NEO

Neo Global Development opened the Polaris Launchpad, its second such event since the release of the Neo N3 MainNet in 2021. It follows the 2021 Frontier Launchpad, which distributed more than US $100,000 in prizes and $200,000 in post-event funding. The Polaris Launchpad began on Monday, March 7, 2022, and runs through June 21, with total prizes of $500,000. The five categories for the Polaris Launchpad Hackathon are:

  • DeFi
  • Metaverse and NFT
  • DAO
  • Middleware incorporating NeoFS and native Oracle networks
  • General

As was the case with the Frontier Launchpad, NGD is actively seeking to incubate the top projects built during the hackathon. Grand Prize winners will be admitted to NGD’s $200 million EcoBoost program.

The Frontier Launchpad Hackathon consisted of two phases, the Planathon and Development phase. This year’s Polaris Launchpad builds on that experience, and will have an additional third phase called Polaris Plus. In Polaris Plus, the Neo community will be able to donate GAS to projects, and these “votes” will be used to determine grant funding from NGD.

NGD hosted an opening ceremony livestream for the Polaris Launchpad. The stream included an overview of Neo N3 and how the platform fits into Web3, the technical aspects of the Neo ecosystem, examples of types of projects NGD would like to see in the hackathon, and details about the format and timeline of the launchpad event. NGD also released an overview of the Polaris Launchpad kick-off call topics.

NGD released an article that offered insights into the types of projects the entity would like to see developed in the Polaris Launchpad. Participants are encouraged to use their imagination to build projects that test the boundaries of blockchain technology and make use of all of Neo N3’s features.

NGD hosted a panel session titled The Revolution of Traditional Commerce, focused on DeFi. Panel participants included NGD, Flamingo, Lyrebird, Carbon, and O3 Labs representatives. In the event, panelists addressed the risk associated with DeFi, whether or not DeFi and centralized finance can coexist, obstacles that hold DeFi back from becoming mainstream, the future of DeFi, and projects the panel would like to see come out of the Polaris Launchpad.

NGD announced an upcoming Polaris Launchpad panel that begins at 4 p.m. (UTC) on Wednesday, March 16. The panel entitled Metaverse & NFT: Future or Illusion? will feature representatives from SkyHut, Rentfuse, Humswap, GhostMarket, and UFO Gaming. Afterward, a video recording of the panel will be uploaded to the official Neo YouTube channel.

NNT Catch Up

Neo News Today released an overview of the Knights of Revalia game being built on top of Neo N3. Knights of Revalia is a browser-based RPG game created by saar, a Neo community developer. Players can compete to advance their combat and production skills, collect or craft loot, and trade their riches in NFT form on GhostMarket. Playing the game is free; new players can create a character using a traditional username/password login system. Improved account security and functionality can be accessed by opting to use a Neo N3 address to create an in-game account.

Developer Groups

Neo Tracker announced the team is shutting down its Legacy and N3 blockchain explorers and web wallets. Users of the Neo Tracker web wallets will still be able to access their NEP-5 (Legacy) or NEP-11/NEP-17 (N3) assets via other Neo wallets. However, users who have not already stored a copy of their wallet information should do so before the website is taken down. The N3 products will sunset before March 18, and the Legacy explorer and wallet on March 22, 2022.

COZ released the Neon Wallet v2.12.6 update, which includes support for the sign/verify message functions, and fixed the maximum GAS amount that can be sent.

Ecosystem

March 7, TranslateMe announced the upcoming launch of v2 of its API, which offers cross-language support, auto language detection, usage data tracking, a basic user interface for developers, faster response times, and support for more languages.

March 8, Wexford, an alternative rock band out of Ohio, US, announced they will release their album as an NFT on Neo N3. It will be available for purchase on the SkyHut NFT marketplace.

March 10, Flamingo announced that the Switcheo SWTH token had migrated to the Neo N3 blockchain, provided an overview of the Legacy to Carbon to N3 migration process, and listed the NEP-17 SWTH token on the Carbon platform.

March 10, Switcheo released its monthly report for Jan. and Feb. 2022, which noted the launch of the Carbon blockchain on its MainNet, the launch of the CarbonHub cross-chain dApp, the listing of the GhostMarket GM token on the Demex non-custodial exchange, plus more.

March 11, Flamingo began distributing FLM rewards for contributors to the FLP-FLM-SWTH pool. Contributors to the FLP-FLM-SWTH liquidity pool now share an allocation of 1.5% of FLM that mints daily, distributed according to their weight of contribution.

March 11, Humswap participated in a community AMA where the team discussed the utility that various NFTs will have on the DeFi platform, an upcoming increase in the price of BOWL NFTs, a DogeRift play-to-earn game collaboration, and the upcoming integration of a staking feature.

Events

March 16: Polaris Launchpad panel – Metaverse & NFT: Future or Illusion?

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