It’s 2024, and I’m still super enthusiastic about our mission to secure and analyse connections between the world and blockchains. Let's dive in and share our journey and how things have evolved.

Understanding the purpose of Web3 and blockchains can be tricky. Essentially, it all boils down to trust. If I upload a controversial opinion to YouTube, can I trust them to keep it available for my audience? If I transfer money to family in Iran or China, will it get blocked due to geopolitical circumstances? These are the kinds of questions that blockchains aim to solve through cryptographic guarantees.

So, to earn your trust, I believe it’s essential to be transparent about our journey in Web3.

For a bit of context: I’m the founder of Usher Labs. So, when I say 'we' or 'our,' I’m speaking on behalf of my team.

Usher Labs is an R&D firm dedicated to enhancing user trust in data and digital asset management.

In our ongoing research and development odyssey, we remain steadfast in our mission to minimise reliance on centralised systems by validating and analysing off-chain data for our esteemed clientele. Some of our trusted customers and partners include Truflation, Kwil, and PowerPod, showcasing the diverse range of sectors benefitting from our commitment.

Usher Labs started as a marketing solution called Usher. Launched in May 2022, we set out to connect new users to emerging NFT and DeFi projects through referral marketing services. The idea was to create a trustless product that would best fit the nature of decentralised products.

Along the way, we realised there was a significant trust and security gap in blockchain applications that depended on custom or private data. There was no reliable way to securely trace and verify events and metrics occurring in the “real world” to an authentication process taking place on-chain. By "real world," I mean traditional systems and software beyond the blockchain and other Web3 services, such as Oracles.

Our specific issue was the need to correlate two events tracked on two separate websites: a referral event and a conversion event, all while ensuring no transactions and a gasless user experience. This issue was further complicated by the requirement for an audit log of activity that relevant stakeholders could review, dispute, and sign off on.

By May 2023, Usher Labs transitioned to focus on infrastructure to address this problem. The Log Store was our solution. Think of it as IPFS for real-time data, where:

1. Identifiers are persistent,

2. Datasets are rapidly growing,

3. Each independent message/metric can be traced to its publisher,

4. Each message is timestamped to ensure chronological ordering.

With this decentralised message store, various parties can capture, verify, and trace real-time activity and telemetry occurring in various software applications and technologies. Its general-purpose nature not only supports Web3 marketing solutions, like our previous venture, but also DePINs and Oracles seeking to enhance transparency in data lineage and security in data quality.

Currently, Usher Labs is working in direct partnerships with various companies within the RWA and DePIN sectors to secure how their off-chain/real-world data is verified on blockchains.

• July 2022: After participating in The Open Web Foundry, our founder, Ryan Soury, was featured on Arweave’s Permaweb Pioneers podcast to discuss Usher and the emerging Web3 space.

• January 2023: Usher Labs’ flagship project, The Log Store Network, was featured in Streamr’s tech roadmap for 2023.

• June 2023: Usher Labs released the AlphaNet of The Log Store Network, becoming one of the first projects to build on KYVE. This provided decentralised immutable storage for data transmitted over Streamr, secured by KYVE and stored on Arweave. Overview

• August 2023: Ryan Soury presented at Arweave Day in Warsaw, discussing our participation in the ecosystem.

• October 2023: Ryan Soury was featured on his second Permaweb Pioneers podcast to discuss handling custom event data.

• December 2023: Usher Labs began experiments alongside the Stellar ecosystem to design verifiable transparency in operations conducted by Stellar Anchors.

• February 2024: We collaborated with Mintbase to revolutionise external data authentication in Smart Contracts on the Near blockchain and beyond through a ZK Attestation Framework.

• May 2024: Partnered with Kwil and Truflation to support contribution to the Truflation Stream Network (TSN)

• April 2024: Partnered with OpSec to boost DePIN development. This partnership leverages Usher Labs' expertise in real-time data management, ideal for IoT and DePIN data, to enhance OpSec.

• June 2024:

  • Published the first research article titled "Secure Web3 with Trusted Data" by Ryan.

1. The Log Store has been upgraded to support the new Streamr 1.0 network.

2. The Log Store is now an extension for Kwil Networks, allowing decentralised SQL analysis of real-time data, whether for observability or IoT metrics.

3. Powerpod, a super innovative DePIN, is the first to use this extension, decentralising trust in their data management.

Our work with Mintbase on zkProofs of real-world data processing is making significant strides.

We've designed a protocol for end-to-end verified and ZK data feeds that will serve the Near blockchain and be compatible with EVMs. The first implementation involves creating truly 1:1 NFTs of X Posts, where value is proportional to engagement.

Additionally, we are integrating the Internet Computer as a co-processor. Our technology will enable proofs about various off-chain activities. You can then verifiably process this data via ZK (for privacy) or IC (for speed) to authenticate external data on a blockchain based on specific conditions, effectively creating data protocols. Truly end-to-end verifiable data pipelines are incoming. Trust less, verify more.

Our affiliation with the ICP stems from CCAMP: Cross-Chain Asset Management Protocol, our proof-of-concept technology designed to leverage ICP. We're working with DFINITY to framework CCAMP and enable the IC as a decentralised co-processor, simplifying how developers can build multi-chain blockchain applications and protocols.

We are beginning to prioritise analysing trust in external data provided to blockchains, as well as securing it.

Adding data security and trust management is cool, but measuring its effectiveness is cooler. This includes enabling infrastructure projects to analyse trust before committing to adopting security measures.

All these updates will be elaborated on over time in posts and reports on our Blog, Mirror, and Twitter. We also want to increase our content creation rate, so if you’re a technical writer, feel free to reach out.

Discussions with DePIN businesses have underscored the importance of enabling transparency. Usher Labs is poised to deliver a suite of products that can be used individually or collectively to decentralise, minimise, and analyse trust in various decentralised and centralised systems.

To continue following our journey, visit Usher Labs’ website and connect with us on Twitter and Discord.

It’s 2024, and I’m still super enthusiastic about our mission to secure and analyse connections between the world and blockchains. Let's dive in and share our journey and how things have evolved.

Understanding the purpose of Web3 and blockchains can be tricky. Essentially, it all boils down to trust. If I upload a controversial opinion to YouTube, can I trust them to keep it available for my audience? If I transfer money to family in Iran or China, will it get blocked due to geopolitical circumstances? These are the kinds of questions that blockchains aim to solve through cryptographic guarantees.

So, to earn your trust, I believe it’s essential to be transparent about our journey in Web3.

For a bit of context: I’m the founder of Usher Labs. So, when I say 'we' or 'our,' I’m speaking on behalf of my team.

Usher Labs is an R&D firm dedicated to enhancing user trust in data and digital asset management.

In our ongoing research and development odyssey, we remain steadfast in our mission to minimise reliance on centralised systems by validating and analysing off-chain data for our esteemed clientele. Some of our trusted customers and partners include Truflation, Kwil, and PowerPod, showcasing the diverse range of sectors benefitting from our commitment.

Usher Labs started as a marketing solution called Usher. Launched in May 2022, we set out to connect new users to emerging NFT and DeFi projects through referral marketing services. The idea was to create a trustless product that would best fit the nature of decentralised products.

Along the way, we realised there was a significant trust and security gap in blockchain applications that depended on custom or private data. There was no reliable way to securely trace and verify events and metrics occurring in the “real world” to an authentication process taking place on-chain. By "real world," I mean traditional systems and software beyond the blockchain and other Web3 services, such as Oracles.

Our specific issue was the need to correlate two events tracked on two separate websites: a referral event and a conversion event, all while ensuring no transactions and a gasless user experience. This issue was further complicated by the requirement for an audit log of activity that relevant stakeholders could review, dispute, and sign off on.

By May 2023, Usher Labs transitioned to focus on infrastructure to address this problem. The Log Store was our solution. Think of it as IPFS for real-time data, where:

1. Identifiers are persistent,

2. Datasets are rapidly growing,

3. Each independent message/metric can be traced to its publisher,

4. Each message is timestamped to ensure chronological ordering.

With this decentralised message store, various parties can capture, verify, and trace real-time activity and telemetry occurring in various software applications and technologies. Its general-purpose nature not only supports Web3 marketing solutions, like our previous venture, but also DePINs and Oracles seeking to enhance transparency in data lineage and security in data quality.

Currently, Usher Labs is working in direct partnerships with various companies within the RWA and DePIN sectors to secure how their off-chain/real-world data is verified on blockchains.

• July 2022: After participating in The Open Web Foundry, our founder, Ryan Soury, was featured on Arweave’s Permaweb Pioneers podcast to discuss Usher and the emerging Web3 space.

• January 2023: Usher Labs’ flagship project, The Log Store Network, was featured in Streamr’s tech roadmap for 2023.

• June 2023: Usher Labs released the AlphaNet of The Log Store Network, becoming one of the first projects to build on KYVE. This provided decentralised immutable storage for data transmitted over Streamr, secured by KYVE and stored on Arweave. Overview

• August 2023: Ryan Soury presented at Arweave Day in Warsaw, discussing our participation in the ecosystem.

• October 2023: Ryan Soury was featured on his second Permaweb Pioneers podcast to discuss handling custom event data.

• December 2023: Usher Labs began experiments alongside the Stellar ecosystem to design verifiable transparency in operations conducted by Stellar Anchors.

• February 2024: We collaborated with Mintbase to revolutionise external data authentication in Smart Contracts on the Near blockchain and beyond through a ZK Attestation Framework.

• May 2024: Partnered with Kwil and Truflation to support contribution to the Truflation Stream Network (TSN)

• April 2024: Partnered with OpSec to boost DePIN development. This partnership leverages Usher Labs' expertise in real-time data management, ideal for IoT and DePIN data, to enhance OpSec.

• June 2024:

  • Published the first research article titled "Secure Web3 with Trusted Data" by Ryan.

1. The Log Store has been upgraded to support the new Streamr 1.0 network.

2. The Log Store is now an extension for Kwil Networks, allowing decentralised SQL analysis of real-time data, whether for observability or IoT metrics.

3. Powerpod, a super innovative DePIN, is the first to use this extension, decentralising trust in their data management.

Our work with Mintbase on zkProofs of real-world data processing is making significant strides.

We've designed a protocol for end-to-end verified and ZK data feeds that will serve the Near blockchain and be compatible with EVMs. The first implementation involves creating truly 1:1 NFTs of X Posts, where value is proportional to engagement.

Additionally, we are integrating the Internet Computer as a co-processor. Our technology will enable proofs about various off-chain activities. You can then verifiably process this data via ZK (for privacy) or IC (for speed) to authenticate external data on a blockchain based on specific conditions, effectively creating data protocols. Truly end-to-end verifiable data pipelines are incoming. Trust less, verify more.

Our affiliation with the ICP stems from CCAMP: Cross-Chain Asset Management Protocol, our proof-of-concept technology designed to leverage ICP. We're working with DFINITY to framework CCAMP and enable the IC as a decentralised co-processor, simplifying how developers can build multi-chain blockchain applications and protocols.

We are beginning to prioritise analysing trust in external data provided to blockchains, as well as securing it.

Adding data security and trust management is cool, but measuring its effectiveness is cooler. This includes enabling infrastructure projects to analyse trust before committing to adopting security measures.

All these updates will be elaborated on over time in posts and reports on our Blog, Mirror, and Twitter. We also want to increase our content creation rate, so if you’re a technical writer, feel free to reach out.

Discussions with DePIN businesses have underscored the importance of enabling transparency. Usher Labs is poised to deliver a suite of products that can be used individually or collectively to decentralise, minimise, and analyse trust in various decentralised and centralised systems.

To continue following our journey, visit Usher Labs’ website and connect with us on Twitter and Discord.