Lodge Letter #47
Consensus 2022 by Coindesk. Market is in a spin. Major protocols in hot water. Too big to fail? Altcoins suffering. ElkNet development continues quietly and calmly as before.
Are you all strapped in for the current THRILL of the crypto ride? Scream if you want to go (lower) faster! There has been a pretty significant change of sentiment in the markets this last week, most likely due to the impact of the global macroeconomic situation concerning inflation, cost of living and war in Europe. Or maybe that shiller (with their 560,000 definitely-not-bots following) sent a killer tweet and posted a video that sent Bitcoin spiraling downwards. Not, not the spaceman car salesman, you cynics!
It is without doubt a time of major upheaval in the world, both financial and societal; crypto is far from immune from the outward ripples such major changes and outcomes create.
Of note in the last week is the continuing fallout from the Luna debacle, accusations and counter-punches are being leveled from community members, commentators and Do Kwon himself. A genuine mess and we wish for a successful resolution for all. Add to this the Celsius situation and $BTC heading determinedly towards its lowest levels since December 2022 and the summer isn’t looking as sunny in the charts as one would hope.
A healthy correction or irretrievably too low?
Prominent bears continue their doom and schadenfreude-laden prophecies of “the end is nigh” and “Bitcoin has always been worth; zero incoming”, but still we see protocols and projects continuing to build and to build well. And there are just as many bulls opposing their counterparts claiming all is well!
What to think, what to think?
Innovation, iteration, inspiration often come from the quieter, more fearful times. We suspect this is one of those times. History has shown us that patience is the overall winner. And what better way to stay patient than to keep busy?
How about Elk Finance right now?
Our current development targets are still centered on the BaaS Alpha testing starting this month. Progress is being made and participants are lined up. Regarding cross-chain swaps, the mini-oracle is currently being pored over on the workbench. It’s pretty important after all, since it provides the data transfer, cross-chain, to facilitate accurate swap values. This has to be right!
Consensus 2022
Three members of the Elk team attended the Coindesk Consensus meeting in Austin, Texas and proceeded to network and form face-to-face relationships with existing and potential partners. What was patently evident is the unwavering enthusiasm that true Web3 advocates have, and this was encouraging to see in the discussions and ideas we explored over the weekend.
As Snake Plissken said upon his return: “Other teams were just so glad to meet with us, they love Elk, possibly more than we do!”
We were overjoyed to interact and receive such positivity from those who can only be described as true builders in the space. Some of the chats were with existing partners, and some potential opportunities started their journey in Texas, including:
Rubic, Bardi Finance, Omnidex, Telos, Floki, FORCE, Boba network, RadioShack, Galvan, Oasis, Metis, NEAR, NEO, Tron, Binance, Circle, Infura, Bitcoin.com, and Chainlink.
At Elk we are still committed to building the best cross-chain solution we can. One that is unique. One that is built from the ground up and will solve problems for cross-chain communication and value transfer as the space matures.
The last year has seen a proliferation of new chains, and for them to be successful enclaves of DeFi, SocialFi, Metaverse, MachineFi and every other Fi that is being dreamed up, they need to communicate outside their “city limits”. (It’s rather likely that they won’t all succeed, such is the way of progress; has anyone watched a Betamax video or listened to music on their Minidisc player recently?)
Elk is here to support value and data transfer across supported chains, and to directly assist projects choosing to help us help them. It’s also worth noting, once more, that $ELK is a cross-chain token, it powers the ElkNet. It is not “just a governance token”, it is not “just a rewards token”.
- No $ELK? No ElkNet for you.
- No $ELK LP? No cross-chain swaps either.
Projects and chains looking to utilize the speed and efficiency of the ElkNet bridge, and the flexibility and expansion potential it unlocks, can employ “Elk-as-a-Service”. This could be seen as the target. Sovereign ElkNet and ElkDEX utilization and accessibility. More on this in the future…
