Protocol Village: ChainML Unveils Theoriq, an ‘AI Agent Base Layer’

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May 13: ChainML, a protocol for decentralized computation, unveiled Theoriq, “our revolutionary AI agent base layer, launched after successfully raising over $10M in seed and super seed rounds, led by Hack VC,” according to the team: “Theoriq redefines AI agent development with its principles of composability, extensibility and community governance, aiming to democratize AI through blockchain technology.”

Gateway.fm Launches ‘Node-as-a-Service’ Solution

May 13 (PROTOCOL VILLAGE EXCLUSIVE): Gateway.fm has launched its Node-as-a-Service (NaaS) solution to simplify the process of setting up and managing nodes, “making it easy for project communities to acquire nodes and contribute to network security, and earn rewards,” according to the team. “Upon purchasing a node, users receive a unique Node License NFT for proof of ownership. NaaS works with zkEVM roll ups, not just Optimistic, and enables projects to conduct strategic node sales to generate revenue before their networks go live. Projects can create tiered options with varying price points, token limits and durations to cater to different requirements.”

Safe Introduces ‘Native Swaps’ With CoW Protocol Integration

May 13: Safe has announced the introduction of native swaps. According to the team: “This new native token swap feature integrates the CoW Protocol and is built directly into the world’s most used multisig wallet, Safe{Wallet}. In partnership with CoW Protocol, this integration leverages CoW Protocol’s advanced aggregation and intent-based architecture to access a vast liquidity pool across decentralized exchanges, offering Safe{Wallet} users low prices and a wide selection of tokens for seamless trades on CoW Protocol. In the last three years, a total of $23 billion in swap volume has been facilitated through Safe Smart Accounts.”

Marshall Hayner’s Metallicus Launches ‘Metal L2’ on Optimism Superchain

May 13: Metallicus, a project started by Marshall Hayner to build a “customer-centric digital-asset banking network,” has launched its new “Metal L2” on the Optimism Superchain, “enhancing DeFi and TradFi integration,” according to the team: “This new Layer 2 solution offers direct bank connectivity, comprehensive on-chain identity solutions and introduces Metal Dollar (XMD), a stablecoin facilitating instant transfers between major stablecoins and fiat, all while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards like the BSA.”

Zest Raises $3.5M, Led by Tim Draper, for On-Chain Bitcoin Lending Using Stacks

May 13: Bitcoin lending protocol Zest has raised $3.5 million to enable bitcoin (BTC) holders to deploy their assets in on-chain and generate yield. The seed raise was led by billionaire investor Tim Draper with participation from Binance Labs, Flow Traders, Trust Machines and others, Zest Protocol announced by email on Monday. Zest Protocol uses the Nakamoto upgrade by Bitcoin layer 2 Stacks and bridging asset sBTC (pegged 1:1 to bitcoin) to create a lending experience fully native to the world’s largest blockchain network.

DYdX Founder Antonio Juliano to Step Down as CEO of the Decentralized Exchange; Ivo Crnkovic-Rubsamen Takes Over

May 13: Antonio Juliano, the founder of decentralized crypto exchange dYdX, is stepping down as CEO of the main company responsible for building the major crypto trading platform. In a blog post Juliano said he will become chairman and president of dYdX Trading Inc. Ivo Crnkovic-Rubsamen takes over as its head.

Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.

Euclid, Cross-Chain Liquidity Infrastructure Powered by Nibiru, Emerges From Stealth

May 9: Euclid, a Nibiru-powered Web3 start-up built to be a “decentralized unified cross-chain liquidity infrastructure,” emerged from from stealth. According to the a press release: “The announcement comes on the heels of Euclid raising $600,000 via a pre-seed funding round backed by tech investment firm Kahuna Network and angel investor Tomoaki Sato, with participation from angels associated with Lavender Five, Andromeda and Nibiru Chain…. The funds will be used for the development of the architecture and project as well as business development, audits and marketing…. This unification of liquidity is achieved by creating a single source-of-truth ledger through a Virtual Settlement Layer (Nibiru) that all Euclid integrated blockchains can seamlessly connect to, offering the lowest slippage and fairest prices across the whole ecosystem. The framework is based on Euclid’s proprietary LiquiSync model, making it easy for any chain or protocol to access permissionlessly.”

Gnosis Inks Strategic Partnership with Zeal, Invests $2M

May 9: Gnosis, an Ethereum sidechain, said it will partner with Zeal, creators of a comprehensive digital wallet, to enhance everyday crypto use, according to the team: “This collaboration involves exploring easy solutions for daily self-custodied crypto transactions, akin to using cash. Gnosis also commits $2 million to Zeal, boosting its total funding to $9 million after a previous $7 million seed round.”

Layer-1 Chain Inco to Work With Privy to Enable Web3 Apps on Telegram

May 9: Inco, described as a “modular confidential computing layer-1 blockchain and universal confidentiality layer for Ethereum and other networks,” announced a partnership with Privy, a system for onboarding Web3 users, to launch non-custodial Web3 apps and games in Telegram. According to the team: “Using Inco, developers can build dapps and mini-games like slot machines, card games, predictions market and more as Telegram Mini Apps that work with your wallet provider and leverage FHE technology, thus enabling new forms of gameplay with confidential elements. By integrating the Privy SDK, developers can now provide users with self-custodial wallets, enhancing security for on-chain experiences within Telegram.” FHE stands for fully homomorphic encryption, a type of encryption where data can be processed without the data having to be exposed.

Ripple, XRPL Labs Join DeRec Alliance as Founding Members With Hedera, Algorand Ecosystems

May 9: The developers Ripple and XRPL Labs have joined Algorand Foundation and Hedera developer Swirlds Labs as founding members of the DeRec Alliance. The alliance supports the Decentralized Recovery (DeRec) open-source protocol. According to a press release, this protocol maps out “a standard approach to secret management, based on secret sharing among a set of helpers (e.g. friends or businesses), who can assist the user to recover their secret when needed. Each helper’s share reveals no information about the original secret, and half the helpers can give the user their shares to reconstruct the secret, even when a user has lost their phone or other two-factor recovery device. The protocol includes automatic regular confirmations that helpers still have shares of secrets, and automatic re-sharing when secrets change or helpers join or leave. The user never reveals who the helpers are, nor even how many helpers there are, and even the helpers won’t know that.”

Solana-Based Marketplace AgriDex Raises $5M to Tokenize Agricultural Industry

May 9: AgriDex, a Solana-based tokenization platform, has raised $5 million to bring agricultural commodities on-chain. The pre-seed funding round included investments from Endeavour Ventures, sub-Sarahan African agricultural group African Crops and South African vineyard group Oldenburg Vineyards, the company said by email on Thursday. AgriDex allows various crops to be bought on its marketplace. When finalized, deals are then secured by minting a non-fungible token (NFT) recording the key transaction details.

Arcium, ‘Paralellized Confidential Computing Network,’ Raises $5.5M in Strategic Round Led by Greenfield

May 9: Arcium, the first parallelized confidential computing network, has announced the completion of a $5.5 million strategic funding round led by Greenfield Capital bringing the total capital raised to $9 million, according to the team: “Founded by the team behind Elusiv, an application-layer zero-knowledge (ZK) privacy protocol based on Solana, Arcium leverages Multi-Party eXecution Environments (MXEs) to enable secure computation on encrypted data. This funding will bolster the Arcium ecosystem ahead of the upcoming mainnet launch. So far Arcium has received over five thousand applications for its incentivized testnet.”

API3’s New ‘OEV Watchtower’ Measures Liquidity Losses to Oracles

May 9: API3, a first-party blockchain oracle, has introduced the OEV Watchtower, “enabling protocol developers for the first time to measure annual liquidity losses to Oracle services, potentially amounting to millions,” according to the team: “This tool allows dApps to benchmark their OEV retention against major protocols like Iron Bank, Morpho Aave, and MakerDAO. It also enhances transparency by letting users input their liquidation incentive rate and TVL to track money liquidated, incentives paid, amounts sent to builders, and losses to searchers.”

Hyperbolic, led by Math Olympian Zhang, Releases ‘Proof of Sampling’ to Address Trust in Decentralized AI

May 9: Hyperbolic, the two-year-old startup that Zhang leads focused on decentralized AI computing, said Thursday that it is introducing a protocol called “Proof of Sampling (PoSP),” aimed at addressing challenges with trust in decentralized AI networks. Hyperbolic was co-founded in 2022 by Zhang and Yuchen Jin, who holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Washington.

Arch Raises $7M for Turing-Complete ‘Bitcoin-Native’ Proof-of-Stake Application Platform

May 9: Arch Labs, building Arch, described as the “first Bitcoin-native application platform,” raised $7 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Portal Ventures, OKX Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, CMS Holdings, Tangent, Cypher and Newman Capital, according to a press release: “The company plans to use the funds to hire additional core developers, help launch the Arch Network into mainnet in H2 2024 and continue to support its burgeoning app ecosystem.to build the first bitcoin-native application platform… The Arch Network is a parallelized, proof-of-stake network that uses zk-proofs to enhance Bticoin-native programmability. The network consists of a Rust-based zkVM, called the ArchVM, and a decentralized verifier network.”

Edited by Bradley Keoun.