Protocol Village: Oobit Collaboration With TON Lets Users Spend Tether Sent Over Telegram

May 22: Stripchain, an intent-based interoperability protocol developed by Silent Research Labs on the principle of chain abstraction, has raised $10.1 million. Key investors include Sora Ventures and Messari's Ryan Selkis, according to the team: "Using StripVM technology, it simplifies cross-domain communication for developers, allowing seamless application interactions. Stripchain has launched an internal testnet, plans public access in Q2 2024, and is expanding its team to further innovate in the blockchain interoperability sector."

NEAR's Polosukhin Outlines Vision for 'User-Owned AI'

May 22: NEAR, a layer-1 blockchain, outlined a "masterplan" from co-founder Illia Polosukhin for the project to become "the home for user-owned AI and the best place to build and incubate new AI projects," according to the team: "To achieve this the foundation will invest significant resources in: Compute and inference infrastructure to ensure that Open Source models are available to millions of people; Data infrastructure that rewards creators; and Agentic infrastructure, allowing millions and even billions of AI agents to interact onchain." (NEAR)

Intentable.io Launches Marketplace for Intent Builders, Users

May 22: Intentable.io (formerly Kirobo), is launching a marketplace to bridge the gap between Intent builders and users, according to the team: "The main problem lies in the complexity of the industry, with many protocols, each having its own rules and methods. The Intentable.io platform provides the ability to automate and execute complicated actions such as Hedging, De-Pegging Protection, trading commands and more, with a simple and friendly interface."

Lightspeed Faction Announces $7.7M Investment in DePIN-Powered Weather Network WeatherXM

May 22: Lightspeed Faction, a blockchain venture capital firm, has announced a $7.7 million Series A investment in WeatherXM AG, a core contributor to the WeatherXM Network. According to the team: "WeatherXM Network is a community-powered DePIN weather network that provides accurate and hyper-local weather data to Web2 and Web3 enterprises utilizing their weather stations. On Thursday, May 30, the network’s token, $WXM, will be tradable on Uniswap v3, Gate.io and Bitmart.com, among others, and station owners will be allowed to collect daily rewards and accumulated beta rewards on the Arbitrum mainnet (currently on Arbitrum Sepolia)."

Zeal Wallet Claims 'World's First Self-Custodial Visa Card,' With Gnosis Pay

May 22: Zeal, an Ethereum-compatible self-custodial wallet, launched a browser extension, mobile app and what it claims is the world’s first self-custodial Visa® card, with Gnosis Pay. According to the team: "For the first time, users can pay with crypto and access DeFi using a single wallet. Created by former Revolut employees, including Hannes Graah, former VP of growth, Zeal combines neobank user-friendliness with DeFi. Available as a browser extension and mobile app, the Zeal wallet supports both on-chain and everyday crypto payments.

EOS Network Foundation Says 'Antelope Spring Beta-1' Now Live on Jungle Testnet

May 22: EOS Network Foundation announced that the "Antelope Spring Beta-1" update has launched on the Jungle testnet, "introducing significant advancements in the EOS Network with the new Savanna consensus algorithm, which enhances transaction finality speed by over 100 times," according to the team: "This update also includes advanced cryptographic techniques for improved security and privacy, such as aggregate BLS signatures and zero-knowledge proof systems. The blockchain architecture has been reconfigured to separate the roles of Block Proposers and Block Finalizers, improving network governance and efficiency." (EOS)