Concordium Progress Update — New partnerships, events and more! 🚗

General 🎙️

Concordium And Swvl Announce Partnership For Blockchain-Based Mass Transit Systems

Concordium and Swvl, a Dubai-based provider of shared mobility solutions, announced a strategic partnership to, for the first time, use blockchain technologies to develop transformative next-generation mass transit systems.

Concordium will provide a blockchain-based technology platform that aims to upgrade the mass transit travel experience for Swvl’s customers. The platform is intended to help solve the highly complex logistical challenges inherent in mass transit while advancing Swvl’s efforts at decarbonization and smart, green mobility.

With Concordium’s platform, natural ebbs and flows in customers’ travel needs can be traced faster and more accurately, and fed into evolving travel routes through Swvl’s dynamic routing capabilities, making trips faster and cheaper. Besides, the technology allows the creation of interactive relationships between Swvl and its customers with enhanced driver monitoring and performance tracking, as well as increased efficiency and quality of service — making trips with Swvl even safer and more reliable.

Mostafa Kandil, Swvl Founder and CEO, said: “Our partnership with Concordium will improve the real-time capabilities of our offerings. We will be even better positioned to capitalize on fast-changing customer demands, resulting in quicker and more flexible commuting experiences.”

Learn more
Swvl is a global tech start-up based in Dubai, with an implied, fully diluted equity value of approximately $1.5 billion offering transportation in 10 megacities across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Learn more at https://www.swvl.com/

The Nordic Region’s first Blockchain-Based NFT Marketplace for Artists will be powered by Concordium

Tacans teamed up with ENTER Art Fair 2021 to launch, on SpaceSeven, the Nordic region’s first marketplace for NFT art.

The 61 galleries that participated in ENTER 2021 in Copenhagen will be able to select one of the artists they represent to mint one exclusive NFT, to be sold on the SpaceSeven NFT marketplace.

SpaceSeven is a multi-blockchain NFT marketplace with Concordium as its primary chain. Its builder, Tacans, has chosen Concordium Blockchain because it provides all the guarantees needed to build a sustainable, trustable, and regulatory-compliant NFT platform. Concordium’s features completely alter the equation for buyers and sellers of NFT art, as all transactions can be traced, prices can be guaranteed and provenance can be proved.

The ENTER Art Fair took place from the 26th of August to the 29th of August. The NFT marketplace will soon be available for artists with the SpaceSeven NFT marketplace up and running.

New applications coming in Concordium’s Grants Program, don’t forget to apply!

As you might recall, Concordium launched an ambitious grants program to sponsor open-source developers to contribute to the Concordium Ecosystem and the RustLang Ecosystem, and the applications are already coming in!

Do not miss your chance, apply for a grant here. The Concordium Free & Open Grants Program offers up to USD 20k for initial grants and USD 75k for follow-up grants, which are tracked transparently on GitHub and disbursed in GTU or Fiat (Euros, US Dollars, or other).

Dev 🤖

Come and review what our tech team has been working on this past month:

• [Concordium-base] — 5 authors have pushed 37 commits to main and 40 commits to all branches. On main, 39 files have changed and there have been 2,300 additions and 435 deletions.
• [Concordium-documentation] — 4 authors have pushed 13 commits to main and 15 commits to all branches. On main, 14 files have changed and there have been 179 additions and 133 deletions.
• [Concordium-node] — 6 authors have pushed 53 commits to main and 87 commits to all branches. On main, 206 files have changed and there have been 82,748 additions and 5,804 deletions.
• [Concordium-client] — 4 authors have pushed 15 commits to main and 15 commits to all branches. On main, 14 files have changed and there have been 282 additions and 193 deletions.
• [Concordium-network-dashboard] — 2 authors have pushed 6 commits to main and 6 commits to all branches. On main, 11 files have changed and there have been 6,955 additions and 5,452 deletions.
• [Concordium-rust-sc] — 1 author has pushed 1 commit to main and 18 commits to all branches. On main, 3 files have changed and there have been 6 additions and 5 deletions.
• [Concordium Wallet Proxy] — 3 authors have pushed 4 commits to main and 4 commits to all branches. On main, 13 files have changed and there have been 287 additions and 128 deletions.
• [Concordium Ledger app] — 2 authors have pushed 11 commits to main and 41 commits to all branches. On main, 12 files have changed and there have been 466 additions and 45 deletions.
• [Cocordium Desktop Wallet] — 3 authors have pushed 5 commits to main and 56 commits to all branches. On main, 34 files have changed and there have been 266 additions and 86 deletions.

Communities 👥

Rust Conference 2021
The Rustlang Conference 2021 will be held virtually on the 14th of September, register at https://rustconf.com/

Rust London & BCS / OSSG Hybrid Talks
On the 25th of August, Rust London and BCS Open Source Specialist Group hosted their first Hybrid LND Talk. Learn more about the event here.

The 4th sync-up call for the Rust Cryptography Interest Group
On the 24th of August, Ernest Kissiedu from the DevX Initiative by Concordium, Tony Arcieri from Rust Crypto, Rich Salz, and Diego Aranha from COBRA hosted the fourth sync-up call for the Rust Cryptography Interest Group. You can watch the whole session here:

Events 🎆

Rust Formal Methods Inaugural Meeting
After a successful meeting with the Rust Cryptography Interest Group, the Rust Formal Verification Interest Group will have its inaugural meeting on the 20th of September.

The Rust Formal Verification Interest Group is a forum for academics, industry users, and any other interested party to discuss and collaborate on the challenges of Rust programs. COBRA’s researchers, Bas Spitters and Devx are part of the organizing group.

Learn more at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rust-formal-methods-inaugural-meeting-tickets-169736878573

Concordium’s AMA at Multi-Chain Booster
Join us this Thursday, 9th of September, for an AMA at Multi-Chain Booster’s Telegram Group. Time: 14:00 CET.

Concordium’s AMA at Auto Sultan
Join us on the 13th of September for an AMA at Autosultan’s Telegram Group Time: 14:00 CET.

Digital Research Centre Denmark (DIREC) Seminar 2021
The Digital Research Centre Denmark (DIREC) Seminar 2021 is a newly established Danish Research Center with collaboration across all Danish Universities.

On the 13th and 14th of September, DIREC will host its yearly seminar, this year includes a Cybersecurity and Blockchains track organized by Concordium Research Center Aarhus’ researcher, Claudio Orlandi, and others. Join the event, learn more at https://direc.dk/direc-seminar-2021/

Concordium’s AMA at Crypto Talkz
Join Concordium’s AMA at the Crypto Talkz Telegram Group, on the 17th of September 2021. Time: 14:00 CET / 17:30 IST.

Rust Tokyo 2021
Concordium is sponsoring Rust Tokyo 2021. Join us at the event on the 18th of September, at 10:00 am JST, sign up here: https://rust.tokyo/

Concordium’s Community Catch up
Do not miss the Concordium’s Community Catch up on the 26th of September at 15:00 CET, in Clubhouse/Concordium

Research 📑

New preprint: Extracting Functional Programs from Coq, in Coq
COBRA’s researchers Danil Annenkov, Mikkel Milo, Jakob Botsch Nielsen, and Bas Spitters released a new preprint about the verification of functional programs, including smart contracts and functional rust programs. You can read it at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.02995

Distinguished paper award to COBRA
The paper “SSProve: A Foundational Framework for Modular Cryptographic Proofs in Coq” by COBRA’s researchers Philipp G. Haselwarter, Bas Spitters, and co-authors received the distinguished paper award at the 34th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium.

Latincrypt 2021
The paper “Weight-Based Nakamoto-Style Blockchains” by Concordium’s researchers Christian Matt, and Daniel Tschudi, and COBRA researchers Simon Holmgaard Kamp, Bernardo Magri, Jesper Buus Nielsen, Søren Eller Thomsen was accepted at the Latincrypt 2021.

Latincrypt 2021 is the 7th International Conference on Cryptology and Information Security in Latin America and is organized by the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia in cooperation with IACR, the International Association for Cryptologic Research. This year the event will be held virtually from October 6–8, if you would like to attend, you can register here.

EUROCRYPT
Eurocrypt will be held in Zagreb, Croatia from the 17th to the 21st of October. COBRA’s researcher, Jesper Buus Nielsen, and his co-authors will present the paper ARDIS: A Foundation of Time-Lock Puzzles in UC https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/537

Eurocrypt 2021 is the 40th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques and one of the three flagship conferences organized by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR).

COBRA as a research leader
COBRA’s researcher, Bas Spitters is part of the prestigious program committee of several programming languages and verification conferences including POPL, CPP, and ITP, showing one more time COBRA’s expertise and recognition in these areas.

Press, insights, and articles 📖

Markets Business Insider: SpaceSeven and ENTER Art Fair 2021 to Offer the Nordic Region’s First Blockchain-Based NFT Marketplace for Artists and Artworks Powered by Concordium Blockchain

Yahoo Finance: Concordium And Swvl Announce Partnership For Blockchain-Based Mass Transit Systems

Blockonomi: Enter art fair 2021 and SpaceSeven unveil the Nordics first nft marketplace powered by Concordium

Concordium Casual Friday, July 16th:

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This newsletter is curated by Concordium. Got news or articles you would like to include? Any feedback or other suggestions? Contact us at contact@concordium.com or find us on Twitter.