Next week, the Dencun Upgrade is going live on Ethereum Mainnet.

As part of this, EIP-4844 will be implemented — reducing gas fees on L2s from dollars to fractions of cents.

Here’s everything you need to know about the biggest upgrade to Ethereum since The Merge: 🧵👇 Dencun includes changes to Ethereum's consensus & execution layers — combining the Deneb & Cancun upgrades.

As part of Cancun, EIP-4844 is being introduced to Ethereum, using a new transaction type, known as a ‘blob-carrying transaction', to cut gas fees by 10-100x.

🚨 LAUNCH 🚨

Introducing thirdweb Engine — An open source HTTP server for scalable web3 apps:

• Create backend wallets w/ automatic queuing, nonce & gas management at scale
• Interact w/ any smart contract on any EVM chain
• Self-host or use our managed service

Details: 🧵 Building a scalable web3 backend poses 3 challenges:

• Complexity: Devs need nonce management, gas payments, signers, & more to set up an app
• Security: Managing private keys for backend wallets is risky
• Reliability: Apps face stuck nonces, gas spikes & network instability

Deploy any smart contract to any chain with one command.

◆ No need to deal with private keys
◆ No copy and pasting ABIs
◆ Automatic contract verification
◆ Keep track of all your deploys in one place

The fastest and most secure way to deploy smart contracts: Smart contracts are the foundation to any blockchain app.

We've built a flow which makes deploying a smart contract to any EVM simple, fast and effective.

Without sacrificing security or control over your contract.

Token-Bound Accounts (TBAs) are the next big evolution for NFTs.

They enable two groundbreaking features:

1. Asset ownership (your NFT can hold tokens)
2. Social identity (NFTs have their own Ethereum identity)

Here's how devs can get started building TBAs: 🧵 Token Bound Accounts (TBAs) are enabled by ERC-6551, a new standard which creates a smart contract wallet for every ERC-721 NFT.

A TBA is "an interface and registry for smart contract accounts owned by ERC-721 tokens" — linking smart contract accounts to the NFTs that own them.

Last month over 1M wallets deployed a smart contract on @BuildOnBase, a new L2 incubated by Coinbase.

@BuildOnBase launched an onchain challenge for builders to deploy a smart contract to the Base test network, & earn an NFT.

Deployments rocketed 🚀

Here's how they did it 🧵👇 Base is a new a Layer 2 network for Ethereum incubated by @coinbase which aims to bring the next billion people onchain.

To accelerate dev adoption, Base launched the first Builder Quests:

Onchain challenges that help onboard new devs & reward them with commemorative NFTs.

ERC-6551 is the latest Ethereum standard which could completely transform the way we think about NFTs

Here's a full technical breakdown on ERC-6551 and 'Token Bound Accounts'.

Let's get you up to speed.👇🧵 ERC-6551 is a new Ethereum standard that proposes issuing a standalone crypto wallet for each ERC-721 token, turning NFTs into Token Bound Accounts (TBAs).

TBAs enable NFTs to own assets and execute transactions through smart contracts.

(image: @0xDesigner)

LAUNCH. 🚀

Building a great 'Connect Wallet' flow is the hardest part of Web3.

We've made it simple.

Introducing Wallet SDK. A development kit which gives devs access the largest catalog of wallets, from custodial to MPC to smart contracts.

Details. 🧵 Wallets are the first friction point in web3 apps.

For some users, having control over the wallet (& private keys) is a non-negotiable, whilst for others a smooth UX is more important.

Wallet SDK serves every wallet development need - from web3 natives to onboarding web2 users.

Last month broke every single one of our usage records. 📈

More builders deployed a smart contract using our tools during April than the previous 12 months combined. 🤯

Here’s our Web3 development ecosystem report for our biggest ever month. 🧵 More contracts = more activity.

We saw a huge increase in transactions on thirdweb deployed contracts in April, with just under 2 million transactions.

📈

Mirror has redefined content creation with decentralised publishing.

Last week they announced 'Subscribe to Mint', a brand new feature powered by thirdweb.

Learn how they built it, how it accelerates growth for publishers and how to mint our first NFT on Mirror 👀 🤝

Thread 🧵 For the last 20 years, hosting long-form written content online required using a Web2 platform with a centralised server.

This meant that your content could be subject to censorship or outright removal by a third party.

NEW FEATURE. 💡

Today we're launching a collection of staking contracts on thirdweb.

Build apps where users can stake their NFTs (and other tokens) and earn rewards in the form of ERC-20 tokens.

-> Fully audited
-> Deploy on any EVM chain

Here it is in action. 👇

🧵 Staking was one of our most requested features and lets you reward loyal holders of your NFTs and other tokens for holding.

This creates a strong incentive for users to become active participants in your project.

This Counter-Strike skin just sold for $160,000

In 10 years, every video game item will be an NFT.

Many gamers believe NFTs are another example of game studios taking advantage of players for revenue.

Here’s an introduction to Web3 gaming which explains why this isn't true .🧵 When you spend hours playing a video game, you are rewarded with an in-game item which can improve your playing experience.

These items represent your progress as a player and are badges of honour for the time you spent perfecting your skill.

Last week, the thirdweb engineers took part in 'hack week.'

Cancel all meetings → Ship stuff

5 days of focus to move the needle.

Here's everything we shipped, including:

🔎 Improved contract search
📃 New Typescript SDK Docs
🎨 Upgrades to our storage solution

🧵👇 🔎 Search for any contract!

We've improved our search to easily find any imported or thirdweb deployed contract by name.

The search index is continuously growing and search will continue improving with more advanced filtering coming soon.

Last week, ERC-4337 went live on the Ethereum network - the most significant milestone in Web3 since the merge.

The proposal introduces account abstraction which will transform how users interact with blockchains.

Here's the ultimate guide to ERC-4337. 🧵 In this thread, we'll unpack:
• Account Abstraction (ERC-4337)
• UX in the current web3 landscape
• Ethereum accounts
• How ERC-4337 provides a potential solution to several of the toughest issues in web3.

Let's dive in 👇

Build a Web3 commerce app -> Win up to $9K!

We've teamed up with @Shopify and @Replit to drop a huge $9k bounty for devs to build Web3 commerce apps.

Interested? 🤔 Here are the details on Replit's biggest ever bounty.🧵 Last week we introduced CommerceKit to the world.

A full development kit for building Web3 commerce features:

• Tokengated products, discounts, and even IRL shopping experiences.
• Sell NFTs from your storefront
• On-Chain loyalty programs

and more!

Web3 development is on fire in 2023 🔥

February was a huge month for the thirdweb ecosystem and Layer 2’s are leading the charge.

Here are 5 of February's biggest stats, starting with a 3x increase in unique monthly active wallets interacting with thirdweb contracts. 📈

🧵 Layer 2’s are growing and proving to be popular scaling solutions for devs building apps with seamless user experiences.

thirdweb's @optimismFND community is flourishing - During the final week of February, our contracts accounted for 41% of all activity on the network:

Performing actions on the blockchain today is slow and tedious.

For new users, it’s a nightmare.

Enter Account Abstraction (EIP-4337). A new proposal that promises to transform the Web3 user experience!

Here’s how. 🧵 In this thread, we'll unpack Account Abstraction (EIP-4337), UX in the current web3 landscape, Ethereum accounts, and how EIP-4337 provides a potential solution to several of the toughest issues in web3. 👇

Unlock Protocol makes it easy to build a subscription model on the blockchain!

Here's the guide to doing it in 5 minutes.

Try it out on @UnlockProtocol: 🧵 In this thread, learn how to deploy an instance of the Lock contract created by Unlock Protocol and then integrate this contract into a simple app.

Unlock Protocol is an open-source protocol for creating time-bound NFTs for recurring subscriptions and memberships in web3.

There are 4 billion people online today who have never heard of web3.

Only 400 million of them are crypto adopters.

How to teach an entire planet about decentralized technologies?

Here’s the story of how @Layer3xyz is building the next generation web3 discovery system: Introducing Layer3 (@Layer3xyz), a new web3 platform that helps people explore and learn about web3 technologies through the magic of gamified experiences called "Quests."

Here's how it works:

What is 'Layer 2' on Ethereum?

99% of people don't know the answer.

Here's a guide that will transform your understanding of blockchain. 🧵 The blockchain trilemma states that a blockchain can only achieve 2 out of 3 desirable properties (decentralized, secure, scalable).

Ethereum's community has taken a stance that it won't throw out decentralization or security in order to scale.

That's when L2s come in: 👀

Web3 and dApps have revolutionized tech.

But most dApps only work on one chain.

Here's how to build one that works on them all.

🧵 This thread will show you how to create a dApp that works on multiple chains.

In this dApp, we will allow users to select chains and claim an NFT from the respective chain. We're going to show Goerli and Mumbai, but you could do it on any network and run with your imagination!

HUGE LAUNCH 🚀

What if you could search, discover, and deploy smart contracts from the best protocols and smart contract engineers in Web3?

Introducing thirdweb Explore. 🔍

The front page for smart contracts. 🧵 We believe that Web3 developers should have access to every smart contract to build for every possible solution.

Launching Explore brings us one step closer to that vision.