June 2022 has seen development and progress accelerate at Hydranet. The coin swap away from XSN concluded at the end of May (read here). With the swap now over, the HDX team has been able to direct the entirety of its resources and focus on further developing Hydranet DEX and its ecosystem.

Atlas is our codename for the next major update to Hydranet DEX. The Atlas update is a direct follow-up to the Lazarus patch, the launch build of the DEX released at the end of April. The primary goals of the Lazarus build were to unveil a proof-of-concept with working off-chain BTC/ETH swaps, rollout a public build of the DEX that could be used by a wider audience to help stress-test coin swaps on a bigger scale at a higher frequency, and fix bugs (both major and minor) by exclusively using testnet funds. Community involvement in testing the DEX and providing feedback has helped the developers immensely, allowing them to thoroughly debug the code and rollout several improved updates that have taken the Lazarus stage of the DEX to its conclusion.

Atlas is the next stage, and it will feature Arbitrum integration, orderbook fixes, and a light wallet. We look forward to presenting more updates on this next stage shortly!

The most significant update to the DEX this month is a feature we’ve named L2 Active Enhancement. This allows multiple Lightning Network Daemons to run simultaneously in the background and stay synced and current, even if one of the coins isn’t currently “active” for trading on the DEX. In other words, while BTC/ETH is the active trading pair on the DEX, the LTC Lightning Daemon is still running and syncing in the background to stay current.

In preparation for Atlas, we’ve implemented Arbitrum-Rinkeby (testnet) into the MCLW on Layer 1, deployed HDX to Arbitrum-Rinkeby, and added Arbitrum/HDX to the DEX hub’s Connext config. These steps have created a great testnet debugging environment to continually develop and build upon.

Additionally, a new Guides tab has been added to the MCLW. It provides direct access to our series of YouTube tutorials on how to use Hydranet DEX from the MCLW itself.

We’ve also continued to expand our Localization options! In addition to English, the DEX now supports German/Deutsche, Danish/Dansk, Finnish/Suomi, and Turkish/Turkce!

In addition to releasing Part 3 of our Meet the Team series (read here), we’ve expanded and hired some new, highly-skilled talent. We are honored to welcome these 3 new members to our team:

Huibuh — Huibuh is fluent in Solidity and wrote his Masters’s thesis on Ethereum scaling solutions. He has a deep understanding of the crypto market and was onboarded after being intrigued by the inherent value of Hydranet DEX.

Walleye the Stake — Walleye is a member of the community who has been especially helpful in beta-testing Lazarus and feature updates to the DEX. He is our new specialist for managing events and coordinating beta tests about Hydranet DEX.

Saggy — Saggy is a long-time community member who has supported the project in several ways. Before being onboarded by the team, he made several tutorials on how to use the MCLW. His specialty is in marketing data, tracking stats, SEO, and building social media presence.

At the start of the month, the community voted to drastically lower HDX’s APY from staking rewards, down to 7.5% of what it previously was. HDX debuted with a high APY when it was taken over by new management and leadership in February of this year. It stayed high throughout the coin swap to encourage holders of the former XSN to swap into HDX as soon as possible.

After deliberating with the community for some time on a good balance, it was determined that the APY accrued from staking reward payouts should be greatly dropped down to prevent inflation as well as potential price suppression and dumping by whales who receive high reward payouts. A few options for rebalancing the APY were presented before 7.5% was settled on: 10%, 5%, and 0%.

To provide context for the 0% option, HDX is not reliant on staking for security like its predecessor (XSN) was. In HDX’s ecosystem, staking is optional and focused squarely on financial incentives. As HDX’s ecosystem continues to be built and more lucrative incentives (i.e. DEX fees) become viable, it could prove more logical to cease staking entirely and redirect HDX towards more constructive uses than simply inflating the supply.

Tying into the APY rebalance, the future of staking rewards on HDX, the financial and incentives to come from Hydranet DEX, the team has been at work on building a new cohesive tokenomics model for HDX. It is in the late drafting stages now, and we intend to unveil it in July.

HDX General Update

On June 14, a general update on the state of HDX was published. It briefly touches on some relevant topics beyond what’s been mentioned in this Monthly Recap, such as the role of pHDX (placeholder HDX), plans to audit HDX contracts in and continuing DEX development by selling bonds, the roadmap, and Atlas. Read it here!

HDX/USDT Whitebit

HDX/USDT is now live for trading on WhiteBIT! WhiteBIT is a highly-reputable CEX based in Europe, in full compliance with EU Custody and Exchange Laws, and among the Top 15 exchanges by volume. The HDX/USDT trading pair launched on their exchange on June 13. We highly recommend their exchange!

The team has also been in contact with Coingecko and Coinmarketcap to provide more information and metrics (i.e. exchange listings, max supply, etc) to give their HDX listings better accuracy.

If you want to support the development, go here: https://app.hydranet.ai/#/bonds

Special thanks to our author Nighcourtfan for writing this article!

In order to stay updated or ask any questions: Join us on Discord and follow us on Twitter to stay up-to-date with our latest news and developments.