The Immersive Experience of ICP.Lab in the Heart of Zurich
An intense week of learning, bonding and knowing more about top De.Fi. projects in the uprising IC ecosystem.
It has been definitely a hectic month at DFINITY HQ, to say the least. A full calendar of seminars, workshop, events kept all of us interested, busy, but - most importantly - engaged with a beautiful crowd of devs, stakeholders and enthusiasts.
Let's start from the beginning. Last Monday, the DFINITY Foundation hosted an Internet Computer DeFi meetup to kickoff the third iteration of its ICP.Labs program. ICP.Labs is a custom tailored (and highly advanced) mentorship program designed to assist the most promising teams building on the Internet Computer blockchain. Held at the DFINITY Foundation HQ in Zurich, participating projects benefited from direct access to DFINITY’s top experts for the duration of the lab. In addition to offering personalized coaching and instructions to those present, the DFINITY team conducted workshops covering R&D, growth, finance, operations, marketing, roadmap formation, and other key business considerations.
In the spirit of mentorship and collaboration, the DFINITY Foundation opened its extensive network of advisors and investors to every project chosen to participate in ICP.Labs. The strategic partners of the ICP.Lab included some of the most active investors and participants in the Swiss blockchain space, including CV Labs, CV VC, INACTA, Crypto Valley, and Crypto Oasis.
The net impact of events such as the ICP.lab has profound significance. The DFINITY Foundation understands the importance of providing encouragement and support to development teams fighting to survive a prolonged bear market; together we will emerge smarter and stronger. It is in the depths of this brutal crypto winter that the next generation of disruptive dApps will be built.
In his address to the ICP.Lab attendees, Dominic Williams, Chief Scientist and Founder of the DFINITY Foundation elaborated:
“During a downturn in the markets, we must continue to build and look to the future, the next industry-changing dApps will be built during this bear market. The DFINITY Foundation is committed to using its resources and expertise to help these projects achieve their goals. Once users experience true decentralization there is no looking back”
The participants in the lab were full of energy and excitement, and showed an incredible level of participation in all different types of educational and promotional activities. They were eager to share their thoughts and experiences with us (hint: the reviews were overwhelmingly positive). The buzz of adrenaline was still palpable after the event concluded, as they spoke with excitement about all of the new ideas and concepts they had encountered during the Lab. It was clear that they had been deeply impacted by the event and were eager to continue the development work they had begun there. For starters, AstroX Co-Founder Brutoshi told us:
”The DFINITY R&D team exceeded my expectations, they are excellent. I spoke with the engineers about the BTC integration and ETH integration, I was really impressed. We have spoken a lot to DFINITY on Zoom and on forums but meeting face to face and being in the same room is much more effective”
Another IC.Lab participant, BlockPunk, the Co-Founder of ICP League noted:
“I found the DFINITY team to be practical and helpful. When so many developers with the same goal are gathered in the one room it is a great opportunity for feedback and to learn. I learned a lot about how the community thinks and what problems other developers face, it was super helpful"
Together with the above, several other Teams building on the Internet Computer protocol took part in the acceleration program, including:
Helix Markets: Bringing true ownership and full transparency to DeFi trading
Infinity Swap: An automated market maker (AMM) that allows users to create, stake, and swap ETH & IC tokens
Finterest: A lending protocol that allows users to supply assets and earn yield upon them. Finterest holds the distinction of being the first borrowing and lending platform on the Internet Computer, with all its smart contracts living on chain
Orderswap (by Deland Labs): A DEX built on the Internet Computer blockchain
Mix Labs: A leading-edge technology laboratory in the blockchain direction composed of top universities and community developers in Asia
IC Lighthouse: DeFi development framework and Defi ecosystem on Internet Computer blockchain
Rock Labs: Building multi-chain products and tools for the next era of decentralized internet
In the race to become the next Killer De.Fi. App in Web3, these amazing projects have as well the mission of bringing forward a new era after a turbulent year. The decentralized finance sector has endured quite a rollercoaster in 2022. The spectacular collapses of FTX, Celsius, and Voyager have thrust crypto thrust into the mainstream media narrative. Fortunately, most crypto enthusiasts have come to understand that FTX, Celsius, and Voyager were not truly decentralized finance companies, but rather centralized exchanges (CEX) pretending to be part of the DeFi industry.
However, DeFi projects built on the Internet Computer are 100% decentralized, and therefore unstoppable – immune from censorship, shutdown, and the custodial risks that plague the centralized financial world. The Internet Computer blockchain is the only publicly decentralized blockchain that does not rely on centralized cloud computing, making it the only blockchain capable of hosting truly (end-to-end) decentralized systems of finance.
“These projects are unlike any other projects in the industry as they are truly decentralized, we encourage every ambitious developer to look at the Internet Computer and build a truly unstoppable app on it”
The stage is primed for truly decentralized finance. Last week’s ICP.Lab, which focused almost exclusively on DeFi solutions, demonstrates that the Internet Computer will lead the way for the future of finance.
ICP.Lab DeFi edition really felt like a community last week in Zurich. It was great to have so many teams over from China too--the developer ecosystem in China is very impressive. It was also amazing to welcome so many VCs and investors to join us on Monday night to meet the teams. Many of them were very impressed with what they saw around here.
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