layer2 - Pwim.Net

Ethereum Layer-2 Protocol Boba Network Values at $1.5B following $45m Funding

Boba Network, an Ethereum-based Layer-2 protocol Optimistic Rollup scaling solution, has successfully completed its Series A funding round in which it pulled as much as $45 million from investors covering every aspect of the Web3.0 world.

The Series A funding brings the platform’s valuation to $1.5 billion and the capital is projected to be used in addressing Ethereum’s computational limitations and foster greater functionality for decentralized applications (dApps) through Boba’s Hybrid Compute platform.

“This fundraising is about building a broad-based alliance to build the Boba ecosystem. Having so many amazing investors demonstrate their confidence in our vision and technology reinforces our belief that what we’re building is important and necessary. Hybrid Compute will scale Web3 development, enabling builders to deliver innovative products with greater functionality,” said Alan Chiu, Boba Network Founder.

Participants in the funding round include DeFi Technologies Inc, Hypersphere Infinite Capital, Hack VC, GBV, Sanctor Capital, Shima Capital, Kinetic Capital, Ghaf Capital, LD Capital, Old Fashion Research, Alphanonce, IOST, and ROK Capital. Other notable investors include the Dreamers VC (Will Smith and Keisuke Honda), M13 (Paris Hilton and Carter Reum), Tony Robbins, Joe Montana, and KSHMR amongst others.

While Boba Network’s solutions are somewhat complicated to the layman, they have established a niche of excellence amongst Layer-2 protocols resident on the Ethereum blockchain. With transactions notably faster than what Ethereum offers and fees up to 60x lesser, Boba Network has continued to stay relevant in the ecosystem.

Boba Network’s funding is just one of the major backing a Layer-2 protocol will be receiving from investors in recent times as many pundits consider the solutions these protocols bring as the key ingredient in ushering in the next 1 billion users into the crypto ecosystem. Other prominent startups have received funding as documented by Blockchain.News in recent times includes StarkWare and Aptos among others.

SuperLayer Raises $25M With Backing from Polygon

SuperLayer, a blockchain venture studio, has secured $25 million in funding with backing from its strategic partner, Polygon Network – a Layer-2 scaling solution.

With its knack for selecting projects with innovative solutions that can help improve the usability of the blockchain ecosystem in general, SuperLayer says it is more interested in protocols looking to build on the Polygon Network.

While revealing no other backer, SuperLayer said it will be deploying the funding towards the expansion and strengthening of SuperLayer’s ecosystem of projects. Additionally, it plans on partnering with founding teams on development, design, and the fundraising required to scale projects that meet the needs of consumers around the world.

“Given SuperLayer’s focus on speed and quality, Polygon is a natural partner with industry-leading protocols designed to fix blockchain scalability issues that have slowed innovation,” said Kevin Chou, Managing Partner of SuperLayer.

“Polygon’s technology removes critical costs and congestion barriers to mass-scale consumer adoption, and its thriving ecosystem offers an ideal environment for growth and collaboration, opening the door for transaction-intensive crypto projects like SocialFi, GameFi, NFTs, and DeFi to reach their full potential. Our team at SuperLayer is excited to support ambitious projects to build on Polygon.”

Users in the digital currency ecosystem are now more concerned about usability in the Web3.0 world. Besides users, investors’ focus is clearly centred on innovations with a defined use case, a push that is likely fueling projects that may be emanating from Polygon.

Polygon makes using Ethereum very easy and scalable, and any outfit that may align with this mission may catch the attention of SuperLayer.

While Ethereum 2.0 is fast approaching, the Ethereum Foundation has come out to say the new protocol may not reduce gas fees and speed as is currently expected. This solidifies the need for Layer-2 protocols like Polygon and a viable case to believe SuperLayer will have enough startups to inject its received funds into.

Starkware to Open Source Proprietary Prover

The scaling solution for Ethereum’s layer 2 To far, StarkWare has processed 327 million transactions and coined 95 million nonfungible tokens (NFTs). StarkWare has announced intentions to open source their proprietary Starknet Prover under the Apache 2.0 licence. This will take place in the near future.

The prover is an essential piece of software that Starkware employs in order to wrap up hundreds of thousands of transactions and condense them into a brief cryptographic proof that is then recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.

“Here at Stark Industries, we consider the Prover to be the technological equivalent of a magic wand. “It does a fantastic job of generating the proofs that enable inconceivable scalability,” said Eli Ben-Sasson, president and co-founder of Starkware. “It allows unprecedented growth.”

Starkware has come under fire from the cryptocurrency community as well as solutions that compete with it, such as ZK Sync and Polygon, for the fact that it retains ownership of the intellectual property (IP) that underpins its technology. This runs counter to the open source and interoperable ethics that underpin blockchain technology.

By making the prover open source and releasing it under the Apache 2.0 licence, any other project or network, as well as producers of games or databases, will be allowed to utilise the technology, modify the code, and personalise it as they see fit. The technology didn’t become widely available until 2020, but ImmutableX, Sorare, and dYdX are already making use of it.

Avihu Levy, head of product at Starkware, was hesitant to commit to a time period for open-sourcing the prover but said that it will take place after the introduction of the token and the decentralisation of Starknet itself. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that it would be doable throughout this year.

Levy said that the choice to open source the prover demonstrated that Starkware was becoming more confidence in its technology. He also stated that it would allow projects to become more confident about using it as an essential component of their protocols.

“Within StarkEx, this is something that is sometimes referred to as vendor lock-up or lock-in. Therefore, the commitment to StarkEx was not merely a commercial commitment; rather, it was a commitment to the company’s technological development,” he stated.

“This is a clear indication that you will have everything at your disposal to operate it without relying on Starkware,” the speaker said.

Starkware’s programming language and EVM rival, Cairo 1.0, as well as Papyrus Full node, have both been open-sourced, and the company is now in the process of open-sourcing their newest sequencer.

The Starkware Sessions conference was kicked off on Sunday in Tel Aviv by Ben-Sasson. According to the event’s organisers, it is the biggest layer 2 conference that has been hosted up to this point.

Around 500 visitors and engineers were in attendance when he made the statement. “This is a watershed moment for scaling Ethereum,” he said. It will establish Stark technology as a public asset that can be put to use for the common welfare of all people, which is the proper position for it.

Total value locked in Ethereum-based Decentralized exchange

The Uniswap community cast their votes in support of implementing Uniswap v3 on Boba Network’s layer-2 protocol on Ethereum, and the majority of those votes were positive.

The proposal to implement Uniswap v3 on Boba Network that was put up by Boba Foundation and FranklinDAO was successful since it received more than 51 million votes. As a result of this, the Boba Network will become the sixth chain to instal Uniswap v3, with the deployment itself being slated to begin within the next few weeks. This action received support from a number of organisations, including GFX Labs, Blockchain at Michigan, Gauntlet, and ConsenSys.

According to Alan Chiu, co-founder and CEO of Enya Labs, which is a core contributor to Boba Network, this move will enable developers within the ecosystem to create a new generation of on- and off-chain decentralised finance (DeFi) applications on top of Uniswap. Chiu stated this information in an interview with Boba Network. Chiu provided an explanation, saying, “While the Uniswap protocol will remain permissionless, developers will be able to create a compliance layer over it that utilises Hybrid Compute to access current TradFi-friendly KYC/AML services.”

Chiu pointed out that as a direct consequence of this, the decentralised exchange will become more accessible to the whole institutional market. Additionally, the team at Boba Network believes that this presents an opportunity for Uniswap to expand into the key Asian markets. This is due to the fact that Boba Network has gained a lot of traction in South Korea and is slowly expanding to Japan. Uniswap is currently in the process of expanding into Japan.

In related news, a research from DappRadar uncovered the fact that DeFi is off to a strong start in 2023. According to information obtained from the statistics site, DeFi protocols had a considerable increase in their total value frozen in the month of January.

Coinbase Announces Launch of Ethereum Layer-2 Network

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made the announcement about the launch of Base, an Ethereum layer-2 network, on February 23. The business has said that the newly launched network would provide a low-cost, secure, and user-friendly environment for the development of decentralized applications (DApps) on the blockchain.

According to Coinbase, Base was developed with the intention of serving as a gateway for people into the cryptocurrency economy. It does this by providing users with access to other L1 ecosystems, such as Solana, and by ensuring that it is compatible with other chains. Additionally, it will provide consumers access to Coinbase’s products, users, and tools, in addition to providing simple on-ramps for fiat currency and strong acquisition tools. The corporation has indicated that it does not intend to provide a fresh network token at this time.

Optimism’s “OP Stack” will be the foundation upon which Base will be constructed. It will begin with a significant degree of centralization; however, Coinbase has disclosed a comprehensive blueprint outlining how the network will gradually become decentralized over time.

In the statement that Coinbase made, the company said that Base will be “completely open source and readily accessible.” The business announced that it would be joining the core development team for OP Stack in order to “ensure that it is a public benefit that is open to everyone.”

The release states that Coinbase will continue to connect itself as an exchange with other networks, and that Base itself will function as “a bridge, not an island.” Coinbase wants Base to be a network that is simple for its consumers to use so that they can get used to using cryptocurrency. However, the company will urge users to “start on Base, but travel elsewhere.”

Coinbase stated in its decentralization plan that it is collaborating with Op Labs and the Optimism Collective to decentralize the Optimism ecosystem. This will be accomplished by building a “Superchain” of connecting networks based on the OP Stack. Coinbase’s plan calls for the creation of this “Superchain.” Citing Vitalik Buterin’s paper on the decentralization of rollups, the business has come to the conclusion that the present version of Optimism is what is known as a “Stage 0 rollup.” Coinbase has said that it intends to have developed Base to “Stage 1” by the end of the year 2023.

Coinbase Layer 2 Network

The Ethereum community appears to have a bullish view of Coinbase’s newly announced layer-2 network, Base, which has been described as a “massive confidence vote” and a “watershed moment” for the blockchain network. This has been described as a “massive confidence vote” and a “watershed moment” for the blockchain network.

Protected by Ethereum and driven by Optimism’s layer-2 network, Base’s long-term objective is to evolve into a network that facilitates the development of decentralized applications (DApps) for use on blockchains. According to the chief executive officer of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, the layer-2 network is now in the testnet phase.

Members of the cryptocurrency community such as Ryan Sean Adams, host of the Bankless Show, are of the opinion that the move “is a massive vote of confidence for Ethereum.” If this is proven to be the case, it could set a precedent for cryptocurrency companies and financial institutions to use Ethereum as their preferred settlement layer.

Since its founding in 2012, Coinbase has amassed roughly 110 million verified users and has worked with 245,000 businesses across more than 100 countries. According to CoinGecko, its cryptocurrency exchange is the second biggest in the world in terms of trading volume. The first place goes to Binance.

“This alone will 10x the overall number of crypto native users,” Adams said, adding that “if Coinbase converts 20% of its 110 million verified users to Layer 2 users in the future years,” this alone will 10x the entire number of verified users.

Adam also praised Coinbase for its decision to open-source Base, and he is of the opinion that the newly introduced layer-2 network would result in an increased demand for block space on Ethereum.

In the meantime, Sebastien Guillemot, co-founder of blockchain infrastructure company dcSpark, suggested that Coinbase made a wise decision to go with a layer 2 as opposed to an independent sidechain, noting that “almost all” cryptocurrency transactions and value locked on Ethereum resides on layer 2s these days. Guillemot was referring to the fact that “almost all” cryptocurrency transactions and value locked on Ethereum resides on layer 2s.

In a tweet dated February 23, Ryan Watkins, co-founder of the cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund Syncracy Capital, referred to the announcement as a “watershed moment” in the ecosystem of Ethereum rollups. He went on to say that there was “probably no one better” positioned than Coinbase to get Ethereum’s next 10 million consumers and institutions on board.

However, there were some bears among the bulls.

Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel of investment firm Delphi Labs, explained in a Twitter post dated February 23 that launching a centralized layer-2 network “opens the door” to unwarranted scrutiny from the SEC. He was referring to the fact that the SEC has the authority to investigate investment firms.

“A centralized L2 that trades lots of tokens any number of which could be alleged securities, or does lots of DeFi transactions that arguably might alleged to be regulated (security swaps etc), opens the door to the SEC making new kinds of secondary market claims,” wrote Shapiro, adding that “imo, this will accelerate the SEC’s “secondary market” agenda re: blockchain securities issues, because they can’t let an SEC registrant “get away with” potential violations and

Concerns raised by Shapiro come at a time when the SEC has lately ramped up its enforcement operations against a number of stablecoin issuers and service providers of staking services.

Coinbase's Base 2024 Mission: Pioneering a Global Onchain Economy

In 2024, Base, the Layer 2 blockchain developed by Coinbase, embarks on an ambitious journey to revolutionize the digital economy. With a year of building and learning from both internal Coinbase teams and external collaborators, Base is poised to reshape the onchain landscape.

Expanding Base’s Mission

Initially envisioned as a developer-centric platform, Base has evolved into a holistic ecosystem comprising three key elements: a developer platform, an app ecosystem, and a capital market. This trifecta aims to facilitate a global onchain economy, fostering innovation, creativity, and freedom. The mission transcends technical foundations, aspiring to build a new internet and economy. Strategic Pillars for 2024

Base’s strategy revolves around four core pillars:

Decentralization and Scalability: Focusing on fast, affordable transactions in a secure, decentralized Layer 2 environment.

Empowering Developers: Aiming to support over 1 million builders to create transformative onchain products.

Nurturing an App Ecosystem: Attracting over 1 billion people to a diverse range of applications that drive creativity and innovation.

Developing a Robust Capital Market: Establishing Base as a key player in the onchain economy and facilitating seamless integration with other Ethereum Layer 2s and Layer 1s.

Key Initiatives for 2024

Several initiatives will drive Base’s 2024 strategy: Advancing Decentralization and Network Availability: Collaborating with Optimism for fault proofs, enhancing sequencer redundancy, and supporting the Optimism Security Council.

Reducing Fees: Aiming to lower fees to less than $0.01 by working on Ethereum Layer 1 innovations (e.g., EIP4844) and Layer 2 optimizations.

Promoting Smart Wallets: Expanding ERC4337 adoption and exploring wallet migration solutions to make onchain apps more accessible.

Simplifying On and Offramps: Focusing on user-friendly fiat-to-crypto transitions and integrating local currency stablecoins.

Integrating Coinbase: Utilizing Coinbase’s resources to further Base’s onchain presence and launching multiple onchain products.

Improving the Superchain: Enhancing interoperability and governance across the Layer 2 ecosystem.

Supporting Builders and Creators: Continuously improving grants programs, developing tools for gasless experiences, and fostering a community of onchain developers and creators. Conclusion

As Base enters 2024, its goals are clear: decentralize, scale, and innovate to build a global onchain economy that stands as a testament to innovation and freedom. With these initiatives and a community-driven approach, Base is set to redefine the boundaries of blockchain technology and its applications.

COTI Unveils ETH L2 Developer Network and Growth Fund Use Cases

COTI Foundation has taken a significant leap forward in its commitment to enhancing privacy and scalability in the blockchain space by announcing an upcoming ETH Layer 2 (L2) Developer Network. This initiative is aimed at harnessing its nearly $100 million development fund, to be disbursed in COTI tokens, to drive innovation and growth within the COTI ecosystem.

The blockchain industry, heralded for creating borderless finance and trustless interactions, has often grappled with the challenge of privacy. The transparency inherent in Web3 has been a double-edged sword—beneficial for democratizing organizations but proving to be a stumbling block for numerous other applications due to privacy concerns.

COTI V2 is poised to address these issues with Garbled Circuits, a pioneering privacy solution that is both 1000 times faster and 250 times lighter than existing technologies, allowing for operation on any device. This breakthrough offers a significant edge over ZK-based solutions, which are typically limited to two-party transactions, by enabling secure multi-party transactions that are crucial for both Web3 and traditional Web2 industries.

The COTI Foundation aims to supercharge the growth of its ecosystem, starting with the Developer Network (Devnet) slated for launch in early Q2 of this year. The COTI V2 Devnet, coupled with an upcoming grant program, will empower developers to build and improve upon the technology, rewarding their contributions to the ecosystem. Developers will find familiarity in using Solidity for smart contracts, which will allow them to integrate privacy into existing applications or innovate entirely new use cases.

Key target use cases for the COTI V2 platform include:

Confidential DeFi: Addressing the privacy compromise in DeFi, COTI V2 will enable novel primitives like private AMMs, dark pools, and under-collateralized lending, which hinge on user privacy and transaction content confidentiality. Additionally, COTI V2’s technology is set to tackle the persistent issue of Miner Extractable Value (MEV) exploits in Ethereum DeFi, by encrypting transactions and thwarting frontrunning bots.

Confidential Transactions: In the realm of payments, stablecoins, and real-world assets (RWA), COTI V2 offers a solution that upholds confidentiality akin to traditional finance systems. This will enable the mainstream adoption of Web3 by ensuring secure transactions that comply with regulatory standards.

Confidential Machine Learning (GCML): The platform’s encrypted on-chain data storage and confidential query capabilities are a game-changer for sensitive data management, such as medical records. It also introduces GCML for large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, facilitating service enhancement without compromising privacy or intellectual property.

Dynamic Decentralized Identification (DID): COTI V2’s DID system allows for personal information to be used and verified without actual data disclosure. This supports trustless global interactions within a regulated framework without sacrificing sensitive information.

As the blockchain industry evolves, COTI’s innovative approach with Garbled Circuits technology is timely, aiming to resolve the privacy limitations of Web3 and offering superior solutions to those available in Web2. The upcoming COTI V2 Devnet represents a promising opportunity for developers worldwide to contribute to this evolution.

Robinhood Wallet Joins Forces with Arbitrum (ARB) to Enhance Layer 2 Access

Robinhood, the popular financial services company, in its latest strategic move to dive deeper into the world of decentralized finance, has partnered with Arbitrum to provide its users with enhanced access to Layer 2 solutions. This collaboration was announced at ETHDenver and aims to simplify the user experience by integrating Arbitrum swaps directly into the Robinhood Wallet.

The integration with Arbitrum, a leading Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, enables Robinhood Wallet users to benefit from lower transaction costs and faster speeds, addressing some of the common pain points associated with the Ethereum network. Over the upcoming months, both companies are set to collaborate on facilitating cross-chain swaps and launching other initiatives to reduce barriers for web3 usage within the Robinhood Wallet environment.

Johann Kerbrat, General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, highlighted the challenges Ethereum gas fees present in terms of network security and user adoption. He emphasized the critical role of Layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum, currently the chain with the highest total-locked value, in addressing these challenges and making access to L2s more straightforward for those new to web3.

A.J. Warner, Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, expressed excitement about integrating Robinhood Wallet into the Arbitrum ecosystem. He anticipates that this partnership will bring low-cost in-app swaps to a broader audience and empower users to delve further into the realm of decentralized finance.

Robinhood Wallet, a self-custody wallet, allows users to store and manage their crypto assets across multiple networks, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, and Base. It empowers users by giving them control over their private keys and, consequently, full ownership of their cryptocurrencies.

Understanding the varying expertise levels of its user base, Robinhood Wallet is dedicated to offering a range of features that cater to both beginners and more seasoned crypto users. This includes intuitive user interfaces for novices and sophisticated tools for experienced traders.

The partnership reflects Robinhood and Arbitrum’s shared commitment to advancing the accessibility of decentralized finance (DeFi). With both entities focused on continuous innovation and user-centric development, Robinhood Wallet users can expect an expanding suite of features designed to elevate their crypto experience.