Ankr integrates TON into Web3 API services for developers

October 24, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Ankr–Microsoft partnership continues with blockchain creator tool debut

June 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The partnership was preceded by the launch of an enterprise node hosting service on Microsoft Azure.

On June 8, decentralized blockchain infrastructure provider Ankr announced the launch of its enterprise blockchain creator tool on Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace. Dubbed “AppChains,” the solution will enable companies to quickly launch a dedicated and customizable blockchain to power various Web3 strategies. Developers can deploy the Polygon Supernet on its first iteration, with more choices thereafter.

According to Ankr, AppChains has been available for a year with use in launching application-specific blockchains to power their decentralized applications. However, Ankr’s developers said they are witnessing strong demand from institutional clients for using AppChains in areas such as banking, central bank digital currencies and gaming. The firm wrote:

“Making the AppChain solution available on Microsoft’s Azure Marketplace provides an easy path for businesses to find a vetted solution and go to market with use cases like the above. AppChains ensure fast and affordable transactions, seamless user experiences, regulatory compliance, and end-to-end engineering.”

Peter Stewart, head of infrastructure at Ankr, said that the firm would continue to improve the tool based on user feedback and performance metrics under the guidance of Microsoft. Meanwhile, Daniel An, director of Web3 and artificial intelligence business development at Microsoft, said that partnering with Ankr is an essential step in “testing, deploying, and scaling Web3 projects seamlessly."

Cointelegraph previously reported on Feb. 21 that Ankr and Microsoft partnered to offer enterprise node hosting services on the Azure Marketplace. The service relays transactions, deploys smart contracts, and can read or write blockchain data, saving time for developers to spend otherwise on scaling their applications. Currently, Ankr’s Web3 developer hub and software development kits power connections to over 30 blockchains. It is the approved infrastructure partner for building on the BNB Chain, Polygon and Avalanche ecosystems.

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New Cosmos chain will use liquid staking tokens from other networks for security

May 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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Staked ETH, BNB, ATOM, SOL and MATIC will be usable on Tenet as “restakes” to gain further rewards.

A new Cosmos-based blockchain called “Tenet'' will use liquid staking coins from other networks to secure its transactions, potentially allowing the new network to inherit the security of older ones, according to a May 3 announcement from the developers.

The network is currently available as a testnet and will launch a mainnet version as soon as testing is complete. This comes after liquid staking has recently become the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol category.

Liquid staking protocols such as Lido, Rocket Pool and Ankr allow users to stake their coins with a network of validators and receive rewards without having to run their own nodes. These protocols also provide users with tokens called “liquid staking derivatives,” or LSDs, redeemable for the underlying deposits and rewards.

According to the announcement, Tenet will allow users to “restake” these LSDs to earn additional rewards on its network. And it will provide users with tokens that represent the LSDs themselves. The team calls these third-order tokens “liquid liquid staking derivatives,” or LLSDs. LLSDs will be usable in lending apps and decentralized exchanges throughout the Tenet network, the announcement said.

The team expects there to be two core benefits to using LSDs instead of a native coin to secure the network. First, it “ensures the long-term security of the Tenet chain by leveraging the joint security of each [layer 1] ecosystem it services.” Second, it should “bring additional liquidity and yield opportunities to LSDs.”

At launch, the protocol is expected to allow liquid staking derivatives of Ether (ETH), BNB (BNB), Cosmos (ATOM), Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC) to be restaked on Tenet.

The new network is being developed by former executives of Ankr and Blockdaemon and is advised by members of the Lido, Ankr and OpenAI teams.

Liquid staking protocols have existed since 2020 when Lido was first launched. They grew in popularity in 2022 and early 2023 as the Ethereum network implemented a move to proof-of-stake and began to allow staking withdrawals. On May 1, crypto analytics platform DefiLlama announced that liquid staking had become the top category of DeFi apps when measured by total value locked.

Some experts have argued that liquid staking may grow in the future as a result of the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade.

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Tencent Cloud signs multiple collaboration agreements with blockchain firms

February 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The Chinese internet giant is launching new Web 3.0 solutions including a Metaverse-in-a-Box product and blockchain API services.

According to a press release on Feb. 22, Tencent Cloud, the cloud computing branch of Chinese internet giant Tencent, announced that it had concluded multiple agreements with blockchain firms to support the active development of the Web 3.0 ecosystem. Firstly, Tencent Cloud signed a memorandum of cooperation with decentralized blockchain infrastructure provider Ankr to jointly develop a series of blockchain API services for remote procedure call nodes. The new service will be deployed on Tencent Cloud's infrastructure and will provide connections to mainstream blockchains building on Web 3.0 games and applications.

Secondly, Tencent Cloud said that it reached strategic cooperation agreements with three other blockchain partners, Avalanche, Scroll, and Sui, to accelerate the adoption of Web 3.0 applications. The cooperation between Tencent Cloud and Avalanche will provide developers with efficient and fast node settings. With the help of Tencent Cloud's infrastructure footprint, the cooperation between Tencent Cloud and Scroll will assist developers with building practical projects on Scroll and expand access to non-blockchain enterprises. Finally, the cooperation between Tencent Cloud and Sui will provide developers with cloud game development tools and professional support to improve the on-chain game experiences.

The company also introduced a new Tencent Cloud Metaverse-in-a-Box product for Web 3.0 developers that fully integrates a wide range of infrastructure, high-performance products, out-of-the-box software development kits, and low-code solutions for use in games and media entertainment. Commenting on the development, Poshu Yeung, a senior vice president at Tencent Cloud International, stated:

"With a transparent digital future ahead, Tencent cloud is prepared to, through its accumulated experience in the field of games, audio, and video, provide strong technical support for Web 3.0. Tencent Cloud will cooperate with industry partners to offer more immersive experiences and cultivate the cultivate Web 3.0 ecosystem."

Tencent's upcoming metaverse in a box product (Tencent Cloud)

Web3 Crypto Project Explodes 80% Amid Surprise Partnership With Microsoft

February 21, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Ankr partners with Microsoft to offer enterprise node services

February 21, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The partnership will offer low-latency blockchain connections for Web3 projects, enabling developers to focus time on scaling their applications.

Microsoft has partnered with decentralized blockchain infrastructure provider Ankr to provide a novel node hosting service on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. In addition, the partnership will see an integration of technology from both companies, pairing Ankr’s blockchain infrastructure with Microsoft’s cloud solutions.

Per Ankr, the enterprise node deployment service will offer low-latency blockchain connections for Web3 projects so that developers can instead spend their time scaling their applications. The service relays transactions, deploys smart contracts and can read or write blockchain data.

By upgrading its load balancer to use Azure-based routing solutions, Ankr said the firm would be able to further scale its transactions processes by efficiently routing Remote Procedure Call requests to the best-suited nodes. With the technological integration, clients will be able to manage node hosting solutions with the choice of custom specifications for memory, bandwidth and global location for blockchain nodes. Chandler Song, co-founder and CEO of Ankr, commented on the development:

“The partnership, while an incredible milestone for Ankr, is also a key indicator of how far the decentralized web has come in integrating with the crucial players in every layer of web systems. The end result will be an era of extremely prolific building for blockchain-based applications from new Web3 projects as well as large enterprises entering the space.”

Rashmi Misra, Microsoft’s general manager of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, stated, “Many developers and organizations are exploring how Web3 can help solve real-world business challenges, and our partnership with Ankr will enable them to access blockchain data in a reliable, scalable, and secure way.”

Cointelegraph previously reported on May 14, 2021, that Microsoft shut down its Azure Blockchain Service with no official explanation. On Dec. 15, 2022, the American technology giant banned cryptocurrency mining on its cloud services, citing the need to protect its online services from risks such as cyber fraud, attacks and unauthorized access to customer resources.

Ankr deploys $15M to make whole users as Helio stablecoin recovers after exploit

December 7, 2022 Coin Telegraph

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Helio protocol had a total value locked of approx. $90 million before the incident.

According to a Twitter post dated Dec. 7, stablecoin protocol Helio, which issues the HAY stablecoin pegged against the U.S. dollar, said that the firm had bought back $3 million worth of bad debt in HAY thus far in the open market. The day prior, blockchain infrastructure platform Ankr stated it would allocate $15 million to buy back the bad debt resulting from its recent exploit and the resultant over-circulation of HAY.

A series of seemingly unrelated incidents occurred on Dec. 2 when a hacker manipulated vulnerabilities in Ankr's smart contract code and compromised private keys after a technical upgrade. As a result, the hacker minted 20 trillion Ankr Reward Bearing Staked BNB (aBNBc) tokens, which was pegged to the BNB token (BNB), and dumped them as the price of aBNBc plunged to less than $2 from around $300.

However, a trader then took advantage of an alleged hard-coding of pegged prices between aBNBc and BNB on the Helio protocol. The trader bought 183,885 aBNBc with only 10 BNB and used it as collateral to borrow 16 million HAY, which was then swapped for 15.5 million Binance USD, earning a 5,209x profit from their original capital.

2/ Firstly, the team has already started our peg recovery process for $HAY, and this process is expected to be completed by Tuesday, December 6th UTC +4.

We expect HAY to be re-pegged, or at the very least, be close to the $1 mark.
— Helio Protocol ($HAY) (@Helio_Money) December 4, 2022

Subsequent to the exploit, HAY lost its peg and fell to as low as $0.20 per coin before recovering most of its losses and is now trading at $0.96 at the time of publication. Immediately after the incident, the Helio team stated that it would be repurchasing the excess HAY and sending it to a burn address. Originally, users were able to mint HAY by depositing BNB as collateral at a ratio of 152%. The protocol had a total value locked of around $90 million before the incident.

Ethereum-Based Altcoin Tumbles As DeFi Project Gets Hacked for Millions

December 2, 2022 The Daily Hodl

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