Web3 Builder News: 8/19-8/25

Optimism's Sunny Awards, Sony launched L2, cygaar explains how L2s work

Grants & Accelerators

• Optimism introduces the Sunny Awards, an awards show designed to honor the outstanding achievements of Superchain builders, with 540K $OP (estimated $790K) in prizes.
• Sonic Labs introduces Sonic Boom bounty program, offering winning projects Sonic Gems as bounties for developing apps on Sonic across lending, NFTs, tooling, payments, yield, stablecoins, gaming, exchanges, DePIN, AI, and community movements.

Hackathons & Events 🧑‍💻

• Huma Finance announces the inaugural PayFi Summit at TOKEN2049 on Sep 17, featuring the 10 most innovative PayFi applications.
• Walrus announces the Devnet Hackathon: Breaking the Ice, encouraging developers to build on Walrus to earn from a $30,000 total prize pool.
• Euclid Protocol introduces the Aurora Hackathon, an online hackathon for developers to build on the Cosmos ecosystem to earn from a prize pool of 680K $EUCL (estimated $100K).
• DSRV introduces Builder's House: NEOHAUS, a 3-day event for builders during Korea Blockchain Week from Sep 1 to Sep 3.
• Polygon Labs and Circle introduce the Dev Stop event on Sep 5 during Korea Blockchain Week.

Research 🧑‍🔬

• ChainLight published the report on the security analysis of Bitcoin L2 project architectures, and recent efforts to advance the functionality and scalability of the Bitcoin network.
• The Block published research on ACP-77, a community proposal that would change the validator dynamics of Avalanche L1s.
• nero_eth published “On Proposer Timing Games and Economies of Scale”, exploring how entities that control a large portion of the network can delay their block proposals longer than smaller entities without risking their blocks being reorganized.
• mikeneuder.eth published “Mechan-stein (alt. Franken-ism)”, exploring different ways to improve how Ethereum blocks are created and validated.
• rezahsnz published “L2 sequencer proving on weak hardware; parallelization and decentralization”, exploring how to make the process of proving transactions on blockchain faster and more decentralized.
• WaizKhan7 published “A technique to Automatically Detect Storage Collisions and Vulnerabilities within Solidity Smart Contract”, introducing a tool to fix problems in Ethereum smart contracts that can cause money to be lost or stolen.
• Julian published “The Role of the P2P Market in ePBS”, exploring how a peer-to-peer (P2P) market can be used in Ethereum's block-building process.
• Julian published “A Note on Equivocation in Slot Auction ePBS”, exploring the idea of using slot auctions in a blockchain system called ePBS.

Tooling 🛠

Ethereum

• Hardhat explains the reason for building Ethereum Development Runtime (EDR), discusses its current status, and outlines what’s coming next for the project.
• Sorella Labs open-sourced a general-purpose blockchain analytics engine specialized in systematic MEV detection.
• Remix v0.53.0 is out featuring keyboard shortcut and Circom compiler Plugin Interface.
• web3.py v7.0.0 is out featuring WebSocketProvider, AsyncIPCProvider, new middleware model, batch requests support, and ABI utility methods.
• Ethereum Attestation Service introduces an open-source transitive trust algorithm to calculate and propagate trust within P2P reputation systems.

L2s

• Conduit introduces Conduit Marketplace, allowing Rollup teams to find, buy, and deploy best-in-class integrations for anything their chain needs.
• obront.eth introduces OP Succinct, a repo to use Kona and SP1 to verify OP Stack blocks.

Solana

• Dialect released new blinks features including action chaining, advanced input types, and multi-chain & blink version compatibility.

Education/Mechanism 🧑‍🏫

• cygaar explains how Layer2 blockchains actually work.
• CharlesWang explains nonce’s usage and significance in blockchain security.
• Murat, the founder of Primev, explains how the Holesky testnet enhances transaction pre-confirmation and yields additional values for validators.
• Lily from Astria shares a list of resources to understand MEV.
• QuillAudits explores zkEVM which aims to unlock Ethereum’s scalability with zerknowledge proofs.
• Backpack introduces Backpack Learn, an all-in-one platform for learning blockchain and crypto.
• BASED CHARKER introduces Solana Turbine, a premier institute for builders, researchers, and professionals on Solana.

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Infrastructure 🏗

Ethereum

• Bolt announces the Alpha release, enabling sub-second preconfirmations with trustless proposer commitments on Ethereum.

L2s

• Sony launched an Ethereum L2 Soneium built with rollup tech on the OP Stack, and partnered with Astar Network, Alchemy, Chainlink, Circle, Optimism, and The Graph.
• Aave deployed V3 on the ZKsync Era Mainnet.
• L2BEAT announces to set Optimism to Under Review as OP Mainnet effectively disabled the fault-proof system as part of a bug fix.
• Clearpool introduces an OP Stack-based Layer 2 network that caters to RWA yield protocols by offering an optional compliance layer and a decentralized identity system facilitating KYC requirements.
• Offchain Labs shares a roadmap of Arbitrum innovations including horizontal scaling, decentralized sequencing, ZK proofs, and Stylus (MultiVM support).
• DeFund Public Testnet is now live.
• Scroll announces the Darwin Upgrade is officially live on Scroll Mainnet.
• Donatuz, a Layer 3 for on-chain creator monetization, is live on mainnet.

L1s

• Galxe launches alpha mainnet of its Layer 1 Gravity chain.
• THORChain’s native blockchain is scheduled for a hard fork upgrade on Sep 5, 2024. This upgrade includes upgrading the Cosmos SDK version, removing obsolete legacy code and unnecessary Cosmos modules, and supporting Bitcoin Taproot addresses.

Solana

• RISC Zero, a general-purpose zkVM, launched its testnet on Solana.

Bitcoin

• Babylon, the Bitcoin staking protocol, launched the first phase of its self-custodial mainnet.

Security 👾

• Jupiter alerted users of a malicious browser extension that managed to sneak through Solana’s drainer checks.
• Pocket Universe announced that Parcl’s official website had been hacked, draining tokens from Solana wallets and displaying fake transaction results in Phantom wallet.
• gbotemi released a collection of cryptographic implementations focused on zero-knowledge proofs in Rust.

Bug Bounties 🐞

• Folks Finance, a DeFi lending protocol on Algorand, is launching a bug bounty program on ImmuneFi with bounties of up to $25,000 USDC.
• AcreBTC, the liquidity layer for Bitcoin scaling, launched a bug bounty program on ImmuneFi with bounties of up to $100,000 USDC.
• Phi, the visualization layer for on-chain identity, launched an audit contest on Code4rena with a total reward of $30,000.
• Superposition, a Layer 3 powered by Arbitrum Orbit, launched an audit contest on Code4rena with a total reward of $60,750.

Product Launches 🚀

• Babylon has launched its Bitcoin Staking Protocol, enabling self-custodial staking of Bitcoin while retaining full custody. Users can stake directly on any PoS system without losing control.
• $ME, a cross-chain token, will support the dApps ecosystem by facilitating seamless trading of fungibles and NFTs across chains through MagicEden.
• Viction, a people-centric blockchain, has announced the launch of its DA Network mainnet, a significant step in scalable and secure data management for the Viction ecosystem.
• Diva Operator Testnet's final version is now available on Holesky. The Beta release features telemetry improvements, Synapse SDK integration, enhanced validator creation, and updates to the consensus algorithm.
• Aave V3 is launching on Era Mainnet with zkSync, incorporating Chainlink's price feeds. The AaveChan Initiative will manage GHOAave incentives through zkSync ecosystem airdrops and related programs.
• YieldNest, a liquid restaking protocol, has launched ynLSDe, its first Liquid Restaking Token (LRT), designed to enhance the rewards from staked $ETH.
• DeepBook, a decentralized liquidity layer, has launched its V3 Testnet. The update includes improvements to liquidity and trading fees, with the goal of providing performance similar to CEX on decentralized platforms.
• DeFund, a cross-VM liquidity hub, has launched its testnet. The project aims to solve DeFi interoperability problems by reducing impermanent loss and connecting different ecosystems for a smoother DeFi experience.
• Beraborrow has announced that testnet early access is now live for Big Fat Beras and Honey Jar’s Honey Comb NFT holders, with general access coming soon.
• Base announced the launch of Basenames, allowing users to claim unique base.eth usernames for onchain identity. The Basenames are being sold via a Dutch auction to ensure fair access.
• Gravity, a Layer 1 blockchain, has launched its Alpha Mainnet. The platform aims to enhance cross-chain interactions with features like fully onchain questing, smart savings, and its native gas token, G Token.
• Flashbots has launched the Toliman on testnet, the first public testnet for SUAVE, enabling the creation of new intent systems, auctions, AI agents, and more as a coprocessor to Ethereum's block production process.
• Puffer UniFi, a Based Rollup designed to address Ethereum’s fragmentation, is introducing a unified experience for Ethereum Layer 2s, aiming to create seamless integration across all L2s.
• DubdotSocial is launching on Solana to create a fairer and more enjoyable space for memecoin traders, aiming to level the playing field against bots and ruggers.
• Eden Network, has launched "So Extra", a decentralized auction app, now live on the SUAVE Toliman testnet, allowing users to publish custom messages to Ethereum blocks via the extra data field.

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