Hi everyone! JC here from the Community Squad 
, covering for @David_NEAR to bring you a quick round up of Ecosystem highlights!
As always, chime in and reply below this topic if you think there’s anything we should add to the list! 
ICYMI - In case you missed it
We’ve reached 1 MILLION ACCOUNTS ON NEAR! 
Shout it from the rooftops! We are very thankful for the NEAR Community for helping us achieve this amazing milestone! Are we going to celebrate soon? 
The NEAR WARZONE Showcase - Powered by FirstBlood
The $2,000 RTX 3060 Gaming PC giveaway from FirstBlood and NEAR is ending Sept 27th, at 11:59 pm PST. One winner will be drawn and notified via email to claim their prize and also announced on Twitter. No purchase is necessary to enter or win. Enter the giveaway here.
NEAR NFT WEEK
This week, The NEAR NFT Club featured the latest news from the ecosystem’s NFT marketplaces and communities, from Paras, to MintBase, NXM and more. You can find that insightful thread here.
Human Guild - Building the NEAR economy with Gaming and more
Since its inception, the Human guild, founded by NEAR’s own Sasha and Vlad, has been working with over 2400 humans proving that the interest for Web3 native games is growing. The ecosystem is booming with new initiatives and the Human Guild is here to guide them towards success. I personally have been invested in playing Near Lands reminding me of the good old days of playing Stardew Valley. 
If you’re interested in learning more about what the Human Guild has been up to, join their Discord server or have a read at their latest article.
Paras 2.0 is Live 
We’d like to congratulate Paras, NEAR’s digital art card marketplace, as they start using NEP-171 Token Standard. This allows creators to mint an NFT without the need for an invitation, removes the 64x89 ratio, along with lots of new feature upgrades. Read more about these exciting new changes here.
Filecoin and NEAR are offering a $300,000 grant pool to developers
In July 2021, Textile launched the Filecoin-NEAR bridge, taking the first step to provide simple, permissionless storage for smart contracts on NEAR — a sharded layer 1 blockchain protocol for building user-friendly decentralized applications. More recently, the Filecoin ecosystem and the NEAR ecosystem launched a $300,000 joint grants program designed to support developers interested in exploring new opportunities at the intersection of these two protocols. Deadline for applications is on October 31, 2021. To our talented developers out there, you can’t miss this opportunity!
EmiSwap receives a grant from NEAR Foundation
The NEAR Foundation continues to grant opportunities for projects we believe will open new possibilities for the world of FinTech! EmiSwap will build the future of DEXs on NEAR — making use of the latest tech to deploy a powerful cross-chain AMM DEX, capable of lightning speed transactions, ultimate security, interoperability, insane farming/staking APR % — among so many other awesome features like — gamified and yield boosting NFT Magic Cards of ultra-high value and rarity! Look forward to Card Battles and Wars that will shake up the DeFi-verse! Learn more about them here.
Next at NEAR
Metapool X OIN Finance
Meta Pool users who have stNEAR token holders will be able to use it in OIN Finance to mint the nUSD stablecoin that can be used in DeFi applications in the NEAR Ecosystem. There will be an AMA on September 23rd in the OIN Finance Telegram to kickstart this partnership! You can read more information here.
Open Web Sandbox Monthly Party
You can always count on the Open Web Sandbox to empower and educate the NEAR Community, all while having fun (and earning too)! This month’s party, happening on September 30 at 6:30PM CET, will debunk the myths and mysteries of DeFi. Save the date and sign up now!
NEAR Validator AMA
The NEAR Ecosystem brings people in from different backgrounds and walks of life. From token holders, developers, artists, project founders/members, and even those just curious to see the possibilities of Web3, all form little pockets across the NEARverse. This time, we explore one of the seldom seen groups within the NEAR Community - NEAR Validators. They’ve been hard at work to bring you Simple Nightshade (which we touched on in last week’s post).
Catch them on Thursday, September 23rd at 5pm GMT / 1 pm EST to answer your questions about the upcoming sharding change, as well as touch on the upcoming roadmap of block producers and chunk-only producers onboarding. Sign up for the AMA here.
Hash Rush play test will start on September 22!
Hash Rush is an online sci-fi/fantasy RTS set in the fictional Hermeian galaxy. Players build, fight and trade their way to victory as they grow and manage their small mining colony, battle monsters, and trade valuable items and resources. Be sure to sign up so that you can get access to the game when they launch. Conquer your map, gather crafting material, craft heroes and items, and trade with the community! 
Etherscan will launch on Aurora 
While Aurora utilises NEAR as its foundation, it has always envisioned a future in which projects can move seamlessly between blockchains to suit their needs. The partnership with Etherscan is a significant step in that direction.
“Etherscan provides the familiar interface of the explorer,” says Alex Shevchenko, the CEO of Aurora Labs. “Users and devs won’t need to educate themselves on how to use the Aurora block explorer, instead they would get the familiar tool.”
Stay tuned for updates on the release and other upcoming ones from the Aurora team.
Have We Missed Something?
There’s no doubt that our sizable news net hasn’t snagged all of the highlights which are set to roll out of the NEAR Ecosystem over the coming weeks. If there’s something you think we’re missing, or that we should be sure to include in the next update, then reply to the thread and let us know!
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