Lit Protocol Community Update: April '23

A Monthly Newsletter on all things Lit.

Lit Protocol is a decentralized key management network powered by threshold cryptography. A blockchain-agnostic middleware layer, Lit can be used to power encryption, signing, and compute for web3 applications.

Intro.

Welcome to the Lit community update! This is the fifth edition of our monthly newsletter and our second update of the new year.

To learn more about the protocol and start building with our tools today, check out our developer docs. You can also find us on Twitter or join our developer ecosystem on Discord.

Without further ado, let’s jump right in!

General Updates.

Lit SDK V2

We are excited to announce the new Lit SDK V2, a complete rewrite of the old SDK written in TypeScript. We've taken the feedback we received and created a more intuitive and streamlined development experience, enabling better code autocompletion and earlier error detection in the IDE. This not only makes it easier to write and debug code, but also allows developers to catch errors before they become bigger issues. The new V2 SDK is much more modular and easier to use, and has a much smaller bundle size. You can read more about the new SDK here, or get started building by following this installation guide.

The Ignite Prize

We are excited to introduce the Ignite Prize, a $20,000 bounty given to the team with the most innovative use of Lit at a hackathon in 2023. The Ignite Prize winner will be selected on December 15th. In order to keep track of projects, please submit your project to this form as soon as a hackathon comes to a close. You can read more about this initiative on Spark.

Docs Updates

We have released another overhaul of our developer documentation, designed to make it easier for developers to learn about Lit’s various product offerings and implement Lit functionality into their own projects. Take a look at several of the updated sections, highlighted below:

1. Getting started with Decentralized Access Control
2. Introduction to Programmable Key Pairs
3. Authentication with PKPs
4. Distributed Cloud Wallets
5. Using Lit Actions
6. GetLitCli: a command-line tool designed to help developers manage their Lit Actions projects
7. Using PKPs and Lit Actions together
8. Working with the Lit SDK
9. Installing the Lit SDK V2
10. V2 migration guide
11. Testing and error handling

Lit Ambassador Program

We are still taking applications for the Lit Ambassador Program, an initiative designed to reward individuals for their meaningful contributions to the Lit ecosystem. The ideal ambassador understands what’s possible with Lit’s technology and is excited about a future where Lit is a crucial part of the decentralized infrastructure that makes up the Web. They ideally are able to dedicate 5-10 hours a month to Lit initiatives described in this post. You can apply for the program here.

New Features

1. Event Listener — The Lit Event Listener allows you to create specific event-based triggers for executing Lit Actions. An example application is automated portfolio rebalancing based on price movement and other pre-defined factors. You can use this example React app to play with the Event Listener and customize your own conditions. Development on the Event Listener is ongoing and contributions are welcome.
2. Single Node Execution — For some use cases (such as making an API or RPC request), it may be desired to execute a Lit Action on a single node, as opposed to every node in the Lit Network in parallel. Single node execution is now enabled in the SDK by passing the targetNodeRange parameter after your executeJS function (i.e. 'executeJs({ targetNodeRange: 1 })'). You can pass 1-10 to specify the number of nodes the Lit Action should be executed on. Signing values in single node execution is not yet supported.
3. Lit Action Conditions — Lit Actions can now be used to create custom Access Control Conditions. You can create a Lit Action Condition to grant access whenever a given Lit Action returns true. You can get started with this feature in our docs.

Around the Ecosystem.

Updates from the community!

Streamr Integrates Lit

Streamr has integrated Lit to enable historical data to be decrypted even after a publisher has gone offline and disappeared from the network. Publishers can store encryption keys to the Lit Network, and subscribers can retrieve them according to access control policies set in the Streamr smart contracts.

Intuition Releases Slang at EthDenver

Slang leverages ComposeDB & Prisma to wrap decentralized databases with all the tooling that devs have come to expect, including rich querying functionality. In addition, Slang leverages DIDs, PKPs, and Lit Actions to simplify the user experience for any use case.

WeaveDB Cross-Chain Relayer

WeaveDB is a decentralized database built on Arweave that has developed a cross-platform relayer solution using Lit. The relayer enables WeaveDB to bridge any data from outside the Arweave smart contract environment into the database. Additionally, Access Control Conditions are utilized to support data encryption and privacy. Read more about the new features on WeaveDB’s blog.

Null World: Launch Your Own Gamer Guild

Null World allows you to launch your own personalized gaming community in just a few clicks. Each player account is controlled by a Lit PKP under the hood.

Decentralized ChatGPT from Orbis

Orbis has released a decentralized chat bot using ChatGPT. The conversations are stored on Ceramic and encrypted with Lit.

Account Abstraction with Stackup and Lit

This post details how Lit’s MPC wallet can be used with Stackup to extend the applications of account abstraction.

Krebit Credentials Issued by Lit Actions

Krebit is a Web3 reputation protocol and marketplace. The protocol has integrated Lit Actions to automate and decentralize the issuance of verifiable credentials.

Private Semantic SBT Metadata: Relation X Lit

To help users build a personalized and privacy-preserving social network, Relation has utilized Lit to develop a privacy module in the Semantic SBT Protocol. This modules enables encryption and gated access to content in Semantic metadata.

Ecosystem RFPs

Interested in building with Lit but not sure where to get started? We have continued to add additional requests to our Request for Ecosystem Proposals page. Here you will find some ideas for projects and tooling that we are looking to sponsor through our grants program.

Build with Lit

If you’re interested in integrating Lit into your existing project, or want to build something completely new using Lit infrastructure, check out our grants program. We are looking to fund developers who have a passion for building innovative solutions to the current shortfalls of web3.

Community Calendar

To ensure you never miss a beat, subscribe to our community calendar. Here you can find the schedule for our Office Hours, which take place biweekly on Wednesdays at 4:30pm EST on Twitter. You will also find info for additional community events, conferences, announcements, and more.

Content Recap

Featured posts from February and March.

The Future Wallet: Where Lit and Account Abstraction Meet

This post provides an overview of account abstraction, smart contract accounts, and MPC, as well as use cases of account abstraction with Lit Actions & Programmable Key Pairs (PKPs).

Using Lit Actions for Access Control

Learn how to use Lit Actions to extend the functionality of your Lit Access Control Conditions.

Automated Portfolio Rebalancing with Uniswap

Learn how to use the new Lit Event Listener to automate your interactions across decentralized finance.

Coming soon 👀

Here are some of the things to look forward to in the months ahead:

1. A few members of the team will be at ETHGlobal Tokyo in the coming weeks. If you’ll be there, give us a shout!
2. Lit will be a partner at the Aragon DAO Global Hackathon in April, an exciting 4-week virtual event where hackers will leverage existing tools and governance primitives to enable the next generation of DAOs! We can't wait to see what gets built (:
3. The release of our open-source interface for managing the assets in your PKP cloud wallet is coming very soon! This will provide a home for viewing and sending your tokens and NFTs, “installing” dApps, and assigning arbitrary logic via Lit Actions.
4. Decentralizing the Lit Network! Right now, test networks are running with a few node operators and the distribution process is ongoing. If you are interested in getting involved as a node operator, fill out this form.

Wrapping up…

This wraps up our April update! If you enjoyed it, you can click below to subscribe and receive future updates directly in your inbox.

Once again, you can find us on Discord with any questions, concerns, or feedback.

Until next time,

alt signing out.