🧞Nuffle Labs: Crossover between NEAR and EigenLayer

Jul 22, 2024

GM and happy Monday frens🖖

New day - new project. This time it's an offspring of the famous NEAR - Nuffle Labs. They offer rollups via NEAR's Data Availability (NEAR DA) and Fast Finally Layer (NFFL) products.

They received $13 million in funding from NEAR in June. Why? Scroll down and find out! Maybe they were also touched by NVIDIA co-founder Jensen Huang...

Today we're diving into:

👾 First Epic Web3 hackathon
🏎️💨 NEAR for rollups
📰 This week's news

🤖Our First AI x Web3 Hackathon Was Epic!

Last week we organized the largest AI x Web3 hackathon to date. We explored how to use AI to make crypto simple and widely adopted, and how to leverage Web3 building blocks to ensure AI remains unbiased and decentralized.

We had:

3 days of non-stop coding
150+ participants
40+ project submissions on DoraHacks
$87k+ total prize pool

Hackers joined us from all over the world, including Europe, US, and Asia.

Check out how it all went and the projects our participants created on the dAGI 𝕏 account. Also, stay tuned for updates, as we'll soon be announcing many exciting events for everyone to join.

🤿Deep-dive: New product from NEAR?

Nuffle Labs (previously Near Modular) are building NEAR DA and NEAR Fast Finality Layer (NFFL). These products targeted towards scaling and expanding the Ethereum ecosystem with NEAR’s core primitives alongside with EigenLayer security.

Insights from keynote by Altan Tutar, Co-founder @ Nuffle Labs, from L2con! Watch full presentation here.

What do these products do?

NEAR DA (NEAR Data Availability): NEAR DA is a stateless, smart contract, linearly scalable data availability solution built on top of NEAR L1. It leverages the security of the NEAR protocol to provide data availability for ETH rollups.

NEAR Fast Finality Layer (NFFL) AVS (Active Validation Service):NFFL AVS leverages NEAR DA to store rollup sequences for a short period of time, so that self layer operators can prove state across L2s and make that state available to applications, enabling a wide range of cross-chain applications.

How does it work?

NEAR DA operates as a stateless smart contract designed to facilitate seamless communication between NIR shards. By leveraging NIR's data availability and consensus algorithm, it provides a scalable solution for Ethereum rollups. The process involves storing rollup sequences in NIRDA for a short period of time (typically 70 hours), during which time eigenlayer operators validate and prove the state over layer 2 networks. This setup allows efficient state proofing for rollups such as Optimism and Arbitrum.

The interaction between NEAR DA, NEAR protocol, and Ethereum rollups ensures that the data availability layer supports fast finality and robust security. NEAR DA design minimizes the data load on the consensus layer, improving the overall performance and scalability of the system.

Challenges and solutions

NEAR DA solves 3 challenges:

Fragmentation: With the proliferation of L2 solutions, interoperability is critical. NEAR DA's scalable data availability enables seamless communication between disparate L2 networks, promoting better integration and ease of use.

User Experience: Bridging assets between blockchains often results in delays and high costs. NEAR DA and AVS streamline this process, enabling faster and more cost-effective cross-chain transactions. This improves the overall user experience, making blockchain technology more accessible and efficient.

Security: Security remains a paramount concern, especially for L2 solutions that rely on the security of Ethereum. NEAR DA enhances security by combining the cryptoeconomic security of the NEAR protocol with the validation of Eigenlayer, providing a more robust and secure environment for blockchain applications.

Where can NEAR DA & NFFL be used?

Cross-chain decentralized exchanges:
NEAR DA's fast and secure data availability enables the development of cross-chain DEXs, enabling seamless asset trading between different blockchain networks. This paves the way for a more integrated and efficient decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Lending platforms:
Cross-chain lending platforms can leverage NEAR DA's capabilities to offer lending and borrowing services across multiple L2 networks. This expands the accessibility and utility of DeFi services.

Social apps:
NEAR DA facilitates the creation of cross-chain social applications, allowing users to interact across different blockchain networks. For example, platforms such as Lens can leverage NEAR DA to expand their functionality and reach.

Fast Bridges:
NEAR DA supports the development of fast bridges, enabling fast and secure asset transfers between different blockchains. This significantly reduces transaction times and costs, increasing the efficiency of cross-chain interactions.

💡Startups in Action: Blockchain Use Cases and Industry Applications

Dive deep into enterprise blockchain adoption and industry use cases with "Startups in Action: B2B Use Cases in Blockchain" conference, organised by Vis Caeli and Igniteers, this event bridges the gap between emerging blockchain applications and corporate implementation. This event showcases groundbreaking blockchain use cases across five industries, insights on the future of blockchain, and recent go-to-market strategies.

Watch now