Ecosystem Update - December 2023
Alex Stoicescu
Jan 22, 2024
4 min.
Greetings, Request Network community!
Welcome to the Request Network ecosystem update for December 2023.
The Ecosystem Update focuses on protocol usage and our vision to build an ecosystem of decentralized apps for payment requests. Here, you will find our ecosystem updates, major news and announcements, and anything else that interests the community.
The current ecosystem built around the Request Network protocol includes the following builders: Huma Finance (lending and borrowing), Joba Network and TalentLayer (future-of-work platforms), BSOS (supply chain financing), Copra Finance (lending and borrowing), FLock (machine-learning credit scoring) and Request Finance (invoicing and payroll). If you’re interested in what we are building together with the previously mentioned companies and want to share your vision with us, don’t hesitate to apply to our grants program.
Tech update
Educational activities
In December, we had the opportunity to present the Request Network protocol in front of two outstanding communities, RareSkills and DappLearning.
RareSkills is the leading resource for advanced blockchain developer education - they’re the go-to educational resource for developers looking to upgrade their skills.
DappLearning is the biggest Chinese-oriented hub for junior developers to dip their toes into blockchain engineering. You can find the video of the workshop David hosted for them on YouTube.
Released FAQ
The documentation section of Request Network was updated with the first iteration of an FAQ - https://docs.request.network/get-started/faq
David and Neil compiled this list of questions after almost a year of gathering feedback from hackathons, workshops, and ecosystem builder interactions. If your question is unanswered in the FAQ, please consider posting it to the Request Network Discussions page on Github.
Sepolia deployment & Goerli shutdown
Thanks to efforts by the Request Finance team, Request Network is now deployed on Sepolia, including both storage and payments! Considering that the Goerli chain is expected to shut down its operations in January 2024, all testing activities must migrate to Sepolia.
Here are the Sepolia contract addresses:
The Payments Subgraph can be found here:
https://api.thegraph.com/subgraphs/name/requestnetwork/request-payments-sepolia
Request Node 0.30.0 release
In December, the Request Finance team helped us release Request Node 0.30.0, which includes a breaking change - we removed the confirmedTransaction store and made the Request Node query the storage-subgraph each time it wanted to get a confirmed transaction. Previously, it only polled the storage-subgraph for a limited time after persisting a transaction. For now, this means that the Request Node is no longer stateful.
We also optimized the retrieval of confirmedTransactions from two subgraph queries down to one. Request Node 0.30.0 must be used with an up-to-date storage subgraph version - commit hash cbd809a.
Highlights from December
New website and branding
While the current team steering the Request Network protocol joined in 2023, the branding was established in 2019 and did not reflect the current changes. Lots have changed, but a few elements remain (almost) the same.
Discover all the changes and the reasoning behind them in the dedicated blog article.
Protocol usage in December
Request Network transactions (i.e., creation, approvals, and/or rejections of invoices) are illustrated in the above visual.
December 2023 has seen 8954 batched transactions on Request Network. The number of individual transactions was 14226. The slightly lower numbers can be attributed to the holiday season, as many companies and freelancers are off. A batched transaction can contain multiple individual transactions (such as in the case of a company’s payroll process). The token burn occurs once per batch transaction.
ABOUT REQUEST NETWORK
The Request Network Foundation’s mission is to re-invent accounting and finance by creating a decentralized network of interoperable apps that promotes transparency and real-time reporting.
We inspire and educate developers, partners, and authorities to use Request Network and build an open-source, seamless, and interoperable.
We’re building a network that connects businesses worldwide, giving them ways to do business at the speed of the internet.
Be a part of tomorrow’s financial revolution.
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