The Web3 ecosystem has recently seen a dramatic rise in activity through total value locked in decentralized finance (“DeFi”), volumes on decentralized exchanges (“DEXs”), and stablecoin activity (see the Appendix). Looking at the first quarter of the year, we examine prominent events in the space, including:

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of the next big CCIP-powered application. Introducing Transporter: A hyper-secure and intuitive app for bridging tokens and messages with complete peace of mind, powered by Chainlink CCIP.

Named after the protagonist of the 1973 book Sybil, which recounts the story of a young woman diagnosed with Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID), the concept of a Sybil attack was first defined by Microsoft researchers Biran Zill and John R. Douceur in the early 2000s.

The blockchain ecosystem has become a multi-chain landscape, with hundreds of layer-1 and layer-2 networks, rollups, sidechains, appchains, and other environments, with continued ecosystem growth ultimately driving towards a future with thousands of different public and private blockchain networks. This Cambrian explosion has led to a diversity of blockchains, each offering unique value propositions for their users and developers.

As technology advances, the integrity and security of society’s online transactions, data, and identities are is of paramount importance.  From online banking to social media and various forms of digital identity, we are increasingly entrusting digital systems with mission-critical societal functions. With this progress, the sophistication, frequency, and attack surface of cyberattacks continues to increase.

We chose Chainlink as our preferred decentralized computing platform due to its proven history of enabling $9T+ in total value for decentralized markets and securely delivering 11.8B+ data points onchain. Additionally, Chainlink Proof of Reserve is our recommended service for tokenized asset issuers looking to bring reserve data onchain because of its ease of integration and ubiquitous adoption across the blockchain ecosystem.

In early civilizations, truth was based on myth. Observations of worldly phenomena were wrapped in symbolic narratives, religious beliefs, and ancient wisdom. Over time, humanity began to value objective measurements and reasoning, birthing disciplines such as science, mathematics, and logic.

While it’s undeniable that cross-chain is critical for unlocking exponential innovation in Web3, it also introduces a potential attack vector for malicious actors. In the software industry, many developers subscribe to the motto “move fast and break things.” But when it comes to cross-chain security and the safety of billions—and eventually trillions—in user funds, the opposite is true: If you move too fast, things break.

January 23, 2024 -- Today, the industry standard Chainlink Automation has gone live on Base—a fast and highly scalable layer-2 blockchain incubated by Coinbase and secured by Ethereum. This integration provides Base developers with verifiable, decentralized, and gas-efficient smart contract automation capabilities.

Since its initial launch, the focus for Chainlink Automation has been on developing new features and introducing new sets of triggers that enable developers to build novel onchain applications without having to create and manage supporting infrastructure. With this focus, Chainlink Automation has helped bring reliable and decentralized automation to a wide variety of smart contract automation use cases.