Midweek with Max: ZK Systems, Incentive Design, and Upcoming Releases

On the technical front, for this week’s Midweek with Max, the team divulged that recent work has focused heavily on Zero-Knowledge (ZK) provability. Refinements have been made to the ZK tree structure, and small but practical extensions are designed to support future precompiles.

In parallel, the team is preparing the Jovian hard fork, bundling it with a targeted set of feature upgrades and fixes, effectively positioning this release as an incremental HVM 1.1 rather than a sweeping overhaul.

Progress on MinerFi was another major theme of discussion, with backend development and smart contract work advancing in tandem. Internal testing is expected soon, and a potential public Testnet beta may be released early next month..

Several incentive-related updates followed; veHEMI staking rewards have been finalized and are expected to be distributed imminently, with a breakdown that includes token buybacks, distributions, and a burn component.

AMA questions touched on grants and ecosystem expansion. A structured grants program is in development, with two tracks planned: predefined initiatives the team wants to see built, and open proposals from builders with new ideas. Although NFT marketplaces were discussed, eligibility will depend on demand and scope, and more formal details are expected in the coming weeks.

The session closed with updates on PoP Payouts V2, which has now completed auditing and is nearing mainnet deployment, and reminders about upcoming ZK-focused engineering AMAs and future community sessions.

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