Protocol Village: Farworld Labs Raises $1.75M, Celo Foundation Appoints Nakagawa as Executive Director

The Celo Foundation is elevating homegrown and Web3 native talent into key senior leadership positions.

Gaming company Farworld Labs, which is native to Farcaster, has closed its pre-seed funding round at $1.75 million. The round was co-led by Variant and Lemniscap.

According to the team, “The funding will enable Farworld Labs to expedite the rollout of upcoming Q3 releases, including the highly anticipated launch of the Farcade platform in conjunction with top-tier studios and developers. Built on decentralized social media protocols, the Farcade is a platform and suite of tools for developers to build crypto-native games that integrate with onchain social, making games instantly playable within social media feeds with just a single click.”

Celo Foundation Appoints Nakagawa as Executive Director; Varshney Transitions to Head of Ecosystem

The Celo Foundation is elevating homegrown and Web3 native talent into key senior leadership positions.

According to the team, “Eric Nakagawa has been appointed to the new role of Executive Director of the Celo Foundation. He will work closely with Rene Reinsberg to oversee the Foundation’s daily operations. Isha Varshney has transitioned from head of DeFi to head of Ecosystem. She will oversee projects building on Celo, and lead business development efforts with both Web2 and Web3 firms. Sophia Dew joins the Celo Foundation as developer relations lead to support builders developing on the emerging Ethereum L2.”

Botanix Labs Hires Stoner as Head of Security

Botanix Labs, which is building an EVM-equivalent layer-2 network atop Bitcoin, has announced the appointment of security expert and industry veteran Ron Stoner as its new Head of Security, according to the team.

“With this addition, the Botanix Labs team is uniquely positioned to develop industry-leading infrastructure that securely scales Bitcoin-native financial tools. Ron Stoner brings a wealth of experience in designing and testing blockchain-based networks as one of the most respected hackers, educators and security professionals in the cryptocurrency industry.”

POKT, Decentralized RPC Project, Expands Into AI Inference

POKT Network, a project for decentralized RPC infrastructure processing, is expanding into AI inference services, according to the team.

“The network’s open-source, permissionless design aligns incentives among model researchers, hardware operators, API providers and users. Utilizing its Relay Mining algorithm, POKT creates a transparent marketplace for cryptographically verified usage, enabling AI researchers to disseminate work and generate revenue without maintaining infrastructure. This aims to decentralize AI, competing with centralized entities and supporting broad participation.”

ZKX, a 'Social Perp Trading DEX on Starknet and Ethereum,' Raises $7.6M

ZKX, which describes itself as “the first social perp trading DEX on Starknet and Ethereum,” has raised $6.3 million in a seed round featuring key investors, such as Flowdesk, GCR and DeWhales, according to the team.

“This brings the protocol's total funding to $7.6 million over the past two years. These funds are earmarked to enhance ZKX's growth and development. One of their main goals is to enable the development of new products such as its native token, $ZKX, which launched on KuCoin, Gate.io and Bitget this week. The token will empower users in governance and staking, with features like social copy trade pools and cross-chain interoperability planned.”

BNB Chain Upgrade Introduces Blob-Carrying Transactions to Optimize Data Storage

BNB Chain has successfully activated the BEP 336 Haber Hardfork, according to the team.

“This upgrade introduces blob-carrying transactions, drastically reducing gas fees by up to 90%, and marks a significant step in optimizing BNB Chain’s data storage and processing capabilities. This cost reduction enhances the overall efficiency of the ecosystem, positioning BNB Chain as one of the most economical platforms for developers and users. The opBNB scaling solution, which already boasts some of the lowest transaction costs in the industry, will see further reductions to approximately $0.0001, and benefiting the L2s operating on BSC.”