Catoshi’s weekend round-up; The Fantom to Avalanche ApexBridge is now live.
I have been on an extended summer vacation so it is a couple of months since the last update. In that time the global economy has continued to struggle and it has been the same in the crypto space. It is still divided between those that think crypto markets have bottomed and others that think there is still more pain yet to come. What the near future holds for the markets, and crypto in particular, is uncertain.
However, it is at times like these that strong projects build to take advantage of the future market recovery. This is exactly what Catoshi has been doing and will continue to do. Despite the difficult economic environment and bearish crypto market we feel that defi has a strong future. Catoshi is going to be a part of this strong defi future and will continue to work through any market to help the realization of true Decentralized Financial Systems.
Over the last few months much of the news at Catoshi HQ has concerned the partnership with Apex Foundation to build the ApexBridge. 4 bridges on ApexBridge have been announced to date and the first of the 4 is now live.
On the 7th October Catoshi tweeted that;
Catoshi is proud to have worked with @ApexFoundation_ on delivering this important Fantom to Avalanche $FTM token bridge! https://bridge.apexswap.io
This cross-chain bridge between Fantom and Avalanche chains is a very positive step forward and much more is to come from the other 3 bridges being built for the ApexBridge, which involve Hedera, Syscoin and XRP Ledger. All the bridges on the ApexBridge will be fully audited by CertiK, undergo extensive penetration tests by Halborn and further examination by the partnered insurer, UnoRe.
Bridge security is paramount in a time when even large projects are being exploited. The importance of safety can be seen by the lengths that ApexBridge is going to make sure the bridge architecture is secure.
For Catoshi the priority is security and it’s going to get stronger
Those that have followed Catoshi for any length of time will know that bridge security and safety is considered by the team to be the most important factor.
When Catoshi was building it’s first bridge nearly a year ago multiple exploits occurred around the bridging space. Catoshi took the decision to delay the initial bridge launch and re-check vulnerability to exploits.
Many of the exploits linked to poorly executed decentralization. As such Catoshi took the decision to be more centralized than many but with a goal to become decentralized when a safe way to do it became available. Well that time is near.
On September 27th Catoshi tweeted;
We are excited to announce that there will be some changes coming to http://the-crossing.io
We will be announcing a new partnership in the coming weeks that will help transform the capabilities of The Crossing
In a few words : Decentralization is Coming !
The development team at Catoshi are very excited about the benefit that this partnership will bring and a specific article will no doubt be written when the details can be announced. It is safe to say that it will give Catoshi yet another leg up to being a real contender when it comes to building cross-chain bridges in the blockchain space.
Staking, website and other news
The Catoshi bridge fee staking platform is something that I have discussed previously and I am very excited about the potential returns it can provide. However, it relies on volume across the Catoshi powered bridges and in this current market volume will not be as high compared to when the market is more bullish. Therefore the decision is when to launch the staking platform for it to have maximum impact for the project, token holders and token price. My view has not changed from when I previously wrote about the situation stating that;
There is no question that the launch of the bridge fee staking platform will be very newsworthy. Especially given the nature of the platform is different, and in my view better, than most standard staking systems. From a marketing perspective announcing things in isolation often falls flat. As such it would likely be more effective to launch the staking platform once Catoshi bridges have more volume across them.
At present the returns from the fees would not be particularly high due to the size of the bridges we have and the nature of the market. However, the ApexBridges should be going live once the Apex DEX is upgraded to v3 in the coming months. We are also looking at other possibilities for increased bridge volume that could potentially add a lot to the bridge volume but may be a few months away.
As such the Catoshi team need to think very strategically about the launch of the staking platform and when it should go live for the benefit of the project and token holders.
The focus on core work of building not only bridges but also relationships with other projects has meant the finalization of the new website has been put to one side over the past few weeks. However, it is very close to completion and should only need final copy and layout tweaks. The website will be incredibly important for the marketability and presentation of Catoshi, especially moving forward when more attention will likely be on the project. A professional, user friendly website will represent the project before companies, bridge users or investors have even made contact with the team. It will be the first point of contact and information for anyone wanting to find out more about Catoshi and what it offers. It is my view that the website needs to be as good as it can be prior to the expected increase in attention we shall have in the coming months.
We are currently using Catoshi.cat rather than .tech while the new website is being finalised.
Catoshi now has a gitbook which can be found at https://catoshi-tech.gitbook.io/catoshi-tech/. It is a working document that is quick and easy to edit and update. This is beneficial in allowing explanation of more technical aspects relating to Catoshi as well as roadmaps, project planning and so on. Content is being added and this will grow over the coming weeks and months.
As previously announced, we are running 2 promotions currently.
Catoshi launched two promotions. The first has reduced the price of a White Label Bridge to 12.5k USDT. The White Label bridging option is fantastic for projects that want to keep complete control of their branding. The bespoke bridge UI is located on the project’s own website keeping consistency of branding design as required. The technical work and support all happens in the background and there is absolutely no indication to the public that Catoshi is involved which for many projects is important to their marketing.
The second promotion has reduced the price of a bridge on The Crossing to 6k USDT. With this option the UI for the bridge is hosted on The Crossing website run by Catoshi. The technology used is the same as for other types of Catoshi bridges, only the location of the bridge and the UI branding is different. This enables the Catoshi developers to very efficiently and effectively build the bridges on The Crossing which lowers the cost to Catoshi. The reduced cost is then passed on to the project buying the bridge. This option provides a full bridging service that will function fully for any type of project, but may be better suited to those smaller projects where growth expenditure is more restricted.
Catoshi has been running a referral bounty for some time. The reward for successfully referring a project to have a White Label bridge built is 1.5k USDT. There is no limit to the amount of bounties a person can earn and as such this has the potential to result in a sizable payment for anyone who is good at bringing projects together.
The bounty for a successful referral to The Crossing is 1k USDT. However, the lowered cost to the project may make it a little easier for people’s efforts to result in a successful referral.
So at a time when financial gains in the crypto space are more difficult than 6 months ago, the Catoshi bounty offers a way to earn at least 1k USDT with no maximum amount. The more bridges you refer the more you earn.
We have seen a noticeable increase in activity from the Catoshi Twitter account. This includes being tagged by partners and accounts that follow the chains and projects related to the bridges on ApexBridge. It would be great if you, the readers, could engage with the tweets and help Catoshi be seen.
Have a great week ahead everyone.
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