API3 DAO Development Update, Operations Cycle #1
This post accounts for the technical development activities during the first operations cycle from December 17th, 2020 to January 31st, 2021.
Airnode
This was an extremely exciting cycle for us, as we deployed a fully-functional Airnode on the cloud. If you want to find out what that is like, you can test it on a number of chains with our starter project. We have also made integrations with a number of smart contract platforms, and even published a guide to “self-integrate”, as the demand is difficult to keep up with.
In addition to complete unit test coverage, an end-to-end test suite was implemented in this cycle and populated with fundamental test scenarios. The work on various API integration tooling (validator, OAS to OIS converter, etc.) is ongoing. We’ve also been exploring and analyzing various gas price strategies, and how they work with the unique way the Airnode fulfills requests.
Authoritative DAO
We had provided dOrg with a prototype of the pool contract with significant scaling and UX issues that were going to be ironed out according to the specs delivered at the end of undertaking #1. We have determined that it was suspect that this was going to be achieved in a timely manner due to the pace of undertaking #2. Furthermore, the resulting ambiguity in the user flow was blocking the finalization of the frontend design, and consequently its development.
As a solution, we deployed significant development and design resources from our core team to refine the specs in a way that satisfies the business needs, is easy to implement, and gas-cheap and easy to use for the user. Although this distracted the core team, it was worth it because the project is back on track and is expected to follow a timeline comparable to the original.
To prepare for the undertaking #3, we are in discussions with a number of companies for the security audit of the DAO contracts. Here, our goal will be to find options that deliver high quality audits that will be able to accomodate our timeline.
ChainAPI
We have announced that we will start working on ChainAPI this cycle, and it’s probably apt to give an update. We’re pleased to say that the development has quickly hit its stride, and we are working on the integration platform undertaking, while laying the groundwork for the following undertakings as well.
Scaling the team
We have made a total of 5 technical hires this cycle that will work on API3 business full-time. As the technical team, we are faced with two options: We either keep building full speed ahead, or we work on scaling up for a greater long term potential. The inherent potential of the project, as well as the interest from the public and potential users have directed us towards the latter. Therefore, recruitment was one of the major things that we have worked on in this cycle, and it looks like this will continue for a while.
In addition to looking for employees, we have started mobilizing some of the founding teams (ChainAPI, Curve Labs, Curvegrid) to contribute to various development and integration efforts, and we expect these contributions to pick up speed in the following months. We are also exploring outsourcing opportunities; dOrg is already working on the authoritative DAO implementation, and we have recently started working with LimeChain on the protocol contracts.
As a note, we have a lot of technical community members on our Discord, enthusiastic to learn and contribute. Unfortunately, reaching out to each of you personally is not possible at this stage, but we are working on a model that will harness this potential. In the meantime, please be patient with us, read the docs, and tinker with the example projects. If you don’t feel like being patient, find a few like-minded peers and come up with a project!
Conclusion
What we have cared about the most in this cycle was to keep the authoritative DAO undertaking moving along, and we have succeeded at this. While doing so, we were able to make significant progress with Airnode, make a decent number of hires, and kick off multiple projects with internal and external teams. These efforts are greatly increasing our momentum, and will have spillover effects in the following cycles.
