Welcome to the first edition of Kadena’s 2023 quarterly newsletter!
2023 started off with a bang — there’s been so much that has happened, everything from Pact updates, Kadena grantee announcements, and community initiatives.
Kadena invites our community to take a closer look at everything we have done in the last few months as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the blockchain industry.
On-Chain Activity: Onwards and Upwards!
Our hashrate has boomed over the last few months due to Bitmain shipping a new batch of their KA3 miner. Kadena Mining Club also recently launched their hashrate-backed NFTs, making it easier than ever to get in on the mining action without having to even own a miner. This rapid increase in hashrate will continue to improve Kadena’s security and decentralization by adding new mining pools, like our first decentralized mining pool, NoPool.
Furthermore, Kadena’s monthly transaction counts have increased approximately 45% from the beginning of the year, and increased 166.84% from March 2022, signifying a dramatic increase in user and project participation in our ecosystem. With more developer tooling and resources soon to come, we anticipate an influx of projects building innovative dApps.
Innovation around the Block: Grantee Updates
Q1 saw the rollout of the first two of our 2nd cohort grantees, with both projects exhibiting innovative potential to revolutionize the industry. They are:
- NoPool, powered by Massive, is a Kadena-first, Stratum crypto mining pool that is taking the green mining initiative to the next level. NoPool ensures no centralization, no emission footprint or conventional fees for low-emission miners, and no performance compromise. What is remarkable about NoPool is that it is not only eco-friendly, it is the first decentralized mining pool in history! Even more exciting is that NoPool has received support from the world’s leading manufacturer of crypto miners, Bitmain. Learn more about NoPool here.
- Tellor is a decentralized oracle protocol that allows smart contracts to trustlessly receive external data. Tellor is working with Kadena to develop an oracle service to support DeFi infrastructure on the Kadena blockchain, such as bridges to other networks like Ethereum. They have already completed the development of their oracle protocol on testnet. You can view the Pact code here.
We’re pleased to have a roster of other amazing new grantees in the pipeline and are extremely excited to see the groundbreaking impact that these projects will have in the blockchain space in the future.
Meanwhile, our other grantees have also been busy innovating in the Kadena ecosystem:
- Koala Wallet has been diligently adding updates, including the recently launched in-app NFT support. Currently, the team is putting in tremendous efforts to release the new KDA block explorer, which will feature a redesigned interface and a lightning-fast indexer to offer users a seamless experience.
- Hypercent recently launched an NFT marketplace on the Kadena blockchain, and we expect to see an influx of art and NFT projects on the Kadena blockchain soon.
- Crankk has begun the rollout of their BETA launch, offering licenses for Crankk and Helium miners to secure Crankk nodes.
As always, Kadena is committed to supporting our grantees to help them achieve their goals, and help projects grow within the broader Kadena ecosystem.
Stay tuned for updates on the progress of our grantees!
Apply for grants here.
Surging Forward: Tech Developments and Upgrades
To say that it was a busy quarter for our engineers and developers at Kadena would be an understatement. Here’s a quick snapshot of all that Kadena’s tech team has accomplished over the first quarter of 2023:
At the beginning of the year, we released Marmalade’s token policies tutorial demonstrating how an NFT collection supporting presale could be implemented in your NFT marketplace. Chainweaver Wallet 2.2.3 was then released, which allows for quicksign support for desktop applications along with various bug fixes, taking user experience to the next level.
Pact 4.6, which provides several new built-in functions, was released in mid-Q1, shortly followed by a Chainweb 2.18 release that included a new /local endpoint, preflight simulation API, new ZK native function support, better gas estimation, bug fixes, and more.
As the year progresses, there will be some really exciting developments, for Pact and for the Kadena ecosystem as a whole… for a preview, tune in to this episode of Kadena Community Campfire with our CEO Stuart Popejoy where he spills the tea!
Keeping Busy: Community, Marketing, Events, and more
You asked and we delivered! The community has been requesting increased engagement and interaction from the team at Kadena, so we’ve buckled down and incorporated a few new exciting changes.
We now have Kadena Community Campfires, a weekly community call on Wednesdays hosted by our tech adoption lead, Tyler Benster. The Campfire features different special guests each week to provide the latest crypto updates and answer our communities’ most pressing and interesting questions. Tune in every Wednesday at 12 pm ET / 9 am ET via our Youtube Channel!
We’ve also incorporated our exclusive Builder Calls to provide our community of builders and developers with insightful conversations with our tech team. Our Builders Strategies Call happens every six weeks and includes updates on the latest Kadena developments as well as feedback and suggestions to help our builders take their projects to the next level. Apply here to be part of the next call!
The Kadena team has also been making appearances outside of the digital realm. At JSWorld in Amsterdam, the Kadena.js team wowed attendees with their presentation on the Pact smart contract language.
Our COO, Anastasia Bez, and Kadena ECO CEO, Francesco Melpignano, joined our business development team in attending EthDenver where they forged valuable connections and collaborated with local Denver hotspot, the Banshee House, to host an unforgettable night.
Topping off a hectic week, Anastasia’s presence in a Bloomberg interview with Ed Ludlow and Caroline Hyde was a major accomplishment for our team. Discussion was focused on the critical need for crypto firms to build effective infrastructure and technical support systems.
We are thrilled to share that the Kadena team will be participating in Consensus this coming April in Austin. Keep an eye out for us; we look forward to meeting some of you soon!
Conclusion
As we head into Q2, Kadena continues to thrive as we focus on our long-term vision: providing the tools and infrastructure necessary for everyone to create a decentralized internet that is open, inclusive, and accessible to all.
As always, we would love to hear our community’s feedback and suggestions on how to make Kadena stronger than ever. Join our ever-growing Twitter and Discord community or kindly email us at info@kadena.com. Our doors are always open.
