on any chain.
• Sonic launches Testnet Frontier, an innovative testnet that incorporates the HyperGrid Shared State Network (HSSN) to improve interoperability with the Solana Base Layer.

Sui

• Sui announces that Mysticeti is now live on its mainnet, offering an improved user experience with fast transactions across all apps, from games to DeFi on Sui.

Security 👾

• Monoswap, a decentralized exchange and staking platform on Blast, suffered a $1.3M hack due to a phishing attack on its developer.
• Spectra, a permissionless yield protocol, suffered a $550K exploit due to an arbitrary call in their router contract.
• 0xFrankCastle shares the checklists for smart contract security researchers.
• deth shares 2 checklists for protocols preparing for a smart contract security review.

Bug Bounties 🐞

• IDEX, a decentralized perpetual swaps exchange, is launching a bug bounty program on ImmuneFi with bounties of up to $45,000 USDC.
• Loop, a leveraged restaking hub, launched an audit contest on Code4rena with a total reward of $100,000.

Product Launches 🚀

• Vest Exchange launches to the public (PHASE 2), allowing anyone to access Vest mainnet, begin trading, and earn yields on all LP deposits. Vest has rewarded over 400k $ZK tokens to everyone who participated in PHASE ONE.
• Illuvium game Zero Beta is live on mainnet and available on iOS/Android. Users can build their city, manage resources, and earn rewards.
• Alkimiya, a blockspace markets protocol, launches on Ethereum Mainnet. Users can Buy or Sell BTC transaction fees by interacting with Alkimiya Pools, which are periods during which users can enter, trade, or close their positions.
• Avail DA launches mainnet and the AVAIL token. Avail is the first modular data availability layer using validity proofs + data availability sampling, with AVAIL powering the network.
• TreasureDAO launches Magicswap V2, unlocking a new category of DEXs that combines DeFi x games to power on-chain game economies.
• Yearn launches Gimme, a Polygon-based yield aggregator powered by Yearn. Gimme offers up to 10.94% APY for stables, ETH, and MAITC.

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