dYdX launches layer 1 blockchain, validators and stakers set to receive all fees

October 27, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

dYdX completes the launch of its layer 1 proof-of-stake blockchain with the creation of its genesis block by chain validators.

Decentralized cryptocurrency exchange dYdX has launched its layer 1 blockchain with the creation of its genesis block which will operate using native DYDX tokens.

The dYdX Chain is set to distribute all fees to validators and stakers in USD Coin (USDC). This includes trading fees denominated in USDC as well as gas fees for DYDX-denominated transactions or USDC-denominated transactions.

The proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network was built using Cosmos’ software development kit and makes use of CometBFT as its consensus protocol. Validators stake DYDX in order to secure the blockchain and carry out governance operations of the network.

The launch of the dYdX Chain network itself spanned a massive number of companies:

@dydx_ops_subdao coordinating genesis & launch generally + hosting indexer & frontend
@dydxfoundation coordinating community governance
@noble_xyz, @circleapp, @coinbase for launching…
— Antonio | dYdX (@AntonioMJuliano) October 26, 2023

Antonio Juliano, dYdX founder, highlighted that the launch of the dYdX Chain hinged on the likes of Circle and Coinbase launching on Cosmos in time for the creation of its genesis block. Juliano previously described dYdX as an "entirely new blockchain built on Cosmos SDK" and the "first-ever decentralized, offchain orderbook". The blockchain is also entirely open-source.

Before the launch of dYdX’s native layer 1 chain, the original DYDX was an ERC-20 token operating on dYdX’s original Ethereum layer 2 protocol. To facilitate the transition to its own layer 1 chain, the dYdX community voted to adopt DYDX as the L1 token of the dYdX Chain, adopt a one-way bridge from Ethereum to the dYdX Chain and to give wrapped Ethereum DYDX (wethDYDX) the same governance utility as ethDYDX in dYdX v3.

As a result of community votes and governance outcomes, the utility of the DYDX token has expanded to be used for staking, securing the network and assisting with governance on the dYdX Chain.

Similar to Ethereum’s transition to PoS, stakers and validators secure and protect the network and receive dYdX protocol feels in proportion to their staked assets. Fees collected by the dYdX Chain protocol are distributed to validators and stakers through the Cosmos distribution module.

An announcement from dYdX highlighted its expectation that the governance on the dYdX chain will be more accessible than its previous, Ethereum-based layer 2 protocol:

“The dYdX Chain does not have the dYdX v3 concept of ‘Proposing Power’; instead, the governance module effectively enables any holder to create a governance proposal with a deposit.”

Provisions to combat spam proposals include minimum deposit thresholds and voting mechanisms with veto powers. Users can only used staked DYDX tokens to participate in chain governance.

Chain validators will also inherit the voting weight of stakers, unless specific stakers opt to vote on proposals individually.

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Blockchain firm raises $25M to develop third-generation architecture

May 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain firm raises M to develop third-generation architecture

Anoma

Intent-centric blockchain protocol Anoma secures $25 million in funding to continue developing its third-generation architecture.

Swiss nonprofit Anoma Foundation has secured a significant funding boost to continue the development and research of its third-generation blockchain architecture.

A third fundraising round secured $25 million for the organization, which is building what it describes as a generalized intent-centric blockchain architecture. The technology is touted to enable the development of completely decentralized applications (DApps) and services, ranging from decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to blockchain rollup protocols.

Anoma co-founder Adrian Brink told Cointelegraph that its third-generation architecture offers more composability and ease of use than existing smart contract protocols like Ethereum and its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Brink highlighted the evolution of blockchain systems, with Bitcoin (BTC) being the first generation of scriptable settlement architectures. Ethereum became the second generation with programmable settlement architecture, while Anoma looks to further the decentralization of existing blockchain-based applications and platforms:

“Anoma is the first architecture that is intent-centric, marking the third generation of architectures that contrast with the current transaction and blockchain-centric architectures.”

Its latest fundraising round is earmarked to support ongoing development and research initiatives for Anoma’s architecture as well as developer tools for its ecosystem.

Brink highlighted Anoma’s primary design principle of intent-centricity, which enables fully decentralized versions of existing DApps, such as rollups; nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces like OpenSea and Flashbots; and decentralized exchanges that possess centralized components and limited on-chain settlement functions:

“It enables applications that are impossible to build on existing smart contract protocols, such as fully decentralized Gitcoin, Plural Money, Collaborative Finance, Multidimensional DAOs, runtime rollups, or multiparty multivariate bartering.”

Brink describes Anoma’s intent-centric design as a radically new take on how the industry architects decentralized systems, in contrast with transaction or blockchain-centric approaches like Bitcoin, Ethereum and other blockchains.

A July 2022 report from Chainalysis highlighted the landscape, with Algorand, BNB Chain and Avalanche emerging as competing layer-1 competitor chains to Ethereum looking to provide greater scalability or security.

Multitudes of layer-1 blockchains have been designed in the mold of Bitcoin and Ethereum, powering transaction and smart contract functionality.

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Flare integrates blockchain API on Google Cloud Marketplace

May 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Google Cloud Marketplace adds support for nine different blockchain APIs, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, through integration with layer-1 Oracle network Flare.

Layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain platform Flare has integrated its application programming interface (API) portal on Google Cloud Marketplace, onboarding a number of significant blockchain APIs to the ecosystem.

The integration of Google Cloud Marketplace will provide high-integrity blockchain data from Flare nodes and connected chain nodes to a large pool of developers and users of the software products and services platform. This includes blockchain APIs for Algorand, BNB Smart Chain, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Flare, Litecoin, Songbird, XRP ledger and future-supported blockchain APIs.

Blockchain APIs are touted to free developers from having to run their own nodes for the respective blockchains they are interacting with. The data supplied powers applications that execute transactions and query the latest state of a blockchain by calling up on-chain data.

Flare highlights blockchain APIs as valuable for building cross-chain applications that query various data sources, including major cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets that use its API portal.

A statement from Flare’s vice president of engineering Josh Edwards highlighted that the provision of blockchain APIs to platforms like Google Cloud Marketplace will play a role in increased Web3 participation:

“It makes it easier for developers to experiment with blockchain technology and its many use cases without being burdened by onerous hardware costs and ongoing maintenance.”

Edwards also suggested that larger organizations and partners making use of Google Cloud Marketplace would potentially experiment with the secure and approved Web3 APIs.

The EVM-based layer 1 aims to extend the utility of blockchain technology by providing data from various chains and Web2 sources, which could climb to over 100 chains that form Flare’s oracle.

Flare’s integration comes just days after Polygon Labs and Google Cloud announced a multiyear partnership for the cloud computing service provider to boost the Ethereum scaling protocol’s tools and infrastructure development.

The deal sees Google Cloud’s framework and developer tools provided to Polygon’s core protocols, aimed at fostering the development of Web3 products and decentralized applications on Polygon.

Google Cloud’s partnership with the ecosystem is expected to advance Polygon’s zero-knowledge development. Testing of Polygon zkEVM’s zero-knowledge proofs on Google Cloud reportedly resulted in faster and cheaper transactions compared to the existing infrastructure available.

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Layer-1 EVM oracle platform Flare launches to boost interoperable DApps

January 10, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Layer 1 EVM blockchain Flare goes online, aimed at providing developers a platform to build decentralized interoperability applications.

Flare, a new layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine blockchain platform, has gone live with the launch of two core protocols aimed at powering decentralized interoperability applications.

The platform serves as an oracle network that allows developers to build applications that are aimed at being interoperable with different blockchains and internet platforms and services.

Flare features two protocols that power its application-building suite. Its State Connector protocol enables information and data to be used securely and at scale from various blockchains and internet sources with the use of smart contracts. The functionality is touted to offer powerful data to the network and facilitate the development of cross-chain solutions.

Meanwhile, the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO) sources and provides decentralized price and data feeds to decentralized applications (DApps) running on the layer-1 blockchain platform. According to Flare’s technical documentation, the FTSO smart contract provides continuous estimates for different types of data.

Independent providers retrieve data from external sources like centralized and decentralized exchanges and supply that data to the FTSO system. The information is weighted according to each provider's voting power, and a median is calculated to produce the final estimate.

This operates as an incentive system for data providers, which are rewarded for supplying price pairs and other information that are close to the median value from various sources.

The protocol’s two networks, Songbird and Flare, run Ethereum Virtual Machine which allows Ethereum contracts and tools to be used in the development of smart contracts and applications. However these layer 1 networks run independently of the Ethereum mainnet.

Details of the platform launch shared with Cointelegraph highlight the importance of providing secure access to data. Flare CEO & co-founder Hugo Philion believes the two protocols can lead to new use cases for blockchain technology, such as triggering a Flare smart contract with a payment made on another chain or by input from a conventional website.

“It also facilitates a new way of bridging, specifically to bring non-smart contract tokens to Flare for use in applications like DeFi protocols.”

Flare initiated its token airdrop on Jan. 9, with 4.27 billion FLR tokens distributed to millions of users across various cryptocurrency exchanges. The airdrop itself marked a unique milestone, as developers can now start using Flare’s EVM and data acquisition protocols.

The initial token distribution released 15 percent of the full public token allocation, with the remainder set to be released monthly over 36 months. The allocation method for the remaining token supply will be settled by a community vote through the Flare Improvement Proposal 01 (FIP.01).

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‘Performing as expected’ — Aptos Labs defends day 1 criticism

October 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

APT coin

Aptos’ blockchain claims to handle three times the amount of transactions per second than Solana but day one of its launch saw the network transacting a much lower amount.

After four years of development and millions in funding, the layer-1 blockchain Aptos (APT) finally launched its mainnet on Oct. 17, albeit to somewhat mixed reception.

The proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain has seen millions invested in it from venture capital firms and has previously claimed the ability to process 160,000 transactions per second (TPS).

However, some members of the community have pointed out that the claimed TPS is falling far short of expectations on the mainnet.

According to Aptos’ blockchain explorer, the network is seeing around 4 TPS at the time of writing, while some users on Twitter have reported not being able to send transactions.

Others on Twitter noticed the Aptos Discord was closed for a few hours after the launch of the mainnet, accusing the team was attempting to stop discussion around potential launch issues.

Cointelegraph reached out to Aptos for comment and was directed to a “Day one update” tweet by Aptos on Oct. 18.

In the tweet, Aptos said the network is “performing as expected” with activity increasing as more ecosystem participants join. Cointelegraph was able to view a variety of transactions from users using its blockchain explorer.

Day one update:
Today has been exciting. Thank you for all the support!

The Aptos network has been performing as expected and will see increased activity as ecosystem projects onboard and get going.
— Aptos (@AptosLabs) October 18, 2022

Aptos also said it closed comments on its Discord and Telegram channels to “protect the community from scams” and they will “return to normal when appropriate.”

The tokenomics of Aptos is not yet publicly available, leading some to cite concerns that cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and FTX are listing its token without such information available to their customers.

Aptos has seen millions invested from venture capital firms, with the most recent round of funding in July netting Aptos Labs $150 million. A prior round in March raised $200 million with participants including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), FTX Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.

Aptos Labs was created by former Meta employees Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, who were involved in the failed Diem blockchain project, which wound down in February of this year and sold its intellectual property and other assets.

The blockchain is built on a programming language originally developed for the defunct Meta-built Diem blockchain.

Offchain Labs acquires Ethereum core dev team Prysmatic Labs

October 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Through the deal, Offchain Labs hopes to build a sustainable future for Ethereum, through greater communication between teams developing on both layers and direct collaborations.

One of the core development teams behind the Ethereum (ETH) Merge, Prysmatic Labs, has been acquired by Offchain Labs, the developer of Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum.

Announced in an Oct. 13 blog post by Offchain Labs, the deal's financial terms were not disclosed, but it was noted Prysmatic Labs chose to join Offchain Labs "for many reasons," but mainly because of the two companies' alignment in their core beliefs.

Prysmatic Labs co-founder Raul Jordan said the move will "build a unified team stronger than the sum of its parts."

"Merging with Offchain Labs made perfect sense to us as an Ethereum team because we develop software extensively in Go, are fully incentive-aligned with the success of Ethereum, and are focused on shipping quality software for others to use,” Jordan said.

Offchain Labs claims the future of ETH relies on layer 1 for consensus and data availability and layer 2 for execution and scalability, and its acquisition of Prysmatic Labs is a step toward combining experts in these two areas.

Despite the Prysmatic Labs team officially joining Offchain Labs, their "work will continue uninterrupted," and their work in Ethereum node client software will continue to be developed under Offchain's umbrella.

They are still developing Prysm as a fully open-source and neutral consensus client and bringing EIP-4844 data-sharding to production.

The post ends by teasing possible future collaborations between the two teams.

“There are several other joint initiatives that we plan to work on together, furthering both L1 and L2 development.”

Prysmatic Labs is one of the core engineering teams behind the Merge and built Prysm, the leading ETH consensus client that's now powering Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus.

Offchain Labs is a venture-backed and Princeton-founded company developing Arbitrum, a suite of scaling technologies for Ethereum, with two live chains, Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova.

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