Protocol Village: Lita Releases ‘Valida ZkEVM,’ Claims Speed, Efficiency Advantages

May 16: Lita released its Valida zkVM and Valida C Compiler Toolchain, enabling faster, cheaper and more efficient ZKP generation, according to the team: “Valida’s compatibility with LLVM opens the door to a host of conventional programming languages, helping developers to easily transition into the world of decentralized systems. Lita’s benchmarks for Valida’s performance capabilities show that single-core Valida proving was carried out with a speed ranging from 1.19 to 54 times faster than multi-core RISC Zero proving, and between 19 to 1,600 times more efficient, reducing CPU time and energy expended on proof computation.”

Entangle, Interoperable Data Infrastructure Layer With ‘Liquid Vaults,’ Launches Mainnet

May 16: Entangle, an interoperable data infrastructure layer powered by underlying primitive “liquid vaults,” is releasing its mainnet after two years of development and a strict testnet phase, according to the team: “The network currently holds 71 validators, including Hashkey Cloud, Rhino, Nodefi and DaiC. The mainnet also presents the Photon Messaging feature, enabling omnichain development across 16 EVM and non-EVM blockchains, including Solana.”

Alvara Protocol, Developing DeFi-Based System for Fund Management, Launches Testnet

May 16: Alvara Protocol is “launching its testnet, marking a major milestone in its development of a DeFi-based system for fund management,” according to the team: “Alvara democratizes fund management with an innovative tokenized fund factory, leveraging DeFi, ensuring transparency, liquidity, and cost-efficiency compared to traditional hedge funds and ETFs. Built on the ERC-7621 token standard, it allows anyone to become a fund manager. With the testnet live, users can explore the platform, provide feedback, and help shape Alvara’s future impact on DeFi and TradFi industries.”

Hashgraph Association, Qatar Financial Centre Plan $50M ‘Digital Assets Venture Studio’

May 16: The Hashgraph Association has signed a strategic partnership with the Qatar Financial Centre to launch a $50 million Digital Assets Venture Studio, according to the team: “The platform will support local Qatari and international portfolio companies in the development of regulatory-compliant decentralized finance solutions and digital assets built on the Hedera Distributed Ledger Technology network. The studio will be part of Qatar’s Digital Assets Lab within the QFC Innovation Dome as part of Qatar’s ‘National Vision 2030’ to accelerate research and development within the digital asset space.”

KYVE Starts ‘Phase 0’ of Grants Program With Up to $50K Per Approved Grant

May 16: KYVE Network representatives announced that the KYVE Grants Program: Phase 0 is now live: “This grant phase offers up to $50,000 in funding per approved grant that utilizes KYVE’s trustless datasets and or tooling,” according to the team.

EasyA Consensus Hackathon – Call for Participants

This year, Consensus is hosting its first ever in-person hackathon together with the world’s number 1 Web3 learning app, EasyA. This will be a three-day, multi-chain IRL hackathon with world-class sponsors from Sui to Stellar to Polkadot and beyond, and will attract the world’s best developers to build the future of Web3 and raise funding for their projects.

Projects launched by EasyA alumni are valued at over $2.5 billion. The EasyA Consensus hackathon is going to be 2024’s most important hackathon yet.

We have a few remaining spots left for hackers, so if you’re excited about participating, make sure you sign up here!

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. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.