“Hello World!”
Vaccinations have expanded, and the world is opening up again. Despite this, the migration of our work and life to the cloud, hastened by the pandemic this past year, continues inexorably.
As cloud and Big Tech become more centralized and consolidated, our team is even more committed to building the world’s first decentralized open-source cloud, and the first viable alternative to centralized cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud.
In Q1 2021, we launched Akash MAINNET 2, the MVP of the world’s first decentralized open-source cloud. MAINNET 2 integrates five years of development, and learnings from four of the ecosystem’s most ambitious testnets. Akash MAINNET 2 became one of the first platforms to launch on Cosmos’s Stargate upgrade, integrated with Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC), ushering in the beginnings of interoperability for the ecosystem.
We progressed our development of the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Relayer, an essential component to unlocking IBC’s features.
We also announced an integration with Equinix Metal, the largest data center provider in the world, and a surprise listing on Gate.io, our fifth exchange listing.
From our development of the IBC Relayer, to the Equinix Metal integration, to the launch of MAINNET 2, Akash accelerated critical milestones across product, partnerships, and people in Q1 2021.
PRODUCT
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Akash MAINNET 2 Launch
In early March, we announced the historic MVP launch of Akash MAINNET 2, the world’s first decentralized open-source cloud.
MAINNET 2 Quick Stats:
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The first deployment on Akash DeCloud was the Bitcoin Whitepaper
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746 Application Deployments since launch
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Up to 8x cost savings versus Amazon Web Services (AWS), being realized
Akash MAINNET 2 is the culmination of five years of development and four of the ecosystem’s most ambitious testnets, including Phase 3 of The Akashian Challenge, where we saw over 460 developers from around the world (second highest number of participants after Ethereum’s testnet) deploy 3600+ applications on the world’s first decentralized open-source cloud.
As the first open-source cloud and the only viable decentralized cloud alternative to centralized cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, Akash MAINNET 2 empowers developers to break free from the limitations of traditional cloud infrastructure.
Akash Network Develops Critical IBC Relayer
In development for over three years, IBC is the flagship feature of the Cosmos Network. For crypto and blockchain, where interoperability and composability are essential to continued growth for decentralized sectors like decentralized finance (DeFi), IBC is the most promising production ready solution.
IBC enables different blockchain protocols to communicate and transact with each other independently, providing a framework to connect the global economy to the blockchain. Participants on existing blockchains will be able to interact and exchange with each other across chains.
The ability for chains to transact and interoperate will be transformational for the industry.
The ICF awarded Akash with a grant to build and maintain the IBC Relayer. Essential to launching the IBC protocol and the only way users will be able to use IBC, the Relayer is the user interface that enables all transfers and transactions on IBC.
We migrated and developed features from Cosmos’s Game of Zones, Cosmos’s proof-of-concept testnet, to a production ready IBC-compatible Relayer.
PARTNERSHIPS
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Akash Network Integrates with Equinix Metal
We announced that Akash Network is integrating with Equinix Metal and enabling developers and companies to decentralize their cloud infrastructure through Akash MAINNET 2.
Equinix is the world’s largest data center and colocation infrastructure provider, with 220 data centers in 25 countries.
Through Equinix Metal, Equinix’s on-demand and interconnected bare metal service, we’ll be able to provide developers, companies, and projects across the blockchain ecosystem with a faster, more efficient, and lower-cost decentralized cloud alternative, with nearly unlimited use cases.
To start, Akash Network will enable a vibrant and growing, interconnected, and interoperable Cosmos ecosystem, beginning with non-critical workloads and eventually full nodes, to run on a decentralized high-performance non-custodial cloud at a lower cost.
AKT Token On Gate.io
With the launch of MAINNET 2, we saw even more interest and demand for Akash and AKT. As the utility token powering the world’s first DeCloud for DeFi and high growth organizations, Akash Token (AKT) has ~50% APR staking rewards, and a record-setting ~84% bonding rate.
To support accelerating growth and increasing global demand for access to Akash Token (AKT), our team has been hyper-focused on expanding liquidity for AKT. In Q1, we were excited to announce that Akash Token (AKT) got listed on Gate.io, one of the Top 10 digital asset exchanges in the world.
We were honored, as Gate.io had surprised us with this listing.
Gate.io became our fifth exchange listing after the 2020 BitMax and BitMart listings, and the Bithumb Global, and DigiFinex listings earlier in Q1 2021.
PEOPLE
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Kelsey Ruiz, Head of Communications
Previously, Kelsey served as Senior PR Manager at Ethereum Classic Labs where she focused on mainstream education and brand awareness of the Ethereum Classic blockchain. Before that, she was PR Manager at Leaf Group, a publicly traded Internet and media company and spent almost 5 years at AngelHack, managing PR and communications for 50+ events globally on an annual basis to a developer community of 175,000.
Kelsey will be focused on engaging media and influencers with the possibilities of DeCloud. She’ll be working across our global teams on communications and content programs, and events, that educate and inspire.
Steph Bernstein, Finance & Operations Manager
As Finance and Operations Manager, Steph supports the organizational growth, financial strategy, and culture at Akash Network. She is a multifaceted business management and operations professional with over a decade of accounting, finance, human resources, and IT management experience.
Steph will be supporting company growth at Akash by providing resources and training for the team, building company culture programs, and supporting the recruitment and retention of our talented team.
