Protocol Village: Ankr to Introduce Liquid Staking Tokens for Bitcoin Staked through Babylon

March 2: Babylon, a pioneer in developing protocols for Bitcoin blockchain timestamping and bitcoin staking, has announced a strategic partnership with Ankr, a leading Web3 infrastructure company. The collaboration aims to enhance security and liquidity for proof-of-stake (PoS) chains. According to the Babylon team, “Ankr will introduce liquid staking tokens (LSTs) for the bitcoin staked through Babylon. These LSTs will then be generated on PoS chains secured by the BTC staking protocol. This setup allows stakers to lock their BTC on the bitcoin blockchain while creating new LSTs on the PoS chain they choose to secure. Ankr will also operate validators on Babylon’s testnet and develop advanced security infrastructure to support Babylon’s nodes and finality providers.” CoinDesk 20 asset: (BTC)

Worldcoin Developer Tools for Humanity Acquires Crypto Wallet Ottr

March 2: Ottr, a crypto wallet powered by Solana, has announced that its team is joining Tools For Humanity (TFH), a key contributor to the Worldcoin project. They will be leading the development of TFH’s user-friendly mobile wallet, World App, which is used by over 3 million people monthly. According to the Ottr team, “After launching Ottr Wallet 18 months ago, the team created a self-custody wallet with seamless integration with U.S. bank accounts, gas-free transfers and trading, passwordless cloud backups, and a comprehensive dApp store. Now, they will bring their expertise to TFH to expand access to the digital economy for more people.”

Wormhole Reveals ‘Native Token Transfers’ to Be ‘Simpler’ Than Wrapped Assets

March 2: Wormhole, a protocol for enabling communication between blockchains, has introduced “Wormhole Native Token Transfers,” a new framework for making any token multichain in a secure and efficient manner. According to the Wormhole team, “NTT offers an open, flexible, and composable framework for transferring native tokens across blockchains while preserving their essential properties. Compared to wrapped assets, NTT is simpler, decentralized, and represents a significant advancement in interoperability. Leading projects like Lido, ether.fi, Puffer Finance, PIKE, and Wormhole are already utilizing NTT for natively multichain tokens.”

Bitcoin Layer-2 Project BOB Announces ‘ETH-Settled Rollup,’ Plans Launch Around Halving

March 2: BOB, a project focusing on Bitcoin layer-2 blockchain solutions, has unveiled its groundbreaking hybrid integration of Bitcoin and Ethereum at their “Bitcoin Renaissance” event. The event, attended by 1,500 individuals as per the team, introduced an ETH-settled rollup that leverages advanced merged mining techniques to inherit Bitcoin’s Proof of Work (PoW) security. BOB’s future plans include enabling settlements on both Bitcoin through BitVM and Ethereum. The project also shared that the mainnet launch is timed to coincide with the upcoming Bitcoin halving. CoinDesk 20 asset: (BTC)

Taiko, an ‘Ethereum-Equivalent ZK Rollup,’ Raises $15M

March 2: Taiko, a provider of layer-2 scaling solutions for the Ethereum blockchain, has secured $15 million in a series A funding round. The funding round was led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital. Other investors included Wintermute Ventures, Presto Labs, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, GSR, and WW Ventures. With this latest round, Taiko has raised a total of $37 million across three funding rounds.

Clone Markets, Clone Liquidity Mainnet Launched on March 1

March 2: Clone, an open-source protocol facilitating the trading of non-native tokens on the Solana blockchain, has announced the public mainnet launch of Clone Markets and Clone Liquidity, launched on March 1. This launch introduces highly liquid markets for non-native assets through Clone’s innovative “cloned assets” (clAssets), creating a more seamless, efficient, and accessible trading environment for Solana users. The main tokens available for trading with deep liquidity on Solana for the first time include Arbitrum, Optimism, and Sui’s network tokens.

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Renzo, Liquid Restaking Protocol, Expands to Arbitrum in Deal With Connext

February 29 (PROTOCOL VILLAGE EXCLUSIVE): Renzo, a liquid restaking protocol, has partnered with Connext to offer cross-chain restaking for Arbitrum. This enables users on multiple L2 networks, including BNB Chain, Linea, and Base, to restake at a lower cost thanks to the reduced fees in rollups. This partnership allows users to restake ETH on their preferred network while ensuring cost-effectiveness. Renzo and Connext achieve this through ezETH, with EigenLayer leveraging Connext’s bridging and message-passing protocol to transfer ERC-20 tokens with no slippage.

Layer-2 Network Metis Integrates Chainlink CCIP as Canonical Token Bridge

February 29: Metis, an Ethereum layer-2 network, is set to integrate Chainlink’s interoperability solution, Chainlink CCIP, as its canonical token bridge infrastructure. This integration aims to expand the Metis ecosystem’s cross-chain presence, enhance user and developer experience, and accelerate adoption. The Metis bridge interface will leverage Chainlink CCIP to power the official cross-chain infrastructure, initially focusing on bridging leading stablecoins from Ethereum mainnet to the Metis network.

Alchemy Launches ‘Embedded Accounts’ to Onboard Users to Web3

February 29 (PROTOCOL VILLAGE EXCLUSIVE): Alchemy introduces Embedded Accounts, providing the easiest route to onboard users to Web3, featuring:

• Onboarding users with Web2 login (email, passkeys, and soon social auth)
• Zero-friction transactions with one-click checkout by sponsoring gas and batching tx
• Building custom smart accounts with account recovery, multisig, session keys, and more

Alchemy’s mission is to onboard the entire world to self-sovereign Web3 accounts by making wallets seamless and user-friendly.

Max Howell’s Tea Protocol Aims to Address Challenges in OSS Development

February 29: Tea Protocol, founded by Max Howell, the creator of Homebrew’s open-source software package management, leverages blockchain technology to tackle long-standing challenges in OSS development, fostering a more sustainable and equitable ecosystem for software creators. Tea Protocol pioneers Web3 technology to support OSS development transparently and fairly, ensuring fair compensation for developers and enhancing innovation within the open-source community.

QuickNode Launches Real-Time Blockchain Data Solution ‘Streams’

February 29: QuickNode, a Web3 development platform, introduces “Streams,” a real-time blockchain data streaming solution. Streams revolutionizes blockchain infrastructure by providing instant access to historical and real-time data from Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain. The platform empowers developers with popular programming languages, bridging the gap between blockchain data and conventional tools, reducing operational costs, and expediting the time-to-market for decentralized applications (dApps).

Crypto Losses From Hacks, Rug Pulls Up 15% YTD, Immunefi Says

February 29: Immunefi releases a report on “Crypto Losses in February 2024,” revealing a 15.4% increase in losses totaling $200.5 million year-to-date from hacks and rug pulls compared to 2023. Hacks accounted for the majority of losses, with Ethereum being the most targeted chain. In February alone, losses amounted to $67.1 million, primarily due to hacks. Immunefi, a bug bounty and security services platform for Web3, protects over $60 billion in assets.

Bitcoin Miner Marathon, Plans ‘Anduro,’ a Multi-Chain Layer-2

February 29: Marathon Digital Holdings, a publicly-traded bitcoin mining company, unveils Anduro, a programmable multi-chain layer-2 network built on the Bitcoin blockchain. Anduro enables the creation of multiple sidechains on the Bitcoin network, with the first two sidechains, Coordinate and Alys, already in development. Participating miners can potentially earn Bitcoin-denominated revenue from transactions on Anduro’s sidechains while continuing to mine bitcoin on the base-layer seamlessly.

ZkHub, Powered ZkLink, Claims Ethereum’s First Multi-Rollup DEX to Offer Central Limit Order Book

February 29: ZkLink announces ZkHub’s launch of a multi-rollup orderbook decentralized exchange (DEX) based on ZK technology. ZkHub aims to address challenges in navigating between layer-2 rollups by offering a high-performance Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) with multi-chain native asset support, low transaction fees, and Ethereum-grade security. This initiative marks Ethereum’s first multi-rollup DEX designed to provide users with a seamless and secure trading experience.

Coinbase Adds ‘Smart Wallet’ Feature, So Lengthy Seed Phrases Aren’t Needed

February 29: Coinbase introduces new wallet solutions, including smart wallets and embedded wallets, to streamline the crypto onboarding process for new users. These features aim to enhance the user experience by eliminating the complexity associated with creating crypto wallets.

Shiba Inu Adopts Tech to Bring More Privacy to SHIB Token Holders

February 29: Shiba Inu implements a new privacy-focused network on the Shibarium blockchain, leveraging Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology in collaboration with Zama. This initiative enhances the value proposition of SHIB tokens by offering increased privacy and security to token holders.

Rarible, NFT Infrastructure Provider, Launches ‘Rarible API’

February 29: Rarible, a provider of real-time infrastructure for NFT wallets, games, and marketplaces, launches Rarible API to simplify building in the NFT space. The API offers a wide range of features to meet the evolving needs of the Web3 ecosystem, including a real-time NFT indexer, aggregated order book, multi-chain support, and trading SDK. Developed with developers and creators in mind, Rarible API provides a robust infrastructure to support the creation of innovative NFT experiences.

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