Thread by @MacLaneWilkison

1/ In 2014, I went to the SF Bitcoin Devs user group hosted by @LewisTaariq at the @hackerdojo. There were ~5 of us: me, @newmichwill (@CurveFinance @NuCypher), @tom_ding (@dfinity), @LewisTaariq, and @zmanian (@cosmos) - not a bad group!

2/ Afterward, @newmichwill and I started experimenting on top of #Bitcoin. p2p lending networks, insurance contracts, and other random stuff using Counterparty (#few remember).

3/ We built ZeroDB, an e2e encrypted database, inspired by the problem of how to get sensitive data into a decentralized app (unfortunately for us, there were no dapps in 2014 🤣). We got into @ycombinator and tried selling it to banks (protip: avoid trying to sell to banks).

4/ By early 2017, blockchain started to look interesting again… people were launching new protocols and dapps were starting to become a thing (just a little bit). Maybe we could finally build something that would get adoption.

5/ With @david__nunez's help, we pulled the cryptography out of ZeroDB and started customizing it to run across many nodes. Olaf + @rzurrer @polychaincap backed us.

6/ We hired @__tux + @PintSzPorcupine to build things out in earnest, via what was maybe the most successful @HackerNews job posting of all time.😅

7/ In 2018, we got a private testnet up and for the first time threshold proxy re-encryption was running on a live network! Thanks @BisonTrails @Figment_io @stakedus @infstones @P2Pvalidator and so many others for the early support and technical feedback.

8/ 2019 was a year of building. Staking and slashing mechanics, economic incentives and inflation schedules (thank you @tbitls for many key contributions), security audits (🙏 @trailofbits + @DavidWong) and economic audits/simulations (🙏 @PrysmGroup + @gauntletnetwork).

9/ By early 2020, the testnet was public and humming along at a scale of >500 nodes. Huge shoutout to the many community members who gave so much time ⌛️ and effort 🦾 to help polish the software and improve node stability.

10/ All eyes turned towards mainnet. 👀

11/ In September, we launched the WorkLock: prospective stakers could stake #ETH as a way to pre-commit to running @NuCypher nodes. Now we’re cooking with 🔥. No do-overs. Just immutable smart contracts running on mainnet. We weren’t sure what to expect.

12/ Small stakes started trickling in at first, a few 5 ETH minimum escrows each day, testing the waters.

13/ Then someone staked 178 ETH. A 🐳!

14/ More 5 ETH stakes... A 100 ETH stake. A 436 ETH stake! Another for 995 ETH! It’s looking like we’ll have a solid network of node operators at launch. 🚀

15/ And then things went vertical. With 48 hours left in the WorkLock, escrows start pouring in. A 1,000 ETH stake. An 8,500 ETH stake!! 10,000 ETH stake! Another 10k ETH stake. What’s happening!?! This is insane!

16/ The WorkLock ended with >353K ETH staked by 2,011 node operators - beyond anything we could have imagined. Unbelievable work by Victoria Zotova, the primary author of what turned out the be one of the highest value smart contracts on #Ethereum. Ever. 💰

17/ With WorkLock over, we had two weeks to get ready for mainnet. But with participation so far above our expectations, this wasn’t going to be a leisurely victory lap. We were now looking at >2,000 nodes running on the network. From day 1. Would it be able to handle that?

18/ A heroic sprint by @damonciarelli @kprasch @PintSzPorcupine @derek_pierre @tbitls @david__nunez @Carusory @__tux Ravital, Bogdan, Vicky Z, and the entire @NuCypher team ensued…

19/ Mainnet launched on October 15 . Nodes started spinning up.

Several hundred. So far so good...

A thousand. Things are holding together...

Two THOUSAND nodes. Holy sh!t, everything works. And it works *well*.

20/ Such a testament to the engineering culture instilled @NuCypher by the entire team. I’m lucky as heck to be able to work with you all every day. 🙏

Fin/ With the @coinbase listing this week, we’re welcoming a bunch of new NuCypherinos into the fold. Thanks for joining our $NU community. Thanks for staking, for running nodes, and for building cool tech. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.