Blog

H1 2024 in Review - Gnosis

July 26, 2024
/
Gnosis

Executive Summary

In H1 of 2024, Gnosis embarked on its most ambitious phase yet – Gnosis 3.0 – a collective of aligned projects focused on revolutionizing payments and financial infrastructure, all of which are connected by the GNO token. Having evolved from a prediction market platform (Gnosis 1.0) into a cornerstone of Ethereum infrastructure (Gnosis 2.0), Gnosis 3.0 now aims to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and practical, everyday, and high-quality applications for the masses. 

This community report outlines the key developments, milestones, and suite of in-house ventures introduced to the Gnosis ecosystem in H1 towards realizing the Gnosis 3.0 thesis. This is just the beginning of a broader strategic shift towards open financial rails to make decentralized financial tools accessible to everyone.

Gnosis Ecosystem

‍

Launched in March 2024, Gnosis 3.0 is a collective of aligned projects connected by the GNO token.

Gnosis Chain is a sister chain to Ethereum. It’s secured with staked GNO, either through solo or liquid stakers.

Gnosis DAO allocates the Gnosis treasury and GNO is the governance token for the DAO.

Gnosis Ventures, including Venture Capital and Venture Studio, incubates, invests in, and supports projects,  with a focus on decentralized infrastructure, financial payment rails, privacy, AI agents and RWAs. 

The relationship between these ventures and the token can take several forms: Either GNO is used as a token directly or the Gnosis token is economically coupled with the project tokens.

Governance

H1 2024 saw active participation from the community, with 13 Gnosis Improvement Proposals (GIPs) being put to vote before being approved. Collectively, these GIPs advanced GnosisDAO’s decentralizing mission and improved its governance standards.

Governance - Key Approvals from H1 2024

GIP-91, 94 and 96 were a series of proposals that introduced Real-World Assets into the GnosisDAO treasury led by Centrifuge Prime. The proposals also resulted in the formation of a legal foundation to carry the assets and progress the decentralization of the GnosisDAO.

GIP-98 was a proposal for Gnosis to invest $1.5M into HOPR to build Gnosis VPN, a truly private and decentralized VPN on top of the HOPR mixnet.

GIP-100 proposed Gnosis DAO conduct a $30M buyback program of GNO, to return it to its true market value. 

GIP-101 introduced a delegate program for the GnosisDAO, to improve quorum participation, increase community engagement and strengthen the governance processes of the GnosisDAO, leading to more effective and inclusive decision-making.

Governance - H2 Highlights (so far)‍

  • GIP- 102 proposed GnosisDAO invests $20M into the new $40M GnosisVC Ecosystem Fund with the remainder to be raised from strategically aligned parties and VCs. Interested investors can reach out to info@gnosisvc.io
  • With the proposed funding, GnosisVC will invest in early-stage projects to accelerate the development, adoption, and growth of DApps and fintech integrations strengthening the broader Gnosis Ecosystem.
  • This will be in line with the existing Gnosis 3.0 thesis focusing on RWAs, Decentralized Infrastructure, and Financial Payment Rails as target verticals.

‍Gnosis Ecosystem Snapshot

H1 in Review 

  • The Dencun hard fork went live on 11th of March, two days ahead of Ethereum.  
  • The Shutter testnet was launched in May during DappCon. 
  • The team developed a new deposit UI, faucet, ecosystem page and unified bridge interface.
  • Revamped Gnosis Chain documentation and tutorials, to make working on top of Gnosis Chain as easy as possible.
  • Developed and launched the Gnosis Ecosystem page. You can now view many of the projects building on Gnosis Chain and in the Gnosis Ecosystem in one place. 
  • Launched the Gnosis Research Hub, with plans to scale in the coming year.. Includes comprehensive deep dives into Gnosis ecosystem projects.

H2 Outlook

  • Geth is currently working on a Gnosis Chain integration and expected to be available by end of summer.
  • Reth is still in development (publicly available 2025).
  • The team is working towards a d14n.info replacement
  • Shutter mainnet recently launched with plans for it to be scaled up during Q3.
  • GnosisVPN is in development using HOPR’s incentivized private mixnet with the first proof of concept version set to be complete in Q1 2025.

Finance and Operations

This period saw remarkable growth for Gnosis, with notable upticks across key metrics. From validator growth and an exponential increase in transaction volumes on Gnosis Chain, to a rise in the DAO’s treasury, Gnosis continues to make its mark within the Ethereumverse.

Gnosis Chain

From 1st January to July 15th, 2024: 

  • The number of validators increased from 175,010 to 239,301, second only to Ethereum.
  • On the 27th of March, Gnosis Chain crossed the 200M transactions milestone, representing a 60% growth year-on-year. Within the same period, the number of new users on the chain also grew by 56%, underscoring the growing adoption and practical applications of Gnosis Chain.

‍The team launched the Shutterized Gnosis Chain—a landmark achievement and major innovation for blockchain technology. The Shutter integration tackles significant issues surrounding base-layer neutrality, countering the risk of malicious MEV, and maintaining censorship resistance.

‍New Gnosis Validator Website launch

Key Validator Growth Initiatives  

  • GIP - 98: Each of the 500 node operators of HOPR received 1 GNO, encouraging their participation in the network.
  • Stakewise V3: V3 expected to go live shortly. Currently waiting to release the audit report and finalize testing.
  • Obol DVT: Obol Network ’s DV Cluster testing has begun on the Gnosis Chain mainnet, and there was a successful distributed key generation ceremony. After testing, the team will open permissionless participation. 

On-Chain Transactions

On-chain volume 

  • 3x increase in volume compared to same period in 2023. 
  • WETH and WSTETH on-chain volume also been increasing. 
  • $2.7B in stablecoins transacted. 

On-chain volume stables 

  • $200M+ sDAI volume maintained. 
  • 25x increase in EURe volume compared to same period in 2023.
  • 100% growth in GBPe from Q1 to Q2 of 2024.

On-Chain Volume

Since Q1 2023, there has been a steady increase in stablecoin inflows within the Gnosis Chain ecosystem, supporting the growing adoption of Gnosis as a decentralized payment network.

Treasury 

  • Gnosis DAO liquid treasury grew 216% YoY.

Largest inflows coming from:

  • $200M in SAFE
  • Higher prices of ETH and GNO, increasing holdings from 257M to 552M
  • Diversified treasury into Stablecoins, coming from a short position (-11M) to 49M

‍
Buybacks‍

Since November 2023,  more than $20m were performed through OTC and OTM transactions, with additional $30M committed for the remaining of 2024.

Graph sourced from Gnosis DAO (GNO) Thesis by Thanefield Research.

Partnerships & Products

In line with the Gnosis 3.0 thesis, the Gnosis ecosystem saw the launch of multiple products and partnerships aimed at closing the gap between blockchain infrastructure and high-quality applications. The next few slides highlight some of the notable products and partnerships.

Unlocking the Gnosis ecosystem

  • Seamless integration with onchain DeFi protocols
  • Novel reward/ membership programs with NFTs
  • use of community currencies (e.g. Circles or Breadchain)
  • Use cases integrated into RWAs
  • While the roadmap is currently under development, expect a closer integration between Meti, Gnosis Pay and Circles in H2 2024.

Gnosis Pay 

Key Metrics

Gnosis Pay cards, in partnership with Visa, launched on 5th February, 2024. Currently live in Europe, and expanding worldwide. 

*Gnosis Pay key metrics as at mid June 2024

  • 4,322 unique users
  • 3,130 total cards activated
  • 5000+ transactions per week
  • €250K average weekly volume
  • €2.9M+ total payment volume
  • 12K+ people on the Gnosis Card waitlist 

‍

‍

Key Partnerships and H2 Outlook 

Key Partnerships 

  • Metri and Zeal both saw the native integration of Gnosis Pay within their wallets. 
  • uRamp, in collaboration with Monerium, allows users to create a Web3 IBAN to seamlessly on and off ramp. 

H2 Outlook

  • The team’s focus will be to continue amplifying and adding user-requested features to Gnosis Pay while working on key growth initiatives, including:
  • Apple Pay/Google Pay integration.
  • Rewards/Cashback program.
  • Referral program.
  • Scaling up/experimenting with paid acquisition (performance marketing).
  • Adding more currencies to the platform (USDC). 
  • Expanding product offering to 10 new countries.

‍Metri‍

Key Developments 

  • Gnosis has been developing a consumer-facing wallet to address user needs around payments, discussed in various communications since late 2023.
    • Significant progress was made on the wallet in H1 2024, culminating in its public debut at DappCon 24.
    • Metri is designed for a non-crypto natives, drawing inspiration from neo-banks for its user experience.
    • Martin’s announcement in his opening speech at DappCon further highlighted Metri’s integration within the Gnosis ecosystem. 

Looking Ahead - H2 Key Developments 

  • Consistent focus 
    • Continuous improvement and additional user-centric features. 
    • Expanding engagement with existing Gnosis Pay and Circles users to provide value. 
    • Increased feature set 
    • To position Metri as a payment-focused wallet, additional features are planned: some text
      • Genome Domains: Enhancing user experience.
      • Wallet Guardian: Enabling wallet recovery.
      • Cow Swap: Interoperability with DeFi protocols.
      • Circles v2: Improving Circles functionality.
      • Payment Links: Enhancing payment functionality.
      • Full Gnosis Pay Integration: Strengthening Metri's role as a complement to Gnosis Pay
       

Circles

‍Key Developments 

  • Circles is rapidly approaching the launch of V2
  • Version 2 contracts (v0.3.4-alpha) successfully deployed on the Chiado testnet.
  • Modular group policies in development, tailored for various use cases - e.g., Gnosis Pay users, POAP holders and the Governed whitelist. 
  • SDK developments focused on developer documentation. SDK support for Groups and v1 to v2 migration in progress.  
  • Pathfinder results for Contracts V2 are being integrated into SDK for path transfers and group mints.

Looking Ahead - H2 Key Developments 

Circles protocol v2.0 

  • Launch of improved protocol, paving the way for increased adoption by Developers and Product Owners.  
  • Key improvements: some text
    • Enable Circles users to reactivate frozen accounts. 
    • Native support and collateralization for Groups. 
    • Tradable individual Circles. 
    • Simplicity; all Circles governed by a single ERC1155 contract.
    • Onboarding friction reduced. 

Improved Metri user experience 

  • Working closely with Gnosis teams to improve Circles UX in Metri. 
  • Integration of the v2.0 protocol integrated into Metri. 
  • Groups added to Metri along with frictionless account reactivation option. 

Increased event presence 

  • Following DappCon 24, Circles committed to an increased presence at events and conferences. 
  • To promote upcoming v2.0 protocol launch, Circles will be attending: some text
    • EthCC 
    • ETHGlobal - Brussels
    • ETHAccra 
    • Devcon
    • ETHGlobal - Bangkok
    • + more - watch this space.

Flagship Event - DappCon 2024 

DappCon 24, the leading developer conference for Ethereum infrastructure and dApps - and the flagship event of the Berlin Blockchain Week, achieved record ticket sales and attendance. With a focus on openness and accessibility in digital infrastructure, this year’s DappCon welcomed surprise guest Vitalik Buterin to the stage, as well as exciting announcements from projects within the ecosystem. 

Along with an enhanced focus on media attendance, the team successfully brought more public visibility into the Gnosis community, bringing together key decision-makers in the Ethereum space and thought leaders within the Web3 ecosystem, as well as blockchain pioneers, coding maestros, and tech visionaries.

It showcased the state of the ecosystem and demonstrated that, after years of building resilient and open infrastructure, Gnosis is finally in a position to offer the public highly usable products built on top of its battle-tested tech stack.

Held over 21st - 23rd of May, DappCon 2024 at a glance sold 867 tickets, had 23 sponsors and 8 media partners including Cointelegraph and Decrypt. There were a total of 108 speakers including Vitalik Buterin, Joe Lubin and Maike Hornung with over 1,150 media mentions. 

‍

H2 Event Highlight

‍

Thank you

Appendix

Updates from Existing Projects 

Scaffold-ETH: For an easier developer experience.

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

🔗 discord.gg/gnosischain
Read original article on mirror.xyzRead original article on substack