Weekly Project Updates: Bitcoin Rune Forging is Thriving, etc

1. Post Bitcoin Halving, On-Chain Rune Forging Activities Thrive link

Following the Bitcoin halving, on-chain runic forging activities have become highly active, resulting in a surge in transaction fees on the Bitcoin network. Between block heights 840000 and 840014, immediately after the halving, each block saw an average reward of 21.74 BTC, with an approximate 18.62 BTC coming from transaction fees.

@0xSea shared details about the runestones:

Rune 0, “Uncommon·Goods,” is hard-coded by Casey and will continue forging for four years until the next halving.

Rune 1, deployed by FehuLayer for 6.732 BTC (around $429,000), reserves 99% for itself, allowing users only 1% of the forging rewards.

Rune 2, “DECENTRALIZED,” deployed by the NFT project CyberKongz for the Prometheans.

Rune 3, “DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON,” deployed by Leonidas’ Runestone project, has a total supply of 100 billion, with each Runestone NFT eligible for an airdrop of 889,806 runic tokens.

2. Worldcoin Set to Launch World Chain Later This Summer link

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, founded the crypto project Worldcoin, which has announced the upcoming launch of World Chain later this summer. World Chain is a new blockchain initiative designed to prioritize human users, improve efficiency, and enhance real-world utility in Web3 applications. This network will be deeply integrated with the Worldcoin protocol to accelerate growth and leverage World ID for identity verification. It will function as an Ethereum Layer 2 solution, offering permissionless, open-source operations and eventually transitioning to community governance. World Chain will be based on the OP Stack.

3. Avail Airdrops 600 Million Tokens to 354,605 Wallet Addresses link

Polygon’s modular blockchain project Avail has announced a token airdrop plan, distributing a total of 600 million AVAIL tokens to 354,605 wallet addresses. Users can verify and claim tokens from now until May 5th at 7:59 AM. Of these tokens, 90 million will go to ecosystem developers, 49.5 million to incentivize contributors to the test network, 380 million to active users of Arbitrum One, OP Mainnet, Polygon zkEVM, Starknet, and zkSync, 70 million to Polygon PoS stakers, and 10.5 million to community contributors. Additionally, 10,000 wallets holding Avail OG NFTs will also qualify for distribution.

Avail completed a $27 million seed round in February this year, led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly. Avail was spun out from Polygon in March 2023, aiming to provide data availability solutions. The new funding will support the development of its three core products: Avail DA, Nexus, and Fusion Security.

4. Merlin Chain Airdrop, with Tokens Circulating Exclusively Among Users for the First 6 Months link

Bitcoin Layer 2 project Merlin Chain has outlined details of the MERL token airdrop distribution plan. 50% of the MERL tokens will be released at Token Generation Event (TGE), followed by staggered releases over the next 5 months: 25%, 12.5%, 6.25%, 3.125%, and 3.125% respectively. Initially, only user tokens will be in circulation in the market during the first 6 months. Team tokens will vest linearly after a 24-month lockup period, while investor tokens will be locked up for 24 to 48 months.

To participate in the airdrop, users must bind their EVM address on the claiming interface and do so between April 19th from 14:00 to 16:00 UTC+8. Exchanges such as OKX and HashKey Global have announced plans to list MERL for trading.

5. Scroll Unveils Loyalty Program ‘Scroll Sessions’ link

The Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll has announced the launch of its loyalty program, Scroll Sessions, designed to reward community engagement through Scroll Marks. Users can obtain Scroll Marks by bridging assets to Scroll. Additionally, Scroll will introduce a new interface for users to track their scores within the Scroll community.

However, there has been discontent among Chinese users due to the terms of the Scroll Sessions program, which exclude participation from users or residents located in the United States or China.

6. OKX Launches New L2 Network ‘X Layer’ on the Mainnet link

OKX launched the Ethereum-based zero-knowledge Layer 2 network X Layer on Monday evening, leveraging Polygon’s chain development toolkit. X Layer allows users to access cryptocurrencies through OKX and interact with over 170 dapps for token swaps, staking, and other smart contract applications. The platform’s native token, OKB, will serve as the primary asset on X Layer for network transaction fees. Formerly known as “X1,” X Layer was launched on the testnet in November last year.

7. Tether Expands USDT and XAUT to TON Blockchain link

The Tether official website indicates that USDT has been issued on the TON blockchain. On April 19th at 19:30 Beijing time, Tether CEO Paolo and Telegram CEO Pavel will make a joint statement at TOKEN2049. Tether is expanding the issuance of USDT and the gold-backed stablecoin XAUT onto the TON network. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino informed The Block that USDT will go live on TON on April 20th, and XAUT will also be launched in the coming months, aiming to broaden access to Dapps such as payments and gaming.

8. Simple DVT Module Officially Prepared to Operate on Lido Mainnet link

Lido has announced that the Simple DVT module is now officially prepared to operate on the mainnet, with all Obol Cohort 1 clusters ready to accept ETH deposits. The integration of the first batch of 12 clusters into the mainnet is currently underway, and the completion of the third SSV network testnet is just a few days away. When new ETH is deposited into the Lido protocol, it will flow into the Simple DVT module. Only when the Simple DVT module exhausts its capacity or validators will any new staking move to the Curated module. Galaxy researcher Christine Kim noted a sevenfold increase in Lido node operators (NO), adding 72 new NOs. stETH holders will receive rewards from DVT validator clusters driven by the Obol Network and will soon support the SSV Network.

9. Solana DePIN Project io net Introduces IO Token Economics link

The Solana DePIN project io net has disclosed the IO token economics. The maximum supply of IO tokens is 800 million, with 500 million allocated at launch, and the remaining 300 million distributed hourly to suppliers and their stakers as rewards. These rewards will be distributed every hour over a period of 20 years and follow a deflationary model, starting at 8% in the first year and decreasing by 1.02% per month (approximately 12% annually) thereafter.

Additionally, io net employs a programmatic IO burning system where income generated by the IOG network io net is used to repurchase and burn IO tokens, with the amount burned adjusted based on price.

Furthermore, io net generates revenue by charging fees to users and suppliers. When reserving computing power, io net charges commission fees, and payment fees are collected based on how users pay for reservations and how suppliers choose to withdraw rental fee earnings.

10. Solana Aggregator Jupiter to Release LST JupSOL link

Solana’s leading DEX aggregator, Jupiter, has announced a collaboration with Sanctum to launch LST JupSOL. JupSOL allows users to earn staking rewards and MEV kickbacks from Jupiter validators. Additionally, the Jupiter team will delegate 100,000 SOL to Jupiter validators and use the generated rewards to boost the annualized yield of JupSOL, expected to surpass average rates. JupSOL is supported by the SPL stake pool program and charges only a 0.1% SOL deposit fee.