Welcome to the official newsletter from Merit Circle.
In our previous newsletter, we updated you on three new developments from our portfolio projects and announced the launch of the gaming subnet 'Beam'. Since then, Beam has seen a whirlwind of development, bolstered by the addition of some new team members. There has also been a crucial change to the staking portal, and we've published a couple of fascinating conversations that we’ve had with industry leaders: Abhimanyu (‘Manyu’) Kumar of Naavik and Ed Chang, Head of Gaming for Ava Labs.
Read on for a summary of what’s been happening and what’s to come…
Portfolio update
We’re proud to work with dozens of amazing partners across the world who are all contributing to the web3 gaming space in their own way. We receive regular updates from these partners on development, market analysis and everything in between.
Historically, we’ve highlighted three portfolio projects in each newsletter we send out. Given the strong correlation between our treasury and the development of these projects, we have decided to move these updates to our quarterly treasury reports.
In the latest treasury report, you can dive in and learn more about recent developments with the following investments –
Gameplay Galaxy (Trial Xtreme)
Pixion Games (Fableborne)
OhBabyGames
Raini Studios
Azuro
Newly formed collaboration
We are constantly looking for potential new investments and collaboration to broaden our operations. Since our latest newsletter went out, we have formed a strong new collaboration that we’re excited to share with you:
Treasury report
To transparently share what we have been doing in terms of handling our treasury and the funds raised, we produce a monthly treasury report. This report includes all the ins-and-outs of Merit Circle financially.
A small quote that summarizes the treasury report of the previous month:
“In the past month the treasury decreased from $94,730,264 in May to $94,108,348 at the end of June, a 0.6% decrease from the previous month.”
Read the full report here.
Beam Development update
In our previous newsletter, we proudly announced Beam, a gaming chain built by Merit Circle in collaboration with Avalanche. Since then, a lot has happened: new partners have come on board, development is in overdrive and the ambitions are growing larger by the day.
Want to know everything about the latest development for Beam? Read the latest development update! Expect a new one to arrive in August.
Two new important hires – Brandon Aaskov as CTO and Steven Bryson-Haynes as Head of Investment and Partnerships
Merit Circle is maturing as an organization. When we started off in 2021, we were a small organization of just a few individuals. We’ve now evolved into a robust ecosystem including dozens of contributors. With our ambitions growing rapidly, and the scope of products that are being developed expanding, it was clear that some key positions had to be filled.
Tackling the technical aspect, we brought on Brandon Aaskov as the new Chief Technology Officer of Merit Circle. Check out our two-series piece on Brandon’s background and his ambitions for Merit Circle and Beam –
1 – Brandon Aaskov joins Orange Pill as CTO to build the future of gaming
2 – Brandon Aaskov: The future of Merit Circle in the gaming industry
We are also delighted to announce our new Head of Investment and Partnerships, Steven Bryson-Haynes. Steven has a fantastic network and heaps of experience.
MIP-26 – Important changes regarding the staking environment
On the 27th of June, JFdog23 opened a discussion thread on the governance forum stating his concerns about the current staking mechanisms. His thoughts were simple: “cancel all future v2 and v3 staking rewards and unlock all v2 stakers”. Immediately after the discussion went live, a vibrant discussion was unleashed both on the forum and within various community channels.
Soon afterwards, on the 30th of June, an official proposal made its way to the forum. In line with the constitution, the discussion period lasted for 14 days, before a vote on Snapshot could occur. On the 10th of July the vote went live, and eventually got accepted with an overwhelming majority on the 14th of July.
The consequences of this proposal, which are now being set in motion, can be summarized as follows –
Cancel the remaining V2 staking program.
Unlock V2 stakers from their current positions.
Accrued rewards will not be affected and will be able to be claimed.
Remaining tokens from the V2 staking program to be burned.
This has now officially been implemented as best explained here.
Conversations with industry leaders
Merit Circle is a unique ecosystem that has ties to a wide variety of industry members. This network is invaluable to everything that we do.
In an effort to spread this industry knowledge, we have started to record and document these conversations through some in-depth articles. Kicking things off, we’ve had the honor of speaking with Abhimanyu (‘Manyu’) Kumar, visionary founder of Naavik, on a wide variety of topics. You can read the full article here.
We also spoke with Ed Chang, the Head of Gaming for Ava Labs, who was very enthusiastic about Merit Circle and its launch of Beam. One quote stood out to us the most:
“Merit Circle is basically a superpower. Your branding, swag and the way everything is so well thought out, too — you guys actually remind me of tech companies like Apple.”
Read the full article here.
Together, we grow
Again, thanks everyone for your support. Together, we’re changing the game!
Our next newsletter will be sent early September.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, financial or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any digital assets and the use of finance-related terminology are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute any recommendation for any action or an offer to provide investment, financial or other advisory services. This content may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to purchase any digital asset referenced herein. There can be no assurance that the investments mentioned herein will be profitable. The digital assets referenced in this report currently face an uncertain regulatory landscape in several jurisdictions. The legal and regulatory risks inherent in referenced digital assets are not the subject of this content. The content speaks only as of the date indicated.