The Future is Now: A Look at What’s Ahead in 2023

A January 2023 newsletter and a look into the future of Glitch Protocol

GM, and welcome to 2023, Glitchers! As we turn the page on another year, we can’t help but feel grateful for your support and excited for what’s to come as the team pushes forward to develop the mainnet. We’re kicking off the new year with a bang on the latest technology updates and marketing efforts to keep you informed. We’re confident that 2023 will be a massive year for Glitch, and we can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together. Keep reading to the end because we have a special section discussing this year’s goals.

Let’s dive in.

January Newsletter — December Updates

GLITCH Developer Documentation

Last month, the team released critical developer documentation allowing dApp and smart contract developers to understand how to start building on GLITCH and create quality applications.

The GLITCH documentation is typically for technical developers, and while users who are not technical may not fully understand the documentation, they can still gain valuable insights from reviewing it.

Benefits of documentation to developers:

• Help developers understand the capabilities and limitations of GLITCH, including how to build on it.
• Help developers understand the technical architecture of GLITCH and how it is designed to work.
• Deploy reliable applications that meet the needs of users.
• Guide developers to avoid mistakes when building their applications and include code examples to help get started more quickly and easily.
• Provide a walkthrough of how to launch a node and how to monitor it.

Benefits of documentation to users:

• Help users understand the underlying infrastructure of GLITCH itself and how a dApp or other application built on GLITCH works.
• Updated frequently with information on new features, helping users stay informed and up-to-date.

As previously stated, this initial documentation release is just the beginning. We’ll update and expand on it as development progresses to provide a comprehensive and trusted resource. Future updates will include details on deploying on the native network (apart from EVM) and those that are labeled “Coming In 2023”.

View the developer documentation by visiting docs.glitch.finance.

Claiming Single-Sided Staking Rewards

As of December 8th, everyone that had entered the single-sided staking campaign should claim their rewards and initial staked tokens back into self-custody. In total, 300K GLCH tokens were distributed among active participants. Note that there is a 24-hour cooldown, and then you can unstake once the period is complete. We thank you for participating in the campaign, and we’re actively planning to deploy a single-sided staking pool on the native network in 2023 rather than on ETH and BSC.

Validator Reward Distributions

Starting next week, the team will begin distributing rewards from the following months to the active node operators based on the number of blocks validated. All active validators will be rewarded by the 22nd of every month, moving forward on a regular distribution schedule.

Community Updates

On December 23rd, we announced a GLCH trading competition in collaboration with KuCoin that lasted until December 30th. During the campaign, users with the highest GLCH trading amount on KuCoin qualified to win a share of a 500K GLCH prize pool with a 200K participation pool, for a total of 700K GLCH. What a merry treat this holiday season. Congratulations to all of the winners. That’s a lot of GLCH rewards!

Last month, we shared a thought leadership piece, “Importance of Decentralized Smart Contracts and Self-Custody.” The collapse of popular centralized exchanges FTX, Celsius, Voyager, and other CEX features like Gemini Earn highlighted the importance of self-custody, its role in ensuring the security of your digital assets, and how Glitch aims to fit in the equation. As an industry, we’re all witnessing a mass exodus into decentralized protocols in real-time due to the lessons learned over the last year. We encourage everyone to take the time to click the link above and read it.

Recently we shared an article for the Glitch Indonesia community diving into five key partnerships regarding Polygon, Orion, Chainlink, Kurtosis, and Kampay. We’re open to translating this for our Global community if there’s demand for it. Read “Menyelami Lima Kunci Kemitraan GLITCH” to learn more about these five partnerships.

Due to the holidays, the December AMA has been postponed and will be held in mid-January instead. Some of our core team members are taking a much-needed break over the next week or two. Therefore, the roadmap breakdown will be updated once the team returns to its regularly scheduled programming, alongside new developments to support the changes.

Mainnet Development Updates

The team is currently prioritizing a few development items, including:

• UAT and regression tests for the native Glitch bridge (nGLCH). Once the expansion to the bridge is complete, users will begin to migrate to the native GLITCH network (mainnet).
• Native Glitch contracts are in active development.
• GEX (Glitch Decentralized Exchange) is in active planning and will enter development soon; this doesn’t include the UXUI designs around infra and basic swaps/liquidity, as this is already complete. Several Snapshot proposals will go live over the coming months to ensure the GEX will be community-driven. Before the GEX goes live on mainnet, the community will also be voting in a select number of board members that would execute proposals voted in by the community. Are you interested in becoming a board member? Do you have what it takes? These are things to start thinking about.
• Website: A Validators webpage to provide interested node operators with relevant resources to launch and monitor their validators that goes beyond the initial documentation.

Navigating the road ahead in 2023 with Glitch at the wheel

Glitch is paving the way towards a brighter future.

As we bid farewell to 2022, the Glitch team is ready to embrace all 2023 has to offer. Since Glitch’s launch, we’ve been working towards bringing this up-and-coming decentralized blockchain to life — and we’re reaching that point this year.

Looking at the roadmap breakdown, one can conclude that Phase IV: Bellerophon is in active development as the core deliverable for the 2023 year. As mentioned, the team delivered the first iteration of the developer documentation that dives into how the GLITCH blockchain should perform and how to build on it.

Below are the high-level goals for 2023:

• Native Glitch bridge

Located at bridge.glitch.finance, the team will update the Glitch Bridge to include the functionality to bridge from the other networks GLCH is traded on to the native GLITCH chain. This will mark the beginning of public interaction directly with the mainnet (apart from running a validator).

• Native Glitch contracts (Substrate)

Once GLITCH native contracts are live on the substrate runtime, developers can start deploying various basic dApps, from peer-to-peer markets, to lending protocols or any other money market dApp. Using native contracts on the Substrate runtime allows developers to build dApps that are flexible, fast, and secure — with the revenue-sharing model at the heart of the protocol. The possibilities are nearly endless.

• Migration from ERC & BEP to GRC

This deliverable is contingent on the native Glitch contracts and bridge. When most of the community migrates to the native chain, relevant exchanges that GLCH is trading on, such as KuCoin and Indodax, will be contacted to begin the swap process (ERC token with GRC token). If you self-custody your GLCH, you’d have to use the bridge. If you hold your assets on an exchange, you don’t have to do anything other than ensure your funds are safely stored in your exchange account.

• Staking MVP

This deliverable is contingent on the native Glitch contracts and migration process. Staking will begin as an MVP with a single contract and a pool with a reward attached until the revenue sharing is live.

Once network elections can occur, nominators will be eligible to elect up to 16 validators based on reputation, track record, and performance on GLITCH. Nominators choose a validator set to represent them on the network and verify transactions by staking their tokens in support of the validator. The number of validators a nominator can elect is limited to 16 to ensure that the network remains decentralized and that validator(s) power is fairly distributed.

• GEX MVP + GEX token launch

The GEX (Glitch Decentralized Exchange) is the native DEX that’ll be used to trade GRC20 assets on the GLITCH chain. “MVP” stands for Minimal Viable Product, which means the initial release is the minimum set of features required to allow a product to be tested by early adopters (you) to gather feedback for further development.

Firstly, it’ll launch on testnet and then move to mainnet once proper testing of the infra is complete and community members vote on the upcoming Snapshot proposals. Secondly, the community will elect board members to carry out the “voice of the community” per standard DAO procedures. Lastly, the GEX token will launch for the DEX to function as envisioned. We plan to launch a liquidity program and activate relevant partnerships to ensure the exchange launches with trading volumes. Most of the funds raised will be directly staked as DEX liquidity, and the remainder will be stored in the DAO treasury.

• Revenue sharing MVP

Revenue sharing is at the heart of the GLITCH protocol and, arguably, is widely seen as one of the chain’s most valuable features. The initial launch will be an MVP with revenues from network transaction fees in GLCH stored in a designated hot wallet. The vision is to distribute accumulated rewards among validators and nominators after each era, allowing active participants to earn for the time they work effectively. The revenue sharing model helps provide adoption incentives and sustainable long-term funding to those that keep it alive. This deliverable can be completed if all the above items are met accordingly.

• Security audit for blockchain protocol

A security audit will help identify potential vulnerabilities and assess the overall security of the codebase. Ultimately it reduces the risk of successful attacks and can help restore the reputation and trust of the project, making Glitch more attractive to users, developers, and investors. This wouldn’t be just one audit but a series of audits to ensure the codebase is continually as secure as possible and vulnerability-free. The team will make the reports public.

• Expanding team Glitch & community advocates

We plan to expand the team in 2023. However, due to the abrupt change in the macro environment, Glitch leadership recently made a difficult decision to let go of its low performers. We’re dedicated to filling the remaining highest-priority roles from the Glitch Careers portal to continue expanding the team.

This year, the team will focus on expanding the community advocate program to ten individuals. We’re restructuring the hiring process to ensure only quality members are brought into the program to contribute to growing the network long-term. And as a bonus, long-term advocates will be eligible to earn additional rewards based on their level of participation.

• Building buzz

As GLITCH begins to come to life, the team plans to run targeted marketing campaigns to spark awareness to drive volume into the ecosystem. Campaigns will be carefully curated to meet the needs of each deliverable, and market sentiment at the time of delivery will be considered. Organic content marketing is ongoing year-round, including educational information about the network from the #LearnGlitch campaign. Rest assured that the team is working around the clock to align technology deliverables with marketing that will surely leave a lasting impression.

• Ecosystem growth

As we move forward, the team plans to begin activating and integrating the partnerships formed in 2021 and 2022. Our priority is on selecting the ones that will make the most sense to activate first and provide the greatest benefits, with a focus on price feeds and DEX liquidity. While we may form new partnerships in the future, our primary focus remains on ensuring that the technology functions as envisioned. Each activation links to an exciting cross-marketing campaign between projects, so we can’t wait to bring the technology to the next level.

Lastly, we’ll be taking another look at the Glitch Grants Program to support the expansion of the ecosystem. It aims to provide an excellent opportunity for developers to get involved. So, if you have an idea for a project that aligns with the goals of the Glitch Grants Program, we encourage you to apply and see if you are eligible for milestone-based funding. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to make your mark!

“Glitch is on the rise with a vision for the future of DeFi that is both ambitious and attainable. We have a strong roadmap in place and a talented team working tirelessly to bring this vision to life. Let’s make 2023 a year to remember by paving the way for a new era of financial freedom.” — Sean Ryan, CEO, Glitch Finance

As we move forward into 2023 and beyond, Glitch is poised to make a real impact in the industry while delivering on the promise to bring financial freedom and empowerment to the masses.

We’re confident that the upcoming releases will further increase trust and confidence in the project. Thank you for joining us on this journey, and together, let’s Glitch our way into a better future.

Stay tuned for all the exciting developments to come!

Until next month,

— Team Glitch

We’re Hiring

We’re hiring qualified candidates for FT roles across marketing, operations, and engineering. If you’re a talented DeFi enthusiast, help us take Glitch to the next level. We’re looking to fill these positions very quickly. Search out our open jobs and apply today!

About Glitch

GLITCH is a blockchain-agnostic super protocol explicitly designed for trustless money markets and decentralized financial applications (dApps). GLITCH solves the expensive fee structure of other blockchain platforms while simultaneously rewarding all ecosystem participants and guaranteeing low network fees through a unique revenue-sharing model. Glitch plans to incorporate token wrapping bridges, where dApps can run more efficiently, all in service of Glitch’s ultimate goal: to become a cornerstone of blockchain infrastructure.

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