Ecosystem Update - October 2023
Alex Stoicescu
Nov 15, 2023
5 min.
Greetings, Request Network community!
Welcome to the Request Network ecosystem update for October 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, 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 (future-of-work hiring platform), 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
Add SDK Package Reference to the Request Network Documentation
We deployed the SDK Package Reference in October: https://docs.request.network/learn-request-network/sdk-api-reference to the Request Network documents.
This was the most requested improvement from the ETHBarcelona and ETHWarsaw hackathons.
At ETHRome, the questions and feedback from hackers were related to more advanced Request Network features, indicating that the docs helped provide a better understanding of the basic features of our protocol.
We chose to write the reference by hand instead of using an autodocs style tool so that the reference includes only the most relevant details and avoids being an exact copy of the code.
Remove legacy indexing
In October, the Request Finance team helped to drastically reduce complexity in the Request Network SDK by removing the legacy indexing in the Request Node, in favor of using The Graph indexing. The legacy indexing was custom code in the Request Node used for indexing on-chain payment events and joining them with request contents stored in IPFS. All of this was replaced by our storage-subgraph and payments-subgraph which perform the same task much more efficiently than the custom indexing code.
Pull Request: https://github.com/RequestNetwork/requestNetwork/pull/1117
Storage-subgraph: https://github.com/RequestNetwork/storage-subgraph
Payments-subgraph: https://github.com/RequestNetwork/payments-subgraph
This was also a critical first step towards future refactorings that should make the SDK more modular, allowing users to include only the features they require.
Highlights from September
ETHRome hackathon
The Request Network team was present on-site for the first web3 Italian hackathon, ETHRome, between the 6th and 8th of October. We offered a bounty worth $4000, split into two prizes of $3000 and $1000, for the hackers who best used the Request Network protocol. Congratulations to the Roman Receipts team for winning the first prize with their innovative use of Request Network, Railgun, and Azuro to create private invoices, which can be gambled away once paid. Check out the after-movie of the entire event here.
Asian ETH events tour
Thanks to our marketing lead, Alexandru Popescu, the Request Network team was present at ETH Kuala Lumpur between the 13th and 15th of October and at ETH HongKong between the 22nd and 24th of October. Since our on-site presence was a one-man marketing army, we’ve limited our efforts to making contacts and promoting our grants program for ecosystem growth. The result of these efforts will be seen in the coming months, as we now have quite a few projects in the grants pipeline, projects with a specific focus on Asia or with Asian founders.
X (Twitter) ecosystem builder spaces
To further spotlight the ecosystem builders we gave grants to, we hosted a few X (Twitter) spaces and will continue to do so with each new grant recipient. You can tune in to the following recordings:
Joba, future of work discussion with co-founder Marisa McKnight
FLock, web3 machine learning discussion with founder Jiahao Sun
BSOS, supply chain financing discussion with marketing director Andrew Yen
Copra, crypto income-based loans with co-founder Brian Limiardi
Expect more to come, with the added benefit of listening to them on our Youtube channel.
REQ token burn
We performed a token burn on the 12th of October worth $1779, with 15,417 REQ tokens sent to the burn address. This brings the total number of tokens burned to almost 300,000, according to the Req.Network dashboard. The team will now perform the token burn every month while looking into ways to increase the number of burned tokens.
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. Come and be a part of tomorrow’s financial revolution!
