LONDON (Bywire News) - In case you missed it: 2021 was a year like no other in EOS - Part I.
April:
- 1, Google Cloud Strengthens interest in EOS
Google was already the biggest name to get involved with EOS and B1 when it announced it was joining the community and taking steps to become a block producer in 2020. In a blog post, they doubled down on their interest praising it as one of the best-distributed ledger technologies to carry out projects on.
“As digital transformation takes hold”, they wrote, “businesses increasingly need to build integrated service networks with strong requirements for trust and coordination. This is what a DLT can provide. The EOSIO protocol, developed by Block.one and the basis for the EOS Public Blockchain, is an example of such a DLT. It’s built for speed, scale, and low-cost transactions—all of which make EOSIO an attractive platform upon which to build networked applications.”
Google Cloud, they said, was an ideal partner to help B1 thanks to its security, A.I. services and smart analytics.
- 2, EOS Argentina Makes MetaMask for EOS
Metamask has become one of the most popular wallets in the crypto world thanks to its ability to work with several different blockchains. Thanks to the fine work of the people at EOS Argentina anyone will now be able to transfer EOS tokens using the Metamask UI. It’s a small but important step in making EOS more usable.
- 7, Details Emerge of Bullish and a Possible Upcoming IPO
Rumours start circulating of B1’s latest big project, Bullish – a crypto exchange that will aim to attract institutional class investors. Messages on Telegram talk about a soon to be announced crypto exchange with big plans to go public later in the year. Sure enough in July B1 makes the announcement official.
- 21, New voting incentives from B1
B1 announces a proposal to reward those who vote by exploiting the inflation of the blockchain itself.
- 25, EOS named top blockchain
The new China Centre for Information Industry Development report drops, which yet again places EOS at the top of all blockchains leaving Ethereum trailing in its dust. In terms of technology alone, EOS is indeed the Ethereum killer many people believed it would become.
- 28, Beyond Blockchain Hackathon Winners Announced
DAO Bull is named as the winner of B1’s latest hackathon for their application. A decentralised app that made it possible to create online communities instantly. Their solution will create models that empower users to manage finances, shareholders and the community’s governance structure without relying on a centralised management system.
The hackathon challenged participants to create projects that leverage the power of EOSIO blockchain technology and the latest in cloud computing to create a project with potential significant global impact.
Second place went to gGoods, an open-source NFT standard, which helps organisations and communities create tokens that address the impact of the economic downturn on non-profits.
Meanwhile, Recoverable Online Wallets rounded off the top three. Built on EOSIO’s existing WebAuthn standards, these introduce a social recovery system that removes the need for a centralised system that users must trust to recover passwords with emails. It replaces antiquated forms of security by replacing them with multi-sig security systems.
The hackathon attracted more than 13,000 participants, but what should have been a good EOS news story for B1 turned sour when it emerged that the winners, Dao Bull, were becoming disillusioned with EOS. It was symptomatic of the wider dev brain drain and the growing frustration with B1 which would explode later in the year.
May
If at first, you don’t succeed, quit and try something else. That was a lesson Salah Zalatimo took to heart when he announced the closure of Voice to be replaced by a new version in three months which would ditch the idea of a decentralised social network to move to an NFT Platform. It was an abrupt about-turn that caught many of Voice’s users by surprise.
However, B1 appeared to have been forced into this move by its regulatory woes, “After more than 18 months of close engagement with regulators, we do not have an end in sight yet. The change of administrations has introduced further uncertainty. Recent actions by the SEC indicate a long road ahead.”
Instead, they pivoted to become an NFT platform. Rather than placing Voice Tokens by the works, they would tokenise the works themselves, creating NFTs which would have an intrinsic value of their own.
“By tokenizing the content itself, instead of putting tokens next to the content, we are giving creators the opportunity to monetize their work directly,” they said in a statement.
Responding to concerns about their development of EOS, they said they remained dedicated to developing EOS but were currently unable to do so due to their issues with the regulators.
- 11, EOS Tops $14
If you were one of those people who bought the dip after EOS fell below $3 at the beginning of the year, you’ll have been feeling pretty smug with yourself in May as the price surged beyond $14. The price surge took many analysts by surprise and was sparked by the approaching launch of the main net. With big names such as Google Cloud strengthening their involvement, it really did seem as if there was real momentum building.
It would not last of course. Profit-taking and the problems of B1 would see the price drop back towards the $3 mark. Even so, this is a brief reminder of what EOS can do if momentum starts to build and support those EOS Bulls predicting big things in 2022.
In a hack of the Flash.sx smart contract, cybercriminals stole more than a million EOS and almost half a million USD. The joke ends up being on the hacker who refuses a ransom of $100,000 only to see the block producers reach a consensus to block the account and recover all the funds.
- 25, Eden’s first mock election ends:
The Eden community concludes its first mock election, sparking what they hope will be an important new innovation for democracy. At stake is a prize of 1,000 EOS.
The election follows the approach outlined by Dan Larimer in his book More Equal Animals and begins with 64 participants randomly divided into 16 groups of four. Each group decides in a maximum of 50 minutes via Zoom call with a consensus of 2/3+1 (or four out of three) who should advance to the next round. Each participant would lay out their plans to use the 1,000 EOS to support the network. The process continues until only one winner remains, which on this occasion was Chris Barnes who would go on to lead the first official chief delegates of Eden.
- 30 Newdex announces Improved DEX
Newdex announces its development of a new, more functional and better DEX (Decentralized Exchange) with the integration of other blockchains and also the NDX token will be renamed to DEX and the supply resized with a 100:1 ratio.
In January, it had completed the new upgrades, from an order book decentralised exchange to an aggregated decentralised exchange and aggregated the depth of Newdex’s limit orders and the depth of liquidity pools of the major swaps on EOS. This allows EOS users to obtain the best depth and price trading experience.
June
EOS marks its third birthday. Like many toddlers, there have been tantrums along the way, but a resilient community seems determined to keep the faith. Even so, what things will look like when it turns four, at this point, is anyone’s guess.
- 2, Voice.com announces NFT Residency
Further details emerge about the new Voice.com with an NFT Residency designed to support creators of non-fungible tokens. Partnering with leading voices in arts and culture such as Kimberly Drew, Alexander Gilkes, Misan Harriman, Brittany Kaiser, Chad Knight and Azu Nwagbogu. The project aims to connect creators with people who will become their most loyal followers. It is based on the 1,000 true fans concept coined by Wired Magazine’s Kevin Kelly, which suggests any creator needs 1,000 true fans – those people who will buy anything he or she creates.
The NFT Residency sets out to collectively create and mint NFTs with the theme ‘Raise Our Voice,’ reflecting the power of NFTs to lift up emerging creators to create works of self-expression.
EOS Nation announces Pomelo – the first crowdfunding platform on EOS designed to support projects which benefit the network. Promising an innovative funding approach that will ‘multiply your contributions,’ it is set for launch later in the year.
- 11, B1 closes class action with the SEC
B1 finally closes the long-running class action brought by the SEC of its token sale. The SEC had accused B1 of conducting an unregistered ICO in 2018 after claiming that their token was classed as a security. B1 agrees to pay $27.5million but crucially makes no admission of guilt.
In a statement, they say: “Block.one believes this lawsuit was without merit and filled with numerous inaccuracies. However, accepting this settlement allows us to focus more time and energy on running our business and delivering new products.”
The first incubator on EOS also gets its bow. Launched by Hernan Arber of EOS Israel, this will address the lack of innovation and liquidity within the EOS community. In announcing the launch, Arber acknowledges the difficulty EOS has faced and the disappointment of EOSVC to date. This project, he says, will aim to boost activity and liquidity to draw developers into the EOSphere.
- 23, Talks of Bullish Merger with Far Peak
News emerges that Bullish is in talks over a merger with special purpose acquisition company Far Peak Acquisition Corp. The deal could value Bullish as high as $12bn according to unnamed sources, although the final valuation could vary considerably depending on the price of Bitcoin.
(Research from Alfredo de Candia and Tom Cropper, writing by Tom Cropper, editing by Klaudia Fior and Michael O’Sullivan)