Phala Monthly Newsletter: July 2023
Intro:
In an action-packed month, we attended over 15 events, spotlighting Phat Contract’s unique features to thousands of developers and potential users. This journey fueled our enthusiasm for the road ahead. From unveiling innovations to forging global partnerships, this month was filled with stand out highlights. Join us in celebrating these moments and looking forward to what’s next!
Top news:
We’re delighted to share that the LensAPI Oracle was successfully integrated into the official Lens Protocol documentation!
The LensAPI Oracle is a groundbreaking tool that allows developers to seamlessly access off-chain data for their smart contracts within the Lens ecosystem.
The Lens community warmly welcomed this integration, marking a significant milestone for widespread Phat Contract usage. Expect more exciting web3 social developments! 🌿
We partnered with Polygon Labs’s DevX Global Tour and actively participated in their Europe Tour. We had a blast rocking stages throughout incredible cities like Zagreb, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Lisbon, and Berlin! Our presentations were very well received and we had some awesome technical discussions and fruitful conversations along the way.
We covered exciting topics like the LensAPI Oracle and how we ensure oracle HTTP requests stay secure. But the real showstopper was when we unveiled ‘Phat Functions’ from Phat Contract for the first time! This makes connecting APIs with any smart contract on any chain a breeze — mind-blowing, right?
We also joined almost 1000 hackers at EthGlobal Paris for a 3 day hackathon where a total of 321 projects were submitted to compete for $475,000 in prizes.
Our team created ‘Smart Cookie’ — a decentralised autonomous agent using Phat Contract in just 36 hours and won prizes from both Filecoin and The Graph!
Smart Cookie wowed with its personalized web3 recommendations via cookies, preserving data ownership. Our Chrome extension integrated seamlessly and it delivered tailored Lens social posts, respecting privacy with secure web3 data storage and AI governed by smart contracts.
Phat Contract:
Our Lead Researcher Shelven delivered an engaging presentation to eager students from Blockchained India, highlighting Phala’s decentralized off-chain computation architecture and key features of Phat Contract.
The talk was informative and well-received, providing valuable insights into the innovative technologies and capabilities Phala brings to the table. It was a positive and enlightening experience for everyone involved!
We rolled out updates for Phat Contract UI, delivering Phantastic improvements through quick fixes and new features. We addressed rendering issues for Option<Vec<AnyType>> and fixed a contract call issue when switching accounts. We also introduced a simple error report for ABI Form rendering issues and a grouping feature using @category notation in the docs.
Moreover, to foster transparency and drive continuous improvements we added the following relevant metrics to the Phat Contract dashboard: ‘Total Cluster Workers’, ‘Total Staking for PC’, ‘Total PC Amount’ and also ‘Total PC Users’. All of these can be found here.
The ink! support for offchain rollup is currently under review. This valuable contribution comes from the talented Lucky team, marking one of their significant milestones in the Phala Builders Programme.
We’re excited to see their work and eagerly await the final review. You can check out their Lucky Contract GitHub repository here and their Lucky Worker GitHub repository here.
Defiant News also offered an insightful overview of Phat Contract, highlighting its inherent value, multifaceted use cases, and the benefits that it offers. This exposure by such a reputable platform amplifies Phat Contract’s visibility.
Additionally it effectively introduced and demystifyed this revolutionary technology for individuals previously unaware of its potential and capabilities. Check it out here!
SubBridge:
For nearly a month, the Sygma Bridge integration into SubBridge has been running like a charm, and we couldn’t be happier with the results!
This sentiment was also reflected in our community, as during July an astonishing total of 21 million PHA was transferred in liquidity injections owing to the ever-increasing usage and popularity of SubBridge.
That’s not all, Phamily! With this Phantastic integration, SubBridge can now also effortlessly expand its asset lists. PHA transfers between Ethereum and Astar is the latest addition — making it a breeze for users to transfer PHA directly. It’s like magic! 🪄
Growth:
Partnerships:
We’re excited to announce that we’re joining forces with Developer DAO, a prominent community of thousands of web3 builders creating a better internet.
This collaboration is geared towards pushing technical boundaries and bringing out the best in all of us. We’re rolling out a mix of Phat Contract based hackathons and programs designed to sharpen your developer chops too. Whether you’re a seasoned coder or finding your groove, stay tuned for some awesome opportunities to level up!
Events:
Our Core Developer Wenfeng attended DOTinVietnam. A meet up and workshop organised by the leading projects in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystem. During his speech, Wenfeng expertly explained the benefits of ‘on-chain verification with off-chain capabilities’ and showcased how builders can make the most of web3 computation by utilising Phat Contract’s impressive capabilities.
Furthermore we also had a busy booth and presented our cutting-edge technology to the SubWallet team. This demonstration sparked a highly engaging and fruitful discussion. They were genuinely impressed with our innovative achievements, and we are delighted to reveal that we will soon be embarking on a promising collaboration together!
Six members of the Phala Core team joined renowned events in Paris, including EthCC, ETHGlobal, ParisDotComm, IOSGVC, Blockchain Oracle Summit, and much more!
We presented on five stages, participated in a three-day hackathon, and enjoyed team-building activities. The experience enriched us professionally and helped us forge new connections with our community, partners, and fre. It was an inspiring journey, fueling our commitment to innovation and collaboration. Event highlights include:
- ‘Infra Gardens’- VP of Growth Zoe moderated a panel of our partners and frens Lens Protocol, The Graph and Addressable to discuss “what tools are missing in web3 social?”. We spoke about recommendation algorithms, decentralized ads & aggregation of dev languages
- ‘Generative World Architecture’ — Co-Founder Marvin discussed how AI and web3 can empower and supercharge each other. Citing improved web3 efficiency, reducing barriers to learning/using smart contracts, and how DAOs can help ensure transparency and inclusiveness in decision-making processes.
- ‘Blockchain Oracle Summit’ — Zoe moderated a panel about omnichain protocols, cross-chain messaging standards, state proof use cases, bridge types, and off-chain data needs. Also Co-Founder Hang covered the topic of enhancing the accessibility for developers to create new oracles, leading to diversified data and improved data quality.
Event recordings:
- LensAPI Oracle Technical Walkthrough
- Supercharging Web3 Development
- Polkadot Insider AMA
- #BOS23 Hang — (5.09+)
- #BOS23 — Zoe (7.36+)
- Web3 Funding and Infrastructure
Compute:
We are excited to share that the Council has given its approval to the treasury proposal for the pRB upgrade. Previously managed by our team, we are now transitioning it to a community-driven initiative through this proposal.
To learn more about this motion, you can read all the details here. Thank you for your continued support!
Compute supply updates:
Governance:
Check out the full lists of both our governance Referenda and Treasury pages.
💫 Democracy Referendums:
#107: Move 500K PHA from ChainBridge to Sygma Bridge [1st round]
#108: Move 500K PHA from ChainBridge to SygmaBridge [2nd round]
#109 Move 2M PHA from ChainBridge to SygmaBridge [3rd round]
#110: Khala Runtime Upgrade v1251
💫 Treasury Proposals:
#75: Phala at Korea Blockchain Week
#76: SubQuery Managed Service Solution
#77: Phala & Khala Public RPC Endpoint Services
#78: OnFinality High Performance Public Infrastructure
#80: Feature update for pRB v3
More details can be found on https://khala.subsquare.io/.
Community:
Growth Manager Stuart hosted a vibrant community call with CPO Dan as well as Zoe, and Marvin. During the call, we enthusiastically discussed the significant amount of events that our team attended during July.
Additionally, we shared thrilling updates on our products and announced a major launch scheduled for August that promises to be truly exciting! You can find the X Space recording here.
At our recent ETHGlobal recap, we took a moment to shine a spotlight on the innovative product demo that we crafted during our first EthGlobal hackathon. This wasn’t just any presentation; it was a testament to our team’s dedication and creativity.
Our esteemed Co-Founders, Marvin and Hang, went beyond an interactive demo, providing insights into the foundational concept, the passion driving the project, and the Phat Contract based cutting-edge technology that brought ‘Smart Cookie’ 🍪 to life.
The Kusamarian skillfully conducted an extensive coverage of Phala Network. Providing an insightful overview of Phat Contracts, Phala World, and our PHA token features. Emphasising what sets us apart, they referred to our offering as ‘real utility, built on sound tokenomics.’ We highly recommend checking out their X thread here!
Our ambassador, Neurolauncher, conducted an insightful interview with Marvin too!
In this comprehensive discussion, they delved deep into Marvin’s extensive involvement and touch points within the tech industry. Additionally, the conversation shed light on the foundational journey and driving principles behind the inception of Phala Network.
Furthermore, Marvin addressed frequently asked questions posed by the community. You can listen to the X recording here!
