PAL Network Concludes Blockchain Project, Pledges Remaining Funds to World Vision.
Dear PAL Network community,
1. Thank you for your support over the past few years.
2. PAL Network had completed its sale of PAL tokens in early Q1 2018. Post token sale, the PAL Network team developed and launched over a 24 month period all of the products described in the PAL Network whitepaper and had also issued a bluepaper.
3. PAL Network’s development journey over this period (“Development Period”) is as follows :
· Q2 2018 : Proof-of-concept was developed and launched on Ethereum Testnet; while the team secured partnerships with ERGO, FWD, QTUM, NUM, Sentinel Protocol and traceto.io.
· Q3 2018 : PAL Bluepaper was developed alongside the dual-layered protocol and PAL ecosystem, and the testnet protocol — PALLAS — launched. PAL Network also added MediBlock and FoundationX to its list of partners.
· Q4 2018 :
- PAL Network launched Earthquake Protect; its first microinsurance product on its testnet. KeySafeBank also signed an MOU joining the list of PAL Network partners.
- In the same quarter, PAL Network was listed as one of the Top 100 insurtech startups by FinTech Global. PAL Network also officially graduated from the Plug and Play Insurtech Accelerator programme.
· 31 Jan 2018 : PAL Network Mainnet launched
· Q1 2019 :
- PAL Network launched six micro-insurance products : RidePAL, CancerPAL, Flight Delay, Flight Cancellation, ScreenPAL and EarthquakeProtect. PAL token holders were able to apply to become Supernode or/and Masternode.
- PAL Network launched PAL Wallet.
- PAL Network signed MOUs with Allianz and Toyota Tsutso with a view to offering its blockchain technology to develop a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) for new protection coverage and automated claims for Allianz and to facilitate underwriting and creation of new insurance products on smart contracts for Toyota Tsutso — see https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/pal-network-signs-mou-with-toyota-tsusho-and-allianz-to-establish-foothold-in-southeast-asian-markets-1027853438
· Q2 2019 :
- Completion of PAL token swap.
- PAL Network also met with over 100 insurance partners and shared our bluepaper research on blockchain technology and the use cases of blockchain in insurance.
- With these insurance partners expressing interest in learning about the business use cases, PAL Network planned development of an Insurers’ Dashboard with these insurance partners based on PAL Network’s blockchain technology with a view to generating additional revenue for PAL Network.
· Q3/Q4 2019 : PAL Network commenced development of Insurers’ Dashboard.
· Q1 2020 : Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, interest from insurance partners dropped significantly and development of Insurers’ Dashboard stalled.
4. Notwithstanding these achievements and the aspirations and passion of the PAL Network team, it is with regret that we are announcing that the PAL Network will cease operations as of 30 October 2020 as PAL Network is close to running out of funding to sustain development and operations.
5. Funding has been depleted for the following reasons :
Decline in ETH value
· The PAL Network team had initially planned for and secured funding from the PAL token sale which was projected to sustain PAL Network’s development and operations for 5 years. Anticipated revenue from micro insurance products was to have added to such funding.
· However, the market value of ETH — which was the primary digital asset contribution received by PAL Network for the PAL token sale — had within two months of completion of the token sale went on a downwards spiral. ETH’s value fell from approximately USD1,400 at the time of the token sale to below USD200 before a slight recovery to languish at below USD300 for next 2 years.
· This erosion in ETH value resulted in PAL Network losing close to 60% of its funding from the PAL token sale which significantly shortened PAL Network’s development and operations runway by more than half from 5 years to 2 years.
· Whilst the PAL Network team took measures to conserve and stretch the diminished funding resources and remained at all times hopeful that ETH’s market value would recover, there has been no such recovery during the Development Period.
Lack of Adoption of PAL Network’s Micro-insurance Products
· Although PAL Network had launched six micro-insurance products in Q1 2019 and thereafter actively promoted such products in hope that mass market adoption, such mass adoption never did occur.
· Instead, the interest of majority of PAL token holders was to hold or trade in PAL tokens than to purchase such micro-insurance products.
· Lack of mass market adoption of such micro-insurance products meant that the revenue that PAL Network had hoped to derive from sale of micro-insurance products — to contribute development and operations funding that has been lost due to ETH’s value decline — did not materialise.
COVID impact on interest in adoption of PAL Network’s Insuretech
· In the absence of mass market adoption of its micro-insurance products, PAL Network had looked to promoting and deploying its blockchain technology-based Insuretech to insurance principals in a bid to generate revenue to fund continued development and operations.
· Whilst there was initial interest amongst insurance principals in PAL Network’s Insuretech initiatives and despite having signed the abovementioned MOUs with Allianz and Toyota Tsutso to further co-operation, such initiatives and co-operation subsequently came to a standstill due to the global COVID pandemic, the consequence of which is that PAL Network had then to abort its last possible revenue-generating initiative.
6. We are disappointed that the PAL Network was unable to achieve all that the PAL Network team had aspired. It was not for a lack of effort or desire on our part — it seems the world is just not quite ready for the blockchain-based micro-insurance or Insuretech that PAL Network had to offer. The global COVID pandemic was also a contributor as it imposed other priorities for our insurance partners.
7. Had our development and operations funding resources not been depleted by the market value erosion of ETH, we might have been able to persevere further to witness mass adoption of our blockchain-based micro-insurance and Insuretech. But with such depletion and no other revenue forthcoming, time is not on our side and facing the headwinds from COVID-19, we have come to accept that our aspirations for PAL Network should cease.
8. With this, we thank all our PAL token holders and insurance partners who had shared in and supported our aspirations for PAL Network, and also our masternodes and supernodes for their participation in the PAL Network. All such nodes may stop providing support for PAL on or before 30 October 2020. PAL tokens will be delisted from all exchanges and all remaining PAL tokens will be burned as of 30 October 2020.
9. Any resources remaining with PAL Network from the PAL token sale will be donated to World Vision. https://www.worldvision.org.sg/en/ways-to-give/payment-methods after settling liabilities of and expenses associated with the closure of PAL Network Pte Ltd (“PNPL”) which is the legal entity that had undertaken the token sale and the development and operations of PAL Network. Receipts evidencing the donation will be published on Medium after the donation is made. Such closure is anticipated to complete within Q4 2020.
We would not have achieved all that we did without the support of the PAL Network partners and community. We thank you again for believing in us.
Although we are able to lead PAL Network only so far and its development journey ends here with us, if anyone — whether within the PAL Network community or otherwise and with the necessary funding support — be interested to take on the mantle of leading and continuing the PAL Network initiative beyond PNPL’s closure, please do reach out to us to discuss.
We will hold a zoom session on 20th Oct 2020 at 5.30pm SGT time to address any questions.
You may register in advance for this session here:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V8WB7jViR6W8gy-ZhqezlQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Val Yap and PAL Network team
