PL Updates: Zama's $73 million Series A Boosts Fully Homomorphic Encryption, Funding the Commons x Earth Commons Event & More
Plus: Highlights from ETHDenver's PL meetups, updates from IPC, and a Q&A Spotlight with Mosaia's co-founder Aaron Wong-Ellis
⚙️ New Tool Alert: Privy's General Availability Launch
Shipped: February 2024
What It Is: After 15 months of development, Privy has opened its platform to the public. With over 2.5 million users already on-boarded, the platform empowers developers with user-friendly tools to quickly and securely get users on-chain, streamlining the transition for individuals to the blockchain.
Why It’s a Big Deal: Offering a powerful suite of tools, including a progressive authentication library and a battle-tested embedded wallet, Privy simplifies the on-boarding process, ensuring users can securely manage and transact their assets with ease. This move is not just about enhancing user experience; it’s about laying the groundwork for the next generation of crypto products.
The Big Picture: The general availability of Privy strides towards making crypto systems more user-friendly and it highlights a shift in the industry towards inclusivity and accessibility. By focusing on easier wallet funding and interoperability in the coming months, Privy is set to play an important role in the evolution of digital interactions and a future with integrated crypto ecosystems.
Get Started: Explore what Privy has to offer by visiting dashboard.privy.io and dive into their documentation at docs.privy.io to start building your next crypto project today!
🎉 That’s a Wrap: ETHDenver 2024
As the dust settles on a week in the Mile High City, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you who joined us at ETHDenver! It was inspiring to see over 200 familiar faces at PL Meetups, including founders and team members, coming together to share, learn and connect.
Thank you for bringing your insights, enthusiasm, and genuine selves. These moments of connection are what fuel our shared mission and remind us of the powerful impact we can achieve together. We look forward to many more PL Meetups and until next time – keep building!
⭐ Key Event: Funding the Commons x Earth Commons Conference
Dates: April 13-14, 2024
Location: David Brower Center, Berkeley, California
Funding the Commons is coming to the San Francisco Bay Area, April 13-14th! This unique conference, hosted in partnership with various research labs at UC Berkeley, aims to forge new paths in sustainable funding for public goods funding and ecological regeneration.
This time, the FTC event will take place alongside the first edition of Earth Commons (formerly Sustainable Blockchain Summit). Both conferences are focused on underscoring the systemic, interdependent changes necessary for progress in both public goods and ecological regeneration.
What to expect? A mix of inspirational talks, workshops, networking corners, as well as intimate conversations with thought-leaders. Register here. Each ticket is valid for both conferences.
—> Get your ticket! For more details visit the event page.
📣 Zama Raises $73 million in Funding Round
Zama has raised an impressive $73 million in a Series A funding round led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs.
This is significant because humanity needs secure, fully confidential computing infrastructure. Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is the most promising technology to get full security and privacy.
Learn more here, in this blog post, and this Founders video to hear CEO Rand Hindi’s vision:
📈 Expanding the Network
We're thrilled to welcome a new member to our ecosystem: Ion. Blending the powers of AI with the dynamic world of crypto, Ion is revolutionizing developer tooling, starting with a seamless bridge from design to deployment. Discover how Ion can transform your development workflow and elevate your projects by visiting their website.
📡 Network Radar
Lit Protocol unveiled Lit v0 after three years of research and development. The platform utilizes threshold cryptography to enable secure, automated key management for diverse use cases. Read about it here and watch the Founders episode here.
Filecoin welcomed over 50 new datacap allocators, experimenting with innovative verifiable distribution functions and storage provider reputation systems. Discover more here.
Data Economy Hackathon is taking place until March 31, 2024. Compete for a share of the $540,000 prize pool by innovating in areas like programmable storage, DataDAOs, and DeFi on the cutting-edge Filecoin and IPC platforms. Join the challenge today!
Fluence announced a two-stage mainnet launch with the platform set to deploy on InterPlanetary Consensus (IPC) in the coming weeks. Learn more here.
Mosaia introduced Jeff, an AI Advisor revolutionizing how COOs in the DeFi sector connect with service providers. Jeff significantly speeds up the matching process, ensuring COOs find vendors for smart contract audits, go-to-market strategies, and developer relations faster than ever before. More here.
Oku, powered by GFX Labs, now brings Uniswap v3 directly to the Filecoin Virtual Machine, offering seamless on-chain asset swaps and liquidity provisioning. This integration enriches Filecoin's decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities, providing users with sophisticated trading tools, advanced analytics, and deeper liquidity options. Learn more here.
Swan Chain is inviting developers to shape the future of its ecosystem through its new Grants Program. Open to innovative ideas, the program offers $5,000 in SWAN tokens for building initial prototypes utilizing Swan technology. Details here.
🔦 Spotlight: Aaron Wong-Ellis, co-founder of Mosaia
In this spotlight, we get to know Aaron Wong-Ellis, the co-founder of Mosaia. Aaron stands out as a distinguished figure in tech, with rich experience spanning over a decade.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’ve honed skills in many disciplines having worked in startups, founded companies and worked as an engineer for large tech firms like Amazon Web Services (AWS). I’ve dedicated many years to advance the technological frontiers in the fields of AI, IOT and distributed computing.
Having expertise across a diverse range of areas has shaped my holistic skill set, encompassing design, engineering, architecture, and business strategy. These skills have been instrumental in developing products that have garnered global recognition, being utilized by Fortune 100 companies worldwide.
How did you get into Web3?
My journey into Web3 began with a long-standing curiosity about blockchain technology, sparked by reading "Blockchain Revolution" by Don and Alex Tapscott. This curiosity transformed into active involvement during the pandemic's early days in 2021, a period when I, like many others, was searching for new challenges and opportunities from the confines of my home.
I took a leap by participating in the Chainlink 2021 Spring Hackathon, where I achieved runner-up status. This accomplishment was the catalyst for my deeper exploration into Web3 technologies. I went on to participate in three additional hackathons, earning the title of ETHDenver finalist twice in 2022, in both the infrastructure and DeFi categories. These experiences led to further opportunities, including becoming an alumni founder of Tachyon, serving as a mentor for GPC Ventures, and joining 0xMacro DAO as an engineering fellow.
What advice would you give to someone joining Web3?
Don’t buy into the hype. There have been a lot of ‘pump and dumps’ and ‘hype train’ schemes in Web3. Focus on the fundamental technologies and what potential that can unlock that makes sense to you. Blockchain is infrastructure, a tool that has a lot of potential but you have to understand it.
What challenges or rough edges would you like to see solved in Web3?
There’s a huge learning curve around the adoption and regulation of Web3. I would like to see on-boarding and off-boarding be as simple as logging in with your email. However the main blocker isn’t so much the technology, but more on the regulation and taxation around using Web3. There’s a lot of value locked up on-chain that can’t be realized because of tax burdens and legal implications. If we are to see a future with this technology, governments and regulators will need to be more open-minded around the adoption of it and start being more forward thinking in inventing new ways to combat fraud by innovating on KYC and AML.
What are your favorite podcasts or books?
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Tell us something you like to do for fun.
I'm an accomplished artist, channeling my creativity into music as a performer, producer, and songwriter. You can find my work on SoundCloud and Spotify under the pseudonym LoRezz.
My passion for physical challenges also shines through in my dedication to Muay Thai and rock climbing. With an adventurous spirit, I've traveled the world, seeking and scaling some of nature's most formidable rock faces.
📅 PL Events
Bookmark the PL Events page to stay up to date! Here are upcoming highlights:
Jan 8 - Mar 5: Mona's 3D Object Buildathon: Unleash Your Creativity! in Denver, CO
Apr 5 - 8: FIL Hong Kong hosted by NDLabs alongside Hong Kong Web3 Festival in Hong Kong.
Apr 13-14: Funding the Commons in San Francisco, CA.
📝 Tips?
Have a suggestion for the next PL Updates newsletter? We’d love to hear from you! Contact Sara Hamdan at sara.hamdan@protocol.ai.