June 11: Biconomy, a Web3 infrastructure company, launched a new “Delegated Authorization Network,” or DAN, “enabling the safe delegation of on-chain activities to AI agents,” according to the team. A press release added: “Biconomy DAN operates by granting AI projects approved access to user’s ‘Delegated Auth’ keys stored on an EigenLayer AVS (Actively Validated Services), ensuring true autonomy without compromising on security. To integrate DAN into an AI agent, projects need to use key storage on DAN, an EigenLayer AVS, and program user-defined permissions for those keys using the DAN SDK. Biconomy has collaborated with Silence Labs for the development and launch of DAN.” A blog post is here.

June 11: Ava Protocol, formerly OAK Network, secured $10 million in seed funding ($5.5 million initial and $4.5M seed+ rounds) to develop its Eigenlayer AVS for private autonomous transactions on Ethereum, according to the team: “Investors include Electric Capital, Taisu Ventures and Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal. The funding supports core Web3 infrastructure, enabling cross-chain smart contract automation for applications like limit orders on decentralized exchanges. Over 10,000 wallets use its testnet with 1,000+ daily transactions. With 30+ partners, including Polkadot and Moonbeam, Ava aims to simplify Web3 application deployment.”

June 11: Covalent, provider of a decentralized network for indexing blockchain data, announced that BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes has been named as a new strategic advisor. Hayes, who currently serves as chief investment officer of Maelstrom, “will be leading the development of the Ethereum Wayback Machine, ensuring that all Ethereum and EVM rollup data will shape AI with a preformat and verifiably secure pipeline,” according to the team. “This partnership will further secure Ethereum’s historical data preservation, ensuring accessibility and transparency to the ecosystem’s full history.”

June 11: Overlai, a blockchain project for image verification co-founded by photographers Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier, announced the beta launch of its mobile app and Adobe Plugin on Aptos. according to the team: “After validating a picture in Overlai – a process that can be completed in just a few clicks – creators can upload the asset to any digital medium and retain full ownership. No matter how much the photo is screenshotted, compressed, or converted, Overlai’s invisible watermark with a creator’s credentials, securely stored on the Aptos blockchain, stays intact – answering a pressing need amid the rise of generative AI.” (APT)

June 11: Vana, a network for user-owned data, released its Satori testnet. “Users can now mine and contribute to the network by exporting their data from platforms, leveraging data rights to sidestep big tech’s walled gardens. Proof-of-contribution ensures data quality by rewarding users proportionally to their data’s impact on AI model performance,” according to a blog post.

June 11: FLock.io, a project to decentralize machine learning for AI models, and Ritual, which enables developers to access models on-chain via smart contracts, announced a strategic partnership to advance decentralized AI composability. According to the team: “Leveraging Ritual’s Infernet nodes, FLock.io aims to enhance transparency and verifiability in task routing, model usage and rewards distribution within the decentralized AI ecosystem. This collaboration underscores a commitment to fostering a fair and open-source environment where developers and contributors are compensated based on model usage.”

June 11: Core, an Ethereum-compatible layer-1 blockchain project that relies on Bitcoin for its security setup, “is launching the BTCfi Summer Hackathon, a 12-week event designed to ignite innovation in the Bitcoin economy,” according to the team: “There are prizes for the top three positions ranging from a $5,000 – $15,000 grant, access to Defi workshops, social media highlights, a feature in the BTCfi ecosystem newsletter and more. The hackthon launched June 6 and the winners will be announced Aug. 19.”

June 11: Layer-2 network Polygon is starting a Community Grants Program to encourage builders to build in its ecosystem, Polygon Labs said on Tuesday. The program aims to place 1 billion POL, Polygon’s soon-to-rebrand MATIC token, into the hands of developers over the next 10 years. The program went live Tuesday with 35 million tokens, worth $23 million at current prices, eligible for distribution. The network is in the process of transitioning its current token, MATIC, to the new POL ticker, so this first tranche of tokens will be denominated in MATIC.

June 11: SubQuery Network, a distributed network of decentralized indexers and RPC providers, is launching the first decentralized RPCs for Polkadot and Kusama, according to the team: “The Polkadot RPCs that have been deployed for the Polkadot relay chain and Kusama are operated by more than 30 independent node operators.”

June 11: Until now, the Ethereum layer-2 project Optimism has been missing a core feature at the heart of its security design: “Fault proofs.” On Monday, that long-promised tech finally came to Optimism’s mainnet. The Optimism team previously shared in March that it was testing its fault proofs system on their Sepolia testnet. Since then, they had an audit conducted by blockchain security firm Sherlock, and found a few bugs that they were able to patch out. “We literally deleted the entire system essentially, re-architected it, and rewrote the entire thing,” Karl Floersch, the CEO of OP Labs, said in an interview with CoinDesk.

June 11: The Cardano network is set to move into the final phase of a multiyear program to become a wholly decentralized blockchain ecosystem later this month, co-founder Charles Hoskinson said in an X post Monday. As a first step, the validating node software operated by the system’s stake pool operators, or SPOs, needs to be upgraded to the latest version. Then, the blockchain will evolve into a backward-incompatible version, a process known as a hard fork, and in doing so, enter a new era known as Voltaire. Once the switch is complete, the seven-year-old blockchain will no longer be actively managed by Cardano development firm IOHK, instead wholly run by community members, according to a project roadmap. (ADA)

June 11: A new initiative from Lido DAO will see Lido’s partnering with Mellow Finance, a platform that lets users generate yield by depositing into restaking “vaults,” and Symbiotic, a permissionless restaking protocol. Mellow curators Steakhouse, P2P Validator, Re7 Labs and MEV Capital are each introducing vaults that accept stETH in tandem with Tuesday’s announcement. (LDO)

Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.

June 10: Wormhole, the blockchain interoperability protocol, will allow holders of its W token to stake with the Tally Governance Portal, “allowing the opportunity to participate in governance and influence the future direction of the Wormhole DAO and platform,” according to the team.” The update marks “a significant step toward decentralizing Wormhole through MultiGov, an industry-first multichain governance system for DAOs on Solana, Ethereum mainnet, and EVM L2s,” Wormhole said in a statement. “The Wormhole DAO will be the first to adopt MultiGov, enabling W holders to create, vote on, and execute governance proposals on any supported chain.”

June 10: Technology company Squads Labs, which aims to help businesses transact in and manage digital assets, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Electric Capital. The funding round included participation from RockawayX, Coinbase Ventures, L1 Digital and Placeholder, Squads Labs said in an email on Monday. Squads has also unveiled a smart wallet aimed at individuals for public testing on iOS.