Protocol Village: Lisa Neigut’s Base58 Gets First-Ever Bitcoin Grant From Donor-Advised Fund

Election 2024 coverage presented by
In today’s edition: UI Charitable, Base58, Unchained, Sound Advisory, Plan B, Tether, GnosisDAO, Flare, Google Cloud Marketplace.
UI Charitable, a manager of donor-advised funds (DAFs), has distributed the first grant from a DAF sent directly in bitcoin to a nonprofit organization. According to a press release, “The grant was sent to Base58 School of Engineering (EIN: 93-4881116), a charity dedicated to educating software engineers about the bitcoin protocol.” Base58 is a nonprofit led by Bitcoin Core and Lightning engineer Lisa Neigut. “This grant will be used this fall as a scholarship fund for five software engineers who want to learn the basics of programming bitcoin,” according to the release. “This grant came at the recommendation of one of our valued donors through our partnerships with Sound Advisory and Unchained, where we provide collaborative custody solutions for bitcoin Donor-Advised Funds. Through multisig vaults, donors can contribute, hold, and distribute bitcoin without needing to convert it to and from U.S. dollars at any point in the process. This is the first DAF solution to enable contributions, custody, and giving entirely in bitcoin.”
“Plan B, an initiative founded in collaboration with Tether and the City of Lugano to promote the use of Bitcoin and blockchain technology, on Friday hosted blockchain industry leaders, government officials and Bitcoin enthusiasts to unveil a life-sized statue of Satoshi Nakamoto at the Third Annual Plan B Forum in Lugano. In front of Lugano’s Villa Ciani, the presentation of the Satoshi Nakamoto statue marked a significant moment in honoring the vision and legacy of the anonymous creator of Bitcoin,” according to a press release: “The statue was created by Valentina Picozzi, who was inspired by the idea of capturing both the mystery and the enduring legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto.”
GnosisDAO, the community behind the EVM-compatible layer-1 network Gnosis Chain, has approved a proposal to finance a new $40 million GnosisVC Ecosystem Venture Fund. According to the team: “Under this proposal, GnosisDAO will invest $20 million into the Fund, with the remaining $20 million being raised by external limited partners. With a focus on RWAs, decentralized infrastructure and financial payment rails as target verticals, the fund will deploy into early-stage projects in line with Gnosis 3.0, which aims to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and practical, high-quality applications for the masses.”
Flare, a layer-1 EVM-compatible smart-contract blockchain designed to handle data, has launched Blockchain Machine Images, in partnership with Google Cloud Marketplace. According to the team: “Blockchain Machine Images is a service that significantly accelerates the deployment of blockchain nodes – from hours to minutes. This collaboration leverages Google Cloud’s infrastructure to provide developers with a streamlined way to launch full blockchain nodes for over 20 networks, including Flare’s own mainnets and testnets.” Here’s the upshot, from a press release:
Contributors to Pyth, a blockchain oracle project, announced the launch of Crypto Redemption Rate Feeds. According to the team: “It marks the unlocking of two new and popular asset classes: liquid restaking tokens and yield-bearing stablecoins.” A blog post explained: “Crypto Redemption Rates provide the exact value at which a crypto asset can be redeemed, sourced directly from its underlying smart contract. Unlike traditional price feeds that aggregate market prices from several sources, these feeds capture the programmatically defined exchange rate set by the asset’s protocol. This design is especially important for assets like liquid staking derivatives or interest-bearing tokens, whose values change based on internal mechanisms like accumulated rewards or interest accruals.” Redemption Rate Feeds are initially set to include Ondo Finance’s USDY, StakeStone’s STONE, Ethena Labs’ sUSDe, Mountain Protocol’s wUSDM and Crypto.com’s CDCETH, according to the post.
Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here.
Offchain Labs, the initial developer of Arbitrum, the biggest Ethereum layer-2 network, announced “Fast Withdrawals” – described as “a new feature allowing select Orbit chains and RaaS providers to achieve withdrawal finality in under 15 minutes, compared to the usual wait time of up to seven days.” According to the team: “Implementing Fast Withdrawals cuts withdrawal times by over 90%, making the process extremely similar to withdrawing funds from a bank account. Although it is not identical, it represents a substantial improvement over the traditional blockchain standard, bringing it much closer to the experience of conventional TradFi funds transfer.” According to a press release, “Orbit chains that plan future support for the new feature include Apechain, Cheese, Nova, Sanko, Xai and others. RaaS providers include Offchain Labs, Alchemy, Altlayer, Ankr, Caldera, Conduit, and Gelato.” Here’s how it works, according to the press release:
SenseiNode, a provider of institutional-grade staking as a service in Latin America, announced that it has achieved SOC 2 Type II Compliance. According to the team: “This certification, conducted by Decrypt Compliance, validates the company’s robust security controls and processes, ensuring they meet the criteria set forth by the AICPA.” Key areas covered include: 1) Access control 2) Incident response 3) Vendor management 4) System resilience. “This achievement reflects our dedication to safeguarding sensitive information with the highest standards,” says Pablo Larguia, CEO of SenseiNode.
Hana Network, a startup developing Hypercasual Finance with social network effects, has raised $4 million in a builder round from builders such as SushiSwap, Alliance and Orange DAO. The valuation of this round have not been disclosed. According to a press release: “Hana was founded last year by Kohei Hanasaka. The team has been tackling onboarding experience challenges for quite a while and launched Hana Gateway, trustless on/off ramp, in January 2024. Leveraging the insights gained from Hana Gateway, they are presently focused on developing Hypercasual Finance, which emphasizes user-driven distribution with existing open social networks.” According to the release: “The mainnet will be divided into four major phases. They have already achieved a successful launch of Mainnet Phase 1 with the hyper-casual card Lego game Hanafuda, where users can earn rewards while playing. New experiences will be gradually introduced from Phase 2 to Phase 4.”
DeFi protocol Synthetix V3 is expanding to Arbitrum, “representing a big step in its push to go multi-chain,” according to the team: “With this launch, Synthetix is set to deliver high-performance perpetuals trading to Arbitrum users, building upon its proven success on Optimism and Base, where it has facilitated over $50 billion in trading volume. Kwenta, the leading perpetuals marketplace, has teamed up with Synthetix to spearhead the launch of Synthetix V3 on Arbitrum.”
FLock.io, a decentralized AI model-training platform, has “partnered with the Aptos Foundation to elevate the capability of large language models (LLMs) in generating accurate code for the Move programming language on the Aptos network,” according to the team: “The initial version of FLock.io’s Aptos Move-tuned LLM demonstrated superior performance in testing compared to ChatGPT-4o – from simple “Hello World” scripts to more complex programs such as yield tokenization with AMM trading functionality. Additionally, the FLock model exhibited greater accuracy and adherence to Aptos-specific requirements.
Raise, a payments provider focused on gift cards, announced that a non-profit coalition called the Retail Alliance Foundation has launched, “committed to reshaping the future of a transparent and equitable gift card and loyalty economy.” In partnership with BFG Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Raise, the foundation will launch and govern the Retail Alliance Network, which aims to bring the multi-trillion-dollar gift card industry on-chain. According to the team: “The network offers brands greater control, security and transparency over their gift cards by using blockchain to combat fraud, cut costs and improve operations. This marks a key moment where blockchain addresses legacy inefficiencies, unlocking new growth and engagement opportunities.”
D3 Global, a next-gen internet infrastructure company developing the first authoritative domain network, on Wednesday announced a strategic registry partnership with Identity Digital, a leader in connecting the online world with domain names and related technologies. The partnership aims to tokenize new domains for billions of users on the Domain Name System (DNS) to deliver interoperability Web2 and Web3. D3 is also launching two new programs to expand the ecosystem, the D3 Developer Program and the D3 Proof of Ownership Protocol Program, which will support efforts to bridge Web2 and Web3 systems.”
BitGPT will be unveiling its groundbreaking AI platform to onboard the next billion users to Web3, in an announcement at this year’s Binance Blockchain Conference. According to the team: “Developed by the co-founders of SingularityNET, the first to merge Web3 and AI in 2017, BitGPT is the world’s first AI network for Web3, placing AI agents directly into user’s pockets. By translating user needs into Web3 transactions – regardless of language or literacy – BitGPT simplifies complex wallet operations into a single prompt and interface, bridging Generative AI with Web3’s onboarding challenges.”
Variational, a protocol enabling leveraged peer-to-peer trading for customizable crypto derivatives, announced Wednesday it has secured $10.3 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Peak XV Partners (FKA Sequoia India) with support from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, North Island Ventures, HackVC, Brevan Howard, and many other VCs, angel investors, and industry leaders.
Uniswap Labs has integrated Across’s intent-based bridging to enable secure, fast transfers of ETH, stablecoins and WBTC across nine chains – all within the Uniswap app. According to the team: “Doing so, Uniswap Labs and Across are laying the groundwork for any-asset to any-asset swapping. The upcoming ERC-7683 standard, co-authored by Uniswap Labs and Across, will further help unify the Ethereum ecosystem by standardizing how cross-chain interactions are expressed as Intents.”
Mantra, an institutional-grade layer 1 blockchain for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), announced the official launch of its mainnet. According to the team: “As a purpose-built layer-1 blockchain specifically designed to integrate traditional finance with blockchain technology, the Mantra Chain mainnet aims to quickly become the preferred ledger of record for RWAs. The Mantra Chain mainnet consists of a customizable suite of tools that is built with reliable network security and regulatory compliance at heart.”
Stokr, a digital-asset marketplace in the EU, has raised €7.4M ($8 million) in a funding round led by Fulgur Ventures, with a significant portion earmarked to establish one of Europe’s first corporate Bitcoin treasuries. According to the team: “Stokr also plans to expand its tokenized Bitcoin asset offerings on layer-2 technologies like the Liquid Network and transition to a regulated Crypto Asset Service Provider under MiCA.”
Sygnum Bank announced the launch of its new office in Lugano, Switzerland. According to the team: “The office will be a hub for expert Bitcoin banking solutions and improve physical interactions between Sygnum and its local clients and partners. Sygnum will also launch the first global Bitcoin Competence Centre. This strategic initiative, timed with the prestigious Plan B Forum event, focuses on research alongside strategic partnerships, innovative product and technology development, and active community engagement.”
Rocketon Labs has raised $1.2 million for Firecoin, its flagship AI-powered token insights platform on The Open Network (TON). According to the team: “With over 3 million users and recognized as the ‘CoinGecko for TON, on steroids,’ Firecoin democratizes access to crypto trading, empowering everyday users with essential tools for informed decisions. The funding will enable further development and expansion of the platform.”
BlockFills, a digital-asset technology and trading firm for institutions and professional traders, has appointed Amy Shelly as chief financial officer (CFO). According to the team: “The firm is preparing to launch international offices, expand the BlockFills product offering and position itself for major growth in the institutional digital assets space. Shelly has 30+ years of financial services management experience, including six years as CFO for the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization. A licensed CPA, Shelly has garnered numerous recognitions.” Separately, founding partner Neil Van Huis was promoted to chief strategy officer.
GOAT Network announced the launch of Founders Club, a program designed to empower individuals and teams to contribute to the development and growth of GOAT Network. According to the team: “Founders will have the opportunity to participate in key tracks, collaborate on projects and become valued members of the GOAT ecosystem. Members can choose between three distinct tracks tailored to different stages of project development, from ideation to adoption. In addition, GOAT Network’s testnet is now live for builders and developers.”
Edited by Bradley Keoun.

Disclosure
Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information have been updated.CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.
Bradley Keoun is the managing editor of CoinDesk’s Tech & Protocols team. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.