NEWSLETTER ISSUE #96

A weekly update on everything that moves NEAR Protocol
NO 96 · Monday 13 Feb, 2023

NEARWEEK is aggregating and curating information across the NEAR ecosystem. This edition was curated by the community via 35 news contributions to the NEWS DAO.

gm NEAR heads,

Hope you're all doing well!

This week, we want to bring your attention to the current situation in Turkey and Syria and the role that Web3 communities can play in providing aid and support. As reports indicate that nearly 16,000 people have been killed with thousands more injured, it is heartening to see the NEAR community coming together to support those in need.

#NEARTurkeyResponse is the initiative to bring the power of crypto to the forefront in supporting those affected by the crisis. ABC DAO, Antisocial Labs, and Tradeport have teamed up with the foundation to create a $NEAR donation wallet (turkishrelief.antisociallabs.near) and NFTs to raffle. The raffle is currently live here.

Check out Marieke's Op-Ed for more information on how crypto communities can make a difference in times of crisis. In essence, this is a time to come together and show the true power of NEAR united under one borderless community.

Stay tuned for more updates from the NEAR world!

Till next week!
- Mr. News

Highlights

COINBUREAU REVEALS THE FIVE TOP NEAR PROJECTS OF 2023
The NEAR protocol ecosystem is thriving and full of potential. With this in mind, Coinbureau takes a deep dive into the NEAR protocol space to identify the 5 top projects to watch in 2023. LINK

VEAX : $100K IN PLATFORM REWARDS
Veax launches its testnet and the Veax Points system to reward users for contributing to the platform's development journey. With $100,000 in rewards available, Veax Points will incentivise users to participate in the $VEAX airdrop campaign. LINK

NYU x NEAR PROTOCOL : WEB3 LEARNING WORKSHOP
NYU announces a partnership with the Near Foundation to offer a new 'Web3 Learning Workshop' for students and faculty. The course, taught by Michael Kelly, covers the basics of blockchain and digital assets, providing a hands-on experience. LINK

NEAR FOUNDATION: OPEN FOR ACCELERATOR PARTNER PROPOSALS
The NEAR Foundation invites accelerator programs to join its effort to support blockchain teams. Over $90m has been committed in grants, and the ecosystem has grown to over 1,000 teams. The Foundation seeks to leverage partners' expertise and help build a digital product connecting projects with contributors. Proposals due by Feb 17. LINK

LATEST PROJECTS LISTED ON AWESOMENEAR LINK

DeFI

SPIN FINANCE : THE FUTURE OF OPTIONS TRADING ON NEAR
Experience the future of options trading with Spin Finance, the first order book DEX on NEAR. Learn about the unique advantage of Spin's on-chain order book, the DOV release, and the other two core features of the Spin ecosystem. LINK

TONIC DEX RAISES PERPETUALS LIMIT FROM $2,500 to $25,000 LINK

GATE.IO SUPPORTS NATIVE $AURORA DEPOSITS AND WITHDRAWALS LINK

HOLDR : $PLY / $stNEAR POOL LAUNCHES LINK

BURROW LAUNCHES $250,000 BUG BOUNTY
Burrow and Immunefi have partnered to offer a 250K USD bug bounty for the NEAR ecosystem. Learn more about the features and security of Burrow, and how you can participate in the bug bounty. LINK

Community and Guilds

NEARWEEK : AUDIO & PODCAST LIBRARY
A selection of project and community audio recordings that cover the NEAR, Aurora, and Octopus Network ecosystem and their respective developments. LINK

NEARWEEK : COMMUNITY CALENDAR [NEW]
NEARWEEK launches its custom community calendar to be used by the entire NEAR ecosystem! Please populate the calendar with project launch dates, NFT drops, and Twitter Spaces. This way users in the space are aware of everything that's scheduled to happen. LINK

NEARWEEK : MERCH STORE
Our NEAR ecosystem merch store is live - stack up your NEAR drip!! If you're a project and want your design featured in the store, please e-mail: shop@nearweek.com. LINK

NEARWEEK : NEWSBOT
The NEARWEEK Twitter newsbot offers the easiest way to ensure that any breaking NEAR Protocol-related news on your timeline is picked up by NEARWEEK.To send us a submission, simply comment or tweet:
< !submit @nearweekbot > — it's that simple!

Events

[2023-02-10] AURORA WEEKLY UPDATE
Read it here: LINK; or, give it a watch here: LINK

2023 VISION : VCS & FUNDS DISCUSS NEAR
Hear from the NEAR Foundation and top VCs on their outlook for 2023 and how to get involved in the NEAR ecosystem. Get insights on the many opportunities in store for the future of web3. LINK

OCTOPUS NETWORK COMMUNITY CALL #07
On February 8th, the Octopus DAO held its seventh Community Call. On this call, the core team made a report of their different activities on the previous month and revealed part of the Octopus 2.0 plan. A transcription of this call will be available for the community on Medium. LINK

OCTOPUS NETWORK : MEME CONTEST LINK

AMA : PRIVATE SHARDS ARE COMING TO AURORA LINK

/ DEV EVENTS

TreeHacks: Stanford Hackathon NEAR US is Sponsoring [Feb. 17-19, 2023] | Stanford University, California
EthDenver Climate Summit (w/ Open Forest Protocol) (March 1, 2023) | Denver, Colorado
Interop Summit by Axelar [February 27-28, 2023] | Denver, Colorado
DAO Denver [February 27- March 1st] | Denver, Colorado

Developers

/ BUILDER BULLETIN

The latest and most important news for developers in the NEAR ecosystem, curated by @devs.near.

NEAR SOCIAL HACKATHON: CREATE PROJECTS BY FEBRUARY 17 LINK

WORKSHOP : "BUILDING DAPPS ON NEAR WITH QUICKNODE" LINK

FAST-NEAR HAS A NEW EXPERIMENTAL BACKEND USING LMDB LINK

NEP-448 APPROVED : ZERO BALANCE ACCOUNT LINK

WALLET SELECTOR INTEGRATION WIZARD LINK

NEW BOILERPLATE CODE IN OFFICIAL NEAR GITHUB

Apps ~ JavaScript
Contracts ~ Rust
Onboarding ~ Keypom
Data Storage ~ IPFS
Tutorial ~ Build a Loyalty Program with NFTs
Tutorial ~ Build a Loyalty Program with fungible tokens

PAGODA NEEDS FEEDBACK TO BUILD A MORE PERFORMANT SEARCH EXPERIENCE ON NEAR LINK

WIDGET OF THE WEEK : GENADROP MINTER LINK

BURROW AND IMMUNEFI PARTNER TO OFFER UP TO $250K IN BUG BOUNTIES
The goal is to identify and fix any potential vulnerabilities in the Burrow protocol and enhance its security and stability for users. All security researchers and white hat hackers are invited to participate and help improve Burrow. LINK

PARTICLE NETWORK INTEGRATES NOTIFI'S SDK INTO WEB3 STACK
This partnership allows Notifi to lead a new pillar of Particle Network's web3 stack for projects seeking to add notifications. Developers can subscribe to both on and off-chain events and receive alerts through Particle Network's web3 interface. LINK

HACKEN PERFORMS SMART CONTRACT AUDIT ON AURORA
Aurora Labs announces that Hacken has conducted a successful smart contract audit on the network, scoring an impressive 9.8/10. This audit was performed with the goal of ensuring the security and stability of the EVM platform. LINK

FRAC REACHES THE FINALS OF AN INVESTMENT SHOW IN THAILAND
Frac, one of the winners in the Octopus Network Accelerator Winter batch, advances to the Finals of Tech Investment Show 2023 in Thailand. LINK

Gaming

OCTOPUS NETWORK: PAVING THE WAY FOR MAINSTREAM WEB3 GAMING WITH IBC PROTOCOL
Octopus Network is taking a leading role in the development of the Web3 gaming infrastructure by leveraging the power of IBC protocol. Unlike cross-chain bridges, the IBC protocol is a scalable, open-source solution with a thriving development community. LINK

READY PLAYER DAO X NEAR PROTOCOL : WEB3 GAMING
Ready Player DAO and NEAR Protocol announce a partnership to advance web3 gaming in the NEAR ecosystem. The partnership includes new initiatives, marketing solutions, and community building opportunities to support games and gamers on the NEAR platform. LINK

ARTISTS ON AURORA : DUOCELOT
With 20 years of experience and a background in mixed media, duOcelot creates experiences combining 2D, 3D, AI, and more. Discover how he got into NFTs, why he chose NEAR and Aurora, and what he has in store next. LINK

8 WAYS NFTS WILL FIX THE TICKETING INDUSTRY
Find out how NFTs can solve the ticketing industry's biggest problems of scalping and fraud. Read about ways NFTs can revolutionize ticketing and bring a fair, secure solution for real fans. LINK

NFT WEEK 17 | AURORA NFT CLUB LINK

Join The Ecosystem

NEAR WIKI
The open-source, collaborative wiki connects you to information about everything relating to the protocol, usage, infrastructure, opportunities, and guilds. LINK

FREECODECAMP : NEAR CURRICULUM
The curriculum will contain at least ten interactive practice projects that will guide you through learning the NEAR protocol and its tools. You'll learn how to build and deploy your own smart contracts, dApps, work with NEAR command line tools, and much more! LINK

LEARN NEAR CLUB: HOW TO USE & BUILD ON NEAR
An all inclusive hands-on onboarding platform to NEAR Protocol, connecting NEAR ecosystem projects to pro-active community members via (L)Earn method. Supported by NEAR Foundation. LINK

HOW TO BRIDGE ASSETS TO AND FROM NEAR (GUIDE)
Bridges help form the concept of interoperability between blockchains in Web3. In other words, bridges enable the exchange of information from one blockchain to another, even when coded in different languages. The following guide outlines some of the cross-chain bridging solutions that are available to those wanting to move assets to and from NEAR. LINK