### **NEARWEEK Daily Newsletter** 📩 ### **Thursday, October 19, 2023**  --- 💥 **Big things around the ecosystem** 💥 Illia Polosukhin returns to the NEAR Foundation Council to continue the evolution of the NEAR ecosystem https://x.com/NEARFoundation/status/1714660628021772579?s Bounty and prize pool reminder for the ETH LONDON Hackathon https://x.com/encodeclub/status/1715007884331745495?s --- 🎨 **NFT & Gaming** 🎮 The NEAR Foundation has partnered with Travala to deliver on-chain travel and flight booking for NEARCON attendees https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/1714928476262638067?s --- 🪅 **Events** 🪅 NEARWEEK : Hacking at NEAR(DEV)CON 2023 and more. Friday at 3 PM UTC https://x.com/NEARWEEK/status/1714817044041113858?s Encode x NEAR Horizon : Transforming promising projects into thriving startups https://x.com/encodeclub/status/1714597655114866933?s Pre Hack-o-ween: IRL Prep & Build Session https://x.com/NEARDevHub/status/1714737056532889678?s Join with NDC for important updates and interesting discussions with the members of all three houses. Friday, October 20th, Friday, October 20th https://x.com/neardc/status/1715020190612607159?s --- 💰 **DeFi** 💰 For $REF stakers, boosted rewards and buybacks update https://x.com/finance_ref/status/1714936620481224800?s --- 🔼 **Projects update** 🔼 NEAR Wallet Update: Decentralizing the NEAR Ecosystem https://x.com/neardc/status/1714636426896163023?s Aurora partnerships with ValidEntry https://x.com/auroraisnear/status/1714718033313493348?s Why Sybils are a Silent Threat to Web3 & How HAPI ID Fights Back https://x.com/i_am_hapi_one/status/1714934049557430611?s ---