Evening News | The developer of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" will collaborate with Solana to develop an NFT game; Stargate Finance's total locked value surpasses $2 billion

Organizer: Nianqing, Chain Catcher

"What important news has emerged in the past 12 hours?"

1. PUBG developer partners with Solana to develop NFT games

PUBG developer Krafton (formerly Bluehole) announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement with Solana for the design and marketing of blockchain and NFT games and services. The two companies will establish a long-term partnership to develop Solana-based NFT games and services. Last July, Krafton invested 5 billion won (approximately 4.2 million USD) in 3D avatar application development team Naver Z to enter the metaverse market. (Source link)

2. Reuters: El Salvador government seeks Binance's help for Bitcoin legalization
Reuters cited El Salvador's ambassador to the U.S., Milena Mayorga, stating that the El Salvador government is seeking support from cryptocurrency exchange Binance regarding the operation of Bitcoin as legal tender and the issuance of Bitcoin bonds. The ambassador mentioned that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is currently visiting El Salvador and plans to meet with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele today (Thursday). (Reuters)
3. South Korean telecom giant SK Group's subsidiary SK Square plans to issue tokens and introduce its Ifland virtual world
SK Group's IT investment division SK Square is preparing to launch its own cryptocurrency this year and plans to introduce a blockchain-based economy into its Ifland virtual world, online commerce, and other services. It is reported that SK Square will become the first subsidiary among South Korea's top ten conglomerates to develop a local cryptocurrency. Last year, SK Square became the second-largest shareholder of local cryptocurrency exchange Korbit, holding approximately 35% of the shares. (Source link)

4. Alibaba launches the largest digital collectibles trading platform in China
Alibaba Auction has launched a large number of third-party public chain and platform-supported digital collectibles stores in a prominent position on the Taobao APP homepage for users to conduct auction transactions. In addition to digital collectibles supported by the public chain Conflux, Alibaba Auction also features digital collectibles supported by domestic alliance chains "Zhixin Chain" and "New Version Chain."
5. LayerZero's cross-chain bridge Stargate Finance's total locked value exceeds $2 billion
According to data from the official website, LayerZero's cross-chain bridge protocol Stargate Finance has surpassed $2 billion in total locked value (TVL) within seven days of its launch, currently standing at approximately $2.006 billion. This amount ranks 16th among all DeFi protocols. (Source link)

"What articles are the editors of Chain Catcher reading?"

1. In-depth Analysis of Polygon's Full-Stack zk Scaling Solutions: Hermez, Nightfall, Miden, and Zero

For a long time, the focus of the Ethereum L2 debate has been dominated by ZK Rollup and Optimistic Rollup. Due to OP's EVM compatibility and more mature technology, it is more easily adopted by project developers, making OP more common and mainstream at present. According to L2BAET data, only three projects using OP solutions—Arbitrum, Optimism, and Metis—account for 70.8% of the L2 market share. In contrast, ZK Rollup has a lower adoption rate and market share due to higher development difficulty and slower technological progress.

As the Ethereum scaling solution with the highest total locked value, Polygon is firmly betting on zk technology for its scaling future. Last year, Polygon made significant acquisitions of Hermez and Mir, committing $1 billion to zk scaling.

Now, Polygon has a "complete set" of zk scaling solutions: Hermez, Nightfall, Miden, and Zero. Although all four scaling solutions are built on zk technology, each has its own strengths and strategies. So, what are the specific technical characteristics and development progress of these four solutions? Which one is more likely to succeed first?

2. Gitcoin's 13th round of donations is about to end; which projects have the highest support?

The 15-day Gitcoin 13th round of donations will end at 8 AM Beijing time on March 25. The number of projects participating in this round of donations has reached 830, with the main prize pool increasing from the previous round's $1 million to $1.2 million.

The overall structure of the 13th round of grants is similar to that of the 12th round. In terms of fundraising methods, Gitcoin has adopted a quadratic funding approach, where the more people participate in donations, the better the matching effect; at the same time, small donations will be well matched. In this article, Chain Catcher will introduce 20 high-quality projects that have emerged in this Gitcoin donation event, sorted by the number of project contributors (based on the statistics at the time of publication).

3. From $700,000 to $4 billion, how did South Korea's top crypto VC Hashed come to be?

Four South Koreans raised $700,000, and over five years, without any external funding, their assets grew from $700,000 to $4 billion. How did South Korea's top crypto VC Hashed come to be?

4. Behind El Salvador's Bitcoin bonds: "Old Hand" Blockstream and the evolving Bitcoin

On March 20, El Salvador announced that it might delay the issuance of Bitcoin bonds due to international turmoil. Previously, it was planned to issue $1 billion in Bitcoin bonds between March 15 and 20, which would be launched on the Bitcoin sidechain Liquid created by Blockstream, with a coupon of 6.5%. What role do the Bitcoin sidechain Liquid and Blockstream, which supports Liquid, play in the world of Bitcoin?