Cherry Progress Report: July 2021
Dear Cherry Community,
So much has been going on behind the scenes: Cherry Chain is approaching testnet viability, the first smart contracts are being implemented and tested, and our Ecosystem is strengthening with potential partnerships and engagements. Indeed, these are exciting times here at Cherry, and we wanted to tell you a bit about it.
This is the first of a progress report newsletter series we plan to send out every two weeks. In this series, you can expect to find an overview of our efforts so far and perhaps get a sneak peek at what’s in the works for the project’s future. We hope to perfect the format over the next few letters and establish it as a welcome custom for everyone interested in the Cherry Ecosystem.
My name is Romeo; some of you may recognize me from the emoji-based banter I sporadically spew on our telegram channel and community chats. Others may only now come to learn of my existence as one of the three founders of the Cherry Project. I’ll share more details about my two co-founders and me, as well as the remainder of our fantastic team, in another blog sometime soon. Meanwhile, I wanted to preface this report with a cheery welcome to all of the new entries in our bustling community and a nudge-nudge-wink-wink-wink to those we met, joined, left, and came back through the long and tortuous path leading to this message today.
Preamble — Cherry’s Vision
In the months leading up to Cherry’s inception, Buer, Seraphim, and I spent a lot of time thinking about what we could do as engineers to help make things better. We’ll try and recount the delirious series of conversations and events that lead to the ideation of Cherry some other time. Just know that sometime in October 2020, we formulated a vision to “make artistic expression accessible to all.” And thus, we set out to build an ecosystem of tools to enhance creators’ ability to fund, produce, and distribute their art freely through technology. We stand now a few weeks away from our testnet release, the culmination of a year’s worth of blood, sweat, and tears. The design principles are innovative, the architecture is sound, and the implementation is increasingly stable.
Cherry Chain is at the core of our efforts. A layer one blockchain network, it was designed as the infrastructure for the creative enterprises of tomorrow. It is the amalgamation of the most advanced layer-2 scaling methodology available called zkRollups, a native IPFS and indexing engine, topped with design features that make our platform usable by anyone. More details may be found on our recently published lightpaper.
Indeed, the Cherry Vision doesn’t aim to simply build disruptive technologies. We realized that to succeed as an open network, the organization backing it should be structured along the very same decentralized principles that make blockchain special. We understood that something as big as Cherry would only succeed if it prioritized inclusion and collaboration. And thus, we established a community-based governance system named the Cherry Decentralized Autonomous Organization. It allows all stakeholders to have a say in the project’s future, with the ability to fund worthy proposals and enforce its decisions at a network level.
That’s all very well… But what are you guys up to exactly? Good question.
And you’re not the only one asking. We made our efforts public nearly two months ago. Ever since, we’ve been engaging with many people who kept asking the same few things, so we compiled a document to address these questions and concerns.
Lightpaper
Sometime in the first week of July, Seraphim found that most of his conversations with investors, developers, etc., kept on touching on the same topics. Somewhat annoyed by having to repeat himself over and over, he set out to compile a single resource for anyone to read in a few minutes and understand the entire scope of what we had been up to all these months. He spent one night working on it, and the output was a 23-page block of pure goodness. While he may not have satisfied the “readable in a few minutes” requirement, our lightpaper does cover a lot of ground about our project’s whats and whys. A more in-depth description of the hows is being redacted. It will accompany the upcoming testnet release in the form of documentation.
Token Sale
As you may or may not know, Cherry is currently collaborating with world-class investors and venture capital firms to raise capital through a private token sale. Over 20 have shown some interest, and conversations have been ongoing for many weeks. We will announce the final list of our partners as this phase comes to a close.
And that leads me to an announcement many of you have been waiting for… The final date for Cherry’s public token sale has been set to September 15th, 2021. The exact modality by which it’ll be offered is yet to be defined and most likely involves a portion of tokens available in an initial decentralized exchange offering (IDO) environment.
Airdrop
Airdrops are a fantastic way to distribute tokens, build the community while rewarding our loyal followers and the many enthusiastic newcomers to the Cherry Ecosystem. After a first test run that saw over 300 people join a competition to win 1,000$ in CHER distributed equally among ten randomly chosen participants, we decided to go big with our first official airdrop. Last week, we announced 10,000,000 Cherry Tokens would be rewarded to members of our community, each claiming 300 CHER by completing some social networking tasks, plus up to 100 more Cherry Tokens by referring other users to join the airdrop. The airdrop will end on September 15th, 2021, coinciding with the beginning of our IDO. Distribution of the rewards will occur shortly thereafter once entries have been tallied and verified.
Testnet
We’re yet to decide whether to host a portion of the token sale directly on Cherry’s testnet or not. However, what is certain is that Cherry Chain’s canary testnet will be released around the same period. It will give the community the first taste of the varied array of tools that the Cherry platform will allow developers and creators to best achieve their artistic potential. Cherry will be recruiting developers, software companies, and creators to leverage our toolset to build out the range of possibilities available to the entire Cherry community, ahead of the mainnet launch in early 2022.
Are you interested in participating in the launch of our network, whether by validating blocks, stress testing our network, or developing decentralized applications that leverage the new features developed by Cherry? Get in touch with one of our team members on any social channel.
In Closing
We’re delighted with the positive feedback that we have received so far. With CHER about to go on sale, exciting partnerships lined up, our testnet launch, and being able to reward our community with the ongoing airdrop, these productive past few months have laid the groundwork for the pivotal second half of 2021, and our mainnet launch scheduled for Q1 2022.
In the coming weeks, you can expect:
- 3+ freshly minted articles about NFT, DAOs, and the plight of 21st-century artists
- an interactive roadmap of our progress so far and what we have in store
- AMAs, competitions, activities as we explore new ways to engage with our community
- Minor website updates
Join our Community
Cherry is the world’s first smart contract-enabled media-optimized layer one blockchain network. We empower creators to express their art freely.
We’ve brought together a community of technologists, artists, and creators, and we want you to get involved. If this speaks to you, we invite you to join our growing community.
Follow the official Cherry social media accounts, stay up-to-date with all our news and announcements, and subscribe to the Cherry newsletter.
To learn more about Cherry, visit Cherry.Network
