June 27: Immunefi, an on-chain crowdsourced security platform, releases its “Q2 2024 Crypto Asset Losses Report,” showing $572 million in losses from hacks and rug pulls in Q2 2024, an increase of 112% compared to the same period in 2023. According to the team, “This brings total losses year-to-date to over $920 million, with May 2024 seeing a record monthly loss of $358 million. Of the total losses in Q2, CeFi was the primary target of successful exploits at 70%, while DeFi was at 30%.”
ICO-famous smart contract blockchain Tezos unveils “X” roadmap featuring “Canonical Rollup”
June 27: The Tezos blockchain development team announces “Tezos X,” which they say could bring significant improvements in performance, configurability, and interoperability. The roadmap outlining their development plans for the next two years calls for splitting transaction execution into a separate “standard rollup” and supporting “atomic transactions between smart contracts written in different programming languages.” The main Tezos blockchain acts as the base layer for consensus and settlement. (XTZ)
REDACTED, building Web3 “entertainment datasphere,” raises $10 million
June 27: REDACTED, which is building a product ecosystem to shape the “Entertainment Datasphere,” has raised $10 million in funding co-led by Spartan Group with participation from Saison Capital, Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures Web3 founders, VCs, angel investors, and big name investors like Dingaling and Grail. According to the team, “REDACTED’s data protocol will power entertainment and gamification products to deliver better, more targeted experiences.”
Web3 development platform SCrypt releases toolkit for UTXO blockchain
June 27: SCrypt, a full-stack Web3/blockchain development platform, announced the release of a developer toolkit designed for Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) blockchains. According to the team, “UTXOs are the method the Bitcoin protocol uses to track balances moving between digital wallets. The UTXO model is essential to maintaining the security and integrity of the blockchain network and solves the problem of double spending…. sCrypt founder and CEO Xiaohui Liu said, “Historically, Web3 applications have been built primarily on account-based blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana. Ordinals has reignited development interest in Bitcoin and the UTXO blockchain.” The sCrypt platform provides a comprehensive toolkit, including software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs), that enable developers to seamlessly integrate the UTXO blockchain into their applications. The platform also integrates a vast ecosystem of an estimated 13 million JavaScript/TypeScript developers worldwide.”
Rebar Labs Raises $2.9 Million to Build “MEV-Enabled Infrastructure” for Bitcoin
June 27: Rebar Labs, which is building “MEV-aware infrastructure, products, and research” for Bitcoin, has raised $2.9 million in seed funding, according to the team. “Led by 6th Man Ventures with participation from ParaFi Capital, Arca, Moonrock Capital, and UTXO Management, the company aims to address MEV challenges in Bitcoin’s expanding ecosystem. MEV strategies similar to early Ethereum DeFi are emerging in Bitcoin as new protocols such as BRC-20, Runes, L2, and Rollups emerge. Rebar Labs is developing solutions that ensure fair value distribution in the Bitcoin ecosystem, enable efficient markets, and improve the experience for users and miners.”
BVNK launches Layer1, a self-regulated infrastructure for stablecoin payments
June 27th: BVNK launches Layer1, a self-managed infrastructure for stablecoin payments. According to the team, “This enables fintech companies to get to market quickly while ensuring data privacy. Layer1 simplifies blockchain payment infrastructure by handling wallet and asset management, reconciliation, and third-party integrations. This self-managed infrastructure allows companies to integrate digital asset payments with less than 200 lines of code in a matter of weeks.”
Chainlink Data Streams Released on Avalanche, Used by Decentralized Perps Exchange GMX
June 27th: Chainlink Data Streams officially launches on Avalanche, with GMX as a launch partner using Data Streams to help power its decentralized perpetual exchange, according to the team: “By providing high-frequency market data using a robust decentralized infrastructure, Data Streams enables high-throughput DeFi products to create a seamless user experience comparable to CEXs, offering unprecedented on-chain execution speeds and a battle-tested security infrastructure.” (Link)
Validator Infrastructure Provider SSV Extends Incentivized Mainnet Program Until December
June 27: Validator infrastructure provider SSV Network has revised its Incentivized Mainnet Program (IMP) after a successful decentralized governance vote. According to the team, “Key updates include extending the program until December 2024, restructuring reward tiers, and removing eligibility for SAFE multi-sig wallets. The new tiered reward system offers early validators a significant APR increase, strengthening incentives for participation. The revisions aim to maximize rewards, encourage validator engagement, and address previous program limitations.”
Cobo launches enterprise “portal” with “all-in-one wallet platform”
June 27th: Cryptocurrency custody and wallet infrastructure provider Cobo launched Cobo Portal, “a one-stop platform that streamlines the process for businesses to build highly scalable wallet infrastructure and seamlessly manage digital assets,” according to the team. Features include: “1. All-in-one wallet platform with custody wallet, MPC wallet, smart contract wallet, and exchange wallet. 2. Advanced risk management – customizable user roles, on-chain and off-chain transaction policies, governance rules, and approval workflows. 3. Seamless development environment – documentation and support across all popular programming languages allows blockchain developers to quickly integrate Cobo’s WaaS (API and SDK).”
Dfinity Foundation launches “UTOPIA” for defense and other “sensitive sectors” with “on-chain serverless cloud”
June 27th: The DFINITY Foundation, a major contributor to the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) and also working on decentralized AI, announced the launch of UTOPIA, which “seeks to tackle the $10 trillion global cybersecurity problem through an on-chain serverless cloud that delivers unprecedented operational resilience and security.” According to the team, “the technology is crucial for high-risk and sensitive sectors such as defense, utilities, and financial services, ensuring unbreakable security and 100% digital sovereignty.”
Interoperability Project Wanchain Launches Token Bridge to Polkadot Relay Chain
June 27: Wanchain, a layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain with a focus on interoperability, launched a token bridge between the Polkadot Relay Chain and the Cardano blockchain network. According to the team, “Despite the growing clamor for a bridge in both communities, Wanchain has successfully connected Polkadot and Cardano for the first time. It can be accessed through the Wanchain Bridge web portal. Temujin Louie, CEO of Wanchain, said, “Wanchain believes in the need for interoperability between all networks, not just EVM. We hope this initial implementation will lead to further developments such as cross-chain function calls between two non-EVM networks.” (ADA) (DOT)
Theta Network Expands EdgeCloud Computing Platform
June 27: Theta Network is expanding its EdgeCloud computing platform. According to the team, “The new Elite Booster feature allows users to earn TFUEL and partner TNT-20 tokens by running GPU AI tasks. Theta EdgeCloud is the first hybrid computing platform for AI, video and rendering applications. It is powered by 30,000+ distributed edge nodes from the Theta Edge Network and cloud partners such as Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services. The distributed mesh network provides over 80 PetaFLOPS of distributed GPU computing power that is always available.”
WorldCoin teams up with Alchemy to build infrastructure for new World Chain
June 27th: Worldcoin announced that it is partnering with Alchemy to provide reliable infrastructure for World Chain, a new blockchain designed for humans. According to the team, “By partnering with Alchemy, developers on World Chain will immediately have access to a complete and comprehensive Web3 developer platform, including both core and data APIs, indexing solutions, and a suite of other tools developers need to power their apps. Alchemy will also integrate World ID into its toolset and promote it as a fundamental element of its Web3 infrastructure, making World ID seamlessly accessible to millions of developers around the world.”
RariMe, Rarimo’s World Coin Alternative, Released
June 27: Rarimo announced RariMe, a Worldcoin competitor, and an app that allows users to generate passport zero-knowledge proofs (ZKs) that prove their uniqueness without revealing their identity, the company announced on Thursday. Unlike Worldcoin, which uses a globe to scan an eyeball, Rarimo uses a smartphone to scan a passport to authenticate users. Typically, in identity verification frameworks, a third party approves the credentials, but ZKs ensure that no personal data is shared during identity verification.
Superchain Network and Anyone Protocol Team Up to Enhance Privacy Management
June 27th: Superchain Network and Anyone Protocol have joined forces to revolutionize privacy management in a decentralized environment, according to the team: “By leveraging Anyone Protocol’s DePIN network ‘Anon’ and the usable data of the Superchain Network, this partnership ensures unparalleled security, privacy, speed and data sovereignty. This addresses a key privacy issue in the crypto space, where current data providers expose their clients to metadata logging and inference attempts, posing a major privacy risk and putting business confidentiality at risk.”
Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, a weekly newsletter that explores the technology behind crypto, block by block. Sign up here to receive it by email every Wednesday. The project team can send updates here. Find previous versions of Protocol Village here. Also, be sure to tune in to our weekly The Protocol podcast.
