Hello, lovely snakes!
As we close the month of September, it’s time to reflect on our latest accomplishments and completed milestones. This month has been nothing short of transformative for the ZkNoid team! From co-hosting the zkGaming on Mina track at ETHGlobal Singapore to releasing our SDK decoupling update, we’ve been busy laying the groundwork for an even brighter future. All our work is aimed at laying the foundation for provably fair web3 gaming and we couldn’t do it without the unwavering support from our community. That’s why in collaboration with Astromina, we launched a series of Bounties, specifically designed to attract talented zkDevs and gamers into our growing ecosystem.
Join us as we jump right into the details of our recent achievements!
Results from ETHGlobal
ETHOnline 2024
September kicked off with the last week of hacking at ETHOnline where ZkNoid proudly co-hosted the zkGaming track in the Mina Protocol section. We received 7 outstanding submissions, each showcasing innovative zkGames crafted exclusively for Mina. Selecting just three finalists proved to be a formidable challenge. However, after a thorough review of each project’s details and implementation, we were excited to announce the winners:
1st place — Pirates
2nd place — 2048
3rd place — Guess Who?
ETHGlobal Singapore
Immediately following the ETHOnline hackathon, our team headed to Singapore for ETHGlobal, ETHPragma, and Token2049. The experience was nothing short of phenomenal! We relished the opportunity to meet friends and partners face-to-face, while also networking with leading figures in the Web3 industry.
The highlight of the week was the ETHGlobal hackathon where we again were invited to co-host the zkGaming on Mina track. This event allowed us to assist hackers in harnessing the combined power of the Mina Protocol and the ZkNoid SDK, enabling them to create remarkable projects in just 36 hours.
The Mina section was bustling with creativity, and our team thoroughly enjoyed guiding participants through the intricacies of building on ZkNoid.
At the end of the event, we received excellent submissions and were tasked with judging both the gaming and protokit track’s submissions. After considerable evaluation of the projects, the winners of the zkGaming on Mina track were the following:
1st place — Battle of Nouns
2nd place — zkBlackjack
3rd place — Power Clash
We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to be a part of ETHGlobal! Our time in Singapore not only facilitated invaluable networking with other protocols but also provided us with fresh insights and inspiration for future developments and partnerships.
Development
In September, our team has been hard at work, achieving several key milestones:
ZkNoid SDK: Decoupling update
Based on feedback from the developer’s community, our SDK has been revamped with a more modular design significantly enhancing its performance and making building on ZkNoid ever more straightforward.
To find all the details of this update and a migration guide, check out this article.
For developers, we’ve revamped our guide building on the ZkNoid SDK to incorporate all the recent updates! Find the new guide here.
Pallad Wallet Integration
We’ve successfully integrated Pallad into our App. Now, zkGamers can access the entire collection of ZkNoid games with this flexible, fast, and secure zkWallet.
Matchmaking V2
We are on the final stages of releasing Matchmaking V2, which will introduce custom-sized lobbies, catering to player needs.
Card Engine Contracts
We’ve finalized the contracts for our card engine SDK that will allow game developers to easily roll out card zkgames like poker, blackjack, etc.
Implemented DevOps Scripts
We’ve implemented new DevOps scripts simplifying the project deployment in different scenarios. Updates include correct startup scripts launching for setting the initial data in protokit network in docker environment.
Lottery Audit and Fixes
A thorough audit of our lottery system was conducted, establishing that there are no significant bugs in the contracts and pointing us at minor improvements that were implemented. We will publish the full audit report soon.
Frontend Improvements
- New Game page. Developers can now easily customize the game and lobby UI layouts.
- Frontend architecture improvements
- UI Repository decoupling
- Optimization: Improved response times
- Main page: Improved adaptivities
Community engagement
In collaboration with Astromina, we’ve launched the ZkNoid Bounty program to engage our community and allow them to win prizes for contributing to ZkNoid growth.
ZkNoid Bounty №1
In September, we’ve concluded the 1st Bounty aimed at zkEnthusiasts. In this event, we tasked participants to formulate ideas for next-gen zkGames for ZkNoid. 9 interesting concepts were submitted and we chose 3 of them to be the winners:
- Guess Who
- Pirates
- Battleships
Many of these devs moved on to building their projects and submitting them to the ETHOnline hackathon. We are extremely grateful for such a devoted community and we hope to see all your wonderful projects in the ZkNoid Game Store!
If you have a zkGame on Mina and wish to apply for listing in ZkNoid, please fill in this Google form: https://forms.gle/BHzvhWSUXDMhAnih9.
Our team offers a great opportunity to built zkGames on Mina using our SDK. We offer assistance with a wide range of tasks and offer online support for developers. Learn more about the benefits and conditions for listing here.
ZkNoid Bounty №2
Our 2nd Bounty was aimed at zkGamers challenging them to showcase their gaming experience on our platform. We tasked them with recording their gameplay, explaining their unique strategies, and providing feedback that will allow us to fine-tune our games.
4 players submitted their videos and we will be announcing the winners soon, stay tuned!
These 2 bounties are just the beginning of our partnership with Astromina, more challenges are on the way!
October Roadmap
Looking ahead to October, we have an exciting roadmap planned:
- Lottery Testnet: We will be launching Lottery testnet for our community, allowing users to test features, report bugs, and earn prizes. Stay tuned for the announcement!
- Transaction Reordering in Lottery Game: We will make improvements to transaction handling in the Lottery game in order to fix some bugs that occur when multiple users send simultaneous transactions.
- Onboarding ETHGlobal Developers: We will continue to onboarding developer from ETHGlobal events into the ZkNoid ecosystem, assisting them in finalizing their games to list them in our Game Store.
- Documentation Updates: Our documentation will be updated to include the new SDK and technical overviews of our games.
- Educational Articles: We will publish technical articles, continuing our series focused on Reducers and describe tips&tricks for building on Mina to aid developers in their projects.
- YouTube Workshops: We will be posting Workshop videos on YouTube to engage with our community and share knowledge.
- Landing Page Enhancements: Further improvements will be made to our landing page to clearly demonstrate all ZkNoid products and the opportunities we offer to developers.