0xcert Quarterly Report — Q3 2018

Aligned with our Whitepaper, we are publishing the first 0xcert quarterly report. While we frequently post updates on our products and marketing efforts on our web page, we still decided to compile a more thorough summary after the end of the Q3. We hope this will bring a more structural insight into the progress we have made during the last few months.

Development

Our 0xcert Protocol has made significant progress during the last quarter. The Roadmap section below provides a more detailed description of goals we have achieved, as well as other advancements. Please note that only a part of the code is currently available and public on GitHub.

Roadmap

The 0xcert Whitepaper has been leading our work with the Roadmap (p. 34), and along the way, we have met the following goals:

1. Whitelist/KYC certificate dapp (another PoC for Crowdsale)

During our ICO, we launched the KYC dapp locally in order to manage the KYC process, combined with OnFido authorization engine. We are proud to say this was the first use of ERC-721 NFT for KYC (identity), and we see it as a groundbreaking achievement in a broader, conceptual sense.

2. Crowdsale PoC certificates used

We materialized a solid proof of concept with the 0xcert KYC non-fungible certificates (based on the ERC-721 NFTs), a turnkey solution for other ICOs and projects in need of a reliable and personalized KYC procedure. Combined with OnFido certification engine, our KYC NFTs were a non-compromisable and highly reliable KYC tool.

3. Protocol draft on Ethereum mainnet (limited)

The draft 0xcert Protocol Solution was presented for the first time at the Expert Workshop. The target audience of European high-education scholars explored our tool for issuing, managing, and owning personal NFTs, from university degrees to micro-credentials of foreign study-exchange.

4. DEX alpha dapp

The alpha version of the DEX dapp — one of the integral parts of the 0xcert Protocol — has been actively developed, especially the last few weeks, and once thoroughly tested, it will find its way to GitHub.

Milestones

Looking back at the milestones we have estimated when writing the Whitepaper, we are incredibly proud to say that so far, we have reached all the MVP milestones. Alpha milestones include: Xcert, DEX implementation, DXM implementation, ERC-721 implementation.

Extras

While working on the development of our products, we found that much would have been easier with certain tools, at a time still missing in the field. Building them helped us perfect our work, but more importantly, we hope that they serve a good purpose to other developers and a broader community, as well. They are all open-source and ready-to-use on GitHub:

1. ERC-721 implementation, currently listed as the reference implementation of ERC-721.
2. Frameworks:

• 0xcert framework (private),
• RawModel for building frontend-backend,
• Specron for building Solidity contracts,
• Hayspec for code testing,

3. The ERC-721 Validator has been and presented live at the NIFTY Conference by our advisor, William Entriken. It verifies smart contract’s or NFT’s compliance with the ERC-721 standard. The ERC-721 Validator has also been listed on Dapp.com, a platform for bringing the best applications and tools on the blockchain together for broader use.

• Validator UI,
• Validator API,
• Validator on GitHub,
• Validator.

4. Our Bug Bounty engaged the developer community to join us in improving our code. All contributors already received their well-deserved rewards. And another bug bounty is coming up soon — in order to excel the launch of the 0xcert Protocol. More info on it will be released on time.

5. We also built the 0xcert Manager to allow users a straightforward creation of their own non-fungible project, by configuring the features of NFT smart contracts and deploying the NFTs to the Ethereum blockchain.

Events

Apart from private meetings with our partners, we attended the most crucial blockchain and NFT-related events:

1. Wanchain European Tour, Wanchain 2.0 and Wanlabs event, London,
2. NIFTY Conference in Hong Kong, explicitly dedicated to NFT niche, where we also took part in public discussions and presentations,
3. WBF London, Keynote’s biggest blockchain event, UK edition,
4. Delta Summit Malta, the biggest meetup of blockchain projects and professionals,
5. and we just got back from Berlin Web3 Summit, dedicated to the decentralized web (Web 3.0).

Content and Community

Our aims have also been turned towards educating and spreading the word about non-fungibility, as we find it much more common than it seems at first glance. The two series of posts on our 0xcert News blog will provide a platform for individuality and learning in the NFT space.

1. The DEX Series is building awareness about decentralized exchanges.
2. The NFT spotlight Series is focused on the people creating the non-fungible world, and showing how non-fungibility can be applied to many walks of life. Our 5th episode has just been published, and many more will follow. Up to today, interviews with Kette, CryptoDecks, KnownOrigin, Mokens, and OpenSea have shown five unique views of the future of non-fungibility.
3. The NFT-dedicated group on LinkedIn, The Non-fungible Club, has been launched to bring the LinkedIn audience closer to the concept of non-fungibility on the blockchain.
4. We have also achieved strong community growth through the Social Media Bounty, helping us spread the word during the ICO.

Advisors and partnerships

Through collaboration with our partners — Erasmus+ Project, Jozef Stefan Institute, and Knowledge4All Foundation — we are bringing the system of micro-credentials to the blockchain.

A strategic alliance has also been formed with Wanchain, leading us closer to our mission of being blockchain agnostic and bringing non-fungibility to other blockchains. Also, Etienne vantKruys of Token Research Group has joined the 0xcert advisory board.

Ecosystem

Following the 0xcert whitepaper (p. 29–33), we are also building a more extensive ecosystem in the NFT space. So far, we have successfully launched The Non-fungible Alliance, gathering projects related to non-fungibility on the blockchain. It is meant to become a collaborative hub for blockchain projects, industry partners, and supporting services (funding, legal, development, etc.). For more information, please check the official web page: https://nonfungiblealliance.org/.

ICO

Even though the 0xcert ICO is well behind us, it is still a hugely important part of the Q3, and its legacy has been leading us towards the leap about to be taken in the Q4.

1. Our campaign on Product Hunt a week before the ICO got us to the 7th place on daily rank,
2. The 0xcert Pre-sale on July 2 was sold out in mere 6 minutes,
3. And the 0xcert Crowdsale two days later, on July 4, saw all the available ZXC tokens sold out in 96 minutes, plus demonstrated the use of a KYC NFT for the first time.

In spite of this extreme success, the 0xcert ICO was just the start. We are still following our Whitepaper and Roadmap to reach the set goals as promised. We’re proud to say we’re sticking to the plan and the schedule, and we’re working on keeping it that way.

We welcomed Q4 with high enthusiasm, as we expect to see some great product releases, combined with other activities, partnerships, and events. Stay tuned!

This article originally appeared on the 0xcert website and has been replicated here with express permission by 0xcert.