This is a big one, we’ve been away a while as we’ve been hard at work preparing for the launch of the Vega Testnet. And so, without further ado, this is what we’ve got for you:
Vega Testnet Open & Introducing Vega Wallet
We're so excited to let you know that the Vega Wallet and Testnet are open to all! The wallet (which you can run using the command-line) is now completely open-source, and self-hosted. This means that anyone, anywhere, can host their own keys, give themselves test collateral and trade by connecting to the Vega Console UI (you can also trade using the gRPC, GraphQL or REST APIs). For more info on how to get started, check out Barney's blog.
You can now download the Vega Wallet, load up with test Ropsten assets via the Ethereum bridge, propose a futures market on any underlying, invite the community to vote it in, and make fully decentralised, end-to-end trades.
To dive even deeper into what the Vega Testnet offers, check out Tamlyn's whirlwind tour of what you can do. If you have any further questions, feedback, or feature requests, join us at 6pm GMT on Thursdays for the weekly Vega's Testnet Jam with co-founders Barney and Tamlyn, or come and chat in Discord.
Underlying is so much more than an asset
One of Vega's most exciting features is permissionless market creation meaning that markets can be created on any underlying, proposed by anyone, voted on by the community, and launch fast. This is in stark contrast to centralised operators where creating a market can take years, be immensely costly, and the decision of who gets access to hedge their risk lies in the hands of few. To fully grasp the world of markets that can be created it's crucial to understand that the underlying can be so much more than just assets! It can range from the number of sunny days in a city to the number of streams of Taylor Swifts album to the number of NFT art pieces sold on a given day ++ To learn more about this check out Tamlyn's (trader in residence) post on the Vega forum.
If dreaming about and discussing markets is also your thing, sign up to Vega Market Creation Jam.
Controlling Frontrunning and MEV-Simulation results for Wendy, a Fair Ordering Pre-Protocol
Vega's Blockchain Researcher, Dr Klaus Kursawe gave yet another excellent talk at Cosmos annual conference Interchain Conversations II (hosted by Dystopia Labs, Sunday 12th December). In the context of Vega, front-running and Miner Extraction Value are as Klaus called them 'deadly sins' which can be mitigated and controlled by the protocol widget 'Wendy'.
To learn more, re-watch his talk here, and if you want to dig deeper, check out the Ethereum is a Dark Forest post or Flash Boys like Klaus mentions.
Community Call
As what has been a rollercoaster of a year comes to an end we're slowing down a little and the Vega Community Calls will go on a hiatus until 2021. However, all the previous calls can be watched here and we'll still be hanging out on Discord.
and with that, we all wish you happy holidays and bullish new year <3