We’re glad to announce that the wait is finally over. It wasn’t so easy, we had a lot of heated discussions, but the roadmap is ready and we’re glad to present it to you. Everscale came a long way from picking up the project that was just an ambitious idea, to the point where it actually comes to fruition. Slowly, but surely, we built one of the most technologically advanced networks, not only fulfilling the original vision but improving it.

Of course, there are many things left to build to enhance the performance of the network, to create a friendly environment for users and for new devs that come to Everscale, and to make Everscale one of the backbones of the decentralized Internet. And we’re confident to say that a lot of the upgrades and products that are essential for these goals will be developed in 2022.

Enough talks. Here it is — the roadmap for this year. We’ll give the reader some time to take a look at it, and we’ll get back with some explanations.

Okay. As we see, there are many plans and ideas aligned here. Some of them are pretty self-explanatory, but some points need additional commentaries. So we’ve picked everything that bears importance to the ecosystem and we’re going to explain why.

Q1:

• zk-snark protocol. This is probably one of the most important developments because zk-snarks or zero-knowledge proofs will allow making private transactions and launching private chains, which means the possibility to onboard commercial institutions and industrial companies.
• Decreasing the network fees (up to 100X). A small consensus change will decrease the fees, making Everscale one of the cheapest networks in terms of transaction costs.
• Lending/Borrowing protocol. This protocol is yet another piece in the DeFi mosaic of Everscale. By having such a protocol, it will be possible to create more complex financial dapps and unlock a multitude of new use case scenarios for traders and investors. Decentralized loans, Maker-like CDPs, derivatives — all this can be built using the lending/borrowing protocol.
• Integration with Cardano ecosystem. We have already built the Adaever bridge with a DEX for swapping ADA tokens for EVER tokens. Now we plan to enhance this infrastructure to serve as a hub for transferring liquidity from Cardano to other EVM-compatible networks, and of course, some of that liquidity will be locked on Everscale.
• NFT SDK tools. NFT are an important part of today’s blockchain industry. Successful NFT platforms attract new users and become even more popular than financial dapps. Building a proper SDK for NFTs is the necessary step towards GameFi and Metaverses.
• Detailed technical documentation. Everything that we do is just the foundation for other developers that build their projects on top of Everscale. Thus it’s our duty to prepare the documentation on all aspects of the network: SDK, API, smart contracts etc.

Q2:

• Transfer to a new SMFT Consensus. One of the most important goals of the second quarter. The new Soft Majority Fault Tolerance consensus will increase security and allow Everscale to linearly increase performance with more validators.
• Private workchains. After zk-snark implementation, it will be possible to deploy private workchains on Everscale. It will be a very fundamental release because it will give us the opportunity to compete on equal footing with the likes of Hyperledger, Corda or VeChain. Corporations aren’t our main focus currently, but to become a worldwide decentralized operational system, we have to provide tools for all kinds of users, including commercial entities.
• EVM compatible workchain. Another essential thing for ensuring our success in the long run. The majority of dapps is written in Solidity for the EVM environment, the majority of blockchain devs use Solidity for writing smart contracts. Rust is gaining popularity, but having EVM functionality is a big advantage in the blockchain race because we can partner with and onboard many popular dapps working on EVM-compatible blockchains and attract new liquidity.
• Industrial tools for smart contract formal verification. These tools will provide developers with tools to significantly reduce the time for security audits and formal verification
• Integration with Cardano-focused rollups. Rollups are the technology for scaling L1 networks, fast and cheap. As a part of the further collaboration with Cardano, we plan to implement integrations with its rollups, which will greatly increase the interoperability between the two networks.
• Alliance with Tezos ecosystem. One of the goals of Everscale is to become the hub for other networks. Alliance with Tezos aligns with this goal.
• NFT bridge to EVM blockchains. A very complex task indeed, due to differences between various NFT standards, different metadata and storage options. However, when the NFT bridge is launched, it will open the road to building a cross-chain NFT marketplace hosted on Everscale.
• GameFi pilots. The first pilots will be the modifications of the most popular games in the world — GTA and Minecraft. These pilots will showcase the features of GameFi on Everscale, such as land tokenization, in-game real estate and items tokenization, NFT import etc.
• Metaverse SDK MVP. This product is designed for those who intend to build metaverses on Everscale. It will include the set of tools for implementing the same features that will be demonstrated in our GameFi pilots.
• SSI Pilot. A decentralized identity, which can be integrated into dapps.

Q3:

• Dynamic Gas Fees. The fees will depend on the network load.
• DAO expansion to different protocols. As a part of the strategy of expanding to other networks, we’ll provide a protocol for building Everscale-based DAOs on top of external protocols.
• Fastest order book based DEX — FLEX. There is only one, or maybe two DEXes that can be compared to Flex in terms of speed and fees. Order book based DEXes were considered impractical previously due to the performance limitations of the existing smart contracts on other networks, but the Everscale technology is capable of handling a scalable and high-performance order book exchange. FLEX will combine all the best practices of decentralized trading, cheap fees and the interface of a CEX.
• First Cardano cross-chain projects powered by Everscale. After all the integrations we’re expecting to see new projects using the best features from both networks. We don’t plan to limit ourselves only to Cardano partnerships, but it will definitely show the speed and reliability of Everscale.

Q4:

• Block Finality Optimizations. Following the introduction of Ever OS core protocols, the block finality will be reduced dramatically.
• DeNS (Decentralized Name Service). Filename service of Ever OS allows for human-readable addresses on Everscale.
• DriveChain (on-chain storage). Blockchain storage, which extends the capabilities of Everscale with native mechanisms to store files and to use them in smart contracts.
• Direct bridge with BTC. The most important cryptocurrency for financial institutions and a must-have for all DeFi hubs.
• Open derivatives protocol (futures, options). Another product for traders. Derivatives markets are bigger than spot markets in traditional finances. For our users’ comfort, we’ll implement them as well.

Overall, we have very ambitious plans for this year. Our goal is to lay the foundation for becoming one of the top blockchains on the market. To achieve this, we have to make sure that our network is fast, scalable and secure, that it has all the necessary tools for developers, such as EVM compatibility, bridges, DeFi protocols, various SDKs and documentation for them.

We are going to support all teams with sensible ideas that come to Everscale, we have a lot of funds for the Grants Program, and we see great value in increasing the number of dapps running on the network. To spark interest in our technologies, we plan to host several hackathons this year. Of course, building partnerships is also our priority.

We stay fully committed to the development of the network and we’ll try to keep you updated on our social media about everything that’s going on, and we hope that together we’ll make Everscale a well-respected brand in the blockchain industry. Thank you for reading!

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