GoChain 2022: Year in Review

A Look Back On 2022

Dear GoChain Community,

As we approach the end of what has been an unprecedented year for blockchain and crypto, the time has come again to pause and reflect on this year’s work and progress. GoChain had another productive year despite the considerable challenges and headwinds encountered throughout the year. The GoChain ecosystem continues to steadily grow through real-world use cases and enterprise adoption. GoChain’s layer 1 blockchain protocol and novel “Proof of Reputation” consensus mechanism continues to resonate with organizations and enterprises, which seek a scalable, affordable, and sustainable blockchain solution. Our mission remains unchanged — driving the adoption of impactful technology for the betterment of society and our habitat. Some highlights and stats for 2022 follow:

Highlights
GO Protocol, Governance, & Network:

• Select stats (CYE2022):
  - No of transactions: 22.4 million+ (since inception)
  - Circulation: 1.2 billion+ $GO
  - Burned: 180,659 $GO
  - $GO (high): $0.039 (Jan 2022)
  - $GO (low): $0.005 (Nov 2022)
• Staking Rewards program:
  - Staked: 115.5 million+ $GO
  - Rewarded: 20 million+ $GO (since inception)
• Hafthor Fork (GIP-35) — completed on 23 February, 2022 (Block 23817200)
• Node Validators: New — 4 (The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the National Livestock Producers Association, The Detox Project, Upbring); Retired — 1 (KuCoin)
• Listing(s): New — 2; Delistings — 2
• Improvement Proposals (GIP): One
  - Passed/Implemented: GIP 35
• Steering Committee: Seven members (no changes)

Slow and steady …

There were a multitude of challenges this year ranging from the deteriorating global economy, ongoing pandemic concerns, civil and geopolitical unrest, market declines to the unprecedented collapse of various projects and scandals in crypto. It’s been an all around tough and bruising year for everybody.

Despite these challenges, the GoChain ecosystem continues to steadily grow. Organizations and enterprises worldwide are increasingly exploring and adopting the GoChain layer 1 blockchain protocol and $GO-powered applications, i.e. GoTrace, primarily for supply chain transparency, accountability, and sustainability purposes. The work of Chainparency now spans globally and across multiple verticals ranging from mining, consumer goods, agriculture to forestry and wood products; its stakeholders are diverse and include small scale artisanal harvesters, service providers, multinational and publicly traded companies to government & NGOs.

Notably, this year the US Endowment for Forestry & Communities, the nation’s largest public charity, selected the GoChain blockchain protocol to power the US Endowment’s “ForesTrust” blockchain network. ForesTrust is a new venture and collaboration between the US Endowment, Chainparency, and consortium members (i.e., Michigan State University, Domtar Corporation, and Wakefield BioChar) focused on leveraging blockchain technology to bring greater transparency, accountability, and new economic opportunities in forestry value chains. Transactions real-time recorded on the GoChain blockchain will be used for carbon accounting purposes and tracking and tracing assets as they move throughout forestry supply chains.

The Government of Colombia also continues to explore blockchain as it seeks to re-imagine and digitally transform its mining industry. In Q3 2022, Colombia’s National Mining Agency (Agencia Nacional de Minería) officially transferred its first mining title, minted as a non-fungible token (NFT) on the GoChain public blockchain, to Carbomas SAS, a leading mining company in Colombia. This event represents another milestone for Chainparency and first-of-a-kind transaction recorded on the GoChain blockchain.

California-based non-profit Cetacean Action Treasury (CAT) also started using the GoTrace application and the GoChain blockchain this year to bring greater transparency and traceability to seafood supply chains. CAT seeks to utilize new technologies to help with the recovery of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise population by empowering local fisheries to adopt sustainability practices (i.e. use of sustainable fishing gear, digital track and trace, etc.) and ultimately to help fishers to earn better economic livelihoods through the use of blockchain technology.

These and other early adopters and stakeholders opted to build on the GoChain protocol not only for its high scalability, affordability, and “green” or low carbon footprint, but also given GoChain’s novel consensus mechanism and the high level of reputation of the enterprises, NGOs, and universities that represent GoChain’s growing consortium of world-class node validators.

In 2022, the GoChain Foundation exceeded its goal by successfully onboarding four new node validators to include:
- The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (Rwanda, Africa)
- The National Livestock Producers Association (Colorado, USA)
- The Detox Project (Sofia, Bulgaria), and
- Upbring (Texas, USA).

Each of these organizations serve to not only elevate the network’s reputation score but also uniquely present new opportunities for $GO utility, innovation, and the adoption of the GoChain blockchain. In contrast, KuCoin was voted out as a node as it was no longer compatible with the community’s goals and requirements.

While the GoChain network has experienced positive developments with enterprise adoption and network validator expansion, $GO (similar to the rest of the industry) experienced considerable downward pressure and trends throughout the year. The delisting of $GO from KuCoin and Binance was disappointing but, fortunately, was offset by new listings in Bithumb and LA Token exchanges.

Looking Ahead to 2023

In 2023, we’ll continue to build upon the GoChain “Trifecta”, which is helping to further accelerate adoption of the GoChain blockchain. We expect key stakeholders like Zeromint and Chainparency to continue to push the boundaries and use cases for blockchain and NFTs to include the tokenization of assets and data for enterprise and sustainability purposes.

The Steering Committee in coordination with node validators and the community will continue to focus on identifying, evaluating, and onboarding new highly reputable node signers. Our goal will be to have at least twenty-five (25) node validators in place by the end of next year. With the onboarding of any new nodes, we’ll continue to re-assess and phase out nodes as needed.

There will continue to be greater expectations for new node validators and their contributions to the community. Pennsylvania State University (PSU) is a good example of the type of active node validator we desire. From collaborating on industry research and pilots, engaging in seminars to co-authoring an industry white paper (published in the prestigious Q3/2022 Supply Chain Quarterly), PSU to date exemplifies the type of partner needed to further grow the GoChain ecosystem.

As is always the case, rather than contributing to the “noise”, GoChain will continue to lead by example and showcase the GoChain blockchain network and its utility through real-world work and impactful use cases. Slow and steady wins the race. We continue to greatly value your support and look forward to sharing more developments and achieving new milestones in the new year.

Henry Ines, on behalf of the Steering Committee