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  • Weekly Digest #40: Midnight Nightpaper, Kinka Gold, Leios Integration, TxPipe's Dolos and Pallas Projects, & More!

Weekly Digest #40: Midnight Nightpaper, Kinka Gold, Leios Integration, TxPipe's Dolos and Pallas Projects, & More!

Here is your weekly dose of Cardano news

Hey Cardanians! Welcome aboard the Weekly Cardano Digest #40!!

This edition is packed with valuable insights into Cardano's latest developments. Today's edition is brought to you by TxPipe, an open-source software development company on Cardano that focuses on integrating on-chain data with off-chain infrastructure. 

We've filtered through all the noise to distill crucial updates into a breezy, 5-minute read. No need for you to sift through endless info — we've got you covered. Ready to delve into this week's top Cardano news? Let’s dive in.

Here are the topics of the week:

  • Midnight Network Publishes Nightpaper: A New Paradigm for Data Governance

  • Orcfax V1 Oracle Network Launches on Cardano Mainnet

  • Kinka Gold: A New Token  Addition to Cardano

  • Playfix AI Integrates Moneta’s $USDM for Enhanced Web3 Development

  • Cardano's Leios Algorithm: A Potential Game-Changer

  • TxPipe Leads Open-Source Tool Development With Dolos and Pallas

  • Weekly Development Report

  • & More!

This newsletter is segmented into categories of less technical news topics to those that are more technical, in an effort to make it easier for our readers to follow. The first category will focus on news involving the Cardano ecosystem, while the second category will focus on projects that have been announced recently. The third category, which will be found towards the end of the newsletter, will focus on the most technical topics.

This week on Cardano…

Midnight Network Publishes Nightpaper: A New Paradigm for Data Governance

Midnight, the groundbreaking data protection blockchain from Input Output Global, has launched its Nightpaper. This innovative platform addresses the challenges faced by businesses and individuals in managing and protecting data in the digital age.

Traditional approaches to data management often involve complex processes and significant risks. Businesses face increasing pressure to protect sensitive data while also monetizing it. The complexities of data protection and utilization can be overwhelming, leading many organizations to hesitate in adopting blockchain technology. Midnight Network offers a solution by providing a programmable data protection framework. This allows businesses to create new applications and revenue streams without compromising data protection or ownership. By leveraging zero-knowledge proofs, Midnight ensures that data remains secure while still enabling its utilization.

In this paper, the Midnight Network also announced that it will introduce two native tokens: NIGHT and DUST. NIGHT is a governance token that will be used for network governance and rewards. It is a transparent token, visible to all network participants. DUST is a shielded token used for transaction fees. Unlike traditional gas tokens, DUST does not reveal user data. This is crucial for Midnight's privacy-focused applications, especially in regulated industries. DUST decays over time and is primarily used as a transaction resource rather than a store of value. This dual-token system is a unique feature of the Midnight Network, offering both transparency and privacy for network participants.

Midnight's partnership with Cardano, a well-established and secure blockchain network, has been instrumental in its rapid development and deployment. This collaboration has helped Midnight establish a strong foundation for its operations and ensure its ability to meet enterprise-grade standards. READ MORE

Orcfax V1 Oracle Network Launches on Cardano Mainnet

The Cardano ecosystem has reached a significant milestone with the launch of Orcfax V1, a decentralized oracle network. Oracles are essential for providing reliable data to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Orcfax V1 brings trusted price feeds to the Cardano blockchain, enhancing protocol performance and encouraging deeper ecosystem participation.

Orcfax is a second-generation oracle service that publishes real-world data on the Cardano blockchain. This data can be utilized by smart contracts, scripts, and decentralized applications (dApps) running on Cardano. Orcfax collects data from multiple sources and uses a distributed network of validator nodes to ensure the data's reliability and decentralization.

Orcfax offers full audit logs for its data collection and validation process, allowing users to verify the accuracy and authenticity of the data. This transparency builds trust and confidence in the oracle service.

The launch of Orcfax V1 is a crucial step in realizing the potential of DeFi on Cardano. By providing reliable oracle data, Orcfax enables the development of more sophisticated and trustworthy DeFi applications. This can attract new users and investments to the Cardano ecosystem. READ MORE

Kinka Gold: A New Token Addition to Cardano

Cardano is set to welcome its first gold-backed token, Kinka Gold ($XNK). This innovative token is backed by physical gold and will be issued on the Cardano blockchain network. 

The introduction of Kinka Gold to Cardano's ecosystem has several potential benefits:

  • Catalyst for other RWA tokens: Kinka Gold's launch could encourage other real-world assets to be tokenized on Cardano.

  • Stable currency: The gold-backed token can serve as a stable currency in jurisdictions where fiat-backed stablecoins are restricted.

  • Increased liquidity and use cases: Kinka Gold can be integrated into Cardano's DeFi ecosystem, expanding its potential applications.

Kinka Gold is a subsidiary of UNBANKED, INC., a publicly-listed neofinance services company. The $XNK token represents one ounce of premium Japanese gold that meets international standards. This gold is stored in secure vaults worldwide and is eligible for trading on the Osaka Exchange. EMURGO, a founding entity of Cardano, is providing technical and strategic support for the launch of Kinka Gold. EMURGO's asset tokenization platform will be used to transform the physical gold into digital tokens.

By leveraging EMURGO's platform and Cardano's technology, Kinka Gold aims to offer a secure and valuable asset to investors and users of the Cardano ecosystem. READ MORE

Playfix AI Integrates Moneta’s $USDM for Enhanced Web3 Development

Playfix AI, a platform for building and deploying Web3 applications, has integrated $USDM, a stablecoin on the Cardano network. By making Moneta’s $USDM available on Playfix, this partnership seeks to make it easier for users worldwide to access and utilize a stable currency.

This alliance offers several benefits:

  • Stability and security: $USDM provides a stable and secure currency for Web3 development.

  • Expanded capabilities: Playfix users can now leverage $USDM in their decentralized applications and AI-driven solutions.

  • Enhanced user confidence: $USDM's stability and security can boost user confidence in transactions on the Playfix Marketplace.

  • New use cases: Developers can use $USDM for payments, liquidity management, and tokenized transactions within their applications.

By integrating $USDM, Playfix is creating a more robust and user-friendly platform for Web3 development. This partnership contributes to the growth of the Cardano ecosystem and the broader adoption of stablecoins in the Web3 space. READ MORE

Cardano's Leios Algorithm: A Potential Game-Changer

Cardano is working on a new consensus algorithm called Leios, which aims to significantly improve the blockchain's transaction speed. This advancement could potentially surpass the performance of Solana.

Leios represents an evolution of the existing Proof of Stake mechanisms and addresses current inefficiencies in Cardano's infrastructure. By optimizing network utilization and computational resources, Leios aims to increase transaction speed without compromising security.

The development of Leios is expected to accelerate in the fourth quarter of 2024. While there have been some concerns about the project's progress, This week, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson assured on X that the development team is actively working on the algorithm. He emphasized that efforts will intensify once the Peras CIP is completed.

Leios is part of Cardano's broader strategy to improve scalability and decentralization. By addressing the limitations of the current consensus algorithm, Cardano aims to enhance its competitiveness and attract more users and developers. READ MORE

TxPipe Leads Open-Source Tool Development With Dolos and Pallas, Two Projects That Improve Developer Experience on the Cardano Blockchain 

Sponsored Post

TxPipe is a software company that believes that blockchain adoption can be accelerated by improving developer experience. TxPipe has remained committed to its mission to facilitate software development for projects within the Cardano ecosystem by simplifying design and implementation. 

Accelerating Adoption Through Open-Source Software

Since its inception over three years ago, TxPipe has launched eight projects, developing open-source tools that have served to launch several dApps on the network. Recently, TxPipe has finalized two key projects that were brought to life from funding from Funds 10 and 11. 

Pallas was born out of Fund 10 and operates as a growing library of modules that reimplements common Ouroboros/Cardano logic in native rust, serving as a foundational layer to streamline the development of higher-level use-cases like explorers, wallets, and potentially even a full node in the distant future. Its purpose is to provide a solid base for building advanced functionalities over the Cardano ecosystem.

The Pallas library, being utilized by 36 projects, underscores its significance in staying updated with protocol changes. Maintaining its compatibility ensures its relevance and continued support for the broader community.

Fund 11 in turn brought the inception of Dolos, a new type of Cardano data node that was fine-tuned to solve a very narrow scope: keeping an updated copy of the ledger and replying to queries from trusted clients, while requiring a small fraction of the resources. 

Learning from the experiences of software developers from other blockchain ecosystems, TxPipe pinpointed a common issue on Cardano: due to a set of design choices, the Cardano note became very complicated to  connect. Through Dolos, the team designed a node that remedied this issue, strengthening adoption for new developers on Cardano and providing an efficient and developer-friendly alternative to existing integration mechanisms. 

Pallas and Dolos are only two of several projects TxPipe has developed to facilitate software development on Cardano. Check out all of their projects below:

Weekly Development Report

Interesting Stories:

🎊 A Message from Lucas 🎊

So many exciting blockchain-related projects are bubbling here in Argentina. I’m thrilled to finally announce that Charles Hoskinson will be coming to Buenos Aires in October to give the keynote address at the Argentina Tech Forum. He will also be meeting with President Javier Milei to discuss blockchain adoption, and I have high expectations.

In other news, I went ahead and published my vision and values for Cardano on X a few days ago, as I firmly move forward with my candidacy as a DRep. I argue that the network should focus on better and more effective marketing and business development by improving onboarding and communication efforts.

You can find more information on what I stand for here:

If your objectives coincide with mine and you see value in the work I’ve been doing for the past three years, I’d be very humbled if you decide to support me with your vote. 

This is my DRep ID:

drep15nvw9d6zr6m08dpckkx4d3g6dplc5vh7yhekyjw0vq07spk38ak

Thank you.

–Lucas Macchiavelli

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