March was a momentous month for Persistence and our community!
In each month of 2021, we’ve accomplished more than the last, but this past month was truly exceptional! In March alone, we launched our mainnet, conducted XPRT’s long-anticipated TGE, completed token auctions on AscendEx (formerly BitMax), trading of XPRT began, and we launched XPRT staking with rewards of 35%+ APR.
Additionally, we hosted Proof-of-Stake: The New Paradigm, one of the year’s biggest PoS events, during which thought leaders from the PoS ecosystem joined us for an action-packed day of presentations, panel discussions and fireside chats on some of the industry’s hottest topics. We also welcomed several new strategic advisors to the Persistence team, increased our community outreach and education initiatives, and much more.
For insights into our progress on our mission to usher in the next generation of blockchain-powered financial products, we invite you to read our community newsletter covering all areas of our activities in March.
Major Highlights
The XPRT Auctions on AscendEX Were a Huge Success at ~13x Oversubscribed! 🔥
March 31: Thank you to everyone who participated in the XPRT auctions on AscendEX. The amount of interest was incredible!
Key highlights:
♦️The auctions were ~13x oversubscribed.
♦️750 participants in the standard auction each secured 1,000 XPRT at a cost of $0.45 each.
♦️250 participants in the uncapped auction each secured 1,000 XPRT at a cost of $4.97 each.
♦️249 participants in the uncapped auction were willing to pay more than $4.97 per XPRT (they will be refunded the difference).
XPRT Trading is Now Live!
🌐 For those who weren’t able to secure XPRT tokens in the auctions, don’t fret! XPRT is now trading on AscendEX here: https://bitmax.io/en/basic/cashtrade-spottrading/usdt/xprt
Thanks again for your amazing support! Remember we’re still at the beginning of a long and exciting journey. We’re honored to have each and every one of you along with us.
Pop the Champagne! The Persistence Mainnet is Now Live, Alongside XPRT Staking at 35%+ APR! 🍾
March 31: Our genesis validators came to consensus and the first block of the Persistence Core-1 mainnet was minted at 1:50 PM UTC on March 30th.
🌐Block explorer: http://explorer.persistence.one
This signalled the official birth of the Persistence network and the next major milestone on our journey to usher in a new financial paradigm.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to our genesis validators for their monumental effort in ensuring a smooth mainnet launch.
Read here to learn more about our mainnet launch and to meet the world-class genesis validators securing our mainnet: https://medium.com/persistence-blog/the-persistence-mainnet-is-launching-on-march-30th-introducing-our-world-class-genesis-validators-9866b9a5b5da
The launch of our mainnet is a historic event for Persistence and our community!🥂
XPRT Staking is NOW LIVE with 35% APR!
Alongside our mainnet launched XPRT staking, offering rewards of 35%+ APR for the first year! This rewards rate is among the highest in the industry. Therefore, we understand our community is anxious to learn how they can stake their XPRT tokens.
We’ve released a step-by-step staking guide: https://medium.com/persistence-blog/persistence-xprt-staking-guide-4504cf9a19df
Digital Arm of Billion-Dollar Swiss Asset Management Firm Partners with Persistence to Offer Staking as a Service to Institutional Investors 🦾
March 28: In a major move toward bridging the traditional financial space and crypto, Persistence will be offering a whitelabeled version of our institutional-grade PoS network validation infrastructure, AUDIT.one, to Tavis Digital — the digital arm of Switzerland-based billion dollar asset manager Tavis Capital.
By utilizing our AUDIT.one infrastructure under their own brand, Tavis Digital will offer institutional players a secure and reliable solution for their clients to generate staking yields from crypto assets across 10 networks (with support for more underway).
This will pave the way for the introduction of PoS assets as an asset class for institutions. In a world of zero interest rates, we believe this will be received very positively. We’re excited to be spearheading this next wave of institutional adoption alongside Tavis Digital!
🌐 Read more on CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com/staking-as-an-asset-class-this-swiss-institutional-fund-is-jumping-in
Hosting Proof-of-Stake: The New Paradigm Virtual Conference 🦾
March 5: Proof-of-Stake: The New Paradigm was a virtual conference recently hosted by Persistence and AUDIT.one to bring together the leading PoS networks, projects, validators and thought leaders on a common platform.
We discussed a range of topics surrounding the emerging PoS ecosystem, including pioneering projects, the latest developments in DeFi and NFTs, and the challenges that lie ahead and currently being overcome.
Event breakdown and video links:
♦️ Illia Polosukhin [NEAR Protocol]: Web2 Experience with Web3 Security
♦️ Tushar Aggarwal [Persistence]: Building Next-Generation Financial Products
♦️ Nicholas Platias [Terra]: Creating an Ecosystem of Stablecoins
♦️ Panel Discussion [Persistence, Terra, Tendermint, Injective, Band Protocol]: DeFi Reimagined on PoS
♦️ Fireside Chat [Persistence, Mintbase, Stakefish]: NFTs in the PoS Ecosystem
♦️ Jack Zampolin [Cosmos]: Stargate and IBC
♦️ Panel Discussion [Cosmos, Polkadot, Figment Networks, Stakefish, NEAR, Persistence]: Proof-of-Stake: The New Paradigm
♦️ Joe Petrowski [Polkadot]: Introduction to Polkadot
🌐 Prefer a more immersive conference experience? Watch the full event recording here:
Thank you to all participants and attendees for making Proof-of-Stake: The New Paradigm one of the most impressive PoS events of the year! It was a pleasure and an honor to host fellow titans of the PoS ecosystem to share our insights for the community.
Presenting Persistence’s Roadmap: Our Upcoming Journey to a New Financial Paradigm 🚀
March 2: Building an entire suite of next-gen financial products catering to both institutional and crypto-native users is no small feat. Ushering in this new financial paradigm takes thoughtful planning, dedication, and strategic execution.
We’ve therefore crystallized our roadmap to keep the community informed of our progress and plans as we advance forward on our journey.
🌐 Take a look in detail: https://persistence.one/roadmap
The stated roadmap is just the beginning. We are already in the process of forging key partnerships and ideating new innovative products which are not yet listed. We will keep the community updated on other plans as and when they are finalized.
Here’s to the next stages of our exciting journey! 🥂
XPRT Tokenomics & Utility: Powering Persistence’s Ecosystem 💎
March 25: We wanted to share more information about the role of XPRT within the Persistence ecosystem and dive into the tokenomics.
XPRT carries a variety of use cases within the Persistence ecosystem, including participating in staking to contribute to network security, governance of the Persistence chain, and its role as a work token (providing cash flows from Persistence ecosystem dApps to stakers).
The XPRT tokenomics have been carefully ideated to facilitate the long-term growth of a strong, engaged and vibrant participant ecosystem.
🌐 Read the full details of XPRT’s utility and tokenomics here: https://medium.com/persistence-blog/xprt-tokenomics-and-utility-powering-the-persistence-ecosystem-70fc49e10362
Collaborations & Ecosystem
Luchang Zheng Joins Persistence as a Strategy Advisor 🤝
March 16: Luchang is a Founding Partner of venture capital firm Arcanum Capital and an experienced entrepreneur with a strong background in blockchain technology.
Luchang and the Arcanum Capital team have made a huge impact investing in nascent technologies in emerging markets. Prior to her current position, Luchang cofounded Blockchain Hero — an international crypto investment bank.
Her inputs, based on years of experience in venture capital & private equity, are invaluable as they will assist Persistence One to position ourselves to become a dominant force on the global stage.
Proudly Supporting Cosmos’ HackAtom Russia Hackathon🪐
March 17: Cosmonauts buckled up for HackAtom Russia — a Cosmos, IBC-focused hackathon centered around bridging DeFi into Cosmos!
Our CTO and co-founder, Deepanshu Tripathi, presented on “Building NFT applications using interNFT module” during the event.
Additionally, Persistence supported a special category at the hackathon: “Interchain NFT applications using interNFT module”.
This collaboration is a part of Persistence’s continual efforts to empower developers around the world and contribute to the growth of the global blockchain ecosystem.
🌐More info here: https://ru.hackatom.org/en
What Does Michael Arrington of XRP Capital Think of Persistence? 🔥
March 17: See what industry titan Michael Arrington of Arrington XRP Capital has to say about Persistence!
In October of last year we closed our funding rounds, attracting $3.7M in investment from a plethora of industry heavyweights including Arrington XRP Capital.
Michael Arrington, Founder of Arrington XRP Capital, TechCrunch and Crunchbase, weighed in on why they’re supporting Persistence:
“A core goal of Arrington XRP Capital is to assist blockchain innovators to create value in the real-world. The merging of blockchain and fintech is beginning to usher in a new era of open finance which is poised to transform global finance mechanisms. Persistence is shaping up to be a major building block in this financial revolution and we’re proud to be supporting their journey.”
We’re thrilled to have Mr. Arrington’s ongoing support and we look forward to a productive and ongoing relationship with Arrington XRP Capital.
Welcoming Marcus Maute as an Advisor 🌉
March 18: Marcus is a thought leader in the emerging digital security space and Managing Partner at Tavis Digital, where he leads the crypto assets practice.
Together, Tavis Digital and Persistence are bringing staking to institutions. By utilizing our AUDIT.one PoS validator infrastructure under their own brand, Tavis Digital will offer institutional players a secure and reliable solution for crypto asset staking.
Marcus’ partnerships with his extensive network of governments, private equity funds, and venture capitalists have helped drive the global commercialization & integration of blockchain technology.
His depth of knowledge coupled with his industry-wide connections will help Persistence to stay informed and connected.
Legal Expert Zhi Hao Loy Has Joined Persistence as an Advisor ⚖️
March 21: Zhi is a Senior Associate at Dentons Rodyk and a staple in Singapore’s blockchain professionals scene.
Zhi and the rest of the team at Dentons Rodyk — one of Singapore’s oldest and largest law firms — offer a full suite of legal services that enable global business ventures.
His legal counsel will help guide Persistence One as we continue to build out our ecosystem of next-generation financial products and roll them out globally.
Throughout the month of March, we announced several industry pioneers who have recently joined Persistence as advisors, and we’re not done yet. Stay tuned to see where their guidance leads us!
Persistence’s Validator Arm — AUDIT.One — Integrated with Injective Protocol 🦾
March 23: We were over-the-moon to announce that AUDIT.One, our validator arm, integrated with Injective Protocol to join their top-tier network of genesis validators for Equinox Staking!
Like us, Injective Protocol upholds the ethos of decentralization. They are already backed by several leading players in the crypto space and the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
It’s an honor to be chosen by Injective as a genesis validator based on our robust roster of PoS networks and mastery of Tendermint-based chains.
We look forward to working together to unlock the full potential of decentralized derivatives, borderless DeFi, and permissionless trading.
🌐 Read more: https://blog.injectiveprotocol.com/audit-one/
Persistence Welcomes Scott Littlewood as a Strategy Advisor 🤝
March 30: Scott is the Head of Business Development & Operations for TZ APAC. He’s also the co-founder of DAVOS Custody & Blockchain Technologies SPC.
In all of his many business ventures, Scott has demonstrated extreme entrepreneurial acumen, strong business development skills, and an extensive knowledge of blockchain’s enterprise uses.
His inputs, based on years of multifaceted experience in the industry, will certainly aid Persistence as we position ourselves to become a dominant force on the global stage.
We will be announcing even more industry titans who have recently joined Persistence as advisors over this next month. Stay tuned!
Community Outreach & Education
Want to Learn More About Persistence and Our Product Ecosystem? We’ve Got You Covered! 👀
March 10: Our CEO & Co-founder, Tushar Aggarwal, and our Strategy and Community Lead, Abhitej Singh, recently joined the YoungCoin community (one of the strongest Thai communities in the space) for a livestream AMA!
We discussed Persistence’s ecosystem of next-gen financial products, how we’re opening up new opportunities for institutional players and the crypto community alike, the utility of our XPRT token, and much more.
“The XPRT token has three use cases within the Persistence ecosystem. In addition to being used for staking and governance of the Persistence chain, XPRT is a work token, meaning stakers of XPRT receive a portion of the cash flows from the various applications in the Persistence ecosystem.”
Other topics include:
♦️ Backgrounds of Tushar and Abhitej & Persistence’s origins
♦️ The problems solved by our product ecosystem
♦️ Our focus on building a strong global community
♦️ Competitive advantages of our ecosystem products
📺 Watch the recap here: http://bit.ly/PersistenceYoungCoin
Introducing Asset Mantle — Marketplace Framework for Interoperable NFTs, Powered by Persistence 🦾
March 15: You will soon be able to create, buy and sell NFTs that can flow between different blockchains via our NFT marketplace framework, Asset Mantle.
Asset Mantle will support the creation of a wide variety of niche-specific marketplaces — digital art, collectibles, tokenized tickets, and much more. The possibilities are endless.
Say hello to the ‘Shopify of interoperable NFTs’!
Be sure to follow Asset Mantle on Twitter for the latest updates.
🌐Learn more about Asset Mantle and the rest of Persistence’s product ecosystem here:
How Persistence is Ushering in a New Era of Next-Gen Financial Products
March 18: CryptoDiffer hosted an AMA with Persistence on March 18th in the CryptoDiffer Telegram Chat!
Since Persistence’s token sale was still upcoming at that time, this was a great opportunity to learn about Persistence and our native XPRT token.
During the AMA, $100 USDT was distributed among those whose questions were chosen. It pays to join us live!
Pioneering Real-World NFT Use Cases with Comdex, Powered by Persistence 🦾
March 18: Persistence has been pioneering real-world NFT use cases since 2019 with Comdex.
Comdex is an institutional-facing commodities trading and trade financing platform powered by Persistence.
Comdex revolutionizes the $17 trillion commodities trading industry by tokenizing trade invoices as NFTs to bring them on chain. These NFT invoices are then used as collateral by companies for acquiring loans.
With over $55M in transaction volume so far, institutional adoption is already beginning to flow in.
🌐Learn more about Comdex and the rest of Persistence’s product ecosystem here:
How Persistence is Ushering in a New Era of Next-Gen Financial Products
Persistence Breaks the Mold: A Unique Conversation About DeFi & NFTs on Clubhouse 💎
March 21: Persistence once again broke the mold by contributing to a unique conversation about DeFi & NFTs on Clubhouse!
While others are looking for the next opportunity, Persistence is creating it.
On March 21st, the Persistence team invited everyone to join us on Clubhouse for a discussion on “Creating DeFi and NFT Ecosystems” — the hottest topics in the crypto space!
If you missed this one, don’t worry, we’ll offer more unique opportunities to interact with the team and get ahead of the pack by hearing from great minds in the near future.
Tushar’s Journey & The Origins of Persistence: Conversations with the CEO 🎙️
March 23: As last month’s XPRT token launch rapidly approached, we witnessed a huge influx of new community members who wanted to learn more about Persistence.
We therefore launched our ‘Conversations with the CEO’ series, in which our CEO & Co-founder, Tushar Aggarwal, discusses various aspects of Persistence including our history, mission, product ecosystem, broader goals and much more.
The first segment focused on Tushar’s journey in the blockchain space and the origins of Persistence.
Topics included:
♦️Tushar’s background at LuneX Ventures crypto fund
♦️The formation of the Persistence team
♦️Starting with with the commodities trading use case via Comdex
♦️The necessity of building our own protocol & SDK
♦️Building our network, community & validator ecosystem
Top 7 ICO Held an AMA with Persistence 🤝
March 26: Top 7 ICO hosted a riveting AMA with Persistence on March 26th.
Persistence’s team was represented by Tushar Aggarwal (CEO & Co-Founder) and Abhitej Singh (Strategy & Community).
It was a pleasure to connect with the Top 7 ICO community to discuss Persistence, our product ecosystem, XPRT token and much more.
Persistence rewarded the audience with $100 USDT for the 5 best questions. It pays to join us live, so try to catch the next one!
Persistence Joined Shin Chan for an AMA 👥
March 26: On March 26th, Persistence CEO & Co-founder, Tushar Aggarwal, and Strategy & Marketing Lead, Abhitej Singh, joined Shin Chan for an unforgettable AMA. Participants who asked the most interesting questions were awarded their share of $300 USDT.
Media Coverage
Conversations with Jack, Presented by OmniFlix Network 🎙️
March 9: We hope you tuned into episode 9 of Conversations with Jack, featuring our CEO Tushar Aggarwal, to hear the two PoS heavyweights talk about Cosmos, Tendermint, NFTs & more.
Jack Zampolin is a product strategist & developer relations advisor to several Cosmos-based projects. He is currently focused on realizing IBC & advancing projects in the Cosmos ecosystem. It was a pleasure to connect once again!
If you didn’t manage to make the discussion live, no worries! You can catch up by watching the recording above.
Persistence is Building an Ecosystem Empire to Stand the Test of Time! 🦾
March 22: If a picture speaks a thousand words then this infographic by HiBlockTalks speaks ten thousand!
Let us introduce ourselves in one bite sized graphic. Take a look at our innovative ecosystem and products. See the industry heavyweight investors backing our future.
Persistence powers a plethora of DeFi and NFT products. These are the hottest topics in the crypto space at the moment. Hopefully you didn’t sleep on our token sale – which happened at the end of March – but if you did, don’t fret. This only the beginning!
How Persistence is Ushering in a New Era of Next-Gen Financial Products
Persistence was Featured in Cosmos’ Community Microgrants Wrap-up 2020 for our Outstanding Community Contributions! 🏆
March 24: Cosmos distributes Contributor Grants to reward those who make outstanding contributions to the Cosmos ecosystem. We’re thrilled that Cosmos recognizes Persistence’s ongoing exceptional efforts and has rewarded us with microgrants in both Q3 & Q4 of 2020 to thank us!
Cosmos India: Spearheading Cosmos Adoption in India
Among the many ecosystem contributions Cosmos recognizes Persistence for is our work in spearheading Cosmos India — one of Cosmos’ largest local communities. Through Cosmos India, Persistence plays a leading role in organizing events, spreading awareness, hosting hackathons, localizing content, and more.
A recent CoinDesk article covers the emergence of Cosmos India and its impact in fueling India’s crypto boom.
Persistence remains proud contributors to the Cosmos ecosystem. We’re thankful for Cosmos’ recognition of our efforts to help further the interoperability movement and spread global awareness of it.
🌐Read Cosmos’ Community Microgrants Wrap-up 2020 to learn about more of the contributors to the growing global decentralization movement.
Top ICO Listed Persistence as a Top 7 Upcoming DeFi Project 💎
March 25: The TVL in DeFi has skyrocketed to over the $50 billion mark. While many new projects aim to reshape the financial space through blockchain, there’s space for but a few to grow and develop.
Persistence is thrilled to have been included on Top ICO’s list of upcoming promising DeFi projects that are going to enter the market with a public sale or initial listing soon (and now we have)!
“I’m Personally Investing in Persistence” Says Popular Crypto YouTuber Lark Davis (AKA Crypto Lark) 🔥
March 30: In a recent video Lark explained his decision to invest in Persistence (XPRT), citing our focus on introducing new, real-world NFT use cases for enterprises via our Comdex application and beyond.
“I’m personally investing in Persistence because I think that the idea of enterprise NFTs could be really, really big… I’m the pick and shovel guy. More than chasing the single NFTs, I want to chase the projects that are building the NFT infrastructure.”
This is only the surface of our activities with NFTs. Through Asset Mantle, our interoperable NFT marketplace framework, we’re providing the infrastructure for the creation of niche-specific marketplaces for interoperable NFTs, supporting use cases ranging from digital art to tokenized tickets and much more.
We’re thrilled that Lark is so confident in our future, and we’d like to thank him for his ongoing support. Is Persistence on your radar? It should be, according to Lark.
🌐Read more about our product ecosystem here: https://buff.ly/2NWnFE3
Community Updates & Activities
Launching Our First-Ever Digital Treasure Hunt 🧐
March 1: Last month, we ran a treasure hunt from March 1–7 to encourage people to learn more about Persistence.
We provided participants with a series of clues, one per day for 7 days, which took them through various Persistence-related resources.
Optional additional tasks were available throughout the hunt which could secure winners a bigger prize!
Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone who took part and made the hunt a huge success! If you missed the hunt then no worries! There will be plenty more opportunities to earn XPRT for your support and participation in more upcoming initiatives.
Treasure Hunt Meme Contest Alert 🚨
March 2: As part of our Treasure Hunt, we launched an optional meme contest to allow participants to win extra XPRT tokens.
Memes could be in the form of images, GIFs or videos. They could be themed around anything Persistence-related, such as our mission, product ecosystem, StakeDrop campaigns, or XPRT token.
We encouraged everyone to let their imaginations run wild and there were many excellent submissions!
Treasure Hunt Infographic Contest 🎨
March 4: As another optional task in our Treasure Hunt, we invited Persistence crusaders to unleash their creativity for our infographic contest.
By taking part in our infographic contest, entrants got the chance to secure a bigger Treasure Hunt prize.
We encouraged participants to theme their infographics around the Persistence product ecosystem as a whole, a specific product in the ecosystem, or our technology — with impressive results!
Treasure Hunt Video Creation Content ▶️
March 6: For the final additional optional task in our Treasure Hunt, we asked participants to create videos explaining what about Persistence excited them the most.
Thank you for all your submissions!
Announcing Our First Champion of Champions 🏆
March 22: It was our pleasure to award Szymon with the title of Champion of Champions!
To us, all of our community members are champions. Some, however, go above and beyond to support us on our journey, and this does not go unnoticed. Though it was a tough decision, our first ever Champion of Champions title was awarded to Szymon, along with $100 in XPRT.
In addition to showing a consistent presence in our Telegram group supporting the project and community, Szymon is always helping to spread the word on social media and provided some excellent contributions during our community Treasure Hunt.
We’re honored by the massive growth and incredible support of our community. Will you be our next Champion of Champions? We’re always on the lookout for superstar supporters!
As a Token of Our Appreciation we Gave Away Over $90,000 Worth of XPRT to 100 of our Early Supporters! 🤝
March 25: As a token of our appreciation for our awesome early supporters, we randomly selected 100 people who filled our token sale interest form to win 250 XPRT each, with a value of $100 (based on the auction price of $0.40). That value now sits at over $900!
If you weren’t lucky enough to win this time, no worries! Remember we still have several StakeDrop campaigns available for our community and every strong supporter will be rewarded for their contributions to the Persistence ecosystem.
Our Matic (Polygon) StakeDrop is Still Live for MATIC Stakers!💎
March 28: Our Matic Network (Polygon) StakeDrop is still ongoing! As rewards are allocated at every checkpoint and the checkpoints are taking longer than initially calculated, our Matic (Polygon) StakeDrop is still live. The campaign will end once the entire rewards pool has been allocated.
There are still over 39,000 XPRT tokens (worth almost $150,000 at the time of writing) yet to be distributed to MATIC stakers! You can keep track of the number of tokens left to be allocated here: https://persistence.one/StakeDropMatic
Join over 600 participants currently earning XPRT, alongside MATIC staking rewards, simply by staking on Polygon (Matic Network) and sending your Magic Transaction.
📲 Read our written tutorial or view our video tutorial for more information.
Closing Thoughts
We’d like to thank you all again for embarking on this amazing journey with us. Persistence isn’t just a protocol powering next-gen capabilities for financial products. Persistence is every person in our community. Thank you for pioneering new financial frontiers with us!
At this point, our mission to usher in the next generation of blockchain-powered financial products is already well underway, and though we had a busy March, there is still so much to look forward to.
With our groundwork now firmly laid, new DeFi & NFT product launches and many other major updates in store for the coming months, together we’re about to take the blockchain space by storm! 🥂
About Persistence
Persistence is a Tendermint-based, specialised Layer-1 network powering an ecosystem of DeFi applications focused on unlocking the liquidity of staked assets.
The Persistence chain facilitates the issuance and deployment of liquid-staked stkASSETs, allowing users to earn staking rewards while participating in DeFi primitives, such as lending/borrowing and liquidity provisioning on DEXs.
Persistence aims to offer a seamless staking and DeFi experience for PoS (Proof-of-Stake) users and enable developers to build innovative applications around stkASSETs.
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