🔥 Hot + Trending
(#OffTheGraph) TheGraph is able to organize off-chain data: https://thegraph.com/blog/the-graph-off-chain-data-web3-data-pipelines/
The idea is to create a subgraph as a structured interface for querying off-chain data. This allows e.g. for complex off-chain computations to be published in IPFS and then getting indexed by TheGraph.
Think of hosting a decentralized blog where you store your articles (text) and metadata (creation date) in IPFS, have it indexed in a subgraph and then be able to query it from any third-party application via a coherent interface (e.g. fetch all posts for a certain period).
(#NiceCream) Gelato creates “Web3 Functions”: https://www.gelato.network/blog/gelato-functions-vs-chainlink-functions
Gelato and Chainlink functions describe their off-chain concept as “decentralized cloud functions”.
Comparing the functionality with TheGraph helps to get the idea: Using TheGraph you are responsible for checking the validity of your data and run the cronjob yourself. When using Gelato and Chainlink functions, you define the source code that is executed by the network providers. Their correct execution is incentivized and calls your designated on-chain smart contract functions eventually.
Both serve different purposes: TheGraph is data-driven, ensures correct indexing and is used off-chain (e.g. in a front end). Gelato and Chainlink functions are computation-driven to ensure a valid execution of your code and is used for on-chain purposes (e.g. to bring data from an API to your smart contract)
(#Adoption) Chinese Government releases Web3 white paper:
https://twitter.com/milestones_nft/status/1663458500922712064
(#DataM&A) Transpose has been acquired by Chainalysis:
https://twitter.com/transposedata/status/1663532440898400256
Frequent mergers and acquisitions in crypto make it even more obvious that you should not rely on only a single provider for your data. We are still in a stage where infrastructure providers for blockchain data are not decentralized enough. On the one hand it makes sense to introduce a certain level of diversification if your business requires reliable on-chain data. But on the other hand it’s not possible to simply reduce this risk by adding more redundancy. You need to decide which provider to use based on your use case requirements. Some providers e.g. do not offer detailed transaction execution traces.
For lower levels of infrastructure, there are already more options. ChainList’s RPC providers are a nice example for a good level of decentralization:
https://chainlist.org/ It provides a comprehensive list of chain IDs, network IDs and RPC addresses from which you can freely choose.
The more analysis, semantic interpretation and filtering is involved, the harder it gets. Here is a lot of room for improvement and future business opportunities for blockchain data providers that go beyond raw data. Transpose supports this view and introduces their three-layer abstraction model which is very helpful when comparing service offerings:
https://twitter.com/TransposeData/status/1628075472301989888
🔴 We are currently collecting and comparing blockchain data analytics providers. Let us know if you would like to read a dedicated article about it! 💌
(#ThatNameRingsABell) Deutsche Telekom joins as Polygon PoS validator node https://thedefiant.io/polygon-to-onboard-deutsche-telekom-as-validator
Deutsche Telekom is interested in blockchain technology for years (https://www.telekom.com/en/company/topic-specials/special-blockchain) so it makes sense for them to follow this path and support the decentralization of the Polygon network.
Besides good marketing, we view this move as a good way to increase trust in blockchain technologies and encourage adoption by business users.
(#Web3RisingFromTheAshes) Web3 gaming is trending again as big companies are doing partnerships and talk about their future plans.
Fenix Games x Immutable: https://venturebeat.com/games/fenix-games-teams-up-with-immutable-on-web3-games/
Nike x EA Sports:
🔍 Analytics + Security
(#ProofOfAwesomeness) Validity proofs are impressive and polynya has a nice way of explaining why: “The efficiencies of validity proofs”: https://polynya.mirror.xyz/dFSZi_EhEsktLVxFL1ako8EdxFBOWbW2Skfwd2NyG6A
🎓 Research + Academia
(#MonkeyCoding) Very helpful Solidity resource to learn by example: https://solidity-by-example.org/
(#NeverEnoughTooling) https://github.com/0xcacti/awesome-solidity-dev-tools/
It’s amazing to see the development of blockchain tooling and those compilations are always really useful as a reference.
It cannot be stressed enough, but a good tool set saves a lot of work, time and nerves😄 I can remember when we had our first blockchain hackathon in 2016. We were using the geth CLI and were sending transactions by hand .. fun times! But it shows how efficient smart contract development, testing and deployment is today.
(#HeySolidityPleaseFixThis) “Leveraging ChatGPT for Automated Smart Contract Repair: A Preliminary Exploration of GPT-3-based Approaches” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370844858_Leveraging_ChatGPT_for_Automated_Smart_Contract_Repair_A_Preliminary_Exploration_of_GPT-3-based_Approaches
Interesting approach where researchers experimented with the inputs for ChatGPT in order to fix smart contract vulnerabilities. It seems to work best when you add the output of analysis tools such as Mythril or Slither.
(#WhatTheHackGPT) ChatGPT vs Ethernaut: https://blog.openzeppelin.com/chatgpt-4-vs-ethernaut-using-ai-to-hack-solidity-smart-contracts
ChatGPT can be a low-effort starting point for identifying the most obvious or well-known security flaws in smart contracts.
But as always, take it with a grain of salt: ChatGPT output can only serve as a starting point and should not be the only analysis tool. 😄
💡 Concepts + Ideas
(#TwitterBouncer) Cool idea for NFT projects: Automatically have the official Twitter account follow each verified NFT owner (by connecting their wallet) but also automatically unfollow them if they sell it:
(#GitcoinExtension) 💰GitHub app “Merge to earn” automates contributor rewards: https://mte.slice.so/
(#DefragmentationVibes98) 🍿Grab some popcorn and relax while Bitcoin blocks are built: