Dear Terra Community,
As most great things, Terra starts with a humble beginning. We started with just a white paper and a small group of team members who dared to believe that they can realize Bitcoin’s original vision. Now, almost 2 years since inception, Terra has not only grown into a 45-people team, but we also launched our mainnet and started powering our flagship payments app CHAI. In 6 short months, CHAI has grown to process over $850K on a daily basis through 650,000 users. With a monthly growth rate of 35%, we expect to hit 1 million users in a couple months.
So why are Luna prices at an all-time low? Besides additional listings, which we hope to share news on soon, we have erred on the side of conservatism and kept transaction fees low. We have since become more comfortable with a higher rate, and our first big change is happening with the upcoming hard fork, Columbus-3. As detailed in this blog post, we will fivefold fees from all transactions (the “Terra tax”) to create more revenue for stakeholders and validators supporting the Terra network.
In light of this upcoming change, Hashed has updated their investor thesis (English, Korean), suggesting that Luna’s price will likely increase during the next three months as follows: $0.92 (December), $1.22 (January) and $1.61 (February).
But what’s more important is that we continue to build towards the one thing that matters — growth. We are keeping our heads down to add more merchants and new features to CHAI, newly launch products in Singapore and Mongolia, and continue our growth trajectory.
Here’s what we’ve been up to.
Nov Highlights
Testnet running for upcoming Columbus-3 launch
- Two big changes are around increased Luna staking rewards with tax rates increasing from 0.11% to 0.5% and on-chain governance so Luna holders can submit and vote on proposals.
CHAI on 10 online platforms. Who are the 3 new partners?
- Sinsang Market: Korea’s largest B2B fashion platform
- Able C&C: Mother company of popular cosmetic brands such as Misha
- MarioMall: A quickly-growing online fashion outlet
Earn interest on your Terra
- Terra KRT is now available on Trinito, a wallet service owned by Dunamu-backed DXM. This means you can now put up crypto as collateral to borrow in Terra KRT, and you can earn interest on any KRT holdings. This is the first of many future DeFi partnerships, so if there are any amazing platforms we should be talking to, let us know. (Terra KRT is currently available on Korean exchanges GOPAX and GDAC, and can also be swapped with other native tokens on Terra Station.)
Buying Tacos with Terra at SF Blockchain Week (Video)
- We ensured that all 300 DeFi Hacakthon attendees were well-fed by supplying everyone with a burner wallet. All attendees used Terra UST to pay for their meals at food trucks, showing that it’s possible to incorporate crypto into their daily lives.
Research:
- At SF Blockchain Week, our stellar researchers gave talks on Terra’s token economics, how we utilize macro economic theories, and even learned a new term, ‘CeFi’. You can find all of their presentations on Agora.
- We’ve also been doing a lot of research on improving our oracle. Learn where our heads at by reading Harvard Professor Marco Di Maggio’s latest blog post.
Talent:
- HR Manager Jacklyn Bae brings a new boost of energy to the team, and with 7 years under her belt, we have no doubt she will be instrumental in growing Terra from a team of 50 to 100 and beyond.
- Ellie Won was a brand designer at a blockchain startup, and her first big project at Terra is to revamp our website. Check out her portfolio website and hold your breath for website 2.0!
MOAR exciting news?
- Terra in Mongolia: Want to live in a world where you can pay for your cab ride in Terra? Then maybe you should visit Mongolia, because folks in Ulaanbaatar capital city will be doing just that. We’ve already launched Terra MNT, which is pegged to the local currency, and our product’s soft launch is slated for Nov. 30th. A more detailed update will be shared soon, so hang tight.
- Offline payments launch with CU: We are beta-launching offline payments in mid-December, and expect all 14,000 CU convenience stores to start accepting CHAI by January 2nd. This also means that the CHAI app will be upgrading to include payments via barcodes. Here’s a sneak peak just for you!
Expect a 2019 roundup next month. Till then!
Terra Team
