One of those weeks where covering the VeChain ecosystem was like a box of chocolates…

Major Update: PoA 2.0 – SURFACE

Two of the brightest minds at VeChain – Chief Scientist Peter Zhou (PhD University of Southampton) and Senior Researcher Ren Zhijie (postdoc and PhD at TU Delft) put together a 21 page preprint on their new consensus algorithm, named SURFACE. If you aren’t a very technical person, don’t bother reading it, you won’t get very far. In layman’s terms, the main updates are to increase:

role determination and rules (to prevent attacks),

throughput (traffic that can pass through),

latency (speed of response),

finality (speed of block confirmation).

This combination of speed, scalability and security makes up the Holy Trinity of what a blockchain needs to perform efficiently. VeChain’s continued attention to this is necessary to keep pace with the rapid speed of R&D in the blockchain world. The full preprint is posted here: Link

DNV GL and VeChain’s Low-Carbon Ecosystem 2.0 (China) Webpage Released

With the launch of a new website, the initiative focuses around environmental protection and public welfare, two popular issues that blockchain has been tipped to solve in China. They aim to unite users, merchants, enterprises, and government organizations for charitable and sustainable initiatives. Right now, the goal seems to be focused on adding more enterprises willing to support the ecosystem. Read more about the award-winning initiatives here.

Real Items Marketplace Released

Authenticity-as-a-Service platform Real Items released a marketplace for blockchain verified items. This marketplace is meant to “demo” the capabilities of NFTs in products as they look to add more clients.

The products, including this VeChain101 shirt, all feature a 2FA QR code directly on the product. By entering the pin into the landing page, buyers can claim their items and connect with the brands behind the goods.

DNV GL speaks at the GSFI Conference in Seattle

The Global Food Safety Initiative event was a chance for DNV GL’s CEO of Business Assurance Luca Crisciotti to speak about My Story being used to track food products on the blockchain. In addition to wine makers Ricci Curbastro, Ruffino and Torrevento, two new logos were present. They were Buondioli, Italian olive oil producer, and La Fiammante, Italian tomato and canned vegetable producer. My Story is a blockchain solution to add transparency to supply chains.

https://twitter.com/DNVGL_Assurance/status/1233336657304313861?s=20

Chinese Media Blockbeats Features VeChain

The article, entitled What’s Next For Blockchain In The Post-Internet Age? was an in-depth look at how VeChain was challenging decentralization narratives in the industry to build a hybrid model that actually fits into business scenarios. It was picked up by major news portals including Tencent, Sina Weibo News, and many others.

You can view a translated version here: Link

Fashion Designer Sarah Regensburger adds VeChain to Collection

ToolChain showed its appeal to independent designers by popping up at Paris Fashion Week. Check the video in the Twitter post for more.

https://twitter.com/mikefrancesc0/status/1233360709863514112?s=20

Browser Plugins Galore

After the Totient revealed Comet would no longer be updated, an active group of community members decided to “crowdfund” development of a Google Chrome Wallet plugin, allowing users to interact with dApps from the comfort of their usual web browser.

Their efforts were successful, as they reached their target and announced a Ukrainian development team was preparing to undertake the task of creating the plugin, similar to Metamask for Ethereum.

A few days later, ecosystem project Safe Haven announced that they were purchasing the original plugin, Comet, with the intention of making it open-source and furthering development. This gives the community two potential browser plugins, as well as the return of the NFT marketplace Cometverse.

Blockbabies Registration Set to Open on March 5th

“Decentralized infant chaos” is descending on VeChain, thanks to the Blockbabies early bird registration announcement. The game will have NFT babies face-off in a “Baby Battle Arena” with a concept that is as both eye-catching as it is original.

Exchange Updates

OceanEx Telegram AMA

OceanEx’s CEO Nan Xiaoning responded to the dipping OCE token price by reassuring the community that the team was working hard to increase the token price. Nan took on hard hitting topics including issues with trading bots and token price, which can be read about here.

We would like to explore more practical OCE use cases for all OCE holders. For example, we are connecting with a crypto game company, to list our OCE as utility token in the online game. With OCE you could play a lot of fun games. Another idea is to create our OceanEx merch online store. Our supporters will have a chance to buy our tailored merch by using OCE. We are also looking for more third-party companies to form the cooperation to add more value and applications for our platform token. There is a lot more to be explored in the OCE use cases.

Cream Partners with Bitrue

Long a favorite of the XRP community, Bitrue reached a deal with Cream to offer benefits to VeChain ecosystem projects. This includes staking benefits for holders, as well as a way to list more VIP180 projects.

SNKr Announces IEO with Bitmart

Streetwear Ecosystem SNKr announced on March 4th they would hold their initial token sale on Bitmart. This Shanghai based project is partnered with streetwear event INNERSECT and has a BaaS platform and consumer app, known as Mine.

Return of Transactions

The mainnet lit up on Thursday and Friday with a wave of new transactions. The ToolChain contract, suspected as being linked to the Yunnan Tea partnership (source: Reddit) blew through yearly highs and set some optimism back in the ecosystem.

Vexplorer.io

Users watching the explosion on real-time blockchain visualizer vechainuniverse.com were treated to a wave of fireworks and sounds, capping off a busy week in the world of VeChain. Special nod to reddit user Thesandiegonite for vechainuniverse.com.