Mask Network Web3 Social Ecosystem Grant Round 2 Review

As a quick recap, Mask Network has been consistently building a web3 social ecosystem and supporting public goods. With a solid history and reputation in product-building and diversity of network connections, MaskDAO aims to share its resources and facilitate collaboration to accelerate the ecosystem’s growth.

Ecosystem programs include (1) Hackathon; (2) Web3 Scholarship & Fellowship; (3) Mask Hackathon & Bounty Program; (4) Mask Grant Program; (5) Gitcoin Web3 Social Ecosystem Grants; and (6) Investment Fund.

Following the successful inaugural run of the Mask Grant Programme from May to November last year, where 18 projects were awarded $10,000 equivalent of $MASK tokens each — we are thrilled to announce our second batch of Mask Grant winners!

Through an intensive selection process, 34 projects were selected for Grant Round 2 with grant amounts ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 each. 16 projects were selected for the social track while 18 projects were selected for the public goods track. Aligned with our ethos of supporting web3 development, diversity is of paramount importance — selected projects came from a range of countries including China, the US, Ukraine, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, England, France, Spain, and Australia.

The social track saw projects from protocols built on top of Name Service standards, a couple of gamified dating apps, and token rewards tools, to web3 chatting networks and infrastructures with huge potential for integrations with Next.ID.

While the public goods (non-social) track, which solidifies our belief and ongoing commitment to building the web3 ecosystem, saw two major trends in on-chain games and ZK technologies. We have 3 projects from the Loot/ Starknet ecosystem and 6 projects from Dark Forest/ MUD on-chain game ecosystem, both utilizing cutting-edge ZK technologies.

We also see a few other projects leveraging ZK to achieve dynamic NFT and P2P Credit. A few DAOs of various purposes are also included, for instance, LXDAO where developers gather, and another that supports individuals affected by the FTX bankruptcy. While these projects are currently non-social in nature, we believe there is potential for them to leverage Web3 social infrastructure in the future.

Web3 Social Category

1. Chirper.ai

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chirperai?s=20

Website: https://chirper.ai/

Chirper.ai is an AI-driven social network platform designed exclusively for interaction and collaboration among AI entities — humans are not allowed. Users can easily register and create personalized profiles for chatbots known as “Chirpers”.

Capable of authentically expressing human characteristics, emotions, and thoughts, Chirpers are also able to interact via commenting, liking, following, and tagging other Chirpers both individually or in groups within the ecosystem. For instance, sharing topical news, curating quality memes, having long-term goals and objectives, uploading music and images, and displaying a variety of human-like interests; which could influence a Chirpers’ own behaviour and memories.

As more users join and create Chirpers, distinct opinions and contributions across topics enhances the depth of content and fosters a stronger trust framework. Thus, offering users a unique AI-driven social media experience. With the growth of AI social networks, we can expect the development of more innovative and cutting-edge AI solutions across both traditional industries such as healthcare and finance, and non-traditional industries such as web3.

2. D3NS Protocol

D3NS aims to serve as an overarching protocol on top of ENS and other Name Service/ DID standards. True domain sovereignty upon ENS and DID systems is brought about by providing the full decentralized read-write flow for domain registration within each domain. This puts full control of subdomains back into the hands of DID-issuing organisations, maximizes the flexibility of governance such as scoped and hierarchical split of powers, and enables tokenomic diversity via value exchanges and proceeds sharing across organisations.

D3NS aims to integrate for all DIDs and organise for DAOs first before upgrading to a top-level domain (TLD) later. To this end, DSNS will be connecting social structure with the DID system and contribute to Mask’s Next.ID and RSS3 by providing a structural protocol that allows DAOs and organizations to easily onboard and be queryable on-chain.

3. Pond

More information: https://pouncing-click-509.notion.site/Pond-Introduction-1591bf4deb024e8c81f074826b37318a

Pond is a web3 people resource ecosystem that empowers users to take ownership of their social networks and connections. With Pond, users can leverage their social capital, expanding their off-chain and on-chain connections to maintain meaningful relationships and influences

To this end, it is currently developing a web3 connection search engine to overcome the limitations that web2 has in finding the right people using natural language input. This means that users can input search queries in a way that is most comfortable and intuitive for them, without needing to use specific keywords or search operators. The search engine allows users to find both precise and non-precise target connections depending on their network needs.

For instance, users can search for connections based on specific criteria such as job title or industry, or they can search for broader connections based on shared interests or affiliations. The search engine is also designed to sync with users’ on-chain and off-chain data e.g. social media profiles and blockchain transactions, allowing for more personalized and accurate search results.

Pond is also developing a database of web3 professionals for users to browse, and a secure connection management system with individual user social graphs. This would enable users to manage, grow and store their professional connections.

All in all, Pond empowers users with a powerful suite of tools to build and leverage their social capital. Pond’s developments would expand the use cases of Mask’s Next.ID and both parties’ graph databases.

4. AsMatch

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AsMatchApp

Website: https://www.asmatch.app/

AsMatch is the world’s first astrology-based web3 socialfi matching mobile app. It combines AI-generated content (AIGC), zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and zkSBTs powered by Manta Network, and a match-to-earn model with token incentives on BNB Chain. The app’s astrology-focused matching engine connects users for dating, social networking and professional connections.

AsMatch’s zkSBT with on-chain credentials address problems of fake profiles and catfishing. By using zkSBTs maintained on Manta Network and its zkAddress system, AsMatch can provide a layer of privacy to protect user information linked to the zkSBT. Users can mint AsMatch zkSBTs through Manta Network’s NFT Private Offering (NPO) Platform. Furthermore, zkSBT credentials can be verified through Proof Keys on mobile apps without the need for any wallet disclosures. This significantly lowers the user friction for users to onboard web3 applications in mobile.

The zkSBT can also be used as a privacy-enhanced DID. The metadata contained within the zkSBT offers more information than a PFP; it contains the range of your crypto assets on public assets on chains, including Manta Network, Ethereum, BNB Chain etc. By connecting your wallet(s) and crypto assets, you can verify ownership without revealing information such as your transaction history or the exact amount. In future, AsMatch plans to partner with other third parties to include more social media and verified bios on the zkSBT.

Additionally, AsMatch also offers a gamified rewards system including astrology, crypto assets match, mystery boxes and token incentives. To encourage gender balance, female users earn rewards for sending more messages, while male users pay to send more messages with in-app tokens. The token is used in various social scenarios, such as matchmaking, chatting, inviting friends, purchasing avatars, community building, etc. While web2 dating applications monetize their user base, AsMatch offers revenue opportunities to token holders.

5. Mercurius Club

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mercurius_club

More information: https://marsh-wishbone-475.notion.site/Mercurius-Club-837333b9ff464b0587bedf35b3c2ffe8

Mercurius Club is a dating app committing to breaking down biases through token incentives. Users can make new friends within the app with less bias and enjoy the pleasure of communication.

Traditional dating apps tend to focus on connecting people who share similar backgrounds, but this often leads to the creation of bubbles that limit perspectives. Mercurius believes that meeting strangers is not about finding people who share the same background, but about exploring new selves and embracing diversity. Therefore, profession or education is not a significant part of the user profile. Instead, they match people who put aside their prejudices and engage with the world in all its diversity, using token incentives to eliminate communication barriers and promote pure communication.

Mercurius Club will be adopting a dual-token model, with Emerald Token ($ET) and Stylus Token ($ST). The former is a governance token, while the latter is a utility token that will be used to incentivize users and unlock various in-app benefits. The earnings that users make from chatting will be deposited into the community treasury to purchase $ST and distributed overtime.

Socializing is a fundamental human need. Just as Bereal came after Instagram and Bumble and Soul came after Tinder, Mercurius believes that there is a need for new social platforms that challenge traditional dating and social media giants. By combining tokenization, decentralized infrastructure, and deconstructed social demands, they are promoting a revolution from a more direct user experience perspective while achieving mass adoption.

6. WIW Profile

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wiw_io?s=20

Website: https://app.wiw.io

WIW Profile is a dApp built on top of WIW Protocol, a privacy-preserving on-chain identity protocol. By doing retroactive analysis on user’s historical on-chain and off-chain data, WIW Profile generates a clear user abstraction using WIW Badges and acts as an on-chain resume solution. These badges can be customized based on the needs of the community.

Project owners are able to quickly understand their customer base while web3 users are able to establish initial trust in new ecosystems using their past reputation. Armed with data ownership, users get to choose what to reveal and make public based on their privacy settings.

Other governance features include giving more voting power to the active users in DAOs, updating the voting system to make it less token-holding oriented, gating solutions for filtered votings and filtered AMA questions.

7. Quidli

Twitter: https://twitter.com/quidliprotocol

Website: https://quid.li/

Quidli is the top token rewards tool for web3 organisations such as ConsenSys and the NEAR Foundation to keep their communities engaged natively through web2 tools such as browsers, email, Slack and Discord. Through Quidli, projects are able to better recognize their active community members for their contributions by sending crypto to community members directly.

Quidl will be introducing a light integration of Mask Network and MASK token to Quidli environment, thereby offering MASK to Quidl’s user base of 600+ organizations (notable users include ETHDenver, OrangeDAO, Xooglers, SOSV, dlab) as an option to distribute micro-incentives via Quidli’s hosted sharing wallet application. Future implementations could also include an integration of Defi protocols on Mask Network, which offers users yield options on MASK.

This would greatly help to maintain a strong Mask community and promote the awareness of MASK tokens among Quidl’s user base.

8. Lumi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lumilovegod

Website: https://www.lumi.top/

Stemming from the Christian community with more than 1M Christian followers, Lumi aims to better unite people with the same ideals. Leveraging the Proof of Contribution Protocol (POCP), it encourages willing and wealthy people to donate more while those without funds are able to pray and help promote the cause.

Lumi users receive tokens to promote and donate to charity projects when they use Lumi’s dApp to read the bible/ pray. Upon donation to the charity project, they will receive a SBT badge, which allows them to find their community or users with the same badge. The identity of these users are verified by ZK-DID with people having zero knowledge of each other’s identity and behavioural information, while still being able to attest for authenticity so that no fraud is possible.

To date, Lumi has 1800k subscribers who have posted more than 3M prayers and shared more than 4.5M Bible verses in the Lumi community.

9. Protico

Twitter: https://twitter.com/protico_io

Website: https://protico.io

Protico is a web3 chatting network that aims to build a universal chatting interface across all web2 and web3 apps by combining chats and social assets with wallets. With Protico, address-to-address chats and social graphs, boundless chatting across apps and dApps, and bridging web3 CRM to web3 commerce is made possible.

On a mission to help enterprises migrate on to web3 by adding a web3 chat layer on top of their product, Protico have seen a 8.79% average growth week-on-week (over 24 weeks) with more than 300 chats built on top of pages, and ranking 1st search (“Web3 Chat”) on Google.

We’re happy to work with Protico to grow Mask’s ecosystem by integrating Mask’s Next.ID with their web3 chatting network, thereby enabling users to chat across websites and apps with their Next.ID-bundled identity.

10. Misskey

Twitter: https://twitter.com/misskey_io?s=20

Website: https://misskey-hub.net/en/

Founded by Syuilo in 2014 in Japan and adopting ActivityPub in 2018, Misskey is an open-source and distributed platform for microblogging. Starting with Bulletin Boards as its main feature, it has since pivoted towards users posting short messages with the addition of timelines for chronological viewing.

It currently features an abundance of features such as Drive or Reactions as well as a very high UI customizability. Notes are a central concept within Misskey, and refer to content that may include text, images, polls and more that has been posted to Misskey. By composing a note, it will be added to the timeline and sent to a user’s followers and other users from their server.

11. Metopia

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Metopia_xyz?s=20

Website: https://metopia.xyz/

Metopia is a groundbreaking web3 platform that facilitates decentralized governance without relying on financial incentives. The platform is reputation-based, which means that users can earn MetoBadges that reflect their behaviour and actions on the platform.

These MetoBadges are unique digital assets that are soulbound to each user, granting them access to exclusive incentive pools. By unlocking these incentive pools, users can earn rewards such as USDT tokens and NFTs, all without having to resort to traditional financial instruments.

This non-financialized governance model ensures that decisions are made based on the merits of the proposal, rather than financial incentives. As a result, the platform promotes fairness and transparency, while unlocking the full potential of decentralized decision-making.

12. Web3Privacy

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicksvyaznoy?s=20

More Information: https://github.com/web3privacy/web3privacy/tree/main/Web3privacynowplatform

Web3Privacy is a ranking platform that analyzes and monitors privacy-preserving blockchain protocols, currencies and DeFi projects.

The platform comprises analytics, database and guides components. To collectively raise the maturity of privacy products and services across all layers of the technology stacks, Web3Privacy is developing a unique privacy scoring mechanism and tool together with privacy experts from the Ethereum Foundation and Nym Technologies. Further, it is developing the biggest privacy services database with the latest R&D tracks from privacy and scaling explorations to Chainsafe proposals. To educate both the general public and experienced users, Web3Privacy is developing practical guides matching existing privacy solutions from Sismo to NYM with privacy-personas (NGOs, anon donors, activists), and accessible and advanced privacy solutions.

Mask will become a core contributor to the privacy knowledge layer, empowering millions around the world with better privacy tooling and knowledge, and builders with practical and unique market data.

13. Little Atlas

Twitter: https://twitter.com/littleatlas_xyz?s=20

Website: https://littleatlas.xyz

Backed by Balaji S. and Zeneca, Little Atlas is a web3 token-gated meet-up platform that empowers NFT communities and DAOs to become network states by building trust offline and a cryptoeconomy online.

Leveraging contributors to scale in real-life meetups worldwide, they’ve helped communities such as ZenAcademy, Random Character Collective and Chimpers increase their in real-life engagements by more than 40x, onboarding 8000+ users in Q1 2023.

Little Atlas will be working with Mask to develop an interactive map with token gated access for Mask holders. After onboarding, Mask holders will be able to chat, share media and interests/ identity on-chain. They will also be able to connect in real life either through organising or finding meet-ups by leveraging on features such as public event discovery, conference portals, fun event planning tools, automated email marketing and social check-in and rewards.

14. Sakaba

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SAKABA_xyz?s=20

Website: https://sakaba.xyz/

Sakaba is a next-generation blockchain gaming hub. Through the onboarding of quest listing, increasing liquidity for game users, cross-game DIDs, launchpads and marketplaces, Sakaba (which stands for 酒場/ bar or brewery) aims to be the web3 place where all game lovers gather.

Leveraging on its cross-game reputation and SBT leveling system (proof-of-play), and quest based interoperable IDs, web3 gamers are able to build up their reputation and be discovered based on their on/ off-chain gaming performance. Further, it doubles up as a loyalty platform for web3 game projects to incentivize gamers, including airdrops distribution based on gamers’ contribution to web3 game ecosystems.

Working with over 40+ projects on Avalanche, Polygon, OASYS and OKC, and gaming guilds in Japan, Sakaba will be bridging users within Japan’s web3 gaming ecosystem to Mask’s ecosystem via an integration with Mask’s Next.ID. Armed with gamer IDs and loyalty programmes, gaming projects will be able to better engage real community contributors.

15. KudasaiJP

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kudasai_japan

Website: https://kudasai.co.jp/

KudasaiJP is the largest crypto community in Japan covering all areas of crypto with over 70k followers on Twitter and 20k telegram members. The core team has more than 30 people including KOLs, translators, researchers, engineers

To educate community members and accelerate the growth of local communities, they host AMAs, publish translated articles, provide connections to projects and exchanges, and host/ co-host events and conferences. In the last 2 years, they have hosted more than 200 AMAs with projects such as Galaxy and Link3. More recently, they will be co-hosting the Web3 Social House (Japan Edition) Sushi Night Party together with Mask Network, Phaver and Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC) on 16 April 2023.

16. Banners (for Adventurers)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BannersNft

Website: https://ctb.bannersnft.com/

Banners was inspired by Loot and is designed to be the society and politics layer for the community. We are a small team of passionate individuals who have been nerd-sniped by the idea of helping to create a decentralised fantasy universe.

Banners was also created to be a launchpad for artists to design in their own style for holders of the original text-based NFT. All Banners data is on-chain and available for any artist who wishes to design a project.

Call the Banners is a text-based strategy game powered by a Discord bot and is currently played in the Banners Discord.

In the game, two generals are given in-game currency to distribute and negotiate with players to fight for their team and bring down the opposing castle. At the end of the game, generals win coins, which are distributable. The currency can be used for either in-game boosts or raffle tickets, which determines the winner of the grand prize (a valuable NFT). The game has been iterated and improved over time, from a low to high fidelity bot, including its art and game mechanics. Improvements will continue to be implemented till it reaches the stage where it is browser-based.

Encouraging social engagement and collaboration between members of the community, the game aims to replace the current engagement-farming Twitter giveaways method (i.e., follow, retweet, tag 3 friends). Social games are the future of gaming, serving as a fair and fun giveaway method that rewards community members who truly care about the project. Being an open-sourced Web3 game, Web3 communities can use the game or reskin it to better fit their community’s needs.

Public Good (Autonomous World) Category

1. Dojo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ohayo_dojo

Website: dojoengine.org

Dojo is an open source Entity Component System (ECS) framework for the Starknet ecosystem. It implements the ECS pattern to enable modular and extensible autonomous worlds. Worlds can be expanded permissionlessly over time through the incorporation of components and systems.

As a complete on-chain gaming toolchain and engine written in Cairo 1, developers will be able to go from idea to game in less than an hour in the final release. Dojo is currently in the midst of completing contracts, building client SDKs and L3 chain integration.

2. Guidly

Twitter: https://twitter.com/guildlyxyz?s=20

Website: https://www.guildly.xyz

Guildly is a decentralized protocol that allows for the management of shared accounts and the sharing of NFT assets in web3 games. They aim to make it easy for players to join and participate in guilds, and to facilitate the sharing and use of NFT assets in a fair and transparent manner.

For NFT sharing, game items are shared between everyone in a guild with depositors remaining in custody of the items and permissions to dictate the item’s usage. With shared accounts, multiple users can control the guild together. This opens opportunities for joint decision making and multiple users are able to dictate actions.

The platform utilizes Starknet as a Validity-Rollup to enable sophisticated logic within smart contracts including permissions of access, instant fee policies and more. Native Account Abstraction opens up new avenues for sharing and accessing assets. Guildly provides an open source tool for anyone to share NFTs securely and easily, leading to vast opportunities for gaming and web3 adoption.

3. df0

Twitter: https://twitter.com/orden_gg?s=20

Website: https://orden.gg/

df0 is a gameDAO coalition focused on the development and success of the Dark Forest fork built by orden.gg, an on-chain DAO that also built fireball.gg (an aavegotchi portal). df0 is focused on expanding the esports aspects of the original game. Further, they are also adding gameplay around Valhalla planets and cross-round ships.

For context, Dark Forest is an on-chain first, decentralized massively multiplayer online (MMO) space-conquest game built on zkSNARK with a high possibility of becoming an on-chain esports platform. Players can level up, capture another player’s planets and also collect ERC-721 collectibles. The game teaches players blockchain primitives and encourages them to create game extensions and automations to win.

4. Muddy Forest

Twitter: https://twitter.com/muddyforest_eth?s=20

Website: https://www.tetrationlab.com

Inspired by Dark Forest, Muddy Forest is a fully on-chain MMO Real-time Strategy (RTS) space conquest game built with MUD engine, a fully on-chain game engine for autonomous worlds by the Lattice team. It serves as an experimental composable game where players will have the ability to both play and build permissionlessly. The aim is for the game to be the model for the genesis of composable game, where anyone can build on-top of the game.

Within the game, the player commands a fleet of spaceships and has full control over their movement in space. Resources can be transferred between planets and spaceships, which adds flexibility to the gameplay. It is designed for the player to work along with their allies of the faction, allowing the potential for further development in the level of plug-ins to the game.

Muddy Forest is built by an experienced team at Tetration Lab who have since launched 2 fully on-chain games, Frosty Fight and Museum Heist. The former is an on-chain snowball fight game built with MUD engine, while the latter is a fully on-chain social deduction game built with zkSNARK and homomorphic encryption.

5. Miaocraft

Twitter: https://twitter.com/miaocraftxyz?s=20

Website: https://www.miaocraft.xyz/

Miaocraft is a fully on-chain massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) game. Players expand their dominance in a persistent universe by mining, trade and piracy.

Miaocraft aims to build：

• A high-stakes environment to incentivize aggressive competition and therefore strong collaboration;
• A self-regulating zero-sum economy to address the death spiral of unbacked currencies faced by every web3 game as well as the US economy;
• A near unbottable game in the age of rapid advancements in AI.

Their motivations for building on-chain games is to create prosocial environments where people depend less on others, experiment with decentralized economies to lay the foundations for decentralized governments, and to build systems which are infeasible to exploit as AI safety becomes more prevalent.

6. DF Archon & DF Ares

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DfArchon?s=20

Website: https://dfarchon.xyz

DF Archon is a development team focused on fully on-chain games. Thus far, they have built DF-Gaia, DF-Artemis and DF-Apollo. DF-Gaia is a user-friendly Dark Forest plugin development library; DF-Artemis is a planet-targeted bounty mercenary system for Dark Forest; and DF-Apollo is an automated system for Dark Forest.

Aligned with their goal to continue building game mechanics and useful tools for Dark Forest, DF Archon is taking it one step further by building a developers community in an attempt to provide a more user-friendly gaming environment for players. To this end, they have launched DF Ares — a seasonal Dark Forest community round to be hosted in May/ June, which aims to explore possibilities surrounding the game mechanics of Dark Forest and to test out the latest technological innovations.

7. NetherScape

NetherScape is a Role Playing Game (RPG) on-chain protocol, built with the Entity Component System (ECS) pattern under the MUD framework. It incorporates smart contracts to govern game assets, mechanisms, and player rights in a decentralized, composable, and interpolatable manner in the sense that anyone can create anything for any player to play in any (RPG) game.

By breaking through the walls in-between different games, NetherScape introduces a new paradigm of gameplay and game-building ecosystem. When true ownership allows any in-game assets to be used and played in any RPG compatible game, it will inevitably create new dynamic interactions between players and game creators. All activities and interactions are conducted on-chain, whether in collaboration or competition.

Moving forward, NetherScape will be partnering with web2 gaming studios, web3 DAOs, and infrastructures to incubate, onboard and build bridges for new/ old on-chain games, thus developing the on-chain gaming community.

8. Network States

Website: https://www.networkstates.wiki/

Created by a trio of MUD and on-chain game veterans in Zuzalu, Small Brain Games, 0xhank, and Moving Castles — Network States is an up and coming on-chain strategy game that employs the MUD 2.0 engine.

Some of the on-chain games they’ve built includes:

• Small Brain Games: Words3 (make words and score points to profit on an infinite grid) and Ape’s Gambit (on-chain battle royale chess game);
• 0xhank: Dark Seas (on-chain multiplayer naval battle game built using Latticexyz’s MUD framework) and Dark Forest Arena (arena rounds running on Gnosis Optimism that consist of hundreds of matches that end in a few minutes);
• Moving Castles (game studio and design lab for autonomous worlds): Go.L.E.M (on-chain team vs team governance fighting game built using MUD 2.0 engine for ETHGlobal’s AW Hackathon)

It draws elements and inspiration from historical geographic world-building games such as Slobbovia (1972–1986) to create a novel genre within Autonomous Worlds. The game utilizes large language models (LLMs) e.g. GPT-4 for auto-generating the histories and lore of individual states. The core game mechanics, fully on-chain, are designed to enable future development and extension.

During the ETHGlobal Autonomous Worlds hackathon (May 18–26), Network States pre-released a lite version for hackathon teams to reference. It also serves as a reference point for any project teams outside of the hackathon who are exploring the MUD 2.0 engine.

9. AW House (Komorebi)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AW_house

Website: https://aw.house/

Founded by Komorebi, a veteran in the blockchain space since 2014 and having developed on-chain games such as Nouns Amidakuji (onchain Amidakuji game/ Japanese lottery game) and Autonomous Game of Life (multiplayer Game of Life onchain game using MUD 2.0) — AW House is an ecosystem for Autonomous World/ fully on-chain game builders. To this end, they run a series of programmes including: (i) Hacker House (7-days programme, twice a year); (ii) Grant Program; (iii) Community Based Hackathon; and (iv) Exclusive Social Club.

One of their recent Hacker Houses took place across 6-days in April — co-sponsored by Mask, Starkware, Web3MQ, 1kx and Digital Garage. This included activities such as decentralized identity, on-chain gameplay, on-chain tokenomics and Starknet focused workshops, and a series of small private events held by the likes of MUD veterans such as Moving Castles. Currently, they’re also running Grant Programs: (i) AW MUD Grant — with the objective for grantees to deliver an MVP of an Autonomous World, focuses on verticals such as non-games Autonomous Worlds, composable engineering and casual & hyper-accessible crypto native games among many others; and (ii) AW Impact Grant — early stage projects without any prior funding with a huge positive impact on AW’s ecosystem.

Some of their upcoming activities include:

• Hacker Houses: (i) EthCC (July 17–20); (ii) ETHGlobal Paris (July 21–23); and (iii) Devconnect in Istanbul (Nov 13–20);
• Grant Program: (i) AW Angel Grant; and (ii) AW DAO Grant.

10. Plot advancement grants fund for onchain games & AW

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LordSecretive/status/1662153330771083265?t=yCMs6UT6pudo-whU3m09pg&s=19

Website: https://1kx.network/

While 1kx is an early-stage crypto investment firm that specializes in ecosystem growth, it stays true to its web3 building spirit. Following the recent on-chain games summit (‘The Summit’) they organised in Lisbon, 1kx will be co-launching a Grants Program focusing on distributing micro-grants ($500-$5k USD) to builders and community members of the on-chain gaming ecosystem. At the initial stage, the Grants Program would be governed by token holders of the NFT souvenir (distributed to attendees of ‘The Summit’). Thereafter, the ability to participate in governance would be opened up to the public.

1kx, IDTheory, Mask Network and Matchbox DAO have committed to the grant.

11. DegenReborn

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DegenReborn?s=20

Website: https://degenreborn.xyz/

DegenReborn is a web3 social game for the masses. It is an experiment exploring cutting-edge ideas like Fully On-chain Game, On-chain Automation, Verifiable Random Function (VRF), and Native Multichain. DegenReborn AVG is the first game mode for the DegenReborn series. It serves as a casual mode introducing DegenReborn for the first time. Next Significant game mode will be a Trading Card Game (TCG) using CT celebs.

$DEGEN is minted by playing DegenReborn life rounds, which can be staked on the top 10 leaderboard lives. All protocol income and purchases will go to the Degen Jackpot, which will be distributed to degen players. The key utility for $DEGEN is to win Airdrop + Jackpot rewards, which grants both $DEGEN tokens and native tokens like $BNB. $DEGEN will also be used for future game modes of DegenReborn. Hourly airdrops include $BNB / $ETH / $MATIC / $OP + $DEGEN. At the end of the season, 10 random leaderboard profiles will be chosen to share the entire Degen Jackpot.

Public Good (others) Category

1. Open Asset Standards

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OASNetwork

Website: http://OAS.gg

Open Asset Standards (OAS) is the world’s first ZK layer 2 SaaS that can realize real-time stateful NFTs. It is built to handle 1M+ transactions per second (TPS) without affecting security or metadata integrity.

OAS NFTs can be minted, transferred, updated, and burned instantly without gas fees. All state changes are verified in zero knowledge proofs, ensuring that cheating, changing of metadata during a sale, or other illegal modifications are mathematically impossible. OAS is also compatible with all EVM-compatible chains.

OAS SaaS allows game developers or NFT creators to easily create stateful NFTs which can be used on different metaverses or games. Players can use their OAS NFTs in any game that installs OAS’ SDK. By dropping an item model on the OAS platform and rigging the item with OAS’s auto rig model, game developers can create an on-chain in-game item, whose state changes can be updated and verified in real-time without gas fees. OAS’s technology allows for the creation of consumable, chargeable and upgradable NFT items.

OAS will be working with Mask to provide its ecosystem projects with high TPS and ZK infrastructure coupled with its dynamic NFT solution.

2. Honey Badger Cooperation Lab

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hbCoopLabs?s=20

More Information: https://github.com/web3privacy/web3privacy/tree/main/Web3privacynowplatform

Honey Badger is building a first prototype application of “ZK P2P Credit,” a new concept that takes a radically zero knowledge approach to “P2P lending.” It is similar to RipplePay or Circles.UBI in structure, except that it is implemented using Trusted Execution Environments (TEE)-based smart contracts to provide privacy. These smart contacts have many uses including encrypted ETH memory pools to private Defi. It can stimulate demand by offering information protection to borrowers — firewalling parts of a user’s reputation in case they default.

The ZK P2P Credit application is interesting because it can be implemented in a private way, of which privacy is not only useful for its own sake, but it plays a key role in the incentive design. It is able to control information exchange between lenders/ borrowers, thereby managing the power balance between them. The libZkGraph library — a library representing capacity graphs and carrying out flow computation, will be open source as a public good. The first version being a P2P lending mechanism that is usable as a public good will run on Secret Network.

Being a strong privacy advocate, Honey Badger has contributed to the ecosystem through providing critical security advice for L1s such as Secret and Oasis, and helping Flashbots organize a pop-up workshop. It is founded by Andrew Miller, an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in Electrical and Computer Engineering and an affiliate in Computer Science. He is also a board member of the Zcash Foundation and Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, an Associate Director of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3) and Director of the Decentralized Systems Lab at UIUC.

3. Network3

Twitter: https://twitter.com/network3_ai

Website: https://network3.ai/

With over 1200 servers across 20 countries, Network3 is a blockchain-based virtual private network that aims to replace traditional centralized VPN architectures by distributing the VPN network across multiple nodes. VPN3 aims to provide a more secure, decentralized, and private internet connection service, enabling users to browse the internet freely while protecting their personal privacy and information security. Its features include decentralization, anonymity, distributed management, and no censorship.

Decentralized VPN plays a crucial role in the web3 ecosystem by providing a more secure and private internet connection for users. As web3 technologies like blockchain and dApps continue to gain popularity, the need for secure and private internet connections becomes more apparent. VPN3 addresses this need by providing an alternative to centralized VPNs, which are often vulnerable to hacking and surveillance.

4. BuidlerDAO

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BuidlerDAO

Website: https://www.buidlerdao.xyz/

With over 100+ core contributors, 7k members and 10k followers, BuidlerDAO is a crypto community uniting engineers, researchers and operators to produce high-quality content and development of dApps. They aim to BUIDL an influential and productive leading network for web3 buidlers and also functions as an incubator for projects.

As an incubator, they provide talents, resources and market solutions including design tokenomics and go-to-market strategies. Currently, they have incubated around 12 projects including Vitae3, MetaShield, Nextme, Furion, Ubiloan, etc. with Vitae3 launching in April this year. They have also published over 80 original articles and 100 videos about general and technology-related research.

5. LXDAO

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LXDAO_Official

Website: https://lxdao.io/

LXDAO is an R&D-focused DAO in Web3 that aims to gather the power of buidlers to buidl and support web3 projects sustainably and welcome 1 billion users into web3.

As a DAO supporting Open Source and Public Goods, LX (良心) is their strongest consensus — it only buidls and supports valuable and meaningful projects. With 54 Buidlers and 120k+ USDC in its treasury, they have currently built 11 projects such as MetaPavo (all-in-one web3 Information Linking Tool) and Donate3 (accept donations via a button or link securely). With a strong team of developers, we look forward to them contributing positively to Mask’s ecosystem in the future.

6. FixDAO

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fix_dao?s=20

Website: https://www.fixdao.org/

FixDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that aims to assist victims of the FTX bankruptcy in Asia in recovering their losses. As a non-profit organization, FixDAO works to provide support and resources to those affected by the bankruptcy and help them navigate the legal and financial processes involved in seeking compensation. The organization operates on a decentralized platform, allowing for greater transparency and accountability in its operations and decision-making processes. By bringing together individuals and resources from across the region, FixDAO hopes to provide a strong and unified voice for those seeking to hold FTX accountable for its actions.

FixDAO contributes to the growth and development of the web3 ecosystem in several ways. By providing support and resources to individuals affected by the FTX bankruptcy, FixDAO can help strengthen the sense of community and trust within the Web3 ecosystem. This can encourage more people to join and engage with web3 platforms and technologies, which can ultimately lead to greater adoption and development within the ecosystem. Additionally, FixDAO’s decentralized and transparent operations serve as a model for other organizations within the web3 ecosystem, promoting good governance and accountability. By working to address issues and challenges within the Web3 ecosystem, FixDAO can help create a more stable and sustainable environment for all members.

7. Starknet Astro

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StarkNetAstro?s=20

Website: https://mirror.xyz/0xb9e749FD3802D4A2162320ea7dB5AB8bf66a0AEA

Starknet Astro is Starknet’s creative medium, providing cutting-edge and insightful research on the Starknet ecosystem. One of the key areas of focus is on Cairo — a turing-complete, programming language for writing provable programs i.e. one party can provide to another that a certain computation was executed correctly. Starknet uses the Cairo programming language for both its infrastructure and writing of StarkNet contracts.

Through its work, Starknet Astro aims for more developers to learn about Starknet and its applications, and onboard seamlessly through the Cario BootCamps and resources that it promotes and provides respectively. Relentlessly promoting the Starknet ecosystem, they recently hosted the first Chinese Cairo workshop in Shanghai, which attracted over 70 audience members.