March 2022 was completely focused on all things Testnet 3, a necessary step to launching Mainnet 3 (v0.16).
This incentivized testnet allowed the Akash community to rigorously test critical features that will be unlocked through Mainnet 3 by allowing real users to perform tasks to stress-test the system beyond typical usage. With 2,739 verified participants, over 3k+ submissions, and a KYC bill of tens of thousands of dollars, Testnet 3 has come to a close.
As we gear up for April, we’re excited to continue expanding the functionality and durability of Akash Network, while strengthening relationships with existing partners and communities such as Chia Network, PKT.cash, as well as providers like Equinix Metal and Lumen.
Here’s a quick look in review and a glimpse at what’s to come.
Product Progress
This past month, product efforts were focused primarily on Testnet 3, testing a wide range of improvements to the network. Most notably of which are higher resource caps for deployments and features, like the highly anticipated persistent storage.
A full list of features tested for Testnet 3 include:
- Persistent Storage: allows data to remain available through the lifetime of its lease.
- Fractional uAKT: removes the minimum cost of deployment, making light workloads like a crypto wallet or a blog cheaper and more consistent.
- Authorized Spend: enables large teams to work on deployments together without using shared wallets, thereby reducing security concerns.
- Inflation Decay Curve: the automatic curve mechanism will autocorrect when the inflation differs from the plan. This removes the need for human intervention and further stabilizes and secures the future of the token and the economics surrounding it.
The capabilities in Testnet 3 will be merged into our latest production, Mainnet 3 release in the next few weeks and these game-changing features will be detailed further once live.
Partnerships
We continued to strengthen our relationship with the Chia Network, making Chia mining on Akash easier and cheaper. In our latest update, Akashians’ were able to create Chia NFT plots for just $0.20/plot. Download the plots directly to your drive or farm with the new Plot Manager. Start plotting by following our Chia Deployment guide, here.
As a part of our Testnet 3 flagship events, we hosted a Twitter Spaces with Jonmichael Hands from Chia Network on potential use cases he was excited to see and opportunities that come with Chia mining on Akash Network. You can listen to the recording, here and check out a demo below from our Head of Mining, Andrew Mello.
Community & Events
Meanwhile, this past month, the Akash community released many exciting new features to highlight including the Akash CLI Booster and Akashlytics Deploy.
The Akash CLI Booster was created to make the use of the current command line tooling much simpler for deployments and related activities. Additional information regarding the installation and use of the Akash CLI Booster can be found here.
The Akashlytics Deploy desktop app continues to be our most popular option for launching and managing deployments. The Akashlytics development team has released a number of great enhancements over the past couple of releases including:
- Pie chart representation of Akash AKT funds breaking down spend on deployments, available balances, and staking activity.
- Representation of Akash Network Capacity: displays total, available, and currently consumed resource levels across the entire network.
- UI enhancements include the ability to drill into individual deployments from our Dashboard.
- Ability to view escrow balances and provider name within our Dashboard deployment list.
Throughout the month we held 12 events across our Twitter and Discord to answer your questions about the AKT release schedule, Testnet 3 challenges and reward schedule, and introduced Chanda, our new VP of engineering. In addition to all the extra fun taking place on Twitter and Discord during Testnet 3, we participated in Web 3.1: Leadership Summit and Unconference where our CEO spoke on Building on the Blockchain and Importance of DEX’s alongside Joshua Goldbard from Mobilecoin and Tina Hui. While our Technical Program Manager, Alani Kuye spoke at Handycon to give an overview of Akash and talk about Why Web3 & Decentralization Matters.
Notable Coverage
- Equinix Metal | On Quest to Improve Cloud Computing, Akash Stumbled into Crypto
- Messari | Akash: A Decentralized Approach to Cloud Computing
- TFiR | Akash Selects Equinix Metal To Power Web3 With Their Decentralized Cloud Solution
- CoinDesk | ArDrive Raises $17M to Make Arweave’s Data Storage Blockchain More Usable
- Buidl Crypto | Buidl Crypto #20. Akash, unstoppable open-source cloud. Click here to hear the interview on Apple Podcasts, and here to hear the interview on Spotify.
- SoMag News | Attention These 67 Altcoin Investors: Here’s What To Happen This Week!
- NewsD | Greg Osuri creates ripples of growth with Akash Network in cloud computing
- Investors Observer | Akash Network (AKT) has a Very Bullish Sentiment Score, is Rising, and Outperforming the Crypto Market Thursday: What’s Next?
- NewsD | Meet Adam Bozanich, co-founder and CTO of Akash Network, who has driven the industry with his tech skills
What’s Next
We are full steam ahead towards Mainnet 3, estimated to launch at the end of April.
We host weekly community calls on Twitter Spaces every Wednesday at 10 AM PST, and later this week will have Micah Casella, Researcher at Messari, the research analyst behind the Akash Network research report, Akash: A Decentralized Approach to Cloud Computing.
We’ll discuss his process for researching a crypto project, interesting things he learned when researching Akash, what people can do to determine signal from the noise, and how to figure out what projects are worth paying attention to. Set your reminder, here.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Telegram to stay in the loop on the latest news and updates. For technical support, head to our Discord or Forum.
