As part of Nexus’s ongoing commitment to building a global and engaged community, we recently hosted a series of events across China during Shanghai Blockchain International Week and the Proof of Nexus Meetup in Chengdu.
These gatherings brought together hundreds of developers, researchers, and ecosystem partners to discuss the evolution of Testnet III, advancements in zkVM, and the roadmap toward mainnet launch in 2026. From keynotes and panel discussions to informal dinners with local community leaders, the events showcased Nexus’s growing presence in the APAC region and its dedication to fostering collaboration around verifiable finance.
At the Builder’s Night hosted by OpenBuild, one of China’s most influential Web3 open-source communities, Nexus CEO Daniel Marin delivered a keynote speech highlighting the scale and progress of Testnet III, surpassing 3 million users, 5 million computing nodes, and 70 million transactions. Daniel also presented the significant performance leap of zkVM from Version I to III and shared the upcoming roadmap:
Followed by the release of native high-throughput financial applications, sub-second finality, and zkVM 4 in Q2, achieving full-stack parallelism and substantial performance enhancements.
He concluded with Nexus’s long-term vision: to natively embed core financial applications at the L1 layer, building a foundational infrastructure for verifiable finance while enhancing composability and programmability across the ecosystem.
The Proof of Nexus Meetup at Chengdu had over 85 participants, making it one of Nexus’s most engaging community events to date.Attendees ranging from node operators and developers to blockchain enthusiasts, actively participated in discussions about the Tenet III Testnet, zkVM performance, and the practical implementation of verifiable financial applications.
Many participants were already operating nodes on the testnet, while others expressed plans to build applications and tools within the Nexus ecosystem. The meetup also generated valuable feedback on documentation, toolchains, and localized developer support, offering important direction for future iterations and community initiatives.
Keynote: Introduction to Nexus
Jack from Nexus team delivered a keynote reviewing the iterative progress of the testnet and zkVM, and expressing appreciation for the community’s ongoing contributions and feedback.
He emphasized Nexus’s vision to embed financial applications natively at the L1 layer to build the foundational infrastructure for verifiable finance. Jack also encouraged participants to join the high-intensity stress testing of Testnet III, before outlining the next milestones leading up to the mainnet launch in Q1 2026 and zkVM 4 in Q2, which will enable sub-second finality and enhanced parallel performance.
Panel Discussion: zkVM Empowering DeFi
The event featured a roundtable discussion titled “zkVM Empowering DeFi: From Verifiable Computation to On-Chain Financial Innovation,” moderated by Rachel, COO of NodeX and panelists included:
Ian, Co-Founder, OpenBuild
Luis_0xyi, CEO, BitsLab
Leo Liang, Blockchain Lecturer, CUIT
Jack, Nexus APAC Community & Growth
The discussion explored how zkVM enables new paradigms in DeFi by addressing challenges of performance, cost, and complexity through verifiable computation, offloading intensive processes off-chain while maintaining on-chain proof-based trust. Panelists highlighted Nexus’s systematic engineering approach, which achieves off-chain high performance and on-chain trustworthiness, setting a new standard for scalable and secure financial infrastructure.
Chengdu Community Dinner
Nexus also hosted a private dinner with Chengdu-based crypto influencers and core contributors, engaging in discussions on brand development, ecosystem collaboration, and APAC compliance strategies. These conversations reinforced Nexus’s commitment to building strong, long-term relationships within local blockchain communities.
With successful community engagements in Shanghai and Chengdu, Nexus continues to deepen its presence in the APAC region, strengthening relationships with developers, researchers, and community leaders.
The insights gathered from these events will guide the next phase of growth as Nexus advances toward its mainnet launch in Q1 2026, bringing the vision of verifiable finance closer to reality.
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