Web3 Builder News: 8/12-8/18

Coinbase AI Grants, nero_eth analyzes timing games, OP Stack Interoperability

Grants & Accelerators

• Avalanche introduces Codebase Season 2, a 10-week incubator program with a $50,000 non-dilutive stipend supported by the Avalanche Foundation and a $1,000,000 prize pool at a final Demo Day.
• Superteam introduces FastTrack, a coalition of accelerators to help Solana builders grow globally.
• Monad introduces Monad Madness, a pitch competition with $1M in prizes for dedicated Monad ecosystem teams.
• Coinbase introduces the CDP AI Builder Program, a grant program for developers to build AI bots that utilize Coinbase’s MPC Wallets to compete for $15,000 in total grants.
• Talent Protocol introduces the Base Builds Credential, Base’s experiment in UBI (Universal Builder Income) by rewarding builders every week for sharing their projects in the /base-builds channel on Farcaster.
• Aztec announces a $100,000 Developer Incentive Program as Aztec devnet launches.

Hackathons & Events 🧑‍💻

• Titania Research introduces MEV Tokyo, an Ethereum research house and event on Aug 25 & 26 focusing on exploring issues such as MEV, staking, and LVR.
• ETHGlobal introduces ETHOnline, an async online hackathon from Aug 23 to Sep 13 with a $225,000 prize pool.
• Star Atlas introduces the Naabathon, an online hackathon for submitting new applications that interact with Star Atlas's existing programs to earn from a $50,000 total prize pool.

Research 🧑‍🔬

• Lawliet-Chan published “A trustless on-chain anti-MEV solution for Layer2/3”, presenting a way to protect transactions on blockchain layers (Layer2/3) from being manipulated by bad actors (MEV attacks) without needing to trust any single entity.
• Nero_eth published “On Attestations, Block Propagation, and Timing Games”, exploring how the timing of block proposals in Ethereum affects the network.
• Asim Ahmad and Tahir Mahmood published “A Node-Based Solution to Execution Sharding: The KRNL Protocol”, proposing a new way to make blockchain applications faster and more efficient by breaking down tasks into kernels.
• nanaknihal published “A Threshold Network for “Human Keys” to solve privacy and custody issues”, introducing a new way to create digital keys that represent people using their personal data instead of random numbers.
• 0xjonah shares a research paper “Demystifying and Detecting Cryptographic Defects in Ethereum Smart Contracts”, proposing a fuzzing-based tool to automate the detection of cryptographic defects in smart contracts.
• Jonah B and Ben Levy published “Censorship Insurance Markets for BRAID”, discussing a new method called “censorship insurance” to make blockchain transactions more resistant to censorship.
• yiannisbot published “Ethereum discv5 DHT Network Health Weekly Reports”, monitoring the health of Ethereum's peer-to-peer network using a tool called Nebula.
• 0x_1cc published “Decentralized and Verifiable Cloud Service on Ethereum”, proposing a new way to use cloud services that are decentralized and verifiable using Ethereum.

Tooling 🛠

Ethereum

• NEBRA launches Universal Proof Aggregation (UPA) on Ethereum Mainnet. NEBRA UPA is a verification protocol that aims to set a new standard for blockchain privacy and scalability.
• Nethermind client v1.28.0 is out featuring eth_simulate, Optimism adjustments, and Gnosis SnapSync.

L2s

• Jesse Pollak shares the top three tools for builders on Base.

Solana

• MagicBlock, a high-performance engine for on-chain games and applications on Solana, released the containerized version of the MagicBlock Validator.

Education/Mechanism 🧑‍🏫

• Charles Wang shares techniques for secure access controls in smart contracts.
• CD Security shares study material to learn more about vulnerabilities in smart contract systems.

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Infrastructure 🏗

L2s

• OP Labs revealed a roadmap to introduce native interoperability across Layer 2 chains in the ecosystem OP Mainnet, Zora, Base, and others.

L1s

• EigenLayer introduces AVS Rewards Mainnet Launch, enabling AVSs to provide rewards to stakers and operators and providing stakers and operators a frontend to track and claim rewards.
• Symbiotic devnet is out, allowing builders or networks to test the integration of restaking into their stack with Symbiotic’s feature-complete shared security sandbox environment.
• Jarrod Watts, DevRel at Abstract, explains on Abstract’s approach to account abstraction.

Solana

• Squads introduces Squads Policy Network (SPN), bringing granular transaction policies to onchain smart accounts in a trustless and decentralized way which is powered by Jito (Re)staking.
• Agave announces that Agave v2 will be released after Solana Breakpoint. It contains highly anticipated ZK features.
• Solayer Labs launched its Solana restaking protocol on the mainnet.
• Anza published the root cause analysis on Solana Agave network patch.

Security 👾

• Chainlink shares 8 essential cross-chain security considerations for both DeFi protocols and major financial institutions to select a cross-chain interoperability solution.
• SlowMist released a security audit checklist for account abstraction.
• Certora collaborated with Solana Foundation to formally verify token extensions on Solana.

Bug Bounties 🐞

• Fjord Foundry, a liquidity bootstrapping pool and fixed price sales, is launching a bug bounty program on Cyfrin CodeHawks with a total reward of 20,000 USDC.
• Winnables Raffles, a decentralized raffle platform, launched an audit contest on Sherlock with a total reward of 13,500 USDC.

Product Launches 🚀

• Aavegotchi introduced Geist, a new Layer 3 platform built on Arbitrum Orbit, with Base for settlement and AlchemyPlatform as a rollup partner, aimed at enhancing gaming and onboarding more users to blockchain technology.
• $5IRE, a Layer 1 EVM-compatible smart contract platform, has officially launched on the mainnet, advancing its blockchain ecosystem development.
• NEBRA has launched Universal Proof Aggregation (UPA) on Ethereum Mainnet. UPA is a new ZKP verification protocol designed to significantly reduce costs and improve scalability for blockchain privacy solutions.
• MetaStreet's Airdrop Pass upgrade introduces two new tradable tokens for NFTs: Airdrop Pass (AP) for future yield and Discount Pass (DP) for ownership, enhancing liquidity and flexibility for NFT holders.
• OYL Wallet is live. The public build is now available via the Google Chrome Store.
• Solayer, a liquid restaking network on Solana, has introduced the Solana Restaking [Endogenous AVS] standard on the mainnet to optimize Solana's network bandwidth through restaking.
• Swell has launched swBTC, a Bitcoin LRT that enables restaking yield within the Ethereum ecosystem, allowing users to earn points by restaking wBTC.
• Mantle has introduced $FBTC, a 1:1 pegged $BTC asset designed to allow users to utilize idle Bitcoin holdings for DeFi yields across various chains. It is now available on the Mantle Network.
• Vertex Edge on Sei Network is live, providing access to over 50 spot and perpetual markets with order book liquidity across Arbitrum, Blast, Mantle, and Sei.
• Obol, a team focuses on PoS infrastructure, has introduced the Obol Contributions program. Participants can stake on distributed validators (DVs) to earn rewards while contributing to Ethereum’s decentralization, with prospects for future governance and ownership within the Obol Collective.
• Spark has kicked off The Tokenization Grand Prix, inviting creators and issuers to participate in a challenge aimed at integrating $1 billion in tokenized real-world assets into MakerDAO.
• deFi.money has launched the Decentralized $MONEY on Arbitrum and Optimism. Access is currently available to the first 500 users who have been whitelisted by the DeFi Money Guild.
• Aleph Zero, an EVM-compatible L2 using Arbitrum Orbit, launches its mainnet. AlpehZero EVM offers faster block times, Ethereum compatibility, DeFi capabilities, and improved privacy with zkOS.
• Drop, a liquid staking protocol, is live on the Neutron mainnet. Users must obtain a referral link from the Drop community on Telegram or Twitter/X to participate.
• Vessel, a ZK orderbook exchange, is live on Scroll L2. Users can participate in the Vessel Voyage campaign for potential rewards.
• BitGo is shifting its WBTC custody to a new arrangement through a partnership with BiT Global. The update will unfold over the next 60 days, aiming to keep WBTC clients satisfied.
• MakerDao is considering moving away from WBTC following the custody shift from BitGo. They are looking at reducing WBTC collateral limits, with a decision expected on August 12.
• The SEC has reached out to three crypto venture capital firms to explore potential concerns related to securities laws. This action continues the SEC’s focus on the industry, with attention on VCs' involvement in crypto token transactions.

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