Charles Liu: 2021 Year-end Reflections
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Dear #ViteFleet,
As we approach the end of this year, I want to take the time to wish you an enjoyable and peaceful holiday. In this letter, I will review what Vite is about (for our many newcomers to the #ViteFleet this year), summarize Vite’s tremendous progress in 2021, and share some thoughts on our exciting road ahead.
What is Vite
From day one, Vite’s mission is to build infrastructure that powers the world’s decentralized economy. To expand this a little bit: We want to make a performant, robust, and trustless blockchain that supports a variety of web3 applications where users control their assets, data and digital goods in general.
Our main products consist of a chain, a DEX, and a bridge:
- The Vite chain is a zero-fee and lightning-fast blockchain made possible with smart contracts on DAGs. The Vite app is one place where users interact with the chain.
- On top of the Vite chain, we created an order-book decentralized exchange, ViteX, that simultaneously rivals top traditional exchanges in performance, and delivers the security guarantee unavailable to centralized platforms. ViteX now provides a daily stress test to the underlying chain and is a constant testament to the robustness of that infrastructure.
- To make sure ViteX can facilitate trustless transfers for digital assets on non-Vite chains, we started a project to create cross-chain bridges, aptly named “ViteBridge.” Eventually, these bridges will be a powerful substitute for custodial gateways and complete ViteX’s mission of allowing universal cross-chain trading.
2021 Recap
We completed an upgrade of the Vite network. Among other improvements, the Vite chain now supports the deployment of larger smart contracts, thereby allowing more functionally complex Dapps to operate.
We deployed ViteBridge 0.1 on the Vite TestNet, facilitating a decentralized transfer process between the Vite chain and Binance Smart Chain. This is the first major step towards realizing our vision of universal and trustless bridging. To ensure the bridge’s robustness and security, we have an ongoing bug bounty program.
On ViteX, we have observed growth in coin listings, trading volume, and community gateways. The creation of many new tokens has contributed to the DEX’s usage, and various mining mechanisms have been enabled for their trading. Thanks to Vuilder projects such as the Viva staking contract, VX can now accrue value in new ways.
On the application side, we saw an explosion of participation from the community. Here is a sample list of projects that are already live or being beta-tested:
- NFTs (VitePunks)
- ViteX gateways (ViNo)
- Block explorers (Vite Tools, ViteView)
- Staking contracts (Viva)
- Community wallets (Viterium)
- Tipping bots (Vitamin Coin tipping bot)
- Meme coins (Vinu, Vitamin Coin, Vitoge, Vicat, and so on)
- I must have left off some other projects — Luckily, the community has curated these Vuilder projects here: Vite Directory
Vite Labs’ focus is to build and maintain the infrastructure that enables the development of Dapps — we want to radically decentralize Dapp development by Vuilders. To incentivize such community participation in 2021, we ran three hackathons, created the SBP DAO sponsorship program, and formed the Vuilder DAO.
Looking Ahead to 2022
Among many objectives, our published roadmap for 2022 calls for ViteBridge 0.1 productionization, Solidity++ 0.8 rollout, ViteX community gateway onboarding, ViteX API decentralization, and continual network upgrades.
One key milestone I’d like to highlight here is the expected upgrade of Solidity++ from 0.4 to 0.8. The Solidity++ upgrade will:
- make developing contracts with it easier
- have more powerful features
- make it simpler to port solidity Dapps
- provide clear and comprehensive documentation
Much of this development is happening in the background and we will share more updates with Vuilders when ready.
Besides enhancing the infrastructure, as stated in the roadmap above, Vite Labs will also help our community jumpstart new projects, by following similar playbook this year (see last section). A few example projects in the pipeline include new NFT standards and marketplaces, Vite name services, oracle services, no-loss lottery, automated market makers, browser extension wallets, and social tokens.
I’m optimistic about greater things to come for Vite, given our methodical approaches to building out the technical foundation, a strong momentum of new Dapp launches, a flourishing developer community, and of course, a vibrant #ViteFleet.
So #ViteFleet — I want to conclude by thanking you for your support of the Vite ecosystem. When we started the project in 2018, we set a fun motto of #letscreatesomethingcool. I believe, together, we’re living up to that motto. Let’s create something cool — on top of our zero-fee blockchain to serve the world’s decentralized economy.
Happy new year!
Charles Liu
