Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina）
Author | Asher (@Asher_0210）
This Friday, Inco, a Web3 protocol aimed at solving blockchain privacy issues, announced the completion of a $5 million strategic round of funding, led by a16z crypto CSX, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, 1kx, Orange DAO, South Park Commons, and Script Capital.
Inco is currently in the initial construction stage, with user experience feedback primarily coming from the testnet environment and a few early dapps. However, based on existing developer and early user evaluations, Inco has already shown promise in privacy protection, with robust infrastructure and positive feedback on privacy experience.
Next, Odaily will take you deep into understanding the Inco project and provide a step-by-step guide to interacting with three key projects in the current Inco ecosystem.
Inco Project Overview: Web3 Privacy Protocol
Inco is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 solution that uses Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology to achieve composable and operable privacy states. Through fhEVM (FHE + EVM), it enables writing privacy-focused smart contracts and executing computations on encrypted data. This innovation opens doors to many use cases, such as card games, decentralized identity verification (DID), private voting, dark pools, and paves the way for possibilities in the new era. Its technical features include:
Achieving on-chain encrypted state storage, meaning all encrypted data can be directly and securely saved on the blockchain, ensuring data integrity and privacy;
Supporting state transitions on encrypted data, a function performed entirely on-chain, significantly enhancing data traceability and credibility;
Providing on-chain random number generation service, adding more unpredictability and security to smart contracts and dApps.
Regarding funding, in addition to the $5 million strategic round completed yesterday, Inco had previously announced a $4.5 million funding round in February last year, led by 1kx, with participation from Circle Ventures, GSR, Polygon Ventures, Robot Ventures, Alliance DAO, and zkSync developer Matter Labs.
Inco founder Remi stated, "Inco is both a modular Layer 1 that integrates 'Fully Homomorphic Encryption' (FHE) and EVM, and can serve as a universal privacy layer for Web3. The importance of privacy in blockchain goes beyond the public's basic privacy needs; many institutions cannot build on existing blockchains due to the need to handle sensitive data, and certain application types like games have a strong privacy requirement. With Inco's privacy services, developers can explore more potential use cases around gaming, DeFi, business activities, and more."
Interaction Tutorial
The interaction mainly involves participating in and experiencing Inco-supported projects, with three projects currently worth interacting with.
STEP 1. Enter the Faucet website (link: https://www.alchemy.com/faucets/base-sepolia), select the "Base Sepolia" testnet, complete human verification, and enter your address to receive test ETH (requires 0.001 ETH in the wallet on the Base mainnet to claim).
STEP 2. After entering the Hangman project interaction website (link: https://hangman.inco.org/), click "Connect Wallet to Play" to connect your wallet and start the word-guessing game (select letters to form the correct word, wallet requires 2 confirmations for each selection).
STEP 3. After entering the Comfy project interaction website (link: https://comfy.inco.org/), click "Connect Wallet" and then select "Mint now" to Mint USDC.
STEP 4. Select "Shield" to convert a portion of USDC to cUSDC, then click "Unshield" to convert some cUSDC back to USDC.
STEP 5. Send cUSD to another address (can also send to a personal interaction address).
STEP 6. After entering the Melee project interaction website (link: https://www.melee.game/consensus), click "Connect Wallet" and switch the network to Monad testnet, then vote for 8 crypto celebrities (minimum 0.5 MON test tokens).
