SORA development status updates with development updates from across the community are released every two weeks. Enjoy the March 20, 2024, Ecosystem updates!
SORA Integrated Plan
You Are Here
As the first quarter of 2024 ends, the integrated plan has seen plenty of progress. The Polkadot SDK, formerly known as Substrate, is undergoing an update, improving the HASHI bridge even more. At the same time, the SORA Kusama and SORA Polkadot parachains will also be upgraded, making the transfer of assets between chains much safer and faster. This will also benefit the opening of HRMP channels, which are in progress while you read this. First, channels to other networks will be opened, namely Acala, Astar, and Moonbeam (not in that order). Different networks have reached out, but more details will be provided soon.
A highly requested channel by the community is Asset Hub. Although this will allow Polkadot meme coins to be traded on Polkaswap, this parachain does not have much to offer. You can take a look at the assets available for now… Once the channels with other networks are completed, we will move forward with Asset Hub. With that said, prepare your DOT, as opening this channel requires an Opengov proposal and all your support.
Speaking of DOT, this recently released article puts SORA’s place within the Substrate ecosystem into perspective. With Polkadot and Kusama parachains, SORA is contributing to the ecosystem’s wellbeing by allowing users to bridge DOT and KSM into the Ethereum mainnet, making it available for Dot-curious ERC-20 people to have a taste of these tokens and eventually (and hopefully) onboard to Substrate, bridging the tokens they have obtained from visionary LP who have shown their support for the ecosystem in other networks. There is a reason why blockchains choose to use Substrate instead of EVM, so it makes no sense to emulate that virtual machine in an attempt to have a slice of the liquidity pie…. Anyway.
The order book feature is live and available on Polkaswap. If you haven’t already, give it a try! Many interesting upgrades are coming in the pipeline, so stay tuned. Also, let us know what you think, and if there is any feature you would like to be added, don’t hesitate to write up an RFP for it. After all, SORA is your network as well.
Speaking of RPF, the Palmatrix team recently had an AMA with the SORA community, during which they explained their request in detail and answered community questions ahead of the public referenda to implement their RFP (mentioned in the relevant section of these updates). If you missed it, you can check it out here. Keep an eye out for the referenda in SORA Governance; remember, you can decide whether this implementation goes forward.
Aggregate Liquidity Technology (ALT) is in the spotlight this month; this innovative liquidity algorithm will help Polkaswap become the one-stop shop for all your needs, using liquidity pools and orders to provide the best outcome for your transaction. The Good Doctor Takemiya described the system in detail in a paper published at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ 2023 International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. Here’s the abstract so you get an idea:
“Decentralized exchanges often need to combine liquidity from multiple sources in order to provide the best prices to their users. However, combining liquidity from multiple sources into a single trade has not only required high transaction fees, but is also computationally expensive. Here, we propose a framework for combining liquidity from multiple sources, called Aggregate Liquidity Technology (ALT). ALT maps each liquidity source onto a 2-dimensional space as a curve or line segment, where the input token is on one axis and the output token is on the other. Once this is accomplished, liquidity sources can be combined by finding the points where the curves or lines intersect. Users can get the optimal liquidity on each trade by maximizing the number of output tokens returned. ALT is implemented into Polkaswap on the Parity Substrate-based SORA network, which has processed more than $1 billion worth of token swaps. While the current iteration of ALT works only on a single blockchain network, future work should explore ways to combine liquidity using this methodology across multiple blockchain networks and even centralized exchanges.” (Takemiya, 2023)
Moving on, the KEN burn initiative is going strong, ending on the 20th of March (today); so far, 2,352.187 KEN tokens have been reserved (as of the time of writing), meaning 2,352,187,369 XOR have been permanently burned so far (over 10% of the XOR supply)! You can follow the action and burn your own XOR on Polkaswap or track the top holders on Ceres Tools.
A lot has been said about SORA governance. There are many ways for you to participate, but we will begin by saying that using the Substrate governance pallet is a temporary solution. Actual SORA governance should be done through the SORA Parliament, which will be available as part of SORA V3. In the meantime, here’s how to participate in SORA governance. Remember, you must hold XOR to vote on the different Democracy Referenda.
First, the referenda are published. You can follow the available governance motions in the SORA Governance Notifications channel on Telegram.
When there is a referendum up for voting, the channel will send a notification stating;
⚠ Referendum xxx under vote (Democracy) ⚠
The council has deliberated over the motion xxx. It is ready for a community vote. (the xxx is the referendum number).
In the Polkadot.JS interface, navigate to Governance, then Democracy and vote for the proposal using your XOR. When you click on vote, you can choose the account you want to vote from, the amount of XOR to lock (vote value) and the conviction of your vote. Remember, if you vote with 0.1x conviction, your tokens won’t be locked, and the more conviction you put on your vote, the longer your tokens are locked for. You can also vote with the XOR you have as a nominator, which is already locked anyway.
Hopefully, this easy guide will make you more keen on participating in network governance and making your voice heard. A governance guide is also available in the SORA Telegram Chat.
You are now up to date with the recent happenings in the SORA ecosystem and the current status of the SORA Integrated Plan. Stay tuned for upcoming news from all the SORA contributors, and we’ll meet again soon. Now, let’s get back to work!
*This is not financial advice. Always make sure to do your own research!
Works cited:
M. Takemiya, “ALT: Aggregate Liquidity Technology,” 2023 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2023, pp. 1–6, doi: 10.1109/ICBC56567.2023.10174911.
You can find the summary of the integrated plan points in the SORA Wiki.
Business Track Progress
- Polkaswap-as-a-Service — 80%
- SORA Card — 98.5%
Here’s a message from the SORA Card team:
SORA Card is almost here. soracard.com has been upgraded to a more dynamic experience for visitors, and those with an eye for detail have spotted the Mastercard logo on all designs. Stay tuned for more news!
Read the transcript of the recent SORA Card launch AMA in the SORA Telegram chat! For more information about SORA Card, take a look at these articles: Introduction of SORA Card, key features of SORA Card, a comparison between SORA Card and other crypto-powered banking services, an interview with the people behind the SORA Card tech and management, and a recent article on SORA Card Phase One, as well as the SORA Card AMA Recap.
SORA Card | Value Freedom
⚙️ SORA Blockchain Update
- Updating the PolkadotSDK (substrate) version to 1.1.0. This will enable an architecture upgrade for the Substrate bridge
Orderbooks (Github milestone)
- Gathering feedback from users to improve the product continuously
Kensetsu (Github milestone)
- Establishing business and technical requirements for the KENonomics
- Supporting Polkaswap with the UI implementation
- Assessing risks related to price movements, manipulation, and vault liquidation
- Preparing the release for public testing
Aggregate Liquidity Technology (Github milestone)
- Finishing work on limitations for the different liquidity sources
- Writing and completing unit tests
- Modifying the response format for liquidityProxy.quote and dexApi.quote to accommodate for the different trading fees based on the different liquidity sources:
XOR for XOR-based liquidity pool pairs (DEX_ID 0)
XSTUSD for XSTUSD-based liquidity pool pairs (DEX_ID 1)
XST for XST pool
- Start testing the upgrade
- Collaborating with client application teams to ensure a smooth upgrade
Substrate bridge (Github milestone)
- Working and collaborating on adapting the bridge to connect to a non-parachain Substrate-based chain. This chain is developed by a sovereign country.
Multi-EVM bridge (Github milestone)
- Working on the fee structure.
📱 SORA Wallet Updates
Released version 3.8.2
- Users can now view their IBAN details on the SORA Card hub
- No more missing SMS issues during the SORA Card application process — The partners’ SDK (SORA Card) has been updated
- Improvement of KYC flow (SORA Card)
- Adding transaction history for transactions from ADAR
- Adding transaction history for bridge transactions
- Fixes and improvements
SORA Wallet
Collaborating with Fearless Wallet to implement the following SORA DeFi features:
- Swaps
- Liquidity provision
- Demeter farming
SORA Card
- Received the documentation from partners to start the integration of the crypto←→fiat conversion feature!
- Working on overall product improvements.
👷🏽♀️ SORA Builders Programme News
ADAR Updates
The ADAR app is continuously receiving updates and improvements; highlights this month include:
We have released V1.0.14
Scope included in this release:
- UI improvements (reactivity on routing history page, sidebar, balance widget visibility)
- Spanish and French labels updated
- Navigation changes — Removed the About page and added a link to the website with additional information.
Noteworthy: Ongoing work
The routing flow is being reworked to improve how the swapless transfer feature is incorporated into the main transfer flow. The design should be completed soon, after which implementation will start.
- Read the entire progress made by ADAR in 2023 in the SORA Summary.
Find out how the ADAR app works here.
Do you like the ADAR app? Do you have any suggestions for improvements or new features? Please complete this survey and let us know what you think about ADAR!
For frequent updates from the ADAR team, join their Telegram group!
Here is the proposal submitted by ADAR; for more information on the Abed Group, take a look at this deck, and to try the version available from the completion of the first milestone, you can visit the ADAR website.
Ceres Updates
The Ceres team has been very busy this month! Updates include;
- DOT staking is available on the Demeter platform
- The possibility of having DEO Arena part two!
- Demeter Farming has passed the milestone of one hundred thousand transactions!
- If you were waiting to claim Apollo tokens, you’re out! The claiming deadline has passed.
For constant updates from Ceres, subscribe to the Ceres Announcements channel on Telegram.
The Demeter Farming platform is available on the SORA network for users to farm with liquidity pool LP or single-sided staking with interesting APR*. New pools are constantly added, too. Demeter farming is directly integrated into Polkaswap for convenience. For more information, read this Medium article on the Demeter platform.
*Not financial advice, always do your own research.
🐈⬛ SORA Request for Proposal Updates:
Submit your development proposal or to improve the SORA network here.
- #85 Phase one of the SORA Palmatrix CEX Bridge
- #86 Recovery for a token deposit (revert a transfer) to Gate.io
- #87 Refund a user for incomplete transactions on the outdated Hashi Bridge contract
SORA governance will pick up the proposals with community input and consensus to propose referendums for their implementation. You have the power to decide which features progress! The future of SORA is in your hands!
Join the Decentralized Development channel on the SORA World Discord.
Thank you for making it all the way here. Your interest is much appreciated. If you are a passionate community member who evangelizes SORA and its supranational cryptoeconomic values to anyone willing to lend an ear, we are looking for you!
If you missed the previous ones: February 29 / January 29 / SORA 2023 Summary / December 15 / November 19 / October 26 / October 4 / September 18 / August 31 / August 18 / July 28 / June 16 / May 31 / May 15 / April 21 / April 10 / March 23 / February 27 /February 9 / January 23 / older Ecosystem Updates are archived here and Dev Updates are archived here
About SORA
SORA is a new economic order for the world, aimed at high growth and empowering human progress. The SORA network includes interoperability with the Polkadot and Kusama networks, as well as the capability to bridge external blockchains (like Ethereum) to the Polkadot ecosystem.
