Wormhole's Era3 upgrade wants to make multichain experiences better

Welcome back to Talking Tokens.

We’re building the best place for quick crypto insights, news and in-depth interviews with the best leaders, startups, market players and up-and-coming founders that are changing the industry.

If you haven’t already, subscribe here.

Wormhole is in its Era3

Many platforms, chains and protocols want to go multichain, providing users and developers alike the ability to communicate across different blockchains.

“There was a time a couple of years ago where ‘multichain’ was a school of thought,” Robinson Burkey, co-founder of Wormhole Foundation said on Talking Tokens.

“There was a point where it was a big bet…now it’s almost a sure thing and we’re starting to see builders come to us much earlier on,” ranging from onchain web3-native developers to institutions.

(Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.)

Today, multichain operations are still cumbersome and often riddled with friction. For Wormhole, a platform focused on interoperability, it’s hoping to change that through its latest upgrade Era3.

Wormhole has launched two “eras” prior to this one, Era1 and Era2, Dan Reecer, co-founder of Wormhole Foundation, shared. But Era3 is the “Era of Experience” for users and developers, he added.

The four-year-old Wormhole has facilitated the passage of over 1 billion messages and is compatible with more than 30 blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Aptos, Base and Avalanche, to name a handful.

The upgrade aims to make multichain interactions easier through more simplified integrations, streamlining dApp deployment processes for developers and hopefully opening the door to greater adoption from financial institutions and enterprises.

Wormhole is at a point in its existence where it’s building for a long time, so it’s going for a “complete multichain platform,” Burkey said. He compared it to Stripe, which is best known for its payment solutions, but offers a suite of other products, too.

“Where we’re going with Era3 is, every tool a developer needs to build something multichain, they have it [on Wormhole],” Burkey said. It also works with other teams to build applications on top of its platform too, for more functionality.

Wormhole is working with some of the biggest online payments players as well as asset tokenization platforms to help them go multichain with their initial use cases, Reecer noted.

It’s hoping that its latest upgrade will bring more everyday users, institutions and governments to move assets onchain through features like its go-to UI Portal, which underwent a “massive upgrade,” Reecer said.

“The big vision, the big takeaway here is this is a complete interoperability platform,” Burkey said. “The goal is to take it from building and solving niche problems in crypto to actualizing it, going to market for front-end users to use as many chains as possible. That’s how we think about Era3 at a high level.”

All in all, both co-founders believe “interoperability is crucial and will continue to be.”

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For this week’s Tuesday episode, I interviewed Wormhole Foundation co-founders Dan Reecer and Robinson Burkey. 

We about Wormhole’s focus on interoperability, its latest Era3 upgrade and what it means for developers, enterprise businesses, institutions and DeFi, as well as the platform’s long term road map.

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

Monitoring blockchains

Looking at some of the biggest developments onchain.

• ICYMI: Solana Breakpoint 2024 brought in over 6,000 builders, 75 products showcased and a number of high-profile talks on stage and announcements — some of our favorites are featured below:

  • Coinbase is planning to bring its wrapped bitcoin token, cbBTC, to Solana 

  • Visa’s head of crypto thinks non-dollar denominated stablecoins will see greater demand in the coming years

  • Streamflow is launching permissionless token staking on Solana so users and projects can stake to tokens and create customized reward pools

Taking on the tokens 

The total crypto market cap rose less than 1% in the past 24-hours to $2.23 trillion. It increased 8.8% over a 7-day period.

As for the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap…

These metrics were taken prior to publication Tuesday morning EST.

Money and people moves

Latest updates on crypto startups that secured funding and industry players who are starting something new.

1. Celestia, a modular blockchain network, raised $100M, bringing its total fundraising to $150M

2. Tools for Humanity hires “Leighton” as head of ecosystem for the Worldcoin network

3. Aptos-based liquid staking platform Amnis Finance raised $2M in seed round

4. The Funding: Crypto VCs on a fundraising spree (The Block)

Talking points for the road 

Here’s some headlines and topics that you can talk about at your next dinner party, crypto event or on a first date to look smart (results may vary.) 

1. Meet the man who sold Donald Trump a burger using Bitcoin (Fortune)

2. How DAI’s stablecoin rebrand hit $490m in five days (DL News)

3. Digital Asset Funds See Second Consecutive Week of Inflows: CoinShares (CoinDesk)

4. Crypto’s Correlation With US Stocks Nears Record in Fed Fallout (Bloomberg)

Get involved and share the newsletter. The more you share, the higher your ranking.

• Refer 25 people and get my customized media guide.

• Refer 50 people for a chance at a 1:1 meeting with me to dive into best practices when engaging with the media.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

If you do (or don’t) like what you see, let me know by sending feedback to [email protected].

This product was built by Token Relations. 

Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.