
Halo: A privacy layer for stablecoins
AbstractHalo is a privacy layer for stablecoins unlocking the next private neobanks and applications that were blocked by the lack of anonymity and confidentiality of networks. Halo Network introduces a new extension a a privacy-preserving EVM chain purpose-built for stablecoin use cases. Halo combines the familiarity and composability of the EVM with the confidentiality of a UTXO-based privacy layer, allowing users to transact and build privately without sacrificing interoperability or liqui...
🧊Solana::Leader schedule
I have been diving into Solana and its Validator code realizing the incredible design behind the selection of Validators and block producers, so here is a small rundownWhat are Blocks?What are POW and POS?Solana Leader ScheduleSpecial Considerations to produce the Tastiest BlockOpen QuestionsSome ResourcesBlocks wat?Blocks containing transactions and state transition data lined on top of one another with cryptography securing their computational integrity is the foundation of blockchain aka c...
Musings on Price Discovery
Musings on Price discoveryWith a fading bull run comes the pressure to do a token generation event at high valuations because otherwise if you are a VC backed project with 8 figs in funding, you are cooked without a binance listing since you definitely know your tech is only valued at the number of CEX listings and shady market makers you can get for the launch. Jokes and criticism aside, I have been diving into the price discovery for a mix of work and my own interests in the past few months...
Just a tinkerer in this wonderful world

Halo: A privacy layer for stablecoins
AbstractHalo is a privacy layer for stablecoins unlocking the next private neobanks and applications that were blocked by the lack of anonymity and confidentiality of networks. Halo Network introduces a new extension a a privacy-preserving EVM chain purpose-built for stablecoin use cases. Halo combines the familiarity and composability of the EVM with the confidentiality of a UTXO-based privacy layer, allowing users to transact and build privately without sacrificing interoperability or liqui...
🧊Solana::Leader schedule
I have been diving into Solana and its Validator code realizing the incredible design behind the selection of Validators and block producers, so here is a small rundownWhat are Blocks?What are POW and POS?Solana Leader ScheduleSpecial Considerations to produce the Tastiest BlockOpen QuestionsSome ResourcesBlocks wat?Blocks containing transactions and state transition data lined on top of one another with cryptography securing their computational integrity is the foundation of blockchain aka c...
Musings on Price Discovery
Musings on Price discoveryWith a fading bull run comes the pressure to do a token generation event at high valuations because otherwise if you are a VC backed project with 8 figs in funding, you are cooked without a binance listing since you definitely know your tech is only valued at the number of CEX listings and shady market makers you can get for the launch. Jokes and criticism aside, I have been diving into the price discovery for a mix of work and my own interests in the past few months...
Just a tinkerer in this wonderful world

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This post won’t be a bit abstract. I will be talking about scalability and gas fee solutions to the Ethereum blockchain - Layer 2 Rollups as the title suggests.
There is a big trilemma in the blockchain of Decentralization, security, and Scalability which makes it very hard to have only all 3 of these features in a blockchain. We can only have 2 of them and have to drop one every time we build a new blockchain. Decentralization and security are traded for Scalability as in Bitcoin and decentralization is swapped for Scalability and Security in Solana(no offense). Big bets are on sidechains and Layer 2 rollups.
Rollups are one of the most secure solutions to the scalability solution of Ethereum. In rollups, the transaction is processed off-main-chain and the data is posted on the chain after execution which takes away much of a load of the main net and clogs of transactions. Here is some research is done on Layer 2 rollups by my wonderful Fellows at Dream DAO. This might be long and maybe not of interest to you as whole but can be valuable skimming through this
Key documents:
Whitepaper and important documents:
Inside Arbitrum Offchain Labs Dev Center [https://developer.offchainlabs.com/docs/inside_arbitrum]
Introducing Arbitrum [https://ethresear.ch/t/introducing-arbitrum-a-new-layer-2-solution/3825]
Important explainers, blog posts, reports
https://medium.com/monitalks/arbitrum-what-is-it-how-to-use-it-useful-links-9aafd2913694
Bankless On Arbitrum
Arbitrum website [arbitrum.io]
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players, and projects
Explainer:
goals of the project:
Arbitrum is a solution to the scalability and expense problem of Ethereum Blockchain. It is a Layer 2 Optimistic rollup whose mission is to make ethereum more scalable without compromising its trustless secure system. It builds on the security and decentralization of ethereum Mainchain to a better future where micro-transactions and gas fees are not an issue.
Lower gas is one of the biggest goals of every new Blockchain and Layer 2 solution and Arbitrum just does it even better. It can easily reduce the gas fee by 95% and even more on full deployment.
The Scalability just increases exponentially as it has a bigger block size, higher cap gas fee, and as most of the computation is done off-chain leaves a big space for transactions to fill. It has higher throughput than quite a lot of sidechains.
Reducing gas fee opens a big challenge as lower gas fee makes the chain vulnerable to attackers as they could just flood the network with duplicate fraud proofs but Arbitrum has a solution to that. When someone challenges a transaction, the person has to stake eth with that proof. When eth staked is locked by the smart contract which is also the referee, there is a showdown between the rpc node and the challenger. The party proven wrong gets its eth burned.
team - Off-chain Labs
Co-Founders - Arbitrum is developed by people at Off-chain LabsEd Felten - Chief ScientistSteven Goldfeder(CEO) - PhD Princeton UniversityHarry Kalodner(CTO) - PhD Princeton University
Github
[https://ethresear.ch/t/introducing-arbitrum-a-new-layer-2-solution/3825]
what makes this project unique
Arbitrum uses Interactive proving which leads to the settlement of dispute off-chain and leading cheap settlement of conflicts and fraud transactions. The Contract referee doens’t have to look up for hash of each transaction, it just needs to look at the disputed transactions which are unlike a lot of rollups.
Key documents
Whitepaper and important documents
Important explainers, blog posts, reports
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players and projects
Explainer
Goals of project
“Loopring is a software running on Ethereum that aims to incentivize a global network of users to operate a platform that enables the creation of new types of crypto-asset exchanges. It uses multiple cryptocurrencies. Most notably, it allows for high-throughput (faster), cheaper trading and payment on Ethereum by utilizing ZK-Rollup.”
Team
Founded by Daniel Wang, a software engineer based in China who worked at internet companies including Google and JD.com
Employees from all over the world
Loopring miners contribute to the system
Github
What makes this project unique
“Loopring combines the benefits of both centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Its innovative use of zkRollups allows it to achieve higher throughput and lower costs than any other decentralized exchange built on the Ethereum blockchain, while its non-custodial technology presents an improvement to the security of centralized exchanges. The high-level performance capabilities that Loopring offers mean that algorithmic traders are able to use high-frequency trading strategies on DEXs for the first time. Loopring also employs a cryptographic solution that prevents frontrunning (when someone gets their own trades executed before pending transactions in order to profit from the price change that will result from said transactions). The protocol is open-source and audited and doesn’t rely on any external validators, meaning no person, company, or government can come between a user and their cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, users automatically receive a digital receipt for all deposits and withdrawals, meaning funds can always be recovered – even if the decentralized exchange encounters issues.”
Mentions daaps on the whitepaper - “serves as a standardized building block for decentralized applications (dApps)”
Key projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAOs
https://medium.loopring.io/12-projects-that-are-integrating-the-loopring-protocol-5522aec2dfd9
imToken: imToken is a feature-rich digital asset wallet enabling multi-chain asset management, dApp browsing and secure, private exchange of value. imToken is the largest Ethereum wallet, with over 4.5 million users globally.
MyToken: MyToken is a leading one-stop crypto platform that provides cryptocurrency real-time charts, data analysis, ratings, industry news, as well as a wallet.
QBao: Qbao is a multicurrency wallet, token exchange platform, payment settlement solution, social group, and information marketplace. Qbao serves digital currency users globally, providing them with a secure, cross-chain, and easy-to-use digital asset platform.
Tokenest: RootAnt is accelerating the transformation of financial services by empowering global financial institutions to transform into cross-platform, user-friendly financial portals.
etc.
Quick Summary of Loopring (completely open to feedback on specificity and accuracy):
As stated on its website, “Loopring is a zkRollup layer2. It allows for high-throughput, low-cost trading and payment on Ethereum.” Loopring was first created by Daniel Wang, a software engineer based in China. The team has expanded as Loopring has developed. Loopring functions with the help of miners in the system. Zero-knowledge Rollups and non-custodial technology allow security, efficiency, and affordability. The Loopring protocol is also completely open-source, and a number of projects such as QBao have started integrating it. An NFT marketplace launch with GameStop is causing a lot of excitement around Loopring. Still, DAOs do not currently seem to be an integral part of the ecosystem.
KEY DOCUMENTS:
Whitepaper and important documents:https://starkware.co/product/starkex/https://starkware.co/product/starknet/
Bankless’ how to use Starkware and Starknet
Important explainers, blog posts, reports:https://medium.com/starkware/redefining-scalability-5aa11ffc5880https://medium.com/starkware/oracle-price-feed-on-starkex-2b15a3ca122https://docs.starkware.co/starkex-playground-tutorial/
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players and projects:https://messari.io/asset/starkware/profile/roadmap
STARKWARE GOALS:
‘’StarkWare develops STARK-based solutions for the blockchain industry. Our products enable a secure, trustless, and scalable operating for blockchain applications.’’
Quoting Mike Vernal: “Starkware is attacking one of the most important problems in crypto — the computational scalability of the blockchain.”
Develops StarkEx: Validity-Rollup → move computation and state storage off-chain but keep a small amount of certain data on-chain, (https://medium.com/starkware/redefining-scalability-5aa11ffc5880); reduced amount of gas required per-trade | settling a dYdX transaction on Ethereum Mainnet: 200,000 gas; settling a dYdX transaction on StarkEx: <500 gas.
video explaining how StarkEx works :) people can do transactions off-chain using StarkEx. There is a prover to help control security before sending the transaction to the on-chain verifier; “all transactions are validated off-chain, the proof of their integrity is verified on-chain”.
Develops StarkNet: permissionless decentralized ZK Rollup; ‘’It operates as an L2 network over Ethereum, enabling any dApp to achieve unlimited scale for its computation, without compromising Ethereum’s composability and security.’’
STARKWARE TEAM:
Founded in 2018Founders: Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Michael Riabzev, Uri KolodnyTeam: 60Funding: Raised $151M in equity, and a $12M grant from the Ethereum Foundation
GITHUB: https://github.com/Starkware (no activity)
WHAT MAKES THIS PROJECT UNIQUE:
Milestones of StarkNet:
Smart contracts support general computation
Smart contracts can interact with each other, allowing composability
L1<>L2 interoperability
Full L1 security through on-chain data (Rollup)
According to their website, → StarkWare solves the two most pressing problems of permissionless blockchains: scalability and privacy. StarkWare’s cryptographic proofs are zero-knowledge, succinct, transparent and post-quantum secure.
ROADMAP AND USABILITY OF PROJECT, IS IT READ FOR LIVE DAPPS?
According to their discord FAQ → ‘’Are there any STARK systems in production? Yes, several projects (DeversiFi, dYdX, Immutable, Sorare) are using StarkEx and are in production for quite some time.’’
Roadmap + Key projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAOs (note: I’m not sure if this is the answer but I couldn’t find anything else about it).https://messari.io/asset/starkware/profile/roadmap
StarkEx v1.0. Mainnet Launch; StarkEx is StarkWare’s scalability engine. It launched on Ethereum’s mainnet in June 2020. It powered DeversiFi’s decentralized exchange at launch. StarkEx was StarkWare’s first commercial release and the first mainnet deployment of STARKs.
VeeDo. Mainnet Launch; VeeDo is StarkWare’s STARK-based Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) service. It launched on the Ethereum mainnet in June 2020. The first application based on VeeDo was a proof-of-concept for a randomness beacon.
Cairo. Software Release; Cairo is a platform that can generate STARK proofs for general computation on Ethereum. It supports programs and applications written in an assembly-like programming language, which goes by the same name, Cairo.
StarkEx 2.0. Mainnet Launch; StarkEx 2.0 launched in December 2020. The new version features the Cairo proof generation and programming platform that currently powers ImmutableX and dYdX’s layer-2 implementation. It also includes ERC-721 support, faster L1-L2 Connectivity, and improved onboarding for new users.
StarkNet Step I — Planets: Single-App Rollups. Network Change; StarkNet is a STARK-powered Layer-2 ZK-Rollup that supports general computation over Ethereum. It is based on the Turing-complete Cairo language. StarkWare plans to launch StarkNet in three phases. Step I will enable developers to build and deploy their own scalable applications on StarkNet.
StarkNet Step II — Constellations: Multi-App Rollups. Network Change; StarkNet is a STARK-powered Layer-2 ZK-Rollup that supports general computation over Ethereum. It is based on the Turing-complete Cairo language. Step II will support multiple applications running on the same StarkNet instance and accessing the same global Layer-2 state. This solution will enable interoperability between different applications and reduced gas costs due to improved economies of scale.
StarkNet Step III — Universe: Decentralized Rollup. Network Change; StarkNet is a STARK-powered Layer-2 ZK-Rollup that supports general computation over Ethereum. It is based on the Turing-complete Cairo language. Step III involves decentralizing StarkNet’s operation.
Key Documents:
White Paper and Important Documents:
https://docs.boba.network/developer-docs
Important explainers, blog posts, reports: https://news.bitcoin.com/boba-network-introduces-wagmi-options-for-developers-and-builders/, https://www.coinbase.com/price/boba-network, https://coinrivet.com/footprint-after-its-huge-surge-could-boba-network-become-the-top-layer-2-project/, https://learn.bybit.com/altcoins/boba-token/
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players and projects: partnership with myETHWallet MEW (MyEtherWa.), (ecosystem) Oracle WitNet, platform Brand Protocol, Enya [backed up], The Graph, OMG Foundation (trading)
According to the site: “A Layer 2 Ethereum scaling and augmenting solution, Boba Network lowers gas fees, enhances the capabilities of smart contracts, and improves transaction throughput. Boba Network’s native token, BOBA, reached an all-time high of $7.93 on Nov. 25, 2021, and recorded its all-time low of $0.99 on Nov. 19, 2021”
Boba aims to “build a pragmatic L2 that is the first step toward opening Ethereum to the next Billion users”
Boba aims to make Ethereum and the cryptocurrency accessible as possible.
Goals of the Project:
What Boba believes:
Cheap transaction costs: Ethereum charges high gas fees that cost an average of $10–$50 per transaction. Boba Network solves this problem by reducing costs to levels much lower than those on the main Ethereum network. The gas price on L2 changes every 30 seconds and is typically around 10 Gwei. (smallest unit on the Ethereum network!)
Fast exit: Compared to conventional Layer 2 solutions, users can transfer their money in and out of the network much faster, generally only a few minutes. Depending on the specific L2 technology and implementation, it can offer from 50x to over 1,000x more throughput than Layer 1. The network offers quick exits backed by liquidity pools that are community-driven, reducing the Optimistic Rollup exit time to a few minutes, as opposed to the usual duration of around seven days. This also gives liquidity providers (LPs) incentivized yield farming opportunities. With yield farming, users can earn interest on their digital assets.
Helps in NFT bridging: Users can mint, move and sell their NFT assets between L1 and L2, or even between different L2 solutions. This has made the development of NFTs, particularly GameFi, easier and more convenient. GameFi combines three massive markets: decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens, and blockchain-based games.
Team:
Boba is made up of 5 members working on the team.It was founded in 2018 by Alan Chiu and is backed up by Enya.aiBoba was founded by Alan Chiu in 2021 to make crypto accessible to everyone.
Alan Chiu - Founder
Alan Chiu is the founder of Boba. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with B.S in Electrical and Computing Engineering. He then attended Stanford for Masters in Science and Management. He has extensive experience in investing, product management, and eventually founded Enya.ai and Boba.
Violet Abtahi - Chief Operating Officer
Violet Abtahi studied in the field of finance and economics with in-depth research in the fields of Sustainability, Blockchain technologies, and Artificial intelligence.
She has over two decades of expertise in investments, blockchain, global finance, economics, and sustainability, an established track record of founding and advising startups, ventures, and large corporations on funding, growth, transformation, impact, and expansion initiatives.
Nicolas Montenegro - Liquidity Provider and DAO’s Governor
Nicolas graduated from Texas A&M University where they studied supply chain management. Entering college, they began expanding my knowledge base into real estate. First, by formed his first LLC, Texas Unlimited, and managed an investment property held under this LLC for two years. At the same time, he was working as an independent contractor, completing work in rentals across the city. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, their focus switched back to cryptocurrencies, and began their work at Boba Network
Max G. Developer Relations Lead:
Max G. attended Georg Simon Ohm Schule Join in Germany. After graduating with a Computer Science degree, he worked at various companies in Singapore, and Bangkok, Thailand in IT, Product Management, and as a Developer before working at Boba Network.
Dean Thomas - Strategic Advisor:
Dean went to college at Darthmouth College where they graduated summa cum laude. They are Chief Investment Officer at Stealth Capital & Rainmaker Games, Managing Partner at Lone Palm Advisors, and Strategic Advisor at Boba Network.
**GitHub:**Boba’s GitHub is backed up by OMG Network - a Layer-2 scaling solution, built on plasma + optimistic rollups. The value transfer layer for Ethereum.
What makes this project unique?:
Ethereum Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup
Extensible Smart Contract
Ease of transferable of cryptos from Boba to Ethereum
Network has decreased the withdrawal period to few minutes —> this means that you don’t have to wait for 7 days for withdrawl like the conventional system
NFT bridge will allow the NFT’s to launch on the network easily and effectively!
Boba.Network is backed up by Enya.ai [According to the website: Founded by Stanford faculty and alumni, Enya pioneered decentralized privacy and became the largest provider of secure multiparty computation services, serving more than 10 million users across 91 countries. Enya creates decentralized infrastructure solutions that serve the next billion users, leading with Boba Network.] a leading developer of decentralized infrastructure solutions.
Provides best of both worlds, Security and Decentralization deeply rooted in Ethereum!
Top quality NFT projects are all on Ethereum, but the gas makes it accessible only for the rich.
Roadmap + Usability: Is it ready for live DApps?:
The roadmap is unfortunately not available for the public to see.
Boba has already had smart contracts enabled for them to connect with developers across the Etherum ecosystem to build D’Apps that invokes code on web infrastructure such as AWS Lambda - making it possible for this to happen in a huge expensive algorithm as well!
Key Projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAO’s:
Here’s are some examples:
Cyber DAO: CYBERDAO IS BUILDING A COMMUNITY-OWNED DECENTRALIZED FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE. CYBERDAO REWARDS STAKERS WITH COMPOUNDING INTEREST, INCREASING THEIR CYBER HOLDINGS OVER TIME. CYBER IS MINTED AND EVENLY DISTRIBUTED FOR STAKING REWARDS. MORE CYBER STAKED REDUCES THE APY BUT PUSHES THE CYBER PRICE HIGHER.
Coin Wallet: Coin Wallet is an all-in-one decentralized cryptocurrency wallet, exchange, and AI assistant. Coin Wallet includes a native cryptocurrency wallet and exchange for users to store and swap popular digital assets directly with each other. Unlike many other decentralized exchanges, swaps can occur across different blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC20 tokens, and more.
Synapse: Synapse is a trustless cross-chain AMM & bridge
Bridge assets across chains, swap assets, earn yield & more
Key documents
Explainer
Goal: A Layer 2 solution that inherits its security from Ethereum Layer 1.
What makes it unique?
Proof of donation seems to be jumping off of DeFi best practices. By making a concrete incentive and lack of failure risk, it makes it much much simpler.
Roadmap and usability of project, is it ready for live dApps?
Yes! Personally, I think the combination of their strategic partnerships and development teams makes them a prime candidate for a partnership. A business can only grow with the right people and vision.
PS: If you have made it this far hats off to you dear reader! Happy New year as this is my first post of the year.
If you find it useful or want to show a gesture of appreciation you can buy me a book as books are the best places where I get new from or send me some eth at madhavg.eth.
This post won’t be a bit abstract. I will be talking about scalability and gas fee solutions to the Ethereum blockchain - Layer 2 Rollups as the title suggests.
There is a big trilemma in the blockchain of Decentralization, security, and Scalability which makes it very hard to have only all 3 of these features in a blockchain. We can only have 2 of them and have to drop one every time we build a new blockchain. Decentralization and security are traded for Scalability as in Bitcoin and decentralization is swapped for Scalability and Security in Solana(no offense). Big bets are on sidechains and Layer 2 rollups.
Rollups are one of the most secure solutions to the scalability solution of Ethereum. In rollups, the transaction is processed off-main-chain and the data is posted on the chain after execution which takes away much of a load of the main net and clogs of transactions. Here is some research is done on Layer 2 rollups by my wonderful Fellows at Dream DAO. This might be long and maybe not of interest to you as whole but can be valuable skimming through this
Key documents:
Whitepaper and important documents:
Inside Arbitrum Offchain Labs Dev Center [https://developer.offchainlabs.com/docs/inside_arbitrum]
Introducing Arbitrum [https://ethresear.ch/t/introducing-arbitrum-a-new-layer-2-solution/3825]
Important explainers, blog posts, reports
https://medium.com/monitalks/arbitrum-what-is-it-how-to-use-it-useful-links-9aafd2913694
Bankless On Arbitrum
Arbitrum website [arbitrum.io]
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players, and projects
Explainer:
goals of the project:
Arbitrum is a solution to the scalability and expense problem of Ethereum Blockchain. It is a Layer 2 Optimistic rollup whose mission is to make ethereum more scalable without compromising its trustless secure system. It builds on the security and decentralization of ethereum Mainchain to a better future where micro-transactions and gas fees are not an issue.
Lower gas is one of the biggest goals of every new Blockchain and Layer 2 solution and Arbitrum just does it even better. It can easily reduce the gas fee by 95% and even more on full deployment.
The Scalability just increases exponentially as it has a bigger block size, higher cap gas fee, and as most of the computation is done off-chain leaves a big space for transactions to fill. It has higher throughput than quite a lot of sidechains.
Reducing gas fee opens a big challenge as lower gas fee makes the chain vulnerable to attackers as they could just flood the network with duplicate fraud proofs but Arbitrum has a solution to that. When someone challenges a transaction, the person has to stake eth with that proof. When eth staked is locked by the smart contract which is also the referee, there is a showdown between the rpc node and the challenger. The party proven wrong gets its eth burned.
team - Off-chain Labs
Co-Founders - Arbitrum is developed by people at Off-chain LabsEd Felten - Chief ScientistSteven Goldfeder(CEO) - PhD Princeton UniversityHarry Kalodner(CTO) - PhD Princeton University
Github
[https://ethresear.ch/t/introducing-arbitrum-a-new-layer-2-solution/3825]
what makes this project unique
Arbitrum uses Interactive proving which leads to the settlement of dispute off-chain and leading cheap settlement of conflicts and fraud transactions. The Contract referee doens’t have to look up for hash of each transaction, it just needs to look at the disputed transactions which are unlike a lot of rollups.
Key documents
Whitepaper and important documents
Important explainers, blog posts, reports
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players and projects
Explainer
Goals of project
“Loopring is a software running on Ethereum that aims to incentivize a global network of users to operate a platform that enables the creation of new types of crypto-asset exchanges. It uses multiple cryptocurrencies. Most notably, it allows for high-throughput (faster), cheaper trading and payment on Ethereum by utilizing ZK-Rollup.”
Team
Founded by Daniel Wang, a software engineer based in China who worked at internet companies including Google and JD.com
Employees from all over the world
Loopring miners contribute to the system
Github
What makes this project unique
“Loopring combines the benefits of both centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Its innovative use of zkRollups allows it to achieve higher throughput and lower costs than any other decentralized exchange built on the Ethereum blockchain, while its non-custodial technology presents an improvement to the security of centralized exchanges. The high-level performance capabilities that Loopring offers mean that algorithmic traders are able to use high-frequency trading strategies on DEXs for the first time. Loopring also employs a cryptographic solution that prevents frontrunning (when someone gets their own trades executed before pending transactions in order to profit from the price change that will result from said transactions). The protocol is open-source and audited and doesn’t rely on any external validators, meaning no person, company, or government can come between a user and their cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, users automatically receive a digital receipt for all deposits and withdrawals, meaning funds can always be recovered – even if the decentralized exchange encounters issues.”
Mentions daaps on the whitepaper - “serves as a standardized building block for decentralized applications (dApps)”
Key projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAOs
https://medium.loopring.io/12-projects-that-are-integrating-the-loopring-protocol-5522aec2dfd9
imToken: imToken is a feature-rich digital asset wallet enabling multi-chain asset management, dApp browsing and secure, private exchange of value. imToken is the largest Ethereum wallet, with over 4.5 million users globally.
MyToken: MyToken is a leading one-stop crypto platform that provides cryptocurrency real-time charts, data analysis, ratings, industry news, as well as a wallet.
QBao: Qbao is a multicurrency wallet, token exchange platform, payment settlement solution, social group, and information marketplace. Qbao serves digital currency users globally, providing them with a secure, cross-chain, and easy-to-use digital asset platform.
Tokenest: RootAnt is accelerating the transformation of financial services by empowering global financial institutions to transform into cross-platform, user-friendly financial portals.
etc.
Quick Summary of Loopring (completely open to feedback on specificity and accuracy):
As stated on its website, “Loopring is a zkRollup layer2. It allows for high-throughput, low-cost trading and payment on Ethereum.” Loopring was first created by Daniel Wang, a software engineer based in China. The team has expanded as Loopring has developed. Loopring functions with the help of miners in the system. Zero-knowledge Rollups and non-custodial technology allow security, efficiency, and affordability. The Loopring protocol is also completely open-source, and a number of projects such as QBao have started integrating it. An NFT marketplace launch with GameStop is causing a lot of excitement around Loopring. Still, DAOs do not currently seem to be an integral part of the ecosystem.
KEY DOCUMENTS:
Whitepaper and important documents:https://starkware.co/product/starkex/https://starkware.co/product/starknet/
Bankless’ how to use Starkware and Starknet
Important explainers, blog posts, reports:https://medium.com/starkware/redefining-scalability-5aa11ffc5880https://medium.com/starkware/oracle-price-feed-on-starkex-2b15a3ca122https://docs.starkware.co/starkex-playground-tutorial/
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players and projects:https://messari.io/asset/starkware/profile/roadmap
STARKWARE GOALS:
‘’StarkWare develops STARK-based solutions for the blockchain industry. Our products enable a secure, trustless, and scalable operating for blockchain applications.’’
Quoting Mike Vernal: “Starkware is attacking one of the most important problems in crypto — the computational scalability of the blockchain.”
Develops StarkEx: Validity-Rollup → move computation and state storage off-chain but keep a small amount of certain data on-chain, (https://medium.com/starkware/redefining-scalability-5aa11ffc5880); reduced amount of gas required per-trade | settling a dYdX transaction on Ethereum Mainnet: 200,000 gas; settling a dYdX transaction on StarkEx: <500 gas.
video explaining how StarkEx works :) people can do transactions off-chain using StarkEx. There is a prover to help control security before sending the transaction to the on-chain verifier; “all transactions are validated off-chain, the proof of their integrity is verified on-chain”.
Develops StarkNet: permissionless decentralized ZK Rollup; ‘’It operates as an L2 network over Ethereum, enabling any dApp to achieve unlimited scale for its computation, without compromising Ethereum’s composability and security.’’
STARKWARE TEAM:
Founded in 2018Founders: Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Michael Riabzev, Uri KolodnyTeam: 60Funding: Raised $151M in equity, and a $12M grant from the Ethereum Foundation
GITHUB: https://github.com/Starkware (no activity)
WHAT MAKES THIS PROJECT UNIQUE:
Milestones of StarkNet:
Smart contracts support general computation
Smart contracts can interact with each other, allowing composability
L1<>L2 interoperability
Full L1 security through on-chain data (Rollup)
According to their website, → StarkWare solves the two most pressing problems of permissionless blockchains: scalability and privacy. StarkWare’s cryptographic proofs are zero-knowledge, succinct, transparent and post-quantum secure.
ROADMAP AND USABILITY OF PROJECT, IS IT READ FOR LIVE DAPPS?
According to their discord FAQ → ‘’Are there any STARK systems in production? Yes, several projects (DeversiFi, dYdX, Immutable, Sorare) are using StarkEx and are in production for quite some time.’’
Roadmap + Key projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAOs (note: I’m not sure if this is the answer but I couldn’t find anything else about it).https://messari.io/asset/starkware/profile/roadmap
StarkEx v1.0. Mainnet Launch; StarkEx is StarkWare’s scalability engine. It launched on Ethereum’s mainnet in June 2020. It powered DeversiFi’s decentralized exchange at launch. StarkEx was StarkWare’s first commercial release and the first mainnet deployment of STARKs.
VeeDo. Mainnet Launch; VeeDo is StarkWare’s STARK-based Verifiable Delay Function (VDF) service. It launched on the Ethereum mainnet in June 2020. The first application based on VeeDo was a proof-of-concept for a randomness beacon.
Cairo. Software Release; Cairo is a platform that can generate STARK proofs for general computation on Ethereum. It supports programs and applications written in an assembly-like programming language, which goes by the same name, Cairo.
StarkEx 2.0. Mainnet Launch; StarkEx 2.0 launched in December 2020. The new version features the Cairo proof generation and programming platform that currently powers ImmutableX and dYdX’s layer-2 implementation. It also includes ERC-721 support, faster L1-L2 Connectivity, and improved onboarding for new users.
StarkNet Step I — Planets: Single-App Rollups. Network Change; StarkNet is a STARK-powered Layer-2 ZK-Rollup that supports general computation over Ethereum. It is based on the Turing-complete Cairo language. StarkWare plans to launch StarkNet in three phases. Step I will enable developers to build and deploy their own scalable applications on StarkNet.
StarkNet Step II — Constellations: Multi-App Rollups. Network Change; StarkNet is a STARK-powered Layer-2 ZK-Rollup that supports general computation over Ethereum. It is based on the Turing-complete Cairo language. Step II will support multiple applications running on the same StarkNet instance and accessing the same global Layer-2 state. This solution will enable interoperability between different applications and reduced gas costs due to improved economies of scale.
StarkNet Step III — Universe: Decentralized Rollup. Network Change; StarkNet is a STARK-powered Layer-2 ZK-Rollup that supports general computation over Ethereum. It is based on the Turing-complete Cairo language. Step III involves decentralizing StarkNet’s operation.
Key Documents:
White Paper and Important Documents:
https://docs.boba.network/developer-docs
Important explainers, blog posts, reports: https://news.bitcoin.com/boba-network-introduces-wagmi-options-for-developers-and-builders/, https://www.coinbase.com/price/boba-network, https://coinrivet.com/footprint-after-its-huge-surge-could-boba-network-become-the-top-layer-2-project/, https://learn.bybit.com/altcoins/boba-token/
Ecosystem landscape maps, key ecosystem players and projects: partnership with myETHWallet MEW (MyEtherWa.), (ecosystem) Oracle WitNet, platform Brand Protocol, Enya [backed up], The Graph, OMG Foundation (trading)
According to the site: “A Layer 2 Ethereum scaling and augmenting solution, Boba Network lowers gas fees, enhances the capabilities of smart contracts, and improves transaction throughput. Boba Network’s native token, BOBA, reached an all-time high of $7.93 on Nov. 25, 2021, and recorded its all-time low of $0.99 on Nov. 19, 2021”
Boba aims to “build a pragmatic L2 that is the first step toward opening Ethereum to the next Billion users”
Boba aims to make Ethereum and the cryptocurrency accessible as possible.
Goals of the Project:
What Boba believes:
Cheap transaction costs: Ethereum charges high gas fees that cost an average of $10–$50 per transaction. Boba Network solves this problem by reducing costs to levels much lower than those on the main Ethereum network. The gas price on L2 changes every 30 seconds and is typically around 10 Gwei. (smallest unit on the Ethereum network!)
Fast exit: Compared to conventional Layer 2 solutions, users can transfer their money in and out of the network much faster, generally only a few minutes. Depending on the specific L2 technology and implementation, it can offer from 50x to over 1,000x more throughput than Layer 1. The network offers quick exits backed by liquidity pools that are community-driven, reducing the Optimistic Rollup exit time to a few minutes, as opposed to the usual duration of around seven days. This also gives liquidity providers (LPs) incentivized yield farming opportunities. With yield farming, users can earn interest on their digital assets.
Helps in NFT bridging: Users can mint, move and sell their NFT assets between L1 and L2, or even between different L2 solutions. This has made the development of NFTs, particularly GameFi, easier and more convenient. GameFi combines three massive markets: decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens, and blockchain-based games.
Team:
Boba is made up of 5 members working on the team.It was founded in 2018 by Alan Chiu and is backed up by Enya.aiBoba was founded by Alan Chiu in 2021 to make crypto accessible to everyone.
Alan Chiu - Founder
Alan Chiu is the founder of Boba. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with B.S in Electrical and Computing Engineering. He then attended Stanford for Masters in Science and Management. He has extensive experience in investing, product management, and eventually founded Enya.ai and Boba.
Violet Abtahi - Chief Operating Officer
Violet Abtahi studied in the field of finance and economics with in-depth research in the fields of Sustainability, Blockchain technologies, and Artificial intelligence.
She has over two decades of expertise in investments, blockchain, global finance, economics, and sustainability, an established track record of founding and advising startups, ventures, and large corporations on funding, growth, transformation, impact, and expansion initiatives.
Nicolas Montenegro - Liquidity Provider and DAO’s Governor
Nicolas graduated from Texas A&M University where they studied supply chain management. Entering college, they began expanding my knowledge base into real estate. First, by formed his first LLC, Texas Unlimited, and managed an investment property held under this LLC for two years. At the same time, he was working as an independent contractor, completing work in rentals across the city. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, their focus switched back to cryptocurrencies, and began their work at Boba Network
Max G. Developer Relations Lead:
Max G. attended Georg Simon Ohm Schule Join in Germany. After graduating with a Computer Science degree, he worked at various companies in Singapore, and Bangkok, Thailand in IT, Product Management, and as a Developer before working at Boba Network.
Dean Thomas - Strategic Advisor:
Dean went to college at Darthmouth College where they graduated summa cum laude. They are Chief Investment Officer at Stealth Capital & Rainmaker Games, Managing Partner at Lone Palm Advisors, and Strategic Advisor at Boba Network.
**GitHub:**Boba’s GitHub is backed up by OMG Network - a Layer-2 scaling solution, built on plasma + optimistic rollups. The value transfer layer for Ethereum.
What makes this project unique?:
Ethereum Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup
Extensible Smart Contract
Ease of transferable of cryptos from Boba to Ethereum
Network has decreased the withdrawal period to few minutes —> this means that you don’t have to wait for 7 days for withdrawl like the conventional system
NFT bridge will allow the NFT’s to launch on the network easily and effectively!
Boba.Network is backed up by Enya.ai [According to the website: Founded by Stanford faculty and alumni, Enya pioneered decentralized privacy and became the largest provider of secure multiparty computation services, serving more than 10 million users across 91 countries. Enya creates decentralized infrastructure solutions that serve the next billion users, leading with Boba Network.] a leading developer of decentralized infrastructure solutions.
Provides best of both worlds, Security and Decentralization deeply rooted in Ethereum!
Top quality NFT projects are all on Ethereum, but the gas makes it accessible only for the rich.
Roadmap + Usability: Is it ready for live DApps?:
The roadmap is unfortunately not available for the public to see.
Boba has already had smart contracts enabled for them to connect with developers across the Etherum ecosystem to build D’Apps that invokes code on web infrastructure such as AWS Lambda - making it possible for this to happen in a huge expensive algorithm as well!
Key Projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAO’s:
Here’s are some examples:
Cyber DAO: CYBERDAO IS BUILDING A COMMUNITY-OWNED DECENTRALIZED FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE. CYBERDAO REWARDS STAKERS WITH COMPOUNDING INTEREST, INCREASING THEIR CYBER HOLDINGS OVER TIME. CYBER IS MINTED AND EVENLY DISTRIBUTED FOR STAKING REWARDS. MORE CYBER STAKED REDUCES THE APY BUT PUSHES THE CYBER PRICE HIGHER.
Coin Wallet: Coin Wallet is an all-in-one decentralized cryptocurrency wallet, exchange, and AI assistant. Coin Wallet includes a native cryptocurrency wallet and exchange for users to store and swap popular digital assets directly with each other. Unlike many other decentralized exchanges, swaps can occur across different blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC20 tokens, and more.
Synapse: Synapse is a trustless cross-chain AMM & bridge
Bridge assets across chains, swap assets, earn yield & more
Key documents
Explainer
Goal: A Layer 2 solution that inherits its security from Ethereum Layer 1.
What makes it unique?
Proof of donation seems to be jumping off of DeFi best practices. By making a concrete incentive and lack of failure risk, it makes it much much simpler.
Roadmap and usability of project, is it ready for live dApps?
Yes! Personally, I think the combination of their strategic partnerships and development teams makes them a prime candidate for a partnership. A business can only grow with the right people and vision.
PS: If you have made it this far hats off to you dear reader! Happy New year as this is my first post of the year.
If you find it useful or want to show a gesture of appreciation you can buy me a book as books are the best places where I get new from or send me some eth at madhavg.eth.
The contract Sizes have no limit and can be bigger than L1 or Ethereum Mainnet Contracts leading to more flexibility for the deployment of new features.
Arbitrum just doesn’t only lead to high throughput and increase the no. of transactions handled by Ethereum many folds it also Decreases the Gas fee significantly
L1 and L2 smart contracts can interact seamlessly and L1 smart contracts can submit L2 transactions in operations which just increases the compatibility of Arbitrum even more.
The availability of all the coolest protocols and Dapps which one can use as it was the main net for a reduced fee.
roadmap and usability of project, is it ready for live Dapps?
Arbitrum is the most compatible rollup and universal compatibility is one of the biggest powers of Arbitrum. The Dev doesn’t need to even download any additional software for deployment or make changes to code to deploy on the L2. It is compatible with most of the L1 contracts and Dapps.
It had many test runs till October is now live for Developers so that they could set up the Theme park Rides for users and it’s in beta for Users. You can convert some L1 eth to L2 eth here.
Arbitrum is in the beta stage and hopes to become fully decentralized in a staged manner so that the rollup could be tested and set up before opening to its full potential. Bug bounties are being given to bug bounty hunters and testing is done rigorously.
Key projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAOs
Uniswap - It is the biggest decentralized protocol for exchanging or as the name suggests swapping crypto.It makes automated transactions between cryptocurrency tokens on the Ethereum blockchain through the use of smart contracts. Sushieswap is also on the rollup.
Balancer - Balancer is a community-driven protocol, automated portfolio manager, liquidity provider, and price sensor that empowers decentralized exchange and the automated portfolio management of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and other EVM compatible systems. (just borrowed it from the website)
Beefy Finance - It’s a multi-chain Yield optimizer that helps the staker earn the highest APYs. It’s decentralized and says on the website that they keep safety in my mind I think it’s kinda like an automated Hedge fund run by Smart Contracts. here
Direct conversion of fiat money to L2 eth which is being supported by a lot of Exchanges. This small step can reduce the friction between users getting to Arbitrum exponentially.–TEMPLATE END–
roadmap and usability of project, is it ready for live Dapps?
Uses DApps (e.g. Uniswap, SushiSwap, DODO, Balancer, Aave, PoolTogether, DeBank, Compound)
NFT Marketplace launch w/ Gamestop
Secured by Ethereum: As an Optimistic Rollup Layer 2 protocol, Boba Network works with Ethereum’s security.
Offers scalability for smart contracts: This helps Boba developers on Ethereum build DApps using algorithms without spending a lot of money. Boba allows developers to feed executed code into algorithms on web-extensive infrastructure.
Boba Bridge helps transfer assets from Ethereum to Boba, as well as between other Layer 2 blockchains.
The contract Sizes have no limit and can be bigger than L1 or Ethereum Mainnet Contracts leading to more flexibility for the deployment of new features.
Arbitrum just doesn’t only lead to high throughput and increase the no. of transactions handled by Ethereum many folds it also Decreases the Gas fee significantly
L1 and L2 smart contracts can interact seamlessly and L1 smart contracts can submit L2 transactions in operations which just increases the compatibility of Arbitrum even more.
The availability of all the coolest protocols and Dapps which one can use as it was the main net for a reduced fee.
roadmap and usability of project, is it ready for live Dapps?
Arbitrum is the most compatible rollup and universal compatibility is one of the biggest powers of Arbitrum. The Dev doesn’t need to even download any additional software for deployment or make changes to code to deploy on the L2. It is compatible with most of the L1 contracts and Dapps.
It had many test runs till October is now live for Developers so that they could set up the Theme park Rides for users and it’s in beta for Users. You can convert some L1 eth to L2 eth here.
Arbitrum is in the beta stage and hopes to become fully decentralized in a staged manner so that the rollup could be tested and set up before opening to its full potential. Bug bounties are being given to bug bounty hunters and testing is done rigorously.
Key projects and live DApps on it with a focus on DAOs
Uniswap - It is the biggest decentralized protocol for exchanging or as the name suggests swapping crypto.It makes automated transactions between cryptocurrency tokens on the Ethereum blockchain through the use of smart contracts. Sushieswap is also on the rollup.
Balancer - Balancer is a community-driven protocol, automated portfolio manager, liquidity provider, and price sensor that empowers decentralized exchange and the automated portfolio management of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and other EVM compatible systems. (just borrowed it from the website)
Beefy Finance - It’s a multi-chain Yield optimizer that helps the staker earn the highest APYs. It’s decentralized and says on the website that they keep safety in my mind I think it’s kinda like an automated Hedge fund run by Smart Contracts. here
Direct conversion of fiat money to L2 eth which is being supported by a lot of Exchanges. This small step can reduce the friction between users getting to Arbitrum exponentially.–TEMPLATE END–
roadmap and usability of project, is it ready for live Dapps?
Uses DApps (e.g. Uniswap, SushiSwap, DODO, Balancer, Aave, PoolTogether, DeBank, Compound)
NFT Marketplace launch w/ Gamestop
Secured by Ethereum: As an Optimistic Rollup Layer 2 protocol, Boba Network works with Ethereum’s security.
Offers scalability for smart contracts: This helps Boba developers on Ethereum build DApps using algorithms without spending a lot of money. Boba allows developers to feed executed code into algorithms on web-extensive infrastructure.
Boba Bridge helps transfer assets from Ethereum to Boba, as well as between other Layer 2 blockchains.
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