Evening News ｜ Vitalik writes about ENS domain names; Amber lays off over 50% of some teams

Organizer: flowie, Chain Catcher

"What Important Events Happened in the Last 24 Hours"

1. Vitalik's Post: ENS Domain Names Are Very Cheap, and Regular Fees Should Be Introduced to Increase DAO Revenue

Vitalik published an article on his personal website discussing whether ENS domain names should introduce demand-based regular fees. He stated that today's ENS domain names are very cheap, which raises the trade-off between property intensity and fairness, and the high speculation in the ENS secondary market does not ensure market efficiency.

Vitalik suggested considering the introduction of demand-based regular fees for ENS domain names, meaning bidding on the annual fee for ENS domain names to price high-demand ENS domain names in a market-oriented manner. This approach could increase the cost of domain squatting while also increasing revenue for the ENS DAO. (Source link)

2. Digital Asset Platform Amber Group Begins Layoffs, with Some Teams Seeing Over 50% Cuts

According to Wu Blockchain, crypto financial services platform Amber Group has begun layoffs, with some teams seeing cuts of over 50%. Amber responded that this is a quarterly business adjustment, with a larger adjustment than usual based on bearish market expectations. Previously, Chain Catcher reported in May that Amber Group planned to raise funds at a valuation of $10 billion and had begun negotiations with potential investors. (Source link)

3. Web3 Social Network Hooked Protocol Completes Seed Round Financing, Led by Binance Labs and Sequoia Seed Fund

Binance announced that Binance Labs and Sequoia Seed Fund led the seed round financing for the Web3 social network Hooked Protocol, with the amount undisclosed. Hooked Protocol aims to build a community-driven social network with tokenomics design, providing users with a gamified experience. The team is currently integrating wallets and DID. Hooked Protocol will initially launch on BNB Chain and will expand to other Layer 1 blockchains in the future. (Source link)

4. Web3 Multi-Chain Relationship Aggregator KNN3 Network Completes $2.4 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by Liang Xinjun and Others

Web3 multi-chain relationship aggregator KNN3 Network has completed $2.4 million in seed round financing, led by HashGlobal and Liang Xinjun, co-founder of Fosun International. Other participating institutions include Mask Network, MetaWeb Venture, Eniac Venture, Tess Venture, Stratified Capital, Fundamental Lab, Incuba Alpha, Zeuth Venture, Cogitent Venture, Atlas Capital, and co-founders of projects like ETHsign, Impossible Finance, RSS3, ShowMe, and Yan Xin & Potter Li.

KNN3 Network provides web3 graphical solutions for relationship aggregation across multiple blockchain domains to support social dApps and AI analysis. It aims to become a community-driven data management protocol that supports on-chain data collaboration. (Source link)

5. Delphi Digital to Shift Focus to Research and Development of the Cosmos Ecosystem

Delphi Digital, previously focused on research and development of the Terra ecosystem, has announced it will focus on the Cosmos ecosystem in the future. Delphi Digital believes that Cosmos is best positioned to benefit from application chains and supports cross-chain architecture, while also enabling seamless integration of DeFi UX with order books, high leverage, and fast trade execution. Delphi Digital also stated that it is not an extremist for Cosmos and will continue to actively research and monitor other ecosystems. (Source link)

6. BNBChain: Soulbound Token BAB Holders Can Receive Exclusive Rewards from 14 Projects Including Ape, Pear, Gal, and Xwg

The soulbound token BAB has been launched on BNBChain, and 14 Web3 projects on BNBChain, including ApeSwap, Apollox, PearDAO, Project Galaxy, X World Games, Summoner's Arena, Ultiverse, Cyberconnect, P12, Mathwallet, Liveart, OpenOcean, TinyWorld, and The Harvest, will provide exclusive rewards for BAB token holders.

Binance users can mint BAB tokens to their wallet addresses on the BNB chain to enjoy privileges, which include exclusive airdrops, VIP benefits, and access to newly launched BAB community features. (Source link)

7. Crypto VC MetaWeb Raises $30 Million for Its First Fund, Investing in Over Thirty Companies

Venture capital firm MetaWeb Ventures, focused on crypto startups, announced it has raised $30 million for its first fund, supported by Sequoia Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Near Foundation, and others. MetaWeb stated in an email on Thursday that the fund aims to primarily invest in decentralized social media, decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, and DAOs. MetaWeb noted that the fund has been operating in stealth mode for the past few months and has already invested in over 30 startups, including the decentralized trading protocol Orderly Network. MetaWeb Ventures was established as an ecosystem fund for the NEAR Protocol, expanding its target scope beyond NEAR to invest in applications on other networks, including Ethereum, Aurora, and Cosmos. (Source link)

8. FTX Ventures to Acquire 30% Stake in SkyBridge Capital

FTX Ventures will acquire a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital as part of its $40 million investment deployment into the Web3 space.

Previously, Chain Catcher reported on July 21 that SkyBridge Capital would launch a new fund in September to invest in Web3 and crypto startups, which will engage in venture capital and late-stage equity investments and be open to qualified investors. (Source link)

"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading in the Last 24 Hours"

1. “Delphi Labs: Why We Are Focusing Our R&D on the Cosmos Ecosystem”

Delphi Labs is the protocol R&D department of Delphi, with a team of about 50 people dedicated to building new Web3 primitives. Previously, the team focused on researching and developing protocols on Terra. After the collapse of Terra, Delphi Labs faced a significant decision about where to focus the builders' work. This article details why Delphi ultimately decided to conduct R&D on Cosmos.

2. “NFT Financialization and Commodification: New Consumption x NFT = NFG”

Satoshi Nakamoto believed that Bitcoin is a self-enforcing prophecy. By analogy, if NFTs can achieve synchronization of beliefs and choices like Bitcoin, we have reason to believe that the value of NFTs can be continuously reinforced in the long-term Nash equilibrium. Of course, the anchoring of beliefs and choices is fluid, and currently, NFTs are far from reaching the consensus level of Bitcoin, making it naturally difficult to control or ensure this anchoring.

Addressing this issue means we still need to increase the conditions supporting the Nash equilibrium equation—namely, the intrinsic value and utility of NFTs.