Radium — A Year in Review
To say that 2019 was a challenging year is an understatement, with the continuation of the bear market that has forced out so many industry players, including several exchanges.
Fortunately, Radium has very low overhead, making it highly resilient to the prolonged bear market while other projects have had to lay people off, or close altogether.
In addition, success is dictated not by the past but by how battle-ready you are for the future, and the Radium project has been preparing for the sea change that is sure to come, sooner or later, by investing time and effort in a number of key developments.
With the arrival of the new year and indeed the new decade, it seemed appropriate to do a full review of Radium’s fortunes over the last year.
Conference
Promoting and marketing Radium took high precedence throughout 2019. It doesn’t seem like a year since John, Justin and Tim attended the Synapse summit conference in Florida last January; the cornerstone of their attendance here was to introduce the Beta launch of the ZeroClient (ZC) but it was also a fantastic opportunity for networking.
Team Expansion
The work carried out by the team is largely unpaid but there has been so much to do, with so many ideas to expand and develop, that we needed a lot more manpower! So, we have been actively engaged on a recruitment drive over the last twelve months, seeking out new people with the skills and commitment required to maintain the forward momentum of the project.
The following people, each bringing something special to the table, have joined the team in the last 12 months:
In February, Dr. Sajib Datta, Computer Science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, was welcomed as a new member to our advisory board — more about Sajib later! The team also extends a warm welcome to:
Reindert Koekelkoren — Finance, Media and Marketing
Claude Martinet — SEO Specialist
Linda Prior (me!) — Writer/Editor
Carl — Graphics and Design
Nishad — Student Developer
Mustafa — Moderator
George — Moderator
The increase in capacity and skills has really paved the way for growth of the project.
Partnerships
A high point in 2019 was the formal collaboration between Radium and the University of Texas at Arlington. We had been approached by Dr Sajib Datta early in the year with an idea for a small number of his computer science students to work on the development of Radium to augment their work in his computer science class. The idea was taken forward, and now Radium offers a scholarship to two students per semester. Our first student Nishad, mentioned above, has been doing some exceptional work on the Smartchain for us. We are delighted to have Nishad on board.
As a member of the advisory board, Sajib continues to be involved in the overall strategy of the project and mentor the students who work with us. Please go here if you’d like to recap on our interview with Sajib where we discuss the project and his thoughts for the future.
MyCointainer, our preferred staking pool, provides staking capability for anyone who cannot, or does not wish to, stake at home. They offer zero fees on staking RADS.
Back in April we forged a partnership with Stakesafe, which provides preconfigured, eco-friendly Raspberry Pi’s designed for secure, power-efficient staking. Stakesafe is our preferred partner for the Radium Staking Unit, which can be purchased here.
If you’re just getting started, all the information you need is here in our staking tutorial for the Raspberry Pi.
In October, Radium was accepted onto the IBM Partnerworld program and appears on their Global Solutions Directory.
Listings
It’s obviously crucial that Radium is available to as many potential customers as possible worldwide, so we have worked tirelessly to get listed on as many exchanges as possible — not an easy task considering many exchanges demand very high listing fees, and all projects are subject to fierce scrutiny before an exchange will agree to a listing.
New listings in 2019 include:
Cryptofacil
Freiexchange
Finexbox
Graviex
Livecoin
SouthXchange
VCC
We should also include Coinexchange, although this one is no longer with us as it had to close its doors due to financial difficulties.
Furthermore, Radium is now listed on two more Fiat gateways (Bitladon and Cryptomate) and two more swap services (StealthX and Swapspace).
We are also very excited to have been recently listed on ABRA, a mobile wallet/exchange app that makes mobile management of your investments really easy.
Other platform listings include: Staking Rewards, Combatnerd and Cointostake.
Giveaway events
Everyone loves a freebie, and last year we had three special events — a RADS giveaway to celebrate our success at Synapse, then in both July and September we were able to give away two Stakesafe Raspberry Pi devices *plus* 250 RADS on each to start staking with.
Stay tuned for more exciting events, giveaways and prize draws in 2020, starting with our ‘Stake Like a Boss’ event on 25th-26th January, where stakers will receive +50% rewards for those days. If you were thinking of acquiring some (more) RADS to stake with, now’s the time.
Other developments
Generally, things are moving forward at pace. We have noticed a lot more people staking with RADS in the last few months, which is fantastic! We congratulate those people who have taken the plunge, particularly since we introduced the Raspberry Pi into the mix, because it’s so easy and efficient.
We have implemented many improvements to the website including significantly better search engine optimization, and introduced a new public Discord Community.
V-label Status
In 2019, Radium joined Binance Info’s transparency initiative and achieved its V-label status, underlining its commitment to keeping the wider community informed.
In addition, the Radium book was released, as was the first promo video — with another in the pipeline.
So what’s next?
In 2020 you will see some really exciting developments. The project is adapting; the Roadmap for 2020 has been reinvented, with clearly expressed, realistic and well-thought-out goals. More on this coming very soon.
The community can look forward to big changes, with more focus and heightened drive to succeed and take Radium forwards into the future.
Linda Prior | January 2020
