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:
The Voting Period for Project Catalyst’s Fund 12 Has Started
Winners of the Interim Constitutional Committee Have Been Announced
Becoming Interchain: Cardano Introduces Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) Capabilities
Cardano Sees Improved Efficiency with SundaeSwap V3 Launch
Cardano Successfully Curbs a DDoS Security Attack
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...
The Voting Period for Project Catalyst’s Fund 12 Has Started
Community voting for Fund 12 proposals is currently underway! Members have until July 11th to submit their votes. Cardano's global expansion prioritizes proposals that accelerate blockchain adoption in various regions.
Lucas Macchiavelli, the author of the Cardano Newsletter, Cardano ambassador in Argentina, member of the Latam Cardano Community, and co-founder of Token Allies, has co-authored six proposals in two different categories: Five of them can be found under “Cardano Open: Ecosystem” and one other can be found under “Cardano Use Cases: MVP.”
Here is a summary of each proposal:
Ecosystem: “Cardano Worldwide Marketing Campaign” → A proposal to launch a professional marketing campaign to increase Cardano's reach in the main crypto cities in the world and places where Cardano must have a strong presence, particularly in the USA, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, and UAE. READ THE FULL PROPOSAL
Ecosystem: “Academic Research at UBA, one of the most prestigious Universities in LATAM, with focus on Decentralized Governance Research” → The Latam Cardano Community submitted a proposal to host an education event at the Faculty of Law at the University of Buenos Aires to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by decentralized governance systems, with a focus on Cardano's innovative approach. Legal scholars, practitioners, and students will be invited to participate in workshops aimed at exploring the intersection of blockchain technology and Argentine law. READ THE FULL PROPOSAL
Ecosystem: “Scaling Cardano Adoption in Latam: A University & Incubator Outreach Program” → The Latam Cardano Community proposes a significant expansion of the "Universities Onboarding to Cardano" project funded in Fund 10. The solution would tackle the lack of widespread Cardano awareness within Latam universities and incubators, fostering long-term growth in the Cardano user base and transaction volume within the Latam ecosystem. READ THE FULL PROPOSAL
Ecosystem: “LATAM Cardano 2024: Driving Crypto Adoption in Mexico” → The proposal seeks to organize a large-scale Cardano event in Mexico City to address the lack of mass events and localized onboarding. While there is a significant crypto adoption in Mexico City, there still exists a gap in Cardano's presence. The event will feature workshops, panels, and networking opportunities, engaging both seasoned investors and those new to cryptocurrency. READ THE FULL PROPOSAL
Ecosystem: “Bring Tier 1 influencers to Cardano through Impact marketing” → This proposal focuses on launching a marketing campaign through a series of recognized events in Argentina, targeting 7,000 attendees and reaching more than 1 million people on social media platforms. The main objectives of these events are to improve Cardano brand awareness and attract new wallets to the ecosystem through pre-event and on-site incentives by collaborating with top-tier influencers and the best event production companies in the country. READ THE FULL PROPOSAL
MVP: “The bridge from JAPAN to LATAM, by Token Allies DAO” → In Cardano it's hard for investors in places like Japan to find great projects with proven models to invest in, and for projects in places like Latam to find the proper investors to scale and grow. Token Allies DAO, the first Decentralized VC in Cardano, wants to bridge that gap by democratizing access, dismantling barriers, redefining Venture Capital through transparency, and mutual alignment. READ THE FULL PROPOSAL
Explore the proposals and if they represent your vision of an improved Cardano ecosystem, make sure to vote for them in the upcoming elections!
Winners of the Interim Constitutional Committee Have Been Announced
Cardano is on the verge of a significant shift towards a more democratic and efficient governance framework. This December, it aims to finalize and ratify a permanent Cardano Constitution. Before the full transition, an interim Constitutional Committee (ICC) needs to be established to oversee a smooth and secure upgrade process. The Constitutional Committee consists of seven members with one-year terms. Currently, four entities – IOG, the Cardano Foundation, EMURGO, and Intersect – hold seats on the committee.
Following a ten-day voting period, the winners of the remaining three seats on Cardano's ICC were announced this week:
The Cardano Atlantic Council, composed of Adam Dean (USA), Beatrice Anihiri (Norway), Mike Hornan (Canada), Jennifer Brito (USA), Thiago Nunes (Brazil), and Richard McCracken (USA), secured 51,4% of the votes.
Cardano Japan, composed of Seira Yun, Shusuke Wakuda, Rena Oishi, and Hideki Takeshi, secured 18,7% of the votes.
Eastern Cardano Council, composed of Jo Allum (New Zealand), Mark Byers (Australia), Oscar Hong (South Korea), Phil Lewis (Australia), Ha Nguyen (Vietnam), and Yuki Oishi (Japan), secured 10,3% of the votes.
Though these three candidates have been elected by the community, Mauro Agustín Andreoli (Argentina), Scientific Analytical Tools LLC (UAE), and Joshua Stone (USA), the three runner-ups, were confirmed as alternates in the event one or more from the top three decline to sit on the ICC. Onboarding for the elected representatives will commence shortly once the Intersect Constitutional Support team reaches out to them individually.
In addition to the work of the Interim Constitution Committee (ICC), a series of global workshops will be held in August to gather input for Cardano's final Constitution. The specific locations and details of these 50 workshops will be finalized and announced in early July. READ MORE
Becoming Interchain: Cardano Introduces Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) Capabilities
As more businesses explore blockchain technology, they encounter hurdles like managing a high volume of transactions (scalability), protecting sensitive data (data privacy), and connecting different blockchain networks (interoperability).
The Cardano Foundation has developed a key innovation to address these challenges: Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) capabilities integrated into the Cardano blockchain. IBC allows the secure exchange of data and assets between different blockchain networks.
The IBC framework goes beyond simply linking different blockchains. It empowers businesses to achieve more with their blockchain solutions. IBC facilitates the secure transfer of data and assets across various networks, while still ensuring companies benefit from Cardano's inherent security and predictable transaction fees.
By integrating the widely used IBC protocol, Cardano now allows seamless interaction with Cosmos sidechains and the vast "interchain" network – a sprawling web of over 115 interconnected blockchains. This interchain ecosystem boasts modularity and scalability, offering a rich developer toolkit and ensuring Cardano adapts to future advancements in blockchain technology.
Beyond the interchain network, IBC lets developers build Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based applications (DApps) on Cardano sidechains. This bridges the gap between the familiar tools of Ethereum and the security and scalability of Cardano. READ MORE
Cardano Sees Improved Efficiency with SundaeSwap V3 Launch
Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, expressed optimism about the network's future following positive performance data from SundaeSwap V3. This latest version of the decentralized exchange (DEX) launched on Cardano last month and boasts a more efficient pricing model with increased processing power.
SundaeSwap V3 can handle 35 transactions per second, with the ability to process up to 907,200 orders in a day. In its first 24 hours, the DEX processed over 9,264 orders, with most completed in under a minute according to Pi Lanningham, CTO of Sundae Labs. This marks a significant improvement over previous versions, directly addressing one of Cardano's past challenges: network congestion.
This improved performance directly addresses past network congestion issues on Cardano. A higher transaction throughput could lead to a rise in the total value locked (TVL) on the Cardano blockchain network. Currently, Cardano sits at 29th in terms of TVL, behind projects like Scroll and Gnosis. The top DeFi names on Cardano include Minswap, Lindogo, Liquid, Astarter, and SundaeSwap. READ MORE
Cardano Successfully Curbs a DDoS Security Attack
Cardano's blockchain recently encountered a security threat, but developers successfully mitigated the attack, demonstrating the network's ability to respond to such challenges. In the aftermath, there has been a slight uptick in developer activity on the Cardano network, possibly due to the incident.
The Cardano network faced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on June 25th. This type of attack aims to disrupt normal network operations by overwhelming it with a large volume of traffic. In this case, the attacker targeted the network's staking mechanism in an attempt to steal ADA tokens.
Details from a technical analysis by the CTO of Fluid Token reveal that the attack began at block 10,487,530. Each transaction involved a specific type of smart contract ("reward" type) executed 194 times, with the attacker spending a relatively small amount (0.9 ADA) per transaction. This strategy aimed to fill blocks with numerous transactions, maximizing disruption while minimizing their own costs.
The attacker's actions backfired and ended up supporting the very system they were trying to harm. In a tweet following the security attack, Anastasia Labs founder Phillip Disarro provided a solution to stop the attack by suggesting the removal of the attacker's special access, or stake credential, from the system. After his idea was implemented, the attack came to a halt. READ MORE
Weekly Development Report
Interesting Stories:
🎊 A Message from Lucas 🎊
This week has been dedicated to preparations for our upcoming “Argentina Digital Nation” event, which the Latam Cardano Community will be organizing on July 31st at the Hilton Hotel right here in Buenos Aires! The event will focus on Government, Education, Business, Finance, Culture, Society, and Innovation, and include panel discussions with keynote speakers from Argentina’s public and private sectors, as well as important figures from the blockchain industry abroad.
Early bird tickets are already out and there’s only 50 of them available at a 60% discount, so make sure to register for the event before they run out! If you are interested in attending the event from abroad, the Latam Cardano Community is actively organizing activities such as guided tours and related touristic events. Look out for further information coming out soon.
Also, if you haven’t already, please fill out the form below with feedback on your experience with the Cardano Newsletter! My team and I are always looking to upgrade the quality of our newsletter.
–Lucas Macchiavelli