ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the multi-chain game ecosystem Treasure.Web3Caff Research researcher Wayne pointed out in the report that the Treasure ecosystem, which has attracted multiple games such as Calamity, Wanderers, Unchained, and Synergy Land, announced plans to establish its own Layer2 application chain in February 2024. Ultimately, Treasure DAO decided to adopt Arbitrum Orbit technology and proposed the concept of "Infinity Chains" in its white paper, aiming to make Treasure Chain the core of numerous game Layer3s. Subsequently, the Ruby testnet went live in April. However, by September, Treasure DAO decided to abandon Arbitrum Orbit and instead migrate to the ZKsync-based Elastic Chain, officially launching the mainnet on December 11. After the launch, it is expected that over $200 million in ecosystem-related assets will be affected, attracting widespread attention.The report further pointed out that from NFTs to the multi-chain game ecosystem, Treasure's exploration in the Web3 gaming field continues to advance, especially after its decision to build a Layer2 application chain and propose the concept of "Infinity Chains." Treasure is gradually moving towards its initial long-term goals. The decision to build the application chain based on Arbitrum Orbit and then shift to the ZKsync Elastic Chain also demonstrates Treasure's commitment to providing a higher-performance, lower-cost, and superior cross-chain capability technology foundation. However, Treasure also faces challenges such as technological homogenization, liquidity issues, and the test of BD capabilities, and resolving these issues will directly impact the healthy development of the ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the ZKP hardware acceleration project Cysic. Web3Caff Research researcher Bob pointed out in the report that zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) have a history of nearly 40 years and are widely used in privacy protection and layer two scaling in blockchain. However, due to high computational resource consumption and slow verification speeds, user growth is limited. Therefore, hardware acceleration has become a key solution. FPGA and GPU have already implemented multiple ZKP products, while the more performant ASIC is considered the "Mount Everest" of the industry due to high costs and uncertainties. Currently, Cysic, as the only team developing ZKP ASIC, has the potential to unlock a market worth billions.The report further points out that ZKP is one of the core technologies of Web3, and ZKP hardware acceleration is still in its infancy. Compared to Cysic, both the current industry methods of operating open-source code libraries to accelerate GPUs and building FPGA clusters are still in the early trial-and-error stage. Cysic provides a user-friendly ZKP acceleration solution and is currently the only product open for testing and pushing to the market, with its testnet having entered Phase 2. Its performance is claimed to be 5 to 10 times faster than GPU acceleration, with plans to launch the mainnet by the end of 2024. Additionally, Cysic's ZK-ASIC hardware products are highly anticipated, with two models expected to be launched in 2025, targeting both enterprise (B-end) and consumer (C-end) markets. Although there are doubts about ZK-ASIC within the industry, from a long-term development perspective, introducing ASIC to establish a ZKP "mining" model could be a key step in promoting ecological development.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the Based Rollup track. Web3Caff Research researcher Wildon pointed out in the report that with the development of blockchain technology and the surge in market demand, Ethereum is gradually unable to handle the massive transaction volume.As a result, the concept of Rollup emerged, separating transaction execution from the mainnet and moving it off-chain for computation, thereby alleviating the computational burden on the mainnet. This is currently the main solution to Ethereum's scalability issues. In the thriving Rollup ecosystem, Optimistic Rollup and ZK Rollup are the two main factions.However, whether it is Optimistic Rollup or ZK Rollup, although they effectively improve transaction processing speed, they also have limitations in terms of security, MEV, decentralization, latency, and computational costs. In light of this, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake proposed the concept of Based Rollup in May 2023, where the mainnet takes on the role of the Rollup sequencer, allowing Rollup to inherit more characteristics of the mainnet in an attempt to break through the dilemmas it faces. The report further points out that while Based Rollup has advantages such as decentralization, enhanced security, and simplified architecture, it also carries inherent issues.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the Web3 payment track. Web3Caff Research researcher Rosa pointed out in the report that Web3 has been closely linked to payment systems since its inception. Bitcoin opened a historic chapter in global cryptocurrency payments. Cryptocurrencies inherently possess on-chain native payment advantages, and in recent years, the development of new currencies such as stablecoins has had a significant impact on traditional payment systems and cross-border payments. The distributed ledger and programmability of Web3 technology provide value advantages such as instant settlement, cost efficiency, and transparency in the payment field, gradually changing the traditional financial payment landscape. However, the technical characteristics of Web3 payments pose significant risks to the real-world monetary system and payment systems.The report further points out that there is an intersection between digital payments and Web3 payments, but there are also significant differences. Digital payments are conducted electronically, relying on traditional financial systems and controlled and regulated by centralized institutions; their advantages lie in convenience, speed, and security. Web3 payments, on the other hand, are a payment method based on blockchain technology and decentralized networks. They use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as payment means and execute payment conditions automatically through smart contracts, achieving decentralized peer-to-peer transactions. The main characteristics of Web3 payments are: decentralization, permissionless, native payment functionality, and trustless mechanisms. Currently, an increasing number of industry giants such as PayPal, Stripe, and Mastercard are laying out Web3 payment strategies, launching products like stablecoins and peer-to-peer transaction infrastructure, indicating that Web3 payments are gradually moving towards the mainstream market and gaining acceptance among the general public. Moreover, on one hand, more and more countries are beginning to regulate and legalize cryptocurrency payments, while on the other hand, the Bank for International Settlements is assisting central banks in exploring the feasibility of programmable money and programmable asset DvP settlements, as well as the application of CBDCs in cross-border payments through sandbox experiments. It is believed that this will drive the global payment system and financial system towards a more transparent, efficient, and digital direction.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the Move-based public chain Sui. Web3Caff Research researcher Warren pointed out in the report that public chains, as the core infrastructure of blockchain technology, have made significant progress in recent years. With the booming rise of decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs, the performance demands on public chains have been increasing. Modern blockchain applications require high throughput, low latency, security, and scalability to meet the needs of a large user base. Recently, Sui's newly launched high-performance consensus mechanism Mysticeti has attracted a new round of market attention, and its continuously advancing ecological landscape has also made it one of the most competitive projects among high-performance public chains. According to a report from CoinGecko on May 17, Sui's highest daily average real TPS (Transactions Per Second) reached 854 transactions per second, second only to Solana and significantly ahead of the third place.The report further pointed out that on May 4, 2024, Sui proposed the new consensus protocol Mysticeti, which was developed based on in-depth research of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus mechanisms. This represents an improvement over the Narwhal-Bullshark consensus algorithm (which is based on a DAG memory pool and an efficient BFT consensus algorithm) launched when Sui's mainnet went live a year ago, enhancing transaction speed and reducing hardware requirements for validating nodes. On July 26, the Mysticeti consensus mechanism was officially announced to be live on the mainnet. As a next-generation consensus mechanism, the results from nearly two months of testing on the testnet indicated that Mysticeti achieved the fastest overall latency in blockchain history, reaching consensus on the testnet within 390 milliseconds and completing settlement within 640 milliseconds. This is an 80% reduction in consensus time compared to Narwhal-Bullshark.The report also further pointed out two major core challenges for Sui: first, the insufficient number of Move language developers, which makes it difficult for the developer ecosystem to grow rapidly, thereby limiting the development of the application ecosystem; second, the slow development of native digital assets, which leads to insufficient liquidity of funds, affecting the overall activity and user attractiveness of the ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the L2 public chain Scroll. Web3Caff Research researcher ssr.eth pointed out in the report that in January 2021, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that with the advancement of zk-SNARK technology, zk-Rollup would prevail among all Layer2 solutions. As a member of the zk-Rollup sector, Scroll is collaborating with the PSE team, supported by the Ethereum Foundation, to develop zkEVM. Although the PSE team has recently shifted its focus to zkVM, Scroll maintains its unique orthodoxy and is exploring new technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and hardware acceleration, aiming to launch a more secure, efficient, and highly scalable zk-Rollup network.In addition, Scroll introduced EIP-4844 data blobs on April 29, 2024, to achieve Layer1 data availability. The emergence of EIP-4844 significantly optimizes Layer2 solutions and effectively alleviates data availability issues. The report further indicates that with the launch of the Scroll mainnet, its ecosystem is continuously improving, and community incentive activities and hackathons are attracting more and more users and developers.Despite the steady increase in its TVL and active address count, whether Scroll can stand out among numerous competitors remains a key concern for the community. For example, the disadvantages and risks faced by Scroll include issues of technological maturity and user acceptance; zk-Rollup technology is still in the validation phase, has a long development time, and hardware acceleration technology is still under testing. In terms of developer support and ecosystem building, the number of Scroll users and transaction volume still needs to grow. Challenges in cross-chain interoperability and ecosystem integration also increase the resistance to its comprehensive application, while the choice between zkVM and zkEVM will determine the future development direction.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the seven major derivative narratives of modular blockchains. Fang Jun, a partner at Uweb and a special researcher at Web3Caff Research, pointed out in the report that Web3 infrastructure is undergoing comprehensive modularization, a trend commonly referred to as "modular blockchain," which is the fundamental cornerstone for building the future multi-chain world. The best starting point for discussing modularization is Ethereum. Ethereum's scalability is Rollup-centric, characterized by a surge of L2 solutions. Ethereum L2 has created a demand for middleware layers, such as DA, Rollup frameworks, shared sequencers, interoperability, ZK proof services, and more. Previously, discussions on modular blockchains were largely focused on Rollup frameworks or DA layers; therefore, this report attempts to observe from a broader perspective to provide a panoramic view. Starting from Ethereum, the grand narrative of modular blockchains is derived into seven narratives (Ethereum, DA, Rollup, Cosmos, BTC L2, middleware, ZK).The report further points out that observing the modularization of Web3 infrastructure from the center of Ethereum is reasonable. First, the technological infrastructure supporting Web3 applications is almost entirely based on the model first proposed by Ethereum, namely the "smart contract platform." Second, the mainstream trend of modularization is to split Ethereum, which functions as a single blockchain, into numerous modules for innovation and replacement, and then recombine them. Third, important technologies such as VM, DA, account abstraction, Rollup, and ZK are primarily developed within the Ethereum ecosystem. Fourth, the Ethereum and EVM-compatible ecosystem has taken shape and dominates, with most applications choosing to extend from it. This discussion will help us understand the emerging foundational chains (especially various Rollups, BTC L2, etc.), horizontal layers (such as DA layers, staking layers/re-staking layers, ZK proof networks, etc.), and can assist in predicting potential new hotspots.The report also notes that the Ethereum ecosystem, particularly EVM, still holds a dominant position; although numerous L2 chains have emerged, horizontal layers may deserve more attention; the BTC L2 ecosystem will develop rapidly, mainly due to the demand for utilizing BTC as an asset; new technological directions continue to emerge, with ZK being the most noteworthy.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on the chain abstraction track. The report points out that chain abstraction is an important concept in blockchain technology, combining the principles of abstraction in computer science with blockchain technology. It not only achieves cross-chain functionality between different blockchains but also addresses issues such as high gas fees, cross-chain transactions, and MEV through technological upgrades and account abstraction.The report further indicates that the development of chain abstraction not only enhances the experience for developers and users but also brings new challenges to the business models of existing protocols and public chains. With the emergence of complex Web3 applications, a trend towards modular functionality is evident, and foundational service protocols face ToB business demands. The implementation of chain abstraction also reduces development costs, allowing more resources to be allocated to optimizing user experience and marketing, thereby promoting the development of multi-service applications. The competitive landscape of public chains is also changing due to chain abstraction. Users may not be able to directly understand the technical differences between different public chains but can perceive the differences through their usage experience. Some public chains enhance user experience by eliminating gas fees and other strategies, actively removing complex experience barriers as a growth strategy.At the same time, the report also reveals the risks and challenges of this mechanism, such as technical complexity, security vulnerabilities, short-term user experience confusion, adjustments in business models, uncertain market acceptance, and increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. These factors need to be managed carefully to ensure long-term success and stable development.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 industry research and analysis platform Web3 Caff Research recently released an in-depth report on DeAI. The report points out that the intersection of artificial intelligence and Web3 is attracting widespread attention. The decentralized nature of Web3 technology helps alleviate pain points in AI development, such as data shortages, algorithm breakthroughs, and computing power demands, while advancements in generative AI bring new opportunities and challenges to the Web3 ecosystem. The report further analyzes the development prospects and market potential of the DeAI track, emphasizing that Web3's empowerment of AI is mainly reflected in external influences such as incentive mechanisms, digital assetization, and the establishment of free trading markets.The report further notes that although Web3 introduces economic incentive mechanisms and attempts to establish an open trading market through data or model assetization, its actual effectiveness is limited due to the limited number of crypto users and the significant mismatch between the massive data and computing power requirements for AI model training. Additionally, the report emphasizes that while zero-knowledge proof technology helps achieve model verifiability, challenges remain significant in areas such as quantitative processing, RAM consumption, proof generation time, and responding to adversarial attacks.At the same time, the efficiency and cost issues of the combination of AI and cryptography, deep fakes in AI, and communication bottlenecks in model training also pose severe challenges to the integration of the two. However, the report optimistically envisions that with technological advancements, the intersection of AI and Web3 will continue to strengthen, finding new ways to efficiently serve the digital world through the interaction of AI Agents and smart contracts.