Update: Week of 21 October 2019
Dear Tezos community, The Babylon upgrade officially activated on 18 October, marking the second time a protocol amendment has been approved and implemented via the Tezos governance mechanism. Tezos is the first major blockchain to successfully implement two protocol upgrades automatically, and we are thrilled by the engagement and growth of our community. We will continue to gain momentum and become even stronger as a community moving forward.
In order to better assist Tezos developers who are testing their tools and smart contracts, we have been working to create a faucet tool, similar to the one that is currently deployed on the babylonnet test network. This faucet will provide small amounts of tez (XTZ) to developers that need it for development purposes. It will be ready in November and we will release additional details in the coming weeks.
In addition to helping with the activation of the Babylon upgrade, representatives from multiple TF-funded entities, TQ Tezos, Cryptium Labs, and Nomadic Labs, participated in AZTEC protocol’s Multi-Party Computation (MPC) ceremony, Ignition, this week, using an air-gapped computer which has now ceased to be. Representatives from each team gathered in New York City to run AZTEC’s MPC software in a global relay with over 200 participants. The result: a more secure system for private transactions.
We are thrilled to see so many members of the Tezos community participate so actively in a wide range of projects and initiatives.
Best regards,
Ryan
Adrian Brink setting up the laptop for the AZTEC MPC
Grantees, Funded Entities, and Other News
Below are some updates from the last week:
- SmartPy introduced a new version of its smart contract language with new features like a new testing framework.
- AJ from Tezos Commons released a guide on Tezos block explorers.
- TezTech released a new version of TezBox for the Babylon upgrade along with its plan to transition from a simple wallet to a Dapp browser.
- Cryptonomic has a new Conseil release with Babylon capability.
- Baking Bad released an early version of Mystique that mimics the TzScan API.
- AirGap announced that its block explorer, tezblock, will soon include new data including rewards, baking and endorsement rights, frozen amounts, and a rewards/payouts API. Be sure to take their survey to provide feedback on tezblock and suggest features to add!
- Pocket Network hosted an “Introduction to Tezos” with its CEO Michael O’Rourke in Tampa, Florida.
- TzStats introduced a new baker dashboard with a brand new colored baker performance chart, new baker rewards & bond tables, and detailed baking & endorsing lists.
- Stove Labs shared the video of Istvan Deak’s presentation from TQuorum on how to build a non-fungible token on Tezos with LIGO.
- TulipTools will temporarily host a subset of the Tzscan API on Conseil.
- Tezos Commons discussed zk-snarks and how they may provide “fine-tuned privacy” to Tezos via a future protocol amendment proposal.
- TQ Tezos released a TQuorum Global Summit recap on its blog. Be sure to check out its YouTube playlist for all TQuorum presentations and panels!
- Cryptonomic released a Galleon wallet upgrade that is compatible with Babylon.
- Baking Bad will host the first Tezos meetup in Moscow, Russia, featuring presentations from a variety of Tezos community members.
- Cryptium Labs published an informative guide to accounts in Tezos with the Babylon upgrade.
- TQ Tezos’ Michael Klein will give a workshop on digital assets with Tezos smart contracts at San Francisco Blockchain Week next week.
- Pietro Abate of Nomadic Labs gave a general presentation on Tezos at the Redder conference in Venice, Italy.
- Protofire published a post walking-through its restricted liquidity pool contract on Tezos.
- Tezos China is on Twitter – give them a follow!
- TQ Tezos and Tezos Commons, along with Coinbase Custody, are sponsoring a Tezos meetup at the Coinbase HQ in San Francisco on Wednesday (30 October) next week during SF Blockchain Week.
Our Activities
The Tezos Foundation is thrilled to have received 84 grant proposals during its most recent Ecosystem Grants RFP, which closed on 18 October. The review process is underway and all applicants will receive communications from the Foundation on the status of their proposals in the coming weeks. Applicants can feel free to contact grants@tezos.com should they have any questions regarding the status of a grant proposal.
The Foundation is sponsoring a 3-month blockchain hackathon, Future of Blockchain, beginning this month in London (and surrounding regions) and Berlin. The hackathon, organized by StakeZero Ventures, is for developers and entrepreneurs, and features 40+ prizes in different categories with a total of £100k available. Community members can learn more here!
FAQs: What should I do if I am having trouble moving funds from a KT1 address to a tz1 address?
Some users may have had issues moving their tez from KT1 addresses to tz1 addresses if a tz1 address contained insufficient funds after Babylon was activated (and thus was unable to pay transaction fees). Members of the Tezos community like Cryptium Labs and Everstake took initiative to fund all impacted accounts with enough tez to cover transaction fees and resolve the issue. Should one have any issue with a Tezos wallet, make sure that the latest version is installed (as many were updated to be compatible with Babylon) and reach out to the developers of the wallet for further support.