Month At A Glance — April 2024

A quick rundown of the latest happenings and significant milestones within the Tezos ecosystem for April 2024.

Published in

Tezos Commons

8 min readMay 7, 2024

Welcome to our latest issue, Month At A Glance, where we give a quick rundown of the latest happenings and significant milestones in the Tezos ecosystem on a monthly cadence.

April 2024 was a big month, jam-packed with new developments introduced to the Tezos ecosystem. These developments include Magic’s expanded Tezos scope, amazing artistic exhibitions such as STELLAR in NYC, and the current Tezos protocol upgrade undergoing voting, Paris B.

Let’s break it all down.

Ecosystem Insights

Magic x Tezos

This month, one of the cooler news bites dealt with password-less authentication services such as Magic and their expanded Tezos scope. In case you aren’t aware, there’s been some work with Magic and Tezos for some time now. Similar to solutions like Kukai’s Direct Auth feature, which allows Tezos users to log in to their Tezos wallet via social media logins or email, this integration focuses on Tezos developers and DApp teams. In fact, you may have noticed it within the DNS.xyz platform, which was just recently launched.

By leveraging Magic, developers can easily integrate Tezos into their DApps without manually managing cryptographic keys. This is achieved through the use of Magic’s SDK, which simplifies the process of connecting applications to the Tezos blockchain. The integration allows for functions like sending transactions and interacting with smart contracts on the Tezos network, enhancing user experiences by making them seamless and more secure.

The cool thing about this integration is that it makes Tezos one of five “featured chains”. While Magic technically supports numerous chains, this vote of confidence is incredibly enlightening as this relationship has only grown positively over the years. Check out their docs if you’d like to start implementing Magic with your Tezos DApp.

STELLAR

The STELLAR event, hosted by Victoria West on April 2nd, 2024, at LUME Studios in NYC, illuminated the vibrant Tezos art community. This event marked the second year in a row that Victoria orchestrated a world-class art exhibition in New York City, emphasizing the creative capabilities of Tezos artists. With over 500 attendees, including artists and enthusiasts, the event showcased an array of digital art minted on Tezos from over 60 artists like Vendingnfts, OMGiDRAWEDit, and Wondermundo, highlighting the diversity and talent within the Tezos community.

The exhibition was not just a digital art display; it also featured an engaging panel discussion with key figures from the Tezos community, live performances, and a unique interactive element where even venue staff engaged with the technology, exemplifying the event’s wide-reaching impact. Victoria West observed the diverse participation during the event, noting how individuals from various backgrounds were getting onboarded to Tezos, such as security staff for the venue.

Live performances added another dimension to the STELLAR event, with notable performances by artists like Andressa Furletti and Graphite Method, a collaboration involving actors Laurence Fuller and Vincent D’Onofrio. Graphite Method’s performance intertwined poetry with visual projections, enhancing the overall immersive experience of the event, while Andressa treated attendees with a live performance of her work dubbed “Washed Dreams”. This performance and others highlighted the fusion of traditional artistic mediums with new technologies, showcasing the evolving narrative of art in the digital age.

It’s safe to say the STELLAR event was a success. The event’s host, Victoria West, undoubtedly surpassed her event from last year with another remarkable showing. We at Tezos Commons are proud to support this event, are in awe of how talented the Tezos artistic community is, and cannot wait to see the collaborations born out of this event!

Paris B Protocol Upgrade

With the Paris B upgrade in the cooldown period (at the time of writing), it remains vital to keep participating and making your voice heard on Tezos Agora and in the community.

From a technical lens, this is an essential upgrade for the Tezos network. Collectively, these features include the following:

10-second block times
Activation of Data Availability Layer (DAL) on mainnet
Refinements to Tezos’ Proof of Stake (PoS), such as shortening consensus rights delay
Adaptive issuance
Staking
Adaptive slashing

It’s worth noting that half of these features were available in the Paris A proposal, with Paris B introducing PoS refinements such as adaptive issuance, staker roles, and adaptive slashing in addition to those proposed in Paris A. With that in mind, this is a pretty significant upgrade.

I won’t touch on the technicalities of the PoS refinements as I don’t feel comfortable expanding on something presently fluid. However, the most notable features are 10-second block times and the activation of the DAL to the mainnet.

Shorter block times are self-describing; it takes less time for a block to be created and added to the Tezos blockchain. In the present case, this is currently 15 seconds, thanks to the activation of the Mumbai upgrade. With this upgrade, we’re seeing a reduction to 10 seconds and a time to finality of 20 seconds, 10 seconds less than the present state of 30 seconds.

Neat!

To avoid being left out of the spotlight, the DAL will activate on the Tezos mainnet following a successful voting process. It is a companion network to the core Tezos protocol that provides additional data bandwidth for Smart Rollups. The DAL operates through a network of nodes distributing data across a P2P (peer-to-peer) network. Bakers confirm the data’s availability.

Once this verification is complete, the DAL nodes make the data accessible to Smart Rollups. Smart Rollups are then required to utilize or store the data quickly, as it is only available on the DAL for a limited period. Head to the docs to learn more about the DAL or read Nomadic Labs’ in-depth blog post.

Overall, this is a major upgrade. Make sure you start gearing up for the next round of voting!

News From The Tezos Ecosystem: Quick Bits

Tezos Foundation shares new streamlined grant process

The Tezos Foundation is revising its funding process, introducing educational tools for better application preparation, switching to a quarterly grant review starting April 2nd, and ending open calls for investment proposals to focus on targeted opportunities. These steps aim to enhance the effectiveness of projects on the Tezos blockchain.

UnicornDAO announces partnership with Tezos Foundation

Explore how UnicornDAO and the Tezos Foundation plan to work together in the X thread.

Tezos ecosystem joins CONF3RENCE as a partner

On May 15–16th in Dortmund, Germany, CONF3RENCE is one of the biggest web3 conferences in Europe. Be sure to head over to the event page and learn more!

Nomadic Labs releases Tezos Link

Tezos Link provides developers with scalable API access to the Tezos blockchain, allowing for easy integration without managing nodes. It supports network interactions through secure RPC endpoints and features a monitoring dashboard for application analytics. Learn more about it in the X thread or visit the main site.

Aleksandra Artamonovskaja has been appointed Head of Arts at Trillitech

Aleksandra is a Tezos OG in the art community, having participated in the Tezos NFT community since hicetnunc. Learn more about Aleksandra and her new role in the X thread or read her piece in The Art Newspaper.

Introducing the Universal Health Token

The Universal Health Token (UHT) on the Tezos blockchain promotes preventive healthcare by rewarding users for healthy behaviors. Developed in partnership with GOQii and the Force of Good Foundation, UHT incentivizes wellness activities such as exercise and healthy eating. Initially launched on another platform, it is transitioning to Tezos.

Alphabot has integrated Tezos to its platform

Alphabot is a tool designed to enhance community engagement and project management in web3. With its Tezos integration complete, users can now whitelist their Tezos NFTs on the platform.

DMission integrates with Tezos

DMission has integrated Tezos into its platform, enhancing user engagement by allowing the deployment of Tezos-based quests and campaigns. This partnership leverages Tezos’s strong security and community governance, offering users a robust and reliable experience through tailored features and specialized support for web3 projects.

Ledger releases new firmware update for Tezos

Explore the new features around the update in the X thread.

Events

STELLAR in NYC — April 2nd
Tuesday TezDay w/ BattleRise — April 2nd
TezTalks Live #86: BattleRise
Tuesday TezDay Community Call — April 9th
Artz Fridays w/ Yoeshi Episode 1 — April 12th
TezTalks Live #87: Retro Manni
OBJKT4OBJKT — April 18–21
Artz Fridays #2 w/ Yoeshi — April 19th
Artz Fridays #3 w/ Yoeshi — April 26th
Arthur Breitman Keynote at Cornell Blockchain Conference — April 26th
TezTalks Radio #78: wwwombats

Community Rewards Program

The Community Rewards Program (CRP) is a Tezos Commons Foundation initiative to foster adoption and support the Tezos ecosystem. Every month, up to 5,000 tez are rewarded to those who stand out in merit and act in the interest of the Tezos ecosystem as a whole.

The nomination form has been drastically streamlined to make it easier for community members to nominate their favorite contributors to the ecosystem. Now containing only three questions, submitting a nomination takes less than 30 seconds.

Don’t have 30 seconds? Tag any Discord message or tweet with #TezosCRP, and we will collect the messages!

The categories and nomination standards have remained the same. For more information, head over to the refreshed landing page here. We’ve also announced March 2024 winners, so be sure to check out the recap on that here.

About Tezos Commons Foundation

Tezos Commons is a non-profit organization that emphasizes building communities on Tezos and supporting the Tezos ecosystem and its members. By organizing several community-focused events, hosting infrastructure, and funding small projects, Tezos Commons has actively contributed to building communities on Tezos.

Learn more about Tezos Commons. Are you interested in becoming a Tezos SuperFan and hosting events? Click here and begin your journey.

Stay in the Conversation, Stay in the Know

Tezos Commons hosts a variety of community-oriented events and content. To stay up to date, please visit our events page!

You can also contact us on X or via email at social@tezoscommons.org.