Stories by Aurora Labs on Medium

Aurora Pass Goes Live!

Aurora Labs — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 14:53:55 GMT

Simplifying the Transition to Web3

Gibraltar, GI, July 20th, 2023

Aurora Labs is excited to introduce Aurora Pass, the revolutionary mobile crypto wallet for the Aurora networks. Aurora pass is designed to simplify the onboarding process allowing businesses to tap into the Web3 world without compromising on effectiveness and simplicity.

With Aurora Pass we provide businesses a straightforward path to Web3 by simplifying the onboarding process for their users, streamlining gas fee management, and enabling easy interaction with decentralized applications on mobile browsers, while ensuring the utmost safety and security for digital assets. By integrating with Aurora Pass businesses can harness the power of Web3 while providing their users easy access to this new world!

By integrating Aurora Pass, businesses gain effortless access to the power of blockchain through a universal transaction signer. This enables seamless cooperation across entities and unlocks new experiences for customers. The groundbreaking feature of aggregating assets and transactions in a single wallet empowers businesses to collaborate by recognizing assets from other companies, allowing loyalty programs to thrive in the blockchain realm.

To read more about Aurora Pass and what it offers we encourage you to read our introduction to Aurora Pass and we invite you to get in touch with our team for questions pertaining to its integration!

Embrace Aurora Pass today and unlock the true potential of decentralized technologies. Experience the seamless incorporation of blockchain features and foster collaboration in the ever-evolving world of Web3, get started now!

Download Aurora Pass: Apple Store: https://apps.apple.com/it/app/aurora-pass-web3-wallet/id6447244286?l=en-GB Google Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=aurora.pass.android.app Watch out video:

About Aurora Labs

Powered by its high-performance EVM, and fully trustless Rainbow Bridge, Aurora combines an Ethereum compatible experience with the modern blockchain performance of NEAR Protocol. Aurora provides an optimal environment for the creation of scalable, carbon-neutral, future-safe, and low-cost Web3 services, as well as the perfect tools to bring to life your Web3 initiatives. Try Aurora Cloud (https://auroracloud.dev), our all-in-one blockchain solution for enterprises, and get your Web3 journey started!

For more information on this press release contact: elliot.mayer@aurora.dev

Aurora Pass Goes Live! was originally published in Aurora Platform on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Aurora Cloud: Enhancing Cloud Computing with Blockchain

Aurora Labs — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 09:46:38 GMT

In recent years, the convergence of cloud computing and blockchain technology has given rise to a formidable alliance that holds great potential for driving digital innovation. Cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses store and access data, while blockchain has brought about unprecedented security, and decentralization. At the forefront of this convergence stands Aurora Cloud, an innovative platform that harnesses the power of blockchain to elevate cloud computing capabilities to new heights. In this short article we shall look into the ways Aurora Cloud provides a successful synthesis between these two worlds opening up new avenues for development.

The Synergy between Cloud Computing and Blockchain

Cloud computing has transformed the business landscape by providing organizations with scalable, flexible, and cost-efficient access to vast computing resources. With the ability to scale resources on demand, work from any location, and pay only for what is consumed, cloud computing has not only enhanced operational efficiency but has also facilitated the emergence of innovative business models bringing a wave of innovation across different industries.

While cloud computing has undoubtedly been a revolutionary advancement, it is not without its limitations. The centralized nature of cloud platforms has raised concerns regarding security, data privacy, integrity, and transparency. However, these challenges find a potential solution in blockchain technology, which offers a decentralized and tamper-proof framework. By leveraging blockchain’s capabilities, cloud computing can be enhanced to address these pitfalls, strengthening the overall reliability and trustworthiness of cloud-based systems.

There are four particular areas that blockchain technology can help improve and streamline different operations. Let us look at them one by one.

Security and Privacy: Cloud platforms have inherent vulnerabilities such as security breaches, data theft, and unreliable data storage due to their centralized nature. However, blockchain technology addresses these limitations by utilizing a distributed ledger system. By recording transactions across multiple copies stored in various locations, blockchain ensures data immutability and makes tampering highly challenging and easily detectable. Additionally, blockchain-based cloud platforms leverage smart contracts to enforce secure data sharing rules, granting access and sharing permissions exclusively to authorized users and effectively blocking unauthorized parties.

Vendor Lock-in and Interoperability: When it comes to achieving interoperability, blockchain technology plays a crucial role in enhancing the seamless integration of various cloud providers. Blockchain acts as a decentralized and distributed ledger that allows for secure and transparent transactions between different parties. In the context of cloud computing, blockchain enables the creation of a shared infrastructure that facilitates data and resource exchange among multiple cloud platforms. By incorporating blockchain technology, platforms like Aurora Cloud establish a common protocol or set of standards that enable interoperability between disparate cloud service providers. This is achieved through the implementation of smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with predefined rules and conditions. These smart contracts automate the negotiation, verification, and execution of transactions, ensuring that all parties involved adhere to the agreed-upon terms. With blockchain-based interoperability, businesses can seamlessly transfer their applications, data, and services between different cloud providers without being tied to a specific vendor. This eliminates the barriers associated with vendor lock-in and allows organizations to leverage the strengths and unique offerings of multiple cloud platforms.

Greater Control & Enhanced Management: As mentioned before, traditional cloud computing requires businesses to trust service providers with the management and security of their data, and this raises concerns about data ownership and management as well as governance. By leveraging the distributed nature of blockchain, platforms like Aurora Cloud can allow businesses to directly manage their data and computing resources. By storing their data on a decentralized network instead of relying on a centralized server controlled by a cloud provider, businesses can enhance their security while retaining greater control over data access. But this is not all, blockchain facilitates the creation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that autonomously manage cloud resources in a transparent manner. By establishing a DAO, businesses can exert greater control over their cloud resources, aligning them with their interests and objectives. This decentralized approach enables businesses to optimize their cloud environment by setting rules and policies for resource utilization, tailoring it to their specific needs and preferences.

Ushering a new Era of Cloud Computing with Aurora Cloud

Aurora Cloud is a comprehensive cloud infrastructure solution that acts as a bridge between Web2 and Web3 technologies. It was specifically developed by the Aurora Labs team in order to offer a range of products and platforms to facilitate a smooth transition for businesses into the Web3 ecosystem by removing the frictions often experiences by businesses and users.

With its all-in-one cloud infrastructure solution, Aurora Cloud offers unique features and advantages that set it apart from traditional cloud computing platforms. Firstly, Aurora Cloud seamlessly integrates Web3 technologies into cloud computing workflows allowing businesses to tap into the decentralized and trustless nature of blockchain, enabling secure and transparent data storage, processing, and transactions.

Additionally, Aurora Cloud is powered by Aurora, an innovative blockchain that ensures seamless compatibility with Ethereum while leveraging the speed, scalability, and cost-efficiency of the NEAR protocol. The speed and scalability of the underlying blockchain protocol translate into faster processing times, improved transaction throughput (up to 10,000 per second), and reduced costs compared to traditional cloud infrastructure options.

Getting Started with Aurora Cloud

If you are ready to innovate your business and gain an edge by modernizing and boosting your capabilities then Aurora Cloud is the right choice for you. Get in touch with our team to learn more about it and how your business could benefit from the Aurora Cloud stack.

About Aurora

MARBLEX<>Aurora AMA Recap

Aurora Labs — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 11:20:51 GMT

On June 22nd, MARBLEX, a leading game-based blockchain service company, announced its technical partnership with Aurora and NEAR Protocol. Following the announcement, Aurora’s CEO, Alex Shevcheno and MARBLEX’s Marketing Manager, Hannah Kang, hosted an AMA session to outline the scope of the partnership and its implication for both ecosystems.

MARBLEX’s Blockchain Services & Game Lineup

MARBLEX is a game-based blockchain service company and subsidiary of South Korea’s №1 gaming company, Netmarble. Since its inception in 2022, MARBLEX has focused on creating new gaming experiences by leveraging blockchain technology. Currently, MARBLEX provides a comprehensive ecosystem of seven blockchain services designed to enhance the gaming experience. At the core is their user-friendly wallet service, enabling seamless token transfers with the convenience of nicknames. The MBX swap service facilitates effortless token exchanges for their game tokens, while the MBX launchpad and marketplace offer a platform for trading MARBLEX’s NFTs. NFT staking boosts the utility of NFTs within the MBX ecosystem. Excitingly, the upcoming “MBX Station” will revolutionize blockchain integration in games, eliminating the need for additional in-app development.

MARBLEX’ game lineup includes four games integrated into the MBX ecosystem. The first game is A3: Still Alive, an MMORPG with Battle Royale PVP content that achieved great success in Korea and quickly settled into the crypto market as a high-quality game. The second game is Nino Kuni: Cross Worlds, a grand-scale MMORPG based on Level 5 and Studio Ghibli’s IP, which ranked №1 in Google sales in various Asian countries and launched with blockchain integration. King of Fighters: Arena is a 1v1 combat game based on the popular IP, while Metaworld: My City is a multi-layered real estate metaverse game that incorporates real city layouts and map topography.

Expanding Korea’s Web3 Gaming Industry with NEAR Protocol and Aurora

MARBLEX had initially launched on Klaytn network, however, it soon realized that in order to bring its vision to reality MARBLEX would need to focus on creating a multichain and scalable environment.

The decision to partner with Aurora Labs then came as MARBLEX recognized the need for multi-chain support to unlock the full potential of blockchain gaming. NEAR and Aurora could provide the scalability and accessibility that MARBLEX needed in order to unlock the full potential of blockchain gaming and bring to the fore their vision. As Hannah Kang put it:

“One of the main objectives of the MARBLEX platform is to remove various obstacles that may limit gamers or blockchain enthusiasts from accessing or on-ramping the blockchain ecosystem. Then, the ultimate goal of a multichain expansion with NEAR and Aurora Labs is to provide a seamless experience for users when transitioning from chain to chain or when moving from on-chain to off-chain. A MARBLEX platform supported by multi-chain will provide gamers with the option to join a blockchain ecosystem of their choice and allow the MBX token to be utilized in a variety of services within that ecosystem. Conversely, users that are accustomed to a specific blockchain ecosystem could easily transition to our gaming ecosystem without having to move to another chain, which will have a positive impact on the expansion of the MARBLEX ecosystem.”

What’s Next?

The partnership among NEAR Protocol, Aurora, and MARBLEX aims to foster mutual growth by encouraging joint marketing events, and elevating brand visibility. Furthermore, this partnership will demonstrate the immense potential of NEAR Protocol and Aurora in supporting ambitious projects. Alex Schevchenko, CEO of Aurora Labs, remarked:

“We are thrilled that MARBLEX has chosen our ecosystem as their next blockchain partner. The integration of gaming with blockchains has proven successful, and with the NEAR and Aurora stack, we possess the scalability required to serve the largest gaming companies.”

In the coming month, Aurora will play a crucial role in this partnership by providing the essential EVM environment required to facilitate the smooth transition of existing MARBLEX services to the NEAR and Aurora ecosystems and help MARBLEX achieve its goals.

MARBLEX has a lot in store for their users, in their latest update, MARBLEX introduces exciting developments for their game, including the unveiling of the romantic city of Paris as the next real estate area. Alongside the Paris release, significant updates are also coming to the board game feature, including the highly anticipated addition of Friendly Match, enabling players to enjoy the game with their friends, and the introduction of the “Expert 3 channel” to enhance competitive experience. These are only a few of the updates that MARBLEX has shared during our twitter space, to hear more about it we suggest you check out the full AMA and to keep an eye out for further news on their social media channels!

About Aurora

About MARBLEX

MARBLEX (MBX) is a game-based blockchain service company that aims to bring the highest quality blockchain games to market than any other company by producing AAA titles. A well-established company with over 6,000 collaborative employees, including game industry veterans and blockchain technology experts from across the globe. By providing services such as a cryptocurrency wallet, decentralized exchange, token staking, and NFT Marketplace, MARBLEX (MBX) allows users to experience an optimal blockchain-based game ecosystem.

Live games under MARBLEX Service

Upcoming games under MARBLEX Service

MARBLEX Official Website
> https://www.marblex.io/

MARBLEX Blockchain Services
> MBX MarketPlace : https://marketplace.marblex.io/
> MBX SWAP Service : https://swap.marblex.io/

MARBLEX Official Discord Link:
> https://discord.com/invite/marblexgames

MARBLEX Official Twitter:
> https://twitter.com/MARBLEXofficial

MARBLEX Official Telegram Link:
> EN: https://t.me/MARBLEX_official_ENG
> JP: https://t.me/MARBLEX_official_JP
> TH: https://t.me/MARBLEX_official_TH
> TW: https://t.me/MARBLEX_official_TC

MARBLEX Official Facebook:
> https://www.facebook.com/MARBLEXplayground

The Fast Rainbow Bridge for NEAR to Ethereum Token Transfers is Live!

Aurora Labs — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 01:55:00 GMT

We are excited to announce the launch of the Fast Rainbow Bridge, a new option for transferring tokens from the NEAR blockchain to Ethereum in a matter of minutes. Unlike the classical Rainbow Bridge, which can take several hours, the Fast Bridge offers significantly faster token transfers while mitigating certain limitations of the traditional approach. After having been available in White List mode, the Fast Bridge is now available to all!

Let’s take a closer look at the changes introduced by the Fast Bridge and what users can expect.

Classical vs Fast Rainbow Bridge

With the Classical Rainbow Bridge, time required to bridge ERC-20 tokens from the NEAR and Aurora ecosystem to Ethereum takes between 4 and 8 hours. This is because the Classical Rainbow Bridge implements the following design:

Optimistic Approach: The classical Rainbow Bridge uses light-clients as its operational media, and for NEAR light client on Ethereum it uses an optimistic approach, whereby NEAR validators signatures are not checked by default, due to extremely high gas usage required for its verification on Ethereum. Only when challenged, the signatures are verified on-chain, leading to a 4-hour challenge period.

Frequency of NEAR Blocks Transfer: NEAR blocks’ headers are sent to Ethereum only once every 4 hours due to the expensive gas fees on the Ethereum network. This can result in a total transfer time of up to 8 hours, including the block transfer and a challenge period.

Two-Phase Transfer: In the classical Rainbow Bridge, token transfers require two actions: initiating the transfer on the NEAR side and withdrawing the tokens on the Ethereum side. There can be a gap of up to 4 hours between these two actions, prolonging the overall transfer process. This approach requires the user to finalize the transfer on the Ethereum side by providing proof of the transfer, hence the finalization might be pretty expensive due to gas usage.

No Cancellation: Once a transfer is initialized, it cannot be canceled. The user must complete the transaction on the Ethereum side to retrieve the locked tokens. This process can take approximately 4 to 8 hours, plus an additional 20 minutes to receive the funds back on the NEAR side.

In order to enable fast transfers and overcome the limitations of the Classical Rainbow Bridge, the team introduced the three additional components:

LP-Relayer (Liquidity provider relayer): An off-chain service with accounts on both Ethereum and NEAR, the relayer holds liquidity in tokens on the Ethereum side and facilitates token transfers between NEAR and Ethereum. Upon receiving the tokens back on the NEAR side, the relayer transfers his funds back to Ethereum to replenish its liquidity using the classical Rainbow Bridge.

NearFastBridge: A contract on NEAR that locks tokens and transfers them to the relayer upon providing proof of the finalized transaction on the Ethereum side.

EthereumFastBridge: A contract on Ethereum used by the relayer to transfer tokens to users. This contract generates events of token transfers on the Ethereum side.

With the introduction of these new elements, the Rainbow Bridge is now able to perform transfers of ERC-20 tokens from the NEAR to the Ethereum ecosystem within a few minutes and with an additional relay fee.

The Fast Bridge solution is decentralized and trustless. This is achieved because the Fast Bridge allows multiple relayers to provide liquidity, thus allowing a competitive market for fast transfers. Users, on the other hand, may claim their tokens back if their transfer was not completed (for example, in case the relayer is down or the provided fee is too low) within the max transfer time window (currently equals to 4 hours). Moreover, to claim tokens back on the NEAR side, the relayer must provide proof of the finalized bridge transaction from the Ethereum side.

How Does it work?

During the token transfer from NEAR to Ethereum, the transaction flow follows these steps:

The User initiates the transfer by calling the init_transfer function in the NearFastBridge contract. This generates a unique nonce and emits the FastBridgeInitTransferEvent. The LP-Relayer captures the FastBridgeInitTransferEvent, checks if it satisfies the fee requirements, and transfers the tokens to the User on the Ethereum side using the transferTokens function in the EthereumFastBridge contract. The EthereumFastBridge contract then emits the TransferTokens event. The EthToNearRelayer submitsEthereum blocks to the Ethereum light client on the NEAR side. The LP_Relayer unlocks the tokens by calling the lp_unlock function in the NearFastBridge contract and provides the proof of the TransferTokens event. The NearFastBridge contract verifies the proof and transfers the tokens and fee to the LP-Relayer on the NEAR side.

What’s New for Users?

You can now choose to transfer ERC-20 tokens from the NEAR to the Ethereum ecosystem benefitting from the fast transfer function. With the valid fast transfer, you will be able to bridge your assets, usually in a few minutes. In the Fast Rainbow Bridge, the cost of the transfer is covered by the relayer, relieving the user from paying the gas fees on the Ethereum side. The relayer takes care of the gas expenses and ensures that the transaction is executed promptly to mitigate any potential gas price fluctuations.

The fee for utilizing the Fast Rainbow Bridge is calculated dynamically and paid in the same tokens that are transferred. The currentfee is equal to ~$20 base fee plus 0.1% of the transferred amount. From the start, the Fast Rainbow Bridge supports AURORA, WBTC, and USDC transfers, while new tokens will be added in the future. Currently, the Fast Rainbow Bridge requires a NEAR account to create the transfer, however our team is already working on adding the Fast Bridge option for the Aurora network. Stay tuned!

About Aurora

Aurora is a platform for Web3 developers to build pioneering and scalable distributed applications. Powered by its high-performance Ethereum Virtual Machine (the Aurora Engine) and fully trustless bridge (the Rainbow Bridge), Aurora combines the builder-friendly development experience of Ethereum with the modern blockchain performance of the NEAR Protocol to offer an environment for creating highly scalable, carbon-neutral, future-safe, and low-cost Web3 services.

Aurora Labs Welcomes Opolis to Simplify Crypto Compensation for Independent Web3 Workers and…

Aurora Labs — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 09:17:18 GMT

Aurora Labs Welcomes Opolis to Simplify Crypto Compensation for Independent Web3 Workers and Freelancers

We are thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Opolis, a blockchain-based employment cooperative providing employment tech aimed at empowering independent workers in the Web3 ecosystem!

The integration of Aurora Labs and Opolis will empower independent workers by enabling seamless USDC payments on the Aurora network, fostering flexible payment processes, and providing greater accessibility to compensate workers in their preferred currencies. This partnership is expected to greatly benefit both Web3 businesses and independent workers that function globally to manage their payrolls efficiently.

With this integration, Opolis members will be able to receive payments on-chain in USDC.e or USDC on the Aurora Network. Moreover, businesses operating in the Aurora ecosystem can leverage the Opolis platform to streamline payments for freelancers and fund payroll, driving increased financial flexibility and operational efficiency. Aurora Labs will be one of the significant players in Opolis’ mission to collaborate with successful blockchain ecosystems and provide them with flexible payment options, thus redefining the experience for independent workers.

“The way people work is changing, and we at Aurora are making shifts to accommodate that,” said Anton Paisov, Head of Integrations at Aurora. “We want the independent workers that are a part of our team to get paid in a way that suits their best interests and prioritizes the things that they value the most. This integration with Opolis makes this vision a reality.”

“We’re on the brink of a workplace revolution that will provide workers greater autonomy, flexibility, and satisfaction than a traditional ‘career’ ever could,” said John Paller, Executive Steward at Opolis. “What Opolis wants to do is to empower people to work the way they please and make all of the scary administrative stuff easy. This integration with Aurora furthers that goal by opening up access to the folks that prefer payment in digital currencies.”

To learn about the growing Aurora ecosystem, visit aurora.dev for more information.

About Opolis

Opolis is a member-owned digital employment cooperative that uses blockchain technology to supply tools that independent workers can use to manage their employment benefits, payroll, and shared services. Opolis was founded by John Paller, a technology entrepreneur with 20 years in HR technology, compliance, and employment systems. John is also the founder of ETHDenver, the largest and longest-running Web3 innovation event in the world.

About Aurora

Aurora Labs Welcomes Opolis to Simplify Crypto Compensation for Independent Web3 Workers and… was originally published in Aurora Platform on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A Beginner’s Guide to the Aurora Ecosystem✨

Aurora Labs — Wed, 31 May 2023 08:17:08 GMT

Embarking on a journey within a new blockchain ecosystem can be daunting, with numerous unfamiliar elements and a need to find relevant information. To ensure a seamless experience within the Aurora ecosystem, we have created a comprehensive guide that will help you navigate its diverse components and offerings effectively. Starting with a brief overview of what Aurora and its products are, we are going to touch upon its ecosystem’s opportunities, community, and resources.

What is Aurora?

Aurora — is an EVM built on a 3rd generation L1 blockchain NEAR Protocol as well as a platform that provides extensive tooling for any Web3 business to elevate its user experience.

Aurora’s main components are the Aurora Engine runtime, which allows for the seamless deployment of Solidity and Vyper smart contracts, and the Aurora Bridge (based on the Rainbow Bridge technology), providing for the permissionless transfer of tokens and data between Ethereum and Aurora. Thanks to its design there are numerous advantages that Aurora can offer to developers:

Fees up to 1,000x lower than Ethereum’s.
50x more transactions per second compared to Ethereum
2 seconds transaction finality
Aurora can scale indefinitely, by creating replica shards on NEAR, that mimic the original Aurora network
Build on top of the decentralized and climate neutral PoS L1 NEAR Protocol

Aurora’s Unique Products

Aurora Cloud: Aurora Cloud is a comprehensive solution and robust infrastructure designed to launch and support any Web3 initiative. Built upon a cutting-edge tech stack, it offers unparalleled support to businesses seeking to harness the power of blockchain technology. Let’s explore the key pillars of Aurora Cloud and the transformative solutions they provide:

Borealis Business: Revolutionizing the User Experience
Borealis Business is a powerful infrastructure within Aurora Cloud that enables businesses to remove the concept of gas fees from the user experience of their customers. With Borealis businesses can seamlessly support an infinite variety of business models or campaigns unlocking new possibilities and redefining industry standards.
Aurora Pass: Unlocking Opportunities with a Mobile-First Approach
The Aurora Pass digital wallet is designed for mobile-first or mobile-only Web2 companies, facilitating the adoption of blockchain technology in mobile applications with minimal development work and allowing users to authorize transactions using the same biometric facilities like Touch ID and Face ID.
Aurora Silos: Customized Solutions for Specific Needs
Lastly, Aurora Silos are customer-specific, dedicated blockchains, running on the Borealis Business infrastructure and providing an unparalleled feature set. They go beyond Ethereum compatibility, allowing customers to design and implement their own custom tokens, tokenomics, and even transaction fee mechanics, to support any imaginable blockchain business model.

Aurora Cloud is currently in beta, interested parties can access it by registering for a trial on the following link: https://auroracloud.dev/demo.

Ecosystem, Resources & Community

Aurora Dapps

The Aurora ecosystem continues to expand with new projects being added on a daily basis. As of the time of writing, there are already 283 projects within the Aurora network, each designed to meet different user requirements. From decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and lending platforms to gaming and NFT marketplaces, the Aurora DApp ecosystem offers a wide range of opportunities for both users and developers. To explore these projects in more detail, you can visit our ecosystem page. For a comprehensive overview of the Aurora and NEAR ecosystem as a whole, the Awesome NEAR page is also available as a valuable resource.

Developer & Marketing Resources

Aurora has set in place different resources to help new projects and developers kickstart their projects or simply experiment with Aurora. These are the Aurora Developer Portal and the Partner Program.

The Aurora Developer Portal serves as a dedicated platform created and maintained by the DevRels team at Aurora Labs. With regular updates, this website offers a wealth of technical blogs, tutorials, and in-depth insights into the latest advancements in Aurora technologies. It serves as a centralized hub where developers can conveniently access all the necessary resources and documentation related to Aurora and its partners. Whether you are interested in building applications on Aurora or simply eager to learn more about this innovative platform, the Aurora Developer Portal provides a user-friendly and accessible gateway to explore and engage with the world of Aurora.

The Aurora Partner Program is a program designed to provide comprehensive support to builders in the form of mentorship, marketing, and business development. The Partner Program helps projects building on Aurora connect with venture capitalists, provide technical assistance by establishing a direct line of communication with the Aurora Labs tech team and mentorship from the CEO. Additionally, the program envisions marketing support in form of consultations, media coverage, and support from the Aurora community. The Aurora Partner Program is open to projects currently building on Aurora, and interested parties can apply through the following application form.

Aurora Community

The Aurora Labs community is a diverse and global network, consisting of 10 regional communities spread across various continents and countries. These communities, along with several dedicated media outlets, play a crucial role in disseminating Aurora-related news and updates throughout the ecosystem. Each regional community operates in its own language and actively participates in both online and in-person events. They contribute to content creation, share news and information, and foster engagement within their respective regions. These vibrant communities and media outlets form an integral part of the Aurora ecosystem, promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing, and fostering a sense of belonging among its members. There are different ways to engage with the community, whether becoming an active guild member or by participating in community events. For this we have both a Community Grants Program and an Aurora Community Board to stay on top of all things Aurora.

Community Grants Program

The Community Grants Program is aimed at fostering engagement and spreading awareness about Aurora and the projects building on its ecosystem. It is available for community members, content writers, influences, and designers passionate about Aurora and its mission.

Community Board

The Aurora Community Board serves as the ideal platform for staying informed about events, discovering new projects, and staying updated on your favorite Aurora communities. By providing e statistics and insights, the Community Board enables you to monitor the growth and progress of the Aurora ecosystem. Whether you’re an enthusiast, developer, or simply curious about Aurora, the Community Board is your go-to resource for staying connected and informed.

This guide provides a general overview of the Aurora Labs blockchain ecosystem and is by no means exhaustive. Please refer to official documentation and official communication channels for more detailed information on any point we touched upon in this brief outline.

Meet the team: Aurora Labs’ Apps Team Lead, Armand Didier

Aurora Labs — Thu, 25 May 2023 07:58:52 GMT

The Aurora team is made up of exceptional individuals that left a mark in the industries they have been part of by innovating and building cutting edge technology. These top-tier professionals have unique stories to share about their journeys that deserve to be talked about as they can provide inspiration and guidance to new builders joining this ecosystem. With this series we aim to do just that by highlighting the work and experiences of a generation of pioneers in the Web3 world paying tribute to their valuable contributions and achievements.

From Nature’s Playground to Innovative Creations: Armand Didier’s Journey in Engineering and Entrepreneurship

Armand Didier is a French professional with a background in material engineering and a long history in building and creating new projects and objects from start to finish. Originally from a small village in the French Alps, Armand spent his childhood immersed in nature, between hiking and skiing. The rural lifestyle however, did more than just developing his physique, it contributed to developing a strong aptitude for building. From a very early age, Armand was spending his time experimenting with different materials to build potato launchers and gadgets that enabled him to acquire a diverse range of skills, from welding to mechanics.

It was no surprise that Armand would end up pursuing an education in engineering after graduating from highschool. In 2012, he moved to Toulon, in the south of France in the engineering school Seatech to study materials engineering, and in his final year he went on to pursue a double degree with Cranfield University in the UK where he studies manufacturing technology and management and got involved with his first business:

“ As part of my Master thesis I worked on a project to create a watch making workshop for kids between the ages of 10 and 12. I designed the whole experience turning something quite complex, even for adults, into something that even kids can accomplish in half a day. Together with my co-founder, a fellow student, we turned this project into a startup that I ran for 2 years after that”

This experience taught Armand how to deal with the different aspects of running a company but also helped him realize that what he truly enjoyed was to build products that would empower users, such as turning a complex process into a simple task.

After a couple of years of running his watchmaking business, Armand began to turn his attention to the digital space as, “a way to create and iterate much faster and have more impact”. This motivated him to learn coding and eventually to close his business and gain experience in the digital space.

Embracing New Horizons: Early Days of DeFi & Aurora Labs

After returning to France and collaborating on a startup project with a close friend, Armand felt a compelling desire to venture beyond his comfort zone and expand his professional horizons. During his job search, he came across a Product Manager position that piqued his interest, despite never having considered it before. Intriguingly, the role aligned seamlessly with his passions for design, technology, and business. Accepting this opportunity meant returning to the UK, London, embarking on a journey of exploration that would ultimately lead him to Aurora.

“Before I got a job at Worldremit where I actually had to conduct extensive research on how crypto could benefit the company, I worked in such as developing apps for the Hololens, the mixed reality headset from Microsoft, or consumer data analytics tools for a market research company. I also worked in IOT (internet of things) on a speech to task tool for manufacturing plants.”

By 2019, Armand had been closely following the rise of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies since 2017, which initially sparked his interest while building trading algorithms. This fascination led him to deepen his knowledge and understanding of the field, eventually leading him to join World Remit as a Product Manager. While conducting extensive research on cryptocurrency opportunities for World Remit Armand learned a lot about the crypto landscape, Fintech, and the emerging world of DeFi. Two years later, when Armand got the opportunity to dedicate himself to a fully crypto project, it did not take long for him to enthusiastically jump onboard:

“ I joined Aurora in 2022, almost three years after my experience at Worldremit. It feels like coming back to my first watchmaking business, where I have to turn something complex into something accessible to anyone. This is really what pulled me into the Aurora venture.”

In October 2022, Armand joined Aurora Labs as Product Manager on the team that was at the time managed by Matt Henderson, the current Aurora Labs’ CSO. At first he mainly focused on front-end products but with time he became more involved with engineering:

“ Right now I am managing the Apps’ team, which is what used to be the product team. What we do is to manage our user facing products, which includes all the websites, Apps, and Aurora Cloud. My role is to reflect the company’s strategy in the development of these products and make sure that every component is well integrated in our overall vision. Crucially, we strive to build products that our customers want”

Developing products in the crypto industry comes with its own challenges, since there is no set script that one can follow when it comes to product development. As Armand remarks, “ in Web3, most of the Web2 assumptions do not work as the fundamental principles are radically different”. This presents both difficulties but also opportunities to build something truly innovative:

“ I’m really proud of our work at Aurora Labs, we are trying to solve concrete problems that are blocking the emergence of a whole new world of possibilities and this is very exciting when you see how many opportunities we can open up for businesses and end users. And I think that products like Aurora Pass, Silos, and Borealis are the key to achieve this goal, they are powerful tools for businesses with real applications that create real value for their customers.”

Looking At the Future of Aurora Labs

Aurora Labs’ mission is to introduce businesses to the world of Web3 and create the infrastructure and tools they need to realize their initiatives, enhance their processes, and bring additional value for their users. The App team led by Armand is trying to give body to these objectives by focusing on the removal of friction points experienced during the onboarding process of businesses and their customers. This, as Armand points out is a process that requires continuous iteration:

“ There is always something to be improved and sometimes moving forward we might even have to change direction as we figure out better ways to serve businesses. For example, today on the business side we propose Silos, ready to deploy blockchain instances. Following this logic, what would make sense in the future is to have one single platform for businesses to login to and be able to control everything they do. There are always new ideas that we come up with based on the needs we identify.”

About Aurora

Meet the team: Aurora Labs’ Apps Team Lead, Armand Didier was originally published in Aurora Platform on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Meet the team: Aurora Labs’ Chief Strategy Officer Matt Henderson

Aurora Labs — Tue, 09 May 2023 05:46:19 GMT

The Aurora Labs team is made up of exceptional individuals that left a mark in the industries they have been part of by innovating and building cutting edge technology. These top-tier professionals have unique stories to share about their journeys that deserve to be talked about as they can provide inspiration and guidance to new builders joining this ecosystem. With this series we aim to do just that by highlighting the work and experiences of a generation of pioneers in the Web3 world paying tribute to their valuable contributions and achievements.

From Georgia to Europe: Paving the Way to Entrepreneurship

Matt Henderson is an American professional with decades of experience in the field of IT and design. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Matt has spent most of his life abroad, between France, Germany, and Spain.

His international experience began when he was attending the Georgia Institute of Technology in his home city of Atlanta. Here is where he met his wife, a Spanish woman, who would become the main driver to his European adventure. In order to be with her after her graduation, Matt enrolled into a joint Master’s program with the university of Metz in France. This allowed Matt to pursue his degree in Electrical Engineering and Digital Signal Processing while also continuing to see his wife during the weekend, who was at the time living in Germany.

After his graduation, Matt moved to Germany to work at the European Space Agency, where he would work as a Satellite Communications Engineer for the following three years. It was now the early 90s and the Internet was quickly beginning to take over the world. Through his job, Matt had access to one of the first Macintosh computers, giving him the opportunity to explore this new technology and discover a new passion for design:

“I started making my reports with a computer and the professor was simply amazed at how good my reports looked, at the time everyone was using typewriters. But when I would look at the company’s annual reports my documents would not look that good in comparison, and I really wanted to figure out why. That is how my interest in design started.”

Matt’s interest for design carried through his whole career; he became interested in understanding why Apple’s products were so easy to use compared to other products and which design principles were behind Apple’s success. Eventually, Matt’s passion for design and business transformed into the beginning of a new venture.

A Serendipitous Encounter and the Beginning of a New Venture

After a few years at the European Space Agency, Matt had gained a good understanding of the business landscape in Europe, in particular, how governmental agencies work with different contractors. At the same time, Matt had also become proficient in design, especially the design of documents and offers, and now felt ready to start his own software development company.

The company immediately landed some important contracts allowing it to smoothly take off. As a hustler, Matt did not limit himself to running this company, he soon began to focus on the new exciting field of the Internet by starting to build web and mobile applications. But that was not all, Matt also started picking Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a martial art almost unknown in Europe at that time. While juggling with two businesses Matt found the time to train and participate in the European Championship for several years and bring home three gold medals.

It was now the year 2000 and Matt and his wife were at this point running two companies, a software company operating for the German market, and an Internet company that created applications. During this time, the couple got pregnant with their first child, and decided to move to Matt’s wife’s home country. And it was while he was in Costa Del Sol that Matt would meet his future business partners:

“Soon after I got to Spain I met two young Finnish people who were living in a camper van, it was Arto and Alex Bendiken. It was at this hamburger place that we had our first conversation and I immediately recognized how talented those guys were, so I asked them to join me in this Internet company. We got an office in Marbella and we started building Web applications.”

Matt, Arto, and Alex started working for local institutions, something that soon revealed to be rather daunting, due to the Spanish bureaucracy. While trying to get new local customers, Alex decided to participate in a design competition launched by Slash Dot, the world’s biggest tech news site. As Matt recounts:

“ I discouraged Alex from participating in the competition. We were busy at the time and considering that thousands of people would participate I thought the chance of winning would be too slim. A few months later he came back to me and said ‘Do you remember about that competition you told me not to participate in? I won”.

Following Alex’s win, the company started getting a lot of attention and immediately got contacted by Google. They became a part of Google’s major marketing campaign for Virgin America and the US and created a game for them; it was a huge achievement and a great opportunity to showcase their skills and creativity to a wider audience. The company was then launched head on into the Californian market, which would continue to serve for many years to come.

Joining the Crypto Revolution

In 2010 Matt started hearing about Bitcoin, first from Arto, who was then very active in the Bitcoin scene, and also from the director of the Bitcoin Foundation who was then living in Spain and would meet at their office for occasional meetings. But it wasn’t until 2013 that Matt would get more interested in Bitcoin as a solution:

“Around 2013 we started having workers in many different countries and it became difficult to make payments through European banks and then also have to deal with our customers in the US. Then I really got interested in crypto as a banking solution. I bought some Bitcoin and started experimenting with it and different projects that were starting to appear.”

A few years later, Alex decided to start traveling the world with his wife and two children, while Arto had already been living in Berlin for a few years. DeFi was taking off and Matt and his partners decided to close down their business and go separate ways after almost twenty years together.

It was 2020, and Matt was getting fascinated with what was going on in the crypto scene. He got involved with different DeFi projects such as Pickle Finance, and followed with interest the development of many different projects. So when Arto joined NEAR Protocol, it did not take long for Matt to also get himself involved.

NEAR Protocol & Aurora

Arto had enthusiastically talked to Matt about NEAR, and shortly after Matt started working part-time on the product development of the Rainbow Bridge — the Aurora team was just starting to form:

“Since the moment I joined Aurora my goal and motivation were clear–to bring good design in the crypto space. After experimenting with DeFi it became clear that the experience that crypto provides is still terribly complex to be appealing to a wide audience. Removing all the friction points that I had experienced in other bridges was the first objective I wanted to achieve when working on the Rainbow Bridge.”

Fast forward to today, Matt has contributed to the development of several key products such as Aurora Plus, and Aurora Cloud, effectively bringing a frictionless user experience to the space. But this is just the beginning:

“Businesses are just beginning to realize how they can leverage blockchain technology. The most immediate applications are in the supply chain management and luxury industries in the form of loyalty programs though NFTs but not all applications are as obvious. A striking example is this one winemaker from California that is now sending you an NFT instead of the actual bottle so that you can hold it in your wallet and sell it if the wine appreciates. It didn’t occur to me that the wine industry could benefit from blockchain but it can, in this sense, we are just at the beginning. Our job now is to keep removing the hurdles that are keeping businesses from accessing this technology.”

The world of blockchain still has a long way to go when it comes to user experience if it wants to succeed in attracting the Web2 market, familiar concepts and experiences need to be brought to the space of Web3 to be truly attractive. Aurora’s key objective is to make Web3 as accessible as possible to businesses and their users. This core idea is what informs Aurora’s development strategy as it is reflected by its products and services:

“At Aurora, we’re all about making Web3 accessible and user-friendly. With our latest product, Aurora Cloud, we set out to eliminate as many roadblocks as possible to getting started with Web3. Our Borealis Business infrastructure allows companies to pay for their users’ transactions, eliminating the need for users to deal with confusing and frustrating gas fees. Plus, our Aurora Pass wallet makes it super easy for mobile-first companies to onboard their users seamlessly. We’re excited to offer a Web2-like experience with the added benefits of the Web3 ecosystem.”

As Chief Strategy Officer, Matt is now fully dedicated to understanding the markets’ needs and identifying the obstacles that are still standing in the way of mass adoption, it is safe to say that exciting times are ahead!

About Aurora

Meet the team: Aurora Labs’ Chief Strategy Officer Matt Henderson was originally published in Aurora Platform on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Transforming your Business with Aurora Cloud

Aurora Labs — Wed, 03 May 2023 08:58:42 GMT

Transitioning from Web2 to Web3 can be daunting for entrepreneurs with little to no experience with blockchain technology and limited technical capabilities. Businesses that desire to integrate their existing products and services often face some technical challenges, and are left to grapple with many questions regarding tokeneconomics, user experience, and figuring out all the other aspects of their new business strategy.

With Aurora Cloud, we have removed these hurdles from the experience of entrepreneurs who can now integrate blockchain technology into their existing business without the need for specialized expertise or training. Aurora Cloud offers three tools — Aurora Borealis, Aurora Pass, and Aurora Silos — each offering the levels of customization required by businesses and the frictionless experience desired by their customers.

Borealis Business is an infrastructure service that allows businesses to pay for the transaction fee on behalf of their users, enabling a seamless user experience and the delivery of creative marketing campaigns. With Borealis, businesses can confidently realize their Web3 initiatives without sacrificing simplicity while implementing innovative strategies.

The Aurora Cloud’s products are also designed to meet the needs of your user base by allowing frictionless onboarding and familiarity of experience. To achieve this, Aurora Labs developed Aurora Pass, a digital mobile wallet that offers your users an easy onboarding into the world of blockchain by enabling a wallet creation in a few simple steps or signing transactions with the same biometric facilities such as Touch ID and Face ID that your customers are already familiar with.

Aurora Silos is the third key product of Aurora Cloud. Aurora Silos are dedicated and fully customizable blockchain instances that allow you to structure your on-chain business in harmony with your business strategy. With Silos, you can create your own tokens, customize transaction fees, control network access, all in a fully Ethereum compatible and interoperable environment.

At Aurora Labs, we provide dedicated support to accompany our customers through the whole process of setting up their on-chain business, from strategy to implementation. Whether you need a permissioned chain, or to figure out your tokeneconomics, our team will assist you in each of these steps, from defining the requirements for your business to the full realization of your initiative.

Get your Web3 Journey Started!

By integrating blockchain technology into your business using Aurora Cloud, you are able to offer your customers increased security, privacy, transparency, and accountability. This helps you to differentiate yourself from competitors and build trust with your customers, ultimately leading to increased customer loyalty and revenue.

Aurora Cloud provides you with everything you need to get your Web3 adventure started — the ability to easily set up your customized chain, the possibility to maintain a familiar UX for your user base with Aurora Pass and Borealis, and importantly, to build your business on the most scalable blockchain platform on the market. Built on top of the carbon neutral Layer 1, NEAR Protocol, Aurora has the ability to handle up to 10,000 transactions per second, making it an ideal choice for companies looking to adopt blockchain technology on a large scale. What we offer you is a future-safe platform with state of the art technology, easy to use products, and fierce commitment to help your Web3 business grow.

To learn more, visit www.auroracloud.dev.

About Aurora

Meet the Team: Aurora Labs’ Bridge Team Lead Kirill Abramov

Aurora Labs — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 09:38:00 GMT

Meet the Team: Aurora Labs’ Bridge Team Lead Kirill Abramov

Early Career, From Computer Vision and Audio Engineering to Blockchain

Kirill Abramov is a Ukrainian software engineer with a passion for blockchain technology and complex distributed systems. His career in software engineering began during his first years at the Zaporizhzhia State Engineering Academy, where he pursued bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Software Engineering. At the same time, Kirill got involved in different projects developing digital audio workstations, plugins for audio software, and computer vision projects. These experiences helped Kirill identify his main interests and strengthened his passion and curiosity for software engineering. And it was not long after that Kirill’s interest was grabbed by the emerging field of blockchain technology.

Since 2008 Kirill had been paying attention to the rise of cryptocurrencies, but it wasn’t until 2015 that he decided to get deeper into it by starting to work on a few blockchain projects. Kirill was fascinated by blockchain’s network architecture and immediately realized that “blockchain technology could have a tangible impact on everyday people”. This new field matched well with Kirill’s desire to create technology with a real-world impact as well as with his aptitude for creativity. Besides that, Kirill was captivated and motivated by open-source culture for a long period of time, which perfectly aligns with the principles of transparency and decentralization that underlie the blockchain industry.

To make his own contribution to the open-source world, Kirill took a short break from blockchain development and applied for the Google Summer of Code 2016 participation, a program where young programmers can work on open-source projects and get compensated for the work done upon successful project completion. Kirill passed the application process and dedicated several months to developing open-source software for neuroscientists.

During the same year, Kirill also began exploring Zero Knowledge technology working on a project that was trying to develop a ZK-encrypted video messenger. It was an ambitious and challenging project, as Kirill mentions, “as I cast my mind back to those moments, I realized the immense scale and complexity of the project during that era. The cutting-edge ZK technology, which is still nascent nowadays, was an even more rare phenomenon in those days. It was a thrilling and a little bit terrifying experience”. Further, Kirill immersed into several other blockchain projects that allowed him to broaden his blockchain horizon.

One of the most remarkable projects was Beam, the first blockchain based on the Minblewimble blockchain protocol, that enables people to communicate privately and securely over the blockchain and perform confidential transactions. In this context, Kirill was involved with the building of firmware and applications for hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor, which, as he said, “ was particularly challenging as it required a lot of debugging and ‘black magic’ of reverse engineering”. And it was during this time that Kirill also was involved in implementing blockchain bridge designs and cross-chain applications, an experience that would later lead Kirill into the Aurora Lab’s Rainbow Bridge.

The Beginning of a New Era with NEAR and Aurora

After a couple of years spent at Beam as a software engineer, Kirill joined NEAR Protocol in January 2021. He explains his motivation to join the company: “NEAR was a distinct, unusual project in the blockchain world. They didn’t hold any blockchain legacy and tried to empower developers, still dedicating the attention to providing seamless user experience”. At that time, the teams that would later become the Engine and Bridge teams at Aurora Labs were just taking form. Kirill joined the Bridge team under the leadership of Alex Shevchenko, the current CEO of Aurora, and began to contribute to the improvement and deployment of the Rainbow Bridge, preparing it for its launch in March 2021.

Soon after the launch of the Rainbow Bridge, Aurora spun off into its own company, and in September 2021, Kirill became the team lead of the Rainbow Bridge. Right now, Kirill is leading the Bridge team’s effort to maintain the bridge, develop its capabilities, and enhance its security. As he remarks,

“Cross-chain tech is still rather new, and because of that, it is vulnerable to hackers’ attacks. And our main priority is precisely to make sure users’ funds are always shielded from attacks. To achieve this, we developed and constantly improved our multi-layer security system. That means granularly controlling security processes for everything from development, testing, and deployment to auditing, monitoring, and maintaining our systems.”

After two years since its launch, the Rainbow Bridge has been building its reputation as a hack-proof bridge. But security is not the only priority of the Rainbow Bridge team; providing a smooth user experience makes a big part of the team’s effort. In the past year, the bridge team developed a new light-client for Ethereum post-Merge era and has shipped several key improvements such as the NEAR connector, that allows NEP-141 tokens to be bridged on Ethereum, and a connector that has enabled fast transfers between NEAR and Ethereum. These are major accomplishments for the team, but more is still to come.

Looking at the Future

Kirill’s team is working on several improvements to deliver the best experience for users interacting with Aurora, Aurora Cloud, and the Silos. In the coming months, the team will focus on making the fast bridge publicly available and other important upgrades aimed at improving the Rainbow Bridge experience for Aurora Cloud clients.

Both in the short and long term, the team aims to improve the bridge’s security and ease of use. One of the possibilities that is currently being researched is the application of Zero Knowledge Proof technology, but, as Kirill remarks, “This is something that will take quite some time as we want to find a nice balance between adopting a new powerful and promising technology while preserving the highest standards of security.”

About Aurora

Meet the Team: Aurora Labs’ Bridge Team Lead Kirill Abramov was originally published in Aurora Platform on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.