Hello Mintlayers,

As we reflect on an eventful 2023 at Mintlayer, we’re thrilled to share a comprehensive overview of our journey towards revolutionizing blockchain technology, enhancing decentralization, and recap monumental mainnet launch in 2024. For those eager to dive directly into the latest chapter of our progress jump to the Mainnet launch recap at the end of this article that details this landmark event and its implications.

Mintlayer 2023 Development Recap

In 2023, Mintlayer made notable strides in blockchain development, showcasing a year filled with innovation and substantial progress towards creating a more connected and decentralized future. Early in the year, the team proudly launched the Mintlayer Mojito wallet browser extension, starting off as a Bitcoin wallet it laid the foundation for a wallet that would eventually (during mainnet) go on to accept native ML tokens and gain thousands of active users. This initial success set the stage for work building the foundation of the network with mempool updates and development of the consensus mechanism.

Mid-year milestones included the introduction of Mintlayer’s public testnet, a significant achievement that marked a pivotal moment in the project’s lifecycle. This development not only demonstrated Mintlayer’s technical prowess but also its commitment to community involvement and transparent testing processes. The public testnet’s launch allowed for real-world stress-testing, a crucial step toward the mainnet launch. Parallel to these efforts, the Mintlayer team undertook the development of the Mintlayer block explorer, an essential tool for ensuring transparency and enabling users to track transactions and blocks efficiently.

The latter part of the year focused on fine-tuning the public testnet based on community feedback and further enhancing the blockchain’s core functionalities. Preparations for the mainnet’s launch were accompanied by rigorous testing and the integration of advanced features designed to promote security such as incorporated end-to-end encryption for staking keys during block production. As 2023 came to a close, Mintlayer had laid down a robust framework for future innovations, setting the scene for the launch of Mintlayer’s Mainnet.

Mainnet Features Summary:  

The launch of Mintlayer’s mainnet on January 29th, 2024, marked a milestone in the evolution of blockchain technology. Drawing inspiration from Bitcoin’s core principles of security, simplicity, and reliability, Mintlayer introduces groundbreaking features to the decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape. With the adoption of a UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model akin to Bitcoin ensures transaction composition flexibility, while the integration of non-Turing complete, hardcoded smart contracts simplifies auditing and enhances security by minimizing the likelihood of exploitable bugs.

Mintlayer’s innovative consensus system blends the strengths of proof-of-stake with elements of proof-of-work, allowing for a more accessible and environmentally friendly network participation—capable of running efficiently on devices as minimal as a Raspberry PI. With mainnet we introduced a platform for diverse tokenization, offering customizable fungible (MLS-01) and non-fungible tokens (MLS-03) for a wide range of assets without requiring coding, optimized for the tokenization of real-world assets.In the future Mintlayer remains poised for significant functional enhancements, including the development of Hash Time Locked Contracts (HTLCs) that will build the foundation of our Atomic Swaps and usher in true interoperability within the Bitcoin space.

Mainnet Launch Recap:

Mintlayer’s transition into a functional and live mainnet marks a monumental milestone in our journey, symbolizing the fruition of countless hours of dedication and innovation. The launch was heralded by the creation of the genesis block, a nod to Bitcoin’s origins, signifying the beginning of a new chapter for Mintlayer and the broader blockchain community.

This seminal event is further complemented by significant updates to the Mojito Wallet browser extension, now fully supporting native ML tokens and mainnet integration, ensuring a seamless user experience. Plus the integration of mainnet support on Gate.io facilitates easy deposit and withdrawal of ML mainnet tokens, marking the beginning of broader exchange support and integration coming in the days to follow.

In unison this was followed by the opening of our migration portal allowing for the transition of ML tokens from the Ethereum network to Mintlayer’s native platform. Please note there is no rush as ERC-20 token will still be supported until January 2026 when we will close the portal.

Although migration is optional, many have migrated their tokens to Mainnet to start putting their ML tokens to work by staking their tokens. With over 18 million ML tokens already staked on the mainnet and more than 236 validators actively participating, Mintlayer’s network is demonstrating robust growth and engagement from the community. Both validator count and staked ML tokens have been on a rapid incline, reflecting the community’s trust and commitment to Mintlayer’s vision. Of course to be able to monitor all these transactions, validators, pools and staked tokens we released our Mintlayer Blockexplorer so you can always check in on what is happening on the network.

As we celebrate these accomplishments, we remain focused on the future, eagerly anticipating further exchange integrations and the continuous expansion of Mintlayer’s ecosystem as we look onward and upward to building atomic swaps.

Stay tuned with the latest developments by following us on Twitter and join the conversation on our Telegram Community.

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