Evening News | OneKey completes approximately $20 million Series A financing; Christie's launches NFT platform "Christie's 3.0"

Organizer: Demian, Chain Catcher

"What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?"

1. Vitalik: The new book "Proof of Stake" has been published

Vitalik tweeted that his new book "Proof of Stake" has been published, "This book brings together various writings I've created over the past 10 years. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen!"

Previously, on August 31, Vitalik announced that his nearly decade-long collection "Proof of Stake" would be published in both digital and physical formats. Readers can now donate on Gitcoin to receive a digital copy and a commemorative NFT, with all proceeds going to charity. (Source link)

2. Hardware wallet OneKey completes approximately $20 million Series A financing, led by Dragonfly and Ribbit Capital

Hardware wallet company OneKey announced the completion of approximately $20 million in Series A financing, led by Dragonfly and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Framework Ventures, Sky9 Capital, Folius Ventures, Ethereal Ventures, Coinbase, Santiago Roel, and former Chain News editor Liu Feng.

It is reported that OneKey's classic product is OneKey Classic, which combines security and user experience. According to incomplete third-party statistics, OneKey has hosted billions of dollars in crypto assets and continues to grow rapidly. OneKey will prioritize long-term profitability, but currently has no plans for tokenization. Its founder, Wang Yishi, has been in the industry since 2013 and has translated and published many articles on the crypto industry in the early years on the Babit forum, later working for Babit, Bixin, ByteDance, and other institutions. (Source link)

3. Christie's launches NFT platform "Christie's 3.0"

Christie's announced that it has partnered with Manifold, Chainalysis, and Spatial to launch the NFT platform "Christie's 3.0," which will help traditional auction houses achieve NFT sales, with all transactions (including after-sales processing) being automated and on-chain.

It is reported that the first sale on Christie's 3.0 will feature nine new NFT works by crypto artist Diana Sinclair. (Source link)

4. Multi-party computation technology studio MPCH Labs completes $40 million Series A financing, led by Liberty City Ventures

According to The Block, multi-party computation technology studio MPCH Labs announced the completion of $40 million in Series A financing, led by Liberty City Ventures, with participation from QCP Capital, LedgerPrime, Animoca, Human Capital, and Oak HC FT.

It is reported that most of the funds from this round of financing will be used for MPCH's first product called Fraction, which will be launched later this year. Fraction utilizes the MPC6 engine to create a toolkit for institutions to manage digital assets, wallets, and workflows according to their own versions. Multi-party computation (MPC) allows multiple parties to jointly compute without revealing their private data. This technology is typically used in self-custody solutions, where multiple devices can verify transactions, eliminating the possibility of a single point of failure. (Source link)

5. Payment network company Satispay completes $305 million financing at a valuation of approximately $1 billion, with participation from Tencent and others

According to Techcrunch, Milan-based payment network company Satispay completed a €320 million ($305 million) Series D financing at a valuation of €1 billion (approximately $955 million), led by Addition, with participation from Greyhound Capital, Coatue, Lightrock, Block, Tencent, and Mediolanum Gestione Fondi SGR.

It is reported that this round of financing will be used to expand Satispay's product portfolio and for global expansion. Satispay's business includes peer-to-peer payments, instant payment services, and will support cryptocurrency payments. (Source link)

6. Further Ventures launches a new $200 million fund, focusing on digital assets and fintech

According to gulfbusiness, venture capital firm Further Ventures announced the launch of a new $200 million fund, which will focus on investing in startups in the fields of digital assets, fintech, and supply chain. In the area of digital assets, the fund will focus on digital asset payment products, blockchain asset custody and security solutions, marketplaces, wallets, and other institutional-level infrastructure, investing in seed and Series A rounds.

It is reported that Further Ventures' past investment cases include companies like Skype, SpaceX, Tesla, and Upside Foods. (Source link)

7. The blockchain version of "Sheep Game" is unauthorized, and the operator has reported the case

Chain Catcher reports that Beijing Jianyoul Technology Co., Ltd. issued a statement claiming that the company is the only legitimate operator of the game "Sheep Game" and has never developed or authorized the development of any blockchain games. Recently, someone impersonated its employees and released a blockchain version of "Sheep Game" on the BNB chain. The company has collected relevant evidence and reserves the right to report to judicial authorities and pursue legal action through the courts. (Source link)

8. Crypto research organization GCR and others jointly launch Web3 VC rankings, with Paradigm ranking first

Crypto research organization GCR, in collaboration with consulting studio Clearblock, launched the 2022 Web3 VC Top 50 rankings, measuring factors such as portfolio, competitive advantage, platform strategy, community and reputation, and the number of transactions in 2022.

According to the rankings, the top 20 Web3 VCs are Paradigm, a16z Crypto, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Sequoia, Variant Fund, Electric Capital, Multicoin Capital, ParaFi Capital, Digital Currency Group, Blockchain Capital, Union Square Ventures, Spartan Group, Alameda Research, Binance Labs, Animoca Brands, and CoinFund. (Source link)

"What interesting articles are worth reading in the past 24 hours?"

1. "How does LayerZero break data 'islands' and create a multi-chain universe?"

LayerZero, as a fully built cross-chain interoperability protocol, has been "on fire" this year. The name of this cross-chain protocol is very straightforward, clearly conveying its vision: to provide the foundational network structure and universal information layer for the future multi-chain ecosystem, where universality means the technology can be used for any cross-chain communication needs of decentralized applications.

At the end of March this year, LayerZero secured $135 million in Series A+ financing led by FTX Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and a16z, with top venture capital firms like Coinbase Ventures, PayPal Ventures, Tiger Global, and Uniswap Labs participating. Subsequently, it was reported that LayerZero Labs is raising funds at a valuation of $3 billion, with FTX Ventures having committed to lead the round.

So, what makes LayerZero special compared to other cross-chain communication protocols, and why is it attracting capital competition and favor? This article will analyze LayerZero's innovations from the perspectives of security, interoperability, and more.

2. "Interview with Infura co-founder: Why we plan to launch a decentralized protocol in 2023"

Recently, Infura announced the upcoming launch of a decentralized protocol (Decentralized Infrastructure Network), which will allow developers to more easily connect dApps and the Ethereum network. The emergence of the decentralized protocol is expected to address the previous centralization issues of Infura's products, marking an important step towards decentralization for Infura. As a result, the decentralized protocol has garnered significant attention from developers and the community, sparking discussions in the industry about Infura.

In this interview, Infura co-founder E.G. Galano revealed that there are currently over 400,000 registered developers on Infura, with 99.99% of the time in normal operating status, handling over 8.5 billion blockchain network requests daily. He also detailed the reasons for launching the decentralized infrastructure network and why the decentralized network is an important complement to Infura, while its centralized services will continue to be provided.

3. "Yunjiu Capital's Niu Fengxuan: We are still on the eve of the Web3.0 explosion"

Yunjiu Capital partner Niu Fengxuan has founded two companies: one in 2014 focused on traditional Web2 SaaS tools, and another in 2017 in the Web3 industry with the data company DappReview. When he entered Web3, the industry was still in a state of needing to be developed, with incomplete infrastructure, lacking even basic developer ecosystem infrastructure like wallets. Now, after four years in the industry, he has witnessed the gradual improvement of infrastructure, describing it as transforming from a "muddy path" to an "asphalt road."

Recently, as a former entrepreneur and now an investor and industry OG, Niu Fengxuan shared his deep understanding of the current state of the industry and his judgments on future trends during a salon, along with his personal experiences in the industry.