Updates from the Meta-MESH: December

The MESH network comprises a portfolio of over 190 positions, 250+ founders, and a community of 5,000+ people. With a network of this size, there is always important news to share, so we decided to bring you a digestible monthly recap of our community updates. From portfolio company milestones to new job opportunities to the latest articles from the MESH team, you’ll find it all below…

A special update from MESH:

We have swept the floor of the Rug Radio Genesis NFT and are now proud holders of 200 RUG, furthering our commitment to DAO-run organizations. For those unfamiliar, Rug Radio is a premier web3 media brand that covers every corner of the web3 landscape with its programming. The name is not only a nod to “getting rugged” and to Farokh’s Iranian heritage, but also to the essential role a rug plays in tying a room together. Just as a rug compliments your home, Rug Radio compliments its hosts, by building the technology that will allow creators all over the world to not only develop quality content, but also own it. Read more here and check out MESH Chairman Joe Lubin on GM Web3 earlier this week.

Updates from the MetaMesh Portfolio:

• The Gnosis Merge took place on December 8th, officially transitioning Gnosis into a fully decentralized and permissionless PoS network. The merge enables it to continue contributing to Ethereum’s growth as an experimental chain.
• Gitcoin is collaborating with UNICEF’s Office for Innovation of a Quadratic Funding pilot. A partnership at such a scale marks a first for the web3 impact space. All 10 of the UNICEF round grantees are using blockchain for social good.
• Gitcoin also released Passport, an identity verification tool built on portfolio company Ceramic.
• Aztec’s brand imagery has been selected to be exhibited at the Society of Illustrators museum in New York — more here.
• Starkware recently launched StarkEx: a transparent, scalable solution for exchanges. CEXes can be run on StarkEx Validity Rollups to both gate exchanges and also show proof of reserves. More here.
• Connext brought their finalized developer toolkit to hackers for the first time at ETHIndia. 26 projects built on top of Connext, find out about who they are here.
• Metamask Institutional partnered with Cobo Global and Gnosis DAO to create a Soul Bound Token project that helps users define themselves in digital reality.
• Metamask is now working with PayPal to offer users an easy way to buy and sell crypto.
• Komgo acquired GTC to create the world’s largest platform for the digitalisation of trade finance. More here.
• VenturePunk launch a holiday treat Santa.FM to create the world’s largest NFT gift exchange just in time for the holidays.

R&D updates:

• Veramo hosted a Twitter spaces last week on Improving governance in DAOs. Read the summary here.
• Veramo is currently running an experimental bounty program to encourage and reward the people helping to improve the framework. Read all about it here.
• Enterprise ZK team is working on several open source efforts in the Baseline Protocol community which include developing Baseline Reference Implementation-3, defining requirements for an international supply chain use case, and producing research on zero trust frameworks (see ‘Digital Business at a Crossroads’ here).
• Enterprise ZK team is focusing on research around using the zkEVM as the execution framework for Baseline Protocol implementations for industries such as telecommunications, mobility, and insurance. A blog is coming soon.
• Magmo deployed their State Channels contracts to Filecoin’s EVM-compatible Wallaby testnet and successfully ran end-to-end tests — hitting sub 100ms target for their “Time to First Payment” benchmark. Learn more by watching this video.
• Magmo have been exploring and contributing to Protocol Lab’s “testground” framework for simulating and stress-testing distributed systems such as State Channel networks. Learn more by watching this video.

Tachyon news:

• Tachyon has had a busy conference season over the last few months. They were most recently at EthIndia, where they hosted their latest Tachyon Sigma House, exclusive events for Sigma Pass Holders and a well-attended community event — Tachyon Connect.
• This is Tachyon’s third Sigma House, after Bogotá and Lisbon. You read more about Tachyon Sigma Pass, their genesis membership NFT and it’s benefits here.
• Reminder that all of Tachyon’s content has been open sourced to the public here in the spirit of decentralization.

Content corner:

• Venture Punk Investment spotlight
• Thomas Rush interviewed Ryan Kim on designing prosperous token economies — give it a watch here.
• Thomas Rush appeared on a Bondex livestream discussing the next generation of builders in Web3.
• Veramo is launching a Bounty Program

Portfolio company careers:

• Product Lead @ Ceramic
• Developer Relations Engineer @ Aztec
• Developer Evangelist @ Connext
• Senior Product Manager @ ChainSafe
• Senior Product Manager @ Infura