For Tellor, 2020 was a banner year. Despite being the first full year in existence, we experienced a growth in the community and protocol that beat our best expectations! More importantly too, it was the year of staying true to the principles that define us and our purpose in the crypto space.
From the beginning, Tellor set out to solve the oracle problem without sacrificing its integrity. We worked hard to acknowledge and overcome the constant struggle of hype and trends versus developing the foundation of something as tried and true as a fully decentralized, censorship-resistant network. Overall, we couldn’t be prouder of the people who’ve made it possible and we’re more optimistic than ever on what the future holds.
So, what did Tellor do in 2020? Let’s get into it, but first some quick stats:
2020 Community Stats
Twitter followers: 11,728 (+1,073%)
Telegram members: 5,255 (+338%)
Discord members: 2646 (+782%)
Blockfolio followers: 5,939 (new in 2020)
Youtube Subscribers: 390 (new in 2020)
Under the Hood
This year focused on getting Tellor governance to complete decentralization, and improving our overall performance and usability as an oracle. From throwing away our admin key, to multiple successful Tellor Improvement Proposals (TIPS), to building a front end price feed and dispute center, the gamut was run. Here’s the TLDR:
Usability:
- Limiting Rewards per Miner (1 per 15 minutes)
- No Time Limit on Disputes
- Change to disputing cost calculation (official values are more costly to dispute)
Decentralization:
- Admin key removal
- Introduction of Tellor Improvement Proposals
- Successful quorum reached on first TIP
Fresh Coat of Paint
While the priority has and always will be the code, the presentation follows closely behind. We revamped our website and cleaned up our documentation with an all-new tellor.io!
Additionally we rewrote and migrated our whitepaper and documentation to a new platform. The new format is easier to follow, and has something for everyone, whether you are new to Tellor, a developer, miner, or token holder.
Over the summer we launched a front end for our price feed and dispute center allowing our community and users to better monitor and interact with our oracle. Stay tuned in 2021 for a revamp.
Tellor in the Wild
This year was the year oracles became a larger talking point in the world of DeFi. And for Tellor to become not only part of that conversation, but amongst the leaders, we needed to establish our narrative and attract a like-minded community of people who believed what we’ve done is the right way to build a project, network, and oracle.
Along with the innovation 2020 brought to the DeFi space, we saw a number of hacks/exploits which has brought the finer points of decentralization to the forefront. People started to ask questions about oracles, admin keys, and governance. With all this we saw a boom in interest in Tellor; not only from speculators, but from people who wanted to hear what we had to say.
So the stage was set this year for us to step out into the wild and share our voice with the community. Our strategy for this was to focus on deeper interviews, articles, and sponsor relevant DeFi events and hackathons.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of Tellor getting out in the wild that is the crypto space:
Tellor’s Voice
In interviews such as the ones with Blockchain Brad, Tom Heavey, Coingecko, Defi Slate, and EthGlobal, Tellor’s core team was able to come out from behind the keyboard to discuss the story behind Tellor’s origins and goals for the future with respected people in the space. Our first conference sponsorship was the Dystopia Labs event, “DeFi Discussions,” where our CTO Nick Fett presented two talks: The Current Oracle Landscape, and Oracle Best Practices.
That was just the beginning, we continued throughout the year speaking at several of the premier events of 2020:
- Future Proof Summit — Inflationary Rewards in PoW Systems
- Reimagine2020 — The Importance of Oracles
- RSK infrastructure Framework
- Defining Defi
- Blockdown2020 — Building Transparent Data Oracles
- EthOnline Defi Summit — Oracle Landscape 2020
The idea of a decentralized oracle is flush with intricacies and layers which we love to expand on. The more words we can put out on the topic the better, as our research and knowledge on the topic is as good as any.
In writing, the goal was to educate, inform, deep-dive and even wax philosophical. All in all, we published 27 times this past year and don’t plan on slowing down in 2021.
Exchange Listings
While price isn’t our foremost concern, as we believe you must first build to have something to hold, we are certainly proud of our wave of exchange listings 2019 has brought. Not only the immediate market cap and liquidity benefits they provide, but from a notoriety standpoint, the ability to purchase Tellor Tributes (TRB) with ease has brought more people to learn about Tellor and the utility that TRB provides our oracle network. Our number 1 question asked in 2020 was certainly “wen binance?” And in August it finally happened along with many other top tier exchanges. We would be remiss to not mention the pivotal role the decentralized exchanges like IDEX and Dex Blue played in the first chapters of our existence.
Hackathons
Hackathons proved to be a swiss-army knife of advantages including building relationships with the builders of the future and potential users as well as getting our name out as sponsors, and allowing us to network with like-minded drivers in the space. With ETH Denver (our last in-person event) and then ETH Online, we made impactful appearances at two of the most prominent events in the space. Others including Encode club, and Gitcoin have given us much hope and excitement for the future of crypto and our place in it.
Tellor Multiplies…
We’ve had the pleasure and great fortune of adding team members to help carry the Tellor torch burn brighter. This fall we welcomed 3 new developers, 1 business development professional and a front-end developer and designer begins in January. While still under 10 employees, doubling our team has been a transformative move for Tellor. Now that we’ve had a few months to gel together we are ready to hit the ground running.
Looking Forward to 2021
Development will continue to be a strong focus of ours in 2021 — we’ve built a powerhouse team and plan on using it. In addition to V3 which is in the early stages of design, we are busy in the lab focusing on ways to provide more solutions to a wider range of users, including new oracles on more layer 2 protocols, as well as vertical products.
Throughout the year we’ve come across all types of use-cases, informing our pulse on market needs and pain-points. We are on the right track for meeting those market needs, as our developmental trajectory is lining up with the runway, and now we just need the rubber to hit the road.
In the “0–1” transition, you meet the most friction. We held strong and stayed true and next year will be one to remember.
It’s gonna be a fun ’21. Don’t miss it:
