Setting a new standard in bridge design and security, [Rosen Bridge](https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/Ergo%E2%80%99s-Rosen-Bridge-A-New-and-Better-Way-to-Interact-Cross-Chain/) aims to function as a hub for cross chain swaps across multiple networks. After bridging to Cardano, the Rosen Bridge roadmap includes plans to offer swaps with other blockchains, including BTC, ETH, BNB, and more.

In order for the bridge to come online, the Guards need to be properly set up, and this is the work that the Rosen Bridge developers have been completing recently. The lead developer has indicated that the Guards have set up the necessary requirements for key generation and that the key generation ceremony will most likely take place by this weekend. The next steps will include contract deployment and the minting of tokens, which they have indicated should be completed within a few days of the key generation ceremony. 

Following the successful deployment of these steps, the last part will be the final setup of the guards as well as the activation of watchers. 

It is clear that a lot of very careful thought and work has gone into building and developing the Rosen Bridge, and the Ergo and Cardano communities have been looking forward to accessing this important new product. With this news, it appears that Rosen Bridge could be fully online within 1-2 weeks.

For more information on Rosen Bridge, please visit the Rosen Bridge [website](https://rosen.tech/) and [Github](https://github.com/rosen-bridge). 


large_ergo_news_blog_rosen_bridge.png

medium_ergo_news_blog_rosen_bridge.png

small_ergo_news_blog_rosen_bridge.png

thumbnail_ergo_news_blog_rosen_bridge.png

ergo_news_blog_rosen_bridge.png

As the Ergo community excitedly awaits the launch of Rosen Bridge, the lead developer for the project has recently provided several important updates. These updates come shortly after the release of the Rosen Bridge token ($RSN) on Spectrum Finance and an understanding that people will need to lock a set amount of $RSN and $ERG as collateral in order to participate as Watchers and earn rewards. 

Rosen Bridge Updates: Launch Expected Within 1-2 Weeks

As of today, interested parties can now acquire the Rosen Bridge token (RSN) through [Spectrum Finance DEX](https://app.spectrum.fi/ergo/swap). This marks a significant milestone in preparation for the launch of Rosen Bridge.

The Rosen Bridge offers a new format in cryptocurrency bridge design. It is an open source, Ergo-centric bridge that will offer secure native asset swaps between varying blockchains. The structure of the bridge features the deployment of smart contracts on the Ergo side of a transaction only, thereby reducing the need for smart contracts on other chains. Rosen Bridge’s architecture relies on watchers and guards to verify and accurately perform cross chain swaps.

Guards are entities with locked funds through multisignature contracts while watchers are entities that monitor “[a blockchain and [report] bridge-related events on Ergo.](https://rosen.tech/)” In essence, the watchers on both blockchains work as a cross chain oracle and report bridge transactions, and guards process transactions after performing the necessary actions. The RSN token will serve as the utility token of Rosen Bridge and watchers and guards will be required to lock RSN as collateral. In the case of watchers, they will also need to lock ERG collateral along with the required amount of RSN. At the end of the emission schedule, all Rosen Bridge fees will be paid in RSN. With this model, watchers will be rewarded with RSN fees that the guards collect from transactions. 

Anyone will be able to set up a watcher as long as they have the necessary ERG and RSN tokens to lock as collateral. In the coming weeks, this information will become clearer, but it has been [stated by mhs_sam](https://t.me/rosenbridge_erg/537) (developer of Rosen Bridge) that the “initial plan is to do [a collateral of] 1k ERG + $1k worth of RSN.”

The RSN token will have a max supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens with an initial liquidity bootstrapping of 100,000,000 tokens. Initially liquidity bootstrapping, future liquidity bootstrapping (additional blockchains), and token emission will account for more than 73% of the total supply. 

The Cardano blockchain will be the first network that Rosen Bridge will operate with, but the roadmap includes plans for bridges with Ethereum, BSC, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and more. 

For a more in depth look at how Rosen Bridge will operate, please visit the [Rosen Bridge website](https://rosen.tech/).

_Disclaimer: Please manage risk responsibly and know your assumptions when investing in cryptocurrency assets._

large_news_ergo_post_blog_rosentokenlaunch.png

medium_news_ergo_post_blog_rosentokenlaunch.png

small_news_ergo_post_blog_rosentokenlaunch.png

thumbnail_news_ergo_post_blog_rosentokenlaunch.png

news_ergo_post_blog_rosentokenlaunch.png

As of today, interested parties can now acquire the Rosen Bridge token (RSN) through Spectrum Finance DEX. This marks a significant milestone in preparation for the launch of Rosen Bridge.

Rosen Bridge Token Launch

## Ergo’s Mission

Ergo has been designed to empower the ordinary person. The [Ergo Manifesto](https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2021-04-26-the-ergo-manifesto/), written by Ergo co-founder Alexander Chepurnoy, states that:


>“Cryptocurrency should provide tools to enrich ordinary people. Small businesses struggling to make ends meet, not big depersonalized financial capital. This is what inspired me. This is my dream. In the eyes of the original broad community vision, the tools of a cryptocurrency should allow people to do economic activity whatever the business size, geographic location, or interest rates set by big players. The tools should allow people to make contracts (digital, self-enforcing, reasonable smart contracts) regardless of the differences in jurisdictions, traditions, followed business practices, etc. I hope Ergo will be helpful here. Thousands of small cooperatives and individual entrepreneurs are much more critical to healthy and sustainable wealth growth around the globe compared to a couple of corporations hiding profits in offshore havens. Let's consider the use and integration with communities, cooperative federations, nonprofit foundations, and philanthropic trusts.” 

## Interest Free Kenya Business Loan

Through [ErgoRaffle](https://ergoraffle.com/raffle/show/f3d8d94c2af7a9bc7ea8615cc4bacb827960a60392d0264944b3638bce1c8ff9) (a decentralized application built on top of Ergo), the Ergo community has come together to fund an interest free loan that is going to a cooperative in Kenya, Africa. ErgoRaffle is essentially a decentralized crowdfunding tool that allows people to fund any sort of initiative (in a decentralized way). This initiative seeks to harness the potential of decentralized finance and active community involvement to nurture sustainable economic growth and create new avenues of prosperity for those who are a part of the cooperative. 

Alexander Chepurnoy and members of the Exle team initially provided loans to the Kenyan cooperative without formal contracts. Since then, the Kenyan cooperative’s timely repayments have demonstrated financial responsibility, and Exle has introduced zero-interest loans through EXLE’s contracts. 

To engage a wider community, Alex Chepurnoy decided to utilize a raffle model by selling tickets to raise funds. Going forward, they plan to establish a DAO through another Ergo dApp ([Paideia](https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/Paideia-A-DAO-Management-Software-Suite/)) to encourage transparency and further community involvement. Donors will have a say in how funding will be utilized for new loans as well as being able to participate in innovative experiments through peer-to-peer/community finance. 

## Conclusion

Ergo's interest-free loan initiative in Kenya is a testament to its commitment of empowering communities and fostering sustainable economic growth through the power of blockchain. Using decentralized finance and active community participation,  Ergo propels its mission forward of making an impact in the lives of ordinary people.

Check out [ErgoRaffle](https://ergoraffle.com/) to learn more about decentralized crowdfunding. The [Exle](https://exle.io/) team also plays an important role in micro loans on Ergo and more information about their work can be found on their website. 


large_ergoblog_loans_14062023.png

medium_ergoblog_loans_14062023.png

small_ergoblog_loans_14062023.png

thumbnail_ergoblog_loans_14062023.png

ergoblog_loans_14062023.png

Empowering Communities: Interest-Free Loans Drive Economic Growth for Kenyan Cooperative

## History of Auction House

A quote from the lead developer and founder of the [Auction House](https://ergoauctions.org/), Anon_real: 

>“[The] Auction House is the first NFT marketplace on Ergo, up and running since October 2020. It has been tested and used for around two years. Multiple bug fixes have been done and two versions (V1 & V2) have been released. The website is currently stable and its smart-contracts are pretty reliable.
The most important aspect of the current running version of Auction House is that it is completely decentralized. Artworks and auctions are all implemented inside the users’ browser according to the EIP-22 and EIP-24 standards. We continue our way to stay fully decentralized, as it is one of our core values at Auction House.”

In keeping with the ethos of Ergo, anyone can buy and sell their NFTs on the marketplace regardless of collection verification. This has pros and cons. On one hand, decentralization is flourishing on the Auction House, but on the other, users need to be careful about knowing their assumptions by not buying fake NFTs. The safest way to  avoid buying counterfeit NFTs is by double checking that the mint address of the NFT matches the collection’s mint address. That being said, Auction House V3 offers some improvements for assisting buyers with confirming the authenticity of an NFT.

## What Improvements does Auction House V3 have Over its Previous Version?

The Auction House will not only have a variety of important [improvements](https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vTNbjMPcJnDYQWtQ5CGkYpd5QUhEN6sBrm7y5DXTu_YgV8CwWguS0VzXDKv8qbB2YbwiVz-cc6dFmF8/pub), but several new features as well. The primary focus of V3 is to enhance the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) by providing a more intuitive and enjoyable trading platform. Notable additions to the platform include the introduction of collections (which follow the EIP-34 standard) and a launchpad feature that will enable artists to schedule and promote upcoming collection releases. 

Auction House V3 is also deploying a new collection verification standard so that the buyer is able to recognize legitimate collections from fake collections (if there are any fakes listed on the website). 

According to the Auction House team, security and transparency remain a key priority and the dApp will offer full transparency with open-source smart contracts and community-reviewed auction types. 

Bulk minting has been implemented in V3 to simplify collection creation, and the inclusion of traits and filtering based on the EIP-24 artwork standard allows users to refine their search. Another exciting feature will include support for buy offers. This will allow buyers to make offers on artwork that is not listed for sale. 

The Auction house will also support three new listing types for artists:

- Fixed Price Listings
- Highest Bid Auctions
- Dutch Auctions 


These new listing types will give artists and buyers alike new options for buying and selling NFTs. 

## Tokenomics and Utility

Because the dApp performed an IDO with ErgoPad, Auction House has its own token (AHT) which offers several functions within the platform.

These include:

### 1. Promotion
Users can showcase their artwork on the landing page, listings, and launchpad auctions.

### 2. Reward
Buyers and sellers can earn ATH as a reward at a rate of 5% per transaction. These rewards are determined by taking the numeric value of an asset's price and calculating 5% of that amount. For instance, if an asset is listed for 100 ERG, both the seller and buyer would receive 5 ATH each.

### 3. Profit Sharing
AHT can be staked via ErgoPad to earn a share of Auction House's profit. Auction House derives profit from artwork sales at 2% on the final price.

The Auction House team has stated that:

>“We will devote 30% of Auction House profit to our stakers. The distribution period and details are yet to be decided on. Initially we will distribute this 30% in an automatic but centralized fashion since there is not a working solution as of today on Ergo blockchain. Later on, as ErgoPad releases Paideia, we will use it to make this process decentralized.”


The Auction House V3 represents a new era in the NFT space on Ergo as a variety of innovative improvements and features have been added to the platform. To utilize the Auction House, you can visit the [marketplace](https://ergoauctions.org/) here. For a deeper dive into Auction House’s tokenomics and other information relating to the dApp, please consult the [whitepaper](https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vTNbjMPcJnDYQWtQ5CGkYpd5QUhEN6sBrm7y5DXTu_YgV8CwWguS0VzXDKv8qbB2YbwiVz-cc6dFmF8/pub). 


large_575007F8-8A18-49B7-90F2-2D3CB4B56AD8.png

medium_575007F8-8A18-49B7-90F2-2D3CB4B56AD8.png

small_575007F8-8A18-49B7-90F2-2D3CB4B56AD8.png

thumbnail_575007F8-8A18-49B7-90F2-2D3CB4B56AD8.png

575007F8-8A18-49B7-90F2-2D3CB4B56AD8.png

One of Ergo’s most popular community dApps has recently released a suite of new features in Auction House V3. Developed by Anon_real, the Auction House was the first NFT market place on Ergo, enabling users the ability to buy and sell NFTs in a decentralized manner.

Auction House V3 Launches on Mainnet

_For the first segment of this two-part series, please see [Mining Pool Innovation: Lithos Protocol Part I.](https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/Mining-Pool-Innovation-Lithos-Protocol-Part-1/)_

During a recent ErgoHack, the Lithos Protocol team submitted a proposal to develop a way to fully decentralize collateralized mining pools. Lithos Protocol plans to revolutionize Proof of Work mining by having mining pools be on-chain, promoting trustlessness and full decentralization. The Lithos Protocol Litepaper outlines three components that will fulfill this goal: NISPs, collateralization and tokenization.

## NISPs

NISP stands for Non-Interactive Share Proofs. The [Lithos Protocol](https://github.com/Lithos-Protocol/LitePaper#readme) team states that “NISPs allow for work created by miners, [called] shares, to be compressed down and efficiently calculated so that miners can be paid fairly according to the shares they submitted.” In essence, this allows for work to be calculated on-chain via smart contracts. Through NISPs, miners will have more control over various aspects of mining. Specifically, NISPs will allow miners to select their own share difficulty and have more control over “their own risk to reward ratio when receiving rewards.” It is important to note that any blockchain that supports Proof of Work mining can implement the Lithos Protocol approach to decentralized mining pools. Although initially designed to be compatible with the Ergo blockchain, this product is designed for implementation with any PoW protocol. 

## Collateralization

Collateralized mining pools enable the creation of blocks locally. Miners have the ability to select which transactions to include in their blocks in addition to setting governance parameters for the Ergo blockchain. Lithos protocol will include a native DeFi application where lenders can provide collateral to miners in return for fees. It is important to note that Lithos is using collateralization as the foundation of their protocol.

In a special guest appearance on the [Sigmanaut Youtube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO7_B0e8vSk&ab_channel=ErgoSigmanauts) (40:57-41:04), Rob from Lithos stated that instead of using ERG as collateral, participants can use native tokens. The collateralization will essentially be the pool of funds that will be paid out to miners. Collateralization enables lenders to provide a form of security deposit to miners in exchange for fees. This creates a fascinating market between miners and lenders, where miners can earn additional capital and lenders can make money off of fees. The mining pool operator (or the lender) will be able to collect the ERG that the miner earns and use the collateral of a different token to pay out the miners. Miners will also be able to earn both ERG and native tokens.

## Tokenization

Lithos Protocol plans to incorporate a token into their platform. The token will be needed as a part of the collateralization, which will aid in building a market between lenders and miners.
More information about Lithos and its token will be provided as they begin work on their full whitepaper. For now, interested parties can view the [Litepaper on Github](https://github.com/Lithos-Protocol/LitePaper#readme).



ergo_blog_mining_pool_lithos_120423 11.png

large_ergo_blog_mining_pool_lithos_120423 11.png

medium_ergo_blog_mining_pool_lithos_120423 11.png

small_ergo_blog_mining_pool_lithos_120423 11.png

thumbnail_ergo_blog_mining_pool_lithos_120423 11.png

Mining Pool Innovation: Lithos Protocol Part II
