Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator July 2022 Updates: Demo Day Registration, Dtravel’s first booking, OAK/Acala/Astar partnership announcements & more
The Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator is an internationally recognized, non-dilutive source of support for startups in the Blockchain ecosystem- formed by a partnership between the Haas School of Business, Blockchain at Berkeley student group, and Berkeley Engineering.- Check out the Xcelerator Homepage.
Berkeley Ecosystem Updates
Demo Day 2022 Registration Details
Our 2022 Demo Day is fast approaching! Join us on UC Berkeley’s campus to hear pitches from our teams and get involved with the Xcelerator ecosystem. This event will be held in conjunction with the Crypto Economics Security Conference and SF Blockchain week. (CESC 2022 paper submissions hit a record number, making it the conference with the largest amount of paper submissions in blockchain/web3 history!)
Register now to join us Oct 31 — Nov 1 for Demo Day and more CESC activities: paper presentations, poster sessions, a web3/blockchain career fair. Presentations will be live streamed for those unable to attend in person. More details can be found here.
CESC aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to showcase and discuss the most recent developments in blockchain and Web3.
Hosted by Berkeley RDI, a multi-disciplinary campus-wide center, focusing on advancing the science, technology and education of web3, decentralization and empowering of a responsible digital economy, with three core pillars: research, education, and community / entrepreneurship, including the Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator.
Weekly Xcelerator Interview Spotlight- Moon (2022 Cohort)
Xcelerator Team Updates
OAK’s Turing Network launches bi-directional communication with Acala’s Karura Network
OAK Network, building trustless automation for payments and DeFi, is pleased to update the community on the following:
- SlowMist has completed the OAK’s Turing Network security audit. All findings are either expected behavior or have been officially patched.
- OAK is sponsoring the @CBRStanford Conference! (source)
- OAK’s Turing Network HRMP channel is OPEN with @KaruraNetwork & is the first milestone to build cross-chain automation. (source)
- OAK’s governance was launched late June, the team has provided documentation and video guides to enable the ecosystem to contribute to the future of the chain. (source)
Dtravel completes its first smart-contract vacation rental booking
Dtravel has completed its first smart-contract booking, with a customer reserving a stay at a London property for $2,000 USDC. This milestone comes as the platform prepares to release to the public in the next few months!
Read more about this exciting news and the future of vacation rentals in their CoinDesk feature here.
metaENGINE announces partnership with Revoland
MetaEngine has announced a partnership with Revoland! Revoland is a blockchain powered multiplayer online battle arena game.
This collaboration will “blend all the advantages of classic mobile games, producing a genuine social gaming experience and profit model with rigorous expansion in our communities and supporter base across the globe. Enriching our collective communities to excel, democratize AI, and earn together.”
Read more here.
KryptoGO raises $3M
KryptoGO has raised a total of $3 million in its recently concluded seed funding round. The round was participated by global venture capital firm Hive Ventures, alongside other VCs including Taiwan’s National Development Council, Red Building Capital, AVA Angels, New Economy Ventures, Hao Fong Investment and Pegatron Venture Capital.
The funds will be utilized by KryptoGO to expand its market presence in
the United States, in addition to growing its team and launching new product
features later in the year. KryptoGO aims to empower financial institutions and individuals by establishing a more secure and transparent environment for managing crypto assets and decentralized applications operating in the
Web3 ecosystem.
The company uses natural language processing technology
equipped with a comprehensive global anti-money laundering database and
artificial intelligence systems that enable cross-comparison of anti-money
laundering data and other risky behavior.
Read more here.
Pendulum launches Ambassador Program
Want to get involved in transforming fiat on DeFi? Pendulum is looking for candidates to join its new Ambassador program!
FAQs:
How can I become an ambassador?
-Please apply via the form on our website. If you have been visible in our communities, that will strongly help your chances of success.
What qualities are you looking for in an ambassador?
-Being passionate about helping us grow is the most important factor! We’ll see how your skills can be best utilized and where you can add the most value. We’re looking for people that are active in our community and try to be helpful for the community in any way they can.
Is this a paid position?
-Yes, we’re rewarding ambassadors with a base amount and bonus rewards for putting in extra effort.
Do I need to have technical expertise?
-Having a good understanding of blockchain, DeFi and DotSama is a definite plus but not necessarily a requirement.
Is there a trial period?
-We’re having a 1-month trial period to evaluate if candidates are a good fit.
At which times should I attend the chatrooms for moderation?
- We will figure out which times are convenient for you and when we could need a helping hand.
Read more here.
Astar and Acala partner to launch DeFi Rising Campaign
Two Xcelerator teams have partnered to launch Astar x Acala DeFi Rising, the first official collaboration between two parachains on Polkadot! The initiative will highlight the capability of Polkadot to execute trustless and decentralized cross-chain transfers through XCM. With two of the biggest parachains working together, the potential of XCM to build value across ecosystems will be recognized by the builders outside of Polkadot–gaining their attention is a step towards expanding the developers-first Dotsama ecosystem.
The two communities will be able to explore Astar’s vibrant DeFi ecosystem using Acala native assets, like aUSD, LDOT, and ACA, while receiving extra ACA and additional rewards from various Astar ecosystem teams.
Read more here.
OnFinality Launches Complete API Support for Avalanche
“OnFinality’s Enhanced API Service has been serving over 1 Billion JSON RPC requests to its public API service every day across Polkadot and its 99.99% uptime is why most Polkadot parachain teams are relying on it. Leading dApp developers can connect in seconds to enterprise grade endpoints that scale infinitely and rely on archive nodes to provide full history of the chain.”
OnFinality has announced that they are ready to replicate this same global performance, automated scalability and high reliability across all chains on the Avalanche network — the Exchange Chain (X-Chain), Contract Chain (C-Chain), and Platform Chain (P-Chain).
OnFinality’s elastic API service is a globally distributed service, running Avalanche nodes around the world to ensure that your users receive the lowest latency service possible.
Read more here.
SupraOracles announces partnership with PureFi Protocol
SupraOracles and PureFi have partnered to bring institutional money to DeFi-working together to find ways to incorporate SupraOracles solutions while maintaining security and transparency for DeFi institutional participants.
SupraOracles will also aid PureFi in building cross-chain bridges because UFI, the company’s token, is available on three different blockchains.
Read more here.
AnChain.AI supplies AML intelligence data
AnChain.AI is now using Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network to supply AML intelligence data to the blockchain!
Developers in blockchain ecosystems can now use AnChain.AI’s data to “support a range of smart contract use cases that utilize premium compliance data, including risk and sanction data for cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges, smart-contracts and applications across CeFi and DeFi.”
Read more here.
Our mission is simply to provide education and opportunity creation for our students and the entrepreneurs who join us, while moving the industry forward responsibly and creating a blockhain-native talent pipeline.
Check out more about our program and portfolios on our website.
Interested in partnering with us? Click here.
