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Aleph Zero Monthly Update: Preparing to Launch the Validators Program

Mar 24, 2022

In the past weeks, we’ve finalized the initial design of validator elections, continued working on the Aleph Zero bridge to Terra, and introduced staking on the testnet. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg; read on to find out more! 

Staking Live on Testnet and Focus on Community Validators

Our primary focus lately was on the testnet update, which was performed on 18.03 and, among multiple low-level changes that improved the resilience of our chain, we also introduced two significant changes:

  • Staking and validator nomination made their way to the protocol.  
  • The networking layer has been reworked in preparation to connect the community full nodes and validators.

Additionally, we continued the work on enabling community validators. This included finalizing the initial design of validator elections and planning its rollout to the testnet. We’ve also worked on simplifying the process of setting up Aleph Zero nodes by adding a well-defined method of building the aleph-node’s binary and creating docker images to the pipeline. 

Besides that, we continued our works on the Aleph Zero – Terra bridge, finalizing the design and progressing towards an intermediate goal of making Aleph Zero understand blocks from the Terra blockchain. 

Our main goal for the upcoming weeks is to focus on community validators: work on the election mechanism, release documentation for setting up the node, connect some external nodes to the testnet and announce the validators program. 

Aleph Zero Hits 10 Million Blocks! 

A pleasant surprise among all these updates is surpassing 10 million blocks added to the Aleph Zero blockchain! It’s an incredible feeling to observe the community engaging and interacting with the network. 

Block54 to Invest in Projects Building on Aleph Zero

If you’ve ever wanted to build on Aleph Zero, here is your chance to cooperate with Block54, a boutique investment fund that is going to be working hand in hand with us to jumpstart new projects. The experienced team behind Block54 possesses extensive knowledge of all the aspects of creating a successful blockchain product. Block54 believes that an imminent paradigm shift is on the horizon that will shake the foundations of Web 2.0 as it evolves into Web 3.0. We couldn’t agree more! 

Flidy and RR² Partner With Aleph Zero 

February saw us forming two highly promising partnerships with Flidy and RR², respectively. The former is a blockchain incubator located in Nigeria that aims to cater to the needs of the rapidly expanding Nigerian blockchain scene. The partnership with Cardinal Cryptography, the team behind the Aleph Zero core development, will also assist with their research, development, and go-to-market know-how. Flidy is focused on becoming the incubator of choice for Web3 startups in Nigeria and hopes to cut the time it takes to achieve product-market fit in half. Additionally, Aleph Zero will become the default recommended infrastructure. Flidy will also be providing $AZERO coins to cover the costs of building and maintaining incubated startups. 

The latter partnership involves RR², a Lisbon-based venture capital firm that invests in companies spearheading the Web 3.0 revolution. We are excited by the strategic investment funds that were provided by RR² during a private funding round in November 2021. RR² Capital was drawn to Aleph Zero due to the novelty of the Aleph Zero consensus protocol,  which seeks to solve several crucial challenges standing in the way of blockchain technology’s broader application. These challenges include concerns revolving around speed, security, and scalability. Aleph Zero is currently in Phase 3 of its roadmap. We are optimistic that RR² Capital’s interest in Aleph Zero will be a driving force in overcoming future challenges. 

$AZERO Listed on Gate.io and BitKan

Another exciting Aleph Zero update revolves around our token being listed on the Gate.io exchange. This milestone marks the first “top ten” crypto exchange $AZERO can call home. Additionally, we’ve also been listed on BitKan through their partnership with Gate.io.  

This concludes this round of updates, which goes to show that just because it’s cold and gray outside, it doesn’t mean that it has to be uneventful. To stay on top of what’s happening at Aleph Zero, remember to follow us on our socials. We’ve got some exciting developments planned!