Protocol Village: Matter Labs, iCandy Plan New ‘Hyperchain’

Jan. 18: Matter Labs and iCandy, a game developer in Southeast Asia, announced a strategic collaboration that will see the joint commitment and allocation of resources to the development of a dedicated zkSync gaming and AI-focused hyperchain, to be called zkCandy. According to the team: “The hyperchain will have gaming and AI-specific tools, decentralized gaming infrastructure, developer resources, and a game development ecosystem. ZkCandy Limited will be set up with both companies jointly investing resources to build the ecosystem around the hyperchain.”

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Safary Closes $2.4M Pre-Seed Round Led by Lemniscap

Jan. 18: Safary, describing itself as the “Web3 alternative to Google Analytics,” has closed a $2.4 million USD pre-seed round, led by Lemniscap, with participation from Arca, SevenX, Big Brain Holdings, Saison Capital, Diaspora Ventures and 20 angel investors, according to the team. “The funding will accelerate the development of Safary’s marketing attribution platform, enabling Web3 teams to analyze their marketing CAC, channel ROI and customer LTV. Safary’s free solution allows projects to unlock powerful Web3 analytics by adding one line of code to their website. Safary tracks wallets, shows Web3 conversions, and links to on-chain actions.”

Mimima, Layer-1 Blockchain, Turns Off Centralized Servers, Now Runs on 25K-50K User Nodes

Jan. 18: Minima, a layer-1 blockchain designed to be “totally decentralized,” has “turned off all 24 centralized servers – 16 network relay nodes and 8 archive nodes. The network now runs entirely off the 25,000 to 50,000 nodes kept active solely by its user base,” according to the team. The milestone is being referred to as “Decentraday,” said Luke Edwards, head of communications.