Jul 1, 2021
Manta Network June Updates
With the start of the Kusama parachain auctions, the core Manta Network team has been gearing up and putting all hands on deck for delivering its test net. On the business side, we have been actively engaging the community in multiple ways as well, from AMAs to our first in-person events.
Product Updates
The Frontend Prototype
We have been making tremendous progress on our test net. As we mentioned last month, our team has finished the backend, including testnet runtime as well as zero-knowledge proof circuit and other cryptographic constructions. We also finished the wallet protocol to support private assets and shielded addresses. We have an internal test net that we have been using to run tests and QA. This month, we have been focused on designing the public-facing front end of our product (see the image above). This front end provides the users an easy interface to mint private tokens, transact those private tokens, and (in a future iteration of our protocol) swap those private assets for others.
Manta Network’s Testnet Block Explorer
The prepare for the test net, we have also partnered with Subscan, the most reputable parachain block explorer in the Polkadot ecosystem. Together, Subscan has worked with Manta Network to integrate its services to Manta Network’s network. This action enables a browser-based experience of tracking all of the activity within Manta Network — the public activity, that is. The private activity cannot be tracked by anyone, not even the Manta team.
Introducing Private Liquidity Pools
Finally, we have been working hard on consistently improving not only the product, but also the product vision. This month, we released an updated version of our white paper, which covers a first-of-its-kind implementation: private liquidity pools. This is a service that not only provides privacy for liquidity providers, but also will be the first implementation of a privacy liquidity pool. This is a huge deal for DeFi privacy, and we are proud to drive the space in this innovative manner!
Community Updates
Conferences
The founders of Manta Network made their way to Bitcoin Miami in early June. It was the first in-person crypto event that we’ve attended together as a founding team, since the world went on lockdown right before the project began. It was great to meet our investors and partners in person, as well as meeting some new faces!
In China, Manta was also invited to the 2021 Blockchain Influence Summit, co-hosted by Cabin VC and Blocklife. It was an event in Hangzhou, and the session that Manta participated in focused on privacy and its importance within the blockchain space. Phala, Crust, and Horizen participated as well.
On June 19, Jamie Deng, one of the core software engineers at Manta Network, gave a talk on developing interoperable privacy-preserving protocols. He gave this talk at the Rust Developers Matching Day meetup, which was cohosted by Bixin Ventures and Infura.
AMA Events
This month, the Manta Network team participated in two AMA events: one in China and one in Korea. We’ve been trying to engage our international community more lately, so if you have other AMAs you’d like us to participate in, just drop us a holler in our Telegram or Discord!
On June 7, Manta’s China marketing head, Holly, joined an AMA hosted by HelloBTC, a Chinese blockchain media outlet. Bifrost’s cofounder Lupris also joined. On June 12, Manta cofounder Kenny Li participated in an online Telegram AMA hosted by the Korean community leaders, ICO Pantera.
Partnerships
This month, we announced a partnership with MathChain, the creators of Math Wallet. Manta Network will be working with MathChain to integrate its privacy-preserving layer into Math Wallet and MathChain’s substrate-based wallet. MathChain will then be able to support privatized parachain assets using Manta Network’s ZKP-based privacy. Manta and MathChain will be jointly working on privacy research also, including research and development of privacy DEXs and integration with Math Wallet.
Furthermore, MathChain will be working with Manta Network to support Manta’s parachain auctions. The parachain auction support extends to both Polkadot and Kusama (Manta Network’s Kusama chain project is named Calamari — more details about this to come).
Ambassador Updates
The Manta Network ambassador program has been growing very quickly, and the growth has been expanding internationally. This month, we launched the China Ambassadors Program, which received over 160 applications from the Chinese community. Furthermore, we also started programs in South Africa and India, which collectively received over 100+ new members.
Our full stack developer focused on community, Albiona, will continue to build out the program both as a leader of the Regional Commanders, as well as an engineer developing the right tools to make the entire Manta Network ambassador experience easier.
Looking Forward
In the upcoming months, Manta Network will be focused on the Kusama parachain auctions, which just started. More news on this will be released soon, along with additional information regarding Calamari, which is Manta Network’s Kusama deployment.
On the product side, we will be gearing up for a launch on Rococo. Our first launch will likely be limited to a select number of participants to identify and correct the most common bugs. Afterwards, we will be making a public release of the product, which will be accessible by anymore.
On the ambassador side, Albiona will continue to build out the software and tools to aid in the ambassador tracking experience. She will be launching the landing page of the program in the upcoming weeks.
Thank you to the community for all of your support and patience! The Manta Network team is working very hard to get everything in place, and we are motivated by all of the enthusiasm we see from our community.
About Manta Network
Follow Us: [Website] [Telegram] [Twitter] [Github] [Discord]
Manta Network is the plug-and-play privacy-preservation protocol built to service the entire DeFi stack. Built on Substrate to leverage interoperability and zkSNARKs to leverage scalable privacy, Manta Network offers a suite of products and services that enable privacy for blockchain projects include privacy payment MantaPay and privacy decentralized exchange MantaSwap. As part of its own suite of products, Manta Network offers private payment and private decentralized exchange, MantaSwap.
Manta’s founding team comprises many US cryptocurrency veterans, professors, and scholars whose experience includes Harvard, MIT, and Algorand. The advisors of Manta include Hypersphere Ventures co-founder Jack Platts, Polychain partner Tekin Salimi, former Web3 Foundation co-founder Ashley Tyson, and Consensys’ Shuyao Kong. Manta has previously completed a million-dollar seed round of financing led by Polychain and participated by Three Arrows Capital, Multicoin, Alameda, and Hypersphere. Manta is also a grant fund recipient of Polkadot’s official Web3 Foundation. Manta also is an outstanding member of the Substrate Builder Program and the Blockchain Accelerator of the University of Berkeley.
