Exactly 365 days ago today, the genesis block of the Incognito network was created. This year, we embarked on a mission to lay down essential building blocks for Incognito – the privacy highway of the decentralized web.
A few privacy believers created:
- The 1st platform for privacy coins →
- The 1st proof-of-stake privacy network →
- The 1st implementation of privacy sharding →
- The 1st plug and play node →
- The 1st trustless bridge to Ethereum →
- The 1st privacy-protecting on-chain DEX →
- The 1st privacy-protecting multi-currency app →
And with the help of like-minded folk, a movement began:
- $25M in shielding volume →
- 100 cryptocurrencies anonymized →
- $20M in completely confidential trades →
- $12M in privacy-powering liquidity →
- 2,200 Incognito Nodes →
- Privacy for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance, Monero, Neo, Zilliqa, Kyber, Uniswap and more →
- 10x TPS of other privacy blockchains →
- 3M lines of code →
- 12 teams of community builders →
- Privacy for smart contracts →
- Incognito mode for DeFi →
The need for privacy has never been more clear.
2020 saw some interesting strides towards greater adoption and acceptance. Old-school finance started (openly) acquiring huge amounts of Bitcoin. Paypal and other giants launched their own flavor of crypto. DeFi grew 10x. For good or bad, the so-called wild west is coming to an end.
More adoption means more eyeballs. Awareness yes, but also surveillance. More users mean more opportunities, but also more points of vulnerability. There are now bigger prizes for increasing numbers of malicious players. Believers of freedom and autonomy must now understand that identity and activity exposure lays us all wide open.
Incognito isn’t building for a far-off future. Its utility is not speculative. Its use case is right now.
Right now, you can already hold, send and receive any cryptocurrency with complete anonymity. Create your own privacy coin and tokenize real-world assets. Invest crypto privately. Use decentralized applications freely, and still keep your privacy.
You can already have freedom if you want it. You can already fight surveillance if you want to. But let’s see what else we can do.
What’s next
Incognito’s second year is all about growing up.
Ubiquitous in the industry
Integrating our privacy stack into public applications
Safer on every layer
Distributing consensus and expanding into cold storage solutions
Faster on multiple levels
Streamlining processes and boosting trading and transaction speeds
Deeper and more liquid
Increasing cross-chain liquidity and platform compatibility
Broader and more interoperable
Expanding our privacy highway to connect all ecosystems
Secure and self-sustainable
Ensuring the network can leave the nest and thrive
We’ll be maintaining the values we’ve held since the beginning. Utility over speculation. Long term vision over short term benefits. Open-minded, open-source communication and free-flowing knowledge exchange.
Build with us
As our friends in crypto continue to fight the good fight, we’ll continue to build the privacy backbone that supports them. We’re glad to be here at a time when it really matters. And we’re glad you’re with us – we couldn’t do it without you.
So please share your ideas. Contribute to research. Build your own privacy visions. Incognito belongs to you.
…may you continue to prosper and grow as you have…and a cheer for the awesome dev teams, builders, and admins!!!