Ark Fi Status Update May 19, 2023
A letter from Ark Fi founder, Atlas, addressing recent events and the future
Dear Ark members,
I am writing to provide an update on our progress and share our vision for the future of Ark.
Recent Price Drop
Firstly, I’d like to sincerely thank everyone for their incredible support during what has been a difficult week for many. On Sunday, May 14th we witnessed a heavy outflow of liquidity from the project, instigated by some nefarious actors who coordinated an attack on the protocol via aggressive BOND selling. Clearly the aim was to create panic in the community and encourage more selling in an attempt to break us. Well, they’ve failed.
The good news is that these people have now been washed out of the system. They have tried their best to take us down but we have now seen the ARK token price stabilize and new buys are coming in. These buyers share our long-term vision and recognize a unique opportunity to increase their position at attractive prices.
Nothing has changed for us and we are not going anywhere. If anything, the events of the past week only serve to motivate us, make us stronger, and more resolute in our vision to create innovative fintech products that service genuine needs in the space. The team is working 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to deliver the exciting range of utilities that will drive revenue directly back to the ecosystem in equal measures to the ILC, NFT Pool and the Treasury.
Contracts Still Printing
Despite the recent price action, there is much to celebrate:
To date, the Ark Vault has paid out $2.9M BUSD in profits.
Over 2000 wallets have ROI'd and are now smooth sailing on the Ark.
Early holders of Legacy NFTs have recieved a 42% ROI and continue to receive BUSD rewards every day.
Intelligent Liquidity Controller (ILC)
What we’ve seen in recent days is that the ILC has added over $60k to its reserve. The ILC has never been switched off, has been working as intended and is protecting its reserves to ensure that investor interests are always safeguarded.
Liquidity for Pre-Seed Contract
$300K in liquidity was segregated to pay BUSD yield to investors participating in the ARKNET pre-seed round. The ARKNET pre-seed round not only reduces ARKFI sell pressure but also gives investors a unique opportunity to use their ARKFI tokens as a launch pad for the new ARKNET token. It's important to note the liquidity segregation has ZERO effect on the ARKFI token price.
5 Month Anniversary
Since launch on December 18, 2022, we have built a strong community and developed innovative products that position Ark amongst the best decentralized finance platforms.
Below are just a few of the milestones we've accomplished during a difficult bear market:
Successfully launched an ecosystem of DeFi yield products.
Cultivated a community of positivity, transparency and passionate investors.
Celebrated our 5-month anniversary of growth and 200th podcast in a row.
Maintained Treasury reserves to develop a roadmap of utilities in 2023.
Near-term Events
Huge releases in the coming weeks will be sure to build excitement and momentum:
Release of the ARKNET Privacy Token Litepaper (expect to see this any day now)
Launch of the Air Card (by May 26). The Air Card is a virtual debit Visa/Mastercard product which enables users to anonymously load crypto in seconds and start spending it in the real world on goods and services.
Launch of the Fiat On-ramp (going live within the next couple weeks).
Launch of the Pre-Seed Privacy Token Deposit Contract (May 26th). This is a rare opportunity to participate at a level normally reserved for VCs. If you haven’t been stacking your ARKFI tokens, there’s no better time to do it!
Development Roadmap
Our roadmap addresses both the need for new user growth and revenue from products that crypto investors use every day. Each product below will send a portion of profits back to the ILC for ARKFI buy-backs and to the Legacy NFT rewards pool.
Purchase and Spend Solutions
Between bank and centralized exchange restrictions, consumers are losing ways to buy and spend crypto. Ark Fi is offering anonymous solutions for users to utilize their crypto as real money.
1. Crypto Cards
In May of 2023, Ark will be introducing a virtual prepaid debit card (Air Card), followed by a physical debit card (Terra Card) before the end of June 2023.
Both cards will allow DeFi community members to load their crypto onto a Visa or Mastercard and make purchases anywhere that accepts debit card or mobile wallet payments.
2. Crypto On-Ramp
Also in May 2023, Ark will introduce "Ramp", a way to purchase crypto anonymously using a debit card. This solves a huge problem for onboarding people from traditional finance into decentralized finance, including purchasing ARKFI.
Privacy Solutions
Ark Fi sees the opportunity to fulfill the growing desire for individuals to remain anonymous and secure while interacting with financial services, including crypto platforms. The roadmap includes several decentralized privacy products to address this need.
1. Decentralized Virtual Private Network (dVPN)
Privacy is the ultimate security and it starts with protecting your identity from attackers. Traditional VPN services have several problems but the largest threat to privacy is the centralized business operating the VPN. Ark Fi is developing a globally decentralized VPN solution that is protected from intervention by centralized entities and governments.
2. Decentralized Cloud Storage
The average person uses 30-50 GB of data storage per month and companies use 500-1000 GB of data storage per week. Data storage is largely owned and controlled by companies like Amazon (AWS), Google and Microsoft who adhere to both internal corporate policies and those issued by the local governments they serve. Ark Fi believes using a decentralized node network and peer-to-peer distribution can speed up storage and improve its capabilities with zero knowledge. We intend to provide a decentralized cloud storage product to individual users and business enterprises looking for a way to avoid censorship while safely storing their precious data.
3. Password Management
In a world where people have over 15 active logins for email, social media, entertainment and ecommerce, managing passwords in a safe manner is a nightmare. Saving passwords at the internet browser level leaves them vulnerable to hackers who can easily access their accounts. Ark Fi intends to extend it's cloud storage product into a dedicated password management system, helping people create strong, unique passwords for each of their accounts. This utility will also store passwords in a secure and decentralized database, making it virtually impossible for hackers to access those accounts. We are committed to building a safer and more secure internet for everyone.
4. Privacy Network (Ark Net)
Ark Fi is bootstrapping the creation of a Layer-2 Privacy Network, "Ark Net", that utilizes the cutting-edge privacy technology, Zero Knowledge proofs. The network will be made up of decentralized server nodes capable of providing bandwidth, compute resources and data storage infrastructure. Through API and whitelabel services, Ark Net aims to attract decentralized application (dApp) developers looking for a secure and scalable network upon which to build privacy applications such as decentralized virtual private networks (dVPNs), cloud storage and password management solutions.
Hedging Against Fiat Currencies
On-Chain Gold Token (ARKG)
With the systemic risks attached to fiat-backed stablecoins, we believe it is important to start pairing ARKFI with a gold-backed digital currency, ARKG. This will protect us from the volatile impact we have seen in current stablecoins and fiat currencies. Our users will have the privilege of both earning and owning real-world cryptocurrency that is pegged to gold.
Let's Get This Crypto!
I hope this provides a clear and exciting preview of where Ark Fi is headed. The team continues to build and we need your ongoing support and energy to bring these innovations to life.
Sincerely,
Atlas, Founder of Ark Fi
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