Flux in Review, 2023: Building the Decentralized Future, One Tech After The Other.
For Flux, 2023 was not just another calendar year. Rather, it was a year that revealed the dogged vision, resilience and passion of the Flux ecosystem. Not only to remain the “tip of the spear” for strategic and decentralized innovation but also to build a Web3 industry that is usable and accessible……for the people, by the people.
2023 for Flux started with the release of a major upgrade to FluxOS (v3.31.0) and culminated in the launch of a novel solution that will forever transform the availability of computational infrastructure.
From helping dogs find a new home to launching the largest decentralized WordPress platform, powering medical research and more…here’s the story of the ecosystem that never stops working.
“Happy New Year, Folks. Let’s Get back to Work!”
— -Dan, probably.
A few days after the first FluxOS upgrade in January, our engineers released FluxBench v3.7.0. This new version included support for “Thunder” (beta) and would play a very important role in testing out Flux private IFPS on Fractus nodes (launched later that month).
As momentum built towards unveiling the Flux roadmap for 2023, Samer Rahmeh, an ML engineer, shared a tweet detailing his deployment of a web-based AI application on Flux infrastructure. The medical application which uses abnormal sections of CT scans and X-ray sections to predict possible disease highlighted the massive importance of Flux’s PoUW approach. Especially its potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry and power medical research.
On January 14th, 2023, Flux scored a brace. Dan Keller and Davy Wittock, on the first “State of the Union’’ address of the year, revealed the roadmap that captured Flux’s agenda for the new year. That same day, Flux PoUW litebook (v.1) was born.
By the end of the month, Fractus Node (a cumulus tier node with at least ten terabytes of storage) was ready. At this time, FluxDrive and Decentralized WordPress were already in the works, and the ecosystem was exponentially expanding. Fractus was, therefore, Flux’s answer to the growing need for storage on the network.
Two new members also joined the Flux Team (Darren Rieck and Tom Winegard) just in time to mark Flux’s 5th year from the inception of block zero.
And So it Began…
Amid the celebration, another storyline was unfolding.
It began with the appointment of Farid Akintola as the new Marketing Director in February. Then, Flux sent shock waves into the social media space when it announced the deployment of Nostr. Nostr protocol, a decentralized, open-source, and censorship-resistant framework, introduced a new way to create social media applications free from big Tech’s controlling hegemony and monopolization.
And while the centralized world was still reeling from the Nostr effect, Flux’s second halving occurred at a block height of 1,313,200.
Flux operates a deflationary model. Therefore, to accommodate the fundamental forces of demand and supply while remaining valuable, the native token experiences a halving every two and a half years (in contrast to Bitcoin’s four years).
Two more members joined the Flux team, Bill Freier and Richard Lofthouse (TsnCrypto). Alex (Chilly) was appointed Product Manager for decentralized WordPress, Flux’s new product. Soon after his appointment, the beta version of this application rolled out of Flux refineries — freshly minted, with a full release scheduled for Q1 2024.
“On To The Next, LFG!!!”
Following the resounding reception decentralized WordPress enjoyed, it was time for the Flux team to spend the next few weeks basking in the gold dust by Twilight…
Or not.
Just two days after WordPress, Flux-Algorand was ready. This parallel asset provided cross-platform development opportunities between Flux and one of the world’s most reliable layer-1 blockchains — -the Algorand network. We also partnered with Streamr to unlock a new level of analytics for making data-backed decisions on the Flux network.
One of the items on Flux’s roadmap for 2023 was a complete overhaul of the previous website interface. This was finalized in March. The result? A more streamlined and user-friendly interface. FluxOS Dashboard App (v0.2.0) was also released on the same day with a matching color design!
The Flux Titan legacy watch auction happened in April, and the lucky winner went home with the physical+NFT watch masterpiece, free access to all Flux conferences and a customized lamp stand from our very own Bill Dodge.
The proceeds from this auction were donated in person by Daniel Keller to “Code Like a Girl” and “Operation Paws for Homes” charity organizations.
Flux was also a gold sponsor for GameDevJS Jam, a Web3 game-building hackathon that took place from April 13th to 26th, 2023. As the hackathon was rounding off, back home, the Flux ecosystem was getting ready for dual mining with SenseCAP M4 Square courtesy of our partnership with Seeed Studio.
During this period, Scott Arnebold (Dabatola) officially joined the Flux team as a business developer.
Breaking Barriers…
June was a remarkably significant month in 2023 for at least four major reasons.
The first was the announcement of the 9th parallel asset of the ecosystem, Flux-Matic. The second was a strategic hardware partnership with Octominer for service providers. This was followed by the deployment of 5,000 instances of the Folding@home app on Flux Cloud and the introduction of enterprise features on Flux Cloud with the release of FluxOS v4.00.
In August, Flux Cloud broke the “2,000 unique apps” milestone. This was followed by a Host’n’Win campaign to further spread the PoUW gospel and support Folding@home medical research efforts.
The Dev team also introduced a new FDM structure (Flux domain manager), which leverages application sharding and splitting to accommodate the intensive pace at which the network was expanding.
In September, Flux hosted the most exclusive Web3 conference — CypherPunk 2023- the first of its kind. The (un)conference featured top figures and projects across the business, Tech, Blockchain and the Web3 industry.
At the conference, Flux PoUW Architect, Alex Perritaz, unveiled FluxCore, the client app empowering users worldwide to contribute their idle GPU machines to the FluxEdge network, positioning them for rental by customers seeking resources for high-performance applications.
The 2-day conference ended on a high note with an exclusive VIP party, product showcases and a grand-after party.
In October, Flux broke into the top 1,000 on the Folding@home Teams ranking, showcasing the sheer commitment of the Flux team and community to contribute to medical research using computing power.
A few days later, Flux announced the showcase of a new product that would shift the paradigm in Web3 wallet technology. SSP Wallet is a secure, simple and powerful dual-signature wallet designed to reflect the ideals of security, open-source and true ownership. In a vastly centralized world, SSP returns ownership to people by handing them the private keys to their wallets.
But wait, there’s more…
Towards the end of the month, Fux launched the “grand-daddy” of parallel assets: Flux-BTC. Also, Zelcore merged into InFlux Technologies (with a rebrand on the way).
Darren Williams, a visionary AI strategist, joined the Flux team in November as the Chief AI officer. Since his appointment, Dazz has continued to steer Flux towards AI-based innovative products, including the launch of an AI digital assistant for Flux and the Web3 industry.
Recognizing the need to continue fostering synergy and exploring new horizons, we launched Flux-Base, a parallel asset bridging Flux and the new Coinbase-backed blockchain — Base. This token allows Flux to tap into Coinbase’s already-established user base and introduce a new segment of users to decentralized technologies.
FluxDrive Pro was also released, a cutting-edge decentralized storage solution that seamlessly integrates API-based IPFS to meet developers’ needs.
In December, Flux partnered with Contabo to provide tailored hosting services for Flux node operators to enhance collaboration between Web3 and Web2 cloud providers.
Then, all was set for the most-anticipated event of the year — The Launch of FluxCore Alpha!
FluxCore is a client app that benchmarks your machines and enables individuals to mine digital assets or lend their GPU machines for various purposes, such as AI training, video rendering, and high-res cloud gaming.
In less than two weeks, FluxCore has already crossed the 2500 GPUs mark and counting!
The Story Continues…
In 2023, FluxLabs onboarded 35 new projects, and $Flux was listed on 30 new exchanges/marketplaces. We also launched six new products, four new parallel assets and facilitated multiple collaborations within and outside the Web3 industry.
But there’s more coming….
In 2024, Flux will focus on expanding our PoUW technology to cover multiple use cases, from businesses and enterprises to powering entire AI hubs.
We will also leverage Artificial intelligence in building smarter and cost-effective solutions to drive decentralized innovation on a much larger scale than ever seen.
A big thank you to every member of the Flux community for actively participating and believing in our vision of a decentralized future.
The Future is here, and we are ready. LFG!!!!
