Cartesi Ecosystem Updates #2, 2025

Newsletter/Mar 7, 2025/Marketing Unit

Tech

We are determined to become the most secure decentralized rollup infrastructure. Core contributor Gabriel Coutinho has shared a new post on ethresearch about Dave, Cartesi’s fraud-proof algorithm. It is a more concise read than the full paper but presents a deeper dive into what has been shared during his presentation at Devcon in Bangkok, providing an overview of the algorithm and its results. Read it here.

The Cartesi Coprocessor is evolving with several upcoming features the team is actively working on. These include Ethereum state access (eth_call), allowing to query the Ethereum state in an easy manner, onboarding operators, and integration of coprocessor functionality with Cartesi CLI.

We have wrapped up the Cartesi x EigenLayer Experiment Week #3, which you can read all about in the dedicated blog post. The ThinkChain project gained particular attention, as Cartesi became the first and only blockchain stack to bring fully trust-minimized LLM inference onchain, with DeepSeek serving as a pioneering example.

Cartesi’s RISC-V VM uniquely allows developers to run standard AI libraries—such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Llama.cpp—within a decentralized framework, making it the most feasible environment for real onchain AI development, enabling AI to be leveraged in a fully deterministic way.

Unlike traditional TEEs, which offer enhanced security but remain vulnerable to single points of failure, Cartesi provides a verifiable, decentralized execution environment capable of fully onchain AI inference. Read more about ThinkChain here.

New versions of the Espresso integrations have been released to improve the robustness, and it’s already supporting two applications on testnet. The next goal is to make them more accessible to a broader audience by creating user-friendly documentation, tutorials, and an improved developer experience—making it easy for anyone to launch a Cartesi x Espresso application.

For the full Ecosystem Updates Call, watch it here.

Ecosystem

RIVES, the onchain gaming console where you can create, collect, and play small apps and games, is working through updates to Node V2. This will improve the experience for users, making it smoother, plus will remove the need to maintain separate versions. Create & play here.

Drawing Canvas successfully deployed its latest version on the Sepolia Testnet and is currently testing the platform with a select group of people, focusing on optimizing performance, UI, and UX. In the upcoming weeks, the goal is to launch their first Testnet campaign. Give it a try here.

Locale Network, has some business developments updates to share. Locale Network is a Web3 lending platform providing dynamically adjusting smart contract loans with real-time data transparency and low-risk guaranteed loans for small business owners. They’re currently working on securing partnerships for initial pool offerings and have established a partnership to expand access to weather, vehicle, and energy data.

Prof. Antonio Rocha from UFF has been spearheading Cartesi initiatives in Brazil, solidifying our roots in Brazil and increasing the awareness of our tech by one integration at a time. A new Cartesi Compute API is now available to be deployed on Hyperledger BESU networks, offering Cartesi as (the only) L2 solution for the Brazilian Blockchain Community. You can learn more about it here.

Cartesi Grants Program

The Cartesi Grants Program (CGP) is in full force, with five proposals under review and one already approved for funding: The RiscZero + Cartesi Integration Template & Documentation by Michael Asiedu. This initiative will integrate RiscZero’s zkVM with the Cartesi Machine, unlocking privacy-preserving computations.

Other proposals that are still open for feedback are:

1️⃣ Cartesi-Chainlink Library - A library for integrating Chainlink services into Cartesi, starting with Chainlink Automation.

2️⃣ Passkey on L1 enabler: P-256/secp256r1 Signature Verification via Cartesi Coprocessor - Enabling efficient secp256r1 (P-256) signature verification on Ethereum by leveraging the Cartesi Coprocessor to offload cryptographic computations.

3️⃣ YK Labs team - Immutable SQLite Database for Smart Contracts- An easy-to-use solution for Ethereum smart contracts to access a large read-only SQLite database using Cartesi’s off-chain computation.

4️⃣ DApps over Apps team - Immutable SQLite Database for Smart Contracts - Integrating a read-only SQLite database with the Cartesi Coprocessor enabling Ethereum smart contracts to execute predefined SQL queries efficiently.

5️⃣ YK Labs team - Drand Timelock Decryption Using Cartesi Coprocessor - Implementing Drand network-based timelock encryption/decryption functionality as a Cartesi Coprocessor to enable efficient and secure time-based access control for blockchain applications.

Leave your feedback on these proposals and check out all the available RFPs here.

Not a developer yourself, but know someone who is? Refer them through the DevDrop Incentive Program and earn $500 in CTSI when they submit a proposal that gets successfully funded!

Developer Advocacy

The Experiment Week with EigenLayer wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Cartesi’s dedicated DevAd team, with many releases of CLI and templates to get builders started. The next focus is on creating various guides and docs for the integrations that Cartesi has, so that anybody can use those to create their own dApps from building to shipping. As well as this, they’re also gearing up for Node V2, so with Docs V2 all these updates will be included. This is still under development.

Don't miss the two latest episodes of I Build, Therefore I Am (Brain to Board) with Guilherme Dantas and Claudio Silva from BugBuster and Nader Dabit from EigenLayer. For a full list of all episodes, check it here on the podcast page.

Community

Because of this epic community, Cartesi managed to secure the first place in the AVS Showdown, a bracket-style tournament organized by The Rollup for projects in the EigenLayer ecosystem, hosted on Jokerace.

It was a close call in the finals, but you guys made it happen!

Last month was busy with AMAs and Spaces. Catch Cartesi’s co-founders Felipe Argento and Erick de Moura in action at the Binance Square AMA, while co-founder Colin Steil broke down what’s in store for Cartesi in the Chinese Telegram Communities. If you speak Chinese, be sure to join the official Cartesi Chinese Telegram channel here to stay in the loop.

Finishing it off with a week-long session of Cartesians jumping on the Web3Global Spaces, discussing everything from onboarding mainstream users to AI models to NFT economies.

Events

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for Back to the Future #4 with Espresso in Denver! It was a packed evening filled with great drinks, exploring both tech stacks, and a high-stakes quiz where participants battled through 15 questions testing their knowledge on Cartesi and Espresso for a chance to win $1,000 in ETH. Congratulations to the winner who took it home!

And it turns out we're not just here for the tech—we're in the matchmaking business too! A couple who first met at our event returned to relive their meet-cute. Is this composability?

Core contributor Zach Prater brought together builders to push the boundaries of next-gen gaming with the Cartesi stack. In addition to the hacker house, he hosted a Game Night where attendees got to experience firsthand the games built on RIVES and various other demos. A workshop was also hosted by Carsten Munk on the Cartesi Coprocessor. If you missed it, you can find the slides here. The event wasn’t just about playing—it was about showcasing the potential of onchain gaming. And, of course, we had to give some special swag to participants!