Ecosystem Update

Core Engineering Update

Merges:
- snarkVM
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkVM/pull/694: Integrate value balance commitments into the InnerCircuit (HowardWu)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkVM/pull/697: Initial implementation for circuit literals (HowardWu)
- snarkOS
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1674: Finishing touches for the network crawler (Ijedrz)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1676: Added a short sleep to a flaky test(Ijedrz)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1677: Moved from structopt to clap (Ijedrz)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1682: Added feature-gated persistent storage to the netwwork crawler (Ijedrz)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1684: Metric dependency updates (HowardWu)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1685: Fixed prometheus feature compilation (HowardWu)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1687: Include more network metrics in the crawler, store connections (Ijedrz)
In-Progress:
- snarkVM
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkVM/pull/693: bench: add record decryption benchmarks for different record contents (amousa11)
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkVM/pull/701: Switch from structopt to clap (Ijedrz)
- snarkOS
  - https://github.com/AleoHQ/snarkOS/pull/1688: Proposal: move some objects to snarkos-environment (Ijedrz)

Ambassador Program
- Verification emails will be sent on Wednesday, March 16.
  - If you passed the verification, you will receive a unique link to the next phase of the application process which will be due on March 23.
  - If you did not pass, you will receive an email. There are no further actions. You may reapply for the next round UNLESS you copied a video or applied more than once, in which case you are banned from applying in the future.
Grants Program
- The Grants Program is officially closed. The Grants team (Anthony and Errol) are in the process of sending emails for next steps of selected grants. Keep an eye out if you submitted. If you have questions, feel free to ask in the #grants channel in Discord or DM Viv or Nick.
Check out the latest blog post by Sam Parker about the Aleo Advantage: https://medium.com/@aleohq/the-aleo-advantage-58aa70c38d4e
Some members from the Aleo team will be in Amsterdam for RWC 2022, Devconnect and ETHAmsterdam from April 12(ish) to the 25(ish). If you plan on going, let us know on Discord!
Join us for the Aleo Community Call on Wednesday, March 16 at 1pm ET (https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=aXU3NjM1NDF0NW4xZGIwMDdzMjg3Nm5xdHNfMjAyMjAzMTZUMTcwMDAwWiBjXzdoMnI5dGkxbTZucjFhbDlhbXFyOHE0cnQwQGc&tmsrc=c_7h2r9ti1m6nr1al9amqr8q4rt0%40group.calendar.google.com&scp=ALL)