Last month, Chainlink Labs, the leading contributing developer to the industry-leading decentralized computing platform, Chainlink, was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024 in the Blockchain, Crypto, Metaverse, and Web3 category, earning praise for “installing the plumbing for the decentralized economy.”
In particular, Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) was recognized for laying the foundation to unite DeFi and TradFi on a global standard akin to TCP/IP. By securely connecting banks and capital markets to blockchains, as illustrated by Swift’s proof of concept, CCIP is accelerating the creation of tokenized real-world assets by traditional financial institutions such as Euroclear and ANZ.
Chainlink Labs’ Chief People Officer, Giovana Totini, attributed the organization’s continuous innovation to its team’s unwavering resilience. “It’s the great people who make up Chainlink Labs, the principles that they abide by, and the culture that’s been built here all working together to make this a company that’s capable of pushing boundaries to achieve breakthroughs that build the future,” she said.
CCIP leverages Chainlink’s time-tested oracle infrastructure, which has enabled over $10 trillion in transaction value, and a separate Risk Management Network to achieve the highest level of cross-chain security, making it the blockchain industry’s interoperability standard.
The Chainlink ecosystem added several key CCIP integrations in March:
Wemade, one of South Korea’s largest game developers, integrated CCIP across six chains on WEMIX to unlock an omnichain experience for its AAA MMORPG web3 game, NIGHT CROWS.
Non-custodial liquid staking platform Stake DAO integrated CCIP across the Arbitrum, BNB Chain, and Ethereum mainnets to facilitate cross-chain transfers of its SDT governance token.
Decentralized trading platform OpenOcean integrated CCIP across Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Optimism, and Polygon mainnets to power cross-chain transfers of the USDC stablecoin in order to fuel seamless cross-chain token swaps.
Last month, Chainlink announced its annual premier web3 conference, SmartCon, will take place October 30-31 in Hong Kong, accelerating the city’s push to become a global crypto destination.
Undersecretary for Financial Services and the Treasury for the government of Hong Kong, Joseph Chan, who highlighted Hong Kong’s commitment to leading web3 adoption through innovative policies and critical infrastructure like CCIP at SmartCon 2023, told the South China Morning Post, “We are thrilled that Chainlink recognises this potential and has chosen to bring SmartCon 2024 to our vibrant city.”
Kenneth Wong, general manager of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions at The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), added that HKTB is “stoked by the success” of becoming the first Asian city to host Chainlink’s flagship event, which adds “another feather in the cap” for Hong Kong as it strives to become a hotbed for web3.
The Chainlink BUILD program, which fosters the growth of promising early-stage and established projects in Chainlink’s ecosystem, continued to grow in March. Last month, GSU Protocol joined BUILD to accelerate adoption of its ultra-low-volatility stablecoin through key Chainlink services including Price Feeds, Proof of Reserve (PoR), and CCIP, while AAA web3 game Alaska Gold Rush joined BUILD to power secure cross-chain transfers of native tokens and utility NFTs via CCIP.
View the entire Chainlink ecosystem in one place.
