Macauley Peterson

The network of Ethereum layer-2 rollups using zkSync’s ZK Stack got a new addition Thursday, with the launch of the Cronos zkEVM testnet.



Blockchain developer Cronos Labs is developing its third blockchain, which is the first to use ZK Stack hyperchain to reach a live testnet.



The first chain in the Cronos ecosystem was a Cosmos appchain developed in partnership with the Crypto.com exchange and launched in 2021. Cronos then followed up with an EVM-compatible chain, also built using the Cosmos SDK in 2022. This new effort augments, but does not replace, the prior two chains.



Cronos’ zkEVM is the result of a collaborative effort involving Cronos Labs, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/matter-labs">Matter Labs</a> (the team behind zkSync), and several engineering teams from stakeholders <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/cryptocom">Crypto.com</a> and dapp developers on the existing chains.



The zkEVM testnet is built on top of the Ethereum Sepolia testnet and leverages <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zk-rollups-vie-throughput-crown">zkSync’s new open-source prover, Boojum</a>, a STARK-based zero-knowledge proof system, notable for its low hardware requirements and low fees in the layer-2 rollup space.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-zero-matter-labs-open-source-norms">Polygon Zero and Matter Labs square off over open-source norms</a>



Launching a native Ethereum chain was motivated by frustrations with bridging across EVM chains and between Cosmos and Ethereum, according to Ken Timsit, managing director at Cronos.



“When we started building Cronos as an EVM chain, we were, of course, already convinced that the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> developer ecosystem has richness and robustness that has no comparison when it comes to building DeFi and NFT applications,” Timsit told Blockworks.



Good relations with Matter Labs and a desire to contribute to the open source development of the ZK Stack led them to take the next step.



Hyperchains share components of the ZK Stack, including a shared native bridge to the Ethereum mainnet and zkSync’s trustless bridging mechanism, in which assets remain secured by Ethereum.&nbsp;



It will also benefit from zkSync&#8217;s native account abstraction, which allows transactions fee payment in various cryptocurrencies, such as Cronos’ token (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/cro">CRO</a>).



“When you look at legacy chains, it&#8217;s very hard to migrate Ethereum assets, for example, to account abstraction enabled wallets,” Timsit said. “And so for us, starting by default with account abstraction is a way to take advantage of what this technology offers, better than what we can do on a chain which already has an ecosystem of wallets and tokens.”



Cronos’ zkEVM is expected to progress to mainnet in the second quarter of 2024.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Growing hyperchains</h2>



A handful of other hyperchains are in development using the ZK Stack, notably GRVT, (pronounced “gravity”) a derivatives exchange, and Tradable, which is working on bringing private credit on-chain.



Tradable intends to have an institutional focused hyperchain, eventually forming a decentralized chain alongside other institutional partners, according to Omar Azhar, Matter Labs head of business development.



“I think what you might start seeing is app specific chains and then ecosystem specific chains,” Azhar told Blockworks.



Matter Labs sees the zkSync hyperchain as strictly a better option than app-specific chains in Cosmos, such as Cronos’ earlier efforts, said Marco Cora, senior vice president of business and operations. That’s because Cosmos chains generally must provide for their own validator set and security, and lack native token bridges to Ethereum.



“If you are an appchain developer, why are you taking on these two extra projects that you shouldn&#8217;t really focus on: building the bridge and bootstrapping the security?” Cora told Blockworks.



The ZK Stack competes with other well-funded networks building zkEVM chains, including <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/polygon">Polygon</a>, whose Chain Development Kit (CDK) shares many of the same goals, and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/starkware">StarkWare’s</a> Starknet, the progenitor of <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/glossary#zero-knowledge-scalable-transparent-argument-of-knowledge-zk-stark">STARK</a> prover technology which both Polygon and zkSync have iterated upon.



Hyperchains can also serve the purpose of private blockchain frameworks such as Hyperledger or Corda, Cora said, but with all the benefits of Ethereum.



“They are technically highly scalable, but they practically don&#8217;t scale. When you speak with most enterprises, they tell you this is way too expensive for what it is for me,” he said.



Aside from cost considerations, there’s the social coordination problem.



“If you&#8217;re Goldman Sachs, you don&#8217;t want to join the Morgan Stanley Chain just because it&#8217;s the Morgan Stanley Chain. If you&#8217;re Fidelity, you don&#8217;t want to join the BlackRock Chain just because it&#8217;s the BlackRock Chain and so on and so forth,” Cora said.



“But if the sponsor of the chain…forced himself to create a zero knowledge proof and to hand this proof to a third party — which is Ethereum — they now can claim a much higher degree of credible neutrality,” he added. “Now, this party cannot mess with the system.”



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Cronos broadens scaling roadmap from Cosmos to Ethereum

Shalini Nagarajan

<div id="highlights-block_629f2113a99e1" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Those accepted to the 10-week cohort-based program will be assigned to mentors from within the ecosystem</li>
 <li>The announcement comes less than two weeks after Crypto.com named former Bittrex executive Kwon Park as its new managing director to help drive its Web3 ambitions</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A&nbsp;public blockchain network supported by Crypto.com said Tuesday it has launched a $100 million accelerator program to support developers undertaking new blockchain projects.



<a href="https://cronos.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cronos</a>, the Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible network, announced the program is aimed at assisting projects in the advanced DeFi, Web3 gaming and infrastructure space that are looking for funding and mentorship.



Those accepted to the 10-week cohort-based program will be assigned to mentors from within the ecosystem. Between 3 to 4 cohorts will be selected each year, with an average of ten startups in each. Members will have the opportunity to attend weekly workshops that touch on topics linked to protocol-building. 



The Cronos Accelerator has a tie-up with key partners for investment, mentorship and workshops, including Mechanism Capital, Spartan Labs, IOSG Ventures, OK Blockchain Capital and AP Capital.



“Through Cronos Accelerator, we want to enhance the potential of projects that sincerely want to help grow the ecosystem by providing support in almost every area of their operations,” Ken Timsit, Cronos managing director, said in a statement.



Chosen projects will also have the chance to nab seed investments worth between $100,000 to $300,000 from Cronos Labs and other established venture capitalists. They will be given marketing support and access to Cronos’ user base via introductions through social media and AMA webinars.



Timsit told Blockworks the current market downturn is a good time for founders to think harder about user problems, while early adopter token rewards are less effective.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;A soft market environment can be an attractive time to start a startup accelerator, because the value proposition of an accelerator is all about iterating and fine-tuning a product idea in order to reach product market fit,&#8221; he said.</blockquote>



The announcement comes less than two weeks after Crypto.com named former Bittrex executive Kwon Park as its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-com-hires-to-further-web3-ambitions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">new managing director</a> to help drive its Web3 ambitions.



Despite a recent market downturn, it appears some crypto companies are seeking to shore up business opportunities through sizeable investments.



Rarible recently <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/web3-watch-netflixs-nft-scavenger-hunt-and-elvis-metaverse-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched</a> its own accelerator and grant program dubbed <a href="https://join.accelerari.xyz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AcceleRari</a>. Using a pitching process, five non-fungible token (NFT) projects will earn support and resources from Rarible’s protocol team. The Sandbox’s parent company, Animoca Brands, announced a similar $30 million <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/animoca-brands-and-brinc-to-invest-up-to-30m-in-play-to-earn-ecosystem/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Guild Accelerator Program</a> in February.



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Cronos Creates $100M Accelerator Program To Support DeFi, Web3 Projects

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_6206b99ef5797" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>PayPal finalized its new crypto advisory council</li>
 <li>21Shares, the largest issuer of cryptocurrency ETPs, hired three senior sales pros to enlarge its US footprint</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Bitcoin mining and crypto tech company Bitfury has hired Jonathan Gould as its chief legal officer in the latest instance of a government official to join a crypto firm.



Gould most recently worked as senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel at the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Before that, he was chief counsel of the US Senate Banking Committee.



Crypto.com has hired Giuseppe Giuliani, previously global head of institutional relationships and services at Kraken, as managing director of the company’s exchange. He will look to expand into new markets and introduce new offerings for institutional investors.



Ken Timsit has been named managing director for the Cronos blockchain. He was formerly chief revenue officer in charge of global sales and marketing at blockchain technology company ConsenSys.



Cronos supports both Ethereum and Cosmos technology, including DeFi, NFTs and metaverse technologies. Timsit will help the blockchain firm scale its DeFi (decentralized finance) and Web3 business by equipping developers with the resources to instantly port apps and crypto assets from other chains.



Sébastien Badault joined digital assets platform Ledger as its vice president of metaverse and Web3. He will oversee the company’s NFT (non-fungible token) division, plus gaming and brand collaborations.



Badault was previously a managing director at Alibaba and also spent more than 10 years at Google, where he ran the company’s French operations. Before Google, he led Amazon’s customer and partner acquisition strategy across the UK, Germany and France.



Crypto prime brokerage FalconX has hired former Carta chief people officer and Bloomberg head of talent Suzy Walther as its head of people, amid a push to fill hundreds of roles across engineering, marketing, HR and customer support.



The company, which <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/falconx-coindcx-hit-unicorn-status-amid-uncertain-regulatory-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised</a> $210 million in August, has also hired Sujay Jaladi as its new vice president of security. He was previously chief information security officer at Gusto, Ripple, Harbor, Inc., Earnin and PayPal subsidiary Xoom.



&#8220;Institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to cement the notion that the world&#8217;s economy will be tokenized in 5 to 7 years,&#8221; FalconX CEO Raghu Yarlagadda said in a statement.



TaxBit, a tax and accounting solution for the tokenized economy, hired Nathan Jones as senior vice president of worldwide public sales and government affairs. Jones has worked the last 19 years at IBM subsidiary Red Hat.



The company also brought aboard Miles Fuller as head of government solutions, plus Christi Muoneke as corporate general counsel.



Fuller joins TaxBit after a 15-year stint with the IRS, where he worked in a senior legal role. Muoneke previously spent more than 15 years working at Meta, DocuSign, Microsoft and Avalara.



Charlie Hu, former head of Polygon China, has joined Syscoin, a decentralized, open-source project created in 2014 by the founders of Blockchain Foundry.



As an ecosystem advisor, he will help drive the company’s expansion into untapped markets. While at Polygon, he focused on business development in Asia.&nbsp;



Marathon Digital appointed Raymond Walintukan as vice president of mining operations. He previously served as chief operating officer of Apifiny subsidiary Hash Hive. Before that, he served as the head of operations at Bitmain North America.



The hire comes as Marathon seeks to grow from 3.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) at the start of February to 23.3 EH/s by early next year.



PayPal brought aboard specialists in cryptography, distributed technology, regulation, economics and capital markets to establish a crypto advisory council.



The council includes Peter Briger, Jr., co-CEO of Fortress Investment Group; Chris Brummer, a Georgetown University law professor and faculty director of the Institute of International Economic Law; Dr. Shafi Goldwasser, director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley; Timothy Massad, an ​​adjunct law professor at Georgetown University and research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School; Dr. Neha Narula, director of MIT Digital Currency Initiative; and Antoinette Schoar, a finance professor at MIT Sloan School of Management.



Former Domino’s Pizza President Kory Spiroff joined the advisory board of FriesDao.



Spiroff is tasked with bridging real-world operations with blockchain-based governance. FriesDAO plans to acquire and build on-chain membership around popular fast food franchises.



Metaplex Studios, a US organization working to advance Solana NFT protocol Metaplex, tapped Stephen Hess as its CEO.



21Shares, the largest issuer of cryptocurrency ETPs, has hired three senior sales professionals to boost US growth.



Hires include Kayle Watson as US head of sales; Aram Babikian, who will lead US west coast and Latin America business development; and Ches Snider as US head of research sales.



The executives combined have decades of traditional finance experience at firms such as BlackRock, Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and Guggenheim Securities.



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