Cartesi Ecosystem Recap #9

Newsletter/May 10, 2024/Siannie Quartero

May 10th - April was a whirlwind, to say the least. We kicked things off by attending Token2049 and ETHDubai, joining forces with Celestia, Hyperlane, and Citrea where we were in the middle of the Dubai flooding.

Cartesi’s Technical Evolution Plan is now live! Follow along with the living roadmap showcasing the intricate relationships among different facets of Cartesi’s technology. The Technical Evolution Plan is a joint effort to drive Cartesi’s protocol technology forward, managed by the Technical Vision Council, and shaped by Cartesi contributors, ecosystem grantees, and the wider community.

Plus, things sure are heating up - the Cartesi ecosystem entered its playtest era with 3 playtest launches and 3 more Cartesi Grant Proposals voted for funding. But before we get into all that, let’s dive into the tech updates!

Tech

Check out the last live dev recap to hear from the units pushing forward on development.

Research & Design

Highlights:

Machine Emulator
- Machine Emulator 1.17 Release with Machine I/O and VirtIO
  - This means expanded functionality, optimizations, improved support for virtualization, and added development capabilities.
  - These new features are key for modular integration as they allow Cartesi dApps to access external data via hash, surpassing the current systems that require explicit input sending.
Node Unit
- Rollups Node 2.0
  - The node is a central component of the Cartesi Rollups framework.
  - Supports the Output Unification, Quorum Consensus, and concurrent Inspect Requests.
  - Improves reliability and maintainability.
- Rewriting the Rollups Node in Goland
  - The new Node will be a modular monolith instead of a distributed micro-services system. It will also be easier to maintain and facilitate the implementation of new features.
Rollups Unit
- Added DELEGATECALL vouchers
  - This allows many interesting use cases for developers such as having fully compliant ERC-20 transfers and transfering assets to ENS-identified users.
Explorer Unit
- Updates on the CartesiScan
  - Homepage for the application added which includes a summary of the inputs and outputs for connected apps.
  - Settings section and applications page added.
Sunodo - a framework for developing decentralized applications built on top of Cartesi technology.
- Learn more about Sunodo over on its website.
- Check out the new documentation here.
- Sunodo CLI > Cartesi CLI
  - Read more about this here.
  - Sunodo will from now on focus on deployment and infrastructure for node execution but the team will still be maintaining the CLI. The code has moved to the Cartesi repository.

Core contributor Gabriel released his pivotal article on fraud proofs - a call to action for collaborative efforts to fix them. It has spurred some interesting thoughts and opinions with Arbitrum and Optimism getting involved in the debate.

Don't forget to mark your calendar for our next Monthly Dev Recap Call on Monday, June 3rd. Get engaged and connect with core contributors directly on what they’re building.

Ecosystem News

April has been the month of playtesting! RIVES and Bubblewars successfully hosted their playtests, engaging the community in testing their games and gathering valuable feedback for improvement.

Bubblewars, inspired by agar.io, is an on-chain game where players shoot ETH bubbles, aiming to grow their bubble by absorbing smaller ones belonging to other players. During the first Bubblewars’ session, Karmen’s bubble met its unfortunate demise. It was v sad.

Follow Bubblewars on socials and join their Discord community for details on the next playtest.

RIVES launched its VANGUARD INITIATIVE, gathering a select group of initial playtesters to test the onchain fantasy console. Among the games being played were DOOM and Antcopter, with participants also sharing tapes of their gameplay experiences.

You can also follow RIVES on socials to keep up to date with their shenanigans and join their Discord to be part of the upcoming game jam and other things planned in the RIVES pipeline.

RIVES has been actively enhancing its gaming experience with the addition of Antcopter to playtesting, alongside ongoing optimization to the fantasy console and UX. Recent updates include fixing the navbar display for small-width screens, enhancing tape functionality, and optimizing loading times, leaderboard performance, and the fullscreen gameplay submission process. You can check out RIVES docs here.

Did you see that Cartesi dApps are populating The DApp List? Our infrastructure profile is up and running, and the community can propose additional dApps to be featured after collecting everyone’s votes.

UXBoost released two articles all about the Cartesi hackers’ journey at ETHGlobal events. You can read the one about Cartesi Hacker’s experience in ETH global events here, and the journey map of Cartesi Hackers here.

Curious about other projects in the Cartesi ecosystem? Follow their socials to get updates firsthand: Ultrachess, Productive, Aetheras, Dazzle, DCA_Monster, Sunodo, Bugless, Fastlane, The Prism.

Grants

Exciting news for art and blockchain enthusiasts. The Decentralized Painting Canvas dApp has officially launched on testnet, offering a groundbreaking platform where creativity knows no bounds. Unleash your creativity, paint freely, and mint your masterpieces as NFTs.

Fastlane’s proposal has passed with an overwhelming majority of 98,83% votes, securing funding for the development of a never-ending, expandable onchain world built with Cartesi. Can’t wait to see this come to life!

Two CGP proposals have passed the voting round, meaning they can start building: ChainIDE for Cartesi and Board Games Framework RFP! ChainIDE’s goal is to create a zero-setup, cloud-based Cartesi app development platform. It enhances the developer experience with user-friendly tools. Catering to both front-end (React, Vue, JS, CLI) and back-end (Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, C++), it's a comprehensive solution for full-stack Cartesi development.

The Board Games Framework RFP by ThinkandDev aims to develop a state-of-the-art game library, inspired byBoardgame.io, for seamless integration with Cartesi tech. This empowers game developers to create turn-based games for the web with blockchain-verified outcomes for maximum transparency and reliability.

The Prism has received a DevAd Seed Grant to take their project to the next level. The Prism transforms AI into hyper-personalized wearable art. How exciting is that? Check out this list of all projects that have been funded so far.

If you’ve got an idea for a build, check out the Cartesi Grants Program or DevAd Seed Grants and apply for a grant today!

Community

To tackle the coordination hurdles inherent in constructing core infrastructure within a fully distributed framework, Cartesi contributors have embraced a new governance process. Say hello to Cartesi’s Technical Evolution Plan - aiming to set the technical direction for the project's Mainnet era, ensuring effective coordination and alignment within the ecosystem. You can read more about it in-depth in this blog post written by Brandon.

Cartesi developers have been acknowledged by Avail, a significant player in Web3 infrastructure, as integral contributors to the modular movement - a testament to our collective efforts! We're proud that our cartesi-rollups-node repository has been selected for the Unification Drop.

Gabriel chatted with Robbie from The Rollup on fraud proofs where they delved into the crucial role of fraud proofs in constructing robust, verifiable, and enduring systems for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Did you peep Cartesi in the Bankless newsletter? Who has also peeped the Cartesi ads in the Bankless episodes? Cartesi has also been featured in Epic Web3’s resources. We’re excited that Cartesi is getting more exposure, which can also be seen in the 200+ developers that have enrolled in the Cartesi Udemy course. Though for some lighter content, check out the community members’ memes that they dropped on the r/Cartesi Reddit.

Contributoooor Spotlight

This month, we're shining the spotlight on Vlad, also known as Bubbalex for actively engaging with the community and creating content for his Cartesi X page. Vlad's contributions exemplify the vibrant spirit of the Cartesi ecosystem, and we're fortunate to have individuals like him who passionately share their enthusiasm with the broader community.

Events

We survived the floods in Dubai and continued our agenda full of events 💪 Starting with Modular Day together with Celestia, Hyperlane, and Citrea!

Carsten also jumped on the panel about BTC L2 challenges during the Modular Hangout by Avail, Gelato, and Polygon together with BOB, Kyle from Avail, dWalletLabs, Hyperlane, and Roc from QuickSwapDEX. Check out the full panel here.

And it didn’t stop there. Carsten also took on the ETHDubai stage talking about the Cartesi Virtual Machine and its potential for revolutionizing dApps - from enhancing scalability to empowering developers with new possibilities! The full talk can be found here.

Bruno took the spotlight in an interview with Web3TV during Token2049 where he chatted about how Cartesi is attracting developers and the value Cartesi tech unlocks.

And we wrapped up the entire experience with a tired but happy selfie 🙂

Upcoming Events

Keep posted on where we are and say hi to us when you get the chance by subscribing to our live public events calendar. Also don’t forget to take part in event-related campaigns over on Link3, Galxe, and Zealy!