Protocol Village: Natix, Crowdsourced Camera Network With Web3 Incentives, Secures $9.6M

April 28: Natix, driver-led DePIN powered by AI cameras, has secured $9.6 million in funding in a new round spearheaded by Borderless Capital, co-led by Tioga Capital with angel investors from Bitget, Figment and Crypto Banter, according to the team: “NATIX, one of the largest crowdsourced camera networks with 92,000 registered drivers globally, sets to transform driver-led data collection and driver applications with Web3 incentives.” Said Alireza Ghods, NATIX’s CEO and co-founder: “Looking ahead, collaborating with leading high-performance networks like Solana and Peaq is crucial for advancing our mission.”

April 28: Burnt Banksy’s XION platform has officially launched its user-friendly chain abstraction solution, according to the team: “With this launch, users of XION are now able to extend the blockchain’s ease of use with a frictionless sharing of apps, liquidity and more across ecosystems – starting with Injective. For the first time, users are able to interact with Injective’s Talis marketplace from their XION account simply by using an email. They can do so without any understanding of cross-bridging, browser plugins, seed phrases, gas fees and more.”

April 28: Hinkal, a multi-chain protocol that allows hedge funds and institutional investors to discreetly trade in the DeFi ecosystem, announced a $1.4 million strategic funding led by SALT. According to the team: “As traditional financial institutions continue to enter the crypto market, they are seeking solutions that grant them the same level of discretion and privacy they are used to in traditional equities markets. Using Hinkal, institutions can execute their trades privately and mitigate the risk of frontrunning or trade copying that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the industry.”

April 28: The Tezos Foundation and Magic have teamed up to enhance Tezos’ accessibility and usability, according to a message from the project: “Magic’s Wallet-as-a-Service will seamlessly integrate with Tezos, streamlining user onboarding for dApps. This collaboration eliminates traditional password hassles, reducing entry barriers to Web3. Supported by a Tezos Foundation grant, this partnership aims to make dApps more user-friendly and encourage mainstream adoption. Tezos joins Magic’s platform as a featured chain alongside Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and Flow, offering developers tools to create secure and user-centric applications.” (XTZ)

April 28: Blockchain bridge Wormhole’s native W tokens are now available on Solana, Ethereum and all Wormhole-connected EVM chains through Wormhole Native Token Transfers (NTT), according to the team: “With NTT, users can seamlessly transfer W across Solana, Ethereum mainnet, and EVM L2s without the complications of liquidity fragmentation. Making W natively multichain completes the second phase of the W launch roadmap, and will lead to an industry-first multichain governance system, MultiGov, and W locking for self-delegation. These advancements lay the groundwork for future token functionality that is only possible with NTT and a native multichain token.”

Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.

April 26: Bitcoin-centric stablecoin company OpenDelta raised $2.15 million in a pre-seed round led by 6th Man Ventures, CEO Konstantin Wünscher told CoinDesk. “We want to use bitcoin to create stable value in a fiat-denominated currency,” Wünscher said in an interview. OpenDelta will plant itself in the newest greenfield for decentralized finance (DeFi) atop the newest trend in Bitcoin, Runes.

April 25: SEDA, a data transmission and computation network that enables a permissionless environment for developers to deploy data feeds, announced the launch of its mainnet genesis event. According to the team: “By mitigating native deployments via a modular and chain-agnostic design, SEDA is building to offer complete developer flexibility with chain-agnostic integrations alongside completely programmable data feeds, enabling a ‘permissionless optionality’ that promotes Web3’s ethos for builders. Mainnet will see the deployment of SEDA’s solvers, an overlay network offering one-click node spinups for community and bespoke mechanics for network OEV capture and value redeployment back into the hands of network participants.”

April 25: Soarchain, a layer-1 DePIN built for mobility and data exchange, is bringing mobility data on-chain with their mainnet vehicle data network, according to the team: “Users can now seamlessly upload their vehicle data in real-time and convert their vehicles into connected, data-rich platforms from which they can extract real-world value. Vehicle data can serve as a foundation for applications like smart insurance, maintenance monitoring, and safety enhancements. Soarchain is also collaborating with Maruti and Suzuki to demonstrate the practical applications of their technology with real-world automotive scenarios.”

April 25: Movement Labs, a blockchain company that aims to bring Facebook’s Move Virtual Machine to Ethereum, has secured $38 million in a Series A financing round led by Polychain Capital. The firm was founded by Rushi Manche, 21, and Cooper Scanlon, 24 – Vanderbilt college dropouts who say they are on a mission to “make blockchain security sexy” with the launch of Movement L2, their new layer-2 Ethereum blockchain based on the Move programming paradigm.

April 25: Ethereum verification protocol Aligned Layer has raised a $20 million Series A to enable faster and cheaper zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs on the world’s second-biggest blockchain. The fundraiser was led by Hack VC and included contributions from DAO5, L2Iterative, NomadCapital_io, FinalityCap, Symbolic VC and Theta Capital. Aligned Layer is an EigenLayer “actively validated service” (AVS).

April 25: Avail, a blockchain project known for data availability (DA), shared Thursday that five major layer-2 networks in the Ethereum ecosystem will integrate with its Avail DA solution. Those chains include Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, StarkWare and zkSync.

April 25: Nym Technologies is partnering with Aleo, a prominent privacy-focused blockchain platform, according to the team: “The partnership harnesses the power of Aleo’s zero-knowledge Layer-1 blockchain with Nym’s layer-0 mixnet protocol. Through integration with Nym’s mixnet and NymVPN’s decentralized privacy solutions, users will enjoy enhanced privacy and security across TCP/IP and on-chain transactions, ensuring robust protection for their online interactions. Leo Wallet’s intuitive user interface will seamlessly connect users with the Nym mixnet, streamlining the integration of the Aleo blockchain and Nym’s mixnet.”

April 25: ZetaChain, describing itself as the “first Omnichain blockchain for chain abstraction” has launched a 100 million ZETA ($120M) developer and dapp ecosystem growth program, with 25 million ZETA specifically allocated for Bitcoin projects, according to the team: “The program aims to support impactful projects focusing on Bitcoin-based DeFi, gaming, and socialfi dapps, offering grants, incentives, and support programs to accelerate their development on the ZetaChain blockchain.”

April 25: BNB Chain is integrating native liquid staking on BSC following the Beacon Chain sunset, according to the team. The move will enable “high-APY native staking on BSC in addition to enhanced MEV rewards. Liquid staking on BNB Chain will allow participants to secure the network while maintaining liquidity of their assets. Users can engage in DeFi activities without sacrificing asset utility. The LSDFi integration is scheduled to take place between April and early May.”