The District Monthly — Aug 2023
News and updates form the district0x Network
Here we go again! We‘re back with important updates from our developers, the latest news from Stream Tide and our community game Aqua Prime, as well as some curated reads about the most important developments in web3!
TL;DR of what we will cover this month:
- Spotlight: What are Zero- Knowledge-Proof Solutions?!
- Stream Tide: Now on testnet!
- Latest DappStream Episodes
- This month’s Dev Updates
If you missed the last update, check it out here.
Don’t forget, we’re still hiring! We continue growing our bullpen of developers in 2023 to build out the tools of the future! If you have any experience developing smart contracts or web3 dApps, please email talent@district0x.io with a resume and an overview of your experience. We’d love to have you on board!
Now, let’s dive right in!
Spotlight: The shiny new thing which may ignite the next bull run: what are Zero- Knowledge-Proof Solutions?! — by Henri.M
In our latest spotlight article, we take a closer look at the ZK rollup revolution and how zksync seems to lead others on the path toward a more scalable, less public DeFi ecosystem.
Blockchains are a powerful technology, but they have some limitations. One of the biggest limitations is scalability.
There are a number of scaling solutions being developed for blockchains. One promising solution is zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). ZKPs are a cryptographic technique that allows parties to prove the correctness of a statement without revealing the statement itself. This means that ZKPs can be used to verify the correctness of transactions without having to publish the entire transaction on the blockchain.
ZK rollups are a type of scaling solution that uses ZKPs. ZK rollups work by batching transactions together and then executing them off-chain. The results of the transactions are then proven to the blockchain using ZKPs. This allows ZK rollups to achieve much higher throughput than the underlying blockchain. Sequencers neatly compress the data and sequence the transactions on the main chain.
Want to learn more about ZK rollups? Read the full article: The shiny new thing which may ignite the next bull run: what are Zero- Knowledge-Proof Solutions?!
Stream Tide: Now live on Testnet!
We recently pushed Stream Tide live on Testnet, marking an important milestone for our latest dApp! Never heard of StreamTide? Here’s everything you need to know:
Amplifying Support through Grant Matching
Stream Tide is an open-source patronage tool designed to fuel creativity. We operate on the principle of donation matching, ensuring each contribution goes twice as far. We put community first, allowing them to direct where funds go, leading to a truly democratized and transparent platform. Our service exists at the crossroads of Web3 technologies and the Future of Work, transforming the way creators monetize their work.
Drawing inspiration from successful models in the open-source software world, we’re experimenting with quadratic funding and grant matching to amplify artist funding. These proven methods, combined with our efforts to streamline administrative tasks through AI automation and protect your work with secure, gated content, form the backbone of our project.
Empowering Artists, Creators, and the Collaborative Commons
Our mission is to create a community that supports artists and creators in their endeavors, allowing them to focus on their craft without worrying about the financial and administrative burdens that can come with it. With Stream Tide, artists can receive the support they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world:
- Reclaim Time for Art: By shifting these responsibilities to a human-centric model surrounding new incentive structures in Web3, artists can reclaim valuable time and dedicate themselves fully to their creative pursuits.
- Amplifying support for artists through a fair and inclusive funding approach inspired by successful models in the open-source community.
- Focus on Creativity: By relieving artists from the burden of administrative tasks, our community supports them so they can channel their energy and talents into producing exceptional art and connecting with their audience through patronage and perks.
The Problem: Starving Artist Syndrome
On top of time-consuming administrative burdens distracting artists from their core focus, traditional platforms have limited funding opportunities, leaving many artists with few options for financial support. Stream Tide addresses these problems by providing a Web3 tool that amplifies artist funding through community contributions and streamlines administrative tasks through AI automation and community action.
Our Solution: Patronage, Perks, Grant Matching
Our community provides grant matching, decentralized finance education, and AI automation for seamless support and onboarding to the digital economy.
Grant matching allows artists to receive funding from both individual supporters and the Stream Tide community, amplifying their financial support. Decentralized finance ensures that artists have access to a range of financial tools and resources. Gated content protects artist data and monetizes valuable creations, ensuring that artists receive fair compensation for their work.
With its comprehensive suite of features and commitment to empowering artists, as well as low transaction fees, transparent revenue sharing, and global accessibility, Stream Tide is poised to disrupt the existing landscape and empower artists like never before. We look forward to working with artists and creators around the world to build a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem for creative success.
What’s next?
Stream Tide’s platform development and feature rollout will follow a phased approach. We will prioritize building core functionalities for grant matching, patronage, and perks, and gradually introduce new features based on user feedback and evolving industry trends. This way, we can ensure that our platform is meeting the needs of artists and creators while staying ahead of the curve in terms of innovation.
Stream Tide aims to empower artists and creators in various disciplines. We believe that building strategic partnerships with established artists, brands, and organizations is crucial to achieving our goal.
These partnerships will help us expand our reach and provide opportunities for artists to collaborate and learn from one another in a community of like-minded individuals.
Interested in partnering with Stream Tide? Reach out to us and let’s work together to achieve our goals! Stay tuned for the latest updates on our official Discord.
In this month’s DappStream episodes, your favorite host Brady McKenna has been preparing Stream Tide for its launch on Testnet, coding in public with AI, and working on improvements for Aqua Prime, as well as keeping you updated on the latest crypto news and market trends:
You can also dive back into previous episodes on our Youtube Channel. 📺
A quick reminder that our DappStream schedule is once a week, focusing on quality over quantity:
- Tuesdays at 5 PM PT (Wednesdays at 2 AM UTC)
Monthly Dev Updates
Ethlance
Ethlance is getting ready for staging after numerous new implementations this month. Our developers are now working on the final tweaks before launch.
Over the past weeks we have implemented the following features:
- Workflow updates: 1) employer invites 2) arbiter accepts 3) employer funds & assigns arbiter
- Pagination of job/arbitration activity on profile pages
- Arbiter payments with contract interaction: setting and accepting quotes (along with transferring funds)
- Explanatory messages when certain action can or can’t be taken (i.e. can’t leave feedback when there are unpaid invoices, arbiter can’t leave feedback before job is ended…)
- Closing jobs & withdrawing funds (with the feature of replacing abandoned arbiters after 30 days)
- Ending jobs — which returns all funds to the contributors
- Inviting additional arbiters after job creation
- Accepting a new arbiter if the previous one is stale (unresolved dispute > 30 days)
- invite-to-job section to the arbiter profile page
- Showing profiles for viewed users (instead of logged-in)
Furthermore, we have been fixing minor issues and working on UI improvements:
- UI improvements according to viewing user role (candidate, employer, arbiter)
- Loading indicators for when data is being loaded from GraphQL
- Whole table rows as links (i.e. My Activity page), to be highlighted on mouse hover
- Checking and ordering of feedback (employer & candidate first give feedback to each other, then all can give to the rest)
- Improved UI flows like calculating live USD amounts for arbiter fee and added items to facilitate a new job creation page for users
- Calculating both ways for arbiter quotes (USD<>ETH)
- Extensive testing and improvements of test/dev environment
The next steps will be to make the Ethlance contract upgradable and prepare the code for staging deployment, including final bug fixes and improvements. We started setting up a demo/testing environment to deploy as well so that users can try & give feedback on it starting soon!
StreamTide
This month we’ve continued our efforts on StreamTide as we launched the platform on Testnet! Here are some of the most recent improvements and implementations:
- We’ve prepared and adjusted docker configurations to deploy the UI and server
- Allowed closing round from admin panel
- Other minor UI refinements in preparation for the QA environment
Transparency is a core value of district0x. You can find up-to-date disclosures on our overall progress in our GitHub Repository: https://github.com/district0x
District Proposals
Take these opportunities to earn more DNT and vote to either keep or get rid of the challenged districts. If you are on the winning side of the challenge, you will earn DNT from the Token-Curated Registry’s built-in incentives.
For more information on how proposals are now being migrated, please check out the District Proposal Rewards topic in this article.
Joining the district0x DAO
For more information about the district0x network:
• Head to our Onboarding Terminal for all links at a glance
• Check out our Education Portal for all things #web3
• Join the official Discord server or Telegram channel
• Watch the DappStream live or on our Youtube Channel
• Subscribe to email updates or to our Subreddit forum
