Dr. Ben Livshits, CEO at Zilliqa, the high-performance, a high-security blockchain platform, notes in an end-of-year update that in a fast-paced industry, the crypto market lows and highs, and uncertainties around Covid-19 “continued to create a trifecta of challenges for all this year.”
But the developers of Zilliqa say that they are proud to confirm that at Zilliqa, they “weathered the storms, and kept building [their] ecosystem to welcome wonderful dApps that are sure to move the DeFi needle in the near future.”
De. Ben also noted:
“It is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when one is curled up in their decentralised nooks. So as we head into 2022, let us remember where we’re going, what we’re working towards, applaud excellence and reset for an even brighter year.”
He added:
“Token-wise — From 2020 to 2021, ZIL recorded a 648% increase in annual average of market cap, and our average 24-hour trading volumes rose by 189%. ZIL became more accessible to a range of people outside crypto this year. Accredited and retail investors were able to play around with DeFi on Zilliqa via instruments like the Valkyrie Trust and Binance.”
He further noted that within the ecosystem — they were proud to “see a user-centric application like Package Portal take over the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square to promote their Web 3 rate2earn data application.”
He added that dApps like the recently-launched Pillar Protocol are “sure to attract more liquidity in the future.”
As trends, play-to-earn and view-to-earn are gaining “a powerful global user-base, and we can’t wait to see what the likes of BLOX-SDK, XCAD Network and DeMons achieve,” Dr. Ben revealed.
Commercially — Zilliqa also made “a concerted push into leveraging blockchain for gaming, esports, music and the creator economy industries- with the likes of UFFS and of course, Ninjas in Pyjamas, LunarCRUSH (who successfully launched their token and enjoyed some record-breaking on-chain txn volumes), and Token Traxx.”
He continued:
“We’re also enormously proud to have played a role in furthering open commerce across Indonesia with the launch of the Xfers’ Indonesian rupiah stablecoin.”
Technically — To stay ahead of the curve “in anticipation of delivering superior quality within our NFT marketplace and Metapolis platforms, we’ve even released a new NFT standard ZRC-6,” Dr. Ben noted.
He added that they have been building up their team to “have the best in the space — but more importantly, we’re recruiting those who can think differently, come at problems from a unique perspective and help us realise our ambitions along with the wider team.”
He also shared:
“We’ve been very pleased with the quality (and quantity) of applicants across both technical and commercial positions.”
He continued:
“While we have been relatively quiet, that’s not a bad thing; it’s especially good to let engineers do what they are best at and build. We are taking a number of important strategic steps in scouting out some of the best partners to work with in the coming year, from partners that helps us fill some of the gaps in the Zilliqa DeFi ecosystem to some of the cryptography experts we are starting to lean on for our more advanced features and plans.”
Amidst what can be described as “a chaotic, creative and exciting evolution” — the team at Zilliqa is still “experimenting with new ways to leverage blockchain.”
Their NFT and Metaverse platform launches — utilizing extended reality (XR) is a clear example. Through 2022, Zilliqa developers will be “forging partnerships that can help us deliver these tools in a seamless way — retailers, e-commerce, esports, gaming, art and culture are all in our pipeline.”
They are also working on “a renewed technical roadmap, to be released in Q1.”
He also noted:
We’re conscious that the shape of crypto is transforming constantly and new trends are emerging almost too quickly. To stay abreast of these, we’re committing to becoming more data-driven in everything we do. I am confident that this will have a noticeable impact on efficiency and outcomes.”
For an L1 like Zilliqa, pursuing a single vertical is “simply not an option: we need to maintain a growing momentum on many fronts,” he added while noting that you will certainly “see more related to DeFi, NFTs, and gaming in coming months.”
Dr. Ben also mentioned:
“Next year, our community engagement strategy will also be given a great deal more structure, with the Ambassador program assuming a renewed level of importance.”
He concluded:
“The community, developers, development shops, and entrepreneurs will be an integral part of this. By identifying new opportunities and market gaps, we’re looking for imaginative dApps to bring people into crypto and truly generate value for users. Let us move past imitating what’s out there, and instead focus our energies on leapfrogging the competition.”