Web3 Builder News 4/29-5/5: Base Onchain Summer Offers >600 ETH

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EIP 4844 has improved blockchain scalability, enabling non-financial applications. As the scope of blockchain increases, so should our branding. We are now Web3Builder.news, reflecting the increasing variety of applications feasible on blockchain today.

Grants & Accelerators

• Nethermind introduces a Starknet Grants Program to support applications and products on Starknet with a $1M Grants Pool.
• Mina Protocol launches the Core Grants Program to encourage community members to shape and realize the future of the Mina ecosystem.
• Fantom Foundation introduces the Fantom Meme Season competition with 10 million $FTM in prizes for memecoin holders & teams.

Hackathons & Events 🧑‍💻

• Base introduces Onchain Summer II, a 3-month program offering over 600 $ETH for the Onchain Summer Buildathon, Gas Credits and Builder Grants.

Research 🧑‍🔬

• Toni Wahrstätter published “Slashing Proofoor”, a research paper on on-chain slashed validator proofs.
• 0xBeans explains Heroglyphs, a new protocol that proposes incentives to increase the number of solo validators on Ethereum, making ETH more robust and decentralized.
• terence.eth published a research paper on Builder Reveal Timing Games in ePBS.
• Ava Labs announces a research paper on a new protocol Frosty, aimed at bringing strong liveness guarantees to the Snow family of consensus protocols.
• Nethermind Research published "On amortization techniques for FRI-based SNARKs", describing Packing and Modular Split-and-Pack, new techniques for optimizing STARK proofs.

Tooling 🛠

Ethereum

• Chainlink VRF v2.5 is out, featuring enhancements including low-friction billing, more predictable pricing, & improved UX for upgrading to future versions.
• rahat.eth launches a Web3 Starter kit for developers to build web3 frontends with tools including Next JS with App Router, Typescript, Tailwind, WalletConnect, Wagmi React Hooks, etc.
• Circle announces Wallet Signing Service, an enterprise-grade solution to create and embed digital wallets using a set of APIs and SDKs.

L2s

• Timur Badretdinov launches OpScan, an open-source multi-chain UserOp searching tool.

Solana

• Jac0xb.sol introduces a Lighthouse assertion builder proof-of-concept. This POC set of methods takes a Solana transaction and outputs a new Transaction injected with Lighthouse assertion instructions which are built via a user-defined strategy using the writable accounts in the transaction.
• Anthias Labs launches Flare, the command line interface for developers on Solana.

Education/Mechanism 🧑‍🏫

• Shoal Research introduces the state of parallel execution blockchains today by exploring the design philosophies and the teams involved.
• Kostas Kryptos shares learning resources for developers to learn Sui through examples of Sui dApps and Sui smart contracts.
• jtriley.eth introduces the EVM Object Format (EOF), a suite of EIP's aimed at overhauling the control flow, validation, and execution of the EVM.
• Helius publishes a step-by-step guide on how to set up a Solana validator.

Infrastructure 🏗

Ethereum

• Eclipse Labs announces a development partnership with Neon Stack to bring Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility to the Eclipse network. With this integration, Solidity developers can deploy Ethereum-native solidity dApps from their existing codebase to Eclipse.
• Paradigm announces Reth Execution Extensions(ExEx): a framework for building performant and complex off-chain infrastructure as post-execution hooks.

L2s

• Redstone Mainnet is live. Redstone is the first OP Stack chain to deploy with Plasma Mode and is aimed at allowing builders to deploy an OP Stack Chain with the Data Availability Layer of their choosing, reducing transaction costs while maintaining security.

L1s

• Particle Network, a modular L1 powering chain abstraction, announces Testnet Phase 1 is live. Particle Network aims to be a high-speed EVM execution environment interconnecting multiple chains.

Bitcoin

• BOB Mainnet is live. BOB announces that it will enhance security by integrating with Bitcoin PoW and leveraging BitVM for the next two following phases.

Solana

• Paradigm announces Frame Interface Guidelines(FIG): open-source guidance and best practices for building great Farcaster frame experiences.

Avalanche

• Avalanche Durango.5 is out featuring bootstrapping optimizations, Beta consolidation, and consensus engine fixes.

Security 👾

• Jeff Security shares some EIP-3074 threat models including signing a malicious transaction, compromised computer, and smart contract bugs.
• Scam Sniffer shares that wallet drainers are using legitimate contracts like Uniswap V3's Multicall to bypass wallet security alerts for phishing attacks.

Bug Bounties 🐞

• Renzo Protocol, a Liquid Restaking Token and Strategy Manager for EigenLayer, launches a competitive audit contest on Code4rena with a $112,500 total prize pool.
• LoopFi, a credit hub for restaking & leveraged LRT strategies, launches an audit contest on Code4rena with total rewards of $12,100.
• Chronicle Protocol, a blockchain-agnostic layer for securely & verifiably transitioning data on-chain, launches a bug bounty program on Cantina with total rewards of $50,000.
• Blackwing, a modular blockchain for margin trading, launches a bug bounty program on ImmuneFi with bounties of up to $100,000 USDC.

Product Launches 🚀

• BOB, a hybrid Bitcoin L2, has launched its mainnet with over 40 projects deployed on the chain. BOB also launched Fusion Season 2, allowing users to earn Spice (points) by supplying TVL, using BOB dApps, and completing Galxe quests.
• Nim Network, an AI gaming RollApp (IBC rollup chain) powered by Dymension, launched its mainnet. NIM liquidity provision and CEX listings will follow in the coming days.
• Bedrock, a cross-chain liquid restaking protocol, launched liquid-staked Bitcoin (uniBTC) in partnership with Babylon. Users can now stake BTC for uniBTC and earn staking rewards plus Bedrock Diamonds.
• Vest Exchange, a perps DEX backed by Jane Street, launched its phase one private alpha mainnet on zkSync Era. Users with an invite code can trade on Vest and earn LP yields. Others can earn codes by joining Vest Discord and earning roles.
• Sturdy Subnet is live on the Bittensor mainnet. The Subnet allows Sturdy aggregators to determine the allocation between whitelisted silos for optimal yield. Users can now deposit into aggregators to earn yield and accrue rewards.
• Heroglyphs, an incentive layer for solo stakers, launched its website. Users with a Genesis NFT key can now register their IDs to earn BADGES and exclusive NFTs. Another snapshot will be conducted with new Genesis Keys for additional chains.

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