The new year is starting: BTC is crawling around $16,600, the rubble of FTX has not yet been cleared, and no one dares to make a wish for 2023. Within Ex Populus, the project document for the self-built game chain has turned to the third version - in the darkest hour, this is the only thing that is still moving forward.
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Year archive
2023 | Building the chain: from announcement to launch readiness
365 entries
2023-01
January 2023
31On the last day of vacation, Ah Zhen was chewing on the Arbitrum Nitro source code and took twenty pages of notes.
The project establishment document is finalized, with one goal: to create its own chain for the game.
BTC quietly stood at 16,800, and no one dared to call for a rebound.
The formal technical meeting with Offchain Labs is scheduled for next week, and the agenda is three pages long.
Archived list of evaluated public chains: none of them are created for games, and the conclusion remains the same - make it yourself.
Over the weekend, Discord was deserted, and the bear market sifted away all the idlers.
BTC exceeded 17,000 and short positions were liquidated. No one in the office looked up.
The first formal technical meeting with Offchain Labs: Orbit technology stack, L3 architecture, settlement to Arbitrum One, whiteboarding for three hours. The other party's interest in the "game-specific chain" exceeded expectations, and neither party was in a hurry to turn off the camera when the meeting ended.
The meeting minutes were circulated internally, and the engineering team pulled out the first branch according to the Nitro stack.
Ah Zhen ran through the local Nitro development network, and the block was like a heartbeat. He stared at it for ten minutes.
US CPI fell back, risk assets gasped, BTC 18,000.
The legal advisor proposed that the chain should be led by the foundation and start studying the structure.
BTC pulled above 20,000 overnight, and the bear market cracked.
Over the weekend, Night Watch bubbled up on Discord: the only people still in the group were family members.
BTC 21,000. The consensus of the weekly meeting is that the chain must be completed before the cow comes back.
The game-side requirements are written into the chain design: no gas fees, wallet abstraction, and large-volume contracts.
It is reported that Genesis is about to go bankrupt, and the aftershocks in the industry are yet to come.
Genesis officially filed for bankruptcy protection, and DCG was in trouble. The author makes a note: Another family has fallen.
The decision was made at the weekly engineering meeting: the settlement parent chain is designated as Arbitrum One and will no longer waver.
The Ordinals inscription appeared on the Bitcoin chain, and the geek circle was hotly discussing it.
Working overtime on the weekend, Ah Zhen did a stress test on the development network, and the throughput figures made people laugh for the first time.
Second round of meeting with Offchain Labs: Not only about technology, but also about market and product support.
For the first time, the term "the first directly cooperative Orbit chain" appeared internally.
The first draft of the foundation registration document is completed, but the name column is still empty.
The Final Form group complained that the interface on the chain side was undecided, and the two sides held a joint meeting.
BTC rose nearly 40% during the month, and the media began to write that "the bottom has passed."
Over the weekend, someone on Discord asked "Are you going to start a chain?", but no one responded.
Azhen Weekly: Cross-chain bridge, sequencer, and gas abstraction are three parallel lines.
Management over-budgets: The bear market creates a chain, and every dollar counts.
End of January: BTC closed above 23,000, a monthly increase of approximately 40%. The skeleton of the chain is also erected.
2023-02
February 2023
28February started: BTC fluctuated at 23,000, and the market was dubious. The chain side enters the bridge with the sequencer attacking the moon.
The foundation registration jurisdiction is selected and the documents are entered into the law firm process.
The U.S. non-farm payrolls exploded, BTC fell back, and no one on the engineering team was distracted.
Over the weekend, Night Watchman’s hand-drawn drawing of the difference between L2 and L3 in the group was retweeted dozens of times.
Ah Zhen stayed up all night to fix the problem of block loss when the sequencer restarted, and sent a "fixed" message early in the morning.
In the first round of chain name brainstorming, the whiteboard was full and then erased.
The weekly meetings with Offchain Labs are institutionalized and every Tuesday is unchangeable.
The cross-chain bridge test has entered the second phase, and the asset mapping plan has been finalized.
The Kraken staking service settled with the SEC and was shut down, and the US regulatory cloud is over.
Internal review of the game-side SDK draft, the Final Form team gave the first nod.
Over the weekend, Ordinals inscriptions filled Bitcoin blocks, and the industry was in a row.
Ah Zhen moved the test environment to the new cluster and passed the fault drill.
Paxos was ordered to stop issuing BUSD, supervision was a series of blows, and everyone in the stablecoin was in danger.
Discord is deserted on Valentine's Day. Ah Zhen gave the test network a codename that only internal members knew.
BTC stands at 24,000, and the activity on the chain is picking up.
The chain name discussion converged to "Xai": X inherits the lineage of Ex Populus, ai is left to the imagination. Legal Affairs immediately started trademark search and registration preparations. The author did not know at the time that these three letters would later be worth a federal lawsuit.
The gas abstraction plan passed the internal review: players have no sense, and the cost is covered by the on-chain mechanism.
Over the weekend, the community guessed "What is Ex Populus holding back?" which was not very popular.
The first transfer on the cross-chain bridge test network was successful, and a row of rockets flooded the group.
BTC touched 25,000, and altcoins are ready to move.
Regular meeting with Offchain Labs: Cooperation terms enter the negotiation stage one by one.
The sequencer pressure test met the standard, and Ah Zhen drew a smiley face in the weekly report.
BTC 2.5 million was gained but lost again, both bulls and bears were killed.
Final Form has released the first version of the data structure for card assets on the chain.
Over the weekend, Night Watchman said the best position in a bear market is to "sleep".
The second draft of the foundation's charter has been completed, leaving the governance provisions blank for discussion.
Engineering all-hands meeting: March target - freezing of internal development network functions.
End of February: BTC closed sideways at 23,100. Milestone: The development network has been running stably for one full month.
2023-03
March 2023
31March starts: BTC 23,500. This month’s theme: The foundation is implemented and the terms of cooperation are closed.
The law firm provided feedback on revisions to the foundation’s documents, which was the fourth round of back-and-forth.
Ah Zhen began to write the smallest prototype of node software, which was only run by his own people.
Over the weekend, someone in Discord posted the Arbitrum ecological map and asked "Where is the next hot spot?"
The LAMOverse group enters the docking link side interface, and the conference room is not enough.
Negotiation of cooperation terms: infrastructure, market, and product support will be negotiated one by one.
Powell's congressional testimony was hawkish, and BTC fell back by 22,000.
Silvergate announced liquidation, and the crypto banking channel collapsed.
BTC fell below 21,000, and panic returned to the market.
Silicon Valley banks were taken over, the technology and venture capital circles exploded, and no one slept on Friday night.
USDC unanchored to $0.88: Circle has $3.3 billion tied to Silicon Valley Bank. The team conducted an emergency inventory of capital exposures over the weekend and checked the deposit banks door to door. For the first time, Discord was so noisy that it hit the screen over the weekend. Author: The thunder in the bear market specializes in picking places you think are safe to explode.
Regulation took action to protect depositors, and USDC returned to anchor. A false alarm, but no one slept well.
BTC backhand rose back to 24,000, and the narrative became "banks cannot be trusted, codes are trustworthy".
CPI is moderate and BTC is approaching 26,000. The chain side continues to bury its head, and the function freeze is imminent.
The development network functions are frozen and enter the bug fixing and documentation cycle.
The foundation documents are finalized and all that remains is signature and submission.
BTC 27,000, the ceiling of the bear market is being lifted layer by layer.
Over the weekend, the night watchman led a group of friends to study the qualifications of Arbitrum airdrop, and the atmosphere was warmer than it has been in a long time.
BTC touched 28,000. The market is discussing: Is this still a bear market?
Regular meeting with Offchain Labs: The official announcement window is initially targeted for mid-year.
Ah Zhen added a block monitoring alarm to the node prototype, and finally was able to sleep through the night.
Arbitrum airdrop ARB tomorrow, the chain is crowded with people warming up, and the bridge is blocked.
ARB falls from the sky
Arbitrum airdrop ARB is online. The claim page was once crowded, the gas on the chain soared, exchanges quickly listed coins, and millions of addresses received real money - this was the industry's first long-lost collective carnival after the collapse of FTX.
For the team at Ex Populus, the day had another meaning: they were betting on the Arbitrum technology stack. The parent chain ecology was ignited by airdrop, and developers, funds, and attention surged back, which meant that someone verified the selection for them. Someone in the engineering channel posted the sentence "We are standing on the right foundation", which received a lot of likes. Ah Zhen stared at the load curve of Arbitrum mainnet all day and said that this was the best open class for stress testing.
Night Watch also received an ARB. He posted a screenshot in the group and said that he had not sold any of them. "This is the salary for the bear market night watchman." That night, the Discord chat was open until early in the morning, but the conversation was not about the price, but "what if our chain could have this day".
Author's note: Morale cannot be written in the document, but after today, the whole team walked with wind.
airdrop is still warm, the Arbitrum ecological project has attracted attention across the board, and the team feels warm.
Over the weekend, Nightwatch said ARB was a "bear market allowance" and the position remained motionless.
Ah Zhen organizes Arbitrum’s observation data on high-load days and writes an internal report.
The CFTC sued Binance, another regulatory blow, and the market was numb.
The main content of the cooperation terms is negotiated, and the remaining details are subject to legal procedures.
Iron Pigeons Migration Arbitrum Scenario Initiation Assessment.
BTC fluctuated at 28,000 as the market digested regulatory news.
End of March: BTC closed at 28,500, an increase of about 70% in the first quarter. All the foundation documents needed were the final signature.
2023-04
April 2023
30April starts: BTC 28,500 stabilizes. Someone made a rumor on April Fool's Day that "a certain game company is going to issue a link", but the team smiled at each other and did not refute the rumor.
Over the weekend, the community was speculating on the market situation for the second quarter, and the night watchman only replied with two words: building a chain.
The project schedule is reversed: testnet first, then mainnet, and the official announcement is stuck in the middle.
The node prototype ran continuously for seven days without restarting for the first time. Ah Zhen took a screenshot to commemorate it.
BTC is trading sideways at 28,000, and the market is waiting for Ethereum to upgrade in Shanghai.
The outline of the official announcement draft: what to write, who will endorse it, and when to publish it.
On Good Friday, the U.S. stock market is closed. Cryptocurrency and blockchain are as usual.
Over the weekend, the Final Form team internally tested a new card set, and for the first time, the chain side interface reported no errors.
On Easter, Discord is quiet, and Ah Zhen is correcting typos in the document.
Regular meeting with Offchain Labs: The other party’s market team joins the meeting for the first time to discuss official announcement cooperation.
BTC exceeded $30,000. For the first time in a year, the circle of friends became lively.
Ethereum Shanghai upgrade is completed, staking withdrawals are opened, and ETH does not fall but rises.
ETH stands at $2,000, and the "sell-out panic" has been falsified.
After the foundation registration process is completed, Xai Foundation officially exists. The name has been decided, the main body has been established, and the chain is running on the development network - only one piece of paper is needed to reach the outside world. The author resisted the urge to write about "historical moments": write them down first, and then verify them.
Over the weekend, the night watchman asked the group "If there was a game chain, would you run node?", but very few responded.
The joint coordination week between the chain side and the game side started, and the two groups moved into the same room.
The test network deployment script has been rewritten and the chain can be launched and run with one click.
BTC shot up to 30,600 and then fell back, market sentiment was overdrawn.
The meme currency PEPE skyrocketed, attention was sucked away, and BTC fell back by 29,000.
Engineering Weekly Meeting: May goal - the internal version of the testnet reaches a demonstrable state.
BTC fell below 28,000, leveraged bulls were injured, and there was no sense on the chain side.
Over the weekend, Ah Zhen said in the group: The more noisy the market, the more code needs to be written.
The first draft of the official announcement is scheduled for mid-May, and the legal affairs will be reviewed simultaneously.
Iron Pigeons' technical path review for migrating Arbitrum passed.
Finalize the main terms of the cooperation framework with Offchain Labs: infrastructure, market, and product support.
The first version of the external brand visual draft is released, with red and black as the main colors.
The regional banks in the United States are thundering again, and BTC is seeing a lot of trouble.
The internal version of the test network passed the smoke test, leaving seventeen items on the remaining list.
Over the weekend, vague rumors circulated in the community that "Arbitrum will release a game chain", but no one confirmed it.
End of April: BTC closed at 29,400. The testnet internal version number is advanced to v0.9.
2023-05
May 2023
31May starts: 28,500 BTC, the meme season is booming. Write code quietly on the chain side, two worlds.
The list of things to do was cut down to nine items, and Ah Zhen said he would see the light of day in May.
BTC remains calm as the FOMC raises interest rates by 25 basis points and hints at a pause.
Official announcement materials have begun to be collected: screenshots, architecture diagrams, and game demo screen recordings.
PEPE went viral, and the meme carnival reached its peak. The night watchman said: This money does not belong to me, I am not jealous.
Over the weekend, the BRC-20 inscription pushed Bitcoin handling fees to the sky, and the chain was abuzz with complaints.
Ah Zhen was dragged to explain "why the game chain must be gas-free" and talked for an hour.
Bitcoin is so congested that exchanges have suspended withdrawals, and "expansion" has returned to the center of the topic.
The testnet demo version was premiered internally, and the management only said one word after watching it: send it.
CPI was in line with expectations, and BTC fluctuated at 27,000.
The official announcement time window has converged to mid-June, and the inverted list is posted on the wall.
BTC fell back to 26,000, the meme trend subsided, and the market calmed down.
Over the weekend, the LAMOverse team delivered its first on-chain battle prototype.
Ah Zhen fixed a memory leak over the weekend and said it was a "gift to the official announcement."
The first draft of the official announcement was circulated internally: the positioning of "decentralized game console" has been finalized. The first games, endorsement candidates, and timelines were reviewed one by one. Someone suggested mentioning token in the draft, but it was rejected on the spot - only the chain and the game were mentioned, and the currency was not mentioned at all.
In the second round of revision of the draft, the legal affairs will review the words sentence by sentence.
Align the official division of labor with Offchain Labs: the other party issues a name endorsement.
BTC is 27,000, the market is sideways, and no one cares about the game chain. It's not that time yet.
The remaining list of the test network has been cleared and the freeze period has entered before the official announcement.
Over the weekend, the night watchman lamented: After a year and a half of bear market, there is finally a project that is holding back.
The media list on the official announcement day has been confirmed, and the press release has been translated into three languages.
On Bitcoin Pizza Day, the office ordered pizza to celebrate the smooth first week of the freeze period.
The endorsement quotation went through the other party's internal review and approval process, and A.J. Warner signed it, and the author's name was also signed next to it - I have been writing about other people's things for more than two years, and this time I included myself.
BTC fell to 26,200, and the US debt ceiling battle suppressed risk appetite.
The first rehearsal for the official announcement: going through the entire process from publishing to answering questions.
The trademark registration materials are ready, and the legal affairs department is just waiting for the "commercial use" time point.
Over the weekend, rumors about "something big happening in June" popped up in Discord, but it wasn't very popular.
Ah Zhen moved the large test network monitoring screen to the conference room so that it can be demonstrated at any time.
The U.S. debt ceiling was initially agreed upon, and the market breathed a sigh of relief.
The official countdown is sixteen days and all materials will be put into storage.
End of May: BTC closed at 27,200, sideways for the month. The official announcement is that everything is ready and the countdown has begun.
2023-06
June 2023
30June starts: BTC shrinks by 27,000. Official Xuan Yue, the air in the office is tense.
The XAI trademark has been officially put into commercial use in the United States since this month, and the legal department has filed every piece of evidence of use with a serial number. Remember this date—no one gave it a second glance at the time, and it later became worth a federal lawsuit.
Over the weekend, the official announcement materials were finalized, pixel by pixel.
Ah Zhen made the last round of demonstration environment backup, dual-machine hot backup.
The SEC sued Binance and CZ with 13 charges, and BTC plummeted by 25,700.
The SEC will sue Coinbase again the next day, and the U.S. encryption industry will have a dark week. Someone asked whether the official announcement should be postponed. The answer was: No.
Amid the regulatory storm, the second round was rehearsed as usual, with the same rhythm.
The final draft of the manuscript is locked, and no one is allowed to change a single punctuation mark.
The media communication meeting has been warmed up and the embargo agreement has been signed.
On weekends, the night watchman had a premonition in the group that "something will happen next week", but no one answered the call.
BTC consolidated weakly at 25,800, and altcoins were frightened by the regulatory list.
The last all-member meeting before the official announcement: clarify the caliber and only talk about the chain and the game.
CPI continues to fall, the interest rate hike cycle is coming to an end, and the macro trend is getting warmer.
FOMC pauses rate hikes. The night before the official announcement, Ah Zhen stayed at his work station until early in the morning, saying he couldn't sleep.
Official announcement day: Xai, Layer-3 for games
The press release went out right on time: Xai, the Layer-3 blockchain for gaming, is officially unveiled. Led by the Xai Foundation, Offchain Labs provides infrastructure, market and product support - this is the first Orbit chain to directly cooperate with Offchain Labs, based on the Arbitrum Nitro technology stack, and settled to the parent chain Arbitrum One. Ex Populus serves as the "first contributor" and will migrate its own game series to the blockchain.
The key points of the press release have been implemented one by one: the first games are the card battle "Final Form" and the multiplayer competition "LAMOverse"; Tyson's "Iron Pigeons" NFT series has been moved to Arbitrum; Offchain Labs Chief Strategy Officer A.J. Warner and Soby have signed endorsements to position the platform for this chain; it is promised that mainnet will be launched within 2023. Positioning in one sentence: decentralized game console - fast transactions, no gas fees for players, and a non-perceptual wallet, so that players are not aware of the existence of the chain.
Industry media have reproduced it one after another. In the darkest week when the SEC sued two major exchanges, a "chain born for games" was officially announced against the wind. Half of the comment section was "Anyone who dares to build a bear market deserves respect" and the other half was "another game chain. I have seen it a lot." More new people poured into Discord in one day than in the past six months. The night watchman read the draft three times and left one sentence: "This time it's like a regular army."
Careful people will find that there is not a single mention of token in the draft from beginning to end.
On the same day, on the other side of the ocean, BlackRock quietly submitted an application for a Bitcoin spot ETF. No one paid attention that day. Only later did we know how big the leads were in each of these two things.
Author's note: Two and a half years of project establishment, negotiation, and coding have been condensed into today's one-page draft. The name was officially revealed: Xai. As of today, the protagonist of this chronicle has a name.
The official announcement was made the next day: Reposting continued, Discord was flooded with new people, and the most frequently asked question was "Do you have coins?" Official silence.
Over the weekend, the night watchman spontaneously compiled long posts with key points from the official announcement, which were pinned by the community.
Ah Zhen returns to normal schedule: next stop, public testnet.
A game studio took the initiative to inquire about access, and the business mailbox was full for the first time.
The BlackRock effect fermented, and BTC rebounded.
BTC is back above 30,000, and BlackRock’s name is stronger than any positive.
Reviewing official announcement data with Offchain Labs: Coverage exceeded expectations.
The chain side starts "reinforcement after official announcement": the security audit schedule is finalized.
Over the weekend, the community spontaneously made a Xai science map for the first time, which was forwarded over a thousand times.
BTC stands firm at 30,000, and the market begins to discuss a "new cycle."
Final Form released the first batch of on-chain card concept images, and the community responded enthusiastically.
node system design has entered a period of intensive discussion, and the whiteboard is full again.
Ah Zhen demonstrated the prototype of "home computer running node" internally, applause.
The business side sorts out inbound clues after the official announcement: Dozens of game parties are in contact.
End of June: BTC closed at 30,400. The official announcement is completed, the trademark is activated, and the countdown to mainnet - the tasks for the first half of the year are cleared.
2023-07
July 2023
31July starts: BTC 30,500 stands firm. In the first full month after the official announcement, the focus shifted to the Sentry Node system.
Over the weekend, the number of new members in the community exceeded 10,000, and administrators recruited volunteers.
nodeThe first round of closed-door economic model meeting: How to make home computers useful.
On the Independence Day of the United States, the market was slow, and Ah Zhen was writing the installation script for the node software.
Security audits have officially entered the scene, and the code base has been sealed to cooperate.
BTC hit a new high in 31,000 years and then fell back, as ETF expectations fermented.
Final Form released the combat system development log, and the community urged "online real machine".
Over the weekend, Night Watch organized its first community voice AMA, and the list of questions stretched to two pages.
nodeThe second round of model closed-door meeting: whether the rewards should be divided equally by lottery or equally, the discussion lasted until late at night.
Aligned with Offchain Labs regular meeting: testnet public schedule.
BTC is trading sideways at 30,500, and the market is calm. It was so peaceful that I couldn’t remember what to write.
A person with the same name appears: Musk officially announced xAI
In the afternoon, Musk tweeted to announce the establishment of an artificial intelligence company - xAI. One tweet, 59 million+ views, and global technology media followed up overnight.
Someone immediately posted a screenshot in Discord: "Wait a minute, aren't we called Xai?" This is the first time someone in the community has asked "What to do if there is a name collision". There was a quarrel in the channel all night: some people thought that the traffic was coming from the sky, "you can search for us in xai from now on"; some people were slightly uneasy, "is it a blessing or a curse to be famous with the world's richest man?" Most people came to a relaxed and firm conclusion - one is doing AI, the other is making games, and they are not in conflict with each other.
Reaction within the company was divided into two levels. The business side barely stopped, and the node model was opened; only the legal affairs department muttered in the corridor: "The trademark categories are different, in theory it's fine...Theoretically." No one answered. After all, the XAI trademark, which had just been commercialized a month ago, has a neat chain of evidence lying in a filing cabinet; while the company opposite only has a tweet and a website address at the moment.
There was no statement, no negotiation, nothing happened that day. This is the most noteworthy part of this day.
Author's note: The first day of most disasters in history looks like nothing happened. Of the two XAIs, one wants to build general artificial intelligence and the other wants to build a decentralized game console. The tracks have no overlap. I write down this day because I have a bad habit - I don't believe in "water from a well does not offend the river".
The XRP verdict partially won the case, and the whole crowd went wild, with BTC reaching 31,800. Yesterday's doubts were washed away.
The legal department left an internal memo: Continue to pay attention to xAI trends and take no action for the time being.
Over the weekend, the community posted a hot post: "What is it like to be famous for being hit by Musk?" Building a 300-story building.
Xai’s index in search engines has skyrocketed—although half of it is going to Musk.
node economic model finalized: online lottery + staking weighting, esXAI as reward carrier.
esXAI mechanism internal review: soul binding, redemption discount, and destruction deflation, three principles were finalized.
Ah Zhen transfers to support node software: it takes ten minutes for Xiaobai to install it.
Audit interim report: Two medium-risk items were repaired this week.
BTC has shrunk near 30,000, which is typical of the summer market.
Over the weekend, the night watchman inquired about the configuration requirements of node in advance, but was let out by the official.
The second version of the Attention Challenge Protocol passed the review, and the design of the referee contract was frozen.
BTC fell back by 29,000, and the XRP market stalled.
node document writing week starts, goal: ordinary players can understand it.
The FOMC raises interest rates by 25 basis points, and the market is calm, or it may be the end.
Sentry Node naming finalized: Sentry Node, the key is called Sentry Key.
Test network stress test: 10,000-level concurrent transactions are stable, and the gas-free channel meets the standards.
Over the weekend, Discord reported that "there will be big moves in August", and this time the official did not deny it.
Curve was stolen, DeFi had a shocking weekend, and the industry added another lesson.
End of July: BTC closed at 29,200. node system documentation is frozen and will be available to the public in August.
2023-08
August 2023
31August starts with: BTC 29k weak. There is only one protagonist this month: Sentry Node.
nodeThe system releases materials for final review, and 60 FAQs are pre-written.
Ah Zhen does the final walkthrough of the installation process: from downloading to issuing a statement, it takes nine minutes.
Community warm-up begins: The official released a silhouette poster with only one key.
Over the weekend, there were hundreds of posts about guessing the meaning of the posters, but no one guessed them all correctly.
The final audit report is released: the remaining issues are cleared and the node contract is released.
The night before the launch, the operational schedule was stretched to a full 48 hours.
Sentry Node system announced: observe node supervision rollup, can be run on a home computer, participate in the probability lottery online to win esXAI, attention challenge protocol network protection, esXAI soul binding + redemption discount. As soon as the document was released, Discord asked questions until early in the morning. "Can my old laptop run?" I was asked a hundred times. Answer: Yes.
The node document has been read in record numbers, and translation volunteers have spontaneously claimed five languages.
Official confirmation: Sentry Key will be sold in stages, and the later it is, the more expensive it will be.
Community calculators appeared: Someone started measuring lottery expectations, and officials were noncommittal.
On weekends, the night watchman wiped out the old notebook at home and said, "I'm just waiting for the key."
The contract deployment drill for key sales is completed and it is ready for deployment.
BTC is in a narrow range of 29,400, and the volatility of the entire market has dropped to freezing point.
Official announcement: Sentry Key goes on sale next week. The countdown timer is posted on the official website.
The whitelist question is flooding the screen: There is no whitelist this time, first come first served, in ascending order.
BTC flash crashed to 26,000 in a single day, and bulls liquidated their positions to over one billion US dollars. Someone asked whether the opening of sales would be postponed. The answer was: It’s about the chain, not the market.
The day after the flash crash, the market suffered, but the node channel was discussing electricity bills and Internet speed.
At the weekend, the sales page undergoes a final round of stress testing.
The community's spontaneous "node Novice Village" channel was opened, and the night watchman was appointed as the village chief.
On the eve of the sale, the number of people online on Discord reached a record high.
The first key: Sentry Key is on sale
In the morning, the Sentry Key sales contract went online. The price increases in tiers - the later you buy, the more you pay, writing "early trust" directly into the pricing curve.
There was no crazy rush as expected when the sale started. The first batch of buyers were more like a roll call of faith: the group of people who had survived the entire bear market and remained in Discord, paid silently one by one. The night watchman grabbed his first key and posted a screenshot in the group with only four words: "The vigil begins." Then he told the story of his position since his entry in 2021, and the newcomers were stunned for a while.
The logic of the key is fully revealed at this moment: buy the Key, install node, stay online, the sentry monitors the rollup status, submits a statement to the assertion, and wins esXAI based on the probability of online participation; the soul binding of esXAI is non-transferable, and if you want to exchange it for a liquid asset, you have to go through the redemption channel - the shorter the wait, the steeper the discount, and the broken part will be destroyed. Some people complained that "rewards have to wait," while others immediately understood the design: "This is to screen out long-termists."
The official sales figures on the first day have not been announced, but the speed of advancement of the gears can be seen with the naked eye. In the evening, the first batch of nodes were lit up one after another, and the novice village was filled with installation screenshots and cheers of "Announcement!" Home laptops, mini consoles, and even old game laptops are all connected to the same surveillance network from all over the world.
Author's note: From today on, the security of a chain is handed over to countless living rooms with little green lights on. This picture is more moving than any white paper.
On the second day after the sale started, the gears continued to advance, and the novice village tutorial was placed at the top.
The online number of the first batch of node has steadily increased, and the success rate of issuing declarations has exceeded expectations.
Someone started charging service fees for "running node on behalf of others", and the official reminded people to pay attention to the security of private keys.
Over the weekend, Night Watchman's node was online for 96 consecutive hours and posted pictures to celebrate.
node distribution map debuts: little green dots on all five continents.
Ah Zhen optimized the memory usage of node, and the old machine party cheered.
Grayscale won the lawsuit against the SEC, and the ETF road took another step, and BTC jumped by 28,000.
The market enthusiasm is overflowing, and key sales have reached a small peak and jumped to another level.
End of August: BTC closed at 26,000 and fell back. The key sales curve is on the rise, and the node channel has become the most popular on the entire site.
2023-09
September 2023
30The beginning of September: BTC dropped by 25,800, and the market was full of autumn. Key sales have entered a period of steady growth.
Over the weekend, the number of Q&A posts in Novice Village exceeded 1,000 pages, and the number of volunteers increased.
node online rate data is published weekly for the first time.
On Labor Day in the United States, the market is light and node will not take a holiday.
The test network is open to cooperative game parties, and the first three companies have entered the site.
Ah Zhen fixed a disconnection and reconnection boundary issue, and the online rate increased again.
The community started to play "node corner": study room, cabinet, dormitory bedside.
BTC 26,000 fluctuated, and altcoin liquidity was thin.
Over the weekend, the keys jumped up a notch again, and those who hesitated began to calculate "how much they could save by buying early."
The official reiterates: The key is operating qualifications, not financial products.
BTC is exploring the low point within 25,000 years, and the market is pessimistic. node online number has reached a new high.
Regular meeting with Offchain Labs: mainnet soft launch window is locked in the fourth quarter.
The CPI rebounds and disturbs, and the encryption disk becomes passivated.
Final Form released a demonstration of on-chain asset casting, prompting a flood of sales.
nodeThe community is self-organized: tutorial station, Q&A rotation, multi-language channels, and the night watchman has become a volunteer customer service, claiming to be online ten hours a day. The official issued a batch of commemorative badges to Novice Village, and the first one was given to him.
Over the weekend, the community organized the first "node online time ranking", and the top ten were all old people in the bear market.
A mining farm inquired about buying keys in bulk, and the community started arguing: Does this violate decentralization?
Official response to bulk buying: It is not prohibited, but the lottery mechanism naturally dilutes concentration.
mainnetThe first round of deployment rehearsal, with the entire process recorded and archived.
The FOMC stayed on hold but put the hawk on hold, and BTC 27,000 was gained and lost.
Ah Zhen entered the mainnet sprint group, and the node software was handed over for maintenance rotation.
The cumulative transaction volume of the test network has exceeded 10 million, and there are zero accidents in the gas channel.
Over the weekend, the community moved the node unboxing video from overseas players, and the number of views exceeded the circle.
Key sales have reached a new level, and node Novice Village is ushering in its third expansion.
mainnet Creation Configuration Review: Parameters are signed and confirmed one by one.
BTC 26,200, the market is full of imagination about the ETF ruling in the fourth quarter.
mainnet deployed the second round of rehearsals, and all fault injections were safely contained.
Official blog notice: The test network will be open to more developers.
Quarterly All-Member Meeting: There is only one goal for the fourth quarter - mainnet.
End of September: BTC closed at 26,900. The test network is ready, keys are on sale, and mainnet is sprinting—all we need is the east wind.
2023-10
October 2023
31October starts: BTC 27,000 rebounds. This month’s main line: test network opening, mainnet sprint.
BTC hits 28,000, and the term "Uptober" appears again.
mainnetThe sprint team entered bi-weekly iterations, and the board was posted all over the wall.
node software releases a stable version, and the automatic update mechanism is online.
The testnet developer documentation is fully online, and the sample code is complete.
On the eve of the weekend, the key jumped to another gear, and the gear curve became steeper and steeper.
Over the weekend, geopolitical conflicts broke out in the Middle East, risk aversion increased, and the market held its breath.
The community discusses geography and market conditions, and the night watchman: Regarding the chain, let’s continue to watch.
BTC stabilized after a brief pullback, and funds began to bet on ETFs.
The testnet is open to developers: faucets, block explorers, and deployment guides are all available in one place. On the first day, dozens of external contracts were deployed on the chain, and someone played a small game on the chain that day. Ah Zhen said in the group: This is what a "game console" should look like.
Feedback from external developers poured in, and the documentation team worked on updating the FAQ overnight.
The first community-made mini-game became popular on the test network and was officially forwarded.
mainnet sprint weekly report: progress 70%, two risk items.
Over the weekend, the online number of node reached a new high, with five figures in sight.
The official reiterated that the mainnet commitment will remain unchanged during the year, giving the community reassurance.
Fake ETF news made BTC rise to 30,000 in one minute and then crash back again - the market’s desire for a bull market cannot be hidden.
The aftermath of fake news has not subsided, true expectations continue to ferment, and BTC is stable at 28,500.
mainnet genesis contract code is frozen, leaving only the security patch channel.
Iron Pigeons complete migration milestone on Arbitrum side, community basks in pigeons.
BTC stands at 30,000, and no one is calling fake news this time.
Over the weekend, key sales increased with the market, and the number of people entering Xinshou Village in a single day broke a record.
Ah Zhen had no days off for two consecutive weeks, and the group was ordered to "turn off the phone tomorrow."
BTC violently exceeded 34,000, and Grayscale case + ETF expected twin engines to ignite.
The market is crazy and the copycats are waking up. Officially keeping the pace: mainnetThere are eleven items left on the checklist.
mainnet Deployment Preview Round 3: All Green.
Regular meeting with Offchain Labs: soft launch plan finalized - low-key, developer-oriented, no press conference.
There are six items left on the checklist, and the operation and maintenance schedule is on standby.
Over the weekend, the community guessed the date of mainnet, building a 500-story building, but the official said nothing.
There are three items left on the checklist: monitoring alarms, rollback plan, and emergency contact tree.
BTC consolidated at a high of 34,500, and the market turned to look at the November ETF window.
End of October: BTC closed at 34,400, a monthly increase of nearly 30%. mainnet is entering final inspection, no one is celebrating Halloween.
2023-11
November 2023
30November begins: BTC high of 34,500. mainnet month, all staff are on standby.
Checklist cleared. The date was set, and no more than ten people knew about it.
The last round of operation and maintenance drill: from alarm to rollback, twelve minutes.
Officials were unusually quiet over the weekend, and keen community elders caught a whiff.
The night watchman said in the group: "This week, I bet this week." No one followed.
The genesis parameters are finally signed and the packaged version is deployed.
Completed the last joint inspection with Offchain Labs before going live.
The night before going online. After checking the monitoring system for the last time, Ah Zhen squinted on the recliner at his workstation for four hours.
mainnet soft launch: chain, powered on
There was no countdown, no press conference, not even a pinned tweet. In the morning, the Xai mainnet genesis block was launched - a Layer-3 based on the Arbitrum Nitro stack, settled to the parent chain Arbitrum One, and block production officially began.
The sprint team is the one who presses the deploy button, and the whole company is the first to focus on the browser. The first block, the first cross-chain transaction, the first sentinel statement, each "first" was accompanied by a short burst of cheers, and then immediately fell silent - everyone was waiting for a problem, but the problem did not come. The monitor screen stayed green all day.
This is a deliberate "soft launch": for developers, not for the public. The official only posted a technical blog, notifying cooperative game parties that mainnet can be deployed. It even took someone in the community a day to realize, "mainnet has been deployed?". Someone asked why it was so low-key, and the answer it received was very engineer-like: "The chain is for use, not for shouting. When the game is released, players will naturally come."
The promise made in black and white during the official announcement in June - mainnet would be launched in 2023 - was fulfilled on November 9, seven weeks ahead of schedule. In this industry, bounced orders are the norm and cashing out is news.
At night, the Sentinel network switches to the mainnet configuration, and the global green lights reconnect, register, and begin to monitor the real production environment. The Night Watchman's old notebook made a statement for mainnet for the first time, and he set the screenshot as an avatar.
Author's note: From the proposal of a project on the ruins of FTX in the winter of 2022 to the chain that produced blocks today, it has been twelve months. They didn't break their promise when it came to building the chain.
mainnetThe next day: zero accidents. The first batch of game contracts began mainnet deployment.
Over the weekend, the community made up for the "mainnet Carnival", and the output of emoticons hit a new high.
The online rate of Sentinel mainnet climbed back to the test network level, and the migration was smooth.
Industry media belatedly reported that mainnet was online, and "low-key" became a topic.
The CPI has fallen sharply, with BTC above 36,000, and expectations of interest rate cuts have increased.
mainnet internal review of the first week's data: stable block production, zero failure in the gas channel.
Final Form mainnet-side asset contract deployment is completed, and real machine access is scheduled.
Key sales have accelerated significantly - the launch of mainnet has made onlookers determined.
Over the weekend, the Novice Village tutorial was completely revised to the mainnet version.
The community started discussing one word: TGE. Officials remain silent.
With 37,000 BTC, the funding scope is visibly wider.
CZ pleads guilty and resigns as CEO, Binance settles with the United States for $4.3 billion. When the boots hit the ground, the market breathed a sigh of relief.
The aftermath of the settlement: The biggest uncertainty in the industry has been cleared, and the institutional narrative has become smoother.
On Thanksgiving Day, node players from all over the world wish each other a happy Thanksgiving in Discord.
On Black Friday, someone posted "I bought a key with the money I spent on a graphics card" and received over a thousand likes.
Over the weekend, the online number of node broke through to a new level, and the distribution map became denser.
On Ah Zhen’s first full weekend after taking a break from mainnet, the group gave him fireworks emoticons.
Official blog notice: "Important arrangements for community incentives" will be announced in December.
The words "important arrangements" were interpreted word for word, and airdrop guessed the screen.
BTC 37,800, one step closer to the year’s high.
End of November: BTC closed at 37,700. The chain has been stable for three weeks, and the whole community is waiting for the answer in December.
2023-12
December 2023
31December begins: BTC 38,500 continues to climb. The smell of TGE is in the air, and officials are tight-lipped.
Over the weekend, the community bets on the "important arrangement" content: airdrop, Shangsuo, and staking, three parties confront each other.
BTC is approaching 40,000, and the density of photos posted in Moments has returned to 2021.
BTC broke through 40,000 US dollars, returning from 16,600 US dollars in one year, and the cold winter officially declared a thaw.
Key sales resonated with the market and jumped another level.
mainnet has been running for four weeks: zero major accidents, and the number of sentinel statements exceeds one million.
The official warm-up poster is online: a gift box pattern, which instantly detonated the community.
BTC hits 44,000 year high. The mystery of the gift box is said to be revealed next week.
Over the weekend, Discord's online number reached a new high, and everyone was busy making announcements.
The Night Watchman posted a long post looking back on the year from the establishment of the project to mainnet, ending with: "What should come will come."
BTC fell back to 41,000 in a single day, showing the temper of a leveraged bull. No one is distracted - everyone is waiting for tomorrow.
airdrop Declaration: 125 million to players and node
The answer is revealed: The official officially announced the airdrop plan - 125 million XAI, accounting for 5% of the total amount of token, which will be allocated to players who have actually played the game and node operators who guard the network. Decrypt and other industry media immediately reported that the title "Arbitrum game chain gives players ⟦T001 5% of the total amount" flooded the timeline.
This is the first time the official has put the words "token" on the table. The official announcement in June did not mention the currency at all, but airdrop was directly released in December - the order is intriguing: the chain first, node first, game access first, and finally the currency. The community's interpretation is in four words: "Work first, pay later."
Discord exploded on the spot. The channel message speed is so fast that the administrator turns off the slow mode and then turns it on; questions like "Does it count if I have played the testnet?" and "How many points can I get for my key?" are posted dozens of times every minute. There is another kind of fanaticism in the node channel - those key holders who have been keeping vigil since August saw for the first time the word "vigil" being clearly recognized with a price tag. The night watchman only sent one sentence: "Who thought about this when I bought the keys in August?" There was a row of "Have you thought about it" jokes below - everyone remembered what he had been saying for half a year, "What is supposed to come will come."
The craze also brought a new wave of people: the hair-raising parties who came for airdrop poured into the community, and the number of people entering node Novice Village in a single day was ten times the usual number. The old people looked at the new faces with mixed emotions - the network needs people, but are these people here to guard the network or to harvest? No one knows the answer, and the answer won’t be revealed until 2024.
Author's note: airdrop is the oldest alchemy - turning future expectations into today's fanaticism. The number of 125 million coins has been revealed, and there is only one question left: when and where to see the real seal.
The FOMC has turned dovish, the dot plot indicates an interest rate cut next year, BTC is 43,000, and everyone is celebrating.
airdrop detailed discussions are flooding the screen: how to take snapshots and how to prevent witches. The official said the detailed rules will be announced later.
Lu Mao Studio entered the market in batches, and the old man from Novice Village began to teach "identifying real players".
Over the weekend, key sales experienced the strongest surge since the announcement of airdrop, with sales jumping continuously.
The community compiled a long post on "airdrop qualification guess". The official will not confirm or falsify it.
BTC fell back to 40,700, and no one took the bumps of the bull market seriously.
mainnet game side news: The first batch of cooperative game internal beta schedules will be announced soon.
The number of node online has skyrocketed in anticipation of airdrop, and the Sentinel network has become denser.
The trend of Bitcoin inscriptions has pushed up the handling fees again, and L2/L3 narrative has a tailwind.
On Christmas Eve, the office closed early, and the duty schedule was only monitored on the chain.
On weekends, community Christmas activities: share node, share keys, and share vigil length.
On Christmas Eve, Discord is open and everyone is counting their share of airdrop.
Christmas, BTC 43,000. Night Watchman's node has been online for more than 100 days. He said this is the best gift.
On the first day after the holiday, a blurry screenshot began to circulate, with two words: Binance.
The rumors of "Binance meet" have been upgraded: screenshots, so-called insider information, and quick refutation of rumors are in full swing. The official was non-committal, but the community rather believed that he had it - the keys were sold out again.
The popularity of the rumors continues, and the night watchman advises newcomers: Don’t bet on the news, keep node safe.
BTC is consolidating at a high of 42,000, and the whole market is waiting for the ETF ruling in January.
Over the weekend, annual review posts flooded the screen: One year ago today, this link was just a sentence in the document.
End of the year: BTC closed at 42,000, and the market completely thawed. This year, the chain has gone from project establishment to official announcement to mainnet, node from drawings to thousands of lights, airdrop has been finalized, and rumors are flying all over the sky - everything is ready, only TGE is needed. The author closes this year's book: in 2024, see the real chapter.
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