As this is our last Community Update before Ultra’s Mainnet launch, we’re giving you a few exclusive details about the release process and what we’ve been up to the last few months. We’ll also be letting you in on some exciting updates that, you guessed it, are all linked to our preparation for the Mainnet.

Buckle up, the coming weeks are going to be epic!

Platform Development

In May, the team has been mostly focused on refining the client interface to ensure every user’s experience meets industry standards when it comes to ease of use and efficiency. We notably relocated a few elements, redesigned some of them, and added new search filters. These UI changes allow users to easily locate specific actions they wish to perform on the platform, as well as interact with it in a smooth and effortless way.

One major change to the platform this month was the full integration of the Authenticator into the client for all blockchain transactions (UOS purchases, token transfers, etc.).

Having the Authenticator more deeply integrated into the client means that the user experience for mainstream users of Ultra is more akin to a traditional payment service, and less like a “blockchain” one. This is the direction we always aim for.

The biggest focus point for our teams has been prioritizing and delivering the most valuable features for our users. This was made easier thanks to the detailed feedback that we received from our Wave 1 Alpha users. Right now, most of our efforts are focused on the Mainnet launch and integrating the rest of our platform into it. This important milestone requires deep involvement and synchronization from all the RnD/Product teams.

As you can imagine, we have over a hundred features that we are dying to develop. But, we have to prioritize and provide the most valuable features to our users first. This includes successfully launching our Mainnet, which has been our biggest focus for the last few years. Our next milestone is the NFT Marketplace, which is currently deep in development and has been worked on for some time now.

Blockchain Development

It’s not surprising when we say that our blockchain team has been hard at work during the last few sprints to complete our latest milestone. Thanks to them, version 1 of our protocols and smart contracts are now feature complete. Our primary focus has now shifted to deployment, extending testing and automation, documentation, quality assurance, network configurations, and benchmarking our production environments.

We’re going the extra mile to ensure that everything not only goes smoothly but has in-depth monitoring and alerting. To this end, we’ve built out extensive monitoring services for critical infrastructure like our on-chain Oracle, BP nodes, and of course all of our internal services. If there is a problem, our aim is to identify it quickly and deploy a fix.

Token Swap

You’re probably wondering what will happen to the UOS token when we deploy the Ultra platform on its Mainnet. Don’t worry, it’s actually super simple!

When the Mainnet is launched, 1 billion native UOS tokens will be created to power the network. However, these tokens won’t move freely. Instead, they will all be associated with their ERC20 counterparts and need to be swapped in order to be used. Swapping your tokens means that every ERC20 UOS token you lock will unlock a native UOS token.

During our announcement of the Mainnet, we’ll be going over exactly how to swap your ERC 20 UOS token to the native UOS token and vice versa. We understand the importance of clarity for this procedure and will ensure clear communication is made on how to easily move your funds to and from the Ultra network.

New Block Producers

In order to increase the stability and decentralization of our network, we recently added two block producers to our lineup, bringing the total to 7 BPs. These block producers will be the ones who will power the upcoming Ultra Mainnet.

CryptoLions is an EOS block producer based in Ukraine that is renowned for its highly advanced technical involvement with its services ranging from dapp development to block production. They are notably renowned for being the creators of SimpleAssets, a standard for digital assets on EOSIO blockchains which include Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Fungible Tokens (FTs), and the very recent Non-Transferable Tokens (NTTs).

EOS USA is another very experienced EOS block producer that notably produces blocks for EOS, Wax, Telos, and even provides support to the IPFS network. Alongside CryptoLions, they will complete our first official lineup of technical block producers.

Team Growth

The release of our Mainnet is only the beginning of a long journey toward mainstream adoption of blockchain-fueled gaming. With this long-term goal in mind, we’re developing our tools, processes, and teams to tackle the many exciting goals we have yet to accomplish.

In 2021, we’ve really shifted into high gear regarding recruitment at Ultra. We have ambitious plans, and our recruitment strategy is key and a priority to everyone in the team. We have implemented tools and processes to increase the efficiency of our hiring process, reduce latency, and make sure every candidate we talk to has a good experience, whether they end up joining us or not.

In the last 3 months, we have processed 457 candidates and hired 8 amazing new colleagues. At this stage of our development, we’ve been mostly hiring senior team members for the tech teams to work on developing the platform. But, as Ultra is growing and getting more and more ready to hit the market, we’re starting to open positions in our Customer Support and Business teams: Finance, Marketing, and Partnerships Management.

In the last month, there have been new positions published on our website every week, and we’ll keep accelerating. We aim to onboard 20 new team members in the next six months, among which are seven Backend Engineers, two Blockchain Engineers, two QA Testers, a Blockchain Architect, a Product Owner, and a Scrum Master. Join us!

Brand Expansion

From the very beginning of our journey we aim to make Ultra available to most people globally. That means we’re working in the background to make sure communities all around the world can legally enjoy our solution to its fullest potential. As a result, we’re continuing to create channels that allow us to interact with communities globally and provide the best experience possible.

In addition to the French and Korean languages, we have started localizing our articles in Japanese and welcomed a new community-driven Telegram group for Spanish speakers. We’re now officially communicating in 4 languages (English, French, Korean, Japanese), have 5 Telegram groups: English (official, main), French (official), Korean (official), Russian (community) and Spanish (community), and 5 Twitter accounts: English (main), English (gaming), French, Korean, Japanese.

And that’s it for our latest Community Update! We appreciate all the support we’ve received from the Ultra community and we want you to know it doesn’t go unnoticed. It’s because of you that we go the extra mile to ensure we make you proud, create a product that is nothing short of perfect, and design an ecosystem that’ll completely change your gaming experience. With our incredible team working together and the milestones we’ve reached so far, it’s safe to say we’re going to have a pretty exciting next few weeks!

About Ultra

Ultra is the first entertainment platform providing all key games industry services under a single roof, accessible through a single login.

Built around our PC games distribution store, Ultra Games, our platform will provide access to countless centralized and decentralized services: Discover, buy, play and sell your games and in-game items, watch live-streaming feeds, interact with your favorite influencers, participate in contests, compete in tournaments, and much more.

Ultra has been built to provide endless value for players, a fair playing ground for developers, and a whole new world of opportunities for the games industry.

For more information, visit ultra.io and onultra.io and follow along on Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, and Discord.