My Thoughts about the Bear Market

When I had founded Reef around 2 years ago, we were in the middle of a prolonged crypto winter. The blockchain space had more cynics than believers, and understandably so. Many of the blockchain projects they had put their trust and money into had vanished overnight, while many others failed to execute on their word due to a lack of execution or funds.

My outlook is to look for the silver lining even in a thunderstorm. As pundits would agree, the bearish sentiment was also the ideal opportunity to introspect and search for the problems that actually needed to be solved. That led to the birth of Reef, with a vision to develop a blockchain ecosystem that would fuel the growth of Web3.0.

Prior to Reef, I had worked at multiple organizations with a diverse set of people over the course of a decade, creating innovative solutions for the problems at hand while also learning along the way. Starting out as a full developer in the enterprise and healthcare space I understood the value of a mature and well tested and secure software. In 2016 I got into blockchain and started smart contract development. My thinking framework around secure, reliable and scalable software evolved even further.

Each step of my career ladder taught me something new, instilling in me a never-say-die attitude and broadening my point of view to think beyond conventional boundaries. These values inspired me to build the foundation for Reef. Fortunately, I was able to find a group of like-minded people, who have worked tirelessly to grow the Reef ecosystem to where we are today. Needlessly to say, we’re just getting started.

Blockchain is definitely the technology for the future, but we must not forget that it’s the technology for the present as well. We’re constantly updating Reef Chain to make it the most feature rich and developer friendly Layer-1 blockchain, which will bring the benefits of decentralized technologies to both industries and consumers.

Bear markets have a tendency to bring in negative thoughts, making some question about the long term viability of the blockchain landscape as a whole. Let me assure you that I am as confident of Reef’s future growth as ever now. I share this optimism with all my colleagues, who still bring the same energy and passion to work every day as they had at the beginning. And our conviction is not without reason.

Let me share with you some of the recent developments from the Reef ecosystem which has helped strengthen our belief in our work:

• Reef Chain V10, the latest iteration of the Reef Chain Mainnet with a host of new features and upgrades, including batching and upcoming multi VM support.
• Reef UI Kit https://ui.reef.io/ — achieving consistency in UI/UX and improving user onboarding.
• ReefSwap, the simple and inexpensive method to swap between different tokens on Reef Chain.
• Launched the Reef Card, a crypto debit card which will allow users to spend their crypto in real world stores.
• Sqwid, the first NFT Marketplace on Reef with advanced features like loans against NFTs, support for files up to 100 MB, custom royalty splits, and more, is going live soon.
• SoulsOfMeta, a 3rd person action RPG NFT Gaming Metaverse where players can own, play, and monetize NFT assets, is integrating with Reef.
• DystoWorld, a multi-faceted ecosystem for bringing digital goods into the Metaverse, is integrating with Reef.
• MultichainOrg (previously AnySwap), a cross chain router protocol, is integrating with Reef Chain to allow users to seamlessly bridge their assets.
• Launched the $REEF staking program on Binance with up to 119.79% APY as staking rewards.
• Started #BuidlTheReef workshop to educate the users.

With our team of experienced and skilled leaders, researchers and developers, Reef is prepared to weather any storm. Even over the last few weeks, we have been hard at work, unaffected by the existing market conditions.

As testimony to my claim, here’s a glimpse of what Team Reef has been upto behind the scenes, and what you can expect over the next few months:

• Launchpads to help accelerate new projects building on the Reef ecosystem.
• Play-to-Earn Games, where you can earn while having fun.
• Bridges to make Reef inter-operable with other major blockchain networks.
• NFT Marketplaces to connect artists, buyers and NFT enthusiasts.
• Developer support initiatives and grant programs, to select the best developers and bootstrap their projects to the Reef ecosystem.
• New community initiatives to help us reach out, honour, reward and connect with our community members like never before.

We have always had this burning desire to be one of the biggest players which will drive the growth of the blockchain industry. Today, not only are we looking to forge partnerships which will bring immense value to our users, but we’re also looking to aid developers who are as passionate in their work as us. It’s only by helping each other that we can truly realize the full potential of blockchain.

Lastly, a word for our community. You have been with us from day 1, and I know that you’ll be with us through thick and thin. In the long run, we want Reef Chain to become entirely community governed, as that’s the only way to ensure complete decentralization. You are our strength, and we promise to honour our word.

Can’t wait to catch up with you all in the next AMA. For now, we’ll get on with innovating and executing.

Reliable. Extensible. Efficient. Fast.