This Week in Web3 | 4.10.23

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Here's what we'll cover today:

• OpenSea launches OpenSea Pro, their aggregator for pro NFT traders

• Why are gas fees more expensive on ZK-rollups with less usage?

• Product updates from our CEO & Co-Founder, Dariya

• Discover zkSync Era through our latest Quest Collection!

Sarah at Layer3

WEB3 DIGEST

Setting sail with OpenSea Pro

A game-changing tide is sweeping across the NFT realm with OpenSea's latest innovation: OpenSea Pro.

While there are no shortage of NFT aggregators in the space, OpenSea is once again attempting to stay ahead of the competition (including aggregators like Uniswap, Blur, & more) with the introduction of OpenSea Pro. Stemming from the acquisition of Gem, a prominent NFT aggregator, OpenSea Pro aims to cater to the discerning needs of power users within the NFT ecosystem.

As an added incentive, OpenSea Pro is currently offering a limited-time 0% listing fee promotion. And in a gesture of appreciation for early adopters, the Gem team is launching the Gemesis NFT drop, an exclusive NFT available to qualified users who participated in Gem's platform before March 31, 2023.

While OpenSea Pro focuses on serving the power user community, the OpenSea platform will continue to improve discovery, simplify onboarding, offer mainstream payment options, and invest in creator tools.

Check out this Dune Dashboard on NFT aggregators here (Our newsletter hyperlink editor is broken, oops):

https://dune.com/hildobby/nft-aggregators

With the debut of OpenSea Pro, there seems to be a demonstrable vibe shift for NFT marketplaces to capture greater trading volume by pro NFT traders and make up for the lack of interest by retail. Blur is undoubtedly dominating with their market share here. Our only question: Will OS Pro follow in the footsteps of Blur, or will it take a more moderate path?

INFORMATION DIET

Sarah's Recommended Reads

Welcome to Sarah's Recommended Reads! Here, I'll be summarizing well-written articles or threads by web3 thinkers and builders that you should know about. 

This week, we're talking zkSync and zkEVM. This was last week's headliner topic, but today we're digging into an interesting technical fact that I knew very little about before I stumbled across this thread by DeFi Ignas.

Turns out, unlike Ethereum mainnet, transaction fees on zkSync Era and Polygon zkEVM are higher when usage is lower. Why's that?

It comes down to the differences in how proofs are generated in Zero-knowledge rollups. On Ethereum, gas fees are driven by network congestion and competition for block space. On ZK-rollups, multiple transactions are bundled off-chain, and a single proof is submitted on-chain. This reduces the need for on-chain data and computation, lowering overall gas fees.

The catch is that the transactions have fixed costs on ZK, and when there are fewer transactions, the fixed cost is distributed among fewer users, leading to higher average gas fees per transaction.

So if you're using a ZK-rollup and there isn't quite a lot of usage just yet...that might be the reason your gas costs are a bit higher! The more you know ✨

Quick Hits

• Crypto Protocol LayerZero Raises $120M at $3B Valuation

• Celo Foundation and Google Cloud partner to support sustainable Web3 startups

• Coinbase Joins Fight Against Tornado Cash Ban

• Japan Approves Web3 White Paper to Promote Industry Growth in the Country

Product Updates from Dariya

Last week, we shipped features to help you all discover more crypto products, better. What we’ve been working on:

• Improved Exploration: Added a “View All” section to browse all quests

• Announcements: Added a what’s new popup to keep you updated on feature launches

• New Chains: Polygon zkEVM & zkSync Era quests

Coming up soon:

• New ecosystem support: Expanding quest support to new chains

• New categories: Testing more web3 gaming quests

• Blog: Keep up with Layer3 on our new blog

And remember, we love meeting our users. Shoot me a DM @dariyaxyz!

— Dariya, Co-Founder and CEO

COMMUNITY FEATURE

Have you tried our zkSync Era Quests yet?

Curious about the zkSync Era ecosystem but have no idea how to start? Discover this exciting new chain through our intuitive and beginner-friendly zkSync Era Quests!

From our introductory zkSync Quest to trying out different protocols across DeFi and NFTs, we're the best place for anyone to learn how to use zkSync Era with comfort and ease:

As always, thank you for reading!

Join our Telegram, Discord, and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest Quests, communities, and more. Until next week, frens.

Cheers,

Sarah from Layer3