Memoirs of a CEO : Truly Unique One
I am a bag of mixed feelings today, some of frustration and some of relief. Without going much into my emotional side, let’s explore the background of events that led to this:
Unique One began in 2020 as a truly decentralized platform for digital art during the pandemic to support artists and creators. We wanted to build a platform where it was free to mint, and artists could get rewarded. We had a great start and flourished during the bullrun, giving back to artists.
Unique One Network, (UON), our Substrate-appchain on Octopus Network, was to hold its IDO in two phases, first on BocaChica and then Skyward finance in November 2022. However, due to the Skyward treasury contract hack in the same month, we had to indefinitely postpone completion of our IDO.
In addition, Octopus Network has since changed its stance toward Substrate appchains after refactoring its team in December of 2022. In short, it is no longer cost effective to launch…and no longer cost effective to wait.
Due to the fact that Unique One Network is the only Substrate appchain still stuck in a booting-limbo, with an unfinished IDO, and no concrete updates despite my repeated attempts at interaction with the Octopus core team in their Telegram channel, it has become evident that it would be increasingly difficult for us to stay as a Substrate-based appchain on the Octopus Network. Not only have we lost some of our team members over the course of the last two years, but also our own community, which simply had to wait too long for the IDO. It was a painful experience, and a huge financial loss for us.
The Future of Unique One
That being said, we as a team have taken an anonymous vote — and the results were unanimous. The Unique One Network appchain will cease development on Octopus Network to seek other opportunities for the future of our Substrate chain. In addition, the name “Unique One Network” will no longer be used for our Substrate project. Before we get to our thoughts on the Substrate appchain, we need to advise some critical updates.
First, we have to start some damage control. Therefore, we shall shut down our BSC, Polygon, and xDai marketplaces (the following dapps) due to recent inactivity:
2. https://polygon.unique.one/
3. https:/bsc.uniqueone.photo/
5. https:/bsc.uniqueone.photo/
However, our ETH mainnet marketplaces will continue to run till further notice. Also, we will go back to our roots of being Unique.One, the original — by the community, for the community. Unique.One “Classic” will remain on Ethereum where it began, along with the original logo until further notice.
For the participants of BocaChica sale:
We have already requested that BocaChica refund all participants of the UON IDO and return the NEP 141 UNET tokens. The community can get in touch with BocaChica who holds all the proceedings from the sales.
What’s next for Unique One Substrate?
We are still in discussion with a few projects, reaching out to other organizations for grants and/or support, and keeping an open mind about our options at this point. We are, and always were, a non-VC backed, 100% bootstrapped team with no funding from any outside sources.
In final thoughts, we do wish the Octopus Network and their community the very best in their upcoming Otto Chain Launch and NEAR Restaking scheme.
Unique One will continue to strive and work for our community … and keep building.
We shall forever remain the Unique Ones.
By the community, for the community.
CJ., Co-Founding Team, Unique.One
