Ergo Monthly Wrap Up: July
Welcome to the monthly wrap-up for the Ergo ecosystem, where we bring you the latest developments and achievements from various projects within the community.
In July 2023, the Ergo community saw significant progress across a wide range of initiatives, from protocol updates and new feature launches to exciting collaborations and integrations.
⛏️ Block 1,051,200 marked the period where the first blocks from storage rent were available for reclaiming. Due to an error in how one of the off-chain bot operators for Spectrum was operating, several boxes with `creationHeight = 0` were created, making them liable for storage rent immediately. Thankfully, in a demonstration of the integrity of the Ergo community, the developer who was responsible for this bug managed to claim most of the expired boxes with valuable tokens and returned them to their rightful owners!
⛏️ Following Ergo's emission schedule, block rewards have been reduced by 3 ERG to 36 ERG per block at block height 1,044,000. This is effectively ERGs first halving from the initial block rewards at genesis. The next reduction will happen around October 8th.
📹 The ErgoVersary Summit concluded at the start of this month, there are a bunch of great videos to catch up on if you haven’t done so already! The full playlist is linked below:
💸 The Sigmanauts Treasury has been funded with 5,000 ERG! They plan to use these funds to enhance engagement and outreach through notable promotions, reward community members' efforts with bounty programs, and offer reimbursements for costs related to services provided for the success of Ergo. Additionally, there was a successful raffle hosted by one of the Sigmanauts to bootstrap a TikTok account and manager for Ergo.
🏆 GeN3 Magazine is honouring kushti under 40 under 40 in Web3 !
📆 Core developer Alex Chepurnoy (aka kushti) will be presenting a speech on "Creating money via trust or collateral in the age of Blockchains" at the Web3 Lebanon Dev-Meet event today!
🐕 Ergo has landed on the SlumdogeMillionairs radar, with him quickly falling for Ergo and starting to accumulate.
🏛️ Even with these low prices, we’ve been pushing hard to improve accessibility for the community. Keep your eyes peeled for a couple of crowdfunders on the way to get us listed on some more centralised exchanges.
Protocol and Reference Client
The unveiling of Node Version 5.0.13 marks a significant milestone for the network, bringing forth a highly anticipated enhancement with the introduction of chain bootstrapping via UTXO Set Snapshots NIPoPoWs, the synchronization process experiences a revolutionary transformation, slashing data requirements by an impressive 95%.
NIPoPoWs emerge as a cornerstone technology for the ecosystem, playing a pivotal role in achieving faster synchronization times and fostering wider participation in decentralized infrastructure. The optimized bootstrapping with NIPoPoWs not only lowers the barriers for entry but also improves decentralisation with users on Twitter competing for just how quickly they can get a pruned full node up and running.
With this release, log space clients (NiPoPoWs + stateless clients) will soon become a reality you can play with.
📌 Set up a pruned full node today!
Sigma
Morphic made significant progress toward Sigma version 5.0.10 RC, currently awaiting review. The team worked on various aspects, including enabling cross-compilation to JavaScript, implementing an unsigned transaction builder, and advancing multi-sig signing. This will be a library that can be reused in JS and also on JVM. The idea is to have the same implementation cross-compile to JVM and JS projects.
💰DeFi
Rosen Bridge
In July, significant developments were made to Rosen Bridge. The community eagerly awaits the public release of this essential interoperability solution, which enables seamless cross-chain communication and interoperability with other blockchain networks! Main launch is still in testing phase and progressing very well. They hope to finish the tests in the coming days (if nothing unexpected happens 🤞) Additionally, more than 120 Cardano SPOs applied for being a watcher. More news to come soon!
duckpools
duckpools is officially launching on August 15th! All Phase 1 development is now complete, marking the beginning of a new era. Lending pools on Ergo are only moments away, so brace yourself for a thrilling new chapter in Ergo DeFi.
Paideia
Paideia achieved substantial progress in proposal creation and voting. The backend for Paideia is ready for the beta phase, while the front end is finalizing notifications. Bringing their MVP launch closer. As of July 31st: “The frontend is hooked up, was just some small issues that cause the creation of proposals to hang, issue is found and frontend dev is fixing, then we are ready to test internally”. Make sure to also check out their proposal in Catalyst Fund 10!
DexyGold
Some delays to the testnet that was expected to go live the end of July, however, it’s not far away. Stay tuned, and check out the recent community chat for more information!
Spectrum Finance
Spectrum has launched its Cardano AMM, LBSP, and ISPO SP. As well as the Spectrum Network cross-chain programmable messaging protocol White Paper v1.0!
YouTube: Discover Ergo Part 6: Setup AMM Bot
Twitter Spaces: F10 Proposal SPO revenue stream w Zengate, RosenBridge & Spectrum
SigmaFi
The SigmaFi team focused on testing the ERG/USD collateral-based liquidation mechanism and developing contracts for tokenized bonds. Additionally, they made progress on auto-liquidation contracts and were integrated into DefiLlama.
THz.FM
Thz.fm made notable progress on its single-page application design and front end, including a single-page app version, API endpoints, and a successful mint of an audio NFT. An alpha preview is already available, and the artist dashboard is fully operational. Aiming for an early October launch.
Analog Ergo
The swap functionality underwent thorough testing, and they are currently working on enhancing the user experience (UX) features while planning a demo to highlight basic functionality.
Lithos
Background developments on Lithos have begun, with a planned release on Nexus for use as a custom transaction builder.
Crux Finance
Crux Finance is an all-in-one platform for portfolio management and charting within the Ergo ecosystem and will provide advanced data utilization capabilities, tracking positions and trades, analysing profits, losses, and on-chain activities, and accessible and comprehensive charting tools. Learn about CruxFinance features, benefits, and how it can help improve your ecosystem experience in this Twitter Spaces or listen to their Introduction space.
Auction House
A new release from the auction house team brings a nicer selection mode in the user profile for listing - displaying trait rarity. Select a trait in the artwork page to see all artworks with that trait + more optimizations. The next release will bring a buyout option for timed auctions. The first share of profits has also been distributed to all $AHT holders; if you haven't already done so, please check your wallets! 🥳
Machina Finance & Ergomatic
Work on Machine Finance continues with the contract specifications complete. Ergomatic was also announced, a generic off-chain execution framework for Ergo bots. It is a core aspect of MachinaFinance. They hope to set a new open-source standard that extends the functionality of all projects in the Ergo ecosystem.
Off-The-Grid
Off the Grid is a decentralized application built on the Ergo blockchain to implement automated grid trading orders while allowing users to retain controls of their funds. It builds on of the grid trading contract described by kushti here and implements an execution bot/batcher that can automate order matching without user interaction.
EXLE
WEQNT Stake Pool incorporated the first stable microfinance cooperative in Kakuma Kenya. Together with EXLE - Banking the Unbanked!
Gluon W±
Djed/AgeUSD/SigmaUSD have those minimal and maximal reserve ratio parameters, which cause discontinuities in their behaviour and problems for user experience (e.g. reserve coin holders cannot sell their reserve coins in certain situations). Gluon is designed to remove all these discontinuities.
Phoenix & Hodlcoin
Two front-ends for the updated Holdcoin contract are under development and live on testnet. phoenixfi.app and app.hodlcoin.co.in highlighting some healthy competition amongst the front-end UIs. These both interact with the same Bank box in the backend, so whatever one you use is up to you!
🕹️ NFTs & Gaming
BlitzTCG
The BlitzTCG team focused on developing the Market page for BlitzTCG's website and prepared for the next playtest event. You can read through this very lengthy project update if you want to get a sense of Blitz project efforts as of July 2023
Bitmasks
C8 kept the momentum going with web UI updates and preparations for the Cardano breeding scrolls mint.
Lilium
liliumergo.io, a community-centric NFT sale platform is live on mainnet!
Cyberverse
The much beloved Cyberverse game is public again, with a plethora of updates.
🛠️ Tooling
Oracle Pools v2
Work this month was carried out on voting scenarios, with testing conducted in private pools. Updates were made to the gold ERG pool on testnet, including the bootstrapping of a new pool. After several betas, the first release candidate is now available!
FleetSDK
Fleet SDK v0.1.3 released! This version brings an ErgoScript compiler and a “mock chain” package, which lets you test your Ergo contracts in a simulated blockchain environment using popular test frameworks like Jest and Vitest. They also finished their exchange plugin implementation, reached 100% test coverage, and added the Ergo tree class model and compiler. Development of the Fleet SDK for age USD plugin, compiler package, and REST API specs for U Explorer.
TabbyPOS
TabbyPOS has received recognition from IoTeX and has been included in its ecosystem. Additionally, they have obtained some grants to further develop and strengthen their capabilities. Next, we will add a new task in their weekly updates - integrating with IoTeX through the W3bStream platform. See their latest dev update here.
ZenGate
ZengateGlobal is onboarding the Sri Lanka tea industry, working with producers, buyers, and regulators. Have a look at this proposal for them to build a necessary governance toolset They also introduced the Winter Protocol, a game-changing open-source traceability protocol that's set to revolutionize the Cardano ecosystem.
On the Ergo side, the database design is mostly complete and Mgpai is working on the nft/asset viewer for Palmyra com dex
Satergo
Satergo 1.6.0 released, incorporating ErgoPay! The latest update also includes DeFi/dApp support, a seamless installation process for Windows users, CoinGecko price source with fiat currency conversions, improved wallet performance, added VM arguments for user control, enhanced screen reader support, fixed node log-level functionality, and improved user accessibility and translations.
GuapSwap
GuapSwap is completing contracts for the version 2 launch and made progress on the off-chain library code. They have finished their Spectrum service contract, and are working on a new proxy contract for miners.
ErgoNames
ErgoNames has made considerable progress in its development. They have implemented end-to-end tests, created contracts for subdomains, and almost completed the UI rendering. Additionally, they addressed and patched any issues related to frontrunning, ensuring security. The team is actively researching subdomain support and continuing to work on contracts.
ErgCube
The Ergo community received exciting news as Ergcube unveiled its Token Dashboard, offering open and free access to critical token information, such as price charts, swaps, sentiment analysis, NFTs, Sigmafi bonds, and staking rewards. Registered users can take advantage of additional features, including a centralized ATM, personal swaps tab, and real-time allocation statistics. With a user-friendly interface, Ergcube ensures a smooth and enjoyable experience for all users. Stay tuned for more updates as the team continues to enhance the Ergo journey. The community expresses gratitude to Ergcube for shaping the future of Ergo together!
Ergo Meta
ergo-meta is an Ergo off-chain registry for tokens, contracts, and dApps. In the latest update, TokenEntry specifications and schema validations were implemented. The team also conducted tests with different technical stacks, and Deno emerged as the preferred choice for CI validations and static API building.
uExplorer
Pragmaxim worked on creating a smooth and efficient way for users to interact with uExplorer through a REST API. They also fixed issues related to how information is organized and accessed, making the platform faster and more user-friendly and are working on completing the migration of the uExplorer backend to ‘Zio 2’ (WIP)
ergexplorer
ergexplorer once again has been grinding away, adding updates to the address book, filter, sorting, and visual enhancements. Upgraded the server and worked on scraping and indexing for addresses. Read their full Development update here.
sigma-rust
The initial building of a wrapper for sigma-rust in Go is underway, with the potential for extension to support different use cases.
Ergo Synced Node
The repository has been updated to version 5.012, with an updated snapshot for a fully indexed node, allowing users to achieve a fully synced node in under 30 minutes.
Ergonnection (P2P node communication library)
Ergonnection is a Java 17+ library for communicating with nodes of the Ergo network. This month they support for block header objects in the P2P node communication library.
🎱 Tokens
hodlCOMET NFTs
Koutelier collaborated with Lyson on the launch of a new ERG collection of NFTs called hodlCOMET. Additionally, they’re developing a new Spectrum theme to honeypot some users.
GreasyCEX
The GreasyCEX team demonstrated a diverse range of accomplishments in their recent endeavors. They made significant progress on the GCX project, focusing on finalizing the greasy mission and completing the greasy paper. Moreover, they readied their NFT collection for minting and prepared for a listing on Spectrum.
Conclusion
The Ergo ecosystem witnessed remarkable progress in July 2023, once again innovating in grinding despite the price. Exciting developments, such as the introduction of chain bootstrapping via NIPoPoWs and significant advancements in DeFi projects like Rosen Bridge and duckpools, highlight the community's dedication and innovation. Gaming and NFT projects also showed promising growth. The vibrant and talented community continues to push the boundaries of blockchain technology. This time next month we should have duckpools and Rosen Bridge live, Hodlcoin relaunch, DexyGold on testnet, as well as potentially the Paideia MVP and many others!
Check out the community chat on Discord or Telegram for a 4th-year recap and 5th-year discussions!
