Interlay’s 2021: A Year of Development and Growth
By: Alexei Zamyatin
Tags: Polkadot, Interoperability, Defi, Interlay, Bitcoin

The end of the year is a time for reflection and jotting down resolutions for the upcoming one.

And while running towards the future, we, at Interlay, take a moment to recognise how much we’ve grown and learned. From our battles and victories, from our community and peers, and from those who trusted us from the very beginning.

Interlay’s mission to expand interoperability between the various blockchains and empower everyone on every blockchain might seem rather ambitious and even impossible. But then again, the tough roads are for those who dare.

And dare we do!

We use this opportunity to express gratitude for our achievements and send best wishes to all who dare challenge the status quo!

Here are some of our most memorable scores!

From a company of few members, we grew into an extraordinary team of 17 people from all across the globe;

Our community expanded from a few hundred to over 30k on Twitter (@interlaqHQ, @kintsugi_btc, @inter_btc), Discord, and Telegram;

In 4 months only, we managed to launch a solid Ambassador Programme, and now over 100 ambassadors are volunteering to test, educate, and grow the community;

We raised $9.5 million in venture capital to fund growth and development, and wrote tens of thousands of lines of code;

We completed 2 security audits (NCC and Informal Systems);

We were awarded 2 Grants: continuing the Web3 Foundation grant on Polkadot and starting a new collaboration with Cosmos’ Interchain Foundation.

One of our largest achievements, after two years of hard work, we won a Kusama parachain slot with Kintsugi, Interlay’s canary network, with 200,000 KSM locked from 11,000+ supporters. In December, Kintsugi launched as a 100% decentralized network following our commitment to staying true to Bitcoin’s vision of creating a new, radically open financial system.

We round up the year running for a Polkadot parachain slot — Interlay’s crowdloan has already received the support of over 1 million DOT from 4000+ supporters in the first few weeks.

For us, it is a year to remember. After a short resting period, we will resume our mission in 2022 with ever more passion and ambition. Trustless interBTC will come to Polkadot, Ethereum, Cosmos, and all other major blockchains platforms — challenging the centralized status quo. And from the depths of our R&D lab, a new paradigm for Bitcoin DeFi will emerge — non-custodial, zero-collateral, simple to use.

Our goal for 2022: No longer shall we require trust to use Bitcoin in the flourishing new financial system. Bitcoin will embrace true DeFi, once and for all, fulfilling the first major step of Interlay’s vision for an interoperable future.

The Interlay team wishes all a brave new year, full of change and evolution. May 2022 bring us even closer to an open, fair and universally accessible financial system.

About Interlay

We envision a future where blockchains seamlessly connect and interact: anyone can use any digital asset on any blockchain, trustless and without limitations. We work with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, Cosmos, and others to expand interoperability, capital efficiency, and openness.

Our flagship product is interBTC — Bitcoin on any blockchain. A 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset, fully collateralized, interoperable, and censorship-resistant, realizing the true free nature of BTC and decentralized finance. Kintsugi is our canary network on Kusama — the innovation hub of the Interlay network.

Follow our Twitter, Telegram, and Discord to keep up to date with daily updates from the team, or visit our website.