Week through Adrian's Lenses (24 February - 1 March 2024)

This is the #60th edition of the "Week through Adrian's Lenses" weekly Hive and crypto news roundup.

Let's see what we have for this week.

Week on Hive

23 of 46 tracked posts made it to this week's issue of the "Week on Hive" roundup.

In the Spotlight

VSC Testnet a Few Weeks Away

There was an X Spaces event held by the VSC team this week to discuss the upcoming testnet and maybe other topics. Unfortunately, I wasn't there live and I don't think there was a recording.

However, we have a teaser published by the team, offering a sneak peek into the VSC Smart Contract SDK.

I like that their main focus was to write quality documentation for developers and users alike. Apart from the SDK, they are working on "a contract template that will give developers a ready made kit for developing, testing, and deploying their smart contracts".

Hopefully, we will have VSC in production during this bull market, maybe even this year. That will add an important missing component to the Hive ecosystem at a time when many are looking for an excuse, not even a reason, to pump things up.

Marketing / Awareness / Branding

Hive Sucre Invited at a Radio Show

This invitation came after a tourist tour from Cumaná accepted payment in cryptocurrencies (which, I suppose, includes HBD). You can see the interview here (with English subtitles). They mention their first podcast carried out at the Historic Center in Cumaná, with the President of IMATUR Dr. María Eugenia Guerra. Here it is if you want to see it.

Onboard Cam From Hive Rally Monte Carlo

I wanted to see that for some time... To see footage of the Hive Rally car from the onboard camera during the race. Since the footage is the property of WRC, Hive could only present publicly a short video if we paid for the rights, which we did, this time.

Here's the video.

Governance / Development / Dapps

News from INLEO AMA

It's no news that INLEO wants to turn into an "Everything App". In this week's AMA, it was disclosed that they are thinking of creating a swap service for the defi side of the business, using Thorchain. But the end goal is to circle back or integrate it fully one way or another at some point into the main interface, INLEO. The same is true for other components of the "LeoVerse". Khal said at some point that Leodex, which has been discontinued on the existing interface, will be integrated as a sort of module on INLEO.

This is the full AMA, where the expansion of the dev team is also mentioned.

3Speak Mobile App Development Update

@sagarkothari88 continues to update us on the development of the 3Speak mobile app. There's no recording due to some technical issues, but if you are interested in what's hot on 3Speak development, there is a short bullet-point list to check. It probably won't make much sense for non-technical people, other than Acela-core, which supports both on-chain and off-chain data, and which has been mentioned more than once in various conversations.

DBuzz Is Sharing a Dev Update

Development is not easy. I noticed a few buzzes these past weeks from the team regarding issues they faced that they couldn't find a solution to at the time. Eventually, it seems they prevailed.

They made a long-form post this week with their dev updates on different parts of their platform (short form, chat, test interface for long form).

They also revised their DHF proposal and asked for a lower amount. I'm not sure if #1 was funded, but #2 is currently way above the funding threshold.

Interview with TravelFeed

Julian Peters, co-founder of TravelFeed, was invited to Startup Podcast PH to talk about the dApp, but also travel, in general. We learn that he has visited over 70 countries... Nice!

Waivio Updates

Waivio's Chrome Extension (v 1.4.0) now integrates directly with Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. You can read how to do it from their update.

Also, at popular demand, Waivio added HiveAuth for sign-in and transaction management via the Hive Keychain app. From my understanding after seeing the screenshots, before that option was introduced, only HiveSigner was the only sign-in option before that.

Additions to Clive

Two main additions were introduced to Clive and reported in this post:

• Authority management using CLI (command line interface)
• HIVE Power management using TUI (text user interface)

Tutorial for Setting Up a VSC Node

For anyone who would like to set up a VSC node but has been turned off for technical reasons (not knowing how to do it), @mightpossibly has created a step-by-step guide. It might still not be easy for non-technical individuals, but at least there is a detailed guide if you want to give it a shot.

Games

Splinterlands News

Ranked Battles Major Changes

Splinterlands made another major restructuring of the Ranked Battles, which went into effect on February 29th, with the new season.

At a high level, changes include:

• removing league limits
• flat rating system
• updated energy costs, league ratings, and resets

Soon, the reward system will also be revamped, loot chests being replaced with a store where different options will be added and that will be purchasable with reward points.

You may want to listen to this week's town hall, where this was one of the topics.

Aggroed was "Grilled" by Killer Wales

In episode 3 of Killer Wales which was about Web 3 gaming, Aggroed represented Splinterlands. We can't see the episode openly because it's under a paywall, but he also speaks once or twice in the aftershow, which was made public.

Goals Presales Benefits Revealed

Participants in the Goals presales were entitled to a title for every 500 packs purchased and a promo card for every 1000 packs purchased. In this post, Invenium reveals the exact details of the titles and promo cards.

SPS DAO Updates

Two important things stand out and were reported by the DAO's first and only employee, @clayboyn:

• various concrete proposals to move forward with the tournament overhaul, put together in a massive post
• a presentation of the situation and recommendation for creating sustainable LPs

Meetings / Events / Communities

Hive Tech Conference in Ghana

@mcsamm and @collinz will lead the team that organizes a big Hive conference in Ghana in March. If you remember images from their first event from last year in the autumn (or summer?), you know the interest will be high and that they'll likely make a serious impact, especially since they are now known for creating the series of boreholes in their country.

VIBES Community and Contest Updates

There were multiple announcements on this topic. Let's take them one by one:

• Announcement of the beginning date of Week 2 of the content, with prizes revealed as well
• Winners of week 1, after judging 174 entries
• Call to action regarding the cross-promotion between VIBES and HeartFeldt communities
• and... when I thought I had everything covered. I discovered this one, a gem at the end. Read it to see what's about, seems like this is turning into a big movement!

Philanthropy

Helping a School in Venezuela

We talked last week about the project of @cbrsphilanthropy together with local contacts that attempt to introduce internet access to a high school and offer a blockchain-centered learning area, including (mainly?) Hive, for students of the school. Here is an update on their journey to gather funds.

Week in the Crypto World

When Things Get Serious, Tron Is Avoid

So, Circle wants to go public, as many of us know. As the company behind USDC, and with such intense scrutiny on stablecoins, they can't afford to be tied to shady practices. As such, Circle decided to discontinue support for USDC on Tron, as a "result of an enterprise-wide approach that involved the business organization, compliance and other functions across our company. This action aligns with our efforts to ensure that USDC remains trusted, transparent and safe". Lots of words to say what I just said in two.

IMF Places Backed Stablecoins in the Same Risk Category with CBDCs, While Denigrating "Unbacked Crypto Assets"

This is a very interesting article, based on a paper by the IMF. I haven't read the paper (I assume not many will), but the article includes quotes.

What we find out, directly or indirectly from the article, is that other countries (in this case, from the Pacific Island nations) may be considering giving crypto assets an important role in their economies, like El Salvador, or in a different way. And IMF wants to make sure they are guided in the "right" direction, and not fall prey to the not easily controllable decentralized crypto assets. Since they recommend backed stablecoins as an option, it means they consider them on the "safe", controllable, side. Which makes them a proxy for fiat in the crypto space.

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