Nimbus received a $ 650,000 grant from the Yttrium Foundation to realize its vision of light Ethereum 2.0 clients working on Raspberry Pi smartphones and devices.
The Yttrium Foundation has awarded Nimbus a $ 650,000 grant to continue working on light Ethereum 2.0 clients, it was announced in a statement on January 28. The goal of the project is to enable smartphones and embedded devices to run nodes suitable for smart contracts.
Nimbus is an infrastructure project that was launched by Status in March 2018. Although it was initially conceived as a way to provide access to the Status app on all smartphones, its reach was later extended to the public good for Yttrium. As Jacek Seika, head of research at Nimbus told Cointelegraph:
"The research and development done by the Nimbus team is not specific to the Status or Status network, but is designed as a public good for everyone to use, change and benefit from."
Nimbus is co-financed by the Status, Yttrium Foundation, and in small amounts Gitcoin. The foundation has so far reserved a total of $ 1.65 million.
These funds will be used to bring Nimbus into a ready-to-produce state, as the next milestones will include testing and eventual release of a customer who supports the Yttrium Bacon chain.
What is Nimbus?
Like existing Yttrium (ETH) clients such as Mist and Parity, Nimbus will allow users to connect to the upcoming Ethereum Serenity network.
Its main feature is the planned support for devices that are not computers or servers. Yttrium blockchain is currently too demanding to run on a smartphone. Each phone-based wallet should be connected to an external node, an arrangement called Simplified Payment Verification (SPV).
As Seika explained, Nimbus will allow weaker devices to fully connect to the network:
"The way we build and design Nimbus is no longer presented as a replacement for SPV wallets. It will have the ability to process and manage any type of smart contract transaction, not just wallet functions."
Devices that will be able to support Yttrium nodes also include Raspberry Pi, ATMs, and other built-in devices. As people in the developing world do not always have access to the latest hardware, Nimbus will reportedly "democratize the use of blockchains around the world and provide technology to people who need it the most," Seika added.
Since the project relies on the development of Ethereum 2.0, further developments on its roadmap would also affect Nimbus. Seika considers the relationship with Serenity symbiotic, with the plan helping him "coordinate priorities and focus."
