Merge pull request #55 from Convex-Dev/develop

Merge Protonet blog post

blog/2024-11-25-protonet/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+slug: protonet-countdown
+title: Countdown to Protonet
+authors: [mikera]
+tags: [convex, cad3, lattice]
+---
+
+The day is finally coming. 
+
+The groundbreaking Convex Protonet is going Live in December 2024. Here's what you need to know about the launch of the world's most powerful platform for decentralised economic systems.
+
+<!-- truncate -->
+
+## What is Protonet
+
+Protonet is perhaps the most important milestone in the journey to deliver true decentralised economic systems at global scale. It's the first live version of the Convex Network. We're launching Protonet now for several reasons:
+
+- **Establish the Global State** - The state machine at the heart of Convex needs to start somewhere. By establishing the genesis state, we achieve this. 
+- **Launch the Convex Coin economy** - Protonet will host the first real live Convex Coins. These are the utility token that drives Convex, that can be held by individuals and organisations in a truly self-sovereign manner. Any coin balances on Protonet will continue to Mainnet and beyond.  
+- **A platform to build** - Protonet is a live network suitable for developers to build dApps and create real digital assets. No need to ask permission: it's a open public network. Just do it.
+- **Establish the ecosystem** - People can be inspired and collaborate around something real and tangible. Real digital assets, real smart contracts, real decentralised data. Protonet is key to unlocking the growth of our open ecosystem. 
+
+## Launch timeline
+
+Here's what you can expect in the next two weeks:
+
+- **2nd Dec**: History is made as the Convex **genesis peer** goes live. The Global State comes in to existence. The first user accounts get created, and the first transactions hit the network as we test the live system. We'll triple-check CPoS consensus and lattice replication with a few peers operated by the core team and collaborators.
+- **3rd Dec**: Coin **issuance** begins for contributors and coin purchasers (at least, for those who elect to receive coins early on Protonet). If you purchased coins via the FCPA or are eligible for an award, you just need to provide your Ed25519 public key and we'll deposit your coins in a brand new account.
+- **4th Dec**: Desktop day. We'll be running a workshop for developers and power users using Convex Desktop. If that's you, join our live interactive session session, 4-6pm UK time on the [Convex Community Discord](https://discord.com/invite/xfYGq4CT7v). Mike may be generously donating some Convex Coins to participants to help them get started, so don't miss out!
+- **5rd Dec**: Launch of **independently operated peers**, including one hosted by [Paisley](https://www.paisley.io/), a user owned DeFi / payments network running on Convex.
+- **6th Dec**: **Virtual launch party**. 6pm UK time on the [Convex Community Discord](https://discord.com/invite/xfYGq4CT7v). Expect demos, big ideas and lively discussion. BYO coffee, pizza and beers etc. 
+- **9th Dec**: Paisley web-based dApp goes live, offering a way for anyone to **buy Convex Coins** using stablecoins (starting with USDT on Base). 
+- **10 Dec**: Analysis day. We'll be looking back on the launch process, examining the state of the network and writing up some reports, insights and learnings.
+- **11 Dec**: If we need to, peers will get a code update. Hopefully not necessary, but if this needs to happen due to any issues found there may be a short window of maintenance where transactions won't work.
+- **12 Dec**: Community day. We'll be online to discuss anything and everything related to Convex and the future. Join for community hangout at 4pm UK time, on the Discord as usual. 
+
+## Contingency plans
+
+As always in technology, we should also expect the unexpected. This is a decentralised network, and we don't have control over what people do with it. Plans may change if necessary. But we've been preparing for this for several years and are ready to handle pretty much anything.
+
+Here's the deal:
+- We **will** roll back and correct any critical security flaws or issues that compromise the integrity of the network as a whole (e.g. a breach of CVM security rules or compromise of network governance accounts)
+- We **will not** fix any issues caused by user error (e.g. losing your private keys, or transferring your entire Convex Coin balance to a random account). Transactions correctly signed and submitted for consensus will get executed. Code is law, and your keys are your crypto etc.
+
+### What next?
+
+Protonet is not yet Mainnet. While the global state and digital assets within Protonet will roll over into Mainnet, there's still more to do before we have a fully decentralised main network. We need to grow the peer network, create more decentralised infrastructure around Convex and get listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges etc.
+
+There will still be lots more to achieve in 2025, but rest assured we will be relentlessly working toward the realisation on the full Convex vision. 
+
+For now: get on Protonet, this is where it all begins.

docs/intro.md

@@ -20,20 +20,22 @@ Convex is designed to give developers ultimate power to build the next generatio
 
 ## Our Story
 
-Convex was initially created by [Mike Anderson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-cvx/), a technology veteran and long time open source hacker. He started coding on an 8-bit Atari 800XL at the age of eight, represented the UK in the [International Olympiad in Informatics](https://ioinformatics.org/) and has been passionate about coding ever since. 
+Convex was initially created by [Mike Anderson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-cvx/), a technology veteran and long-time open source hacker. He started coding on an 8-bit Atari 800XL at the age of eight, represented the UK in the [International Olympiad in Informatics](https://ioinformatics.org/) and has been passionate about coding ever since. 
 
 ![Mike Photo](mike.jpg)
 
 During ten years of consulting experience at [McKinsey & Company](https://www.mckinsey.com/), he saw all the problems and inefficiencies of large centralised organisations (multi-national companies, governments, NGOs etc.) and knew there had to be a better way to organise our economies. 
 
 While working as a founding member and CTO at [Ocean Protocol](https://oceanprotocol.com/) in 2018-2019, he saw the promise of decentralised systems to give power back to self-sovereign individuals, but also the need for a better base layer technology if such solutions were ever able to achieve mass adoption.
 
-This led him to create the [Convex Foundation](https://convex.world) and embark on a programme of research in 2020-2022, tackling multiple obstacles and design challenges to make Convex possible. Key inventions included:
+This led him to embark on a programme of research and create the [Convex Foundation](https://convex.world) in 2020-2022, tackling multiple obstacles and design challenges to make Convex possible. Key inventions included:
 - **Convergent Proof of Stake**: the world's fastest truly decentralised consensus algorithm for a global state machine. By operating as a CRDT instead of a blockchain, CPoS solves the traditional blockchain scalability trilemma. The keys ideas of CPoS are outlined in the [Convex White Paper](overview/convex-whitepaper.md)
 - **Lattice technology**: by combining the concepts of mathematical join-semilattices with cryptography, it is possible to reinvent the concept of data structures for the decentralised world. The lattice is infinitely flexible: any kind of data, any kind of compute, any kind of access control, and kind of replication mechanism. The lattice supports both public on-chain operation (e.g. CPoS, the Convex CVM) and off-chain use cases (DLFS, private databases, media content etc.) 
 - **Decentralised Code Execution**: To offer full flexibility and power to developers, it was clear that Convex needed an execution engine for smart contracts and other autonomous decentralised programs. Existing solutions were inadequate, either due to poor performance, architectural limitations or inability to deal with the more powerful data structures required by The Lattice. The solution was to create a new kind of VM based on the [lambda calculus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_calculus) to bring the best capabilities of functional programming to the decentralised world.
 
-In 2023-2024, Convex has been fully functional and subjected to brutal testing throughout the Testnet phases. It's been remarkably robust: nobody has *ever* managed to steal a single Convex Coin on testnet without access to a user's private key. We have thousands of lines of code dedicated to extensive automated testing. Some of our Testnet servers had uptime of over a year without issues. 
+Convex has always been an open source project. Over the years many fantastic people have joined the project and made significant contributions. The primary venues for collaboration have been been on [GitHub](https://github.com/Convex-Dev) and on the [Convex Community Discord](https://discord.com/invite/xfYGq4CT7v)
+
+Thanks for all these great contributions, Convex has been fully functional and subjected to brutal testing throughout the Testnet phases in 2022-2024. It's been remarkably robust: nobody has *ever* managed to steal a single Convex Coin on testnet without access to a user's private key. We have thousands of lines of code dedicated to extensive automated testing. Some of our Testnet servers had uptime of over a year without issues. 
 
 We validated performance and scalability running early versions of Convex peers distributed all around the world in 2023 as part of the EU [Next Generation Internet](https://ngi.eu/) initiative, which proved global scale and stunning energy efficiency while still offering near-instant transaction finality.
 

docs/overview/governance.md

@@ -1,10 +1,16 @@
 
 # Governance
 
-Convex is governed by the non-profit Convex Foundation. The Foundation performs the following activities:
+Convex is governed by the non-profit Convex Foundation. 
+
+The Foundation performs the following activities:
 
 - Ensures good governance of the Convex Network
 - Operates key resources on behalf of the community, including the https://convex.world website and developer resources such as GitHub repositories
 - Acts as this initial issuer of Convex Coins to individuals and organisations, including management of the release curve
 - Provides awards for contributors to Convex (e.g. open source developers)
 - Supports the development of the Convex ecosystem via partnerships, marketing, education and other initiatives
+
+## Foundation Information
+
+The Convex Foundation is registered as a company limited by guarantee in the UK, founded on 23rd September 2020.