From Will Birks, Founder and Core Contributor, Amasa
The blockchain space continues to evolve and expand, within a broader environment of global economic and political influences. Since our last dev update Medium post in January, there continues to be a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt around areas of the industry and the impact of different regulators on the development of the space. An observation of the cryptocurrency market has shown ups, downs and sideways action with some big negative and positive events having impact. The continued rise of Artificial Intelligence and its relevance to the blockchain industry has also been making waves. There is plenty of positivity and building happening which is great to see, and it can feel as though the worst is behind us as an industry, but still much uncertainty.
The Amasa project continues to build towards a full app release along an evolving strategic path, with a necessary focus on project runway preservation. Project backers including Animoca Brands and others, reflecting a general consensus of blockchain and broader tech industry views, have voiced concerns for some time about the crucial need for any builders in the space to be efficient and streamlined with project runways and cut costs wherever possible, with a single objective — survive the current ongoing market and economic challenges. We are extremely conscious that there is no advantage in ignoring these realities, and pushing for asap full scale build and releases, if that means the project will lose the ability to continue to be built out due to lack of funds. As much as everyone involved in the project, and community, would love to start using the Amasa app right now, the integrity of the product and the project longevity is key to development velocity and progress. Development is continuing strategically, carefully and with optimised efficiency, with project success prioritised over dev speed.
That being said, since the last broad update, we achieved a huge milestone for the project — we deployed V1.1 to Polygon mainnet with updated contracts, and an improved frontend app was deployed in readiness for our first closed Beta tests. This was the first time the community could use the Amasa app, and it was super exciting to invite passionate community members to participate and get their detailed feedback on the experience. There was an awesome mix of feedback, overwhelmingly positive but with a number of bugs identified, UI/UX and feature suggestions and other valuable feedback points that have helped to identify where the app can be improved in different ways.
The focus following the beta tests has been to plan and build towards the next release, which at the moment is looking like another closed beta test with whitelisted users at much larger scale for a longer time period, which would be followed by full open beta. More detail will be shared in updates on Amasa social channels as the build progresses.
Compiled here is a condensed partial account of progress from January to May 2023, and summary of the key components of closed beta testing and subsequent ongoing development activity into May.
January summary
- Refactored withdraw functions and UI changes
- ar-aToken system cucumber testing
- Ongoing testing of proxy contract updates
- Deployed frontend changes for the new proxy contract
- Deployed patch fixes for withdraw workflow
- Worked on wMatic withdrawal integration
- Deployed updated contract for Aave integration
- Graphs UI debugging and dev testing
- Deployed/tested updated transactions page
- Testing graphs with Coingecko data API
- Review of roadmap progress vs original estimates for development phases
- Modification of planned scope for v1.1 deployment for closed beta tests
- Deployed/tested updated proxy contract
- Worked on new POC for ar tokens in Aave integration
- Updated onboarding and dashboard information flow
- Worked on tracking graphs
- Worked on code changes to Amplify allocations
February summary
- Updates made & tested for new ar token names
- Completed pipeline checks for Prod deployment
- Updated UI/copy on dashboard, deposit, withdraw, allocation pages
- Deployed changes for new frontend configuration proxy
- Setup Chainlink keepers for new proxy
- Deployed & tested withdrawals — base tokens / MATIC
- Creation of security checklist
- Check performUpKeep issue for current contract
- Continued work on security checking
- Fix of issue on withdrawal amounts in WETH
- Fix numerical issue on balance amounts on fund wallet page
- Deployed minor code changes
- Fixed issue on 24 hour change
- Resolved performUpKeep function
- Fixed the dashboard white screen issue
- Minor fixes on other parts of UI
- Deployed the copy changes for the income streams page component
- Fix for market cap issue on Ethereum on Aave auto allocation
- Aave auto-allocation APY updates
- Merge the `develop` branch into the `main` branch
- Full review of copy and UI components and updates where needed
- Regression testing
- Merges and deployments of new contract versions to mainnet and frontend deployments ready for beta testing
Closed beta test planning and preparations
- Process and target outcome documentation
- User personas / segmentation
- Tester cohort outreach and onboarding surveys
- Testing guides creation
- Testing surveys creation
- Tester cohort community reach outs
- Tester application review and selection
March summary
- Onboarding of closed beta testers
- Closed beta testing final preparations and planning
- Phase 1 testing run and completed, surveys submitted
- Phase 2 testing run and completed, surveys submitted
- Test feedback deep review & analysis
- Further feedback gathering and analysis
April — May ongoing summary
- Segmentation of results and prioritization
- Bugs identified, UI/UX improvements identified
- Feature planning and evolution of previous plans based on feedback
- Creation of Jira tickets for all identified development items into backlog
- Detail and estimates against all tickets
- Backlog additions & prioritization
- Further internal testing of persistent and intermittent bugs
- Removed automatic reroute on failed transaction screens
- Update of withdraw token selection to toggle option
- Update of Change Allocation and Withdraw UI components/visibility
- Updating portfolio performance metrics to show 24hr/1d/1w/1m/1y/all
- Working on extensive backlog of new features, fixes /changes
Current build and project goals
Our main ongoing priorities for current build and project goals are as follows:
- Ensuring sustainable long term project success
- Delivery of the next phase of beta for large scale testing as soon as possible under the current approach
- Governance model related to selections and other areas still a priority, still assessing optimal suite of of tools and step actions along full decentralization path
- Amplify options for the next round of beta will reflect ongoing market conditions, outlook and liquidity levels. Open beta will likely involve voting on Amplify options accessible through the app.
- Ongoing fundamental technical challenges remain around L2 gas limitations and optimising to enable scalable bulk paying of users from integrated web3 income provider platforms
- As we continue to aim to onboard web3 income providers to integrate payments to Amasa accounts in a first version, then more seamlessly, at this stage we will most likely continue our beta testing phases with just a user-deposit feature first, to enable simple aggregation with an easy manual 2 step process for users.
- web3earner has grown its community and its offering, consistently adding new places to earn on web3 and providing engaging content including interviews, how-to’s and giveaways with web3 platforms and apps. This is planned to integrate into the Income Streams feature on the Amasa app for next beta version, to make it easy for users to find new ways to earn on web3 and connect to them in different ways.
There continues to be more evidence that people being able to earn on web3 in different ways is integral to the future of online networks and apps, and even brands, as increasing numbers of well known brands activate loyalty and promotional programs on web3 rails. The core unique value proposition for Amasa, to make it easier for anyone to maximise the value of what they earn on web3, remains super relevant. As does Amasa’s belief that this will increase adoption and activity of web3 communities for projects and apps that people can earn with.
More sustainable, healthy and beneficial adoption of web3, by more people globally who can benefit from the value it can bring, is our driving purpose.
Thank you once again to the Amasa community, and all project supporters and partners!
Will Birks, Founder and Core Contributor, Amasa
