🔊 Major Announcements

• Lava Network: Mainnet airdrop announced.

• Fuel Network: Introduced a point system for staking Ether or re-staked ETH on Ethereum.

• Telos’ SNARKtor: Important update for the zk ecosystem.

• Safe: Launched the Safe{Core} Multi-Chain Gas Station.

• Notcoin, 1inch, and Sign: Launched an accelerator program for the Telegram and TON ecosystems.

• Ledger: Unveiled the "Clear Signing" feature.

• Binance Labs: Invested in ZircuitL2.

• Optimism: Announced SuperchainFest DeFi festival with 1.5M OP distributed.

• StarkNet: STRK staking is coming with V4.

• Coinbase Wallet: Launched its new web app.

• Fileverse: Introduced ddocs, a Google Docs competitor.

• Zama: Announced a new FHE protocol at Zama CoFHE Shop.

• Circle: $EURC is coming to Base.

• Mento Labs: Shared details of the Mento token airdrop.

• Dune Analytics: Opened onboarding for all chains.

🗣️ Key Discussions:

• Airdrop Point Systems: Various perspectives on user farming, with consensus on reaching a dead end.

• Layer Ecosystem Complexity: Concerns about sustainability and continued support for numerous layers.

• End-User Apps: Shifted focus towards user applications rather than infrastructure.

• UX/UI in Web3: Emphasis on improving user experience to onboard more users.

• RWA Projects: Increasing emergence of Real-World Asset projects.

• ZK and FHE Projects: Rapid growth and widespread presence.

Despite the unpredictable weather in ☔ Brussels, ETHCC was a fantastic experience. Throughout the week, we also demoed our brand-new app, Pulse, and gathered invaluable feedback. Thanks to your input, we’re continually enhancing Pulse.

Join the Pulse Community

If you haven't already, join the Pulse community now for instant market news 📈, the latest price updates 💸, hidden NFT treasures 🖼️, and the coolest Web3 events 📅, all in one place!

📲 Download Pulse ✨

See you at the next event!

Alphaday Team 🚀

Are you ready for a brand-new way to stay ahead in crypto? We're excited to introduce Pulse, our game-changing app designed to keep you informed and engaged like never before.

🤯 Why Pulse is a Game-Changer

• Swipe Through Crypto Insights: Enjoy real-time, short-form video updates that make staying updated a breeze.

• Personalized Just for You: Our advanced AI algorithms deliver news tailored to your interests.

• Vibrant Community: Engage in discussions, save, and bookmark your favorite content, and connect with fellow crypto enthusiasts and degens.

🦾 Packed with Features to Keep You Ahead

• Instant News Updates: Never miss a market movement with real-time crypto and Web3 news.

• Social Trends & NFT Discovery: Stay updated on trending topics and discover popular NFTs.

• DAO Discussions & Event Tracking: Participate in debates and track key Web3 events worldwide.

• Polls, quizzes, and so much more! 🚀

📲 Download Now

Pulse is available for download on both iOS and Android.

Download on iOS

Don't miss out on transforming your everyday crypto experience!

Download on Android

As Deniz Omer, our Co-Founder & CEO, says:

"Pulse sets a new standard for crypto news apps, providing a comprehensive platform for real-time news and community engagement."

Join us on this exciting journey and be a part of the future of staying updated in the crypto space. We can't wait for you to experience Pulse. 🙌

Best,

Alphaday Team

GM 🍟

Even though long-awaited airdrops like zkSync and LayerZero finally arrived this month, they fell short of expectations and led to an influx of McDonald's memes in a constantly dropping market.

We know things are tough right now, but we've been through ups and downs before, and we're feeling hopeful about what's ahead. Good things are just around the corner!

🪙 June Crypto Roundup

• 🎉 The loong awaited zkSync airdrop has arrived: the zkSync team distributed 3.675 billion ZK tokens, which is 17.5% of their total supply of 21 billion tokens.

• 🐻 Berachain's Public Testnet bArtio B2 is now live.

  

• 🚀 StarkWare has announced that Starknet will operate as a Layer 2 (L2) solution on both Ethereum and Bitcoin in the future.

• 🎁 LayerZero has completed its airdrop. The team, known for their extensive Sybil resistance measures, required a mandatory donation (called Proof of Donation) of $0.1 per token during the airdrop claim process.

• 🔄 Polygon Labs spins off its Polygon ID service, called Privado ID.

• 🌐 Taiko is live on the Ethereum mainnet.

• 🛠️ Paradigm releases production-ready Ethereum execution client Reth 1.0.

• ✅ Permissionless Fault Proofs are now live on the OP Mainnet.

• 🔵 Base has emerged as the most profitable rollup in recent months, outperforming its peers by a significant margin.

  

• 🚀 Superposition testnet is live.

• 🪙 Mt. Gox begins the process of returning $9 billion worth of Bitcoin.

• 🧬 ZKsync introduces “elastic chain” architecture as part of its 3.0 roadmap.

• 📈 The $ZRO airdrop has benefited Arbitrum. The Arbitrum network generated $3.43 million in revenue in a single day, setting a new record.

• 🌉 Osmosis DAO to launch a fee-free bridge from Bitcoin to Cosmos, facilitated by a revenue-sharing agreement with Nomic.

• 💎 Ton blockchain reaches $600 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), becoming the fastest-growing blockchain with a 118% surge during the past month.

🤯 2 New Dashboards

🎉 Announcing two new dashboards on Alphaday! Discover Sui, a revolutionary Layer 1 blockchain, and Polygon, Ethereum's leading Layer 2 scaling solution.

Both dashboards offer a comprehensive suite of features, including videos, blogs, events, podcasts, market updates, developer resources, FAQs, community forums, global events calendars, hiring directories, and more.

Take Me To Alphaday 🚀

🏆 Top3s of The Month

The crypto agenda was busy this month! As always, we've picked out the top 3 podcasts, blogs, and dashboards that everyone was talking about. Enjoy:

📰 Top 3 Most-Listened Podcasts

1. #1369 Solo Episode | Altcoins Are Coming To Wall Street - The Pomp Podcast.

2. The End of the Petrodollar | Luke Gromen - Bankless

3. How to Trade Bitcoin Like a WHALE (Strategies Explained) - The Milk Road Show

📊 Top 3 Dashboards

1. Base

2. Alpha

3. Arbitrum

✍️ Top 3 Most-Read Blogs

1. Layer 2s as cultural extensions of Ethereum

2. Tokenization: A Global Unlock for Financial Markets

3. Ethereum Classic Is Bitcoin but With Smart Contracts

💸 Raises

Investments are continuing at a steady pace, with Paradigm leading the way by raising $850 million to invest in early-stage crypto startups.

• Babylon $70M Private

• Avail $43M Series A

• M^0 $35M Series A

• GoPlus $10M Private

• Equilibrium Ventures $30M

• Nexus Labs $25M Series A

• Layer3 $15M Series A

• Ava Protocol $10M Seed

• Colosseum closed $60M fund to invest in early-stage Solana projects

• Conduit $37M Series A

Thank you for tuning in to this month’s edition, packed with significant developments. We're delighted to keep delivering fresh updates and comprehensive analyses.

🚀 Until next time, stay updated and stay ahead!

Alphaday Team

The approval of the Ethereum ETF was hands down the biggest news of the month, impacting many other areas as well. While this approach is far from the “cypherpunk philosophy”, which doesn't make us very happy, it's important to pay attention to what the market is responding to and where the ecosystem is heading. So, we’ve summarized the month for you.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

🪙 April Crypto Roundup

• The Spot Ethereum ETF has been approved.

  

• LayerZero snapshot #1 taken

• MicroStrategy has introduced MicroStrategy Orange, a decentralized identity infrastructure built on Bitcoin for enterprises.

• A16z $90M Private Purchase of Optimism's OP Token

• CyberConnect rebrands to Cyber and launches mainnet.

• Gondi's - The NFT lending protocol has passed $100 million in cumulative gross NFT loan originations, having done so after launching only just last summer.

• The first independent rollup on Astria, Formachain, has launched, using TIA as the native gas token.

  

• Taiko has transitioned to Mainnet.

• The Sandbox decentralizes. The virtual gaming platform just announced the launch of its own DAO, inviting its players to directly participate in steering the project going forward.

• Uniswaps Labs and Across Protocol introduce token standard ERC-7683 for better cross-chain interoperability.

• Lens Protocol unveils plan for ZK Stack-powered validium chain

• Banking giant HSBC leads Series A funding in Marketnode.

• Arbitrum surpassed Solana in stablecoin supply in early 2024 (currently at $3.6B vs $3.2B stablecoins respectively), while Base has grown its stablecoin supply from $160M to $2.4B YTD.

  

• As crypto sentiment turned and users became more optimistic, bridge volumes have increased since September 2023. Bridge volumes are up ~70% on a weekly basis from $178M in weekly flows to $304M

• The US, UK, and Philippines show the most interest in smaller market capitalization cryptocurrencies on onchain DEX trackers.

🏆 Top3s of The Month

The crypto agenda was busy this month! As always, we've picked out the top 3 news, videos, and dashboards that everyone was talking about. Enjoy:

📰 Top 3 Most-Read News

1. Tornado Cash Developer Alexey Pertsev Found Guilty, Sentenced to 64 Months in Prison by Dutch Court

2. Bitcoin network celebrates 1 billion transactions as a Satoshi-era wallet awakens

3. Ethereum ETFs were approved — so why isn’t Ether’s price soaring?

📊 Top 3 Dashboards

1. Trading

2. Ethereum

3. zkSync

✍️ Top 3 Most-Read Blogs

1. Layer 2s as cultural extensions of Ethereum

2. Tokenization: A Global Unlock for Financial Markets

3. Ethereum Classic Is Bitcoin but With Smart Contracts

💸 Raises

It's no exaggeration to say that investments have been soaring this month. Perhaps some of these might interest you. 👀

• Holograph $11M Strategic

• Backed $9.5M Series A

• X10 $6.5M Seed

• MilkyWay $5M Seed

• LazyBear $4M Strategic

• Eywa $7M Seed

• Airstack $4M Seed

• Polymarket $45M Series B

• Humanity Protocol $30M Seed

• peaq $20M Public Sale

• Arch Network $7M Seed

• Param Labs $7M Private

• Chainstack $6M Strategic

• Farcaster $150M Series A

• Fantom Foundation $10M Strategic

• Kelp DAO 9M Private Sale

• Dora Factory $10M Strategic

• WetherXM $7.7M Series A

Thank you for joining us for this month’s exciting edition full of noteworthy developments. We're happy to continue bringing you fresh updates and in-depth analyses.

🚀 Until next time, keep thriving!

Alphaday Team

Supp? 🕶️🤏😏

In these rollercoaster market days, users are lost on what to do next. Despite A TON of airdrop announcements, no one's really satisfied. Point systems are overused, and folks are confused about where to park their liquidity. Keeping up with the latest can be tough. That's why picking the right sources to follow can be tricky too. 🤷

Let's make it easier with our new newsletter, "Don’t Waste Time, Here’s Your Alpha".

📰 Most-Read News

• Vitalik Buterin proposes EIP-7702 aiming to refine account abstraction on Ethereum

• QANplatform launches world’s first quantum-resistant, EVM-compatible testnet

• How BlackRock’s BUIDL is accelerating the rush to tokenize $27tn in US bonds

• Founder of dYdX steps down as CEO of firm behind decentralized exchange

• FTX’s bankruptcy plan offers over 100% recovery for creditors, faces mixed reactions

Forum discussions often give the best insight into where different ecosystems are heading. 👇

👥 Most Trendy Topics on Forums

• Season 5: Retro Governance Participation Rewards

• Zero-knowledge proofs of identity using electronic passports

• EigenLayer News: EIGEN stakedrop announcement | April 30th

Reading news and forums is cool, but how about some good videos to watch lately? Something to follow while having a snack? 🍿

⏩ Most-Watched Videos

• Professional Poker Player Reveals The Number 1 Mistake Crypto Traders Make

• Can Bitcoin Be Copied?

• This Crypto Cycle is COOKED

While we all love using Twitter/Warpcast, sometimes we enjoy gathering at real-life events too. Check out the upcoming ETHBerlin +60 side event.

✈️ Most-Clicked Events

• DappCon Berlin

• DE:PIN DAY BERLIN

• Safe{con}2

📚 Most-Read Blogs

• Grayscale Finally Turns it Around

• The Top-of-Block Auction Mechanism

• History of Intents: The Past

If you drive a lot or use public transport in the city, podcasts can be the perfect companion. You can find all the podcasts below right here.

🎙️ Most-Listened Podcasts

• #1033 - Are Investors Too Bearish on China? ft. Shehzad Qazi | China's Economic Data & Property Problems

• Make P2P #Bitcoin Great Again. @satsdisco @vexl #440

• How the Top One-Third of FTX Creditors Are Boosting the Payouts for Everyone Else - Ep. 643

  ---

We think these resources will be enough for this newsletter. But if you want more or need something different, check out our comprehensive Alpha dashboard. 🏆 You can find all the content you want and discover the latest Alpha.

More Alpha Please! 🙋

See you next time!

Alphaday Team

As always, we're here to keep you plugged into the heart of the crypto ecosystem, bringing you the most critical updates, insights, and opportunities. (Did anyone say airdrops? 👀)

This month, we’ve seen some game-changing movements that could reshape all of our market strategies. We’re also covering a few must-know project updates and events that are making waves. 👇

April Crypto Roundup

🪙 Telegram now enables Toncoin payments for in-platform ad purchases.

🪂 EigenLayer will launch the $EIGEN token with an initial airdrop on May 10th. The snapshot date turns out to be March 15.

🌐 Mina completed the Devnet phase of the Berkeley Upgrade on April 9, marking the final phase before its mainnet launch.

🛠️ VelodromeFi to launch its DEX on Build on Bitcoin (BOB), a Bitcoin L2 with EVM compatibility.

💰 Pantera Capital has announced its new $1 Billion Crypto Fund.

🛡️ The Offchain Labs team reported on March 22 that they had disclosed two serious vulnerabilities in Optimism's Fraud-Proof system.

💸 Franklin Templeton has enabled peer-to-peer transfers of tokenized shares (BENJI) in its U.S. Government Money Fund on Polygon.

🦾 Ankr has launched the AI-focused Layer-1 Blockchain Neura on the public testnet.

👥 Aave Labs shared a comprehensive Aave 2030 Proposal for the Aave DAO, encompassing Aave V4.

🔓 826M SUI (8.27% of Max Supply) is scheduled to unlock on May 3rd.

Top3s of The Month

The crypto agenda was busy this month! As always, we've picked out the top 3 news, videos, and dashboards that everyone was talking about. Enjoy:

📰 Top 3 Most-Read News

1. “Google now allows wallet address searches for Bitcoin, Fantom, Arbitrum, and others”

2. “Disable iMessages ASAP to avoid crypto zero-day exploit: Trust Wallet”

3. “Bitcoin's halving created the most valuable blocks in history, aside from one”

📊 Top 3 Dashboards

1. Chiliz

2. Verasity

3. Reserve Protocol

📹 Top 3 Most-Watched Videos

1. Solana: Expectations Versus Reality

2. How to Play Memecoins, From the Godfather of MEME - Ray Chan, Ep. 254

3. The Bitcoin Halving is FINALLY HERE!

This month was another one filled with global crypto events, and we at Alphaday had the opportunity to attend two of the major ones.

🌷🚲 Highlights From ETHDam 2024

The first event we attended was ETHDam held in Amsterdam on the 12-14 of April 2024.

• The event was centered around Security and Privacy, featuring in-depth discussions on these crucial topics.

• There was also a Hackathon organized around these themes. One of our team members, Selim Cetiner, participated in this hackathon and together with his team won the award for the “Best Security Product” category. Yayy!! 🎉

• Additionally, the city's commitment to privacy was evident, given its history with Tornado Cash (a member of the Tornado development team had been arrested in Amsterdam 👀), showing that the Cypherpunk culture is still very much alive.

• Another aspect of the event that we enjoyed was the presence of numerous developers and builders and the depth of the discussions. This shows that over the years, knowledge has become more layered, developing more informed audiences.

🏙️🌴 Key Takeaways From TOKEN2049

Our Co-Founder & CEO, Deniz Omer, was present at the electrifying TOKEN 2049 event in Dubai. Here's what you need to know:

• Telegram’s Revenue Sharing Plan: Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, announced a new revenue-sharing model for creators, with plans to tokenize elements like custom stickers and emojis, turning them into tradeable assets. All digital product transactions will utilize the TON blockchain.

• Tether on TON: Tether revealed that it will launch its stablecoin on the TON blockchain, aiming to enhance utility and integration for its users.

• Institutional Focus on RWAs: The event highlighted a surge in institutional interest in Real World Assets (RWAs), indicating a pivotal trend toward integrating traditional asset classes with blockchain technologies.

• Nansen Defines Smart Money: Nansen introduced the concept of “Smart Money”, emphasizing the influence of a select group of on-chain wallets and their transactions in the blockchain ecosystem.

• Innovative Robo-Cafe by XMAQUINA: Showcasing the fusion of automation and blockchain, XMAQUINA presented a robo-cafe that not only served coffee and ice cream but also offered crypto rewards, demonstrating practical applications of decentralized tech.

• Web3 Foundation’s Generous Incentive: A new initiative was announced with a 10 million DOT prize pool to support the development of the JAM protocol, set to overhaul Polkadot's Relay Chain.

The discussions also covered the integration of AI, DePIN technologies, and the recent developments around RUNE, reflecting the broadening scope of blockchain applications.

As we wrap up this edition of our monthly newsletter, we thank you for joining us on another exciting month full of events and news. We'll continue to bring you the latest updates and insightful analyses next month, so stay tuned! 💪

🚀 Happy trading,

Alphaday Team

We can't wait to share all the cool stuff that's been happening in the world of crypto, Web3, and right here at our own doorstep with the new Alphaday mobile experience. 👀

🪙 March’s Crypto Roundup

So, what's the big deal with crypto and Web3 this month? A lot, actually. And we're diving deep to bring you the highlights, the game-changers, and the jaw-dropping moments that everyone's been talking about.

🔷 Dencun went live. Fees dropped dramatically on L2s that integrated the update.

⬛ Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years in prison.

🌐 CyberConnect will launch a modular L2 network and introduce a staking function.

🚀 A significant surge in activity around the pre-sale memecoin Book of Meme ($BOME), which skyrocketed in value late this week following a quick listing on Binance. Traders who participated in the pre-sale and held their positions over the past few days have seen gains exceeding 35,000%.

🎩 L3 of the $DEGEN token, Degen Chain, has been released.

💸 CurveFinance has launched its lending platform, LlamaLend.

🖼️ The second most expensive CryptoPunk in history was sold for 4,500 ETH, approximately $16 Million.

🪂 Wormhole airdrop, Ether.fi airdrop, NIM airdrop all happened this month! Have you taken part in any of these airdrop opportunities?

💼 The number of active wallets on Telegram's blockchain TON exceeded 1 Million.

👻 Aavegotchi announced its arrival on Base as an L3 solution.

👀 An investigation has been opened into the Ethereum Foundation.

🔴 Optimism began testing “Fault Proofs”.

💢 Anime-focused AnimeChain is being established in cooperation with Arbitrum and Azuki.

🎨 ZORA now supports payment with ERC-20 tokens.

💰 Galaxy Digital reports $301.5 Million Net Income in Q4, doubling digital asset holdings.

⭐ Monthly Top 3s

Welcome to Our Highlights Section: Top 3 User Favorites! This month on Alphaday, we've picked out the top 3 dashboards and blogs that everyone loved. Enjoy:

Top 3 Dashboards

1. Linea

2. Celestia

3. Ethereum

Top 3 Most-read Blogs

1. 🐸 “An Investor Guide to Memecoin Mania”

2. 🔵 “How to Easily Bridge to Base, the Coinbase Layer-2 Network”

3. 🔴 “850M OP Dedicated to the Evolution of Retro Funding”

💡 Product Updates: A Brand New Mobile Experience

In a world where every second counts, staying ahead in the crypto space shouldn't mean juggling between apps and tabs. This month, we at Alphaday are thrilled to unveil something truly special—a mobile experience so seamless, that you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

🙋‍♀️ No more boring tabs: Meet Superfeed

We've reimagined the way you interact with crypto, tailoring an experience that fits right in your pocket. Here's what's new:

• 🔍 Superfeed: Dive into your hyper-personalized newsfeed. Filter by your interests—from the latest crypto news to the most anticipated airdrops with custom tags.

• 📲 All-In-One Platform: Why scatter your attention? Access YouTube, podcasts, and Web3 events, all in one unified space.

• 🔔 Real-Time Notifications: Stay on top of the market with instant updates on trends and price movements that matter to you.

And guess what? It's completely free. We believe in empowering our community with tools that make a difference. Learn more here.

Try It On Mobile Now

📧 Tired of the wallet sign-in hassle?

We’ve got you covered! Now your custom dashboards & widgets are just an email away from being saved. Say hello to convenience and goodbye to complicated steps that require you to connect your wallet. Dive into a seamless experience today.

📝 4 New Blog Posts

Fresh Off the Press: We have got 4 must-read blog posts for you this month!

1. 📜 What is Scroll?

2. 💥 JUST RELEASED: Embrace the Mobile-First Crypto Journey with Alphaday 🚀

3. 🤖 AI x Blockchain: Buzzwords or More?

4. ⚛️ Cosmos Explained

Read More

We're wrapping up the March edition of our newsletter, but the adventure doesn't end here! We can't wait to bring you more of the latest updates and insights that help you stay on top of this dynamic landscape. So, stay connected, and let's keep exploring this adventure together. 🌌

Best,

Alphaday Team 🖖

Table of Contents

• What is Scroll?

• Scroll’s Founding Team

• What is zkEVM?

• How does Scroll work?

• Scroll’s zkRollup Workflow

• Scroll Ecosystem

What is Scroll?

Scroll is a zkEVM layer-2 solution to the Ethereum blockchain. Like many other L2s they aim to scale blockchains so that they can be accessible to billions of users. This requires making them both scalable and cheap enough to be accessible for all as well as being secure and easy-to-use for the ordinary user.

Scroll's Founding Team

Scroll, founded in 2021, started with the initiative of Ye, a mathematician, who, after the DeFi boom in 2020 and subsequent congestions on Ethereum, wondered, "How can we use zero-knowledge proofs here in a practical way?" Moving forward, Scroll began its journey with a three-person team comprising founding partners Ye Zhang, Sandy Peng, and Haichen Shen.

What is zkEVM?

A zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) is a virtual machine that executes smart contract transactions in a way that’s compatible with both zero-knowledge-proof computations and existing Ethereum infrastructure. This enables them to be part of zero-knowledge rollups, layer-2 scaling solutions that increase transaction throughput while lowering costs.

A layer 2 is EVM compatible if it can run programs created for Ethereum environments without modifying the underlying smart contract logic. This makes layer 2s compatible with existing Ethereum smart contract patterns, token standards, and tooling. Being EVM compatible is important for the widespread adoption of these layer 2s, as it enables developers familiar with Ethereum’s Solidity programming language to build highly scalable applications using the same battle-tested tools they’re used to.

How does Scroll work?

First of all, it is useful to understand the architecture of Scroll in this regard. The scroll consists of 3 main components:

• Scroll Node: Facilitates user and application interactions with Scroll by constructing L2 blocks, committing these to Ethereum's base layer, and managing L1 and L2 message exchanges. It comprises:

  • Sequencer: Accepts L2 transactions via a JSON-RPC interface, compiles transactions into L2 blocks, and generates new state roots based on the Ethereum node implementation (Geth).

  • Coordinator: Receives block execution traces from the Sequencer and assigns a Roller for proof generation.

  • Relayer: Monitors contracts on both Ethereum and Scroll for block status and message relay between L1 and L2.

• Roller Network: Consists of provers (Rollers) that generate zkEVM validity proofs, ensuring transactions are executed correctly. They utilize hardware accelerators to improve proof generation efficiency. The process involves converting execution traces to circuit witnesses, generating zkEVM circuit proofs, and aggregating these proofs for block validation.

• Rollup and Bridge Contracts: Connect Scroll to Ethereum, ensuring data availability for L2 transactions and facilitating asset and message transfers between L1 and L2. Rollup contracts store state roots and block data, while Bridge contracts enable cross-layer communication and asset bridging.

Scroll’s zkRollup Workflow

• Block Generation and Commitment: The Sequencer compiles transactions into blocks, submitting transaction data to the Rollup contract for data availability and state roots for validation.

• Proof Generation: The Coordinator selects a Roller to generate a validity proof for each block trace, with the possibility of parallel processing for efficiency. Every certain number of blocks, proofs are aggregated into a single proof.

• Finalization: The aggregated proof is submitted to the Rollup contract, verifying the block's validity against its state roots and transaction data commitments, thus finalizing the blocks on Scroll.

For further details https://scroll.io/blog/architecture 

Scroll Ecosystem

Currently, there are over $150M worth of assets on Scroll. Moreover, you can find more than 100 apps & tools that operate on or are integrated with Scroll. An important point on the side of Scroll is that it provides EVM compatibility at the bytecode level, which allows applications like Aave to deploy their applications here first, despite other competing zk rollups (e.g., zkSync, Starknet) going to mainnet earlier than Scroll. This is why, for now, they are in a more advantageous position compared to other zk rollups in terms of having a more diverse ecosystem and integrating things from Ethereum faster.

Wrapping Up

When we look at Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap, we can see how important rollups are. However, having many L2s makes things more competitive with each passing day. At this point, focusing on zk technology seems to provide the necessary infrastructure for the "next billion users" idea that is always brought up. Scroll stands out by focusing on this and being a grassroots, native team. Also, bytecode compatibility allows developers working on it to use their familiarity with Ethereum as quickly as possible. We will see together which rollups will emerge in the future; let's see how Scroll will position itself at that point.

If you want to follow Scroll more closely, you can take a look at our dashboard.

Exciting news from the crypto frontier! 🌟 We're rolling out a brand new mobile experience that's going to change how you handle your crypto and access the latest news & updates. And guess what? It's completely free.

Why We're Changing the Game

In the fast-paced world of crypto, staying ahead is the key to success. That's where our latest update steps in, offering a suite of powerful features to simplify and enhance your crypto journey:

💡 Your Crypto Newsfeed, Reimagined: Meet “Superfeed”, your new hyper-personalized news stream. Discover the latest in crypto, tailored just for you with custom tags to match your interests. Never miss updates, airdrops, and major announcements from your favorite projects.

📲 All-in-One Platform: Say goodbye to juggling multiple apps. Alphaday brings all your essential crypto tools together in one seamless experience. Watch YouTube videos, listen to your favorite crypto podcasts, and track upcoming Web3 events all within one platform.

📈 Real-Time Insights & Portfolio Tracking: Feeling like you're always one step behind in the crypto market? Not anymore. Get real-time alerts and notifications on market trends, price fluctuations, and key events happening worldwide.

💼 Simplified Crypto Management: From novice traders to seasoned investors, we offer smart, user-friendly tools for everyone. Effortlessly monitor your crypto investments across wallets, and track your favorite projects; Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and many others.

👥 Community and Learning: Join a growing community. Share insights, strategies, and tips. Grow together in the dynamic world of crypto.

👀 Explore more within the app; including extensive token analyses, Web3 wallet connect, real-time gas monitoring, and so much more.

Ready to elevate your game? Kick off your upgraded crypto experience now!

Learn More

👉 Here's how to add Alphaday to your home screen:

1. Tap the share icon.

2. Choose "Add to Home Screen".

3. Open the Alphaday app on your home screen.

Your feedback is invaluable to us. As you explore this new mobile-first experience, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Together, let's shape the future of crypto management.

Best,

Alphaday Team

Stay ahead of the curve. Follow us on X, Warpcast, and LinkedIn for the latest updates, tips, and community stories.

Naturally, one cannot overlook the synergy between AI and Blockchain in this context. Moreover, a MarketsandMarkets report projects that by the end of 2025, the AI x Blockchain market is expected to reach levels around $800 million.

Several fundamental reasons underlie this forecast, with the potential applications of this combination being a wholly experimental arena. Every day brings announcements of new projects exploring new domains. Therefore, the best approach to grasp this area might be to understand what these projects are focusing on. Let's examine both the reasons and the projects in detail.

Exploring the Synergy Between AI and Blockchain

The fusion of AI and Blockchain might appear at first as a trendy juxtaposition of the digital age's hottest topics. However, a deeper look reveals a strategic partnership addressing some of the most persistent challenges in technology. Blockchain, known for its prowess in ensuring data protection, establishing ownership, and facilitating peer-to-peer transactions, intersects with AI at a critical juncture. AI, with its insatiable appetite for large datasets, often grapples with issues of access and ethical use, compounded by concerns over security and rights management.

Herein lies the genius of marrying AI with Blockchain technology. Blockchain offers a robust framework for securing data ownership and permissions through transparent and enforceable smart contracts. This synergy not only ensures the safekeeping of data but also empowers AI to leverage vast datasets without overstepping privacy boundaries.

Imagine a scenario where sensitive data segments are utilized efficiently, maintaining anonymity and integrity—for instance, utilizing specific data without disclosing identifiable details akin to safeguarding an individual's privacy like that of someone named Bob.

This collaboration doesn't merely throw two cutting-edge technologies together but thoughtfully addresses their inherent challenges, creating a symbiotic relationship that enhances both data security and the ethical use of AI.

To summarize, a few benefits of using Blockchain and AI together include:

• Secure Data Management

• Enhanced Data Accessibility

• Full Ownership of Data
  

Instead of elaborating further, let's see what projects working on AI x Blockchain are up to.

Bittensor

• Bittensor is a decentralized network designed to connect machine learning models, not just computers or servers. Picture it as a global brain where each 'neuron' is a machine learning model owned by different people worldwide. These models collaborate to process information and provide intelligent responses, similar to neurons in the human brain working together to help you think and make decisions. Bittensor leverages a unique blockchain architecture to facilitate a decentralized machine learning protocol, built using the Substrate framework—a technology also used by Polkadot, developed by Parity Technologies. This framework allows for the creation of highly customizable blockchains that can easily connect with Polkadot’s network.

  

Render Network

• Render Network enables individuals to contribute unused GPU power for rendering motion graphics and visual effects, rewarding contributors with Render tokens (RNDR), the network’s native utility token. This creates a peer-to-peer network for tapping into underutilized computational power, simplifying the process of rendering and streaming 3D environments and other visual effects. It's a crucial component for the development of digital products and services in the metaverse.

The Graph

• The Graph is a decentralized protocol for indexing and querying blockchain data, facilitating applications such as dapp frontends, dashboards, and data analytics. AI plays a significant role in The Graph, especially in deploying tools for automated decision-making and lowering barriers to access web3 data. Decentralized protocols like The Graph use incentive mechanisms to encourage optimal and honest behavior among participants. Semiotic Labs has developed AI tools, including AutoAgora and the Allocation Optimizer, to simplify decision-making and improve protocol performance and revenue for participants.

Fetch.ai

• Fetch.ai aims to decentralize and automate web transactions. For instance, instead of manually searching and booking flights, Fetch.ai uses 'digital twins'—automated bots representing users—to negotiate deals with airlines and ticket providers based on user-defined parameters. This AI-driven approach enables personalized and efficient transactions without the need for direct human intervention.
  

We've highlighted three standout projects, but there are many more, such as SingularityNET, Akash Network, Oasis Network, and Ocean Protocol, engaging in AI-related endeavors. It's important to note that while all these projects operate in different or similar verticals, the areas they explore are quite new. The best products from AI and Blockchain integration might not even be on the market yet. Therefore, staying updated on what's currently available and how these technologies benefit from AI and Blockchain is beneficial. The discussions around this space have significantly increased compared to three years ago.

The graph above shows the trending increase in "ai blockchain" searches on Google, indicating rapid progress in this field.

If you're interested in more AI & blockchain news, want to read the latest blogs from AI projects, and seek a comprehensive news source, consider checking out our AI dashboard.

• Utilize a classical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus algorithm

• Implement Security-Deposit-Based Proof-of-Stake ("slasher")

setting the foundation for all PoS chains known today. According to CoinGecko, PoS chains currently represent a market worth $700 billion :)

By the end of 2014, a growing community of cryptocurrency researchers had converged online, forming the CryptoCurrency Research Group (CCRG, now defunct). They were largely convinced that Proof of Stake cryptocurrencies represented the future of blockchain technology and embarked on building that future. This group included notables such as Vitalik Buterin, Vlad Zamfir, Ethan Buchman, Jae Kwon, Zaki Manian, Dominic Williams, Arthur Brietman, among others. Vitalik had invented Ethereum, with Vlad serving as a leading researcher there. Ethan was closely working with Vlad and contributing to go-ethereum, while Jae Kwon was the brain behind Tendermint. Dominic was developing ideas that would later materialize into Dfinity, and Arthur had invented Tezos.

Okay, that's enough history lessons; let's back to Cosmos.

What is Cosmos?

You may have heard Cosmos referred to as the "Internet of Blockchains" because its aim is to solve a fundamental problem: creating an ecosystem for disparate and non-communicating chains. But how?

First, understand that networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum are standalone Layer 1 (L1) networks with no inherent ability to communicate with other chains. This perpetuates the well-discussed scaling problem. Therefore, on the Ethereum side, there are currently over 30 different Layer 2 (L2) solutions operational, as visible on the @L2Beat dashboard. Similarly, while Bitcoin has not yet introduced many products in this area, we are beginning to hear about Bitcoin L2s recently.

Shifting our focus to Cosmos, it's primarily designed to:

• Create a cross-chain network and connect different blockchains.

• Launch an open-source plug-and-play toolkit, enabling anyone to develop their blockchain.

The non-profit organization Interchain Foundation (ICF) takes on this latter task.

How Does Cosmos Work?

The Cosmos network's main function is facilitating transfers from one smart contract to another. Let's say Emily wants to transfer 50 BTC from blockchain X to blockchain Y. Initially, the 50 BTC are secured in a smart contract on blockchain X, with a confirmation message dispatched to blockchain Y.

Blockchain Y then proceeds to verify if a significant majority, say more than two-thirds, of blockchain X's validators have endorsed the transaction. Upon successful verification, the 50 BTC become accessible on blockchain Y, allowing Emily to engage with her chosen decentralized application (dApp).
Cosmos relies on three key technologies for this interoperability process:

• Tendermint Core (TC)

• Cosmos SDK

• Inter-blockchain communication (IBC) protocol

This trio enables interoperability with other Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks. Cosmos has its PoS network, known as Cosmos Hub, which monitors the states of other networks.

Tendermint Core

Tendermint Core functions as a blockchain application platform, effectively providing the infrastructure equivalent to a web-server, database, and supporting libraries for blockchain applications that can be written in any programming language. Similar to how a web-server facilitates web applications, Tendermint facilitates the operation of blockchain applications.

It consists primarily of two key technical elements: a blockchain consensus engine and a generic application interface. The consensus engine, known as Tendermint Core, guarantees that transactions are recorded in the same sequence across all machines. Meanwhile, the application interface, referred to as the Application Blockchain Interface (ABCI), allows transactions to be executed in any programming language. This contrasts with other blockchain and consensus mechanisms that are bundled with built-in state machines, enabling developers to use Tendermint for Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) state machine replication in any programming language or development environment they prefer.

Cosmos SDK

The Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK) offers a comprehensive toolkit enabling the construction of Cosmos-compatible decentralized applications without the need to start from scratch. Specifically, the Cosmos SDK provides open-source modules, which are essentially pre-written code snippets that assist developers in building applications akin to assembling lego blocks, thereby significantly reducing development time. Similar to how developers on Ethereum-equivalent chains save time by utilizing pre-built components, the Cosmos SDK offers significant time savings for developers working on their own blockchains.

Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol

The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol addresses the authentication and transportation of data between two distinct blockchains, effectively solving the widespread issue of cross-chain communication. This challenge is particularly evident in public blockchains where exchanges need to perform asset swaps or in application-specific blockchains where assets originate from purpose-built chains.

IBC facilitates this process through a series of steps:

• Tracking: Each chain monitors the validators of the other.

• Bonding: ATOM tokens are locked or "bonded" on chain A.

• Proof Relay: A proof of the bonding is sent from chain A to chain B.

• Validation: Chain B verifies the proof, and upon successful validation, ATOM vouchers are generated on chain B, completing the asset transfer from chain A to chain B.
  
  Trust the chains, not the bridge.

Sovereign chains within the interchain ecosystem

benefit from the Cosmos SDK, which facilitates effortless creation of new blockchains, and the IBC's goal to connect chains without requiring trust in a centralized party. Let's explore some of these chains:

• Injective: A blockchain tailored for finance, offering an open, interoperable layer-one solution that powers the next generation of DeFi applications. This includes decentralized spot and derivatives exchanges, prediction markets, lending protocols, and more.

• Celestia: A modular data availability (DA) network designed to scale securely with user numbers, simplifying the process for anyone to launch their own blockchain.

• Sei: A general-purpose, open-source Layer 1 blockchain specialized in the exchange of digital assets.

• dYdX: A fully open-sourced and audited appchain capable of handling up to 2,000 transactions per second (TPS). It is completely decentralized, meaning dYdX Trading does not manage any of the chain's infrastructure or earn trading fee revenue.

The complete list of chains in the Interchain Stack can be checked here.

What is ATOM?

ATOM is the native token of the Cosmos Hub, serving multiple utilities:

• It is used to pay transaction fees within the Cosmos Network.

• Staking ATOM enhances the network's security, with stakers earning rewards proportional to their staked amount.

• ATOM stakers and validators receive a portion of the transaction fees generated by chains utilizing the Interchain Security feature offered by the Cosmos Hub.

• ATOM holders have the right to vote on proposals made by the Cosmos Hub.

Cosmos seems destined to occupy an increasingly important position in an ecosystem where "Interoperability" is gaining more significance by the day. The integration of projects such as Celestia, dYdX, among others, into this ecosystem promises a continuously expanding variety. However, with current monthly active users on the network around 550,000, according to mintscan data, it suggests we are still in the early stages of development. For those interested in closely following the Cosmos ecosystem and understanding what's happening, you can access the Cosmos Dashboard here.

This month, we've seen significant movements in the market, new strategic partnerships, groundbreaking tech breakthroughs, and the introduction of new dashboards in our product that we can't wait to dive into with you.👇

February’s Crypto Roundup

📈 Tether announces a staggering $2.85 billion profit for Q4.

⏳ Ethereum's Dencun upgrade (EIP-4844) is eagerly anticipated for March 13.

💰 The $DYM airdrop has been successfully distributed, with TVL now hovering around $900M.

🖼️ Farcaster captivates users with its innovative “frames” feature.

🚀 Polygon unveils Type-1 zkEVM upgrade, a game-changer for EVM chains to transition into ZK Layer 2s at reduced costs.

📸 Wormhole gears up for an airdrop with a strategic snapshot announcement.

🔴 Optimism airdrops $40M to artists and creators.

🔑 Aptos revolutionizes transaction signatures with its new passwordless passkey.

🛑 The Solana network experiences its first halt in a year, marking a rare pause.

🤝 Taurus collaborates with Lido, offering Swiss banks a foray into Ethereum liquid staking.

🌐 ENS and GoDaddy join forces to pioneer Blockchain-based Domains.

🪂 Starknet celebrates the distribution of its much-anticipated airdrop. Here’s how to claim it.

💸 Andreessen Horowitz invested $100M in EigenLayer.

🌍 Worldcoin's World App hits a milestone with over 1 million daily active users.

🦊 Metamask shatters expectations by amassing over 30 million monthly users.

💸 Avail proudly announces its $27M seed round, setting the stage for future growth.

🏛️ Japan's Ministry of Economy paves the way for select VCs to directly invest in cryptocurrencies.

📢 Exciting News: We are on Warpcast! Follow us there and join the conversation. 🎩

Our Monthly Top 3s

We're excited to reveal February's most anticipated events, dashboards, and widgets on Alphaday, highlighting the Top 3s that have captured the interest of our community.

📅 Events - Top Picks Based on Clicks

1. ETH Denver #BUIDLWeek

2. NFT Paris

3. The Satoshi Roundtable

   

📊 Dashboards – Most Visited by Users

1. Starknet: Starknet is the secure scaling technology bringing Ethereum's benefits to the world.

2. Alpha: A bird's-eye view on everything happening in crypto.

3. zkSync: zkSync is a Layer-2 protocol that scales Ethereum with cutting-edge ZK tech.

⚙️ Widgets – Most Added to Dashboards

1. Market 📈

2. Ethereum Gas Fees ⛽

3. Portfolio 💼

News and Updates from Alphaday

📊 5 New Dashboards Are Here

This month, we're thrilled to announce the release of five cutting-edge dashboards, further enriching our Alphaday platform with diverse and in-depth insights across the blockchain ecosystem:

• Dive into the world of Liquid Staking 🌊 with our dedicated dashboard, exploring the $27 billion Ethereum staking market and beyond, with platforms like EigenLayer driving the expansion to other networks.

• Join the wave of innovation with our Manta Network Dashboard ⚜️, where EVM-native zero-knowledge applications thrive, boasting a remarkable $1.5 billion in TVL.

• Discover the high-speed, scalable world of Solana through our Solana Dashboard 🟣, offering insights into its resilience and technological advancements post-FTX collapse.

• For gaming enthusiasts, our GameFi Dashboard 👾 unveils the $25 billion market, highlighting major gaming companies' foray into blockchain.

• Lastly, explore the Injective Dashboard 🥷, showcasing its role as a powerhouse in the DeFi space within the Cosmos ecosystem, with a TVL of $3 billion and significant staking activity.

  Explore More

Each dashboard provides a unique portal to the latest news, videos, podcasts, and community discussions, ensuring you stay informed and connected.

🎙️ Alphaday Takes the Mic on "Web3 Magic" Podcast

In an enlightening session on the latest episode of the "Web3 Magic" podcast, our Co-Founder & CEO, Deniz Omer, stepped into the spotlight with host BrightFutureGuy to share his insights and visions for Alphaday. 🪄 He shared his personal experience in the crypto world, explaining the reasons and goals that inspired the founding of Alphaday.

From battling information overload to refining user experiences in Web3, the conversation was nothing short of captivating. Get ready to explore the depths of crypto and discover what makes Alphaday stand out in the vast ocean of information.

Listen Now

✍️ What's New on Our Blog?

Dive into the latest from Alphaday with our three new blog posts! Explore the $25 billion GameFi industry, get an in-depth introduction to Solana's high-speed blockchain, and discover the benefits of Liquid Staking.

🎮 The Rise of GameFi: Unravel the growth of blockchain gaming and top GameFi tokens.

🔗 Exploring Solana: Discover how Solana stands out in performance, scalability, and decentralization.

💧 Unlocking Liquid Staking: Learn about the advantages of liquid staking and how it's changing the DeFi landscape.

Read More

Looking forward to bringing you more exciting news and insights in next month's edition. Until then, stay curious. ✨

Best,

Alphaday Team 🖖

With the advancement of smart contracts and the proliferation of asset forms like NFTs, we've begun to adapt activities traditionally done offline to blockchain platforms. Notably, video games have quickly caught up with this trend. The gaming ecosystem, fueled by widespread personal computer usage, has evolved into a massive industry valued at over $250 billion. Consequently, the inevitable intersection of these games with blockchain, a technology facilitating financial transactions, was bound to occur.

One of the earliest examples of this genre, CryptoKitties, emerged in 2017. Utilizing ERC-721 standard NFTs, these digital cards allowed for simple in-game actions. Most importantly, your CryptoKitty was entirely yours, secure in your wallet from unauthorized access.

However, as these games proliferated on the network, a fundamental issue in the blockchain ecosystem resurfaced: scalability. As a result, many game developers began creating games on less congested chains than Ethereum, allowing for lower transaction fees and quicker actions.

By late 2020, Axie Infinity, a game outside of the Ethereum network, took the lead. This card game, through its rise, essentially kick-started the play-to-earn wave. Play-to-Earn (P2E) models enable players to earn an income by simply playing games, though the economic dynamics, strategies, and methodologies within each game can vary widely. A simple example might be spending 10 hours in front of a screen to acquire a valuable game resource, which you could then sell for real money.

However, the P2E hype of 2020-21 was short-lived due to the generally low quality of player experiences, unsustainable reward mechanisms, and the fact that the games attracted more interest from DeFi farmers than from traditional gamers. Yet, over the past two years, significant developments have been made, and the ecosystem has evolved. Let's take a closer look at the GameFi ecosystem.

Pioneers of the Ecosystem

Like many fields, GameFi encompasses various categories; including RPG, Farming, Shooter, Move-to-earn, Card games, Racing, Metaverse, Pet Breeding-battling, Strategy, and sports, among others. Games that stood out in these categories attracted significant attention and user engagement, becoming what some might call the OGs of GameFi projects.

• CryptoKitties: Launched by Dapper Labs in November 2017, this virtual cat breeding game caused significant network congestion on Ethereum, leading to the development of the Flow blockchain. Following this success, Dapper Labs partnered with the NBA to launch TopShot, a sports collection game, further encouraging the presence of sports-oriented games in the ecosystem, with Sorare being a notable example.

• Axie Infinity: Axie Infinity is a virtual world filled with cute, formidable creatures known as Axies. Axies can be battled, bred, collected, and even used to earn resources & collectibles that can be traded on an open marketplace.The ability to earn SLP by playing Axie Infinity attracted a large player base, especially from emerging markets where players could earn a living. The rising price of Axie NFTs and SLP led to the creation of scholarship guilds, making the game more accessible and drawing in more players. However, a hack in March 2022 on the Ronin network, resulting in the theft of $600M worth of assets from Axie Infinity users, severely impacted the game.

• Decentraland & The Sandbox: The concept of the "Metaverse" emerged, intertwined with gaming but sometimes considered a separate category. The renaming of traditional company Facebook to "Meta" fueled interest in this area, with Decentraland and The Sandbox becoming prominent. The purchase of virtual land in The Sandbox by celebrities like Snoop Dogg increased mainstream adoption. However, the hype around what could be achieved in the Metaverse was short-lived due to technological limitations at the time, though products like Apple Vision Pro suggest that the Metaverse will become more prominent in the future.

  

Most Active Gaming Chains

According to CoinGecko's 2023 Gaming Report, as of November 30, 2023, the most active blockchain is Skale, primarily due to its gasless nature, boasting 230K daily active players and an overall 1.05M active GameFi addresses. It's noteworthy that the main traffic on these chains typically comes from one or two successful games, highlighting the significant impact a successful product can have on a chain.

Top 10 GameFi Tokens by Market Cap

The top 10 GameFi tokens by market cap, according to CMC data before this post, are:

• Immutable - IMX - $4.3B

• MultiversX - EGLD - $1.6B

• Beam - BEAM - $1.6B

• The Sandbox - SAND - $1.1B

• Axie Infinity - AXS - $1.1B

• Decentraland - MANA - $900M

• WEMIX - WEMIX - $800M

• Ronin - RON - $800M

• Gala - GALA - $700M

• ApeCoin - APE - $600M

Today and Beyond

GameFi is no longer in its infancy, with nearly 3,000 GameFi games launched to date. More significant funds are being allocated to develop long-term economies and enhanced user experiences. A particularly eye-catching metric is the interest traditional gaming companies are showing in this space. As highlighted in the February-published article "Why 70% of top gaming studios are investing in web3 gaming," many billion-dollar gaming giants are investing in the ecosystem. Some are developing in-house, while others are acquiring small studios. While not originally a gaming or blockchain enterprise, Nike made a significant move into the digital realm by acquiring RTFKT, a pioneer in virtual sneakers and collectibles, highlighting its dive into the NFT and metaverse sectors. Therefore, we can expect to see more cross-sector partnerships in the future.

If you're interested in closely following this exciting ecosystem, including updates on news, blogs, and podcasts, consider checking out our GameFi dashboard.

• What is Solana?

• The team behind it

• Proof of History (PoH)

• Decentralization

• Scalability

• Ecosystem

• Top DApps

• Sol Token

• Final Notes
  

What is Solana?

Solana is an L1 blockchain that offers high throughput. Especially after the collapse of FTX and Alameda, the continuous development by the ecosystem's developers has secured it an even more significant position within the community. Choices like Proof of History (PoH) are highlighted in Solana's architecture. Additionally, Solana hosts a wide range of applications due to its high transaction capacity. Currently reaching an average of 3000-4000 transactions per second (tps) and having found a significant role in the DeFi ecosystem, let's take a closer look at Solana.

The team behind it

The project was established back in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, who worked at Qualcomm before founding Solana. Before that, he worked at Dropbox as a software engineer.

Accompanying him are Eric Williams and Solana’s CTO, Greg Fitzgerald. They created a brand new process of dealing with traditional throughput problems that existed on Bitcoin – and then also on Ethereum.

PoH

As mentioned initially, Solana uses the PoH mechanism within its consensus. However, it should be known that PoH is not directly a consensus protocol or a Sybil attack mechanism. What PoH actually introduces is a way to keep “time” among nodes. This allows nodes to move together in unison and transactions in the network to be sequenced and processed in certain steps. Proof of History is essentially an update to Proof of Stake; it doesn't replace it entirely as a consensus mechanism.

If you want to learn what Proof of History is with a simple analogy, you can watch the short video below:

Decentralization

Verifying transactions on the Solana network is costly in terms of the computational operations required. When you look at the minimum hardware requirements, you see figures like 12 cores/24 threads for CPU and 256GB for RAM. Of course, these hardware capabilities allow Solana to reach a much higher transaction capacity, but naturally, the number of nodes in the network is lower compared to networks like Ethereum, which have lower minimum requirements. At the time of writing this article, there are 2912 nodes on Solana. When we look at the data on the Ethereum side at the same time, we see that there are 6991 nodes.

It's not easy to say that measuring decentralization is straightforward, but the number of nodes is definitely an important metric in this regard. Other important metrics to consider include the geographical distribution of nodes, whether nodes are installed on individuals' personal devices or on servers, and how many nodes are held by companies or institutions.

Scalability

Scalability is an important issue for all networks because, in short, it means that regular users can comfortably make transactions within the network at reasonable costs. Since its launch in 2020, Solana has indeed been promising to easily process transactions on its chain as a response to Ethereum's high base fees. It still manages this aspect well. To make a simple comparison with Ethereum, the average transaction fee paid by Solana's users in the last epoch was 0.000054925 SOL ($0.005), whereas, in Ethereum, the average transaction fee is 0.0008 ETH ($2).

Aside from this current data, in 2021, during Ethereum's congested times and various seasonal activities like the NFT boom, Solana became an escape for low-capitalized individuals who couldn't afford Ethereum's high costs. Laughing during a hyped NFT mint on Ethereum could cost you a few hundred dollars 😁. However, we should see what happens after the upcoming EIP-4844 and how it will affect the chain.

Also, when talking about scalability, on the Ethereum side, Ethereum serves as a settlement layer built upon by main Layer 2 solutions. According to L2Beat, there are currently 39 active Layer 2s 🤯. Solana's stance on this issue, as stated on the project's homepage, is: “Never deal with fragmented Layer 2 systems or sharded chains.”

Ecosystem

If you look at Solana's ecosystem page right now, you'll see that there are more than 600 applications on Solana. Excluding the recent downtime (which nearly made Solana's blockchain uninterrupted for 365 days, unfortunately becoming a bit of a setback for the community), Solana has still seen a high amount of transactions in the last 30 days. You can view the details in the table below.

So, in such a busy, affordable network, what's the state of the applications in the ecosystem? Which applications are popular and what categories do they belong to?

Top DApps

• Orca is an advanced protocol built around a Concentrated Liquidity Automated Market Maker. It currently leads among DEXs on the network with over $150M in liquidity.

Other notable DEXs include: Raydium, Jupiter, and Serum. Of course, there are many more DEXs beyond these.

• Pyth Network is an oracle protocol that connects the owners of market data to applications on multiple blockchains. Pyth's market data is contributed by over 90 first-party publishers, including some of the biggest exchanges and market making firms in the world. Over 100 protocols on 20+ blockchains trust Pyth to secure their applications.

Other worth mentioning analytic tools: Step Finance, Umbrella.

• Marinade Finance is a stake automation platform that monitors all Solana validators and delegates to the best-performing ones. It is the number 1 protocol compared to other staking service apps.

Other worth mentioning staking apps: Jito, BlazeStake, and Jpool.

• Magic Eden is the most popular NFT marketplace on Solana, which is now multichain.

Other worth mentioning NFT markets: Exchange.art, Solsea, and Solanart.

Besides, there are various high-user gaming applications like the move-to-earn concept's OG app, StepN, or StarAtlas.

Sol Token

Solana's native cryptocurrency, $SOL, has the following main use cases:

1. Transaction Fees: SOL tokens are used on the Solana network to cover transaction fees and smart contract operations, encouraging validators and ensuring network efficiency and spam prevention.

2. Staking: Users can stake SOL tokens to support the Solana network's operation as part of its Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

3. Validator Rewards: Validators receive SOL tokens as rewards for maintaining the Solana blockchain, incentivizing honest and efficient network performance.

4. Storage Payments: SOL tokens are used to pay for data storage on the Solana network, highlighting the token’s importance in supporting blockchain operational needs.

Final Notes

Solana is definitely one of the big players in the ecosystem, and having overcome a significant crisis, some see this as akin to Ethereum strengthening after the DAO Hack. Moreover, the strengthening of DeFi Applications on it makes the ecosystem stronger. Also, wide-scale airdrops by applications like Jupiter show metrics of many users from other networks moving to Solana. The Solana ecosystem seems to continue growing non-stop. If you want to follow these developments more closely and monitor the entire ecosystem through just one dashboard, you can check out our dashboard.

First Things First: Why Do We Need Liquid Staking?

• Liquidity: Unlike traditional staking which locks assets, liquid staking offers tokens for active use in DeFi, ensuring liquidity and rewards simultaneously.

• Accessibility: It lowers the entry barrier, allowing staking with less than the 32 ETH required for Ethereum's solo staking, by pooling resources.

• Immediate Rewards: It avoids the delays typical of traditional staking, facilitating faster engagement and reward generation within approximately 24 hours.
  

Understanding Liquid Staking

Basically, liquid staking may be viewed as a step down the line of activities required for putting assets on a network. So in traditional staking, the user locks up assets into the staking contract but in liquid staking, the user keeps them as liquid. In return for locking their tokens and providing the network with security, they enjoy back liquid tokens of equal value which represents the stake. The staking will give out these tokens which can then be traded, used on DeFi protocols or leveraged for extra yield, basically taking out the liquidity constraints of conventional staking modes.

Imagine Alice, who has 10 ETH she wants to stake. She decides to use Lido Finance for liquid staking due to its flexibility and the ability to keep her assets liquid. After staking her ETH on Lido, Alice receives an equivalent amount of stETH, which reflects her staked ETH but remains liquid and usable across various DeFi protocols. Seeking to maximize her yield, Alice explores DeFi platforms and decides to use Aave, a prominent lending and borrowing protocol. She deposits her stETH as collateral on Aave, which allows her to borrow stablecoins like DAI against her stETH. With the borrowed DAI, Alice looks for high-yield opportunities and finds Beefy Finance, a multi-chain yield optimizer that automates the best yielding strategies. Alice uses her borrowed DAI to enter a yield farming pool on Beefy Finance, which is optimized for DAI deposits. This pool auto-compounds her interest, maximizing her returns. Throughout this process, her original ETH is still staked via Lido, earning staking rewards, while her borrowed DAI is generating additional yield on Beefy Finance.
This scenario showcases the power of liquid staking to maintain liquidity and access to assets while participating in various yield-generating strategies across the DeFi ecosystem.

dApps in Liquid Staking

The Ethereum ecosystem boasts a variety of dApps that enable liquid staking, each offering unique features and benefits. Examples include:

• Lido: One of the most prominent liquid staking solutions, Lido allows users to stake their ETH and receive stETH in return, maintaining liquidity while earning staking rewards.

• Rocket Pool: A decentralized staking pool that not only offers liquid staking options but also democratizes access to staking for smaller ETH holders and node operators.

• StakeWise: This platform offers a unique dual-token system that separates staking rewards from the principal, providing flexibility in how rewards are managed and reinvested.
  Ankr: Provides a decentralized infrastructure service, offering users a way to stake ETH and earn rewards, enhancing the utility and accessibility of their staked assets.

• Frax: Part of the Frax Finance ecosystem, it allows users to stake ETH and participate in the Frax protocol's innovative stablecoin and DeFi solutions.

• Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH: A product from the renowned exchange, Coinbase, offering users a way to stake Ethereum directly through the platform and receive CBETH, enhancing liquidity and integration within the Coinbase ecosystem.

These dApps exemplify the innovative approaches within the Ethereum liquid staking landscape, each contributing to enhanced liquidity, accessibility, and participation in the Ethereum network.

Risks of Liquid Staking

• Centralization Concerns: LSDs could lead to a small number of node operators controlling a large portion of validator nodes, raising centralization issues. As of the latest update, there are 929,299 validators, and a total of 29,737,571 ETH staked, comprising 24.79% of the total ETH supply, indicating a high level of participation which also brings attention to potential centralization and security vulnerabilities.

• Security Vulnerabilities: With centralization, the risk of 51% attacks becomes more pronounced. Additionally, collusion among large staking players could undermine the decentralization ethos of Ethereum, potentially leading to malevolent actions like MEV extraction and frontrunning​​.

• Governance and Regulatory Risks: LSD protocols that allow token holders to choose validators could enable cartel activities, including censorship or manipulation of miner-extracted value. If a single LSD protocol controls a majority of the stake, it could also become a simpler target for regulatory censorship demands​​.

• Market Dominance and Monopolization: The rise of LSD protocols like Lido, with significant total value locked, could lead to monopolization in staking, where a few protocols control a large fraction of staked Ether. This monopolization might increase the network's vulnerability to abuses of power and reduce the diversity of validators. ​

  

  
  

• Smart Contract and Depeg Risks: While liquid staking tokens like stETH aim to maintain a 1:1 value with ETH, market dynamics can cause deviations. Additionally, the reliance on smart contracts introduces the risk of bugs or exploits, which could lead to a loss of funds.

Liquid staking on Ethereum offers a transformative approach to blockchain participation, allowing users to stake assets without sacrificing liquidity. This innovation facilitates broader access to staking rewards and DeFi ecosystems, enriching the user experience and financial opportunities.

Looking ahead, liquid staking is poised to revolutionize DeFi integration and governance in the Ethereum network, promising enhanced financial products and increased ecosystem robustness. Its future holds significant potential for expanding blockchain accessibility and utility, signaling a vibrant direction for Ethereum's evolution.

If you also want to follow the latest happenings on Liquid Staking protocols and much more from a single screen, do not forget to check out our Liquid Staking dashboard

February is here, and with it comes a wave of fresh updates from Alphaday! As we step into this vibrant month, the energy at Alphaday is more electrifying than ever. ⚡

From unveiling cutting-edge dashboards to rolling out our freshly redesigned website, every move we make is aimed at improving your experience. And there's an air of anticipation as we tease something big just around the corner. 👀

Without further ado, let's start with the most important crypto news of January:

January's Crypto Roundup

🌍 Devcon 7 Location Announced: The much-anticipated Devcon 7 will be held in Thailand!

🪂 Airdrops Galore: Exciting airdrops were announced this month including $DYM, $MANTA, $SAGA, $ALT, $JUP, and $FRAME.

📈 Bitcoin ETF Approval: The Bitcoin spot ETF has finally received the green light.

🏆 Optimism RPGF 3rd Round Results: The results are in for the third round of the Optimism RPGF.

🎨 “Genesis Cat” NFT Sale: A Bitcoin-Based Digital Art NFT, “Genesis Cat”, fetched $254,000 at a Sotheby's Auction.

🤯 Bitcoin Sent to Satoshi's Wallet: A whopping 26.9 $BTC was sent to Satoshi's mysterious wallet.

⚠️ Nethermind’s Client Hiccup: Nethermind’s Ethereum client experienced a temporary stop.

🍬 zkSync's L3, zkCandy: One of zkSync's new L3s, zkCandy was recently introduced.

🌊 Eigenlayer Pools Surge: Assets worth $1 billion were locked in Eigenlayer pools within just 48 hours of opening.

🚀 L2s and EIP-4844: Layer 2 networks are all set for EIP-4844.

🛑 PGN Shutting Down: Gitcoin-backed Layer 2 network “Public Goods Network” is winding down.

🔓 Bungee Exploit Scare: DeFi users scrambled to revoke wallet access after the bridging aggregator Bungee was exploited, risking up to $3.3 million.

👀 Starknet Stress Test: Starknet is currently undergoing a stress test.

📱 Solana Mobile's New Pre-Orders: Announcement of pre-orders for Solana Mobile's second device.

🛣️ Ethereum's Roadmap Update: Ethereum’s latest roadmap features The Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge.

Now, Back to Alphaday!

Introducing Our Monthly Top 3s

Based on Alphaday's user engagement and interactions, we're excited to bring you January's most popular events, dashboards, and widgets. Each of these selections represents what you, our users, have found most beneficial and engaging in enhancing your Alphaday experience.

📅 Events - Top Picks Based on Clicks

1. DAVOS 2024

2. Blockchain to Government Conference (B2GC)

3. BLOCK MOUNTAIN 2024

📊 Dashboards – Most Visited by Users

1. Alpha

2. Celestia

3. Optimism

⚙️ Widgets – Most Added to Dashboards

1. Calendar

2. Videos

3. News

Stay tuned for next month's Top 3s to see how trends and interests evolve within our community.

News and Updates from Alphaday

With the global stage set for an exhilarating year, Alphaday is not just keeping pace – we're setting the trends. Here's a sneak peek at what we've been up to:

🚀 6 New Dashboards Unleashed

Alphaday is thrilled to announce the addition of six new dashboards to our platform: DFINITY, SheFi, Base, Vitalik, Mina, and Bitcoin. These dashboards are power-packed with features designed to enhance your Web3 experience such as:

• News: Stay updated with the latest breakthroughs.

• Market Trends: Gain financial insights and analytics.

• Podcasts & Videos: Dive into in-depth discussions.

• Community Engagement: Connect via Reddit, Discord, and Forums.

• Learning Resources: Access blogs, FAQs, and courses.

• Strategic Insights: Check out the roadmap and essential links.

• Career Opportunities: Explore our hiring directory.

• Developer Support: Utilize Dev Resources.

• Event Tracking: Never miss a crypto event or meetup.

Explore Now

🤝 Partnership Announcement: Alphaday x Chiliz

In a move that strengthens our commitment to broadening our impact within the Web3 ecosystem, we are thrilled to announce our recent partnership with Chiliz. This collaboration represents a big milestone in our journey, bringing together two dynamic forces in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world.

Stay effortlessly informed about the latest news and developments from Chiliz. Keep ahead of upcoming events and enrich your knowledge by tuning into engaging videos featuring industry experts, deepening your understanding of the Chiliz universe.

🎙️ Introducing The Podcast Widget

We're enhancing your Alphaday experience with a brand-new addition: Say hello to our Podcast widget! Your favorite podcasts, all in one place.

You can scroll down within the widget to view older podcasts, or click on your favorite podcast showrunner at the top to list their podcasts. Give it a try, and let us know your favorite shows.

✍️ 3 New Blog Posts

• “SheFi: Bridging the Gender Gap in Crypto" Our latest blog post focuses on how SheFi is empowering women in the crypto space.

• "Introduction to Linea" Dive into our comprehensive guide on Linea.

• “Base: Conibase's Layer 2 Chain" Immerse yourself in our detailed exploration of Base and understand how it's shaping the trajectory of blockchain technology.

Read More

🖥️ Our New UI Is Here!

We're beyond excited to reveal our website's transformation. A smoother, sleeker Alphaday experience is waiting for you. Optimized for both mobile and desktop, it's more than just a makeover; it's a whole new way to experience Alphaday.

🌟 Coming Soon

Something big is on the horizon... We're in the final stages of developing something new that will redefine your Alphaday experience. Stay tuned for a better, on-the-go interaction with the world of Web3!

See you next month with other great news and updates from Alphaday.

Stay cool,

Alphaday Team 🖖

The journey of Aptos begins with the Diem initiative by Meta, an ambitious project that aimed to redefine financial transactions on a global scale. Despite the eventual sale of Diem to Silvergate Capital, the spirit of innovation lived on through the engineers and visionaries who founded Aptos Labs. This transition marked a pivotal moment, During the first seven months of the devnet stage, Aptos raised $350 million. The first investors onboard were Andreessen Horowitz, a16z crypto, and Multicoin. They brought in around $200 million. By July 2020, Aptos Labs had secured an additional $150 million from giants like Franklin Templeton.

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Tech side of Aptos

At the heart of Aptos lies a meticulously designed blockchain architecture, built around a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus. This foundation ensures not only the security and efficiency of transactions but also the integrity and reliability of the network. Validators play a crucial role in this ecosystem, safeguarding the network and processing transactions. The introduction of the Move programming language further sets Aptos apart, offering unparalleled flexibility and security features that cater to the ever-evolving needs of developers and users alike.

Move

The Move language is designed for safe resource management and verifiable execution on a blockchain. Transaction execution is deterministic, hermetic, and metered. Deterministic and hermetic means that the output of transaction execution is completely predictable and based only on the information contained within the transaction and the current ledger state. Metering is an important defense against denial-of-service attacks at the transaction execution level.

The Move prover can formally verify the properties of Move modules via an expressive specification language and is fast enough to run as a part of continuous integration tests. Move resources, inspired by linear types, statically ensure resources are conserved and not copied or accidentally destroyed—avoiding a whole class of potential attacks entirely. Our blockchain and the Move language were co-developed at the same time over four years ago. Accounts, transaction fees, a standard library, validator node management, and configuration are all implemented with Move.

In addition, Move's data model facilitates more flexible private key management and hybrid custody options, along with transaction transparency before signing.

Developer Activity

Aptos has seen a significant rise in developer activity and monthly active addresses, with a reported +360% growth year-over-year. This indicates a vibrant and rapidly expanding ecosystem supported by Aptos' breakthrough technology and the Move programming language, which facilitates seamless and secure project integration.

How does the Aptos blockchain work?

At a glance, the Aptos blockchain operates using these key principles:

• It runs on a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system with BFT consensus, backed by validators who have a stake in the network.

• The network is made up of both full nodes and lighter, more accessible light clients.

• Aptos uses a parallel transaction engine, called BlocksSTM, to ramp up the number of transactions it can handle.

• The Move language, which is both easy to use and secure, is used for creating custom smart contracts.

• Its design is modular, meaning updates can be made to parts of the network without overhauling the whole system.

• In Aptos, data is treated as a resource that can't just be thrown away, ensuring data integrity.

• Transactions are processed simultaneously across all important steps, making things faster.

• There's a clear method for adding more validators to scale the network.

• Validator performance is enhanced through a system where the network's state is shared efficiently.

The APT token is the best example of how Move-based resource objects work. Before making transfers and using modules, all coins belonging to a new account are first registered using the signer object. Aptos coin is not ERC20-compatible, which excludes allowance functionality. However, modules call each other directly.

Some Important Innovations

Aptos enhances node adaptability through a tailored state synchronization method. This method sets the guidelines for sharing and aligning blockchain data across the network, ensuring all users remain in sync. Aptos offers the flexibility to choose synchronization strategies that align with users' specific needs and resource capacities. For example, full nodes might opt to sync the entire blockchain history or just the latest state, whereas light clients might sync only parts of the blockchain history. This customizable approach allows each network participant to decide the extent of blockchain data they wish to handle and store. The adaptability of this protocol is essential for meeting a wide array of user requirements and for supporting efficient data processing and retention across the network. This, in turn, enhances the overall efficiency for all network roles—light clients, full nodes, and validators—improving the user experience by facilitating more effective data transmission, receipt, and verification.

Community-centric Tokenomics

The distribution of the APT token is as follows:

• Community: 51.02% (510,217,359.767 tokens)

• Core Contributors: 19.00% (190,000,000.000 tokens)

• Foundation: 16.50% (165,000,000.000 tokens)

• Investors: 13.48% (134,782,640.233 tokens)

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Those active in the ecosystem know that Aptos made many happy with its airdrop, rewarding even the simplest NFT minting on the network generously. However, this is not the only plan Aptos has for the community. Looking at the current unlock rates of tokens, ⅔ of the tokens allocated to the community have yet to be distributed. It seems Aptos has more in store for the community 👀.

Ecosystem

According to DefiLlama, there are currently over $130 million in assets on Aptos. So, what platforms are these assets gathered on, and what's happening in the ecosystem?

As you can see in the table above, a significant amount is shown on Thala. You can perform a variety of transactions on Thala, from simple swap operations to liquid staking and launchpad transactions. Although liquidity appears to be highly concentrated in a few applications, it's worth noting that there are over 90 dApps on the network, indicating a substantial product presence. It's also worth mentioning the significant amount of NFT activity on the network lately.

The Aptos Foundation has partnered with leading data providers like Dune, Nansen, Token Terminal, and others to enhance data integration services. This move aims to simplify data standardization and improve dApp searchability within the Aptos community, promising a stronger data ecosystem and higher transparency

Wrapping Up

Aptos is managed by experienced teams and, notably, by a team with strong corporate relationships. It will be exciting to see how they guide the network in the future. Among all projects, with a total cap of $2.8 million and ranking in the top 50 according to CoinGecko data, it will be interesting to see how Aptos differentiates itself in the market from its competitors. If you want to see all the information about this exciting ecosystem on one screen, don't forget to check out our Aptos Dashboard :)

SheFi embodies a transformative shift that challenges gender disparities and leads the charge towards equal representation in the crypto industry.

Shefi Curriculum

Recognizing education's pivotal role, SheFi has already caught the attention of leading companies in the sector including zkSync, Aave, Celestia, and Uniswap. The organization offers a comprehensive 13-week educational program, aptly named the SheFi Curriculum, which is meticulously designed to fill a crucial gap in crypto education. Each week, participants delve into key protocols, benefiting from hands-on demonstrations and practical experiences.

Curriculum Highlights:

• Week 1: Blockchains

• Week 2: Wallets

• Week 3: Layer 2 Blockchains 

• Week 4: Decentralized Finance Overview 

• Week 5: Stablecoins

• Week 6: Decentralized Exchanges

• Week 7: Liquid Staking

• Week 8: Non-Fungible Tokens 

• Week 9: DAOs

• Week 10: Governance

• Week 11: Web3 Social

• Week 12: Artificial Intelligence

• Week 13: Consumer Crypto

🔔 Reminder: Enrollment for Cohort 10 is open for March 2024!

Community Community Community

At its core, SheFi emphasizes the value of community. It provides a nurturing environment for women and non-binary individuals to share knowledge, inspire, and support one another. The organization maintains an active presence on social media platforms, such as Twitter, and organizes global events. A recent highlight was the Devconnect Istanbul event in November, which served as a significant convergence for community members.

SheFi by the Numbers: A Legacy of Growth

SheFi's growth is evident in its impressive statistics. Over 70 hours of educational content demonstrate the depth and breadth of resources available. Having completed nine seasons, SheFi stands as a beacon of consistent, high-quality education in the crypto realm. The community has expanded to over 2,200 members, fostering a robust support and learning network. This is mirrored in the organization's social media reach, with more than 20,000 followers and a global presence spanning over 50 countries, underscoring SheFi's international influence and commitment to inclusive education in the world of cryptocurrency.

Why SheFi Matters

SheFi transcends being merely an educational platform; it represents a dynamic movement for change. It is a space where women and nonbinary individuals are not only learners but also leaders and innovators, shaping the future of Web3 and cryptocurrencies.

Join SheFi on this journey and gain access to the latest insights on our dedicated SheFi dashboard: 👇

https://app.alphaday.com/b/shefi/

The Ethereum community and its applications continue to evolve and layer-2 solutions are proliferating and pushing in their efforts to scale Ethereum.

What does scaling, in simple terms, mean?

• Being able to perform many transactions per second

• To be able to do these transactions cheaply

Linea is attempting to achieve both these goals by using ZK-rollup at its core.

Rollups are divided into two: Optimistic Rollups and zk-Rollups. Optimism and Arbitrum are the best-known examples of Optimistic Rollups. On the zk-Rollup side, we have the likes of zkSync, Starknet, and Polygon zkEVM. We can compare these two technologies below👇

At this point, it would probably not be wrong to say that zkRollups are still in technical development and have a higher potential to scale in the long term.

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So back to Linea, the zk-Rollup based scaling solution developed by Consensys. How does Linea work and what makes it uniquely different than the other zk-Rollup solutions out there?

The ins and outs of Linea

Linea launched on mainnet during ETHCC Paris 2023. Starting its journey with 100+ dapps on the mainnet gave it strong momentum out of the gate. Looking at the data, we can see it reached around 2 million unique addresses since launch.

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The Basic Features And Advantages Offered by Linea

Some of the basic features of Linea include low transaction fees, high transaction speeds, and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) equivalence. Here, it’s important to note the EVM equivalence as it allows developers to easily port over their code from Ethereum. Chains not equivalent to EVM mean much more time, energy, and therefore labor. In this respect, Linea significantly differentiates itself from competitors like zksync.

Additionally, by offering outward integrations with popular ConsenSys developer tools like MetaMask, Infura, and Hyperledger Besu, it encourages the adoption and growth of the network. It's also worth mentioning that Linea processes transactions at an average of 1/15th of Ethereum gas fees.

Now let's look at Linea’s basic building blocks: zero-knowledge proofs, rollups, and Linea Canonical Message Service.

Linea's Innovative Technologies

Linea uses a series of ground-breaking technologies to improve throughput, privacy, security, speed and scalability around Ethereum. These technologies significantly improve transaction privacy, security, speed, and scalability. Here are the three main technologies featured in Linea:

Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs)

Linea uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to maintain transaction integrity while keeping transaction details confidential. This technology allows the correctness of a transaction to be proven without revealing its details. ZKP occurs between two parties; the transaction sender (prover) and the receiver (verifier). The transaction details, referred to as the "witness," are kept confidential.

The prover responds to a challenge created by the verifier to prove the correctness of a transaction. The prover's response to this challenge verifies their knowledge about the witness. The protocol validates the prover's response and conveys the transaction's correctness to the verifier. Thus, the receiver of the transaction only knows whether the transaction is correct or incorrect.

Rollups

Rollups increase the Ethereum network's transaction capacity by processing multiple transactions collectively. This system reduces transaction fees by validating many transactions as a single transaction while simultaneously verifying all transactions. Rollups can package more than 60,000 transactions at a time and confirm a group of transactions in 13 seconds, which translates to more than 4,800 transactions per second. In comparison, the Ethereum mainnet can only process 32 transactions per second.

Linea Canonical Message Service

Linea's Canonical Message Service creates an efficient communication pathway between the Linea network and the Ethereum mainnet. This service functions as a bridge and messaging stack. This system, consisting of a combination of protocols and smart contracts, transmits routine transaction information and arbitrary messages between Linea and other networks. The main messaging protocol of Linea is 'Postbots.'

The project indicates that during the test phase, Postbots are 'actors' that 'listen' to calls made to contracts on Linea or Ethereum and transmit information to the other network. While centralized in the test phase, ConsenSys claims that the Postbot protocol will be a decentralized protocol where everyone on the network can serve as a Postbot when fully operational.

In summary, these technologies imply that Linea conceals transactions using zero-knowledge, packages them with rollup technology, and then transmits these transactions to the main network via the Canonical Message Service.

Directly Copy What You Do on Ethereum to Linea: EVM Equivalence

We can say that Ethereum, after Bitcoin, holds the most value in terms of assets and perhaps more importantly, hosts countless dapps and developers. Compared to other ecosystems, this is a unique feature of Ethereum and naturally, this provides important advantages to dapp and ecosystem development. Developers who constantly work on different parts of the network are constantly trying to improve SDKs, tooling, and infrastructure. At this point, a fundamental problem arises between chains that use and try to scale Ethereum: their relationship with EVM. Two important distinctions regarding EVM are:

EVM Compatibility and EVM Equivalence.

EVM Equivalence means that developers can directly transfer codes on EVM to that network. In other words, copy and paste. This means directly porting the know-how there. Imagine how valuable this know-how is considering the countless mistakes, hacks, and various tried and abandoned solutions that have gone to where we are today. On the other hand, EVM Compatibility means that the codes on EVM can be used by revising them according to the language of that network and establishing communication between them. Revising codes means that developers really need to spend a lot of time.

Let's Talk About Security

The technology used for State Validation is ZK Proof and zkSNARKs. This system ensures state correctness, but it requires a trusted setup beforehand. You may remember the trusted setup from the KZG Ceremony. Essentially, a polynomial is obtained by adding random inputs from users one after the other. This polynomial cannot be found if all the inputs in the setup are unknown, and thus, as this polynomial is always used to verify proofs as a gateway, it ensures correctness.

Upgradeability is also allowed in Linea, which means that a sudden change can be made in the network, and this can cause potential issues for users. There is also no escape window for users against unwanted upgradeability. If there is a problem related to the Sequencer, such as censorship or the Sequencer being out of operation, there is no solution mechanism.

Similar problems are present in many Layer-2s and remain an important criticism.

What Is Linea Doing About the Community?

Since the testnet phase,  Linea has organized various events to advance community growth and encourage the development of test applications. The most comprehensive of these events is "The Linea Voyage". This system, which distributes Linea Voyage xp to users, subjects many users to various tasks to actively use the chain. For example, "go to IZUMI Finance and make a swap of $10 or more" Although this system has attracted the attention of airdrop hunters, there are also users who criticize it.

If you are curious about the statistics of Linea, which managed the event through the Interact platform, you can check

Wrapping Up

Linea, with Consensus behind it, continues to take important steps. Like many other zk-Rollup protocols, certain technical problems still need to be solved. However, since its launch, the project continues to attract a healthy number of user attention with an increase in both its activity in the community and the volume it brings to the network. In the future, we can expect to see many more dapps deploying to Linea. As of now, in 2024, the view of the top 10 most active Dapps on the network looks like this, according to DeFiLIama data.

If you want to learn more about Linea or follow the regular Linea ecosystem, it would be beneficial to check out our Linea Dashboard ;)

Ethereum's scaling problem

As you can see in the table above, Ethereum is constantly congested. The space in a block isn't enough for users, leading them to pay high gas fees to transact. You wouldn't want to pay around $20 for a simple swap, right? Not very user-friendly. If the transaction is more complex, the gas you pay increases even more.

This situation stems from the fundamental supply-demand balance in Ethereum. As the chart below shows, the amount of gas changes according to demand at different times, and we have to pay these amounts if we want to transact on Ethereum.

So, what's stopping us? If the block is too small, let's increase its size, or if it takes too long to mine a block, let's speed it up.

This brings us to Scalability.

Scalability simply means increasing throughput without increasing node load. Understanding this is important because if we enlarge the block too much, we need much more hardware, which leads to centralization, or if we increase the block production speed, we need a higher internet speed and leave those with slow internet out of the game, which again leads to centralization. I'm not going into why decentralization is important here, but you can check it out from here.

Zero-knowledge proofs(zkp) and their benefits

zkRollup, which is live on the mainnet, provides significant benefits for blockchain scalability and privacy. It requires a one-time setup and audit, and if a validity proof fails, a simple retry is often enough. Exits take about 15 minutes, enhancing user experience by providing quick access to funds. Privacy is easy and cheap to achieve, making zkRollup an attractive option for those seeking transaction confidentiality.

Let's Talk About zkSync

Let's break down zkSync into subcategories for a better understanding of the concept. These are scalability, security, decentralization, usability, and interoperability.

Scaling: The data from L2Beat below doesn't show high TPS right now. However, they mention that once they iron out some wrinkles in their zero-knowledge part and the network faces the expected congestion, they can exceed +3000 TPS. They even say that with their bridges named ‘zkPorter’, they can go over +20,000 TPS, but these are not yet realized in reality. We will see how it works as it develops.

Security: zkSync ensures Layer-1 level security without third-party reliance, using cryptographic proofs to verify transaction integrity without revealing underlying data. As for tokens, there is currently no token on the network, but when there is, no entity on the network will have access to the token. They are also conducting audit tests within the scope of their bug bounty program.

Decentralization: We can't say the network is decentralized right now. There is neither a governance token that manages the network nor a decentralized sequencer. However, as one of the founding partners Alex Gluchowski, has mentioned several times, zkSync's mission is to decentralize the network, and they will take the necessary steps in the future. On the other hand, we can say that the code is open-source and everyone on the network can see them.

from Alex’s “L2 scalability and zkSync” speech during Edcon 2020

Usability: The platform is user-friendly, offering features like instant confirmations, low transaction fees, and a straightforward exit mechanism to the Ethereum mainnet.

Interoperability: zkSync maintains compatibility with existing Ethereum infrastructure and smart contracts, ensuring seamless operation with other systems and wallets in the broader blockchain ecosystem.

With all this, we've essentially explained zkSync at its core. As you can see, the network is still unfinished in many respects, and many developments are still ongoing. Various dApps have already taken their place on it. Different aspects are discussed in various podcasts, blogs, and videos.
If you want to get more information about these topics and stay up-to-date by following the ecosystem through a single window, you can check out our zkSync dashboard.

click here