Protocol Village: Serenity Shield Launches 'StrongBox' for Data Storage, Inheritance Transfers

Nov. 22: Serenity Shield, a startup focused on multi-chain data storage and inheritance solutions, is finally launching its main product, the StrongBox DApp, on the mainnet, according to the team: "It features a fully on-chain inheritance solution with scalable storage of up to 1 PetaB, poised for B2B and B2B2C mass adoption. Cloud 3.0 is redefining the concept of cloud storage with free encrypted, distributed, and redundant file storage for assets such as PDFs, words, audio, video, text, and cryptocurrency on the chain."

Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here.

Privy, Crypto Startup for Consumer Tools, Raises $18M to Grow Team

Nov. 22: Privy, a crypto startup focused on consumer tools, has raised $18 million in a Series A round led by Paradigm, with participation from earlier investors including Sequoia Capital, BlueYard Capital and Archetype, according to a blog post: "With this new funding, we will grow our team and continue to drive the development, security, and scalability of our onboarding toolkit and identity platform."

Frax Community Approves Plan to Use Axelar for Expansion to New Chains

Nov. 21: From the team at Axelar, a protocol for secure cross-chain communication: "A proposal has passed on-chain governance to use Axelar to expand Frax Finance products to multiple new chains."

Panoptic, DeFi Options Protocol, Raises $7M From Greenfield, HashKey

Nov. 21: Panoptic, an Ethereum-based protocol for DeFi-native options trading, has closed a $7 million financing round "spearheaded by Germany-based Greenfield Capital, with substantial contributions from HashKey, gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC), L1D as well as other influential pioneers in the blockchain industry," according to a press release. "Panoptic’s team has released last month its smart contract code to its wider community. This crucial next step sets the stage for the eagerly awaited beta release, giving the community a chance to explore the fundamental features of the protocol and final product."

Violet Launches VioletID, a 'Compliance-as-a-Service' Offering

Nov. 21: Violet has launched VioletID, a permissionless compliance-as-a-service offering for on-chain finance, to help protect users, allow for institutional participation and regulatory safety, according to the team: "VioletID orchestrates across all relevant compliance primitives (KYC/B, AML, etc) – all wrapped in a simple on-chain interface, that does not require our permission to integrate and is free to use. VioletID is the result of of our work at the intersection of compliance and on-chain finance. Earlier this year we launched Mauve, the first fully compliant DEX for RWAs, running on VioletID."

Lumoz to Launch zkEVM StableNet in December

Nov. 21: Lumoz, a leading ZK-RaaS (rollup-as-a-service) platform, is set to revolutionize the blockchain industry with the launch of StableNet in December, according to the team: "This cutting-edge Ethereum-based zkEVM introduces several groundbreaking features, including USDC stability, cross-rollup communication, and a decentralized prover network."

Vega Protocol 'Cosmic Elevator' Upgrade Enables Permissionless Derivatives Markets

Nov. 20: Vega Protocol, a layer-1 app-chain and derivatives DEX, unveiled the launch of perpetual futures trading markets on its platform, according to the team: "Having passed through community governance, Vega's latest software upgrade, dubbed the 'Cosmic Elevator,' allows users to permissionlessly propose the creation of new derivatives markets on any underlying, as well as use Ethereum smart contracts as price oracles."

Aptos Foundation, Alibaba Cloud to Collaborate on Asia-Focused Web3 Hackathons

Nov. 20: As the designated blockchain sponsor in Alibaba Cloud’s Innovation Accelerator program, the Aptos Foundation will provide builder resources and ecosystem fund support to promising Aptos-built projects, according to the team: "Aptos Foundation x Alibaba Cloud will launch the first co-branded Move developer community in Asia, furthering the impact of the smart contract programming language built for mass adoption. Aptos Foundation x Alibaba Cloud will also collaborate on a series of hackathons and regional events to expand and empower the Asian–Pacific Web3 community."

Neon EVM (on Solana) to Support Gas Fee Payments in Several Tokens

Nov. 17: Neon, an Ethereum Virtual Machine for scaling Ethereum apps on Solana, was set to announce at EthGlobal its testnet’s support for several tokens as gas fee payments, set to go live on mainnet before the end of this year, according to the team: "It marks a significant step towards enhancing user experiences within the EVM ecosystem. Users can bridge tokens from Ethereum to Solana for use in Neon EVM dApps or services, bypassing the need for NEON. The multi-token gas payment solution accepts various tokens, including SPL, USDC, USDT and SOL, offering flexibility in paying gas fees with the user's preferred token."

ZkLink Launches Nexus, an L3 to Bridge L2s

Nov. 17: ZkLink, a developer of zero-knowledge-proof powered blockchain solutions, announced the launch of Nexus, a production-ready and highly customizable layer-3 or "L3" designed to bridge the gap among different ZK Rollup layer-2 or "L2" ecosystems, to reduce liquidity fragmentation, according to the team.

Union Labs, Zero-Knowledge Interoperability Layer, Raises $4M in Seed Funding

Nov. 17: Union Labs, which aims to create an efficient zero-knowledge interoperability layer, has successfully raised $4 million in seed funding to build the "first fully trustless bridge that connects appchains, layer-1, and layer-2 networks," according to the team. "Capital secured is also earmarked for the expansion of Union’s seasoned team, comprised of leaders from Composable Finance; Consensys; Tokensoft; and Polygon; in anticipation of its upcoming mainnet launch. Other notable investors in the round include Lightshift and Chorus One."

Fhenix, Developer of 'Confidential Blockchain,' Now Plans Ethereum Rollups

Nov. 16: Fhenix, which announced a $7M fundraising in September to build a "confidential blockchain" powered by fully homomorphic encryption or (FHE), disclosed Thursday that it is "introducing FHE Rollups to boost privacy on Ethereum and similar networks." According to a message from the team: "These rollups enable secure on-chain transactions and private applications, letting developers craft confidential layer-2 networks while staying compatible with Ethereum." Fhenix founder Guy Zyskind told CoinDesk in an interview that "We're going to have our canonical Fhenix L2 mainnet," but also "We're trying to be the encrypted rollup stack" that builders can use to create their own networks. "Developers are not going to know there's crazy math and encryption under the hood," he said.

DLN, BloXroute to Create High-Speed Cross-Chain Intents Network

Nov. 16: DLN, which stands for deSwap Liquidity Network, a cross-chain trading infrastructure build on deBridge, has entered into a strategic partnership with bloXroute, a DeFi performance provider, "to provide MEV searchers, institutional DeFi traders and projects with lightning-fast intents-based cross-chain value exchange," according to the team: "Thanks to the synergy between DLN high performance infrastructure and the fast transaction-propagation capabilities of bloXroute’s blockchain distribution network, users and integrating dApps will be able to use bloXroute API for the fastest cross-chain interactions available."

Kinetex Gets Strategic Investment to Build on Gnosis

Nov. 16: Kinetex Network, a decentralized platform for cross-chain trading, announced the close of a strategic funding round, a "seven-figure sum," led by Factor and Gnosis Chain, to build on Gnosis Chain, a community-led EVM layer-1, according to the team: "This partnership empowers Kinetex to refine its groundbreaking trading approach to transferring liquidity between networks that eliminates the need to store assets in pools and leverages zero-knowledge (Zk) technology to achieve validation without relying on third parties.... Kinetex plans to launch its public testnet on Gnosis Chain early next year. Scheduled to last three months, the test phase is geared towards identifying bugs and refining the user experience."

Nocturne, Protocol for On-Chain Private Accounts, Deploys v1 to Ethereum

Nov. 16: Nocturne, a protocol enabling on-chain private accounts, has announced the successful deployment of Nocturne v1 to Ethereum mainnet. According to the team: "This marks a significant milestone in the journey towards a more private and accessible Ethereum. For the first time, users will have a compatible and easy-to-use product resembling a private onchain account."

CORRECTION (Nov. 16, 11:17 UTC): Corrects spelling of Kinetex in headline, first line.