[Proximity Labs](https://www.proximity.dev/), a research and development firm targeting the NEAR ecosystem, is excited to announce the creation of a $350M grants DAO aimed at projects, organizations, and individuals building decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on the NEAR blockchain. Well-known DeFi projects Curve.Fi, Sushi, Dodo, Kyber, Woo, and NEAR native projects Ref, Burrow, Onomy and Trisolaris have, or are in the process of launching on NEAR’s secure and scalable blockchain, with more to follow.

To support the burgeoning ecosystem, the grants DAO aims to distribute up to 40M NEAR tokens over a period of 4 years, currently worth over $350M. The application process is open to all projects, with grants ranging from $5,000 to several million.

DeFi builders can express their interest in the grants DAO via [this form](https://form.jotform.com/212877151135050).

## The Latest on NEAR

Over the last few weeks on NEAR, several projects have launched, core infrastructure has been deployed, and total value locked (TVL) crossed the $150M mark. This TVL includes a mix of NEAR native assets such as REF, SKYWARD, and OCT alongside Ethereum assets via the Rainbow Bridge including ETH, USDC, DAI, and USDT. These launches have led to a surge in wallets using NEAR, with more than 1.3 million active accounts on the network.

NEAR and its protocol is primed to become a key layer-1 blockchain for DeFi applications, thanks to its unique design, called Nightshade. While other blockchain protocols require each node in the network to settle every transaction, Nightshade allows transactions to be executed by groups of “shards”. This approach allows different servers to store parts of the blockchain, processing transactions in parallel. As a result, **NEAR’s unique design allows limitless scalability alongside fast, cheap and secure transactions**.

Pairing DeFi with NEAR’s sharded blockchain means finance will further be made more inclusive for anyone thanks to fast transactions, low fees, and access to cutting-edge financial tools.

NEAR also has one of the most interoperable and versatile frameworks for developers from various backgrounds. It already attracts a mix of multi-chain projects leveraging Aurora, the EVM environment, native projects implemented in Rust, and substrate-based projects via Octopus. No other layer-1 offers this flexibility.

Initially, the DAO will consist of prominent members of the broader DeFi and NEAR ecosystems, and will expand membership over time to include as many engaged community members as possible. We will release more details regarding the DAO’s governance process over the next few weeks.

If you want to try out DeFi on NEAR now, the following products are live:

- **Rainbow Bridge**: A bridge for transferring tokens between the NEAR and Ethereum blockchains.

- **Ref Finance**: A native NEAR AMM written in Rust that supports multiple pool types and farming

- **Metapool**: Liquid staking for NEAR. Turn your NEAR in stNEAR and earn staking rewards while providing liquidity on Ref!

- **Trisolaris**: An EVM-based AMM running on Aurora. Compatible with MetaMask!

Proximity Labs is excited to announce the creation of a $350M grants DAO aimed at projects, organizations, and individuals building DeFi apps on the NEAR blockchain.

Announcing a $350M Grants DAO for NEAR DeFi Projects

Aurora, an Ethereum scaling solution that allows projects built on Ethereum to utilise the cutting-edge technology of the NEAR Protocol, has launched one of its most requested features: a block explorer for the Aurora network, which can be found at [explorer.aurora.dev](https://explorer.mainnet.aurora.dev/).

Earlier Aurora has announced [a partnership with Etherscan](https://awesomenear.com/articles/etherscan-will-launch-on-aurora/), planned to complete its launch later in the year. However, Aurora saw the need to provide devs with a block explorer well before the Etherscan integration is complete. Aurora is launching its instance of the open source [BlockScout](https://explorer.mainnet.aurora.dev/) for the Aurora network.

The Aurora explorer is a blockchain search engine that allows users to search for Aurora transactions on the Aurora network.

An ability to view all blockchain transactions is crucial for the convenience of users and developers. So, the Aurora explorer gives users access to transaction details about specific wallet addresses including amount transacted, sources, destination of funds, and transaction status.

## Why is an explorer on Aurora needed?

Aurora is a layer-2 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) built and functioning on the NEAR Protocol blockchain, delivering a turn-key solution for developers to operate their DApps on an Ethereum-compatible, high-throughput, scalable, and future-safe platform, with low transaction costs for their users. Data is central to DApps and projects. An explorer facilitates this by providing the infrastructure for DApps and projects to have access to on-chain data.

The capabilities of Aurora are possible because it is built on top of the NEAR Protocol. NEAR is a modern layer-1 blockchain which is fast (2-3 second transaction finalization), scalable, and carbon neutral. The launch of an explorer gives any user instant and transparent access to Aurora’s on-chain data, adding accessible transparency to the network.

Aurora provides the Ethereum 1.0 development experience, with layer-2-like speed and scalability. If you are an Ethereum developer, getting started on Aurora is as easy as changing the RPC endpoint you interact with. Due to this, Aurora is giving devs instant access to a block explorer so they can get started with us today.

## Etherscan partnership

The first signs of the partnership between Etherscan and Aurora were made last week, when the AuroraDAO approved the addition of Etherscan representatives to the AuroraDAO council.

With an announcement that Aurora will partner with Etherscan to integrate Etherscan’s block exploring capabilities across the Aurora network, the Aurora team could not wait but to launch their instance of the blockchain explorer.

## What will the Aurora explorer be able to do?

The blockchain search engine is built using the open source EVM block explorer BlockScout. Its utility is to give transaction details about specific wallet addresses, including:

- amount transacted,
- sources,
- destination of funds,
- transaction status, and more.

At Aurora we believe that the future of blockchains will strongly depend on cross-chain communications and interoperability. That is why we are committed to providing top notch technology and are excited to grow our services in line with this vision! To foster this development, a block explorer has launched on Aurora for any existing and future users to use to their benefit.

Aurora has launched its instance of BlockScout: a block explorer for the Aurora network.

Aurora launches a block explorer to further improve user and developer experience

We are thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with NEAR Protocol — a developer-friendly, sharded, proof-of-stake public blockchain.

NEAR is a highly scalable and low-cost blockchain by design, which makes it simple for developers to create dApps on top of it. This has largely contributed to its growth, bringing countless new projects, oracles, and development platforms to the NEAR ecosystem.

They have recently launched a marketing competition with over $1 million in prizes and funding, making it even more attractive for the new projects to join in. Thus, we believe it’s a perfect opportunity to implement cross-chain access to NEAR.

Allbridge is going to launch a new bridge to NEAR, allowing users to leverage the advantages of NEAR Protocol and further increase community participation within their ecosystem.

The integration is set to launch within the next couple of months, so make sure to follow our announcements to stay in the loop.

We are thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with NEAR Protocol — a developer-friendly, sharded, proof-of-stake public blockchain.

Allbridge Is Adding NEAR Protocol To The List Of Supported Blockchains

Astro, the platform for online communities to gather, vote, and govern has launched on NEAR. Astro is the next evolution of SputnikDAO, the hub for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) operating on NEAR with a host of new features, more flexibility, and a friendly UI.   

If you’re a community looking to create, collaborate, and govern, Astro is the tool for you. 

## What is Astro? 

Astro is a platform for On Chain Communities (OCC). OCC are groups of people that prove their membership and coordinate decisions through a series of smart contracts. Each vote is verified by the blockchain, and funds are distributed based on voting decisions.

With Astro, DAOs will be able to retain more autonomy and, importantly, cast the net further in regards to governance through increased flexibility and the introduction of governance tokens.

Curious to know more about Astro? We’re hosting an AMA on October 12, 2021 at 7 am PST / 10 am EST / 4pm CEST.  Register for the AMA and submit your questions to the Astro team. Find out more about it here.

## What is a DAO?

A DAO is a business structure where control is spread out, across the team members instead of being centered around one authority figure. Think of a DAO as being a machine with one purpose, to carry out a set of instructions determined by pre-written smart contracts.

A community can adapt a DAO and program it according to its own goals. So the code can be used to create a set of rules, or a governance structure by which the community agrees to abide by. Tokens are used to help people vote on topics such as fund allocation.

The more a member contributes to a community, the more his/her/their vote can be increased. 

## Why start a DAO?

Think of DAOs as a toolbox that allows anyone to create a business structure that is designed to be simple and flexible. As a result, DAOs come in all shapes and sizes. From flat to hierarchical, from open to anyone to members-only; you get to decide how you want to govern your community.

For example: 

- Grants Giving  – Vote and collectively decide what people and projects to fund.
- For businesses – Keep track of owners’ equity and elect managers to make day-to-day decisions. 
- For investors – Pool funds and vote on strategy and transactions.
- For clubs of any kind – Elect leaders and decide where to spend group funds.

DAOs are quick to set up, global, customisable and transparent. Astro can help you create your own DAO in minutes. 

Astro, the platform for online communities to gather, vote, and govern has launched on NEAR.

Astro Launches on NEAR To Supercharge DAO Communities

Panther, the end-to-end privacy protocol helping to make DeFi regulation compliant has been awarded a grant by the NEAR Foundation.

Panther will receive $40,000 to help develop and deploy the protocol’s privacy solutions on NEAR’s Ethereum Virtual Machine.

“We are thrilled to support Panther Protocol’s mission to provide zero-knowledge assets to the NEAR ecosystem and beyond,” says Josh Daniels, part of the ecosystem grants team. “The NEAR Foundation embraces the reality of a multi-chain future and recognizes the importance of privacy to ensure retail and institutional trading strategies stay confidential yet compliant.”

Panther Protocol was created to enhance DeFi by making privacy available in dApps and protocols by default.

“We are pleased to partner with the NEAR foundation to establish shielded pools and other components of Panther’s privacy-preserving infrastructure on the NEAR blockchain, taking one more step towards an interoperable, private, and compliance compatible blockchain future,” says Oliver Gale, co-founder, and CEO of Panther, about the partnership.

NEAR and Panther agree that privacy is an essential human right. Panther has received a grant from NEAR to explore the development of open-source privacy infrastructure (Rust libraries, APIs, and tooling) needed for a native Panther deployment on NEAR. This includes the deployment of Panther’s privacy solutions on NEAR’s EVM, Aurora.

Due to the current architecture and high volume of Ethereum transactions that pushed gas fees to all-time highs, Near’s Aurora is becoming an intelligent choice for developers that are looking for 1,000x lower gas fees, 50x higher transactions per second, and 2 seconds finality.

Aurora solves the current issues plaguing Ethereum while preserving the development ecosystem value Ethereum has. These factors were critical for Panther to prioritize the development of its scalable privacy infrastructure on NEAR’s blockchain.

Panther will receive $40,000 to help develop and deploy the protocol’s privacy solutions on NEAR’s Ethereum Virtual Machine.

NEAR Foundation Awards Panther Protocol Grant To Improve Privacy

Request, the crypto payments provider is launching an integreation with NEAR.

Businesses using NEAR can now use Request’s fast and simple app to generate, track, and pay invoices on its compliance-ready invoicing tool. This tool saves hundreds of hours annually with its automated invoice creation service.

This marks our first successful integration of a Layer 1 blockchain protocol that is not directly compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) that powers Ethereum smart contracts, and many Layer 2 solutions like Polygon and Binance Smart Chain.

As part of our mission to simplify invoicing and payments in crypto, we want to enable more communities on different protocols to use Request Invoicing.

Founded in 2017 by Y Combinator alumni, Request has grown to become the leading provider of payment tools for DeFi companies like AAVE and MakerDAO.

Its open, decentralised transactions network allows businesses to seamlessly manage invoicing, billing, and accounting in over 24 different cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, and eight different fiat currencies. In 12 months since launch, more than US$100m in crypto invoices have been generated and paid using Request Invoicing.

“Today, more than 800 businesses are already using Request Invoicing to process their daily invoicing and payments using crypto. Now the NEAR ecosystem of dapps can also easily manage their finance operations like invoicing, payments, payroll, expenses”, said Christophe Fonteneau, Head of Strategic Partnerships & Business Development at Request.

The NEAR Foundation will be using Request Invoicing to manage the grant payments it disburses under the NEAR Grants Program (NGP). The NGP is slated to award about $100 million (USD equivalent) in grants funding and resources to promising teams to grow NEAR’s technology and community through the end of the year.

“Request Invoicing will dramatically reduce the time and effort we used to spend on managing and accounting for crypto payments for the NEAR Foundation. Now, NEAR users can experience the sheer ease of generating and paying invoices with Request for themselves”, says Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of the NEAR Protocol.

Create, send, and pay invoices in under five minutes with Request Invoicing today.

Request, the crypto payments provider is launching an integreation with NEAR.

Request Simplifies Invoicing and Payments for NEAR Users

Aurora, an Ethereum scaling solution that allows projects built on Ethereum to utilise the cutting-edge technology of NEAR, is launching its own DAO.

AuroraDAO will hand over key decision making to its community as a part of its vision to create a scaling solution that is as decentralized as possible.

The governance of any smart contract is an important aspect of decentralized and trustless design, especially when it comes to upgrades. Ensuring improvements or changes to smart contracts are done with community involvement has always been a high priority for Aurora. AuroraDAO will help us achieve that.

AuroraDAO will consist of a council of seats, with seat holders being able to vote on proposals that govern the contracts the scaling solution uses.

"We are excited to become a member of AuroraDAO in order to build a truly decentralized future while actively participating in governance processes” says Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch Network. “Of course, we see a huge potential in the DAO model and fully support the Aurora team!"

“We are thrilled to join AuroraDAO because value-add governance will be important to help Aurora achieve its goal to bring Ethereum compatibility and scalability for decentralized applications,” says Franklin Bi, a partner at Pantera Capital.

Currently, AuroraDAO includes NEAR and Ethereum ecosystem representatives, as well as early Aurora investors.

It is planned to expand the list of AuroraDAO members to achieve even more decentralization over time.

“Aurora from the very beginning was sharing the values of the Ethereum community with decentralization at their core. We’re happy that this vision is now implemented and we anticipate productive and collaborative work towards the Aurora goal: extension of the Ethereum economy,” says Alex Shevchenko, CEO of Aurora Labs.

The full list of AuroraDAO Council members can be found here: 

- Aurora Labs (auroralabs.near)
- Dragonfly Capital(nearmaximalist.near)
- Pantera (franklinbi.near)
- Lemniscap (lemniscap.near)
- OKX Blockdream Ventures (auroradaookex.near)
- 1inch (oneinch.near)
- DODO (daidaidai.near)
- imToken (wmy.near)
- NEAR (root.near)
- Covalent (anadi.near)
- Infura (egalano.near)
- Etherscan (realetherscan.near)
- ConsenSys (ogshaft.near)


Aurora, an Ethereum scaling solution that allows projects built on Ethereum to utilise the cutting-edge technology of NEAR, is launching its own DAO.

Aurora creates DAO as part of its community led vision

Would you like to become the designer of the first #NEARCON Community t-shirt?

Swagger Dao joined forces with Mintbase for our very first #NEARverse swag contest. The winner receives a ticket to NEARCON and gets their artwork adapted into NEAR official swag!

Instructions on how to join:

1. Make an artwork that have to:
    - Incl. the word NEARCON.
    - Be 100% #NEARverse theme.
    - Be in a max. size of 12” x 16”.

2. Go to [@mintbase](https://www.mintbase.io/).

3. Upload your artwork file.

4. Set the price at 0.001 $NEAR.

5. Tag the NFT with **#nearconnearverse**.

6. Mint 50 editions at first mint.

7. Follow [the video](https://twitter.com/SwaggerDao/status/1445703807799742469) on how to mint more and mint min. 1000 editions of the artwork.

8. Complete your submission by fulfilling [the typeform here](https://swaggerdao.typeform.com/to/Q17MBnBp).

Then you’re in the contest and ready for the voting period on Wednesday Oct. 13th! 

To keep track of the event and upcoming announcements, follow [@SwaggerDao](https://twitter.com/SwaggerDao) and [@awesome_near](https://twitter.com/awesome_near) on Twitter!


Win a ticket to #NEARCON & get your NEARverse artwork on official swag.

NEARCON / NEARverse Community Swag Contest

Opera, the world’s first browser with Web 3 capabilities and a built-in crypto wallet, today announced plans to support NEAR Protocol, one of the world’s emerging blockchains, through a new integration via Opera’s native crypto wallet. The collaboration not only opens Opera up to a new audience of blockchain and crypto enthusiasts that are part of NEAR’s rapidly growing community, but it also gives application developers relying on NEAR increased reach through Opera’s massive user base. Opera users will be able to enjoy speed and scale with low gas fees 1000+ times cheaper than Ethereum. They will be able to transact NEAR assets directly within the Opera browser and experience NEAR’s permissionless Rainbow Bridge that supports transferring ERC20 and ERC712 tokens with Ethereum.

NEAR will become another Key Layer 1 blockchain to be incorporated into the Opera browser, making Opera’s non-custodial wallet truly multi-chain. Opera is the browser of choice for hundreds of millions of users worldwide. In 2018, Opera became the first major browser to include a native crypto wallet and Web 3 support. Opera’s novel features allow people to make transactions and interact with the blockchain-based internet of the future, also known as Web 3.

The company’s decision to introduce NEAR support to its wallet integration marks another step in the development of future-oriented applications, which talk to as many blockchains as possible, providing the most seamless experience to the users and is climate neutral. Integrating NEAR directly in the Opera browser’s crypto wallet means users will be able to easily send and receive NEAR tokens via a seamless user interface without any third-party browser extensions or separate wallet applications. Opera and NEAR are both aligned to making crypto accessible, easy to use and easier to build on. Through this browser integration, users’ crypto experiences will be significantly more enjoyable.

“Like Opera, NEAR’s easy user flow and reliable technology makes mainstream adoption of crypto frictionless,’’ says Susie Batt, Lead of Crypto Ecosystem at Opera. “BTC is blockchain version 1, ETH is version 2, and NEAR is version 3.”

“I’m excited about the mass market reach of Opera meeting NEAR’s rapidly expanding ecosystem of easy-to-use applications. NEAR is the first blockchain that’s ready for mainstream adoption. It’s important to continuously lower the barrier to adoption of the Open Web, and this is a significant step in that direction.” says Co-founder of NEAR Protocol, Illia Polosukhin.

NEAR is scheduled to be available in Opera’s browser for Android in the near future.

The web browser’s hundreds of millions of users will be able to easily access and transact on the NEAR blockchain and with NEAR tokens within Opera.

Opera to add NEAR Protocol to its Built-in Browser Crypto Wallet

Paras is happy to announce the launch of $PARAS token and IDO during which 5% of $PARAS supply will be distributed on Skyward Finance from September 14th to 21st.

## What is Paras?

Paras is an all-in-one NFT marketplace that focuses on digital collectibles (sets of digital art cards). 

Bringing conventional collectibles to crypto space, Paras is eager to diversify the assets and create more value for collectors as well as creators on the platform.

As marketplace grows and Web 3.0 technology advances, Paras will create more unique experiences and add verticals to the current NFTs, pursuing the idea of its own metaverse where the platform becomes **a gateway to access multiple sources of entertainment, such as games, comics and toys**.

## What are $PARAS, the token allocation, and future utilities?

$PARAS is a utility token that will be distributed and used for these purposes:

- A means to maximize the functionality of features and future development of Paras.
- A tool to secure funds for further ecosystem projects and developments.
- An incentive for users regarding their participation in community governance.

### Token Allocation

The Paras token supply is 100,000,000, and the distribution is as shown:

![PARAS IDO from September 14th to 21st](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/paras-ido-on-skyward-finance/paras-ido-on-skyward-finance-allocation.jpg "PARAS IDO from September 14th to 21st")

| For | Allocation | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Team | 15% | Vested over 36-months (Start after token launch) |
| Investors | 15% | Vested over different periods of time (Start after token launch) |
| Community | 51% | Distributed to the community members through various community programs like marketplace and liquidity mining |
| Airdrop | 1.5% | Airdrop reward to early adopters |
| IDO | 5% | Initial Dex Offering via Skyward Finance |
| Reserved | 12.5% | For future programs such as grants, marketing campaigns, partnerships, etc |

### Token Future Utilities and Use Cases

**Exclusive Deals/Events**

$PARAS holders can access some deals and events exclusively, for instance: a) limited edition NFTs  issued by established artists, creators, influencers or other merchants; b) limited edition physical goods that can be received through raffles from collecting the card collectibles. The raffle spot can be purchased via NFTs which can be owned as proof of participation in the raffle even if you didn’t win the prize.  
NFTs can be a new way for creators to launch their projects. NFTs can be fully digital or redeemable physical goods, it’s up to the creators on how they wanted to structure the deals. 

**DAO Governance**

One of the biggest challenges with a decentralized NFT Marketplace like Paras, Opensea, Mintbase, etc.,  is the “spamming” of low-quality artwork across the platform. To grow the platform by providing a better experience to the users, some form of curation or whitelisting is needed, and the best way to do it on a blockchain is via DAO governance.
$PARAS holders can take part to govern the ecosystem via DAO, from artist whitelisting, feature updates, parameter changes to community grants and platform fees allocation. DAO governance will happen approximately 12 weeks after the token launch to make sure the token is well distributed and decentralized.

Follow Paras social media channels for more information:

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParasHQ
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/paras.hq
- Discord: https://discord.gg/vWR2XBNupg 
- Telegram: https://t.me/parashq

Paras launches IDO distributing 5% of $PARAS token on Skyward Finance.

PARAS IDO from September 14th to 21st

With the close link between Aurora and both NEAR and Ethereum via the Rainbow Bridge, two similar USDT (by symbol) would have emerged: USDT bridged from Ethereum over the Rainbow bridge (bridged USDT onwards) and native USDT on NEAR.

Great user experience is a core value of Aurora. For this reason, and to avoid any user confusion, Aurora labs has chosen to update bridged USDT's metadata. Particularly, the symbol of the token will be changed from USDT to USDT.e. This update would be performed on both NEAR and Aurora and shall take place on Friday the 16th of September 2022.

USDT.e will be, from now on, the symbol chosen to denote ‘bridged USDT’. No action is required if you currently are holding USDT bridged from Ethereum, as previously bridged USDT will be kept in all wallets, just with a symbol renamed to USDT.e.

There will be no change in contract address, nor in $ value. Also, the change of the metadata won't influence any existing AMM pools that includes bridged USDT.

## Regarding bridging actions, it simply means that:

- One can bridge Aurora USDT.e to Ethereum and get USDT on Ethereum (whether or not those USDT (Ethereum) tokens were bridged from Ethereum to Aurora before this update)
- One can bridge Aurora USDT.e to NEAR and get USDT.e and vice versa
- One can bridge NEAR USDT.e to Ethereum and get USDT on Ethereum

## Please also note that:

- "USDT" on NEAR & Aurora now denotes the official NEAR-native USDT token
- The upcoming Native NEAR USDT will be bridgeable to Aurora.
- NEAR-native USDT can't be bridged over the Rainbow Bridge to Ethereum - you have to swap it to USDT.e first, and then bridge USDT.e to Ethereum.

## How and where to swap USDT.e to NEAR-native USDT and vice versa?

We expect that both NEAR and Aurora communities will create stableswap pools between USDT.e and USDT on both Aurora and NEAR networks once USDT is officially deployed. It is fair to anticipate that such pools would be created on [Trisolaris](/trisolaris) and [Ref Finance](/ref-finance). There's no limitations for other DEXes to implement such pools.

## Note to the DEVs building on Aurora & NEAR

We recommend all wallet and project builders in both the NEAR and Aurora ecosystems to double-check how they are showing information to their users: getting it directly from the metadata OR using their own repos of the metadata (for example through token lists). In the latter case, said projects and wallets should update the metadata to match the new metadata of USDT.e.

A clear and easy-to-understand communication with your users is also required. Announcement bars, pop-ups, and so on, are recommended for (at least) the first month, to allow periodic users to be aware of the update.

Everything you need to know about NEAR USDT's onboarding on Aurora & the Rainbow Bridge.

Native USDT on NEAR and Its implications On The Rainbow Bridge & Aurora


### Your NEAR Con outfit is on us

10 strongest quotes will win cool limited edition merchandise from NEAR SWAG:

To join the contest:

1. Follow [@NEARWEEK](https://twitter.com/NEARWEEK) and [@awesome_near](https://twitter.com/awesome_near).
2. Subscribe to NEARWEEK at: [http://bit.ly/3sr6TM9](http://bit.ly/3sr6TM9).
3. Like, retweet, and comment your first experience with #NEAR & tag 3 friends.

The winners will be drawn on Friday 17th September at 12pm CET.

### NEARWEEK News Guild

THE NEARWEEK News Guild has been producing weekly crowdsourced news from the NEARverse since April: [NEARWEEK.com](https://nearweek.com/) – Your weekly dose of news from the NEARverse.

NEARWEEK seeks to be inclusive and driven by NEARians:

We believe that we should, as fast as possible, enable NEARWEEK to become a decentralized news media platform driven and owned by a dynamic community, where profit is fairly distributed based on contributions.

We are growing to become a **self-sufficient ecosystem** where people are rewarded in a decentralized, scalable manner for contributing to the collection, curation as well as distribution of news within the NEAR ecosystem and beyond.

Whether you are new to the NEARverse or not, we are here to **empower you** as you dive deeper into the NEAR ecosystem.

Come onboard NEAR fans, let’s source & spread some NEARverse news and earn $NEAR with NEARWEEK - [Check out this step-by-step-guide](https://nearweek.medium.com/first-step-in-the-nearweek-dao-journey-2b107acc323e) on how to contribute and get started!

Explore the NEARverse with NEARWEEK

[Aurora](https://aurora.dev/), an Ethereum scaling solution that allows projects built on Ethereum to utilize the cutting-edge technology of NEAR has teamed up with [Etherscan](https://etherscan.io/), the leading block explorer for Ethereum, to allow developers to use the same familiar tool. 

While Aurora utilises NEAR as its foundation, it has always envisioned a future in which projects can move seamlessly between blockchains to suit their needs. The partnership with Etherscan is a significant step in that direction. 

“Etherscan provides the familiar interface of the explorer,” says Alex Shevchenko, the CEO of Aurora Labs. “Users and devs won’t need to educate themselves on how to use the Aurora block explorer, instead they would get the familiar tool.”

While Etherscan is most commonly known as a block explorer for Ethereum, it’s capable of so much more: from statistics, and token transfers and listing; to smart contract source code verification and ability to issue read and write calls directly from the UI. Making those tools available to a greater number of devs is key to Aurora’s mission. 

“Aurora is always focused on making the experience of devs and users as seamless as possible,” says Shevchenko. 

The explosive growth of DeFi and NFTs frequently causes surges in Ethereum gas prices––a problem that economically limits the participation of many users, and prevents dApp developers from scaling their businesses to their full potential. Helping developers to grow their business is a mission Etherscan shares with Aurora. 

> “We are happy to utilize our experience in building block explorer solutions into supporting Aurora, and extend our own vision of providing equitable access to blockchain data”, says Matthew Tan, Founder & CEO of Etherscan.

While today marks the start of the integration process, the product will be available later in the year. Stay tuned for updates on the release and other upcoming ones from the Aurora team.

Aurora has teamed up with Etherscan, the leading block explorer for Ethereum to allow developers to use the same familiar tool.

Etherscan will Launch on Aurora

Octopus Network, a third-generation multi-chain cryptonetwork for bootstrapping and running Web3.0 application-specific blockchains, aka appchains, announced the completion of its Series A private sale.

Interoperable Web3.0 cryptonetworks like Octopus Network, Polkadot, and Cosmos, and are often referred to as the “internet of blockchains” in the same way that today’s Web2.0 internet TCP/IP standards define the internet as a “network of networks” with a vast range of services.

The multi-chain network protocol has raised $5 million dollars from 28 value-add and long-term institutional investors. The Series A investors include: Continue, Youbi, DCG, GFS Ventures, Vestigium, Autonomy Capital, LCG Ventures, Bluehelix, Finance Ventures, Jubi Lab, GTA Venture, Gains Associates, Aussie Capital, K300 Venture, Mayor Capital, NetZero Capital, ELEVATE, Chainridge, Megala Ventures, VIC Group, Jigsaw, OIG Ventures, Bigcoin Capital, Meridian Capital, Westorm, Move Capital (Angel DAO) and Gate.io.

In addition, Octopus Network ecosystem appchain protocols — Debio, Myriad Social, and Discovol — also participated in this Series A round.

Web3 refers to dApps running on blockchains, with lower transaction costs and faster transaction speeds, that are owned by the user community rather than profit extracting corporations. Web3.0 aspires to return value to the real creators of the internet, its users.

But so far, Web3.0 application development has had to sacrifice great user experience because distributed ledger technology is more technologically complex and expensive to build than Web2.0 — which results in a downgraded user experience. For a Web3.0 application to replace a Web2.0 application, it has to be a great Web application in the first place and provide a great user experience. Appchains solve this problem.

Appchains — decentralized application-specific blockchains — differ from dApps in that they have dedicated transaction processing capacity, which means that an application on an appchain doesn’t have to compete with other applications for transaction processing capacity on a network. Appchains also allow developers to customize their application in terms of governance structure, economic design, and underlying consensus algorithm — even at the bottom of the technology stack.

An appchain can adjust and optimize all parameters of a blockchain. This includes consensus protocol, execution environment, P2P communication, data K/V storage, Runtime and wallet interaction, and the topmost application logic can be customized. This is similar to the secret of why the iPhone experience is good — vertical integration — from chip to machine, from hardware to software, integrated in order to achieve the ultimate user experience.

While new frameworks such as Substrate and Cosmos SDK give Web 3.0 developers a much bigger and better design space to deliver fully optimized Web3.0 applications and have significantly reduced the cost of developing appchains, appchains are still relatively complex and expensive to launch.

The Octopus Network reduces the cost of publishing appchains by millions of dollars and can host an unlimited number of appchains. Appchains in the Octopus Network benefit from flexible and cost-effective leased security (LPoS), out-of-the-box multichain interoperability, complete infrastructure, and a ready-to-be-engaged community.

Octopus Network states that, in Octopus, each appchain gets to decide its own economic model, including how many tokens it’s willing to pay validators for security. Octopus token holders can decide which appchain they’d like to stake on, creating a free market where appchains can lease the security they need at market price at any time, providing unlimited flexibility and scalability.

“One of the key design considerations for Octopus Network is making Web3.0 accessible to all Substrate and Web3.0 developers by solving the problem of how to lower the cost of both bootstrapping and operating an application-specific blockchain. Octopus will be able to offer mass adoption for Web3.0 applications, which allows Web3.0 to be realized much sooner and by more protocols than other platforms. This is what we mean when we say we are ‘launching a new innovation wave on Web3.0.’” — Louis Liu, Founder, Octopus Network

The Octopus Network plans to launch its mainnet in September, and its first appchain, DeBio, a decentralised biomed network, in October. The Octopus Foundation will directly fund 20 appchain projects through the Octopus Accelerator Program each year, granting them up to $1M in total per year. The Octopus Accelerator Program is a collection of open and composable courses and seminars available to both Substrate developers and Web3.0 teams worldwide.

Octopus Network, aka appchains, announced the completion of its Series A private sale.

Octopus Network Secures $5 Million Series A Funding Round

TLDR, here is the link to the Meta Pool mainnet DApp — https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/meta/

After months of hard work we are finally at the point of launch. It is to say that we are very proud of the community that has formed around this project, we would like to thank all the beta testers who submitted bugs and asked questions in our Discord (join us [here](https://discord.gg/xbuNhuCS)). With the continuous support from the NEAR Guilds such as 4NTS, Silicon Craftsmen, Open Web Sandbox, NEAR Merchants, Open Shards Alliance, NEAR Vietnam, NEAR China, NEAR India, NEAR Week, NEAR Degens and NEAR Hispano.

Thank you everyone! This is just the beginning of our journey and you have made it worth the effort. But most importantly you have made this venture feel less lonely, which is a big part of why we are betting on the NEAR Ecosystem.

We have found the support we needed through out every interaction in the NEARverse; talking and getting advise from the Proximity Labs team, getting support from the NEAR Ecosystem Success team and some great introductions to investors and liquidity providers.

## Our community launch.

For the launch on mainnet we are providing an incentives mechanism to bootstrap the Meta Pool protocol. We believe that products need community in order to thrive and that is why we are launching Meta Pool on top of Sputnik DAO v2 and also minting our governance tokens to those early supporters of the protocol, by rewarding NEAR token holders who contribute to the liquidity swap pool and stake their tokens in Meta Pool.

There will be 3 periods of staking rewards:

- August 23 to 29.
- August 30 to September 5.
- September 6 to 10.

![Meta Pool is live on NEAR mainnet #liquidmeta](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/meta-pool-is-live-on-near-mainnet/meta-pool-2.jpg "Meta Pool is live on NEAR mainnet #liquidmeta")

**Note**: All $META tokens will have locked down period until November 23rd.

In the next days we will be coordinating weekly AMA’s on our Discord, so we can schedule time to hear from everybody. Just a word in advance they will be limited to 25 people…..sorry folks we are still bootstrapping and we think it will create a better channel to engage with you, keeping it intimate. :P

Here is the schedule from August 23rd to September 10th, we will have two weekly AMA’s:

- Thursday starting at 8:00 Mexico / 15:00 Europe / 21:00 China
- Friday starting at 8:00 Mexico / 15:00 Europe / 21:00 China

We are ready to keep building on NEAR and excited for everything that we hope to unlock in the NEARverse DeFi space!

If you want to know how Meta Pool works, please check out the following video tutorial that Silicon Craftsmen have in their [Youtube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D-C5yRe1rU).

After months of hard work Meta Pool is finally at the point of launch.

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