Business
Aleph Zero Monthly Update: Smart Contracts, Conferences, and Wallets
Jun 8, 2022
The last four weeks saw the Aleph Zero team hard at work, concentrating their efforts on the finishing touches to the smart contracts pallet, attending two industry conferences, and establishing three new partnerships.
Smart Contracts Supported by Ink! v. 3.2
It was a very active month for the Substrate ecosystem, as versions 3.1 and 3.2 of the ink! smart contract language were released. Besides that, we invested a lot of time into research on the tokenomic-related aspects of smart contracts.
Final Touches to the Community Validator Mechanism
Ensuring the community validator mechanism was firing on all cylinders demanded the team to approach the challenge from multiple angles. We want the chain to be as bulletproof as possible before opening it for the outside world and the validator onboarding experience to be truly seamless.
When it comes to strengthening the chain, the network layer rework entered the penultimate stage (by the end of which the core team will still be doing some work, but we’ll feel confident enough to open up for outside actors). Additionally, a new node crash recovery mechanism was finished.
From the validator experience side, the tutorials and helpful scripts for validators are ready and will be reviewed by outside parties in the upcoming week. Besides that, the election and rewards pallet is prepared and waiting for some more extensive testing.
Improving the Testnet Bot by Bot
One of the challenges related to researching new features on the testnet involved the low volume of transactions performed. Over the past few months, we’ve been aware of this situation. To remedy the low volume of transactions, we’ve opted to introduce automatic traffic makers, i.e special bots that emulate real mainnet traffic as closely as possible and help us find potential bugs and vulnerabilities.
65% of AZERO Staked!
Aleph Zero observed enormous interest in the staking mechanism, with an impressive 65% of the circulating supply of AZERO delegated to the validator nodes with the average staking rewards currently amounting to around 15%. AZERO holders can now earn rewards according to their means while knowing they’re playing a part in maintaining the integrity of the Aleph Zero network in an environmentally-friendly manner ensured by the proof-of-stake architecture and the high performance of the blockchain.
Aleph Zero at Permissionless
Antoni Zolciak and Matthew Niemerg attended Permissionless to further explore establishing Aleph Zero’s position in the US market. Besides attending the general events and nurturing existing relationships, Aleph Zero co-hosted two intimate events together with AngelBlock, Fuse Blockchain, Interlock, and Secure Digital Markets.
Permissionless has been one of the largest DeFi conferences in history, with over 5000 people attending—including the most recognizable venture capital funds, builders, independent developers, general audience members, as well as the representatives of regulatory bodies.
Aleph Zero at BlockSplit 3
The BlockSplit 3 conference held between the 23rd and 25th of May in Split, Croatia, was a fertile ground for debate and discussion on the latest innovation in the blockchain sphere. Workshops for Web 3.0 developers were held on the 23rd of May, allowing Aleph Zero developer Damian Straszak to learn about the new approach to blockchain oracles that RedStone Finance brings to the table. The 24th and 25th of May were dedicated to the expo, an exciting melting pot during which we had the chance to “talk shop” with the team members of various Web 3.0 projects and crypto enthusiasts.
Additionally, conferences were held during these days, giving the public a more scientifically exacting glimpse into the various aspects of the crypto space. The Aleph Zero team was especially excited by Adam Gagol’s inclusion as a speaker during this part of the conference. Over 600 attendees and 50 speakers from every part of the globe took part in BlockSplit 3, sharing their knowledge and insights on a wide range of subjects such as DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and the intersection of blockchain and regulatory bodies. Truly an exciting event!
Aleph Zero Partners With Nova and SubWallet: A Spotlight on User-friendliness
We are incredibly excited by the partnerships with Nova and SubWallet as they bring about a significant improvement over the current Polkadot.js wallet used by the community. Aleph Zero has always stressed the importance of guaranteeing potential crypto users a hassle-free experience. Fortunately, this is a department in which both of the aforementioned wallets excel. If you prefer to manage your crypto assets “on the go,” be sure to check out Nova, whereas laptop or desktop users may want to explore SubWallet. Additionally, both platforms will also allow you to stake your AZERO tokens allowing you to continue supporting the network and ensuring its security.
Butterfly Protocol to Build a Censorship-Resistant Naming System on Aleph Zero
Aleph Zero has decided to collaborate with Butterfly Protocol in order to employ their unique naming service for wallet addresses, hashes, and other machine-readable identifiers that will live on the Aleph Zero blockchain and transform these difficult-to-read data strings into easily readable addresses. In practice, their solution aims to be a more flexible version of the current Domain Naming System (DNS) that has been around for as long as the Internet has been around. This move will ensure a more straightforward user experience for those developers who will build upon the Aleph Zero infrastructure. Also, as we begin to eye our own engagement with the metaverse, Butterfly Protocol’s unique skillset will support our efforts and make it simpler to engage with this exciting new development in the Web 3.0 landscape.
