A social network off the grid

Hey backers!

In July I took some holidays from Manyverse and other projects, so there's not that much to report. Since our launch in September 2018, this is the first time that I took an actual break! Zero hours worked, but also zero euros used. This means the funds you donated this month will be used for the next month.

The break is also a good moment to prepare for what's coming next. In the last newsletter, I told you about a grant (let's refer to it as the "UX grant") we're applying to together with a UX designer (Wouter Moraal). We're looking forward to hear whether the grant is approved. In addition to that, I'm hyped to inform that another grant (let's call this the "protocol grant"), applied together with other SSB developers, has been approved! I'll let the official announcement (soon) shine more light on the details, but it'll be a big enough grant to allow approximately 4 persons working on SSB full time for a year.

The tide is turning, and it seems that the second half of 2020 will be very productive for us as a team, and we aim to achieve important milestones. The UX grant is aimed at improving the onboarding experience, but the protocol grant should also cover some technical issues and performance of initial sync during onboarding. We will most likely use and develop JITDB, a new customized database for SSB with incredible performance. I had a call with arj03 who developed the JITDB proof of concept, and it seems like a perfect solution for the technical hurdles of initial sync.

Manyverse and Scuttlebutt are about to be renewed, and now was the right time to rest before we get started!

— @andrestaltz