2021 Year In Review — Building The Foundations For Mainstream Adoption
Dear RioDeFi community,
As 2021 draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to look back on the key RioDeFi milestones on our technology, incubated projects, global partnerships and community.
Our momentum and actions this year were aligned to building a strong and scalable foundation for the RioDeFi ecosystem that collectively will increase the usage and utilization of the RFUEL token.
Let’s dive in!
RioChain — Upgrading For Long Term Growth
In 2021, RioChain completed significant milestones. To future-proof the scalability and interoperability of RioChain, 2021 saw RioDeFi take the strategic decision to upgrade the RioChain from Substrate v2.0 to v3.0 and incorporate EVM compatibility.
As of December 2021, the upgraded RioChain main-net is in the process of undergoing an independent third party audit, after which, it will be launched.
This delta in our tech roadmap was the result of an in-depth evaluation by RioDeFi’s tech team to ensure the chain’s ability to evolve with the nascent Substrate tech stack and to anticipate the exponential evolution in the crypto universe that over the last 2 years has seen the rise of DeFi, NFTs and Metaverse.
Why does this matter?
Primarily, the Substrate v3.0 upgrade improved the design architecture and removed bugs between dApps, wallet and chain. Secondly, the upgrade led to improved compatibility with projects on the Polkadot parachains. Lastly, through the upgrade, RioChain now supports staking pallets and additional macros introduced in the Substrate FRAME V2.
With our EVM compatibility, a bridge has been created between RioChain and Ethereum. This bridge will allow RioChain to leverage the network effect of Ethereum and bring Ethereum projects and smart contracts into the RioChain environment with low gas fees and faster transaction speed.
Architecturally, RioChain will maintain its existing ability to process transactions at 3,000 TPS with 2 seconds block finality and gas fees averaging 0.1 RFUEL per transaction. Through the tech stack upgrade, we will see an increase in nodes from 5 to 40, with the ability to quickly scale up and meet increased demand through our infrastructure integration and deployment thru AWS pipeline.
RioWallet App & Web — Your Gateway to RioChain & Web3
RioWallet App & Web was launched in May 2021 as an aggregator of your digital assets and access to the constantly expanding web3 ecosystem.
Functioning as a multi chain non-custodial wallet with real time visibility of your assets on RioChain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, OKExChain, Polkadot & Kusama, RioWallet also acts as a single point of entry to 21 (and growing) DeFi and NFT protocols with over 80bn in TVL.
Technically, the implementation of the Generic Asset Bridge enables RFUEL to easily swap from an ERC-20 to a RST-88 token (RioChain Standard Token) and vice versa. Consequentially, RioWallet now supports the following RioChain assets (RFUEL, rBTC, rUSDT, rETH) with all on-chain transactions and withdrawals on RioChain using RFUEL for gas fees.
To further improve user onboarding, we furthered our strategic partnership with Simplex & Moonpay this year to now enable all RioWallet users a simple, fast and secure method to buy and sell crypto with fiat. Built with security at the top of mind, access to the RioWallet app is possible through 3 options, password, fingerprint ID & finally face ID.
RioExchange — Launching RioDeFi’s Regulated Crypto Exchange
In 2021, two major milestones have been completed:
- Completed development of RioExchange.
- RioExchange has successfully passed CertiK’s rigorous penetration testing, the industry leader for crypto exchanges in dynamic and in-depth security testing to expose possible attack vectors and vulnerabilities.
Regulation wise, our platform is pending application for Singapore’s Payment Services Act (PSA) License, which upon approval, ensures that RioExchange will operate in compliance to a range of AML and CFT requirements under the MAS.
In 2022, the next phase of the product rollout will be an invitation only beta lunch in early Q1 with the public release expected at the start of Q2, 2022.
Stay tuned in January 2022 as we release details on how to participate in the beta launch.
RioFinance — One Card to Connect Traditional with Decentralized Finance
We’re excited to announce the launch of Rio Debit Cards in Q2 2022.
In Q1, a dedicated landing page will be created to explain the product features and Earlybird Applications for Rio Debit Cards will commence.
Global Incubation Program — Accelerating RioChain’s Utility
To accelerate the utility of RioChain by onboarding dApps with amazing potential, the RioDeFi global incubation program was launched in early 2020 and continues to be a lead advisor role in guiding projects on growth, regulatory, tokenomics, and fundraising.
Since its inception, RioDeFi has incubated numerous dApps, notably:
MANTRA DAO — a community-governed platform focusing on staking, lending and governance.
LABS — an end-to-end ecosystem supporting the real estate market. The flaws inherent to property investment, illiquidity and high barriers to entry, are addressed by the digitization and fractionalization of ownership powered by blockchain technology.
LuxFi — Providing a decentralized network for luxury assets by integrating fingerprint technology in their ecosystem, preventing counterfeiting that has gravely affected luxury brands. With a Layer-2 blockchain technology, LuxFi created an NFT marketplace to buy and exchange luxury assets in digital form.
Lepricon — DeFi Dapp allowing users to play, bet and stake while getting rewarded for their participation by earning tokens, including L3P (Lepricon’s native token), NFTs and digital collectables
Zmorph — layer 2 cross chain bridge, built on Substrate with ZK-Snark as security and verification scheme.
Partnerships & Integrations— Growing and breaking new ground
In 2021, we partnered with top blockchain projects in DeFi, NFTs, metaverse & GameFi spaces to help accelerate the growth of the RioDeFi ecosystem.
Partnerships & Integrations include:
PancakeSwap — RFUEL is now listed on the Binance Smart Chain through PancakeSwap, the largest BSC decentralised exchange wth 5.45bn in TVL.
PolyNetwork — Established a secure, fast and low cast cross chain bridge to move RFUEL ERC-20 to BEP-20.
NetVRk — Combining RioChain’s interoperability, speed and low gas fees with NetVRk’s virtual world and income generating NFTs to redefine the possibilities in user generated content creation and GameFi.
Defina Finance — Collaboration to accelerate the development of GameFi protocols currently being worked on through RioDeFi’s Global Incubation Program.
KardiaChain — Consolidation of RioDefi’s outreach into South East Asia. This partnership sees the Integration of RioWallet’s multi-chain ecosystem with Kardiachain network as well as its native KAI token. Reciprocally RioChain’s native cryptocurrency RFUEL will be soon integrated in Kardiachain wallet.
SImplex & Moonpay — easy, secure and fast purchase & sale of crypto with fiat. This will provide our community with a hassle free on and off ramping into cryptocurrency.
When Moon 2022?
Firstly, a massive thank you goes out to everyone in the global RioDeFi community and partners. Our community continues to grow and grow, and that is thanks to the commitment and trust of each and every one of you.
2021 is just a taste of what we’ve achieved. Keep an eye out in early January for our next blog, where we’ll look to 2022 and outline our priorities and vision for the year ahead.
Full speed ahead into 2022!
James Anderson
CEO, RioDefi
