Last week, there were 9 developments and news in public chain infrastructure | Public Chain Weekly

According to incomplete statistics from ChainCatcher, from January 18 to 23, there were 9 major news events in the public chain infrastructure sector, including Cosmos, NEAR, Bluzelle, VeChain, Solana, and others.

1. Cosmos Ecosystem Foundation Releases Q4 Financial Data: Official Total Assets of $212 Million, Investment in 5 Projects

On January 19, the Cosmos Ecosystem Foundation ICF blog published an overview of the Q4 2020 financial data. The data shows that as of the fourth quarter of 2020, the official foundation's total assets were $212 million, with cryptocurrency-valued assets accounting for 82% of the total assets. The foundation's investment activities included both public securities and crypto investments, such as ixo, Regen, Agoric, Althea, and Iris.

Additionally, in the fourth quarter of 2020, the foundation received 22 grant applications, approving 13 grants; the committed grant amount for that quarter was $900,000.

2. Dragonfly Capital Announces Investment in NEAR, Becomes the Third Largest Validator Node

On January 19, cryptocurrency venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital announced a "significant" investment in the open network NEAR and joined NEAR's Validator Advisory Committee.

Dragonfly Capital stated that it is operating the third-largest validator node on the NEAR mainnet and will support the next phase of mainnet applications alongside other validators on the advisory committee. Currently, the staking amount for this node exceeds 17 million NEAR, valued at approximately $40 million.

3. Decentralized Database Bluzelle to Launch Mainnet on February 3

On January 20, the decentralized database Bluzelle announced that it will launch its mainnet on February 3. Bluzelle stated that the mainnet launch marks the arrival of decentralized storage, capable of operating at scale while minimizing latency, and it also features anti-censorship capabilities that can change the industry.

4. VeChain Launches Fee Delegation as a Service (DaaS), Supporting Token Payments for On-Chain Transaction Fees in the VeChain Ecosystem

On January 21, the core development team of VeChain launched the infrastructure module Fee Delegation as a Service (DaaS), which mainly includes (1) allowing dApp users to avoid complex on-chain transactions, significantly enhancing user experience; (2) supporting all project tokens in the VeChain ecosystem to pay for transaction fees on the VeChain blockchain, unlocking the potential demand for tokens and related decentralized finance (DeFi) services within the ecosystem. Additionally, VeChain has incorporated a fee delegation protocol, such as VIP-191, into the underlying protocol, allowing third-party service providers to pay transaction fees on behalf of users through signed agreements, removing significant barriers for large-scale dApp applications.

5. IRISnet Expected to Upgrade to Mainnet 1.0 in Early February

On January 21, IRISnet announced that it is expected to upgrade to Mainnet 1.0 in early February, introducing new features such as IBC, Coinswap (AMM), enhanced iService, and NFTs. The upgraded IRISnet mainnet will initiate the Kuafu phase outlined in the white paper, which will support partners like StarryMedia and Chainlink in expanding the IRISnet ecosystem in areas such as NFT ticketing applications and oracle integration, thereby increasing its network value. It is reported that the upgrade of the IRISnet mainnet is expected to occur one week after the upgrade of Cosmos Hub (currently scheduled for January 28, 2021).

6. Ethereum Developers Update Berlin Hard Fork Draft: Five EIPs, EIP-2537 Not Included

On January 21, Ethereum developer James Hancock announced on Twitter the updated draft specification for the Berlin hard fork, which includes five EIPs: EIP-2565 (ModExp Gas Cost), EIP-2315 (Simple Subroutines for EVM), EIP-2929 (Gas Cost Increase for State Access Opcodes), EIP-2718 (Defining a New Transaction Type), and EIP-2930 (Optional Access List). Additionally, all EIP codes have been merged into the four participating clients: Geth, Besu, Nethermind, and OpenEthereum, except for Geth, which has not merged the EIP-2930 code. Furthermore, the proposed new operation type (BLS curve) EIP-2537 was not included in the draft EIP list.

7. Solana Releases 2020 Annual Review: Over 100 Projects Integrated, Over 8.3 Billion On-Chain Transactions

On January 22, Solana released its 2020 annual review, stating that since launching the Beta mainnet in March, the global community has grown to over 650,000 members, with more than 350 validator nodes established, and partnerships formed with leading industry projects such as Audius, Circle, Chainlink, Serum, Terra, and Akash.

Currently, over 100 projects have been integrated, covering DeFi, blockchain gaming, and Web3 verticals, with cumulative on-chain transactions exceeding 8.3 billion. The number of independent SOL wallet addresses is 4.9 million, and over 1,000 developers participated in the hackathon held in the fourth quarter.

8. IOTA Foundation to Implement Smart City Projects in Asia and Europe

On January 23, the IOTA Foundation announced agreements with two technology companies, Tanglehub and Observer Foundation, to implement smart city projects in Asia and Europe over the next year, digitizing real estate in these regions. IOTA stated that starting in 2021, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Europe will be the focus of project development.

9. WikiChain Foundation Announces $15 Million Financing

On January 23, WikiChain announced that it recently secured $15 million in financing led by AEX exchange with a $3 million investment in the DeFi ecosystem. The team revealed that this funding will primarily be used to develop the DeFi ecosystem on WikiChain, supporting and incubating high-quality DeFi projects while providing sufficient liquidity for existing DeFi projects.

Currently, the DeFi ecosystem on WikiChain includes the decentralized exchange Wayki-DEX, synthetic asset issuance and trading protocol Wayki-X, and collateral lending and stablecoin issuance protocol Wayki-CDP.