Hey Aqualiens, apologies for the delayed monthly update but hopefully this will be worth the wait! Throughout September (and early October), Aqualis DAO has undergone several major updates, including reducing our tokens by 71%, restructuring the current team formation, focus back on fundraising at a much lower fully diluted value (FDV) and the launch of our pre-token sale.

Table of Contents

• Development update - PoC vs MVP
• Tokenomics update v4
• Team restructure
• Seed sale progress
• Splinterlands marketplace performance
• Splinterlands guild update
• Treasury Report
• Closing remarks

Development Update - PoC vs MVP

Firstly, let's get the unfavorable development out of the way...

For those who have been following our monthly updates, you may be aware that Aqualis has made significant progress in completing major smart contracts and commencing the code review/audit phase. Nevertheless, during a senior Solidity developer's thorough review, it was revealed that our current codebase requires some additional refinement before it is audit ready. Consequently, it's not accurate to consider our current codebase production ready, albeit all business logic, business requirements, and mathematics are working correctly and rigorously tested by our team.

Following this revelation, our team has been working tirelessly to devise a solution that not only rectifies the existing problem but also guards against potential delays in the future. With invaluable guidance from our trusted official and unofficial advisors, we've outlined a plan.

Firstly, to address the lack of an in-house technical specialist, we are utilizing our existing partner Hashlock, Australia's leading smart contract auditor, to review our codebase until we're market ready. Once we achieve market readiness and a public launch, we're confident in securing a senior Solidity developer full time to maintain our existing protocol and develop future features.

In addition, we are currently in the process of enlisting the expertise of our most recent and experienced developer, in conjunction with the collective support of Hashlock and a distinguished senior Solidity developer. This collaborative effort encompasses a meticulous code review and guidance, aimed at comprehensively addressing any lingering concerns, with a particular emphasis on security vulnerabilities, which persist as our utmost priority.

We estimate this process will take approximately two months, followed by a thorough audit by Hashlock. While such audits typically last a month, given their involvement in our project, we anticipate that it will be completed in 2-3 weeks.

During this audit period, we intend to open our project for public testing, embark on an extensive marketing campaign within the EVM community, and refine our go-to-market launch strategy, should market conditions evolve over the next 2-3 months.

This will ultimately bring our anticipated launch date to early 2024.

Tokenomics Update v4

In a strategic move to bolster our fundraising endeavors, the Aqualis team has made a decision to substantially reduce the total number of tokens, while maintaining the existing prices. This ultimately leads to a considerable decrease in the project's fully diluted value (FDV), ensuring a more attractive proposition for potential early contributors. For further information, please refer to this post.

Team Restructure

Since our inception, Aqualis has relied on a service provider to manage our monthly expenses. However, in recent weeks, Aqualis DAO has made a transformative move towards a closer collaboration with this team, thus freeing the DAO from the ongoing practice of outsourcing and paying a monthly retainer fee. Our new approach involves allocating additional tokens to the team and taking charge of all technology service subscriptions directly from the DAO's resources.

This strategic shift ensures greater autonomy and streamlines our operations, providing a stronger runway for Aqualis moving forward. This is made possible because none of our founders draw a salary, and the current revenue generated by the protocol in part covers our infrastructure, server, subscription and incorporation costs.

Seed Sale Progress

As mentioned in our Tokenomics update:
"after months of fundraising, we've conducted a thorough assessment of our tokenomics and recognized that it has posed a significant hurdle for potential contributors. While there has been a positive sentiment surrounding our protocol, the aggressive vesting period and the high FDV have deterred enthusiastic supporters from participating."

We have also received feedback indicating that our current pitch is missing a strong single selling point. While we have a strong core product, additional details like our vesting protocol, OTC trading protocol, and even the Splinterlands Marketplace have been diverting attention from our primary message, which is centered on DeFi capital efficiency. Taking this valuable feedback into account, we've decided to refine our pitch and email, incorporating the updated FDV in an effort to sway those who may have been previously undecided.

Splinterlands Marketplace Performance

We have seen steady usage for our Splinterlands marketplace despite no further marketing or promotions since the initial launch. We had originally planned for more promotions in September, but due to the smart contract issues, organizing the pre-token sale and looking to re-launch our seed round, we have not yet had time. However, we are still planning to organize further promotions in the future.

Splinterlands guild update

Recently, the Aqualis guild has achieved our first rank 1 finish in a tier 4 brawl!

Treasury Report

Full Report

Closing remarks

Even though September presented us with unparalleled challenges, it has proven to be an immensely rewarding month. It's during these trying times that we've forged a clear go-to-market strategy, gained a much better understanding on our technological position, and, with immense gratitude to our invaluable advisors, we've deepened our understanding of effective execution. We are once again more confident than ever!

For More Information

Join our Discord
Follow our Twitter
Visit Aqualis.io
Read our docs

This Post is Supporting @dec.burn

5% of all rewards from this post will go to @dec.burn, a new initiative designed to use Hive post rewards to buy back and burn DEC from the market. To learn more about how to get involved, please visit this post!