We’re thrilled to announce that KYVE’s highly anticipated mainnet launch has arrived! Starting out as an Arweave smart contract, KYVE quickly grew into launching its own Layer 1 chainbuilt with the Cosmos SDK, enabling the project to transform into an entire network built around solving data roadblocks for today’s developers.
After two years of intense development, KYVE mainnet officially went live at 14:03:14 UTC on March 14th, enabling the chain layer and a strong network to open the doors for easy access to truly trustless data via KYVE. With this, developers, data engineers, node runners, and more are that much closer to an easy, reliable solution for sourcing trustless data.
Let’s take a look at what mainnet launch entailed, and a look back at what it took to bring KYVE to where it’s at today.
As the Web3 space expands, decentralized, completely accurate data becomes harder and harder for the public to access. Ultimately, this can lead to major scalability issues and dangerous data inconsistencies throughout today’s solutions.
In order to best solve these issues, decentralized data validation is a must for Web3’s data infrastructure. The KYVE Network does just that, revolutionizing customized access to on- and off-chain data by providing fast and easy tooling for decentralized data validation, immutability, and retrieval.
Starting today (March 14th), we are focusing on getting KYVE’s chain layer stable and secure. For those not already aware, KYVE’s blockchain has two layers: the chain layer and protocol layer.
The chain layer is the backbone of KYVE, securing the network with DPoS, governance, and maintaining the overall structure. The protocol layer acts as our decentralized data lake, where protocol nodes can participate in fetching, storing, and validating data.
In order to bring forward a well-functioning data-sourcing solution, it’s crucial that we first focus on making the chain layer as strong of a base as possible. Once this is settled, we will focus on the protocol layer.
Day 0 RoadmapIn case you missed ourMarch 10th update, KYVE’s mainnet will roll out in the following minor phases to ensure the overall security and proper flow of the chain’s setup:
Now that our mainnet has launched, KYVE can really get started! We’re very much looking forward to all of the opportunities awaiting KYVE in the next few months and beyond.
In one week (March 21st), the governance proposal for enabling inflation will have passed, providing a fully functional and secure KYVE mainnet chain. The next step will be $KYVE’s official listing*, enabling all to join in and participate in KYVE’s network!
Once our node network on the chain layer is flourishing and $KYVE is officially listed, we can focus on the protocol layer, which enables KYVE’s true purpose of making trustless data easily accessible.
The first data pool will be launched 6–8 weeks after TGE with the following process: The data pool creation will be proposed to governance, once passed, it will be created on Kaon for initial testing. After a few weeks of running on Kaon, a further proposal will take place on governance to launch the pool on mainnet. Once this is passed, the data pool will be officially live.
During this time, you can also expect more $KYVE listings and rewards opportunities, new partnerships and collaborations, community events, and much more… There is a lot to come! Developers, node runners, data engineers, and others who work around data can look forward to using the KYVE data lake on mainnet as a reliable solution for sourcing trustless data when building, researching, and operating.
KYVE aims to be a fully decentralized blockchain via the support of our governance. Therefore, it’s up to governance participants to propose and vote on what they believe is best for the KYVE Network, whether that’s new data pools, network rules, chain parameters, and so on.
Data PipelineWe’re pleased to share that KYVE’sData Pipeline, the no-code solution for accessing KYVE’s trustless data, is also live andready to use! We have partnered with theAirbyteteam directly in order to best bring forward a user-friendly experience with many popular backends supported.
Please note that it will take 6–8 weeks before the first pools launch on testnet and mainnet; therefore, at the moment, the Data Pipeline will continue to pull from Korellia’s data pools. Korellia is KYVE’s devnet and is not as reliable as mainnet.
From a small bounty project bridging Polkadot data to Arweave, to an EVM-Based smart contract, then officially launching as its own Layer 1 Cosmos-based chain, KYVE went from being a simple solution to an entire network built toward changing the data world for the better.
Along its journey toward mainnet launch, KYVE hit many key milestones, expanding its reach and capabilities along the way…
From Korellia to KaonKYVE’s first testnet, Korellia, was used as an incentivized testnet in order to best put KYVE’s features and functionalities to the test. This incentivized testnet was a huge success, with over43,000 active usersfunding, staking and delegating in pools, and/or participating in KYVE’s governance.
From this, we were able to collect a plethora of community learnings and suggestions on how to enhance KYVE, releasing multiple upgrades and, eventually, a testnet v2 dubbed Kaon. Kaon is our “mainnet testnet,” meaning it’s our official staging environment before taking new features and data pools to the KYVE mainnet.
Partnering with the Top L1sAt its start, KYVE was already partnered with Polkadot and Arweave and quickly gained support from NEAR, Cosmos, Avalanche, and Solana.
As our testnet grew throughout 2021 and 2022, we brought on ten new partnerships and collaborations with projects such as Injective, Evmos, Axelar, Umee, Sei Network, Archway, and more. We look forward to bringing these solutions onto mainnet!
Raising $13MThroughout these two years, KYVE held three funding rounds, providing a total of ~$13M raised. Thefirst roundwas led by Permanent Ventures and comprised of notable investors, including Hypersphere Ventures, 4SV, Compute Ventures, Arweave, Avalanche Foundation, Interchain Foundation, NEAR Foundation, and others.
Thesecond roundwas led by Permanent Ventures and Hypersphere Ventures, as well as outstanding crypto funds and networks such as Volt Capital, Mechanism Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Distributed Global, 4SV, Compute Ventures, Zee Prime, CMS Holding, Ternary Capital, Mina Foundation, and more. Finally, thethird roundtotaled $9M, led by key players such as Distributed Global, Wicklow Capital, IOSG Ventures, Anagram, Cerulean Ventures, Huobi Incubator, and MEXC.
Creating the KYVE Genesis Validator ProgramOur team has specially selected 14 experienced validators from all over the globe to take on the role of genesis validator and partake in KYVE’s genesis validator program.
In order to best prepare these genesis validators and finetune the launch process, we completed a successful dress rehearsal whenlaunching Kaon, KYVE’s official testnet and mainnet replica. With this, we were even more confident in our selections and grateful for their support.
Growing Our CommunityFrom the different partnerships, community events, incentivized testnet, and more, KYVE’s community grew strong quickly! More recently, from 2021 to 2022, we saw a 368.34% growth inTwitterfollowers and a 24.20% peak engagement rate (compared to 3.10% in 2021). We also grew 40% onTelegram, 304% onYoutube, 686% onDiscord, and 964% onMedium!
Overall, a lot of hard work, dedication, and support has gone into KYVE, helping it get to where it is today. We cannot thank our amazing partners, investors, beta testers, ambassadors, community, and friends enough for all of your support along the way!
Mainnet launch also marks $KYVE’s official TGE, meaning that those who earned $KYVE rewards via our Incentivized Testnet can claim their tokens and get starteddelegating to chain nodes! Note that even if your tokens are vested, you can still delegate the full amount on-chain. You can also participate in governance.
$KYVE’s official listing will come sooner than you expect.Visit our Docsto get caught up on KYVE and prepare for upcoming token listings and rewards, as well as the launch of our decentralized data lake.
KYVE Networkis revolutionizing customized access to on- and off-chain data by providing fast and easy tooling for decentralized data validation, immutability, and retrieval. Its data lake archives and validates data in a decentralized way, making trustless data easily accessible via solutions like KYVE’s Data Pipeline.
The network is powered by decentralized uploaders and validators funded by $KYVE tokens and aims to operate as a DAO following our mainnet launch. This past year KYVE has gained significant support, currently backed by top VCs, including Hypersphere Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Distributed Global, Mechanism Capital, CMS Holdings, IOSG Ventures, and blockchains such as Arweave, Avalanche, Solana, Interchain, and NEAR.
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KYVE Mainnet:Web App|Explorer
Written by Margaux Stancil, Head of Marketing at KYVE.