WhyldWanderer 🐙

We’re moving the start of the Ethereum Security QF Round to April 23. Demand has been strong, and we want to make room for more high-quality Ethereum security projects to join before kickoff. Updated timeline: • Round starts: April 23 • Round ends: May 14 • Last day to apply (for mid-round acceptance): April 30 qf.giveth.io/qf/apply

The work that keeps Ethereum safe is about to be backed at scale. Our first round goes live soon, with over $1M dedicated to Ethereum security. Today is the last day to apply if you want your project accepted or rejected before the round starts. Apply here: qf.giveth.io/qf/apply

Still sitting on your application? This is your sign 👀 Apply to the Ethereum Security QF round by April 15 to be reviewed before kickoff 👇 qf.giveth.io/qf/apply

Quick reminder for today 👀

The next 60 ETHSecurity Badge holders have been selected using a new rubric updated by the applicants themselves! Thank you to the people who chatted with the bot, your refinement of the rubric is the first DAO experiment we have tested. And thank you to @bonfiresai for making amazing DAO tooling!

From privacy breakthroughs to AI agents and institutional rails, the Ethereum ecosystem keeps shipping. Here are 22 things the ecosystem delivered over the past few weeks. 0/ @gnosis_ and partners introduced The Ethereum Economic Zone (@etheconomiczone), a framework to unify the L1 and L2s into a more composable system with better interoperability. 1/ @aztecnetwork Alpha went live, a feature-complete privacy stack built natively on Ethereum. 2/ @aave V4 was released with a new hub-and-spoke architecture with support for over 20 assets across three initial liquidity hubs. 3/ @PrivacyEthereum released Social Recovery SDK, a wallet recovery model where trusted guardians can help restore access if the owner loses their private key, replacing seed-phrase backups with programmable onchain policy. 4/ Post-quantum wallets launched on @Starknet. A path to quantum resistance without address changes or hard forks. 5/ The @ethereumfndn's Board released the EF Mandate. This document, which was first intended for EF members, reaffirms the promise of Ethereum, and the role of EF within this ecosystem. 6/ Private transfers are live on @Scroll_ZKP. You can now send funds privately onchain, advancing default user protections and confidentiality. 7/ @base introduced Batches Cohort 003. 12 teams were selected from 1,100+ building across AI, DeFi, payments, and prediction markets, pushing forward OnchainApps. 8/ @ethereumfndn launched pq.ethereum (dot) org. Supporting coordination and research in post-quantum cryptography. Two breakthrough papers progressing research on PQ, with input from Ethereum researchers, were also released. 9/ Stablecoins on Ethereum hit a new ATH. Supply surpasses $180B, up 150% in 3 years, with ~60% market share globally, reinforcing Ethereum’s role in stablecoins and DeFi. 10/ @Morpho launched Morpho Agents (beta), allowing users to integrate lending into apps via natural language using AI agents and accelerating the convergence of DeFi and AI. 11/ @thedaofund deployed $1M+ via an Ethereum Security quadratic funding round hosted by @Giveth, funding work to strengthen security across the ecosystem. 12/ Deposit time from L1 to L2s and exchanges can now be as low as 13 seconds due to the new Fast Confirmation Rule (FCR). This new industry standard can be adopted by the ecosystem over the next few months. 13/ @hinkal_protocol launched Hinkal Pay, end-to-end confidential payments where sender, receiver, and amounts remain private. 14/ @peerxyz launched Peer Verify, allowing users to prove their identity, in a privacy-preserving way via ZK proofs. 15/ @ensdomains integrated with PayPal, allowing users to send funds cross-border using ENS names instead of addresses. 16/ @AskVenice shipped verifiable end-to-end encrypted AI, introducing privacy systems that can be externally audited and proven. 17/ @safe released Safenet (beta), a pre-execution security layer for Safe wallets that runs before transactions execute onchain. 18/ @SiloFinance launched Silo V3 for safer lending markets in DeFi. The team rebuilt core assumption behind lending so collateral does not need to be sold to keep markets solvent. 19/ @coinbase announced x402, an initiative to establish the x402 protocol as a universal standard for AI-driven payments, is moving under the Linux Foundation to ensure vendor-neutral, community-governed oversight of the protocol. 20/ @zksync introduced The Cari Network, a new platform to bring tokenized deposits onchain, developed alongside five regional banks and powered by ZKsync’s Prividium. 21/ @EthCC completed their 9th annual event in Cannes with attendees from across the industry. @ETHGlobal hit a milestone with their 300th event following ETHCC, continuing to support builders across the global ecosystem.

We’re opening applications for Round Operators to help run future TheDAO Security Fund rounds. If your team is building serious DAO tooling, we’d love to hear from you. Full details in the blog: @thedao.fund/thedao-security-fund-is-opening-applications-for-round-operators" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">paragraph.com/@thedao.fund/t…

GIVnews #51 is out 💜 Inside: 🛡️ 500 ETH Ethereum Security QF round (apps open) 💧 @Superfluid_HQ Season 5 is streaming 🇫🇷 @EthCC recap ✨Featured project: @ChainPatrol - Lights in Dark Rooms 🤝 GIVfriends: @thedaofund 🏆 Newly verified: @theguilddotdev, @viasna96

I beat gambling addiction in 2019. Since then, I’ve used digital art to speak on recovery & mental health. That work is paused — my laptop was destroyed by rain. I’m rebuilding tools and a system for advocacy through art. Support/share: giveth.io/project/rebuil…

Cannes was a good one 🇫🇷 Last week at EthCC we jumped into the ReFi Fishbowl, watched @griffgreen step into the ring at Block Fighters (“DAOs: Fail or Success?” 🥊), and wrapped it up with his main stage talk, “TheDAO: 2026.” EthCC always feels like a moment to pause, zoom out, and have the conversations that actually matter. Huge thanks to the @EthCC team for pulling it off. We know how much goes on behind the scenes.

The largest QF round on Giveth yet is opening soon. 🔥 If your work helps strengthen Ethereum security, apply by April 15 to be reviewed before the round opens on April 21. ↓ qf.giveth.io/qf/apply

Catch @griffgreen today at 1:10 PM on the Monroe Stage at @EthCC for TheDAO: 2026.

If you want to be part of the first TheDAO Security Fund round, now’s the time to apply. Submit by April 15 to be reviewed before the round opens on April 21.

We’re in one more @Artizen sprint, and today’s the last day to collect the Giveth Artifact. Right now there’s a 6× match live (up to $1,618). That means every Artifact collected today turns $1 into $6 supporting our work - funding public goods, rewarding donors, and building better experiments in the open. 💜 If you believe in what we’re doing, this is a powerful way to back it. artizen.fund/index/p/an-ai-…

If you’re building in Ethereum security, this is for you. Applications are open for Ethereum Security QF, the first funding round backed by @thedaofund. Apply now: qf.giveth.io/qf/apply

If you’re at @EthCC, come catch @griffgreen talk on TheDAO: 2026. We’ll go back to where TheDAO story started, talk about why it had to be hacked again, and share how that treasury is now being redirected toward Ethereum security.

TheDAO Security Fund’s first round is out! We’re kicking things off with a broadly scoped Ethereum Security quadratic funding round on Giveth as the first move in our bottom-up distribution strategy. Why QF? Because we wanted the first round to do more than just allocate funds. QF is still one of the most powerful funding mechanisms Ethereum has produced. It gives the community a real voice, helps projects build awareness around their work, and creates extra upside for the Ethereum security space beyond the funding itself. That felt like the right energy for a first round. Not to mention, QF could also bring in meaningful donations on top of the pool. Extra funding for security is always good! Why keep the scope broad? There are so many projects out there building tools, standards, infrastructure, response systems, and protections that make Ethereum safer every single day, but this work is easy to miss if you’re not deep in it already. This round gives that work a chance to gain better adoption. We hope the many projects, tools, newsletters (and more) that join the round will become more widely known by everyone who participates, especially the ETHSecurity Badgeholders. This new awareness around what is already out there will, in itself, improve Ethereum security. Why Giveth? Because Giveth is already working closely on TheDAO Security Fund’s operations, including standing up the ETHSecurity Badges program, and going forward, they’ll also be working with all of our round operators. That made them the natural choice for running the first round. This first round is not just about getting funds out the door. It’s also about getting a real process in motion, learning from it, and making the next rounds better because of it. And on a practical level, Giveth is also the only Ethereum-focused team still actively running QF rounds at this scale. Read all about the round here 👇

Any experts in the house?

Introducing: Ethereum’s top security experts TheDAO’s ETHSecurity Badges are a new onchain primitive recognizing the people securing Ethereum. 40 have been selected. 160 open spots are left. Are you one of Ethereum’s top 200? 👇

The work behind a safer Ethereum deserves more backing.