Building season continues for Elastos. The Cyber Republic Council made a lot of progress, passing proposals that push the needle forward for the ecosystem as a whole. The marketing and business development arm of Elastos, Team Elavation, had their Proposal passed to continue their important work in building meaningful connections and partnerships within the crypto industry. The team has attended significant conferences, successfully getting Elastos’ name out there!

Cyber Republic LLC is celebrating its 1st anniversary. A proposal was recently passed to pay for some administrative costs. The new validator/Supernodes minimum pledge time has lowered from 300 to 100 days based on the new Proposal passed to reduce the barrier of entry. Elastos Digerati published meaningful pieces detailing Elastos projects and technologies. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty details of the activity.

Proposal 97:  Elavation proposal

Last September, the Elastos Elavation team proposed requesting funding from the CR to establish a dedicated growth team. This contingent would be focused on business development, marketing & PR, and strategic ecosystem alignment. The group aims to address critical concerns, including the need for go-to-market strategy expertise, leadership deficiencies, and the need for dedicated business development efforts outside of China. The team’s responsibilities include aligning and streamlining the Elastos ecosystem and attracting new users, products, and investments.

Team Elavation has made some solid progress since their Proposal was approved. Fakhul Miah represented the Team at the Alibaba Cloud Conference in Singapore in February. He will attend a follow-up Alibaba Cloud Conference based in Dubai in March. The group has also created some thoughtful pieces on Elastos DID and organized the Elastos Red Packet Competition celebrating the Chinese New Year. Elavation returned 6,000 ELA from the budget allocated for Phase 1 in this Proposal. 

Proposal 104: Cyber Republic LLC Request for Funds

Proposal 104 details how Cyber Republic Operations LLC requested funds from the CRC to cover fees associated with ensuring compliance and topping up their legal retainer with K&L Gates. This includes paying for the yearly Delaware managing agent fee, estimated business bank account fees, annual Delaware corporate state fee, engaging Tax Advisory firm PKF for year end-tax filings and process improvements, and covering administration fees for 2022/2023. 

The total amount requested is approximately $46,480 – $51,480. The objective is to cover all outstanding fees, fulfill yearly tax obligations, and top up the legal retainer. With the approval of this Proposal, Cyber Republic can extend its LLC status and continue with its operation. 

Proposal #103: Elastos Digerati Team contributes content to Info Website and various social media channels

In December of 2022, Proposal #103 was approved to onboard the Elastos Digerati team. Their duties are to create contents on Elastos.info and provide updates and news regarding various Elastos projects via the primary Twitter and other social media accounts. 

In the past two months, Digerati held an article writing contest that tasked community members with creative concepts regarding how the project can ride the “Nostr wave”. Nostr is a popular peer-to-peer protocol that has caught the attention of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and many other prominent accounts on the Twitter platform. Winners will be announced in the middle of March. 

Digerati published several articles in February covering DeFi, Elabox, DID, and Elacity. The team also released the Biweekly Technological Updates, along with the announcement of the new Blockchain Browsers 

Proposal 109: Reduce minimum pledge duration (ELA lockup time) for freshly registered DPoS 2.0 Supernodes

Proposal 109 is regarding the Elavation team’s recommendation to reduce the minimum pledge duration (ELA lockup time) for newly registered supernodes from 300 to 100 days. This change is intended to reduce the barrier of entry for potential new validators and make it easier for them to participate. While 100 days still represents a significant time commitment compared to other PoS protocols, it is short enough to dissuade new validators from joining. 

Validators will always have the option to extend their pledge duration if they choose to do so. The purpose of the time commitment is to stabilize the system and ensure changes that affect consensus occur gradually.  This change is expected to make operating a validator a more attractive option while still maintaining the system’s stability.

Conclusion

In summary, the approval of multiple proposals by the Cyber Republic Council brought significant progress in the Elastos ecosystem. The Elavation team continues progressing in business development, marketing & PR, and strategic ecosystem alignment. Meanwhile, the Digerati team is working hard to provide valuable content. Reducing the minimum pledge duration for newly registered supernodes is expected to make operating a validator a more attractive option. Overall, these updates showcase the ongoing commitment of the Elastos community to build a robust and dynamic ecosystem.