Blockchain continues its steady stretch into all sectors of our society. While decentralized financial (DeFi) applications are still front and center, many other use cases are emerging as industries, governments, and organizations realize the potential of mass-scale decentralization and immutability to greatly improve existing processes.
xDai is at the forefront of this sea change. From government issued stamps by the Austrian Post to supply-chain tracking with Origin Trail to large-scale RTS games utilizing advanced cryptography by DarkForest, xDai has a history of supporting and fostering innovation.
This month, 2 research articles in scientific journals examined the role of scaling solutions, specifically xDai, in emerging fields. Both studies examined hybridized systems where xDai is used to enhance scalability.
Study 1
In Scalable framework for blockchain-based shared manufacturing by Nejc Rožman, J. Diaci, & Marko Corn, the authors looked at blockchain applications in the field of shared manufacturing. Blockchain can be used to coordinate order fulfillment, process handling and real-time monitoring while providing additional security.
They present a cross-chain solution to implement their framework, analyzing both Ethereum and xDai. Results show that implementation on xDai outmatched the performance on Ethereum, where xDai can process three times more services per second than the Ethereum implementation. Service costs can be reduced by several orders of magnitude, and large fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrency can be eliminated by using the xDai Network.
Study 2
In A comparative analysis of the platforms for decentralized autonomous organizations in the Ethereum blockchain by Youssef Faqir-Rhazoui, J. Arroyo, & Samer Hassan, the authors explored decentralized governance amongst 3 prominent DAO platforms, Aragon, DAOhaus and DAOstack. They found that many DAOs are actively using xDai for summoning (creating) their DAOs and for voting. The price and speed differences were significant.
In exploring DAOhaus they found voters were more likely to cast additional votes on xDai than on mainnet. "Regarding the ratio of votes per voter, in all the platforms has a value around 4. The main difference that we observe is that in DAOhaus the ratio in xDai almost doubles that in mainnet, which could mean that xDai boosted participation.”
In addition, DAOs using xDai varied by platform. A majority of DAOStack DAOs are on xDai ( 62.71%), xDai users are 45.51%, and the number of xDai proposals 19.16% from the total. These figures illustrate the importance of the xDai network within the larger DAO ecosystem.
Commitment to Research
Academic and scientific circles are where many of the foundational aspects of blockchain have been discussed, debated and ultimately created. To this end, we are supporting organizations committed to deep research in the field. The 0xPARC Program for Applied Cryptography is a shining example. This week they announced their foundation which includes grant commitments from the Ethereum Foundation, Gitcoin, and the xDai chain.
xDai continues to be the open-source scaling solution of record for researchers exploring the future and building the next generation of applications in the years to come.
Team Updates
A Belated Birthday 🎂 Speaking of the years to come, we are looking forward to many more! Sometimes this forward thinking gets the best of us, and we forget to honor the past. xDai’s 3rd birthday came and went this year with little fanfare on October 8, 2021. At 3, the xDai chain is stronger than ever with more than 180 active projects and many more in the pipeline.
We plan to celebrate with some 🔥🕯🎂 on November 11 with the EIP-1559 activation!
EIP- 1559: The block number has been set (19,040,000) and we eagerly anticipate the London HF and EIP-1559 activation on xDai. If you are a node runner or validator using OE, upgrade instructions are available now. If you are running the Nethermind client, their latest release is also here. We will let you know shortly if there are any other considerations, so stay tuned over the next week!
Stake Beacon Chain: We continue to make quick progress with the Stake Beacon Chain and are honing in on a launch date. We’ll let you know the details as we complete stress testing and client integration.
OmniBridge The latest OmniBridge changes bring several updates including the ability to send ETH to and from xDai without needing to wrap and unwrap it first. Auto-unwrapping is especially convenient when moving from Ethereum to xDai, as it eliminates an extra process and an extra gas cost!
Project Updates
Agave is growing on xDai with 1M in TVL and rewards on the way. Their partnership with Symmetric is another example of xDai synergy, boosting liquidity and promoting additional attractive APR options for xDai DeFi users. This latest video explains the unique incentivization mechanisms.
Chainlink continues to support xDai with additional feeds for projects, their latest COMP/USD feed supports perpetual protocol users and others who may need it. A list of 32 active feeds are available here → https://data.chain.link/xdai/mainnet/crypto-usd
CLR Fund Round 8 ended and the results and contribution allotments are being tallied by their team now. Over 6000 contributors helped raised 70K (including matching funds) for public goods projects.
Token Pocket mobile wallet has supported xDai for some time, now xDai is added to their default list, increasing visibility and cross-chain compatibility.
HOPR Wildhorn testnet v2 initiative was a success, with over 886 accounts who interacted with HOPR channels on xDai. Learn more in their recap.
DAO Updates
DXdao released their latest treasury report, including an overview of LP positions on xDai totaling over 3M. The DAO behind Swapr, Omen and more continues to thrive and diversify.
DAOSquare Bistro is open, giving the community a place to redeem rewards using RICE tickets, which act as vouchers for the DAOSquare community. Learn more about the DAOSquare autonomous and self-operating community.
The Blockchain Education Network (BEN) is the largest network of blockchain students, professors, and alumni across the world. BENcoin is the official community token, and BEN Governance has officially launched on xDai along with a liquidity mining program.
New Integrations
IDLE is a new play to earn game and only available on xDai. Users earn IDLE passively, and can apply it for character upgrades and more.
Smashcash facilitates anonymous transactions on multiple chains. They released an xDai version this week.
NFT Calendar integrated xDai. If you are an NFT project, list your upcoming drops for greater visibility!
Keep CardStack on your radar 📡. We’re very excited for the Card Pay integration coming soon which promises to bring many new users to the crypto fold!
🗓 Mark Your Calendars
October 31: DarkForest Art Contest Ends
November 1: SNAFU Collection #3 Drop
November 2: CrytpoWine Exclusive NFT Release
November 11: 1559 on xDai
🙏 Thank you to our community of developers, users, artists, and researchers 👩🏽🚀👩🏽💻👩🎤👨🏻🔬! We appreciate all of the projects migrating to xDai and pushing blockchain into the future. Don’t be shy, we’d love to hear from you on Discord or our community telegram.
See you on-chain,
The xDai Team