OKX Ventures Report — Jan. to Feb. 2023

[Xangle Digest]

※ This article contains content originally published by a third party on March 22, 2023. Please refer to the bottom of the article for the copyright notice regarding this content. 

 

 

 

 

 

In the past two months, the crypto industry is developing rapidly with remarkable results，

· The orderly progress of the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade and the completion of the preparation of the test network upgrade.
· The development of Layer2 exceeded expectations, and the number of single-day transfers of Arbitrum briefly exceeded the number of transfers of the main network in January, and the zk rollup represented by scroll also had a major version update further from the main network.
· On-chain data remained stable, with transaction data hovering between 160~170b in January and February.
· The BTC ecosystem has seen rapid growth, with Ordinals NFT bringing Taproot adoption rates from 1.7% to around 10% recently.
· Multi-chain ecology Cosmos has also seen rapid growth, with Lamada 9 upgrade coming through and multi-chain ecological infrastructure growing rapidly.

OKX Ventures have also maintained focus on the industry over the past 2 months, continuing to be bullish on the zk ecosystem, LSD, multi-chain interconnection and storage, making investments in Scroll, LayerZero, zkPass, Diva, and Permaweb.

 

Scroll

Project Overview

Scroll is a zkEVM-based zkRollup on Ethereum that enables native compatibility for existing Ethereum applications and tools.

Project Highlights

· PreAlpha Testnet received 300k+ unique addresses in the first week and 600k+ unique addresses with 400k+ daily tx at the end of January.

· 15m transactions dealt on the Testnet to date with a 3-second average block time, and the testnet has interacted with almost 1m unique wallets. Scroll zk-evm can prove a typical 5M gas block with less than 20-minute latency, costing less than 300GiB server memory, also zkEVM circuits improved, halo2 community edition gained support from Ethereum Foundation and Electric Coin Company (zcash). Besides, Infrastructures optimized from Redis cache layer and bridge contract aim to facilitate the transmission of information between L1 and L2, which is also a great complementary to circuit upgrade. More bridge details : https://scroll.io/blog/architecture

Investment logic

Scroll is positioned to be the EVM equivalent of zk-Rollup, which is also the Type 2 zkEVM project exemplified by Vitalik in his introduction of the 4 types of zkEVM. OKX Ventures has made a strategic investment in scroll, which has been doing very well lately, with the PreAlpha test network receiving over 300,000 unique addresses in the first week and over 600,000 at the end of January. The PreAlpha test network received over 300,000 unique addresses in the first week and over 600,000 unique addresses at the end of January, with over 400,000 tx per day.

From a developer’s perspective, scroll is the EVM equivalent of zk-Rollup, allowing for compatibility with Ether bytecode level. In addition, scroll uses Ethernet as the native data availability layer.

Scroll is compatible with many applications and tools, and from a technical perspective, Scroll is using its solution to provide minimal trust assumptions, high throughput, and a fast endgame. Scroll demonstrates the core fundamental values of Web3: decentralization and community ownership.

Scroll needs to solve the problem of decentralized authentication from the beginning, and the first phase is to first improve the performance of the prover through hardware acceleration to decentralize the prover. The next step is the decentralization of sequencer when anyone can run a node.

We agree with the roadmap of Scroll and are willing to support a generic L2 network that is better compatible with EVM to enable more complex functions such as deploying smart contracts and generic computing. When the efficiency of zk is no longer an issue, there will definitely be a great opportunity for the infrastructure architecture of the scaling layer of the whole Ether.

 

Diva

Project Overview

Diva is Ethereum’s most decentralized Liquid Staking solution powered by Distributed Validators (DVT’s)

Project Highlights

· Diva is building for network resilience, censorship resistance, and full decentralization on the Ethereum network.

· With Distributed Validator Technology and no minimum staking requirement, Diva aims to provide both stakers and operators the best conditions with the lowest barrier of entry.

· While other solutions have features like liquid staking or DVT as tools, Diva is the first end-to-end solution that fully addresses the current economical and technical challenges that Ethereum’s staking mechanism poses.

Investment logic

LSD of Ethereum is an important narrative mainline in 2023 with huge market potential. Compared to multiple POS chains with a pledge rate of 60%~80%, Ethereum’s pledge rate is less than 20% and there is more room for improvement. Compared to other chains with high pledge rates that bring high inflation, such as Cosmos pledge rate of 60% inflation rate of 15.4%, Ethereum has essentially entered deflation, which enhances the attractiveness of Ethereum pledge.

Diva improves redundancy and reduces single-point risk compared to the current mainstream single-operator solution within the LSD circuit, which is a better technical route in the long run. In terms of decentralization, Diva introduces Liquidity Pooling and lowers the pledge threshold to 1ETH, which further lowers the entire pledge participation threshold and makes pledging more decentralized; in terms of liquidity, Diva provides the pledge token DivEth, which can meet the innovative needs of more financial scenarios.

The Ethereum Shapella upgrade will open up staking unlocking and exchange channels, providing another huge one-off opportunity for new entrants. We are bullish on LSD and are happy to bet on innovative projects and teams like Diva that are committed to decentralization.

 

LayerZero

Project Overview

LayerZero is the leading omnichain interoperability protocol designed for lightweight message passing across chains.

Project Highlights

· LayerZero’s ONFT and OFT Standards enable the creation of chain-agnostic fungible and non-fungible tokens, seamless digital asset transfer, and best-in-class cross-chain UX.

· At its core, the protocol’s infrastructure enables the creation of next-generation decentralized applications and communities by connecting dApps across chains using on-chain Ultra Light Nodes, which achieve the security of a light node with the cost-effectiveness of a middle-chain.

· LayerZero is backed by Sequoia, a16z, Animoca, and other leading investors. Learn more and explore documentation by visiting https://layerzero.network"

Investment logic

LayerZero is an interoperability protocol that can be used for messaging, allowing any cross-chain contract call that contains a payload.

On the cross-chain side of the asset spectrum, LayerZero enables asset transfers through chain-wide communication, ensuring complete asset liquidity and making significant improvements in cross-chain sharing security. layerZero is built in a way that enforces an absolute security model, enabling immutable contracts with a full set of security parameters, including immutable authentication libraries, relayer set and hyperparameters.

By combining the low cost of third-party authentication networks with the high security of light nodes, Layerzero’s proposed ultra-light nodes provide high security at a low cost. This cost-effective solution will save a lot of developers’ learning and operation costs, which will significantly reduce users’ usage rates and make cross-chain applications built on Layerzero more cost-effective.

Meanwhile, Stargate, built on Layzero, also demonstrates the usability and growth capabilities of the product. Stargate breaks the impossible triangle with Delta Algorithm and soft partitioning mechanism. Liquidity providers enjoy better capital efficiency and scalability, so the same funds can be called more efficiently and bring higher returns, while users can pay less to enjoy safer and zero-slip assets across chains.

LayerZero addresses the issues of security, heterogeneity and liquidity isolation in the cross-chain space, and OKX Ventures supports LayerZero’s innovation and contribution to the cross-chain infrastructure.

 

zkPass

Project Overview

zkPass is a composable, privacy-preserving identity protocol based on MPC(Multi-party Computation) and ZKP(Zero-knowledge Proof). zkPass empowers users to selectively prove their verifiable data in Web2 and Web3, including legal identities, financial, social, experience, education, skills, etc., to 3rd parties by zkSBTs without disclosing any personal privacy details. zkPass provides secure and verifiable interactions while preserving privacy. With its compatibility for seamless integration with on-chain data, any https website, and anti-cheating mechanisms, zkPass is building an infrastructure for a decentralized society.

Project Highlights

· Privacy-preserving: zkPass uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable users to share their data without revealing sensitive information. This means that users can verify their identity or credentials without disclosing their personal information to third parties.

· Verifiable: zkPass uses verifiable zkSBTs to ensure that data is tamper-proof and verifiable. This means that users can be sure that their data has not been altered or tampered with, and that the data they receive from others is authentic.

· Compatibility: zkPass is compatible with a wide range of data sources, including Web2 and Web3 applications, making it easy for users to integrate with existing systems. Users can easily use zkPass to verify their identity or credentials across multiple platforms.

· Anti-cheating: zkPass uses advanced anti-cheating mechanisms to prevent fraud and abuse. For example, zkPass uses multi-party computation and threshold signatures to ensure that authorized parties only access data, and that users cannot cheat the system by submitting false data or credentials.

Investment logic

zkPass enables users to selectively prove their verifiable data in Web2 and Web3 to third parties through zkSBTs, including legal identity, financial, social, experience, education, skills, etc., without disclosing any personal privacy details. Positioning is accurate and solves the identity problem in the web3 world and, at the same time, provides secure and verifiable interactions while protecting privacy.

 

Permaweb

Project Overview

Permacast is a permanent web3 podcast hosting platform with a pay-once-store-forever model.

Project Highlights

· Backed by Arweave storage, shows uploaded to Permacast are guaranteed 200 years of permanent storage for a low one-time fee

· Permacast generates RSS feeds compatible with major distribution channels like Spotify

· Turn episodes into NFTs for creator revenue and token-gating content

· Migrate your whole show to the blockchain in one command using the Permacast CLI

Investment logic

Permaweb DAO is a native application within the Arweave ecosystem, representing an infrastructure innovation for its content ecology and creator ecology.

By building WordPress-like products and lowering the threshold of Permaweb, content creators do not need to write front-end code and can build content platforms and provide podcasts and open access to arweave.news to enrich the content ecology.

At the level of economic model, Permaweb DAO is also committed to creating a new incentive for the content ecology, not limited to PST, and proposes PSC Token to incentivize the construction of content ecology; PST Token gives governance rights, instant liquidity and interest generated by using the application, which can be seen more on the Hub of profit sharing communityXYZ PSC’s projects.

OKX Ventures see Permaweb DAO’s efforts and contributions to boosting Arweave’s C-side user base, introducing a creator ecosystem, expanding its reach and bringing in developers.

 

Conclusion

OKX Ventures is not a financial investor in the traditional sense, we are not only willing to “give money”, but also “give services” and “give resources”, we are willing to accompany all “startup partners” to grow together. We are not only the discoverer of excellent teams, products and innovative technologies, but also the enabler of excellent entrepreneurial projects. At the same time, OKX Ventures is the link between projects and OK group, OKX ecosystem support: OKX Wallet, NFT Marketplace, OKX Chain; OKX Ventures provide a multi-dimensional platform and support for the development of projects with OKX’s years of accumulation in the industry.

Even though the global macroeconomic environment is not optimistic and black swans keep coming, OKX ventures focus on the development of the industry itself rather than the so-called bulls and bears; we focus more on real theoretical innovation, real actionable new applications, real user inflow seen, and real industry-wide scale increasing. We are bullish on the development of the Ethereum ecosystem, multi-chain ecosystem, bitcoin ecosystem, infrastructure and innovative applications in the coming months.

 

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