The Shimmer Network is Here!
The wait is over - a new realm of possibilities is open to those with the courage to explore.
From the editorial desk …
[ - by DigitalSoul.x ]
Ah frens, welcome to the special Shimmer edition of the Daily Degen newsletter! When the IF first announced their plans to develop the Shimmer Network, none of us knew how long it would take. It seems surreal that launch day will be here in mere days and I for one feel like a kid at Christmas - so many exciting new possibilities are right at my fingertips!
The format of this issue will be a bit different than others we’ve released. We’ve opted to omit some of our standard content (Community Member spotlight, FUD of the Week, etc) to focus on the monumental occasion that this is. Please allow us to reflect for a moment on how we got here, what we can now do, and where we’re going together as the network evolves.
The Past (How We Got Here)
[ - by Dominik Schiener]
“While were thinking of the process to bring IOTA 2.0 to the mainnet and remove the Coordinator, we realized that even after all the code was polished and audits were complete, we would need months - if not years - of proper testing and public validation before we would be confident of performing an upgrade on the IOTA mainnet. Shimmer presented itself as the perfect solution to this problem. Acting as a staging network for IOTA, the Shimmer network would have its own token that (hopefully) has value, giving anyone an incentive to participate in the network, be active and try to break things. This not only helps our ecosystem to get early access to exciting new features (like now with Stardust and the EVM release), but it helps us get our technology faster to market, with the necessary confidence to upgrade the IOTA mainnet.”
The Present (You Are Here Now)
Behold: These are the Reasons “I’m Shimmering!”
[ - by DigitalSoul.x ]
“It’s been a long road, but the Shimmer Network launch is finally here. There are a wide range of projects that heard the call to build and have been diligently working in the shadows to utilize one of the many new features that Shimmer now offers. At long last the floodgates are wide open! In this article I will present some of the capabilities of the network that I find particularly noteworthy…”
ShimmerSea in the dawn of Shimmer
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It has been a year since the IOTA Foundation announced its plan to launch the Shimmer Network, laying the foundation for a new ecosystem focused on exploring Decentralized Finance opportunities. Shortly thereafter, the TangleSea team was first to announce the development of a DEX for the Shimmer Network. The DEX is named ShimmerSea and has since then built a strong community around its deep sea themed brand.
Now the launch of the Shimmer Network is around the corner and the TangleSea team is starting to reveal first glimpses of ShimmerSea to the public. Shimmer will be the first network in the IOTA ecosystem to have smart contract functionality, enabling for the first time fully decentralized applications built on IOTA technology. The dawn of Shimmer is upon us and ShimmerSea has positioned itself to become a major accelerator for the ecosystem.
But what makes the Shimmer Network and ShimmerSea DEX unique? There are many factors, but we would like to focus on two in particular.
Sustainability
IOTA technology is one of the most sustainable, if not the most sustainable, decentralized crypto protocols in the world. In a time where global warming is the biggest challenge for our human civilization, energy efficiency is a fundamental requirement for global mainstream adoption. And the Shimmer Network will unleash this power first, making ShimmerSea the most sustainable DEX on the market from an environmental perspective.
But sustainability does not just run deep in the technology of ShimmerSea. The team is also dedicated to developing a DEX with sustainable token economics. The way that ShimmerSea will achieve this and the role that the $LUM token will play is not public yet and will probably only be revealed with the release of the whitepaper. But the recent announcement that HashEx has started auditing the ShimmerSea codebase is a good sign that we won't have to wait too long anymore.
Community
A huge advantage for Shimmer is its active community. Compared to many other networks that recently went live, Shimmer already has a large number of dApps ready to launch on the network as well as a strong fan base. These are the two main ingredients to enable powerful network effects that will boost the growth of the ecosystem. Judging by ShimmerSea's announcements on social media, the DEX has managed to develop partnerships with major projects in the Shimmer space and beyond.
Also the ShimmerSea community is strong with more than 6000 active followers on their socials. The team has earned their trust by:
Closely collaborating with the IOTA Foundation for the technical development
Transparent and clear communication
Organizing community events around their free NFTs (Lumis)
Offering free DeFi education
Doing a FairLaunch
A FairLaunch means that the team did not do any token/NFT pre-sales before the official go-live. Instead the ShimmerSea will launch through an event in which we all can participate and kick-start the DEX together with the same risks and opportunities. A decision that puts the community first and significantly increases the upside for anyone investing in their $LUM token.
It can be said that we are all incredibly excited about the launch of ShimmerSea and look forward to the months ahead.
Webpage: https://shimmersea.finance/
Discord: discord.gg/cxGNez8Y4S
Twitter: twitter.com/ShimmerSeaDEX
What’s new in Moonaco?
[Editor’s note: In this edition, ICCD member Ness summarizes a recent special Shimmer episode of The Moonaco Podcast. ]
Moonaco Podcast 38: In this episode, SpecWeekly host Kutkraft is taking over the podcast to speak with no less a person than Dominik Schiener.
Currently there is one thing we all want to know more about: the Shimmer launch.
According to Dom, the technology for the Shimmer launch is pretty much there. So, the one major thing that determines the timeline at this moment are the exchanges. As soon as Shimmer is live, we don’t want to wait for another month to be able to make use of our Shimmer token. That’s why Shimmer will launch as soon as the exchanges are ready to list the token.
The Shimmer network launch will include three major components:
The launch of the Layer 1 network: Shimmer provides the opportunity to simultaneously confirm transactions. Through the extension of a native asset framework, anybody can then create, mint and transfer assets on the protocol.
The listing of the Shimmer token on exchanges: With the launch of the Shimmer network, the Shimmer token can be transferred freely within the network. To establish a more or less stable price of the token, it is important that it is listed on exchanges.
The Shimmer EVM launch: Shimmer EVM will be the first blockchain on the Shimmer network, while the long-term vision of Shimmer is to become a multichain network. You can then use any smart contract from any chain on the Shimmer EVM. With the Shimmer launch, the stardust protocol update is also feature complete.
With the launch of Shimmer some might think that IOTA could be neglected. But this will not be the case since IOTA is a core part of the strategy with Shimmer. As Shimmer is the staging network for IOTA, new features will first be tested on Shimmer before IOTA will then implement them. However, the plan for Shimmer is to become an independent Layer 1 network within the IOTA ecosystem.
The further evolution of Shimmer can be considered as soon as IOTA achieved its roadmap. Currently, there are quite some steps on the roadmap like Mana, multichain possibilities, the launch of economic incentives for those holding IOTA tokens on Layer 1 to generate Mana, the introduction of a leaderless consensus, a shared security as well as Zero-Knowledge VMs.
Besides the Shimmer launch, Kutkraft and Dom also talked about the decentralized random number generator (dRNG) and the advantages of NFTs and tokens being on-chain. While random functions are a core part of dApps, for now, they have to source this randomness from external smart contracts. One USP of IOTA therefore is, that this dRNG is needed for the smart contract solutions to come to consensus and everybody has access to this randomness function. This allows a fair and cheap decentralization of applications building on IOTA.
Another important feature is the on-chain storage of data. Currently, NFT data is stored on IPFS Layer 2 which creates a dependency on the protocol. It also bears the risk of the data being deleted if it is not stored on-chain. IOTA provides a solution for this: When creating a NFT you have immutable data, just a few KB, that you can store directly on-chain. This innovative approach will become especially important for GameFi.
And for all the Degens out there: While the ecosystem is building a lot of applications and drives the adoption of IOTA, Dom mentioned that IOTA is also perfectly positioned with corporate adoption and that some big companies already reached out to the IF in the past twelve months.
Iotabee: First Swap in IOTA Ecosystem to List SMR/MIOTA
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Iotabee is built by a group of IOTA maximalists.
The ultimate goal of Iotabee is to provide a seamless crosschain trading experience to connect different layers within the IOTA ecosystem and bring more external resources into it. Users will be able to swap assets between different networks and from wallet to wallet easily and instantly.
For those who’re keen to trade MIOTA already, Iotabee SWAP is launched now for trading MIOTA/USDT or providing liquidity for competitive yield (5/6 of the trading fee goes to the liquidity provider). This trading pair is also extremely helpful for bringing BSC users to IOTA, as there will be no barriers whatsoever — they’ll be able to purchase and transfer IOTA with Iotabee from wallet to wallet, with no need for a deposit.
The Big Bomb for our SWAP: SMR/MIOTA upon the launch of Shimmer! Anyone can swap between SMR on Shimmer Layer 1 and IOTA on Tangle Layer and from wallet to wallet freely. On Iotabee, you may buy more SMR, sell SMR for MIOTA, check real-time SMR and know how much your SMR is worth, or use your SMR and MIOTA to provide LP to earn yield. With Iotabee, the IOTA community can unite and work together to build the best SMR/MIOTA liquidity, supported by the community, for the community.
For the absolute DEX fans, stay tuned for Iotabee DEX coming with Shimmer EVM!
You may also want to know a little bit extra here : ) We hope to see you very soon! #jointhebees!
The Future (Where We Are Going)
With the launch of Shimmer being such a momentous occasion, The Daily Degen crew thought it would be appropriate to reach out to our friend Kutkraft of SpecWeekly to put together a video touching on some of the awesome projects preparing to launch on Shimmer, and boy, he did not disappoint!
If you haven’t seen it yet, grab a drink and popcorn while you check out this 22 minute video he provided! Thank you Kutkraft!
And please like and subscribe to his content if you haven’t already, it’s totally worth it!
The Daily Degen Interviews Jonas Theis of the IOTA GoShimmer Team
Jonas Theis is an IF Research Engineer on the GoShimmer Team working on IOTA 2.0 (coordicide) and its implementation. We asked him some questions about the future since these features will soon be tested on the Shimmer network.
As new features are added to Shimmer, the network will likely need to be halted to allow time for the nodes to update. How often should we expect such outages and are there any negative effects of this we should be aware of?
And that’s a wrap! Please like, share, smash that subscribe… or better yet, join us! Do you love to write? Passionate about the IOTA ecosystem? Do you have a project to share? Master at making memes?
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Leave us a comment and thank you for reading! See you next time!
Special thanks and honourable mentions to all the hardworking ICCD degens who contributed (in the form of written, editorial, design, advisory, and memetic support) to this edition: DigitalSoul.x (Rob), Mart, WaywardRaspberry (Surfyce), and tamasik, Kutkraft of Spec Weekly, as well as the IF’s Dominik Schiener & Jonas Theis.
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