### Few and Far Raises $10.5 in a Funding Round led by Pantera Capital

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-raises-10-5-in-a-funding-round-led-by-pantera-capital/0*3XVQKMtX2Z2NqlWe.jpeg)

Few and Far, a leading Digital Collectibles web3 platform, has announced today that it has raised $10.5 million in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, the leading blockchain investment firm.

The raise marks a significant milestone for Few and Far, which has been making exponential growth since launching. The new funds will help further expand the platform’s capabilities, enhance the user experience, and increase the number of web3 developers, plus IP owners that can benefit from the platform.

The round also included top VCs, Cypher Capital, Huobi Ventures, Hypersphere, Lyrk Ventures, Mantis Partners, K5 Global and many more.

Few and Far features an all-inclusive platform available to carry out everything related to next generation digital collectibles, including a suite of developer tools.

“We are thrilled to have Pantera Capital lead our latest funding round,” said Chris Gale, Few and Far’s Co Founder. “Their experience and expertise in the blockchain space will be invaluable to us as we continue to grow and innovate. With this backing, we are well-positioned to continue to lead the way in the web3 space.”

Pantera Capital is a leading blockchain investment firm with a proven track record of successful investments in the blockchain industry. The firm has been an early investor in some of the most successful blockchain projects, and their investment in Few and Far demonstrates their confidence in the future of the NFT ecosystem.”

“We are proud investors in Few and Far and support their mission to bring NFTs to the mainstream. The market has recently seen a systemic shift in royalties. Few and Far’s technologies solve this and protect IP holders’ revenue models. This is gaining interest from the world’s leading brands that can no longer work with the likes of OpenSea. We are excited to back what we feel is one of the strongest web3 teams out there .” shares Paul Veradittakit, General Partner of Pantera Capital. He continues “The Few & Far teams have built a platform with one of the best UI/UX experiences, advanced infrastructure, and an active community and we’re excited about their ambitious product roadmap and upcoming partnerships.” The raise comes on the back of a series of funding announcements and milestones at NEAR, as it ramps up efforts to onboard a billion users in Web3. As a high performance, carbon-neutral protocol which is fast, secure, and infinitely scalable, NEAR has become popular among developers and creators. Established by a community-driven team of engineers and entrepreneurs, NEAR is simple to use and good for the environment.

According to Mareike Flament, CEO of Near Foundation, Few and Far is an exceptional next generation NFT marketplace. “The platform released by Few and Far stands out with its highly user-friendly onboarding process for web3, while also being fully on-chain and non-custodial”. Flament credits the NEAR Protocol’s flexible account infrastructure for this achievement.

Flament, also acknowledges Few and Far’s infrastructure and ability to assist developers to launch programmable NFTs on NEAR with just a few lines of code. This solution significantly lowers the barriers for developers to enter web3, while protecting royalties for IP owners. “We are confident our partnership will unlock web3 engagement and digital collectibles to the mass market.”

Few and Far’s NFT marketplace and web3 platform have been gaining traction in recent months, with more developers building on their protocol, plus more creators joining the platform to showcase and sell their digital art. With the new funding, Few and Far will be able to build on this momentum and continue to innovate in the digital collectible space and onboard the masses.

**About Few and Far:**

Few and Far is a one-stop destination for digital collectibles built on NEAR. Its user-friendly interface provides a smooth experience, making it easy for anyone to explore, gather, interact and exchange NFTs effortlessly.

Few and Far works with some of the largest brands in web3 to assist creators in releasing and exhibiting their digital artwork while ensuring that royalties are safeguarded and intellectual property owners retain control over their collections.

Follow Few and Far on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/FewandFarNFT), join their [Discord](https://discord.gg/PKArCfCR) or go to their [Marketplace](https://fewfar.com/) and browse the latest collections.

_Originally published at_ [_https://medium.com_](https://medium.com/few-and-far/few-and-far-raises-10-5-fcf1c7fa40a7) _on March 3, 2023._



* * *

[Few and Far Raises $10.5 in a funding round led by Pantera Capital](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/few-and-far-raises-10-5-in-a-funding-round-led-by-pantera-capital-6a7e7a6540a6) was originally published in [NEAR Protocol](https://medium.com/nearprotocol) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Few and Far Raises $10.5 in a Funding Round led by Pantera Capital

Few and Far Raises $10.5 in a funding round led by Pantera Capital



_TLDR: Few and Far just released a massive new product update that vastly improves their marketplace experience._

gm / gn NEAR NFT fam!

We’re excited to share a massive new update to our platform with our community. While it’s been a wild ride in the markets this week, we’re more bullish than ever on validating the need for decentralized markets — so here’s how we’re delivering on that promise.

**Here’s high-level what we’ve done:**

*   New navigation bars for easier site use
*   Improved onboarding flows for new users
*   Ability to edit profile and share your collection with friends.
*   New display for offers made / offers received.
*   View History — show all your transactions in one place
*   My Wallets — manage, connect and disconnect your NEAR wallets
*   My Connections — connect your Twitter and Discord accounts to share from the platform and get early access to white lists.

**Now, let’s get into the deets.**

Users will now see a new and improved site navigation, including the following:

1.  **Trade** — takes users to view all our amazing collections

2. **Launches** — shows all the new collections available to mint on our launchpad

3. **Quests** — an exciting brand new feature allowing users to unlock value through completing tasks

4. **Resources —** helps users find out more about the project and explains our tools and solutions such as API docs and creator studio information.

**Account Types: How it all works depending on what type of user you are.**

To solve issues with web3 onboarding, we have a flexible account model. There are 3 types of accounts with how you can choose to interact with Fewfar.com.

1.  **New User** — created a FnF account and created a new impartial NEAR wallet
2.  **Imported User** — created FnF account and imported existing NEAR wallet
3.  **Connected Wallet** — No account created, just NEAR wallet connected

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth/1*GZFTQvkpCn56BTsHof45oA.png)

_Note: When you log in to your account and have disconnected your wallet you need to go through a verification step._

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth/1*tfsO1p78W-L1ZpQjM8L-ug.png)

Next up — connecting your wallet. You can also just connect to FnF using the wallet connect feature where no account is needed. You can choose from multiple wallets to connect with from our wallet partners. The most popular being NEAR Wallet (wallet.near.org).

**Signing Up To Create a FnF Account**

When you create a Few and Far account with an email address and if you do not have to have a NEAR wallet. Few and Far generates a passcode that is used to encrypt the credentials for this account. We DO NOT STORE this passcode on our servers. We provide the passcode to you in the process of signing up and also email it to you so that you can recover it at a later date if you prefer**.**

Unencrypted credentials are NEVER sent in any network request. Only \*you\*, as the keeper of your passcode, can decrypt your credentials. This all occurs client-side (without any network requests involved) for security reasons. You can also import your account to any NEAR wallet of your choice.

**Recovering Your Wallet**

If creating a new wallet, make sure you keep your passcode stored safe as this is your back up.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth/1*QI6dUcJfdFw_tIze91Kz2Q.png)

You will receive a passcode via email too. Keep safely and do not delete. If you need to export your wallet or gain access you can do via the My Wallets section and use the ‘Recover Wallet’ button.

**Connecting an Existing NEAR Wallet**

You can also just connect to FnF using the wallet connect feature where no account is needed. You can choose from multiple wallets to connect with from our wallet partners. The most popular being NEAR Wallet (wallet.near.org)

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth/1*QPyWoR6NC4NqDMX3bre9JA.png)

**Logging out**

Once you finish your session you can log out from the nav bar. If you have a connected wallet you will also need to disconnect this to completely exit Few and Far.

**Editing Your Profile**

Now you can upload a PFP image, set your user name and add your bio. Click on the panel to edit and click safe once done.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth/1*wNVXoPzDnZXVIObsYbLTZA.png)

Your Few and Far profile page is [https://fewfar.com/user/\[username](https://fewfar.com/user/[username)\] which you can share with your friends.

**Reviewing Your Trading History**

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth/1*Z62dKRxRiZjIiuRsmuUUYw.png)

You can now see all your activity for your wallet with a new sort option and overview showing all the NFTs you own, offers placed, and listings made. Plus the total number of activities. Making it super simple to manage your digital collectibles.

**Managing Your Wallets**

In your User Profile under ‘Wallets,’ you can manage your wallets, see your address and associate/connect more wallets to your account.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth/1*QSu6sxqCFC4JXTkWyUjr7A.png)

**Now…what’s next up? Here’s a quick sneak peak on new releases coming soon:**

*   Fiat payment — top up, buy and sell NFTs with Credit Card, Google Pay and Apple Pay.
*   Additional mint features and sharing
*   Creator Studio
*   Quests Feature
*   FnF Club updates
*   Discord Bots
*   Plus much much more

To stay in the loop on future updates, please join us on [Discord](https://discord.gg/w5ZpD5ZKym) or follow our [Twitter](https://twitter.com/FewandFarNFT) to stay in the loop!



* * *

[Few and Far Unveils New Product Updates to Boost Platform Growth](https://medium.com/few-and-far/few-and-far-unveils-new-product-updates-to-boost-platform-growth-9ea8754109e9) was originally published in [Few and Far](https://medium.com/few-and-far) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

TLDR: Few and Far just released a massive new product update that vastly improves their marketplace experience.

Few and Far Unveils New Product Updates to Boost Platform Growth



### NEAR TAKES THE SPOTLIGHT AT ETHDENVER 2023 : DISCOVER THE NEXT-GENERATION BOS

**March 2nd, 2023, Denver, Colorado:** [ETHDenver](https://www.ethdenver.com/) is an annual blockchain conference that brings together developers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts from around the world to explore the latest innovations in the blockchain ecosystem.

What originally started as an Ethereum-focused event, has expanded over the years to include all kinds of blockchains and Web3 projects. The event is made up of workshops, hackathons, and keynote speeches, and is well recognised for its many networking opportunities. This year was no exception.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-takes-the-spotlight-at-ethdenver-2023-discover-the-next-generation-bos/0*IhozDt7ZDSUUZ4-4)

#### **An Event Dedicated to Developers**

At ETHDenver, attendees can learn from industry experts and participate in hands-on activities to develop their blockchain skills through programs like [Camp Buidl](https://www.ethdenver.com/campbuidl). The hackathon is a popular feature of the conference, providing developers with the chance to work on real-world blockchain projects and win prizes, presenting the final result to judges and a large final-day crowd. ETHDenver also features a variety of exhibits and booths showcasing the latest products and services in the blockchain industry.

The conference encourages collaboration and creativity, with a focus on building a more decentralized and equitable future. It is known for its inclusive and welcoming atmosphere, with attendees from diverse backgrounds and skill levels coming together to share knowledge and ideas. For many attending, ETHDenver is a chance to meet people who you might only know digitally. There’s a power in these personal interactions.

#### **NEAR Day**

NEAR Protocol was one of the major players at ETHDenver in 2023. This year, the protocol had its own dedicated [NEAR Day](https://neardenver.splashthat.com/): a full-day event at the main Genesis Stage on Thursday. Following the series of NEAR-focused talks, keynotes, and workshops, NEAR sponsored the opening night party at the Mission Ballroom with world class DJs and a chance for VIPs to network beforehand. Additionally, many of Near’s biggest names gave talks at smaller stages throughout the conference, including [Illia Polosukhin](https://twitter.com/ilblackdragon), [Marieke Flament](https://twitter.com/mariekeflament), [Matt Lockyer](https://twitter.com/mattdlockyer), and Alex Chiocchi.

[Marcus](https://twitter.com/marcus_NEAR?s=20), Ecosystem Relations at Near Foundation, had this to say about NEAR’s presence at ETHDenver, including a major protocol announcement:

> _‘There’s better turnout than expected, the NEAR booth is buzzing; lots of people here are showing an interest, especially following the Blockchain Operating System announcement. Looking around, I see doors opening to lots of new opportunities.’  
> —Marcus, NEAR Foundation_

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-takes-the-spotlight-at-ethdenver-2023-discover-the-next-generation-bos/1*obVLs7eE2z5LfsGjjbozAA.png)

#### An Introduction to BOS

NEAR announced during NEAR Day that it is now positioning itself as a Blockchain Operating System (BOS). In essence, BOS allows developers to build any decentralised front-end using NEAR. The blockchain space is currently fragmented as there exist a plethora of different identities across networks, BOS solves this by allowing users and develoers to experience the best of the Open Web in one place without neesing to worry about what underlying chain is being used. BOS creates a more seamless Open Wenb experience, allowing NEAR’s infrastructure to pioneer solutions and applications that haven’t seen before.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-takes-the-spotlight-at-ethdenver-2023-discover-the-next-generation-bos/0*MmZ3LBrhKwTnKrb0)

#### A Summary of Major NEAR Announcements

Here is a brief recap of the most important presentations during NEAR Day:

#### Illia Polosukhin : A Decentralized Developer Platform

Illia discusses the recent announcement of a new NEAR layer that allows for the creation of decentralised front-ends to be built on top of existing data stacks, making it possible to build applications that are fully decentralised. He touches upon NEAR’s primary mission to make Web3 simple, secure, and scalable, and highlights the focus NEAR places on user and developer tooling to create an end-to-end experience.

Illia discusses his background in machine learning and how NEAR came to be, and highlights exciting use cases for NEAR. These include: NFT marketplaces, decentralised order books, and streamlined funding. He ends the presentation by emphasising the importance of creating a seamless user experience in driving mass adoption to Web3, and cordially invites all developers to explore NEAR’s platform at [alpha.near.org](https://alpha.near.org/).

#### The Three Pillars of Sustainability for Blockchain

Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation, speaks about the three pillars of sustainability for blockchain. She focuses on the importance of building to create real engagement, the long-term strategic focus at NEAR, and the possible impact of what is being developed.

Flament notes that NEAR is committed to sustainability by being carbon neutral and inclusive. She expands on this by explaining that as technologists, it is our responsibility to act with integrity and build for a better future, ending the talk by inviting attendees to join NEAR in creating a better Web3 ecosystem.

#### What’s Wrong with Web3 Onboarding and How to Fix it!

Matt Lockyer and Ben Carrick present Keypom, highlighting the problems that exist with current Web3 onboarding, and explain how the Keypom project brings a revolutionary paradigm shif to the onboarding process.

The duo explain that the current problem with Web3 is that users are required to set up wallets, which can be overwhelming, confusing, and daunting for those who are not familiar with crypto. Keypom’s solution is to let users set up their wallets only after they have seen the value from the dApp being used. This user experience is unique because there is no wallet connection, no seed phrase, no private keys, and no Metamask extensions. Users are instantly signed into their Web3 dApp, without any extra hassle.

#### The Upcoming Renaissance of ‘Super-dApps’

Alex Chiocchi, Chief Product Officer at Pagoda, discusses the need for a new decentralized operating system that can decentralize major parts of the technology stack and create super-dApps.

He explains the principles and features required for such a system, including self-sovereignty, low-tech literacy, consistent user experience, and seamless community commerce. Chiocchi also discusses his work on the BOS and how it allows for the creation of a fully decentralized identity.

For a more in-depth summary of NEAR at ETHDenver, check out:

[Aurora Labs: Aurora Cloud](https://auroracloud.dev/)

[Foundation: NEAR Announces the Blockchain Operating System](https://near.org/blog/near-announces-the-blockchain-operating-system/)

[Flowcarbon’s partnership announcement with NEAR](https://www.flowcarbon.com/knowcarbon/near-protocol-partners-with-flowcarbon)

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-takes-the-spotlight-at-ethdenver-2023-discover-the-next-generation-bos/0*EhisYQewaR-v49ko)

#### Till Next Year!

Overall, ETHDenver created an incredible opportunity for NEAR Protocol to be in the spotlight. The event encouraged builders to connect with the broader blockchain community and showcased the best of NEAR’s cutting-edge tech and bright future.

Everyone who attended ETHDenver walked away from the conference with a renewed sense of purpose and enthusiasm at the prospect of creating a more open and decentralised future. Till next year Denver!

Written by [Alex](https://twitter.com/btvweb3)  
Edited by [@achildhoodhero](https://twitter.com/achildhoodhero)

**About NEAR Protocol**

NEAR is on a mission to onboard a billion users to the infinite possibilities of Web3 with the Blockchain Operating System (BOS). Leveraging its high-performance, carbon-neutral protocol, which is fast, secure, and scalable, BOS provides a common layer for browsing and discovering the Open Web.

Established by a community-driven team of engineers and entrepreneurs, NEAR’s front-end is compatible with all blockchains, making it the entry point to the Open Web for users and developers alike.

[NEAR Protocol](http://near.org) **|** [NEAR Discovery](http://alpha.near.org)

**About NEARWEEK**

NEARWEEK is one of the first decentralised news sources within the NEAR ecosystem. Via the production of high-quality content, news, and promotional support, NEARWEEK unleashes the full potential of its media outlets to act as the social epicentre of the NEAR ecosystem.

[Website](http://nearweek.com/) **|** [Twitter](http://twitter.com/nearweek) **|** [Newsletter](https://subscribe.nearweek.com/)



* * *

[NEAR TAKES THE SPOTLIGHT AT ETHDENVER 2023 : DISCOVER THE NEXT-GENERATION BOS](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-takes-the-spotlight-at-ethdenver-discover-the-next-generation-blockchain-operating-system-926305de061c) was originally published in [NEAR Protocol](https://medium.com/nearprotocol) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

NEAR TAKES THE SPOTLIGHT AT ETHDENVER 2023 : DISCOVER THE NEXT-GENERATION BOS

To celebrate the milestone of 1000 teams building on NEAR, we reached out to a number of them to shed some light on the people behind the projects.

Over the course of 10 weeks, you will read some personal insights of these NEAR Ecosystem leaders.

**Today’s question (answers in random order): **
![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/2022-highlights-of-near-ecosystem-leaders/awesomenear-1000-5.jpg)

## INFRASTRUCTURE

**Illia Polosukhin - Co-Founder @ [![NEAR Protocol](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/near-protocol/near-protocol.jpg#logo)NEAR Protocol](https://awesomenear.com/near-protocol)**

Involved in too many :)

**Alex Shevshenko - CEO @ [![Aurora](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/aurora-dev/aurora-dev.jpg#logo)Aurora Labs](https://awesomenear.com/aurora-dev)**

Astro DAO / Sputnik DAO. The importance of the canonical DAO framework on NEAR can be hardly overestimated. It’s both cheap, versatile and convenient to use. I’m looking forward new features and FE improvements.

**Louis Liu - Founder @ [![Octopus Network](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/octopus-network/octopus-network.jpg#logo)Octopus Network](https://awesomenear.com/octopus-network)**

Octopus Network relies on Rainbow Bridge to transfer OCT and all appchain token between Ethereum and NEAR. We deeply appreciate the Aurora team's work that keeps Rainbow Bridge usable and secure.

**Bowen Wang - Head of Protocol @ [![Pagoda](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/pagoda/pagoda.jpg#logo)Pagoda](https://awesomenear.com/pagoda)**

Near Social. There is so much potential to what Near Social could become and also, it feels cool to be on a Web3 social app!

**Sandi Fatić - CEO @ [![Calimero Network](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/calimero/calimero.jpg#logo)Calimero Network](https://awesomenear.com/calimero)**

NEAR Social. It’s a programmable social network based on NEAR. The users hold control over their data, they can customize their feeds and the content they consume. The social apps have been a cornerstone of the Web2 period, but the social aspect hasn’t really been “solved” yet in web3. So it’s really interesting to see how it’s going to develop. I have really high hopes from the NEAR Social because of the team behind it, the vision and the execution.

I believe there is a big synergy between NEAR Social and what we are building with Private Shards. I can see a future where certain interest groups will be running them for better privacy systems in Web3 and social in general.

## DEFI

**Claudio Cossio - Co-founder @ [![Meta Pool](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/meta-pool/meta-pool.jpg#logo)Meta Pool](https://awesomenear.com/meta-pool)**

I have been testing a bunch of the new wallets that have launched on NEAR and in no particular order they are:

- HERE Wallet, I have two phones and this is a must on my iPhone.
- Nightly is the wallet I use for my desktop for my Firefox browser
- Meteor is the wallet I used for my Chrome browser

I have recently started to get into Aurora+ since we want to start building on their platform. 

**Evie - Business Development Manager @ [![Trisolaris](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/trisolaris/trisolaris.jpg#logo)Trisolaris](https://awesomenear.com/trisolaris)**

A must follow project in the Near ecosystem is Near Week. The web3 space moves so fast and it is impossible to catch up with all the news across all projects. A news aggregator that has deep ties to the chain and community is priceless. The team doesn’t also stop at news as they keep innovating and have the ethos of decentralization.

**Fauve Altman - Marketing Lead @ [![Ref Finance](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/ref-finance/ref-finance.jpg#logo)Ref Finance](https://awesomenear.com/ref-finance)**

Awesomenear to discover all the other projects!

And as an art lover, Paras.id.

**Marko - CEO @ [![Tonic DEX](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/tonic-dex/tonic-dex.jpg#logo)Tonic DEX](https://awesomenear.com/tonic-dex)**

HERE Wallet. They are doing a great job improving the user experience for NEAR by making an easy to use mobile wallet. Most day to day transactions outside of crypto occur on mobile, and the ecosystem will not grow quickly until we have smooth mobile experiences.

**Ran Yi - Co-Founder @ [![Orderly Network](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/orderly-network/orderly-network.jpg#logo)Orderly Network](https://awesomenear.com/orderly-network)**

Stader is a really cool decision for staking.

**Uladzislau Dziarkach - CPO @ [![Roketo](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/roketo/roketo.jpg#logo)Roketo](https://awesomenear.com/roketo)**

Nearcon 2022 was the great place where we have got 4 partnerships and started integrations with the other projects.

## NFT

**Carolin Wend - COO @ [![Mintbase](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/mintbase/mintbase.jpg#logo)Mintbase](https://awesomenear.com/mintbase)**

I love NEARWEEK and NEAR Social. Both projects help me to stay up to date in the ecosystem and the founders are great humans.

**Chris Gale - Co-founder @ [![Few and Far](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/few-and-far/few-and-far.jpg#logo)Few and Far](https://awesomenear.com/few-and-far)**

It has to be Ref Finance. They are the backbone of the NEAR ecosystem today when it comes to trading and liquidity provision.

**Riqi - Founder/CEO @ [![Paras](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/paras/paras.jpg#logo)Paras](https://awesomenear.com/paras)**

Metapool! They have liquid staking, now they are launching crowdfunding for projects to bootstrap their capital. Definitely, a great ecosystem for you to join.

## GAMEFI/GAMING

**Oleg Fomenko - Co-Founder @ [![Sweat Economy](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/sweat-economy/sweat-economy.jpg#logo)Sweat Economy](https://awesomenear.com/sweat-economy)**

I am really intrigued and excited by the BOS (Blockchain Operating System) project kicked off by the Near Foundation and by the elements of it - Near Social, NearCrowd, etc. It has big vision and a big ambition - and I like the sound of things that try to change the way we think about blockchain.

**Jon Hook - Co-Founder @ [![PlayEmber](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/playember/playember.jpg#logo)PlayEmber](https://awesomenear.com/playember)**

This is a tough one, so many amazing builders on NEAR I mean Im a coffee lover so its hard to look past El Cafe Cartel, and excited for what the team are doing with Bodega. And then a future facing one, very excited about KeyPom, NearSocial and Few and Far.

## ECOSYSTEM

**Blaze - Champion @ [![NEAR Digital Collective](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/near-digital-collective/near-digital-collective.jpg#logo)NDC (NEAR Digital Collective)](https://awesomenear.com/near-digital-collective)**

NEAR Social is both my fav project and the one I use and is actively developing with the GWG team. NEAR Social as a platform provides the ability for easier discovery and utilization of dApps in one place with social interaction.
In 2022 my most memorable moment was when we officially launched Cheddar with an NFT, yield farming, and games.

**Sasha Baksht - Founder @ [![Learn Near Club](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/learn-near/learn-near.jpg#logo)Learn Near Club](https://awesomenear.com/learn-near)**

Since day one I heard about NEAR protocol I personally believe that NEAR's major potential is social economy - like it fits the best to power small collective internal economies and their external interactions. Human readable accounts, on-protocol royalties, sharding - all those foundational architectural blocks are the major reasons for that. 

So NEAR Social is the project that must-follow-and-use.

**Aliaksandr Hudzilin - Co-creator & DAO member @ [![Human Guild](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/human-guild/human-guild.jpg#logo)Human Guild](https://awesomenear.com/human-guild)**

Most recently, I was enjoying using HERE Wallet for mobile sign in and signing transactions. It really opens up possibilities for mobile enabled applications on NEAR. It has great UX and team focused on user growth. I think everyone should give it a try.

To celebrate the milestone of 1000 teams building on NEAR, we reached out to a number of them to shed some light on the people behind the projects. Which projects are Ecosystem Leaders rooting for (other than their own)?

Which projects are Ecosystem Leaders rooting for (other than their own)?



### **TONIC : THE COMPLETELY OPEN-SOURCE ORDERBOOK DEX ON NEAR**

**Context:** Derivatives trading has surged by over 358% since 2020, with perpetual futures trading accounting for more than half of it. Similarly, orderbook-based decentralised exchanges (DEXs) saw a 3,700% growth in trading volume since January 2020. ([Proximity](https://medium.com/@ProximityFi/near-positioned-to-become-the-leading-orderbook-chain-b428c851bd6e), [Coindesk](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2021/10/04/1inchs-liquidity-moves-to-order-book-dexes-as-amm-volume-slows/)). This coincides with an increasing shift of DEXs from Automatic Market Maker (AMM) models to more performant order book-based models.

[Tonic](https://twitter.com/tonicdex) is a fully open-source and on-chain orderbook DEX on NEAR, aiming to provide the speed and convenience of traditional exchanges without intermediaries or centralised authorities. NEAR ensures the DEX has high throughput, low fees, and robust security through its Nightshade sharding, which guarantees infinite scalability and near-instant finality time for transactions.

### TL;DR

*   Tonic is an open-source, decentralised exchange (DEX) built on NEAR’s PoS blockchain. The DEX leverages NEAR’s Nightshade technology to run an on-chain orderbook without sacrificing performance or composability
*   Tonic’s evolving suite of products include a spot orderbook and perpetual futures; it also has a referral portal (allowing users to net up to 20% in trade fees) and a fully open-source SDK for developers
*   Committed to fostering the DeFi community on NEAR, Tonic has teamed up with Proximity and partner projects to [launch a $10M fund](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/announcing-a-10m-fund-for-decentralized-orderbook-solutions-on-near-670bd30540d1) for decentralised orderbook solutions on NEAR
*   Tonic is offering [zero-fee perps trading](https://tonicdex.medium.com/tonic-offers-zero-fee-perpetuals-trading-bbe7ae27e06a) for the next $10 million in eligible trading volume!

**Tonic**: [Twitter](https://twitter.com/tonicdex), [DEX](https://app.tonic.foundation/), [Perps](https://perps.tonic.foundation/trade), [Goblin NFT Collection](https://www.tradeport.xyz/near/collection/nft.greedygoblins.near?)

### Bringing DeFi A Step Closer to True Decentralisation

On-chain and permissionless, [Tonic](https://twitter.com/tonicdex) brings DeFi one step closer to true decentralisation; the DEX offers users complete control, deep liquidity, and a battle-tested price discovery mechanism via their orderbook model—all while remaining [fully open-source](https://docs.tonic.foundation).

> _‘As the only fully open-source orderbook and perps exchange on NEAR, we wanted to set the standard for transparency and composability.’_  
> _— Lix, team Tonic_

Tonic also allows for cross-shard and cross-chain composability, making it a foundational unit for developers wanting to build using its source code or integrate the platform into their dApp.

By merging these properties, Tonic has built a robust DEX that promotes user trust and lays the foundation for a more sustainable DeFi ecosystem on NEAR, as developers interact with its products to build more layered, efficient, and interoperable DeFi products.

### NEAR: The Ultimate Layer-1 DeFi Protocol

NEAR’s sharded blockchain does not have a beacon chain; its shards have single or multiple smart contracts that can be efficiently optimized for specific use cases, all running on a shared Layer 1. For DeFi this means:

1.  Actual dynamic and infinite scalability.
2.  No bridged or fragmented liquidity.
3.  The development of specific execution environments, AKA private shards, deployed for a particular purpose (for instance, orderbooks).

Tonic has a private shard, equivalent to having a dedicated standalone chain with the added advantage of cross-shard composability. This translates to more market and capital efficient concentrated liquidity (instead of it being fragmented / bridged / third-party), speed, and a more streamlined user and developer experience.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/1*G70ruJLqQBYmemrFZlny5A.png)

### The Tonic product suite

Tonic offers a suite of trading products allowing users to trade any native NEP-141 asset on NEAR via its spot orderbook or perpetual futures contract.

#### 1\. Spot Orderbook

The [Tonic spot orderbook](https://app.tonic.foundation/) is fully on-chain, and the goal is for users to provide liquidity. The orderbook model is a better fit as it is more capital efficient than AMMs and gives users better price discovery and control over their trades. To execute a spot trade:

*   Connect your wallet
*   Select between **Simple** or **Advanced** **mode** at the click of a button (in **Advanced** **mode**, assets are paired)
*   Decide on the order amount, regulate slippage, and place order
*   Tradable assets include: NEAR, AURORA, USDC.e, PEM, NearX, PARAS, and STNEAR

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/1*Zhu3_BcGGtXCOnAhkmbK0w.png)

**Simple mode**

**Simple mode** offers a streamlined interface, allowing users to place swap orders between assets directly.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/1*bHEFJPn7Hmb7ZHSW38EEaA.png)

**Advanced mode**

**Advanced mode** contains a more detailed dashboard, it displays the market chart, recent trades, and the orderbook; this mode gives users more control over their trade direction (buy or sell) and order type (limit or market).

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/1*HiCTKXNBg1bYu4F4vOnnDQ.png)

**Incentives page**

Meanwhile, Tonic also hosts an [**Incentives page**](https://app.tonic.foundation/#/incentives) on its Spot dashboard, which displays ongoing and past incentives to take advantage of as you trade.

#### 2\. Perpetual Futures

Perpetuals trading recently launched on Tonic [mainnet](https://perps.tonic.foundation/) and the platform allows users to trade against holders of **$GIN**, the liquidity pool (LP) token on Tonic.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/0*ILqR2tOfnJC7pkrD)

Below is an overview of how the Tonic GIN Pool works:

*   Liquidity providers (LPs) deposit assets (NEAR, ETH, USDT) into the pool to mint $GIN
*   The assets are converted at oracle price, which is determined by the sum of the value of all tokens in the pool plus the unrealised profit and loss from all open positions
*   Users will soon be able to stake their $GIN tokens to earn passive yield
*   Assets can be withdrawn by burning the $GIN token to redeem the asset.

> _‘Our goal is to provide a product that allows users to stake and earn real yield passively, not yield dependent on inflationary token emissions.’_  
> _— Lix, team Tonic_

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/1*fL9bjTBtWF0i2KHGYh1vKQ.png)

To initiate a perpetuals trade on Tonic, users can do the following:

*   Select a market (NEAR or ETH)
*   Choose a position (long or short)
*   Choose which asset to use as collateral and the position size (NEAR, ETH, USDT)
*   Leverage collateral (2x, 5x, 10x)
*   Submit a desired position

### SDK for developers

Tonic enables developers to interact with JavaScript SDK to build apps such as trading bots, swap dashboards, exchange frontends, or even a Rust SDK to integrate on-chain calls to Tonic directly.

> _‘With our available documentation, any project in the NEAR ecosystem can integrate Tonic functionalities into their own project. Whether it’s something straightforward like powering swaps or building more complex DeFi products on top of our primitives, we’ve made everything is available to developers.’  
>  — Lix, team Tonic_

To get started, you can visit Tonic’s [API Reference](https://docs.tonic.foundation/developers/api-reference) documentation.

### Powering the Next Wave of Orderbook DEXs on NEAR

Tonic is extremely engaged in growing the DeFi community on the NEAR ecosystem. The project has teamed up with Orderly Network, a permissionless modular protocol with an off-chain central limit orderbook (CLOB); Spin Finance, [the first orderbook DEX](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/spin-finance-experience-the-future-of-options-trading-with-the-first-order-book-dex-on-near-5b998c5d6b63) on NEAR; and Proximity Labs, to launch a [**$10M Fund for Decentralised Orderbook Solutions on NEAR**](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/announcing-a-10m-fund-for-decentralized-orderbook-solutions-on-near-670bd30540d1)**.** The fund will be deployed as grants and/or investments to DeFi projects that use the orderbook primitives of Tonic, Spin, and Orderly.

### Referral Portal

The [referral program](https://perps.tonic.foundation/referrals) is one of the features on Tonic that encourages builders to develop frontends on top of the platform. Users can bring others and get rebates, allowing the referrer to net **20% of trade fees** to their exchange balance.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/1*oBLQF34Tl-eRjWByVBTZtg.png)

### The Tonic Goblin NFT collection

To engage their community and reward active members, the Tonic team launched the Goblin NFT collection last year. [Available on Tradeport](https://www.tradeport.xyz/near/collection/nft.greedygoblins.near?), the NFTs unlock special perks for owners:

*   Advantages of Tonic DEX Events
*   Whitelist from our partner companies
*   Exclusive access to Tonic DEX Physical Event
*   NFT Holder Role on Discord and Private Chat Channel
*   Automatic membership to Goblin DAO

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near/1*_o4DOtR4cJyXfRiZPzz14Q.png)

### Builders at Heart

[Tonic](https://twitter.com/tonicdex) manages to effortlessly provide both experienced and casual traders with a complete and seamless DeFi experience. The current bear market has been a welcome and distraction-free time for the team to focus on polishing their products while the market picks up.

> _‘With the major scare around what’s happened with centralised entities, many users are now looking to migrate to DEXs — we aim to ease the transition to the DeFi world as much as possible.’  
>  — Lix, team Tonic_

Looking at Tonic’s extensive product suite, it’s clear the project has been successful in this endeavour. Be sure to [check them out](https://twitter.com/tonicdex)!

Written by [Beet](https://twitter.com/Beet2493?s=20)  
Edited by [@achildhoodhero](http://twitter.com/achildhoodhero)

### About NEAR Protocol

NEAR is a dynamically sharded Proof-of-Stake, carbon-neutral blockchain built for usability and scalability. NEAR combines the power of both PoS and sharding in a technology called Nightshade, making the chain infinitely scalable without compromising security and decentralization.

### About NEARWEEK

NEARWEEK is one of the first decentralised news sources within the NEAR ecosystem. Via the production of high-quality content, news, and promotional support, NEARWEEK unleashes the full potential of its media outlets to act as the social epicentre of the NEAR ecosystem.  
[Website](http://nearweek.com/) **|** [Twitter](http://twitter.com/nearweek) **|** [Newsletter](https://subscribe.nearweek.com/)



* * *

[Tonic : The Completely Open-Source Orderbook DEX on NEAR](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/tonic-the-completely-open-source-orderbook-dex-on-near-6c75e65624ab) was originally published in [NEAR Protocol](https://medium.com/nearprotocol) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

TONIC : THE COMPLETELY OPEN-SOURCE ORDERBOOK DEX ON NEAR

Tonic : The Completely Open-Source Orderbook DEX on NEAR

Octopus DAO Community Call #8 — March Reports

Octopus DAO March 2023



NEAR DemoDay will take place on March 15th with a wide array of notable speakers including Illia, founder of NEAR, Alex, Founder of Aurora, and a whole slew of very promising projects both from NEAR and Aurora ecosystem.

NEAR DemoDay is a unique opportunity for the whole ecosystem to come together, showcase their product, brag about their new features, make very valuable connections and even receive grants!

The full schedule can be viewed here: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-yV8HfsAacSFrb4qzKLX1Jvy0-qXW\_\_s9f85VVrrC3g/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-yV8HfsAacSFrb4qzKLX1Jvy0-qXW__s9f85VVrrC3g/edit#gid=0)

### Take Part in the DemoDay

There is still time to take part in the DemoDay and get your pitch ready for the event! If you are willing to take part as a project, all you need to do is submit a form at [https://pitchtalk.com/participant](https://pitchtalk.com/participant)

And specify an available time slot by following the link above.

The event itself is wholly dedicated to the NEAR ecosystem!

### About Pitchtalk

Pitchtalk is an independent platform for Live Presentations of projects for potential investors. It enables ANY project to launch a campaign, attract investors, provide updates on the development and initiate a fundraising. Moreover, it represents a crucial link for the NEAR ecosystem that bolsters transparency, convenience and exposure for all parties involved!

### Helpful Links

Website for DemoDay: [Demodayisnear.com](https://demodayisnear.com/)

Platform that Demoday will take place on: [pitchtalk.com](https://pitchtalk.com/)

The event itself is wholly dedicated to the NEAR ecosystem!



* * *

[NEAR DemoDay by PitchTalk Kickstarts on March 15th](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-demoday-by-pitchtalk-kickstarts-on-march-15th-74e970b25e22) was originally published in [NEAR Protocol](https://medium.com/nearprotocol) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

NEAR DemoDay will take place on March 15th with a wide array of notable speakers including Illia, founder of NEAR, Alex, Founder of Auror...

NEAR DemoDay by PitchTalk Kickstarts on March 15th



_The Aurora team is made up of exceptional individuals that left a mark in the industries they have been part of by innovating and building cutting edge technology. These top-tier professionals have unique stories to share about their journeys that deserve to be talked about as they can provide inspiration and guidance to new builders joining this ecosystem. With this series we aim to do just that by highlighting the work and experiences of a generation of pioneers in the Web3 world paying tribute to their valuable contributions and achievements._

#### **Programming Championships and Early Career**

Segey Fedorov was born and raised in Saratov, Russia, where he developed a strong interest in mathematics and programming from a very early age. His aptitude towards these subjects did not pass unnoticed by his parents and teachers who encouraged him to participate in mathematical competitions since middle school. Later on he would go on to participate in national and international coding competitions bringing home several gold medals.

While in high school, Sergey participated in multiple national individual and team competitions like the [Top Coder for High School](https://cphof.org/standings/tchs/2010), and the International Olympiad of Informatics [IOI](https://stats.ioinformatics.org/results/2009), just to name a few. While attending the Moscow State University he continued to attend twice the [ACM ICPC World cup](https://icpc.global/community/results-2012), the [TopCoder Open](https://tco12.topcoder.com/tracks/algorithm), the [AMC ICPC World finals](https://cphof.org/contest/icpc) and the [Facebook Hacker Cup](https://www.facebook.com/codingcompetitions/hacker-cup/2014/final-round/scoreboard), reaching outstanding results and entering the [competitive programming wall of fame](https://cphof.org/profile/topcoder:SergeiFedorov).

As a young and talented programmer, Sergey was accepted for an internship at Facebook in California and later in London while still studying at the university. These experiences were “eye opening” according to Sergey, as they allowed him to recognize his passion for software engineering and pursue a career in this domain.

After graduating, Sergey went on to work for [WorldQuant](https://www.linkedin.com/company/276383/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_position_details%3BsmN7zClwSvC5gXwVx8auAQ%3D%3D), first as quantitative researcher and later as portfolio manager. Then he joined [Yandex](https://www.linkedin.com/company/10718/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_position_details%3BOQr3%2Bn0kR6qtnEy61lbZZw%3D%3D)’s Self Driving division as a senior software engineer and not long after started to build a team and take the lead on different engineering and research projects for which he earned two patents. And in 2022 he embarked on a new journey as head of engineering at [Aurora Labs](https://aurora.dev/)**.**

#### **Sergey’s Work at Aurora Labs**

When Sergey joined Aurora Labs he already had over 6 years of experience in software engineering and in managing engineering teams. But after having been part of the IT industry for years Sergey developed a craving for starting something new:

> “During my work at Yandex I focused on building prediction and motion planning for self-driving cars and delivery robots. My team spent a lot of time building modules to understand intentions behind predicted trajectories for other actors and making our high-level trajectory decisions based on that. I believe that the solution we built was one of the best in the world. That was the best project I ever worked on, but after four years I chose to move on and explore other innovative areas. That’s when I found Aurora.”

Sergey first found out about Aurora through NEAR Protocol, the underlying technology powering Aurora and remained particularly impressed by its design. However, what ultimately led him to join the team was the opportunity to conduct research on the widely unexplored field of blockchain and work on new cutting edge technologies.

Currently, as head of engineering, Sergey dedicates himself to mentoring and managing four engineering teams, Bridge, Engine, Relayer, and Apps, as he describes,“Mentoring and trying to suggest new directions is a big part of my job. I suggest new approaches and help engineers reach their full potential.” But crucially, Sergey also helps maintain and facilitate communication within a fully remote organization acting as a bridge between different departments.

#### **Vision and Objectives**

As a curious and innovation driven individual, Sergey fit perfectly into the Aurora Labs’ team where, “everyone is open-minded and eager to learn”, and where “technology always comes first”. Even if sometimes it feels like Aurora focuses on technology perhaps too much, Sergey points out that, “what Aurora is building is not for a few people. Aurora is building a scalable high quality solution for the future”, and that requires having to prioritize quality over easy returns.

When asked about the future, Sergey provided a very clear and detailed answer:

> “Our goal is to represent the best option for companies to adopt blockchain in their businesses — from the fastest path to integration, to supporting their unique economic business models, to providing a friction-free experience for their users. And ultimately, benefitting from the network effects emerging from a vibrant and healthy ecosystem.”

This future envisioned by Sergey is already taking place with the launch of Aurora Cloud, a platform and suite of services that allow any business to tap into Web3 with convenience. This is a first major step for Aurora, and the Aurora Labs team will keep on supporting and improving the underlying tech that allows Aurora Cloud to be a Web3 powerhouse.

#### **About Aurora**

Aurora is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based on the layer 1 proof-of-stake blockchain NEAR Protocol. Aurora provides a solution for developers to deploy their apps on an Ethereum-compatible, high-speed, scalable, and future-proof platform with low transaction costs for their users.

[**Website**](https://aurora.dev/) **|** [**LinkedIn**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurora-is-near/mycompany/) **|** [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/auroraisnear) **|** [**Telegram**](https://t.me/auroraisnear) **|** [**Discord**](https://discord.gg/dEFJBz8HQV) **|** [**YouTube**](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5inYyvUO10iL65hBPFtpvg) **|** [**GitHub**](https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine) **|** [**Regional Communities and Media**](https://aurora.dev/ecosystem?category=Community&subcategory=Regional+Communities+and+Community+media)**|** [**Governance Forum**](https://forum.aurora.dev/) **|** [**Community Dashboard**](https://auroradao.club/dashboard) **|** [**Community Swags store**](https://auroraonelove.com/) **|** [**Aurora Expert Bot**](https://t.me/auroraexpert_bot)



The Aurora team is made up of exceptional individuals that left a mark in the industries they have been part of by innovating and buildi...

Meet the team: Sergey Fedorov Aurora Labs’ Head of Engineering



Missed Near Day and ETHDenver 2023? We’ve got you covered with content from Near talks and panels. There were also a number of awesome announcements, including the big news out of ETHDenver — the [Blockchain Operating System](https://near.org/blog/near-announces-the-blockchain-operating-system/).

Let’s take a look at all that was Near at ETHDenver.

### Near Day talks

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-at-ethdenver-the-blockchain-operating-system-near-day-and-more/0*JO85TmBQsaM9Nudp.jpg)

Near Day, the 1-day mini summit on all things Near, was jam-packed with the latest technological and protocol updates. Chief among them was the announcement of the Blockchain Operating System.

Things got started with a Regenerative Finance (ReFI) talk from Open Forest Protocol’s Frederic Fournier and Flow Carbon’s Phil Fogel. Later in the morning programme, OnMachina’s Polina Aladina and Mark Collier talked about building decentralized storage on Near. As a vital Near ecosystem project, it was great for the ETHDenver crowd to hear from OnMachina on Web3 storage.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-at-ethdenver-the-blockchain-operating-system-near-day-and-more/0*dNeLIHIvT_N2ZX0U.jpg)

Keypom, which also recently launched on Near, got some much needed visibility at Near Day. In “Instant Crypto Experiences with Keypom”, Ben Kurrek and Matt Lockyer took the audience on a tour of their Web3 onboarding solution, in which users are given a special type of access key that can be used to experience a crypto application and later be turned into a wallet. (Read more about Keypom [here](https://near.org/blog/keypom-brings-frictionless-onboarding-to-near-and-web3/).)

The morning programme also featured talks from Calimero Network’s Sandi Fatic on privacy and scaling with private sharding; Aurora Labs’ Alex Shevchenko on Containers, Aurora’s cloud computing solution for blockchains; Sweat Economy’s Oleg Fomenko on how to effectively onboard people from Web2 to Web3; and Near co-founder Alex Skidanov on how the future of AI will be decentralized.

In the afternoon, there were a range of talks, starting with Pagoda’s Max Zavershynskyi presentation on creating “high velocity developer communities” via Near DevGov DAO. But the big news on Near Day was the [Blockchain Operating System](https://near.org/blog/near-announces-the-blockchain-operating-system/) talk from Near co-founder Illia Polosukhin. After Illia primed the audience, Pagoda’s Chief Product Officer Alex Chiocchi elaborated on how Blockchain Operating System will help in onboarding millions of users to Near, while Pagoda’s Bowen Wang detailed the protocol innovations powering the Blockchain Operating System.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-at-ethdenver-the-blockchain-operating-system-near-day-and-more/0*v-jLQtR4NcvpOUns.jpg)

Near Foundation CEO Marieke Flament and Dragonfly Capital’s Haseeb Qureshi also talked about why the future remains bright for Web3 even during the crypto winter. There were also talks from Pagoda’s Pavel Kudinov on the Near data stack and Josh Ford on a fully decentralized Javascript.

Other topics included the building of infrastructure to onboard 1 billion users on Near, NFT infrastructure, a “DeFi survival kit” for the bear market, and the regulatory landscape in Web3.

### Near speakers at ETHDenver

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-at-ethdenver-the-blockchain-operating-system-near-day-and-more/0*rbqfLBgkOMwXNSb_.jpg)

A number of speakers represented the Near ecosystem at ETHDenver talks. Topics included the Blockchain Operating System, sustainability, UX design, and more.

Aurora Labs’ Alex Shevchenko kicked things off with a presentation on Web3 infrastructure and scalability — specifically, how not to hack everything up in creating bridges. Alex also gave another talk on next generation user experience. Near Foundation CEO Marieke Flament delivered a talk on the three pillars of Web3 sustainability, while Proximity Labs’ Kendall Cole explored how Web3 can win in the DeFi battle against app stores.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/near-at-ethdenver-the-blockchain-operating-system-near-day-and-more/0*yfi0JwK33MN5C18S.jpg)

In separate talks, Illia Polosukhin and Pagoda’s Bowen Wang spoke to the ETHDenver audience about the Blockchain Operating System. While Bowen mapped out Near’s vision for Layer 1 Infrastructure, Illia talked about reinventing Web3 development with decentralized frontends and social networking.

### Near Announcements

While the [Near is the Blockchain Operating System](https://near.org/blog/near-announces-the-blockchain-operation-system/?_gl=1*ncfu51*_up*MQ..*_ga*NTY5OTQyMjAxLjE2NzgwMjk4ODA.*_ga_9GWCXQJ62J*MTY3ODAyOTg3OC4xLjAuMTY3ODAyOTg3OC4wLjAuMA..) announcement was the talk of ETHDenver, there were plenty of other announcements. Find the full run-down of Near ecosystem announcements [here](https://near.org/blog/near-at-ethdenver-highlights/?_gl=1*psni5a*_up*MQ..*_ga*NTY5OTQyMjAxLjE2NzgwMjk4ODA.*_ga_9GWCXQJ62J*MTY3ODAyOTg3OC4xLjAuMTY3ODAyOTg3OC4wLjAuMA..).

In other news, the Near ecosystem had two wins at ETHVC’s Startup Demo Day during ETHDenver — Niche Protocol, a Web3 social media platform, and Kino, a film financing platform.

_Originally published at_ [_https://near.org_](https://near.org/blog/near-at-ethdenver-the-blockchain-operating-system-near-day-and-more/) _on March 8, 2023._



* * *

[Near at ETHDenver: the Blockchain Operating System, Near Day, and More](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-at-ethdenver-the-blockchain-operating-system-near-day-and-more-13bddab29956) was originally published in [NEAR Protocol](https://medium.com/nearprotocol) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Missed Near Day and ETHDenver 2023? We’ve got you covered with content from Near talks and panels. There were also a number of awesome an...

Near at ETHDenver: the Blockchain Operating System, Near Day, and More



Before jumping into 2023, it’s worth remembering what happened in 2022. The past year was marked by volatility and deleveraging in the crypto market, with major players like FTX, 3AC, and Voyager falling. Despite these events, we believe DeFi continues to offer greater security and efficiency through trustlessness and transparency. However, the DEX market is small compared to centralized exchanges. Our focus in 2023 is to improve product user experience, security, and high-efficiency trading on DEXs, making them more competitive. Our 2023 product roadmap summarises our key areas of focus in the next 12 months to achieve these goals.

### **SIX PILLARS**

Repetition is the First Principle of All Learning — Robert F. Bruner  
Here is a reminder of our six pillars, as identified in our [2022 roadmap](https://ref-finance.medium.com/ref-ahead-2022-6b4565f8df9):

*   The Future is Decentralised: Promote further decentralisation
*   The Double B: Deliver Better prices and Better liquidity utilisation
*   Money, Money, Money: Provide LPs with the tooling to maximise profits while mitigating risks (i.e. auto-compounding)
*   Better Experience: Improve user experience
*   Knowledge is power: Encourage transparency and data-driven decisions
*   Bridge Them All: Reduce the gap with other chain communities

In addition to Security, which is transversal to the above pillars.

### The 2022 Ref Cheat Sheet

*   January 17: Single-sided staking for REF
*   February: Allbridge integration
*   March 18: [Auto Router (Smart Routing)](https://guide.ref.finance/products/auto-router)
*   April — May: Additional stable pools added
*   May 19: Swap Pro: [Multi-chain Router](https://guide.ref.finance/products/multi-chain-router)
*   June 15: [Rated pools for yield-bearing tokens](https://ref-finance.medium.com/rated-pools-pools-designed-for-yield-bearing-tokens-8fd2c33c6ffb)
*   July: veTokenomics on testnet
*   September 7: [Wallet Selector](https://github.com/near/wallet-selector) integrated
*   September 20: [Ref SDK](https://github.com/ref-finance/ref-sdk)
*   September 21: New, veTokenomics-ready, Farm contract released
*   September 22: [Transak](https://transak.com) integrated
*   October 9: [Defillama Yield Dashboard published](https://defillama.com/yields?project=ref-finance)
*   November 22: [Revenue Dashboards on Datrics](https://gov.ref.finance/t/analytics-protocol-revenue/825)
*   December 20: [Ref v2 Concentrated Liquidity launched](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/why-ref-v2-is-better-than-uni-v3-d24afb5c693c)

The list above is not exhaustive. Small wins are worth mentioning as well, such as a major revamp of the Ref UI, a new referral fee model, Ledger Support toggle to help with Ledger’s low memory issues, fouradditional translations (Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish), [NETH](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/introducing-neth-near-becomes-the-first-non-evm-chain-to-offer-metamask-compatibility-5c05db5c31d6) integration (MetaMask), and audits of all the smart contracts.

### The Future is Decentralized

2023 will bring more involvement from those outside of the core team. For example, the Ref Community DAO will take on more of a role in shaping the direction of the product, by voting on some features that will be added to the second half of the Roadmap. Furthermore, a public feature request system will be rolled out that will allow **anyone** to submit and comment on features they would like to see on Ref!

**Ref Widgets**, scheduled for Q2, will make it easy for projects to embed Ref Finance features on their own website, similar to how a site can embed a tweet or YouTube video. For example, a Swap Widget for swapping to/from only that project’s token, a Pool Widget for adding liquidity to the project’s pool, and a Farm Widget for staking on the project’s farm.

### The Double B

Better prices. Better liquidity utilisation.  
**Ref v2**, a Discretized Liquidity AMM (DLAMM), was relaunched mid-February, and the wrap-up of Ref v2 will take place in the same quarter. This will include additional Ref v2 pools, **Ref v2 farms**, adding **Ref v2 stats in Ref Analytics**, and finally making the **Ref v2 smart contracts 100% open source**.

### Money, Money, Money

The **integration of Orderly’s liquidity**, along with a pure **Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) experience** should be done by the end of March. This integration will allow Ref users to utilise liquidity on Orderly for trading tokens, and use a trading interface like those seen on most centralised exchanges.

**Lending and borrowing** of fungible tokens will be coming to Ref in Q2. This will be extended in Q4 to include **Liquidity as Collateral**; liquidity providers will be able to borrow fungible tokens using their pool shares as collateral, essentially re-liquifying their assets while still getting a cut of the swap fees.

### Better Experience

We’ve all been in this situation: There’s a farm with juicy rewards, and you need pool shares to stake on it. However, you don’t have the pool’s tokens in your wallet, so you have to figure out how many of each token you will need, do a swap or two to get them, and then go back to the pool’s page to deposit your newly acquired tokens. _There has to be a better way!_

Well, there will be, in Q2, with **Zap Swap**! Want to deposit 100 USDC worth of liquidity into the REF/NEAR pool? Just give Zap Swap 100 USDC, and Zap Swap will give you the equivalent value of REF/NEAR pool shares in return!

**Recurring Swaps**, scheduled for Q3, will automate swaps so that they occur at regular intervals. For example, users will be able to set up a schedule to swap 1 NEAR for $REF once a day, week, or month.

### Knowledge is Power

[**Enhanced analytics**](https://stats.ref.finance/) will give liquidity providers and farmers more insight into the performance of pools and farms, in order to help them make more informed, data-driven, decisions about their investments. That is scheduled for Q3, along with **Sentinels**, which will monitor pools, tokens, and other contracts for suspicious activity, like a change to a token’s metadata, or a significant shift in the balance of a pool’s tokens. Depending on the type of anomaly detected, the Ref site may display a warning to users about a potential problem with a token. The team will build upon Sentinels and Enhanced Analytics, further developing some innovative systems for security and user protection for the end of the year.

### Bridge Them All!

An **Enhanced Swap Pro** in Q2 will add DEX aggregators on Aurora to the current Swap Pro. This will immediately increase the liquidity available for cross-chain swaps, and the liquidity of any DEXs added to these aggregators in the future will automatically become available as well!

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/ref-ahead-2023-roadmap/1*9DxlOyFh3EYkNX3FqMA4vg.jpeg)

### Conclusion

In addition to our major product focuses, we have plenty of exciting features in store for the year ahead. For instance, we are expanding our wallet selector by adding additional wallets (XDEFI and HERE wallets before end of Q1), and our Fireblocks integration will be launching on mainnet soon.

Overall, we remain committed to working with our ecosystem partners to make the NEAR ecosystem an even better place to decentralise your finance. We value your input and look forward to growing the NEAR ecosystem together. Here are a few ways to reach out to us:

*   Email: business@ref.finance
*   [Governance Forum](https://gov.ref.finance/)
*   [Discord](https://discord.gg/55RzsKQQ)
*   [Twitter](https://twitter.com/finance_ref)

### Disclaimer

Ref Finance does not endorse or promote any of the projects, platforms or cryptocurrencies mentioned in this blogpost. Any descriptions of functionality and services provided are for information only. Ref Finance is not responsible for any loss of funds or other damages caused as a result of using the projects, platforms or cryptocurrencies described above.



Before jumping into 2023, it’s worth remembering what happened in 2022. The past year was marked by volatility and deleveraging in the cr...

Ref Ahead: 2023 Roadmap

To celebrate the milestone of 1000 teams building on NEAR, we reached out to a number of them to shed some light on the people behind the projects.

Over the course of 10 weeks, you will read some personal insights of these NEAR Ecosystem leaders.

**Today’s question (answers in random order): **
![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/2022-highlights-of-near-ecosystem-leaders/awesomenear-1000-4.jpg)

## INFRASTRUCTURE

**Illia Polosukhin - Co-Founder @ [![NEAR Protocol](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/near-protocol/near-protocol.jpg#logo)NEAR Protocol](https://awesomenear.com/near-protocol)**

NEARCON. Amazing event gathering all the builders from the ecosystem under one roof. It was really exciting to see different projects being built and excitement in the eyes of the attendees about the future.

**Alex Shevshenko - CEO @ [![Aurora](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/aurora-dev/aurora-dev.jpg#logo)Aurora Labs](https://awesomenear.com/aurora-dev)**

There’re many memorable moments in crypto. Many bad ones. However, there are some good moments, like the launch of aurora.plus. However, the most memorable moment of the year was the Russian invasion into Ukraine on 24th of February 2023. This event completely changed the life and operations of many people in Aurora/NEAR ecosystem for a long time.

**Louis Liu - Founder @ [![Octopus Network](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/octopus-network/octopus-network.jpg#logo)Octopus Network](https://awesomenear.com/octopus-network)**

On July 4, 2022, the Octopus core team organized the 1st community call, which brought forward an open discussion mechanism for the Octopus community. It will be remembered by me and many other people as a major milestone on the path for the Octopus Network to evolve into a fully community-governed protocol.

**Bowen Wang - Head of Protocol @ [![Pagoda](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/pagoda/pagoda.jpg#logo)Pagoda](https://awesomenear.com/pagoda)**

Launch of Phase 1 of sharding in September. It was one of the most important technical milestones for the NEAR ecosystem in 2022 and the team had been working hard on it for several months before the launch. It helped significantly increase the number of validators on NEAR and make NEAR more decentralized.

**Sandi Fatić - CEO @ [![Calimero Network](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/calimero/calimero.jpg#logo)Calimero Network](https://awesomenear.com/calimero)**

Our first public appearance at NEARCON 2022. That was basically the presentation of the project to a broad public with the whole team gathered. It was also important for the team members to get to know each other, and to get to know the other people in the NEAR ecosystem. That moment gave me additional motivation to keep shipping and working hard.

## DEFI

**Claudio Cossio - Co-founder @ [![Meta Pool](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/meta-pool/meta-pool.jpg#logo)Meta Pool](https://awesomenear.com/meta-pool)**

Definitely getting a full team together to build decentralized products around liquid staking derivatives is our bet on NEAR Protocol. So we launched 4 products during 2022:

1. Staking [wNEAR on Aurora](https://metapool.app/dapp/mainnet/metapool-aurora/), leveraging the Rainbow Bridge any user with an EVM compatible wallet can get stNEAR using Meta Pool.
2. Launched [Meta Yield](https://metayield.app/), a crowdfunding platform that does not risk their main token NEAR, all staking rewards are used to support projects in exchange for the project token.
3. Launched [Meta Vote](https://metavote.app/), the first decentralized application that allows an NEP-141 token to be used to vote on a smart contract on NEAR Protocol. In this case the Meta Pool community can use our $META governance token to support projects that want to launch on Meta Yield.
4. Launched [Meta Staking Vote](https://vote.metapool.app/), with the experienced gathered from launching Meta Vote we understood how to take our first step into building our governance for the Meta Pool liquid staking protocol. Now $META token holders can decide how to distribute delegation from the main NEAR delegation pool. Their votes are deciding how the liquid staking smart contract behaves. Getting us one step closer into building a Decentralized Autonomous Organization built on ASTRODAO.
5. Built [Meta Bonds](https://metabondmarket.app/) which we recently launched in January 2023, all thought it was ready in December 2022 and we decided to wait until market conditions where more favorable.

**Evie - Business Development Manager @ [![Trisolaris](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/trisolaris/trisolaris.jpg#logo)Trisolaris](https://awesomenear.com/trisolaris)**

The most memorable moment for me was attending Nearcon – my first Web3 convention/conference. This is where I met some amazing partners such as Axelar and Stader, on top of learning everything related to Near among peers.

**Fauve Altman - Marketing Lead @ [![Ref Finance](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/ref-finance/ref-finance.jpg#logo)Ref Finance](https://awesomenear.com/ref-finance)**

Celebrating NEAR’s one year on Mainnet.

**Marko - CEO @ [![Tonic DEX](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/tonic-dex/tonic-dex.jpg#logo)Tonic DEX](https://awesomenear.com/tonic-dex)**

Shipping our v1 orderbook to production was a huge milestone. It was tough shipping the product with just a team of 3, but I’m proud of our speed.

**Ran Yi - Co-Founder @ [![Orderly Network](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/orderly-network/orderly-network.jpg#logo)Orderly Network](https://awesomenear.com/orderly-network)**

There are many memorable moments in 2022 for myself and Orderly Network. In June, we announced a US$20 million seeding round led by many venture capital heavyweights, including Pantera Capital, Jump Crypto, Sequoia China, and Dragonfly Capital, as well as a group of strategic partners. Not long after, Laser Digital, a crypto subsidiary of global financial services group Nomura, also joined the list of Orderly Network backers. 

On Oct 11, 2022, Orderly Network officially went live on NEAR Mainnet, months after our successful Testnet launch. This was a huge moment for us as it set the foundation for us to provide a full-stack trading infrastructure for potentially all builders and users.

Outside of Orderly Network, 2022 was also remembered by the abrupt collapse of FTX and Alameda which caused tremendous trauma to the industry. Though the series of events were unfortunate, it reminded users of the importance of DeFi, and solidified our mission to provide a decentralized trading infrastructure for DeFi applications to flourish.

**Uladzislau Dziarkach - CPO @ [![Roketo](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/roketo/roketo.jpg#logo)Roketo](https://awesomenear.com/roketo)**

Nearcon 2022 was the great place where we have got 4 partnerships and started integrations with the other projects.

## NFT

**Carolin Wend - COO @ [![Mintbase](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/mintbase/mintbase.jpg#logo)Mintbase](https://awesomenear.com/mintbase)**

Redeeming tickets for NEARCON via Mintbase tooling was pretty memorable. Having a tech that works better than traditional ticketing systems was a proof of concept that will break through in the years to come.

**Chris Gale - Co-founder @ [![Few and Far](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/few-and-far/few-and-far.jpg#logo)Few and Far](https://awesomenear.com/few-and-far)**

Having one of the best crypto VCs, Pantera Capital confirmed they wanted to lead our round at Few and Far. Solidifying our vision and approach to the future of web3 and NFTs to back us.

**Riqi - Founder/CEO @ [![Paras](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/paras/paras.jpg#logo)Paras](https://awesomenear.com/paras)**

In early 2022, Paras got a lot of traffic and transactions, it was so memorable, our team is very small, and we need to provide all the needs of our partners and users. Adding more servers, coding all night long, and meeting with projects all around the world from 9 AM to 11 PM, was so busy and fun.

## GAMEFI/GAMING

**Oleg Fomenko - Co-Founder @ [![Sweat Economy](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/sweat-economy/sweat-economy.jpg#logo)Sweat Economy](https://awesomenear.com/sweat-economy)**

It has to be the launch. Beyond the mechanics of actually fulfilling the largest token generation event (TGE) ever, we were launching SWEAT on 14 top exchanges, delivering on the Sweat Wallet app, introducing a staking and rewards feature, and more. It was a wild 48hrs with some members of the team having to stay up through the whole time to make sure everything worked as intended.

**Jon Hook - Co-Founder @ [![PlayEmber](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/playember/playember.jpg#logo)PlayEmber](https://awesomenear.com/playember)**

Successfully raising our pre seed round that was led by Shima Capital after a successful beta test of our MVP.

Shima Capital were joined by some amazing other investors like Big Brain Holdings, Warburg Serres, Hyperithm, Lyrik Capital, Huobi Ventures.

It was very proud moment for the team, especially in the current bear market. Massive thank you to the team and all our early supporters.

## ECOSYSTEM

**Blaze - Champion @ [![NEAR Digital Collective](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/near-digital-collective/near-digital-collective.jpg#logo)NDC (NEAR Digital Collective)](https://awesomenear.com/near-digital-collective)**

In 2022 my most memorable moment was when we officially launched Cheddar with an NFT, yield farming, and games.

**Sasha Baksht - Founder @ [![Learn Near Club](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/learn-near/learn-near.jpg#logo)Learn Near Club](https://awesomenear.com/learn-near)**

I think NEARCON 2022 was cool! It was super cool to finally meet in person NEAR folks that I was working with for quite a while already.

**Aliaksandr Hudzilin - Co-creator & DAO member @ [![Human Guild](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/projects/human-guild/human-guild.jpg#logo)Human Guild](https://awesomenear.com/human-guild)**

Unfortunately, the most memorable moment in 2022 for me is the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine. For example, I was seeing Alex Shevchenko in ETH Denver, and he flew back the same day when war started. Big chunk of 2022 for me was colored in war situations since I was following day to day news for 6 months or so, and importantly, I ended up bringing my mom to the United States because of the war. 

To celebrate the milestone of 1000 teams building on NEAR, we reached out to a number of them to shed some light on the people behind the projects. What was your most memorable moment in 2022 and why?

NEAR Ecosystem Leaders & Their 2022 in Retrospect



During ETHDenver, Aurora was featured in several panels and talks, where major ideas and announcements were shared with a large audience of crypto enthusiasts. As ETHDenver comes to an end, it is time for a recap of Aurora’s main contribution to this incredible event.

#### **Aurora Labs’ Protocol Lead Michael Birch released the Aurora Contracts SDK**

On March 2nd, our Protocol Lead Michael Birch announced the release of the Aurora Contracts SDK during NEAR Day, opening up a new era of cross-ecosystem communication between NEAR and Aurora. The Aurora Contracts SKD comprises a Rust library for NEAR contracts to interact with Aurora, a Solidity library to interact with NEAR, and plenty of examples to facilitate the work of developers that are looking to implement cross-contract calls.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/aurora-at-ethdenver-highlights/0*jZIWyIWty9Z-DdVB)

#### **Aurora Labs announced the Launch of Aurora Cloud**

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/aurora-at-ethdenver-highlights/0*iMWg5bUyaa4pLnrO)

On the 2nd of March, Aurora Labs’ CEO Alex Shevchenko dropped a second major announcement–the launch of Aurora Cloud, a platform and suite of products that allow today’s Web2 businesses to capture the value of Web3.

### Aurora on Twitter: "Aurora is thrilled to announce Aurora Cloud, a turnkey business solution built on innovations unparalleled in the industry that accelerates the mass adoption of Web3.🧵 1/13 pic.twitter.com/TLQszYUcru / Twitter"

Aurora is thrilled to announce Aurora Cloud, a turnkey business solution built on innovations unparalleled in the industry that accelerates the mass adoption of Web3.🧵 1/13 pic.twitter.com/TLQszYUcru

Aurora Cloud’s pillars are Borealis Business, Aurora Pass, and Aurora Silos. The first pillar is Borealis Business, a transaction processing and accounting engine that enables Web2 companies to add blockchain capability to their applications in a way that completely removes costs and other technical complexities from the end-user experience. The second pillar is Aurora Pass, a digital wallet that facilitates the adoption of blockchain technology in mobile applications and allows users to authorize transactions using familiar biometric facilities like Touch ID and Face ID.

Lastly, the third innovation put forward by Aurora Cloud is Aurora Silos, which are customer-specific, dedicated blockchains, running on the Borealis Business infrastructure. Aurora Silos go beyond Ethereum compatibility, allowing customers to design and implement their own custom tokens, tokenomics, and even transaction fee mechanics, to support any imaginable blockchain business model.

[Aurora Cloud](https://auroracloud.dev/) is currently in beta and open for early integrations!

#### **Bridges: How Not to Hack Up Everything**

The last talk for the CEO of Aurora on March 2nd focused on outlining the security layers that make the Rainbow Bridge one of the most secure bridges in the market. Since its deployment, the Rainbow bridge has resided so several hacker attacks thanks to its secure architecture, thorough internal review and inspections, audits, automates systems (MEV) and an effective bounty program.

#### **Aurora Labs’ Vision for Next Generation Blockchain UX**

On March 4th, Alex Shevchenko talked about Aurora’s vision for making blockchain accessible and convenient for businesses and users. During this talk, he outlined the two key components: protocol-level meta transactions and account abstraction. Aurora achieved both through the development of Aurora Pass and Borealis.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/aurora-at-ethdenver-highlights/0*OTJgMBzw54O9zDd5)

#### **Scaling Ethereum ft. Aurora, Polygon & Arbitrum**

Also on March 4th CEO Alex Shevchenko participated in a panel with Brendan Farmer from Polygon Zero and Harry Kalodner, the CTO of Offchain, an EVM-compatible rollup on Arbitrum. During this panel, the participants shared their ideas on scalability and outlined their different approaches and visions for the future.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/aurora-at-ethdenver-highlights/0*9IvMXAIsRimsasYQ)

#### **Final Remarks**

The 2023 edition of ETHDenver was great for the crypto industry. Despite the bear market, the event registered thousands of participants among builders and crypto enthusiasts. Following our announcements, Aurora and NEAR Protocol received a lot of attention at ETHDenver and we are looking forward to sharing more news on our next steps!

In this short outline we only mentioned some of the events that the Aurora Labs’ team participated in, but much more has happened in the past week! We invite you to take a look at the official ETHDenver [Youtube account](http://youtube.com/ethdenver) where you will be able to find the complete recordings of all the Aurora panels and talks!

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/aurora-at-ethdenver-highlights/0*Io1Ujt6ISMgslo3N)

#### **About Aurora**

Aurora is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based on the layer 1 proof-of-stake blockchain NEAR Protocol. Aurora provides a solution for developers to deploy their apps on an Ethereum-compatible, high-speed, scalable, and future-proof platform with low transaction costs for their users.

[Website](https://aurora.dev/) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/aurora-is-near/mycompany/) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/auroraisnear) | [Telegram](https://t.me/auroraisnear) | [Discord](https://discord.gg/dEFJBz8HQV) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5inYyvUO10iL65hBPFtpvg) | [GitHub](https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine)  
[Regional Communities and Media](https://aurora.dev/ecosystem?category=Community&subcategory=Regional+Communities+and+Community+media)| [Governance Forum](https://forum.aurora.dev/) | [Community Dashboard](https://auroradao.club/dashboard) | [Community Swags store](https://auroraonelove.com/) | [Aurora Expert Bot](https://t.me/auroraexpert_bot)



During ETHDenver, Aurora was featured in several panels and talks, where major ideas and announcements were shared with a large audience ...

Aurora at ETHDenver Highlights



#### **The partnership will see one of Korea’s largest GameFi platforms expand to NEAR Protocol**

**March 6th, 2023, Seoul, Korea , 9:00 am ET**: Today, NEAR announced a strategic partnership with METABORA SG, a Web3 gaming initiative affiliated with South Korea’s biggest multi-platform gaming company, [Kakao Games](https://twitter.com/playkakaogames?lang=en).

Under the terms of the agreement, NEAR and BORA will mutually support each other to increase brand awareness, invest in research and collaboration on cross-chain, host events and generate Web3 business collaboration opportunities in Korea and worldwide.

METABORA is an affiliate of Kakao Games and the parent company of METABORA SG, focused on game development and blockchain-based gaming ecosystems. Its portfolio includes mobile games such as ‘Friends Popcorn,’ ‘Friends Town,’ and ‘Friends Shot’ based on Kakao Friends intellectual property.

Commenting on the partnership, Vincent Lim, a CBO of METABORA SG said:

> “ We are thrilled to be working with NEAR and welcome their expertise, knowledge and network as we aim to transform the world of Web3 gaming. Together with NEAR we will not only explore cross-promotion opportunities, but also seek future collaborations on IP-based game development that will lead to mass adoption and give us the competitive edge we need to position ourselves as leading players in the web3 gaming space.”

Since the launch of the [NEAR Korea Hub in November last year](https://twitter.com/NearKoreaHub), the team has been steadily building up awareness throughout South Korea, and dedicating their efforts to Web3 innovation, business development, education, and talent. The hub is led by entrepreneurs Scott Lee and Ben Kang — both influential figures within South Korea’s growing blockchain community.

> “One of the big ambitions of the hub is to tap into the country’s active gaming community, and to bring amazing projects and creators to the NEAR ecosystem.” said Robbie Lim, GM, Partners and International at NEAR. “ The partnership with METABORA SG is our first major win — and a big step forward for NEAR as it accelerates its ambition to become the go-to Layer 1 for the Web3 gaming community.”

Read more about NEAR Korea in NEARWEEK’s most recent ‘[**DELVING DEEPER**](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/delving-deeper-near-korea-c9c3911a453a)’ series.

Original Source provided by NEAR Foundation

### About NEAR Protocol

NEAR is a dynamically sharded Proof-of-Stake, carbon-neutral blockchain built for usability and scalability. NEAR combines the power of both PoS and sharding in a technology called Nightshade, making the chain infinitely scalable without compromising security and decentralization.

### About NEARWEEK

NEARWEEK is one of the first decentralised news sources within the NEAR ecosystem. Via the production of high-quality content, news, and promotional support, NEARWEEK unleashes the full potential of its media outlets to act as the social epicentre of the NEAR ecosystem.  
[Website](http://nearweek.com/) **|** [Twitter](http://twitter.com/nearweek) **|** [Newsletter](https://subscribe.nearweek.com/)



* * *

[NEAR SIGNS PARTNERSHIP WITH KAKAO GAMES AFFILIATE BORA](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/near-signs-partnership-with-kakao-games-affiliate-bora-9cb701b27835) was originally published in [NEAR Protocol](https://medium.com/nearprotocol) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The partnership will see one of Korea’s largest GameFi platforms expand to NEAR Protocol

NEAR SIGNS PARTNERSHIP WITH KAKAO GAMES AFFILIATE BORA

**By** [**@MixWeb3**](https://twitter.com/MixWeb3), Organized and created based on [@Louis](https://twitter.com/louisliubj) speech content

On February 10th, Beijing time, Louis, the founder of Octopus Network, was invited to participate in the “New Narrative of Token Economics” offline closed-door communication meeting hosted by Chain Teahouse. Over 20 crypto entrepreneurs and investors discussed from different dimensions, and the collision on-site was very exciting.

Louis believes that Web3 and tokenization are two related but different concepts. Based on the value scenarios of tokens, he raised multiple key questions for discussion, which is highly inspiring.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/several-key-issues-in-token-economy-design-founder-of-octopus-network-louis/1*9QFEhltbNiOqdN7nkKxYvg.jpeg)

The following is the content of the live sharing, enjoy~

As a crypto entrepreneur, I am interested in token economics because I am designing a token economics model for Octopus Network. Additionally, as an infrastructure project, Octopus Network offers courses on token economics in our Web3 incubator program.

Communicating on a research level in blockchain can be difficult because many fundamental concepts are not agreed upon. Therefore, I would like to clarify that my definition of Web3 may exclude many projects, and this is solely my opinion.

Web3 is an extension of Web2. The core of Web2 is the platform economy, which is dominated by various internet platforms that bring great convenience and create significant value.

However, companies that create and operate internet platforms always have an unstoppable tendency to move from competition to monopoly and from monopoly to rent-seeking. Rent-seeking refers to using a dominant position to increase one’s share of economic activity without creating new value and to the detriment of other participants.

In Web3, the platform economy is not controlled by companies, but by cryptographic protocols, and therefore, no single party can engage in rent-seeking, thereby avoiding the efficiency and fairness suppression caused by rent-seeking in Web2 platforms.

From the perspective of platform economy, most blockchain games currently focus on tokenization rather than Web3. This is because they have not replaced the platform with a protocol, but simply issued tokens (whether by turning coins into fungible tokens or items into non-fungible tokens).

However, these games are unable to measure the value of a player’s actions to the entire game (especially the improved gaming experience for other players), and thus cannot reward corresponding tokens. Therefore, issuing tokens does not provide significant help to the core network effect. For example, most X-to-Earn mechanisms attract users who contribute little to others’ gaming experience, and the token rewards cannot form a sustainable development cycle.

Of course, tokenizing game assets has great value. It allows game assets to enter the global encrypted market and trade on the chain, obtaining better liquidity premiums. However, we need to be clear that this is value brought by tokenization, not Web3.

Octopus Network is primarily focused on providing non-financial applications such as storage, communication, and computing services, and coordinating markets through encryption protocols. When designing a token economy, we must first answer several questions: What is the business? What is the network effect? Who are the core contributors? And the most difficult question: How do we quantify contributions on-chain?

Quantifying participants’ contributions to the network effect and rewarding the corresponding tokens is the core of the encryption protocol. For example, Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS), Proof-of-Coverage (PoC), Proof-of-Relay (PoR), etc. Once innovative contribution proofs emerge, the boundaries of Web3 expand. If a game invents a proof of increased gaming experience value, Web3 is truly expanding into the gaming field.

Token rewards in the DeFi field are typically awarded to liquidity providers, but there are certainly other contributors such as developers, early investors, etc. who should also be rewarded based on their relative contributions.

If a developer forks another project without actual contribution, it is fair not to receive tokens. However, if the protocol is complex and requires continuous evolution, developers should be allocated a certain percentage of tokens to ensure fairness and sustainability. The goal of token economics design is to achieve incentive compatibility, where token allocation is determined by contributions from all parties.

In addition, protocol governance must shift from the core team to the community, and application layer protocols should be governed on-chain, which currently seems to only be possible with tokens as the foundation.

After solving the above problems, it is important to examine whether this token economic system can withstand the volatile fluctuations of token prices.

Token prices are highly correlated with the overall market and a good project doesn’t necessarily mean a consistently upward trajectory. Therefore, it is necessary to check whether in the event of a sharp decline, there will be a significant increase in transaction costs for protocol participants or even the potential for a death spiral. Ideally, a sudden surge should attract speculators and convert some of them into protocol participants. Similarly, during a sharp downturn, the token’s intrinsic value should provide support for the price.

There are already some methods and tools for token economics, and a systematic methodology is emerging. However, many researchers are beginning to question whether token economics has been overly emphasized at the expense of the protocol’s intrinsic value.

For entrepreneurs, learning about token economics is not cost-effective, as the learning curve is steep and it is not frequently applicable. The best approach is for entrepreneurs to focus on their business, while leaving token design to investment firm researchers.

[中文版：章鱼网络 Louis｜通证经济设计的几个核心问题](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ofO2ipjmxD0AXreX17Wi1A)

**Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and should not be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or any other advice.**

### Follow Octopus Network!

**Website:** [https://oct.network](https://oct.network/)  
**Doc:** [https://docs.oct.network](https://docs.oct.network/)  
**Github:** [https://github.com/octopus-network](https://github.com/octopus-network)  
**Email:** [hi@oct.network](http://mailto:hi@oct.network/)  
**Twitter:** @oct\_network  
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**Discord:** [https://discord.gg/6GTJBkZA9Q](https://discord.gg/6GTJBkZA9Q)



* * *

[Several Key Issues in Token Economy Design |Founder of Octopus Network Louis](https://medium.com/oct-network/several-key-issues-in-token-economy-design-founder-of-octopus-network-louis-2521745b2597) was originally published in [Octopus Network](https://medium.com/oct-network) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By @MixWeb3, Organized and created based on @Louis speech content

Several Key Issues in Token Economy Design |Founder of Octopus Network Louis



### **VEAX: THE NEXT-GENERATION DEX FUSING DEFI WITH TRADITIONAL FINANCE**

#### Built on NEAR and developed by Tacans Labs, Veax has its eyes set on becoming one of the key players to revolutionise the DeFi landscape.

As the collapse of centralised finance (CeFi) giants continues to make headlines, demand for trustlessness in DeFi is growing rapidly. Enter [Veax](https://veax.com), the latest promising decentralised exchange (DEX) to launch on NEAR Protocol.

Veax has already [raised $1.2M in pre-seed funding](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/veax-launches-public-testnet-of-advanced-dex-built-on-near-2ccbee297470), which will be used to develop its platform and bring its DEX to market. This funding, together with the expertise of Tacans Labs and its backers, places Veax in the prime position to deliver on its vision to disrupt the current DeFi space.

Veax’s architecture has been designed to be highly efficient and user-friendly, as the platform provides an extensive suite of traditional finance functionalities within a decentralised infrastructure. The DEX offers adaptable liquidity pools, a unique fee structure, and concentrated liquidity to minimize impermanent loss and provide the best prices for traders.

Want to stay ahead of the curve in DeFi? Here is why Veax should be on your radar:

#### TL;DR:

*   Backed by [Proximity Labs](https://www.proximity.dev), Veax comes at a critical time for Web3. The DeFi project aims to establish itself as crucial infrastructure on NEAR, and is poised to become one of the leading DEXs in the NEAR ecosystem.
*   Veax’s cutting-edge approach to fee structure allows liquidity providers (LPs) and traders to optimise capital deployment. The DEX offers adaptable liquidity pools, concentrated liquidity, and multiple fee levels, which minimise impermanent loss and provides users with the best prices.
*   You’re now able to [try out Veax on testnet](https://testnet.veax.com/swap)! Veax’s newly launched Points Program features a variety of ways users can become eligible to receive rewards in $VEAX tokens from the [100,000 USD prize pool](https://medium.com/@veaxlabs/introducing-the-veax-points-program-e3b0853378ae) that the team has set aside for the community.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/veax-the-next-generation-dex-fusing-defi-with-traditional-finance/1*WHppevtQeWYLNwOYrqgGug.png)

### **Veax DEX Architecture**

From the ground up, the architecture underlying [Veax](http://veax.com) is designed to offer a highly efficient and user-friendly experience for traders. The DEX’s unique approach to fee structure allows liquidity providers to optimise capital deployment and maximise returns in the long-run. In essence, Veax’s cutting-edge adaptable liquidity pools offer users greater flexibility and control over assets, allowing both investors and traders to adjust their liquidity levels based on market conditions.

Veax has successfully implemented [**concentrated liquidity** and **multiple fee levels,**](https://tacans.com/press-releases/veax-dex-architecture-combining-concentrated-liquidity-and-multiple-fee-levels-for-the-best-prices) which aim to minimise the impact of impermanent loss and provide the best prices for swaps. Concentrated liquidity is an automated market maker model that allocates liquidity within a custom price range, allowing LPs to earn more fees for fewer tokens deposited. Traders can experience less slippage due to liquidity differences, and trade execution is faster since a large amount of capital is provided by fewer LPs.

That said, concentrated liquidity increases potential impermanent loss, despite making the whole process more capital-efficient. In order to counteract this, Veax has adopted multiple fee levels, which allows LPs to choose the fairest fee level. This approach works for both traders and LPs because traders get the best swap conditions, and LPs can choose the fee level that is the fairest.

It is worth noting that Veax’s concentrated liquidity model is essentially similar to Uniswap v3’s approach. However, Uniswap doesn’t offer their LPs multiple fee levels. Instead, what Uniswap does is provide multiple pools per liquidity pair with different fee levels. Veax actually offers multiple fee levels, and is therefore considered to be a lot [more advantageous to LPs](https://tacans.com/press-releases/veax-dex-architecture-combining-concentrated-liquidity-and-multiple-fee-levels-for-the-best-prices), as the platform is able to guarantee the best possible swap price, regardless of the situation.

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/veax-the-next-generation-dex-fusing-defi-with-traditional-finance/0*otiQjqEZ6KEgN4Fy)

### **Tokenomics**

The VEAX token lies at the heart of the [Veax platform](http://veax.com) and is integral to its functioning. It offers a range of benefits to users, including governance and fee reduction.

In terms of governance, VEAX token holders will be able to vote on important platform decisions and proposals via the Veax DAO. This will enable users to have a say in the development of the platform and ensure that it remains aligned with their interests.

VEAX token holders will also benefit from fee reductions when using the Veax platform. Liquidity providers who stake VEAX tokens will receive a reduced fee rate, as well as additional rewards from the distribution of transaction fees. Liquidity providers are able to set the rate at the point of contribution, and when users perform swaps, the fee is redistributed. This is designed to incentivize liquidity providers to contribute to the platform and to ensure that the liquidity pools remain deep and stable.

The remaining fees are split between stakers, the lock wallet, and the treasury, with expected splits of 45/45/10 respectively. Veax also reserves the right to burn lock wallet tokens if necessary to maintain token price stability. This will be controlled by the Veax DAO. You can find out more on the tokenomics by reading the [Veax litepaper](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/63161b965bc18bffea68ef6a/637b5d0e33634c04ebe252db_veax-lite-paper.pdf).

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/veax-the-next-generation-dex-fusing-defi-with-traditional-finance/1*FZVHSSRbsYf-6yl98Vm8qw.png)

### **Backed by Key Industry Players**

Veax has garnered support from a number of prominent Web3 investors, demonstrating the confidence and trust in the project. Circle Ventures, Proximity Labs, Outlier Ventures, Tacans Labs, Qredo, Skynet Trading, Seier Capital, and Widjaja Family have all commited to backing Veax. Their support demonstrates a strong confidence in Veax’s approach to solving some of the many bottlenecks that have plagued the DeFi landscape.

> _“The need for robust decentralised exchanges has never been more apparent. VEAX aims to deliver a unique solution to the liquidity problem, and its launch will establish itself and NEAR as crucial DeFi infrastructure at a critical time.”_

> \- Kendall Cole, Director of Proximity Labs

In addition to the backing of these key industry players, Veax also benefits from the guidance and expertise of industry veterans serving on its advisory board. For instance, the Founder of Saxo Bank and Concordium Blockchain, ex-COO of Skype, and Professors in Blockchain Research and Computer Science, [all sit on the Veax advisory board](https://beincrypto.com/veax-raises-1-2m-amidst-global-centralized-finance-breakdown/). Their insights help to shape and steer the development of the Veax platform, and with the support of such a diverse field of expertise, Veax is well-positioned to deliver on its mission.

### Veax Points Program

At the time of publication, Veax’s generous [points program](https://medium.com/@veaxlabs/introducing-the-veax-points-program-e3b0853378ae) is still ongoing. A total of 100,000 USD has been set aside in native tokens to reward the NEAR community for using the [Veax testnet](https://testnet.veax.com/).

In the points program, rewards are split equally between two categories—the _Builder Pool_ and the _First Mover Pool._ Each pool features a variety of ways to earn rewards that will eventually earn participants $VEAX tokens from the fund set aside. For instance, a recent quest in the Builder Pool has allowed users to earn 200 Veax Points each day for inviting a friend to participate in the Veax Points program. Be sure to check-out the [Veax testnet](https://nearweek.medium.com/veax-the-next-generation-dex-fusing-defi-with-traditional-finance-6f3f515b5674) to secure yourself a portion of the 100,000 USD prize pool!

![](https://awesomenear-spaces.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/articles/veax-the-next-generation-dex-fusing-defi-with-traditional-finance/1*62jR6gHNgyEScQKwHtu9IQ.jpeg)

### **The Road Ahead**

Veax’s potential impact on the DeFi scene cannot be overstated. Its highly advanced and efficient architecture, low-fee structure, and adaptable liquidity pools make it stand out from all other DEXs, not only on NEAR, but also in the wider Web3 space.

We eagerly anticipate the upcoming Veax mainnet launch, which will mark a significant milestone in the platform’s development, and look forward to witnessing the impact that Veax will have on the DeFi landscape in the months and years to come.

After all, Veax’s groundbreaking approach to DeFi may be the move that finally pushes NEAR to outshine competition and rise as the next dominant Layer-1 blockchain for all things DeFi-related.

#### **About Veax**

Veax is an advanced single-sided liquidity management DEX natively on the NEAR blockchain with pioneering TradFi-empowered features. Invested by Circle Ventures, Tacans Labs, and various capitals, the project’s core members incl. award-winning entrepreneur, Mathias Lundoe Nielsen, and industry veterans, James Davies, Ivan Ivaschenko, and Marie Tatibouet.

[Website](https://veax.com/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/veaxlabs), [Medium](https://medium.com/@veaxlabs), [Telegram](https://t.me/veaxlabs)

#### **About NEARWEEK**

NEARWEEK is one of the first decentralised news sources within the NEAR ecosystem. Via the production of high-quality content, news, and promotional support, NEARWEEK unleashes the full potential of its media outlets to act as the social epicentre of the NEAR ecosystem.  
[Website](http://nearweek.com/) **|** [Twitter](http://twitter.com/nearweek) **|** [Newsletter](https://subscribe.nearweek.com/)



* * *

[Veax: The Next-Generation DEX Fusing DeFi with Traditional Finance](https://medium.com/nearprotocol/veax-the-next-generation-dex-fusing-defi-with-traditional-finance-6f3f515b5674) was originally published in [NEAR Protocol](https://medium.com/nearprotocol) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

VEAX: THE NEXT-GENERATION DEX FUSING DEFI WITH TRADITIONAL FINANCE

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