Coda Protocol, the World’s Lightest Blockchain, Becomes One of the Largest Layer 1 Testnets By Peer Count

With mainnet launch on the horizon, Coda Protocol received over one thousand applications to its new Genesis token program.

San Francisco, CA March 24th – Coda Protocol, the world’s lightest blockchain, is now one of the largest layer 1 testnets by peer count. Phase 3 of the testnet has generated more than 400 users connecting at least once, 300 users signing up to stake, and 143 max concurrent users.

Alongside the release of Phase 3 of the testnet, Coda launched Genesis, a token program that prepares participants to become the network’s first block producers and ensures high decentralization upon mainnet launch. Coda token grants are being distributed to Genesis founding members, pulling from the pool of participants engaging in testnet challenges that are designed to contribute to greater network resilience. Within weeks of their launch, the Coda team received 1.3k applicants wanting to join Genesis and have 40 founding members admitted to cohort 1.

Evan Shapiro, CEO and Co-Founder of o1Labs, the team behind Coda Protocol, articulated, “We couldn’t have achieved this milestone of becoming one of the largest testnets by peer count without the continued support of our dedicated community. The Genesis token program is designed to ensure block producers are operationally prepared for mainnet. We couldn’t be more pleased to have such an outpouring of interest from people hailing from 80 different countries, and we are using this momentum to continue strengthening the protocol and ensure a robust, highly decentralized network at mainnet.”

The first cohort includes validator teams such as Bison Trails, Figment Networks, dsrv labs, and Sparkpool.

Viktor Bunin, Protocol Specialist at Bison Trails, conveyed, “Community is blockchain’s killer feature and Bison Trails is proud to be a Genesis Founding Member, the highest honor in the Coda community. Bootstrapping a community of passionate and active ecosystem contributors is the #1 challenge young protocols face today. Coda is leading the pack with a token-based incentive and engagement model to create a healthy, dynamic community.”

Andrew Cronk, Co-founder & Head of Product at Figment Networks, expressed, “We’re excited to be part of Coda by providing both infrastructures as a block producer and analytics with Hubble. We see Coda as a bold exploration of blockchain frontiers and we look forward to participating in this groundbreaking new protocol.”

Jiyun Kim, CEO at dsrv labs, articulated, “We’re exhilarated to take part in the Coda Genesis program because we believe this is a truly innovative use-case of zk-SNARKs to solve the biggest challenges of digital currencies and blockchain: scalability, inclusivity, ease-of-use, and decentralization. We’re thankful for all the effort the team has shown to support the South Korean blockchain community and we certainly don’t want to miss out on the launch of the world’s lightest blockchain, Coda.”

Unlike other third-generation protocols offering 1% or less in token distributions to their communities, Coda is setting aside up to 6.6% of tokens for Genesis founding members. Additionally, participants need not wait until some indefinite point in the future to receive their tokens, as Coda’s mainnet will be released this year. These distinctions alongside Coda’s unique approach to solving blockchain’s scalability problem through the deployment of recursive zk-SNARKs are likely contributing factors explaining the rapidly growing interest in Coda. The team plans to release the next phase of Coda’s testnet in the upcoming few weeks.

Gareth Davies, a full stack developer from British Columbia in Canada and one of the participants admitted to the Genesis token program, was one of the earliest to join Coda’s testnet in July 2019. He expressed, “My favorite thing about Coda is how it utilizes and builds on zk-SNARKs, which is fundamental work that could have a massive impact on the blockchain space and technology in general.”

By harnessing recursive zk-SNARKs, Coda block producers can rapidly share proof of the correct blockchain state across the network and easily update the proof as new transactions occur. This breakthrough application of zero-knowledge proofs is what allows Coda to offer scalability to thousands of transactions per second, millions of users, and years of transaction history without sacrificing security.

For more information on Genesis, please visit Coda’s Genesis FAQ page.

Apply to join Genesis: https://codaprotocol.com/genesis

For media inquiries, please contact Kili Wall at (310) 260-7901 or Kili(at)MelrosePR(dot)com

About Coda Protocol Coda Protocol, the world’s lightest blockchain, provides a foundation for the decentralized digital economy (Web 3.0), offering scalability to thousands of transactions per second, millions of users, and years of transaction history without sacrificing security. By utilizing recursive zk-SNARKs, the Coda blockchain always stays the same size—about 20 kilobytes (the size of a few tweets). Recursive zk-SNARKs allow nodes to rapidly share and update proof of the correct blockchain state across the network. This breakthrough application of zk-SNARKs solves the issues of scalability and high barrier to entry for nodes that have plagued legacy blockchains to-date. By making it easier for nodes to participate, Coda improves decentralization and therefore security of the network. The Coda blockchain can be easily accessed from any device, including phones and browsers, and can be seamlessly integrated into new decentralized applications (dapps).