Project Update April 2022 (Part 2): Research Projects, RLC Exchange Listings, Events, Incentive Programs
This project update for April 2022 continues on from Part 1, so if you haven’t already read it, you can do so here:
Part 2 of April’s project update will introduce some new collaborators iExec is working with as part of ongoing research projects. We’ll also touch base on a few other important topics such as community, incentive programs, events, RLC token exchange listing and website updates.
Ongoing Research Programs and Activities
With the aim of exploring new areas for technological innovation, pushing iExec’s own tech stack to its limits, and collaborating with new partners, iExec’s research team continues to grow. This team will soon consist of three PhD students working on Federated Learning, market mechanisms, and Confidential Computing. While it is too early to talk about new projects, we are still actively contributing to European Projects ONTOCHAIN and DataCloud.
An update on Ontochain
The community hears a lot about ONTOCHAIN, so it’s worth explaining how it fits into the bigger picture for those who aren’t aware. ONTOCHAIN provides us with companies that can test the iExec solution. From the companies we’re working with now, we hope to get another KnowledgeX — that is, we hope to find another close partner that can stress test our technology (learn more about KnowledgeX here and stay tuned for a new interview video with the team on their implementation of iExec 👀)
As we progress towards ONTOCHAIN’s 3rd Open Call, there are 3 promising projects that we’re coaching on how to integrate iExec:
- ADOS (AirTrace Decentralized Oracle System), is an advanced AI-based oracle system with anomaly detection for securing off-chain IoT data integrity.
- MFSSIA (Multi-Factor Self-Sovereign Identity Authentication), deals with multi-factor authentication of humans, organizations and systems
- GEONTOLOGY: A geo-aware network protocol for enabling trustable cross-border operations and data exchange in a global digital economy
An update on DataCloud
DataCloud is another name that’s used a lot with respect to iExec. Back in 2021, iExec announced its position as a technology provider in the EU-backed project DataCloud, with 16 other partners: Bosch 🇩🇪, JOT Internet Media 🇪🇸, MOG Technologies 🇵🇹, Tellu 🇳🇴, Ubitech 🇬🇷 and Ceramica Catalano 🇮🇹, Sapienza University of Rome 🇮🇹, the Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology 🇸🇪, and the University of Klagenfurt 🇦🇹).
But where does Datacloud fit into the picture today? The team is experimenting with new advanced features such as detailed hardware descriptions and “service tasks” which — we hope — will increase the scope of applications and use-cases that iExec can support. While public worker pools will be released later this year, it is worth thinking about new ways workers could monetize better hardware. For requesters, this could also mean, for example, that they could choose to pay more to execute a task on a worker that has more RAM, or a specific CPU architecture. Another thing we are testing out is the possibility to pay for tasks based on time; this would enable new applications that need to execute services (e.g. a database or stream processing).
Community, the iExec Portal and Community Rewards Program
“Ecosystem” is the word we often hear used to describe the space in which a blockchain project operates. An ecosystem is composed of underlying tech infrastructure, products, projects, developers, and supporters. For a crypto project to be successfully adopted, these relationships must be symbiotic and interconnected. This living, breathing, and ever-evolving dynamic of a crypto project is arguably more important than any single product or technical integration. For this reason, one of the bigger focuses of the iExec Adoption team is Community.
The Community strategy focuses on:
- Growth of the community,
- Diversification of the community across various regions and profiles,
- Adoption, or the moving from a community of supporters to a community of users.
The community is an essential part of the iExec ecosystem. Our members have been instrumental in increasing iExec awareness by advocating for the project on social media and by offering valuable feedback on our products and strategy. For that, we want to say a big thank you. For our project and our community to continue a mutual benefit, it is important for iExec to engage our community in playing a key part in the overall journey. This is where the iExec Community Portal & iExec Community Rewards Program comes into play.
Since the launch of the iExec Portal, for the first time ever, a voting tool has been introduced to iExec. Now users can vote on community-related decisions and be more involved in the community activities. The iExec Portal is an ever-evolving product. Because it was created with community use in mind, it will be updated and optimized according to community feedback. We’re considering additional features such as better integration of community reward incentives, ambassador recognition, gamification, public worker pools integration, a ‘my earnings’ dashboards, and much more.
Alongside the Portal, iExec launched the Community Rewards Program to reward outstanding community contributions that spread awareness of iExec. That’s not all. Soon, the team will recognize iExec Community Ambassadors. Selected community members will be given the tools needed to promote project awareness, educate a wider audience, and drive overall adoption of RLC. Community Ambassadors will form closer relationships with iExec, get blockchain experience, and be rewarded with RLC for their efforts. Meanwhile, the team will have the opportunity to better learn about its community.
To increase the adoption all over the world, we also continue to expand our community in the regions. The iExec community strategy places the utmost importance on expanding in the North American region. The growth of regional communities in Korea, Japan, China, and Russia, will be a focus too, taking each digital culture, platform, and trend into account.
The Developer Rewards Program
As part of our Adoption strategy, we continue to run our Developer Rewards Program. Our funding is designed to incentivize developers to build with the iExec protocol. The Developer Rewards Program offers both quickly claimable rewards for application developers (Bounties), as well as long-term grants available for more ambitious projects (Grants). The program targets to pay out $1M in RLC. With the iExec Developer Rewards Program, we are facilitating the adoption of the protocol by developers in several ways.
We will soon have a new interface where developers will be able to find useful information about the program more quickly than before. Examples include a FAQ, project submission forms, funded projects, Dapps deployed on iExec, instructions on how to apply for bounties, and useful resources for keeping in touch with our team.
Our grants and bounties are key drivers, too. We are very excited to have helped KnowledgeX scale up their platform to connect data owners with data scientists (we will be releasing a video testimonial soon) and we are finishing the first season of bounties. The focus of this season was applications. The second season of the Gitcoin bounties starts on May 15th. This will also target applications, as well as tooling for iExec.
Finally, to be closer to our developer community, we have also organized a whole host of hackathons and workshops: at ETHDenver, in Paris, and at our headquarters in Lyon. We’re planning to expand those events to other cities.
Exchange listings for the RLC token
The iExec team is working on getting RLC listed on new exchanges in the United States and Asia. Having most recently been listed on Binance.US, there are still some exchanges that the team is targeting for an RLC listing, namely: FTX, Gemini, and Kraken. At this point, nothing is confirmed because this process takes a lot of time. The iExec team also continues to focus on making RLC available where it’s currently unavailable, like Japan.
When you go to any government office to do something official like changing your address or getting a license, this process can take a long time! Now imagine what it’s like to list a token. Not only do companies have to deal with all the legalities surrounding finances, but there’s also a general distrust of crypto. So before exchanges can list tokens, extra due diligence is required. We find ourselves in complicated environments where regulations, governing bodies, and exchanges don’t move as quickly as we’d like. Despite these obstacles, we continue our efforts to get RLC listed on additional exchanges.
To stay on the RLC front, we kicked off 2022 with news that our “Earn Program” with Coinbase achieved outstanding results. A record number of users bought more RLC tokens after learning about iExec. This campaign, aimed at increasing awareness and adoption, targeted more than 70M Coinbase verified users. It was a stunning success.
These lessons will be available for users interested in learning about iExec (without earning RLC, of course). After this type of success, we have decided to keep these educational campaigns as part of our adoption efforts. We’re currently working on a new partnership for another “Earn & Learn” campaign to be launched this year.
The iExec presence at Events
As you may have noticed, iExec’s presence at industry events has been growing lately. The end of Q4 2021 served as our first trial period on how we could share more meaningful moments with our audience. We had a booth at about ten French events with a global reach: workshops, meetups, B2B events, and fairs such as SIDO for the IoT and IA challenges, and Cloud & Cyber Security Expo and FIC for the security topics. iExec has also been in Dubai for the international event GITEX.
2022 continues to be the year of exploration. We have identified and tightened up relationships with many renowned event organizers through sponsorships, at blockchain-focused events including EthDenver, Paris Blockchain Week Summit and EthCC, but also in the tech industry: Viva Technology, Web Summit in Lisbon and much more to come. We have so far confirmed sponsorship with 12 events in France, Europe, and the US, and that’s only the start. Besides sponsorship, we’re also focusing on speaker opportunities and interesting events to attend as visitors to stay informed about the latest trends and introduce iExec to more people.
We’ve also identified 100+ events in Blockchain, DeFi, Crypto, and NFT taking place in 2022. Sadly we can’t sponsor them all but we’re working on a way to use these events to build our relationships with developers and attract them to build on our platform.
We will also continue to hold our own events to gather our community. After the success of our meetups in Lyon (October 2021) and Paris (March 2022), we are considering new meetups in other cities.
iExec Website Updates and Branding
There is a whole new website planned in terms of design, implementation, & content. That takes a lot of effort, but we also know we can’t wait until everything is perfect. The current strategy is to focus on quick wins. Our design team is working on implementing a short-term solution while they figure out the look and feel of the new website.
The short-term solution will be an updated website design and a new page dedicated to our Enterprise activities. We want to highlight what we can do for Enterprises with our web-based prospects. This short-term solution means you’ll still see some of the same content and navigation as you see today. When short-term? We’re looking for the beginning of the summer.
In terms of redesign and branding, our design team is composed of multiple artists, one who specializes in 2D and the other one in 3D. Our vision is to have mostly 3D on the website and to use 2D on other communication tools (e.g. social networks/slides/printed stuff). It looks like we’re saying goodbye to the former illustrations. We’re also planning on having some nice animations for the website.
This concludes the iExec project update. We hope you are excited about what we are building because we sure as heck are! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, we’d love to hear from you via Telegram, Discord, or Twitter. Until next time — stay safe and may the power of the barrel be with you.
