XYO & XY Labs 2021 Update and 2022 Preview
2021 has been one of the most exciting years in the history of XY Labs, XYO and COIN (and my career). 2022 is looking like it may be even more exciting with bigger growth and goals.
Our 2021 goals were simple — Growth and Stability. We have two areas that we focus on, XYO and COIN, and in both cases, made huge strides forward. We started work on and internally launched XYO 2.0 to be used by COIN and we grew our user base, partner network, and technology stack through COIN. With this, we now have had over 3 million nodes to date. In the 3rd quarter, we achieved profitability while also maintaining our growth. This is stability intersecting with growth at the right point.
XYO Protocol and Network
XYO started the transition from XYO 1.0 to XYO 2.0 with the integration of XYO 2.0 into the COIN App. In 2022, we expect to open access to XYO 2.0 to the public and onboard new data partners through a self service model to go along with our current full service integration process.
So what exactly is XYO 2.0? For those of you who have been following us, XYO 1.0 was focused on using IoT devices to gather real-world data for the XYO Network and then providing that data to data consumers through smart contracts on Ethereum. We saw several problems with this:
- The desire for partners to access our system through direct API calls was higher than through smart contracts due to integration and gas costs.
- The most common node on our network turned out to be phones and not IoT devices.
XYO 2.0 addresses both of these issues. It uses JSON as the storage format for data instead of BLOBs, making the production and consumption of data substantially better, provides simpler access to data via API, and will support smart contracts on various L2 networks and not just Ethereum.
With over 3 million nodes to date, XYO is one of the largest Blockchain networks to ever exist and by the end of 2022 with our continued growth, can be the largest in the world.
To accomplish this, we also are expanding our XYO development team. We have two extraordinary engineers starting on Jan 3rd who will be dedicated to XYO protocol and front-end development. We expect to hire additional engineers and designers throughout the year. You can see our open positions on the XY Labs website at https://xylabs.com/jobs.
XYO Token
One of the most exciting stories at XY Labs in 2021 has been the XYO Token price. Even though I try to not dwell on that, it has played a large part in our success. With the price increase, we have seen quite a few ‘COIN Millionaires’ become a reality (see the case study here: https://coinapp.co/articles/case-studies). This also is a reflection of the faith put in XY Labs by investors and the crypto world. XYO Protocol concepts discussed in the white paper (https://docs.xyo.network/XYO-White-Paper.pdf) have been validated and ongoing network node growth is evident.
Access to the token has expanded with many listings on major exchanges (https://xyo.network/exchanges) including Coinbase and Crypto.com.
COIN
COIN is currently the biggest source of Edge Nodes for the XYO Network.
Throughout this year it has significantly grown this active node count, expanded its data partners, and increased the revenue it generates as well as the rewards it delivers to users.
For more COIN updates, check out this article.
XYO World
XYO World is another place where we will be focusing next year. We have identified the solution for the gas problems in the system and will be transitioning the XYO World system to a Layer 2 network. Which Layer 2 has not yet been finalized but with XYO World 4.0, the auction system and the usage of XYO World NFTs will be much simpler and cost effective.
XY Labs
This year, we changed our corporate name, hopefully for the last time, and chose XY Labs as our new moniker.
Why you ask? XY — The Persistent Company, even though it is an accurate depiction of our attitude, is just a mouthful and hard for people to remember. XY Labs still maintains the connection to location data (the ‘XY’ in the name) while being much cleaner. This was partially done in preparation for the upcoming ATS listing.
ATS listing you say? What is that? ATS stands for ‘Alternative Trading System’. And in our case, we will be listing on tZERO, the leading crypto ATS. This allows people to buy and sell the equity in XY Labs the same way that equity is bought and sold on the NASDAQ or similar exchanges.
If you are an equity holder from our Regulation A+ stock sale, this means you will be able to sell your shares, or if you missed out on the Regulation A+ sale and have always wanted to own part of XY Labs, you will now be able to buy a piece of the company. This listing is expected to happen in early 2022, but we do not have an exact date yet since there are still some technology details that our transfer agent (Broadridge) and the listing platform (tZERO) have to finalize.
Things to See in 2022
XY Labs (Company)
- ATS Listing on tZero(Q1)
- Expanded XYO and COIN Teams
- COIN User Base Growth
- XYO Node and Partner Growth
XYO (Technology)
- XYO 2.0 Public SDK Launch
- XYO 2.0 Public API Launch
- XYO 2.0 Layer 2 Solution
- XYO World 4.0 Launch
COIN (Product)
- Coinbase Redeems & HODL
- COIN 3.0 Launch
- Social Features & Events
- Expanded XYO 2.0 Integrations
2022 = Growth! Growth! Growth!
I can’t say enough about how amazing our team at XY Labs has been during 2021 to accomplish the growth and stability goals that we set out at the start of the year. We did this while being very conservative on the hiring front.
The goal for 2022 is to substantially increase our growth rate from 2021 and to carefully expand our team so that we can once again achieve these very aggressive goals.
None of this would have been possible without the initial and continued support of our community, token and equity holders, and customers. I am honored to be able to spend every day working on a project that can bring so much positive change to people’s lives and the world.
