Chronology of TradeLayer Development
Looking back on 14 years of development
2009 - Bitcoin published, turns on
2010 - Bitcoin improves, p2pkh tx type deployed as an example upgrade
2012 - Colored Coins gets bandied about
2013 - Mastercoin ICO
2014 - Craig Sellar’s team publishes Mastercore, an alternative Bitcoin client that supports tokens embedded in OP_Return payloads, though the initial version used complex multisig inputs to embed data
2015 - Dugan gets the foundation refunded, only Zathras worked full time before that
2016 - Activate Class C transactions using OP_Return
2017 - Tether gets activated on Ethereum, after complaints of being too full on Bitcoin, Dugan starts TradeLayer, recruits Lihki and Ale, starts on a prototype of derivatives
2018 1st half - Derivatives prototype is problematic, try to refactor, investigate clearing algorithms based on state of the art in graph theory, prototype web wallet
2018 2nd half - Spend funds raised in June on a better wallet in Vue, attempting to port upgrades from Litecoin Core, graph theory R&D takes on life of its own, attempts at Tendermint sidechain is stymied, Demo for end of year is very buggy.
2019 Q1 - Vesting Tokens logic (will be refactored later), refactor margin logic, begin laying off team due to lack of funds.
2019 Q2 - Lihki tries to integrate settlement algorithm, margin refactored, add KYC logic to try and be compliant for a launch. Lay off everyone but Ale as Lihki departs in July. Ale creates the Oracles system.
2019 2nd half - create the Trade Channels system, begin paying down technical debt elsewhere.
2020 1st half - raise funds, survive, fix all tech debt in whitelist system, attempt to work with Lihki’s algorithm, run into problems. Fix all tech debt on non-trade channel systems other than derivatives.
2020 2nd half - raise more funds, hire Val to start on a web wallet, hire a contractor to work with OmniExplorer (hugely over-engineered money trap, should have done from scratch), hire Phil to work on porting to newer Litecoin versions, try to eliminate all tech debt in Trade Channels
2021 1st half - eliminate the rest of the tech debt on Trade Channels for spot, complete a web wallet but stymied by bug in .js library for handling the multisig transactions, begin working on Layer Wallet desktop. Ale begins refactoring derivatives code from 2018 into separate data structures, contractid vs. propertyid.
2021 2nd half - ship a mainnet alpha for spot trading, Ale adds Node Reward; Val adds multisig UI to handle airgap security, UI for Node Reward, Liquidity. Ale drafts a brand new settlement algorithm after deprecating Lihki’s O(n)^2 computable graph algo, but having learned some theorems for decentralized clearing from the exercise. Sergei joins the team and provides support for Send To Many, reviving the Send To Owners tx, some housecleaning in the code.
2022 1st half - begin laying people off. Having build a good node-sync dependant desktop wallet over 8 months Val begins another 8 month jaunt of completely refactoring the wallet to do everything with either APIs or full nodes, so users can switch between the two and get started quickly. Ale fixes remaining tech debt except for a chunk of what’s left in derivatives from the December work. Sergei works on a number of small fixes, insurance fund logic, and improved mark price logic.
2022 2nd half - the project begins to utterly run out of steam, Ale hits the wall after almost 5 years, Sergei finishes a Starkware grant that got us through 8 reduced payrolls. Val finishes the re-factor and a series of small polish points, future proofings and VPN filtering so we can launch. With Phil and Sergei’s help, Dugan prods at the C++ code to get the remaining derivatives functionality working and tested.
Rest of 2022: hopefully we can launch with a stablecoin and oracles hosted by a partner, and start trading BTC/USD swaps at 1 basis point!