Source: OKX Ventures
With the completion of Bitcoin halving, for BTC, which is deeply integrated with the US stock market, macroeconomics, financial data and central bank policies have become important factors affecting the trend of Bitcoin. The high interest rate environment and low interest rate cut expectations will continue to affect market trends.
At present, the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem is still in its early stages, but infrastructure construction is currently developing rapidly. Bitcoin layer innovation represented by Arch, client verification represented by Nervos RGB++, and infrastructure projects for Layer2 solutions represented by Bitlayer and BounceBit have taken shape. Industry insiders generally believe that applications within the Bitcoin ecosystem will usher in an explosion in the future, and the market is expected to see DeFi Summer, NFT Summer and GameFi Summer belonging to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In addition, the development of the infrastructure field of the crypto market shows a diversified trend. Parallel EVM is a narrative hotspot. Head projects such as Monad and Aptos have led dozens of public chains to follow up on the parallel EVM narrative. The modular narrative continues to develop, and Movement, Avail, and Staketone also completed this round of fundraising in April. In addition, 1 million new tokens were created throughout the network in April, 640,000 on Solana, and 320,000 on Base, and more infrastructure has been developed.
In terms of the continued growth of the application ecosystem, game ecosystem projects continue to explode, and high-quality games represented by Matr1x and full-chain games represented by Cellula are about to explode. Although the market value of the game field fell by 30% in April. However, the number of daily active users (number of wallets) reached 3 million, a record high, an increase of 16.9% from March, which to a certain extent indicates the increase in user participation and willingness to participate.
OKX Ventures continued to pay attention to the industry in April, including the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem, the dynamics of Ethereum ecosystem entrepreneurial projects, and the potential progress of Ethereum ETFs in Hong Kong and the United States, and invested in multiple projects.
According to the Arch Protocol White Paper:
• Project Overview
￮ Arch is a Bitcoin-native application platform that aims to launch decentralized finance (DeFi) on the world's most valuable blockchain without relying on bridging technology. Arch leverages the direct operation characteristics of the Bitcoin blockchain to expand Bitcoin's programmability and provides a secure, decentralized execution layer that enables developers to develop complex applications on Bitcoin.
￮ Arch emphasizes not sacrificing the core value of Bitcoin as a non-sovereign currency, while expanding its functions and application scope as much as possible, enhancing Bitcoin's programmability and expanding its application scope, marking a new stage in Bitcoin's further development.
• Project Highlights
￮ Bitcoin native integration, support for DeFi and NFTs: Arch operates directly on the first layer (Layer 1) of Bitcoin, avoiding the complexity and efficiency problems in traditional second-layer solutions, and directly utilizing the security and liquidity of Bitcoin itself. Developers can create decentralized lending markets, exchanges, and high-end collectibles and NFTs that can be fully stored on the Bitcoin chain, which brings added value and functionality to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
￮ Smart contract function: Through the zero-knowledge virtual machine (ZKVM), Arch is able to execute smart contracts, adding unprecedented flexibility and diversity to Bitcoin. This smart contract function supports everything from simple asset exchanges to complex financial products.
￮ Decentralized verification network: The core of Arch is its decentralized verification node network, which verifies zero-knowledge proofs (ZK Proofs) to ensure the correct execution of transactions and applications. This network structure enhances the security and censorship resistance of the platform and avoids the risk of centralization.
￮ Fully on-chain operation: All transactions and state changes executed through the Arch platform are finally confirmed and recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain, maintaining the transparency and immutability of the Bitcoin blockchain.
According to the Bitlayer white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ Bitlayer is a Bitcoin second-layer network based on BitVM technology, designed to introduce scalability to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Bitlayer provides the same security as Bitcoin's first layer and is Turing complete, enabling developers to perform arbitrary calculations on Bitcoin.
￮ Bitlayer aims to transform Bitcoin from a pure value store to a more active and productive asset, while providing a fast transaction experience and low-cost transaction fees.
• Project Highlights
￮ Security: Bitlayer uses a BitVM-based fraud proof protocol to verify state transitions, ensuring security comparable to the Bitcoin base layer. Using DLC/BitVM technology, it provides a more secure bridge model for cross-chain asset transfers than MPC-TSS or multi-signature.
￮ Scalability: Bitlayer supports flexible expansion schemes and is committed to expanding Bitcoin's Internet and cryptocurrency user base. Through modular design, Bitlayer is able to achieve unlimited scalability while ensuring fast transaction confirmation speeds and low transaction costs.
￮ Developer- and user-friendly: Bitlayer will initially be compatible with EVM, allowing existing Ethereum ecosystem applications and developers to migrate to Bitlayer at low cost and without in-depth modifications. In the future, more virtual machines will be supported, such as CairoVM, SolVM, and MoveVM, providing users with a richer choice of on-chain applications.
According to the BounceBit white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ BounceBit is a Restaking infrastructure built on BTC, protected by Mainnet Digital and Ceffu's regulated custody.
￮ The BounceBit chain is a PoS layer 1 chain based on Bitcoin Restaking. By validators staking BTC and BounceBit's native tokens at the same time, a dual token system is adopted to achieve integration with Bitcoin's native security and full Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility.
￮ The BounceBit ecosystem has rich infrastructure, such as bridges and oracles, and is also protected by heavily staked BTC. Under an innovative centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) structural framework, BounceBit empowers Bitcoin holders to earn income on multiple networks.
• Project Highlights
￮ PoS Layer1: Unlike Layer2, which is attached to the Bitcoin main chain, BounceBit is self-contained and requires validators to stake the platform's native tokens and BTC, creating a dual-token security system. This approach not only enhances the security of the network, but also increases the intrinsic value of Bitcoin by enabling BTC to play an active role in network validation.
￮ Cross-chain interoperability: BounceBit supports interoperability with EVM-compatible chains, enabling the diversification of staked assets such as BTCB (Bitcoin on the BNB chain) and WBTC (wrapped Bitcoin), enriching the use cases of staking BTC.
￮ Transparent centralized finance provides real returns: BounceBit uses Mainnet Digital's custody service and Ceffu's MirrorX technology to keep Bitcoin on-chain while ensuring liquidity and transparency of transactions through T +1 settlement cycles on centralized exchanges.
According to the UTXO stack white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ UTXO Stack will be committed to expanding the Bitcoin ecosystem, helping project developers to start the BTC Layer2 based on the UTXO architecture with one click, and natively integrate the RGB++ protocol capabilities, so that BTC and Stack parallel Layer2 can achieve seamless interoperability without a cross-chain bridge, and can ensure the security of Layer2 by staking BTC, CKB and BTC L1 assets.
￮ By providing a one-click start-up service for UTXO BTC Layer2, UTXO Stack aims to simplify the creation process of application-specific chains, while ensuring interoperability with assets such as BTC and CKB without relying on traditional cross-chain bridging technology. The emergence of UTXO Stack responds to the market's demand for higher performance, greater scalability and lower cost blockchain solutions.
• Project Highlights
￮ UTXO Stack attempts to leverage the security and reputation of Bitcoin as an endorsement to promote broader asset issuance and financial innovation on the Bitcoin blockchain. By creating application chains that can easily interoperate with BTC and other UTXO assets, UTXO Stack provides developers with a powerful tool to enable rapid development and deployment of their financial applications. In addition, by using the PoS (Proof of Stake) mechanism to provide security for these application chains, UTXO Stack is also trying to solve the challenges of Bitcoin's PoW (Proof of Work) mechanism in energy consumption and efficiency.
According to the Zeus Network white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ Zeus Network is committed to bringing the next billion users into the Web3 ecosystem. Zeus Network builds cross-chain infrastructure by leveraging Solana. This is achieved by developing the Zeus Layer, a pluggable and programmable node network, on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). Zeus Network envisions a future where developers can build permissionless decentralized applications (dApps) on a bridgeless cross-chain infrastructure.
￮ Zeus Network’s first priority is to bring Bitcoin liquidity to Solana through its first dApp, APOLLO. Zeus Network is bridgeless because liquidity providers on each chain do not receive liquidity back on the other chain, and the assets provided on each chain are protected by their own protocols.
• Project Highlights
￮ Bridgeless Cross-Chain Technology: By innovatively designing cross-chain solutions that do not require traditional blockchain bridges, the security risks of bridges are avoided, making cross-chain liquidity of assets more secure. Apollo is a cross-chain bridge between BTC and Solana, bringing Bitcoin liquidity to Solana.
￮ Leveraging Solana’s high performance: Building cross-chain infrastructure through Solana, the world’s fastest, most economical, and best-performing blockchain, enables fast and low-cost cross-chain transactions.
￮ Pluggable and programmable node network: The pluggable and programmable framework provided by Zeus Layer allows developers to easily integrate and create dApps that can seamlessly interoperate with Bitcoin and multiple future blockchains.
￮ Security and decentralization: Using advanced encryption technology and fraud proofs, as well as the decentralized operation of a distributed node network, transactions are secured and the system is transparent and fair.
According to the Monad white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ Monad is a high-performance first-layer (L1) blockchain compatible with Ethereum, designed to advance the effective boundaries of decentralization and scalability by optimizing key areas.
￮ By introducing four core technology optimizations, including MonadBFT, Deferred Execution, Parallel Execution, and MonadDb, Monad has greatly improved the throughput of the system and achieved a processing speed of 10,000 transactions per second.
￮ Its comprehensive EVM bytecode compatibility and Ethereum RPC API compatibility ensure that application developers and users can seamlessly migrate existing Ethereum ecosystem tools and DApps to the Monad platform and enjoy more efficient blockchain performance.
• Project Highlights
￮ Ultra-high performance and processing speed: For blockchain ecosystems that require large-scale daily active users and high-interaction applications, Monad provides the highest level of performance required to date, which can reach 10,000 transactions per second, 1 second block time and finality.
￮ Ethereum ecosystem compatibility: Fully compatible with EVM bytecode, allowing applications developed on Ethereum to migrate to Monad without any code modification; Ethereum RPC API compatibility, users can use familiar tools (such as MetaMask, Etherscan) to seamlessly access Monad.
￮ MonadBFT： An improved version based on the HotStuff consensus algorithm, which implements an efficient pipeline consensus mechanism.
▪ Delayed execution: By setting up a pipeline between consensus and execution, the execution budget is significantly improved.
▪ Parallel execution: Utilize multi-core processing power to execute work, thereby increasing execution speed while maintaining consistency of transaction results.
▪ MonadDb: A high-performance state backend storage system optimized for SSD, which achieves efficient state updates and caching.
￮ Low hardware entry threshold and accessibility: Monad keeps the hardware requirements for running nodes within a reasonable range, ensuring a low participation threshold and wide accessibility.
According to the Aptos white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ The head Layer1 in the non-EVM public chain uses the Move language as the development language. Smart contract execution has always been a bottleneck limiting the throughput of the blockchain. Single-line execution severely limits the upper limit of its throughput. Aptos has developed the Block-STM smart contract parallel execution engine to improve the efficiency of transaction execution. The core team includes Mo Shaik and Avery Ching, who are former Meta teams and have rich experience in the traditional Internet field. Historical investors include A16Z, DragonFly, Brevan Howard, Franklin Templton, Tiger, Hashed, Multicoin, etc.
￮ Recently, Aptos Labs has established a new partnership with Microsoft, Brevan Howard, SK Telecom and Boston Consulting Group to develop Aptos Ascend, which aims to provide an on-chain digital asset management platform for institutional clients, support the increase of liquidity of RWA-type assets worldwide, etc.
• Project Highlights
￮ Technological innovation and performance: Aptos is known for the novelty of its technology stack, including the AptosBFTv4 consensus mechanism, the Quorum Store memory pool protocol, the Block-STM parallel execution engine, and its programming language Aptos Move. The combination of these technologies provides Aptos with high throughput and low latency, especially its ability to achieve 30,000 transactions per second in a test environment and process more than 9 billion transactions during specific activities demonstrates its excellent performance.
￮ Security and Upgradeability: Aptos places a special focus on security and upgradeability, using the Aptos Move language to enhance the security of smart contracts and allow frequent network upgrades to quickly deploy new technologies and fixes.
￮ Ecosystem Growth and Partnerships: Since its launch, Aptos has rapidly grown its ecosystem through key partnerships (including with Microsoft, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and other well-known companies), grant programs, and hackathons. The project has a particular focus on expanding its influence in the Asia-Pacific region, establishing partnerships with multiple well-known gaming companies and corporate groups, promoting the development of DeFi, social media, and gaming and NFT applications.
￮ Market Adoption and Network Activity: Aptos has demonstrated strong market adoption by driving network activity through events such as the Chingari social media platform, Pyth oracle integration, and Graffio's one-day public art creation event. With an average daily transaction volume of more than 475,000 and more than 72,000 daily active addresses, it demonstrates its strong user engagement and network utility.
￮ Future-oriented technology roadmap: Aptos's future technology roadmap, including plans for storage sharding, a goal of achieving 100,000 to 1 million transactions per second, and the development of the new Aptos Move compiler, demonstrates its commitment as an innovative platform that continues to advance to meet the needs of the future Web3.
According to the Movement white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ Movement Labs aims to address the widespread smart contract vulnerabilities within the Ethereum ecosystem while introducing a new execution environment that enables the system to process more than 30,000 transactions per second. Movement aims to combine smart contract security and parallelization with EVM liquidity and user base, introducing MoveVM to Ethereum through its flagship L2 and Rollup connected to Move Stack. By leveraging a fully EVM-compatible bytecode interpreter and Ethereum as a settlement method, Movement, as a ZK Layer 2, will enhance parallelization capabilities and smart contract security for the Ethereum ecosystem.
• Project Highlights
￮ Friendly development experience: Introducing MoveVM into Layer2, providing a powerful Fractal translator, converting Solidity smart contracts into Move bytecode, enhancing the functionality and security of smart contracts, while providing a high degree of interoperability with other blockchain systems.
￮ Strong flexibility and scalability: M2's modular design abstracts the consensus layer from the execution layer, allowing each protocol layer to work independently and keep in sync.
￮ High speed and low fee: Sub-second Finality is achieved through parallel Move-EVM and decentralized Sequencer, which is said to be able to reach <$0.01 Gas fees, theoretical TPS 160,000+.
￮ High compatibility: EVM compatible, supporting both aptos and sui move. At the same time, it is deeply connected with Cosmos, supporting native USDC and Cosmos wallets.
According to the StakeStone white paper:
• Project Overview
StakeStone is a full-chain LST (Liquid Stake Token) liquidity protocol that aims to bring native staking income and liquidity to Layer 2 in a decentralized manner. StakeStone is highly scalable, supports various staking pools, and is compatible with the upcoming Restaking. At the same time, it has established a multi-chain liquidity market based on StakeStone's native LST STONE, providing STONE users with more use cases and income opportunities.
• Project Highlights
￮ LST Liquidity Cross-Chain Market: StakeStone is committed to building a cross-chain market specifically for LST (Liquid Stake Token) liquidity, connecting Ethereum and other blockchains. This provides a basis for the seamless transfer of assets between different blockchains, while solving the liquidity split between the mainnet and the Layer 2 network.
￮ OPAP Mechanism: The Optimized Portfolio and Allocation Proposal (OPAP) mechanism pioneered by StakeStone provides a decentralized solution for liquid staking. This enables users to deposit ETH and obtain STONE tokens whose value rises over time, thereby achieving strategic allocation of assets and optimizing staking returns.
￮ Diversified Applications and Efficiency: STONE is not just a token representing ETH staking, it can also be used as an equivalent asset to ETH in various DeFi, GameFi or NFTfi platforms. This diversified use case has greatly enhanced the practicality and attractiveness of STONE.
￮ LayerZero Integration and Cross-Chain Support: With LayerZero technology, STONE supports seamless transfers and price alignment between multiple blockchains, making it suitable for a wide range of networks and ecosystems such as Ethereum, Manta, Base, BNB Chain, Mantle, Linea, etc.
￮ Rapid growth of capital and market: Since its launch, StakeStone's total locked value (TVL) has achieved rapid growth, reaching a maximum of US$1.38 billion, showing the market's strong demand and trust in such solutions.
￮ Through these highlights, StakeStone not only provides users with a stable staking income, but also tries to solve the fragmentation and efficiency problems in the existing blockchain ecosystem. It is a forward-looking and innovative staking solution.
According to the Cellula white paper:
• Project Overview
Cellula is a full-chain artificial life simulation strategy game that allows users to play the "Conway Game of Life" through on-chain cellular automata. In the game, NFTs can reproduce, grow, evolve or die on the blockchain, creating an "NFT Arena" by turning each NFT into an autonomous life form.
• Project Highlights
￮ Full-chain game with unique gameplay. Cellula is a full-chain Conway Game of Life using the MUD engine. It simulates the Game of Life in a programming way similar to actual evolution. In the future, ERC6551 will be used to give NFTs possible gameplay combined with various smart contracts.
￮ Role growth: Evolution that gives NFT autonomy. Traditional NFTs are empowered from top to bottom (creators give value and send airdrops), while Cellula gives creators rights by building games and giving NFTs growth and composability.
￮ Composability: Game metadata can be used as raw materials to be combined with other NFTs. Similar to Lego, it can be combined with traditional NFTs or other items and given a special identity through genes.
According to the UXLink white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ UXLINK is the Web3 social platform and infrastructure with the largest number of users, supporting users and developers to discover, distribute and trade crypto assets in a social and group manner.
￮ One year after the launch of the UXLINK product, UXLINK has more than 5.7 million registered users, more than 100,000 groups, more than 1.2 million DAPP daily active users, and more than 300,000 daily active users on the chain. Currently, the number of daily active users on the chain ranks among the top three.
• Project Highlights
￮ Link To Earn. Different from other social products, UXLINK focuses on acquaintance relationships, which is a simulation of the social status of the real world. Through the "Link To Earn" acquaintance recommendation trust mechanism and the subversive "Web3 group", a new user connection method and organizational form are brought, forming a unique protocol and data layer, which can give unique value to developers in the Web3 field.
￮ High growth. It is currently the product with the largest traffic in the social track, with users evenly distributed in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Japan, South Korea, South Asia, South America and Africa, and has accumulated rich and connected user data.
￮ UXLINK migrates and deepens real social relationships and scenarios, and innovates them in combination with the essence of Web3, integrating assets and social interaction. Because of the unique traffic and data, it also attracts a large number of partners who are willing to pay, forming a positive cycle between users and partners.
According to the Matr1x white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ Matr1x is a Web3 game platform. Execute a boutique strategy, self-develop and jointly release game products. We have independently developed the middle platform protocol for Web3 games to help more Web2 game products enter Web3.
￮ The first game Matr1x Fire is an FPS mobile game. Since its launch, it has accumulated 1.05 million registered users, more than 1.19 million game downloads, 490,000 UAWs, and 1.26 million transfers, currently ranking first in polygon.
• Project Highlights
￮ Incorporating e-sports elements, it naturally attracts young user groups. At present, Matr1x has carried out more than 40 online and offline events worldwide, covering more than 50 game communities, covering more than 20 countries and regions, with a total of more than 100,000 participants. It is currently the first e-sports brand in the entire Web3 industry.
￮ Attach importance to the value attributes of in-game assets, which are asset attributes that have been verified in Web2. The core of the shooting category focuses on the trading of game accessories. For example, the classic game csgo in Web2 has a transaction volume of more than 38 billion US dollars per year, which has great potential. Matr1x has successfully issued three sets of equity NFTs, with more than 800,000 addresses and a cumulative transaction volume of more than 150 million US dollars.
￮ The team is from the world's first-tier companies, with many years of experience in games and blockchain, and has successfully developed and released a number of games, with a cumulative turnover of more than 30 billion RMB and more than 300 million users.
According to the Debox white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ DeBox is a Web3 community management tool based on DID. Users holding ERC-20 tokens and NFT users can join the corresponding groups without permission, and can use the lottery, proposal, voting and other functions provided by the product.
• Project Highlights
￮ Debox connects the user side and the community side, and is a bridge to meet the needs of both parties. On the community side, it is a community-driven management tool, including elections, voting, finance, activities, lotteries, airdrops, activity evaluation, etc. On the user side, it provides all users with equal, permissionless and simple access to information portals. Therefore, debox has a strong user base. At present, DAU11K+, holder 90K+, 24241 communities, and most users are cryptocurrency novices from apps.
￮ AI and intent-centric, more than 100 artificial intelligence robots driven by large models, including GC, trading, search, etc., provide users with a good seamless experience
￮ Debox's current ecosystem is showing an organic growth trend. At present, debox's transaction volume is more than 120 million from internal Dex, 59.1 million from innovative social assets, and the monthly net profit exceeds US$80,000.
According to the Privasea white paper:
• Project Overview
￮ The Privasea AI network is an artificial intelligence processing system that focuses on data privacy and security. It uses Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology to encrypt data for calculations to ensure the confidentiality and security of sensitive information.
￮ The Privasea AI network effectively solves the privacy protection and data security issues faced in AI data processing through its advanced fully homomorphic encryption technology and multi-level architecture design, while providing efficient and easy-to-use solutions to meet the needs of different users and scenarios.
• Project Highlights
￮ Privacy Protection: Through fully homomorphic encryption technology, Privasea AI can analyze and process data without decrypting it. This means that even if the data is processed in a cloud environment or an untrusted computing environment, the user's sensitive information is still effectively protected. In response to strict data protection regulations such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a privacy protection AI solution that complies with regulations is provided.
￮ Distributed AI computing: Privasea AI uses blockchain technology to incentivize and manage a distributed network consisting of multiple computing nodes to provide the necessary AI processing power. This not only increases the availability of computing resources, but also improves the transparency and security of the system in a decentralized manner.
￮ Rich application scenarios: Combining FHE and AI, Privasea AI has opened up a new path for privacy-preserving machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. Application scenarios cover multiple fields such as finance, medical care, and security supervision, providing a comprehensive solution that protects data privacy while fully utilizing the value of data.
Risk Warning:
This article is for reference only.
This article is not intended to provide (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. Digital assets (including stablecoins and NFTs) involve high risks and may fluctuate significantly or even become worthless. Please be responsible for understanding and complying with local applicable laws and regulations.
Transaction scalability has been a hot topic of discussion in the industry for a while now, and over the past few weeks we’ve been discussing how Monad can help increase transaction processing speed (TPS).
JinseFinancePushing the boundaries of EVM performance: Innovative applications of parallel execution and superscalar pipelining.
JinseFinanceMonad stands out with its goal to be a highly scalable single large L1 blockchain that is both EVM-compatible and capable of processing over 10,000 transactions per second with a block time of 1 second.
JinseFinanceParadigm is reportedly in talks to lead a funding round in excess of $200 million for Monad Labs. If this financing is successful, it will be the largest cryptocurrency financing so far in 2024.
JinseFinanceMonad, Bankless: Why does Monad have the potential to replace Ethereum? Golden Finance, Monad is one of the most powerful challengers to ETH.
JinseFinanceTPS reaches 10,000+, financing reaches 19 million US dollars: Will L1 dark horse Monad disappoint people after it goes online?
JinseFinanceAs the dominant standard for smart contracts, the EVM chain has (to date) the majority of TVL, the largest developer and research network, and an incredible community that has stood the test of time (and multiple bear markets).
JinseFinanceThe metaverse platform’s DAO community treasury holds over 99% of its assets in MANA, Decentraland’s native cryptocurrency.
CoindeskThis guide will guide you to complete the donation from scratch, and use zkSync to pay the donation, saving you transaction costs.
NellThis guide will be walking you through the whole process step-by-step and donate via zkSync, to save up on transaction fees.
Nell