use-ink · cmichi · Oct 27, 2022 · Oct 27, 2022
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+---
+title: October '22
+slug: /monthly-update/2022/10
+---
+
+## Polkadot Blockchain Academy: Jan/Feb '23 🎓
+
+<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ODg6EPfekf0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+
+In July we spent some time in Cambridge on a secret mission.
+At the time we teased this in our monthly update and said we'd
+give more details soon. Well, the cat (or rather squid?) is out
+of the bag!
+
+We were holding lectures on WebAssembly smart contracts as part
+of the Polkadot Blockchain Academy! This was the first, intentionally
+low-key, run of a Polkadot education program with an academic 
+focus. This first run was low-key to smooth out the edges and verify
+if our idea of a curriculum worked out in the real world.
+It did and there will be many more academies! Starting with the next
+one, which is happening in January and February 2023 in Buenos Aires.
+
+We will also be giving lectures there again! You can find more
+details on [http://dot.li/academy](http://dot.li/academy).
+
+## Astar ported Uniswap v2 to ink! 💱
+
+Astar has published a showcase Dapp built with ink!:
+a Uniswap-V2 DEX. This is amazing and we can't wait to
+see where this is going!
+
+They are working on a UI for the DEX as well. You can find
+the repository here:
+[`AstarNetwork/wasm-showcase-dapps`](https://github.com/AstarNetwork/wasm-showcase-dapps).
+
+## Release Updates 🆕
+
+We've published a release of ink! [`v3.4`](https://github.com/paritytech/ink/releases/tag/v3.4.0)
+this month.
+
+For ink! `v4.0` and `cargo-contract` `v2.0` we decided to shift our
+target release date a bit, to January 2023. There are a number of
+reasons why we decided to do this:
+
+* We have made a number of breaking changes and want to wait until popular 
+  user interfaces (like [`polkadot-js`](https://polkadot.js.org/apps/) or
+  [`contracts-ui`](https://contracts-ui.substrate.io/)) support those.
+* We want to have a release candidate out for at least some weeks to give
+  everyone the chance to already upgrade tooling and provide feedback.
+* We have an audit going on and would ideally like to incorporate more 
+  of the results.
+
+A breaking change that has formed in the last weeks is that we
+will have to remove [`ink_env::random`](https://docs.rs/ink_env/3.3.1/ink_env/fn.random.html).
+This function allowed contract developers getting random entropy.
+There is unfortunately no way how this can be done safely enough 
+with built-in Substrate primitives on-chain currently. We're
+following the recommendation of our auditors to remove it.
+
+The alternative right now is to provide random entropy off-chain to
+the contract, to use a random entropy oracle, or to have a chain-extension
+that does this, in case the chain has a possibility to do so.
+
+We hope to bring this function back in a future release of ink!, the
+best hope right now is that it could come back with [Sassafras](https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/learn-consensus#badass-babe-sassafras), a block production
+protocol for future versions of Polkadot.
+
+## Conference Season 📢
+
+Many from our team have been on the road in the last weeks.
+You might have met us at DappCon, DevCon, or EuroRust.
+
+There's more to come and a number of us will be at [sub0 in
+Lisbon at the end of November '22](https://sub0.polkadot.network/).
+We have two events scheduled there, a talk and a fireside chat.
+Come by and talk to us if you're there!
+
+## Blog Post on `wasm-opt-rs` 🙌
+
+[Brian Anderson](https://github.com/brson) wrote a blog post on [his
+Web3 Foundation grant](https://github.com/w3f/Grants-Program/pull/1070)
+to get rid of `wasm-opt` as an external dependency for `cargo-contract`.
+
+This was a contribution that we looked forward to a lot. 
+External dependencies cause so much user friction. For once, it's
+another step in the installation, which is not always straight forward
+and different for each operating system.
+There's other issues too, we don't have control over which
+version of the dependency is installed on the local system and
+have to throw errors for the user, causing more user friction.
+
+All of this is just solved now by having [`wasm-opt`](https://crates.io/crates/wasm-opt)
+be a direct dependency of `cargo-contract`.
+
+The blog post is an interesting read, you can find it on
+Brian's blog [here](https://brson.github.io/2022/10/26/creating-wasm-opt-rust-bindings-with-cxx).
+
+## Solang Solidity compiler incubated into Hyperledger Foundation 🎉
+
+ink! contracts are executed by Substrate's [`pallet-contracts`](/how-it-works);
+besides ink! there are two other languages that you can use to
+write smart contracts for this pallet: [ask!](https://github.com/ask-lang/ask)
+(Assembly Script) and Solidity via [the Solang compiler](https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/solang).
+
+Solang supports different blockchains as compiler targets, one
+of them being `pallet-contracts`. Our colleague [@xermicus](https://github.com/xermicus)
+is working full-time on this Substrate backend in Solang. 
+
+The project has now been incubated into the Hyperledger Foundation,
+hosted by the Linux Foundation. This is a big recognition for
+the project!
+
+In ink!, supporting a symbiotic interaction with Solidity contracts
+is an important part of the puzzle for us and we're looking forward
+to the next stages of Solang.
+
+More details can be found [in the announcement blog post](https://www.hyperledger.org/blog/2022/09/12/meet-hyperledger-solang-a-portable-solidity-compiler).
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ module.exports = {
     ],
     'Monthly Update': [
       'monthly-update/overview',
+      'monthly-update/2022/10',
       'monthly-update/2022/09',
       'monthly-update/2022/08',
       'monthly-update/2022/07',

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
     ],
     "Monthly Update": [
       "monthly-update/overview",
+      "monthly-update/2022/10",
       "monthly-update/2022/09",
       "monthly-update/2022/08",
       "monthly-update/2022/07",