The Latest Tech News in Crypto and Blockchain

Jan. 25: Centrifuge, a protocol to bring real-world assets (RWAs) onchain, has integrated with the Celo blockchain through cross-chain interoperability project Axelar. “Following the integration, Centrifuge will introduce new assets to the Celo ecosystem, such as tokenized Treasury bills and carbon credit pools,” according to the team: “Centrifuge joins Celo’s robust network of real-world financial solutions such as Jia, Huma Finance, Untangled Finance, Credit Collective and more.”

Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.

Jan. 25: Powerloom, the composable data network, announced a partnership with Polygon Network, to launch a node mint, according to the team: “To democratize Web3 data accessibility, Powerloom aims to establish 10,000 independently run nodes. This will be facilitated by a node mint scheduled to take place on Feb. 7. Participants who mint a Soul-Bound Token (SBT) will be awarded the right to operate a Powerloom Snapshotter Lite node.”

Jan. 25: Chainlink and Arbitrum announced the mainnet beta release of Chainlink Functions on Arbitrum One.

Jan. 25 (PROTOCOL VILLAGE EXCLUSIVE): Colosseum has emerged from the Solana Foundation as a new, independent organization that will run future Solana Foundation online hackathons, an accelerator program and venture fund to invest in Solana builders, according to the team: “Founded by Matt Taylor, Clay Robins and Nate Levine, Colosseum will be a new arena for the next wave of Solana projects. Hackathon winners who are accepted into Colosseum’s Accelerator Program will receive $250,000 in pre-seed capital. The inaugural event starts on March 4,2024 and interested builders can sign up here.”

Jan. 25: Powered by IoTeX, the upgraded DePINscan 1.0 will launch in partnership with the top DePIN projects in the space such as Helium, Akash, Theta and more, “bringing data and visualizations to the public dashboard that enables anyone to view data on these networks,” according to the team: “DePINscan illuminates the DePIN market for the public by offering a comprehensive view of the sector, showcasing device counts/earnings, upcoming projects, mining opportunities and market capitalization.”

Jan. 25: Router Protocol, a layer-1 chain built with Cosmos SDK and designed to be an interoperability layer, announced the mainnet launch of its latest cross-chain solution, Nitro. It’s a “cross-chain intent-based bridge built on the Router Chain,” according to a press release, with “extensive support for EVM, non-EVM and zkEVM chains,” and an “additional security module (ASM) with community watch and oracle security.” According to the team, Nitro “promises a new era of lightning-fast, cost-efficient, and fortified cross-chain transactions.”

Jan. 25: Flipside Crypto, a leading on-chain data analytics and business intelligence platform, published its “Onchain Crypto User Report,” which examines user acquisition, onchain activity and trends across eight major blockchain networks, including popular EVM chains as well as Solana and Bitcoin. According to the report, Ethereum and Polygon led the industry by each acquiring over 15M new users in 2023.

Jan. 25: Warner Music Group, the global music and entertainment company, is “gearing up to announce the winners of its inaugural accelerator program, celebrating the startups that are reshaping the music industry with blockchain,” according to the Polygon Labs team: “The accelerator is the fruit of a new partnership between WMG and Polygon to empower the next generation of developers and innovators at the intersection of web3 and music. Polygon Labs and WMG have selected MITH and Muus Collective for the Accelerator, two projects helping build the future of the music x Web3 ecosystem on the Polygon network.”

Jan. 25: Space and Time is introducing an open-source GPU acceleration framework, Blitzar, for Proof of SQL, according to the team: “Created to enhance zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs in the Web3 community, Blitzar resulted from Space and Time’s collaboration with NVIDIA, addressing the need for open-source GPU acceleration frameworks. Proof of SQL, introduced in alpha in August, enables smart contracts to verify data inquiries across diverse sources.”

Jan. 25: Aptos Foundation is launching partnerships with data providers Dune, Nansen, Space x Time, Token Terminal, DappRadar, The Tie, Flipside Crypto and Elliptic, according to the team. The goal is to ensure they “get the most out of building on Aptos; are able to offer a full range of data integration services to everyone in the Aptos ecosystem and community; and mobilize the Move on Aptos programming language to integrate swiftly and securely. These partnerships will also make everything from data standardization to dApp searchability simpler on Aptos.”

Jan. 25: VeChain, an enterprise-grade L1 public blockchain, announced the launch of Grant 2.0, an upgrade to its existing developer grant program, according to the team: “The new version of the program offers developers up to a new maximum of $100K in funding, a significant increase from its previous $30K limit, in addition to new marketing and microgrants, plus greater mentorship and support for sustainability grant recipients. The updated program is also designed to encourage the development of sustainability-focused decentralized ecosystems in the form of “X-to-earn” applications.”

Jan. 25: Web3Intelligence, the developer of Web3 investment app Dopamine, has raised $4.5 million ahead of the launch of of its native token DOPE. The private funding round included participation from DAO MAKER, Shima Capital, and Gate.io, among other investors, according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on Thursday. DOPE will serve as a utility token for accessing Dopamine, which provides a gamified experience for investment in the decentralized finance (DeFi) world.