Author: 

100y (@100y_eth)

Reviewer: 

Jay : : FP (@JayLovesPotato)

Notable Projects

1. DeFi (12)

1.1 Entendre Finance (Source)

Entendre Finance is a web3 accounting platform based on the users’ blockchain history. Entendre provides a service that allows you to apply various filters to your transaction history to categorize and organize it. One of the challenges associated with using blockchain is the tracking and organizing of funds on-chain for taxes and other purposes, and these services can provide significant assistance.

1.2 Cetus (Source)

Cetus is a DEX based on the Move language and is a dApp on the Sui and Aptos networks. Cetus is characterized by its ability to provide liquidity in a specific range, such as Uniswap V3, which allows for high capital efficiency.

1.3 Portals (Source)

Portals is a more sophisticated protocol compared to existing general dexes, supporting the swap of all types of ERC-20 tokens, including LP tokens, vault tokens, and more, as well as aggregating yield farming strategies from numerous protocols.

1.4 Fedi (Source)

Fedi is a company that builds tools to help communities collaboratively manage assets and data and use the Bitcoin and Lightning networks. The idea is to collaboratively manage assets and data to reduce single points of failure. The main feature is a wallet, but the company plans to add chat, web browsing, and running dApps in the future. Many Bitcoin holders use centralized services like centralized exchanges, but even with a personal wallet, there’s a risk of losing keys, so a service like Fedi offers the best of both worlds.

1.5 Tristero (Source)

(Source: Link)

Tristero is a company that creates autonomous darkpool products. In traditional financial markets, a dark pool is a place where trades are privately executed when a particular order is deemed to have a large market impact. The outside world cannot see the order price and quantity, and the entity running the dark pool matches these trades. However, this means trusting a centralized entity, and if this entity acts maliciously, it can front-run the deal. To solve this problem, Tristero aims to develop a darkpool that utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to execute private transactions in a decentralized manner.

1.6 Opentrade (Source)

Opentrade is a protocol that allows treasuries or institutions on Web3 protocols to invest in a wide range of creditworthy investments on the blockchain. Examples include U.S. Treasury bonds and commercial paper (CP). Users can easily invest in these instruments by depositing a stablecoin. Recently, RWA products have shown a growing trend of being onboarded on-chain.

1.7 Smilee Finance (Source)

Smilee is a service that allows you to control impermanent losses (IL), which are unavoidable losses when using an AMM DEX. It introduces a new concept called Impermanent Gain, which allows users to pay a premium and use it to bet on volatility. This can be used for various purposes, such as ahead of a big market event, hedging a portfolio, or as a form of insurance against stablecoin depegging. The premium paid by users of Impermanent Gain is paid to liquidity providers in the form of real-yield. Impermanent losses have been one of the biggest headaches in DeFi, so it would be great to be able to hedge against them.

1.8 Polynomial Protocol (Source)

Polynomial Protocol is a decentralized derivatives exchange based on Optimism’s Synthetix protocol. It supports not only major tokens such as BTC and ETH, but also tokens that are not well represented in on-chain futures exchanges, such as Blur, dYdX, INJ, FLOKI, and FLOW. Liquidity is provided by Synthetix’s SNX stakers, who receive trading fees in return.

1.9 Dolomite (Source)

Dolomite is an Arbitrum-based money market and DEX protocol. In addition to providing over-collateralized lending, it also offers margin trading, spot trading, and more. While existing margin trading protocols usually allow trading based on stablecoins, Dolomite is different in that it offers not only stablecoins but also markets that allow you to pair trade WBTC and GMX, for example.

1.10 Asymmetry Finance (Source)

Asymmetry Finance is a liquid staking protocol on Ethereum. When users deposit ETH into Asymmetry Finance, they receive safETH, a token that holds a basket of wstETH, rETH, sfrxETH, sETH2 (coming soon), and ankrETH (coming soon). The advantage of automatically depositing funds into different liquid staking protocols is that it increases the diversity of protocols and hedges against single points of failure. It’s a kind of aggregator of liquid staking protocols.

1.11 Hourglass (Source)

Hourglass is a DeFi protocol that introduces a new concept called time-bound tokens (TBT). As a DEX protocol, liquidity is very important. However, there are many unpredictable points where users can withdraw liquidity whenever they want. To solve this problem, Hourglass offers users additional rewards instead of locking up their LPs for a certain amount of time, and on the other hand, DEX protocols can predict liquidity, so it’s a win-win situation. The concept of allowing on-chain trading of time as an asset is very interesting. (See: Time is money: introducing Hourglass)

1.12 Azteco (Source)

Azteco is a platform that makes it easy for unbanked populations to use Bitcoin. Users can purchase Azteco vouchers online or offline and redeem them for BTC. This is a very convenient way to own Bitcoin, as you don’t have to buy Bitcoin on an exchange to hold it.

2. CeFi (2)

2.1 River Financial (Source)

River Financial is a Bitcoin-focused platform that offers services such as DCA buying, custody, and mining of Bitcoin. It also provides an API for businesses to utilize the Lightning Network easily.

2.2 Jia (Source)

Jia is a blockchain-based fintech platform that provides loans to small businesses in developing countries. For small business owners, it makes it very easy to raise funds, and for investors, it allows them to lend money to businesses in developing countries that are otherwise difficult to invest in.

3. NFTs, Gaming (9)

3.1 FARE protocol (Source)

FARE protocol is an Arbitrum-based protocol that provides probability smart contracts for dApps. Justin Kan, one of the founders of Twitch, is also a co-founder of FARE protocol. The first game based on the FARE protocol is fareplay, which allows users to bet tokens and play casino-like games. While not many technical details have been released, the official website states that the odds can be managed transparently and randomly.

3.2 Vibe (Source)

Vibe is a platform that aims to add various functions to NFTs. The advantage is that even if you don’t know how to code, you can productize NFTs with various utilities. By giving NFTs loyalty points or the right to receive physical goods, creators and collectors can interact with fans in various ways. It’s worth noting that P Nation, the music label company run by South Korean singer Psy, also participated in the investment.

3.3 Artifact Labs (Source)

Artifact Labs is a company that aims to preserve real-world historical events on-chain. For example, the SCMP newspaper that covered the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China on the front page is being NFTized. Artifact Labs has set up a separate non-profit group called the Artifact Council to manage these standards, and their goal is to establish standards for on-chain archiving of historical documents.

3.4 Aether Games (Source)

Aether Games is a game studio that makes various games based on NFTs. Games include Cards of Eternity, a collectible card game, and Gate of Eternity, a 3D auto-battle game, and in addition to games, the studio plans to create a cinematic series using the Aether universe.

3.5 Artizen (Source)

Artizen is a web3 crowdfunding platform that allows you to raise money for projects related to art, science, technology design, and more. Once you submit your project, it will be reviewed and curated by the Artizen community, and you can start crowdfunding.

3.6 Pudgy Penguins (Source)

Pudgy Penguins is one of the leading PFP NFT projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, centered around the cute penguin character. Pudgy Penguins has been in business since April 2022, when Luca Netz purchased the rights to the brand for $2.5 million. Pudgy Penguins does not only produce NFTs but also sells physical toys based on them. Among the existing famous NFT projects, Pudgy Penguins is a noteworthy PFP project in that it is actively conducting an actual business.

3.7 Anotherblock (Source)

Anotherblock is a web3 music platform that utilizes NFTs. Through Anotherblock, users can collectively own music from their favorite artists and receive royalties on a six-monthly cycle. In the future, the company plans to utilize Superfluid to enable real-time royalty payments. Although the number of supported songs is currently small, the platform has songs onboard from popular artists such as The Weeknd, Rihanna, and Offset.

3.8 IZUMO (Source)

Izumo is a platform for otaku, streamers, illustrators, music and video producers to monetize their content on an ongoing basis. Their first project will feature a vocaloid named Ailis.

3.9 Tabi (Source)

Tabi is a BNB network-based NFT marketplace, formerly known as Treasureland. It offers basic NFT trading and launchpad service, but also offers a variety of activities through quests.

4. Layer 1, 2 (3)

4.1 Nolus (Source)

Nolus is a layer 1 blockchain based on the Cosmos SDK that provides money market service. It differs from other money market protocols in that it is not overcollateralized, allowing for more funds to be borrowed relative to collateral, with less risk of liquidation. It also offers IBC and ICA, allowing for interoperability with other app-chains. You can read more about how it works in the Docs. Nolus launched its mainnet on May 23rd.

4.2 Odsy (Source)

Odsy is a Layer 1 network, and its biggest differentiator from other networks is itsown dWallet. The main advantage of dWallet is that it can utilize different digital signature algorithms (ECDSA, EdDSA, Schnorr, etc.), allowing you to connect to multiple other networks with one wallet.

4.3 Anoma (Source)

Anoma is an architecture for full-stack dApps that is characterized by being intent-centric. An intent is a desired behavior of a network user, and is a smaller concept than a transaction. If transactions are the smallest unit in existing protocols, intents are the smallest unit in Anoma. By moving from transactions to intents as the base unit, Anoma provides a number of benefits to dApps.

5. Web3 (6)

5.1 Blockworks (Source)

Blockworks is one of the leading blockchain media organizations, organizing world-class conferences and publishing news, podcasts, and research articles. The company will use the funding to develop its research further and expand its business globally.

5.2 Story Protocol (Source)

Story Protocol is a platform that allows IPs to be created and managed on-chain. It also allows creators to create narratives through what they call story lego. There’s nothing publicly available yet, but with funding from leading VCs, we think it’s worth keeping an eye on.

5.3 LabDAO (Source)

LabDAO is an open research organization for computational life sciences in the form of a DAO. Researchers can propose research ideas on LabDAO to get grants or find collaborators. PLEX, a service operated by LabDAO, provides libraries for researchers to run BioML tools. PLEX offers a wide range of tools from Small Molecule Binding to Protein Folding.

5.4 Tools For Humanity (Source)

Tools For Humanity is the company behind the Worldcoin project, which has attracted a significant amount of investment despite the bear market. Worldcoin rewards people around the world with World IDs and Worldcoin tokens for verifying their humanity. It uses a device called Orb to recognize irises to prove human identity. Worldcoin’s co-founder, Sam Altman, is better known as the CEO of OpenAi, and it’s interesting to see someone who is a leader in AI also running a blockchain project. Sam Altman has argued that in the future, AI will make most of the population unemployed and that basic income policies will be crucial. To prepare for this, a project called Worldcoin aims to 1) validate people’s identity in the digital world and 2) provide them with a basic income.

5.5 Transak (Source)

Transak is a web3 payment service that provides on- and off-ramp functionality for users to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Transak is one of the largest crypto payment services in the world, supporting over 150 countries on over 75 blockchains. Transak provides APIs, SDKs, widgets, and more to make it easy for services to adopt Transak.

5.6 Magic (Source)

Magic is a Wallet-as-a-Service company that provides cryptocurrency wallets to various services. It offers a wallet SDK that makes it easy for developers to introduce non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets, and users can easily access their wallets using passwordless magic links. The round was led by PayPal Ventures, and it’s notable that PayPal service is available for on-ramp service on Magic.

6. Infrastructure (13)

6.1 zkLink (Source)

zkLink is a multi-chain trading infrastructure protocol based on zk-SNARKs. Users’ transactions sent to zkLink are collected in batches and submitted to multiple L1s along with zkp, and zkLink’s unique oracle network ensures that the Merkle roots submitted to each chain are the same, helping with cross-chain communication. Based on these communication protocols, zkLink will launch AMM, order book DEX, and NFT market.

6.2 Webb (Source)

Webb is a protocol that leverages ZKP to provide services to make cross-chain activities private. Webb allows users to transfer assets or authenticate their identity in a cross-chain ecosystem by depositing assets on one network and authenticating their identity on another network through ZKP. While most privacy protocols are limited to one network, Webb extends them to multiple networks.

6.3 Blocktorch (Source)

Blocktorch is a Berlin-based startup that provides a dashboard for developers that gives them visibility and insight into how their dApps are performing. Once a developer registers a smart contract, they can collect and analyze the history of that smart contract, provide charts, and react to specific events. Due to the security-critical nature of blockchain dApps, it is also very important to manage dApps after deployment, and Blocktorch is expected to help a lot in this aspect.

6.4 Cookbook (Source)

Cookbook is a smart contract registry and platform that makes it easy for developers to develop dApps. It provides easy access to open-source smart contract code for various protocols, explains how to use them, and lets you ask questions via chatGPT. In the future, they plan to create free educational materials.

6.5 Auradine (Source)

Auradine develops hardware and software for blockchain, AI, and privacy technologies in the digital world. Founded in 2022 by a group of top talents from various fields, such as security, SaaS, and semiconductors, the company has raised a whopping $81M in this round.

6.6 Cormint (Source)

Cormint is a Bitcoin mining startup that has raised investment to build a mining data center in Texas.

6.7 Airstack (Source)

Airstack is a platform that makes it easy for Web3 developers to query data from multiple networks. What’s especially interesting is that it has an AI assistant that allows you to query in natural language. For example, “give me Vitalik Buterin’s apecoin balance” or “list the ENS addresses of holders with more than 10,000 MATIC”.

6.8 Lagrange Labs (Source)

Lagrange is a cross-chain infrastructure utilizing ZKP. dApps that adopt the Lagrange Protocol can create ZKPs that can be verified on multiple networks, allowing them to be safely verified on other networks. It uses a similar concept to zkLink, which we discussed above. Initially, it will be available for EVM-compatible chains, with plans to support non-EVM networks like Solana, Sui, and Aptos in the future.

6.9 PYOR (Source)

PYOR is a data analytics platform for organizations. Users have access to a wide variety of data and can easily customize their dashboards. It’s still in private beta, so not much is publicly available.

6.10 Openfort (Source)

Openfort provides a backend for web3 gaming platforms to easily introduce and manage accounts. Since Openfort applies Account Abstraction to wallet technology, users of games that adopt it will be able to create blockchain wallets with a great UX easily. I think it will be a useful service for many web3 games in the future.

6.11 Sort (Source)

Sort is a developer platform that makes it easy to create blockchain dApps. As long as you have the address of a smart contract, you can build a front-end on top of it using HTML or Javascript to configure your app easily. It also supports SQL so that you can query data in real-time.

6.12 Tanssi Network (Source)

Tanssi Network is a service based on Substrate, the blockchain SDK of the Polkadot ecosystem, that makes it very easy for developers to create app-chains. Because it’s based on Substrate, it can utilize Polkadot’s cross-chain features like XCM. In Polkadot’s parachains, there is an entity called a collator that collects transactions, and Tanssi provides a set of shared collators so that developers don’t have to create a new collator set.

6.13 FastLane Labs (Source)

FastLane Labs is introducing an auction system as an MEV solution for EVM networks, allowing validators to earn additional MEV revenue. The first product was applied to Polygon. Think of it as a similar concept to Flashbots’ MEV-Boost for the Ethereum network. Since Polygon is one of the major networks, there are many MEV-intensive events, such as arbitrage and liquidations, and extracting MEV revenue from them is a very important task.

About Us

Four Pillars is a global crypto research firm based in Seoul, consisting of the most influential blockchain researchers in Korea. Through robust research and governance skills, it helps various market players easily onboard to the blockchain industry by offering high-quality research articles while supporting protocols in their expansion into Korean and global markets.

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