Monthly Update: September 2022

October is here, which means that it’s time to share our progress and achievements in the previous month. Let’s look at what happened in September and what we’re preparing for this one!

Tech and Product

Thanks to many advances on the contracts’ side, the front-end, and updated documentation, Advanced Staking’s launch is within an arm’s length. Throughout its development, we’ve defined several new ideas and strategies that will be crucial to Panther’s v1 functioning.

In the first week of September, we identified a potential DoS attack vector within the Advanced Staking redemption mechanisms. After iterating through a few solutions, we’ve settled on a design that left no window for attacks and approved by our auditors. This fix required a few UI/UX changes, which were promptly handled. We are preparing a document about this fix that also explains how Panther will deal with this and a specific type of front-running attack.

Meanwhile, we’ve expanded the documentation on Advanced Staking and Panther Reward Points (PRPs), highlighting the difference between Advanced and Private Staking, the components that make Advanced Staking Panther’s v0.5, a straightforward explanation of the rewards involved, and more. Also, as hinted upon on last week’s weekly mini-update, we implemented a calculation feature that involves stakers minting an NFT to timestamp their stakes. This is purely a functional feature. Another article in the works will break down how PRP rewards will work.

Progress is simultaneously being made towards Panther’s v1. As protocol architects settled upon APIs, work on the front end progressed to the last stages of UI internal testing and bug-fixing.

On a minor note, our governance token $ZKP, formerly listed as "$ZKP Token", is now labeled "Panther" on Etherscan. $ZKP remains as its ticker symbol.

Community

AMA on Panther’s contribution to ZPrize

Back in May, we proudly announced our participation in ZPrize as a Silver Partner, intending to contribute to the acceleration of zero-knowledge cryptography’s future. Panther embraced the task of architecting the challenge of “accelerating the Poseidon hash function.”

On September 8th, our Co-Founder Anish Mohammed and Head of Product Saif Akhtar got together with team members of Aleo and Polychain Capital, the other ZPrize Partners collaborating towards the Poseidon hash function prize.

They held an AMA on the Poseidon hash function and the role of each partner in the challenge’s funding, design, and execution. The recording is available on YouTube for those interested in learning more about this promising building block of zero-knowledge applications.

Shyft’s Office Hours

On September 13th, Panther's Co-Founder Oliver Gale joined Shyft Network’s Office Hours with Juan Aja and Thomas Borrel, the Co-Founder and COO of Shyft Network.

The conversation centered around the theme “Regulations on the Rise,” touching on the recent regulatory moves, compliance’s role in Blockchain, and the ways Panther and Shyft are working together to address these issues without compromising trust.

Panther zTalks #4: Privacy Regulations in Blockchain & Product Updates

The 4th episode of zTalks, published on September 19th, was hosted by Carlos Cano (Content Creation), Saif Akhtar (Head of Product), Natalie Cheng (regulatory SME), and Emile Josselin (Head of Community).

The status of privacy in blockchain in the face of the Tornado Cash crackdown, the middle ground between privacy and compliance, and updates about Advanced Staking development were a few topics discussed in this month’s episode. If you haven’t caught it yet, you can watch zTalks #4 on Panther’s YouTube channel.

Events

September 2nd, the last day of the Stanford Blockchain Week, had Anish joining Republic Crypto alongside other guests for a panel discussion on the economics of privacy.

On September 9th, Anish participated in a specialist panel by Tech Florida Advocates on Innovations in the Blockchain & Cyber as Panther’s Chief Scientist. At the Open Security Summit on September 15th, he joined their panel discussion on Blockchain and its security.

Our co-Founder delivered a 25-min talk on NEARCON addressing “The Economics of ZK Proofs.” Taking place on September 14th, the talk explored zero-knowledge proofs’ evolution and their computational and economic costs.

Zebu Live invited Oliver Gale to attend the conference on September 23rd as a speaker. There, he delivered a 15-minute long talk titled “Arrested Development: The Risks and Opportunities in The Private DeFi Space.”

Panther in the media

On the 9th, Oliver was invited to join Nasdaq TradeTalks, where he discussed blockchain interoperability’s pivotal role in the future of finance and privacy in the digital realm. We have published a recap on our blog that summarizes the main points brought up by our Co-Founder.

Due to his participation in NEARCON, Anish and Coindesk’s CCO Michael J. Casey got together in Lisbon and exchanged thoughts and insights on the long-term effects of the Tornado Cash ban. Casey quoted some of Anish’s remarks in his September 16th editorial “Tornado Cash Ban Will Aid China’s AI Goals,” an insightful view of how the U.S. Government’s crackdown on financial privacy could backfire.

Hirings

This month new hires joined us as Graphic Designer and Machine Learning Intern. We are still looking for privacy-minded people to fill positions listed on our Angel.co page:

• Applied Mathematician
• Blockchain Architect
• Cryptographic Engineer
• Cryptography Researcher (Zero-Knowledge Proofs)
• Head of Quantitative Analysis
• Full-Stack Developer
• Lead Front-end Developer
• Product Manager
• Social Media Manager
  

Wish to work with us or know someone who is likely a good fit? We'll be delighted to receive your application through the links above!

Panther Academy

We’ve published five Panther Academy articles this month on topics of zero-knowledge and the broader blockchain world. Follow the links for all you need to know to understand the differences between zkSNARKs vs zkSTARKs, trusted setups and their alternatives, bulletproof and their applications, Ethereum competitors and how modular and monolithic blockchains differ.

October Calendar

This month Panther became a sponsor of the World Ethical Data Forum, which will take place from October 26th to 28th. Panther’s commitment to privacy aligns perfectly with the values of the WEDF, and thus we are satisfied with our place as a distinguished sponsor of the event.

About Panther

Panther is a decentralized protocol that enables interoperable privacy in DeFi using zero-knowledge proofs.

Users can mint fully-collateralized, composable tokens called zAssets, which can be used to execute private, trusted DeFi transactions across multiple blockchains.

Panther helps investors protect their personal financial data and trading strategies, and provides financial institutions with a clear path to compliantly participate in DeFi.

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