Integritee Year in Review 2021: Milestones Reached, Partnerships Forged

For Integritee, 2021 has been a fast-moving, challenging, and exciting time in which key milestones were achieved, strategic partnerships were forged, and our community began to grow and take shape. As we approach the holiday season and end of the year, we would like to reflect on some of the highlights of the past 12 months.‍

‍The Groundwork for Success

In February, we released the first version of the Integritee testnet on Rococo. This built on our previous work in 2020, financed by grants from the Web3 Foundation and Polkadot Treasury, that focussed on integrating trusted execution environments (TEE) into the Polkadot ecosystem. The testnet showcased how the core features of the Integritee network would operate in a Polkadot environment.

In the months that followed, while we continued to expand the platform and develop the code, we founded Integritee AG, registered in Switzerland. This coincided with the development of a new brand and website for Integritee.

The following month, in June, we closed a $2 million seed round followed by a second private round which summed up the total investment to $6.5 million.

‍A Year Full of Milestones

In the final quarter of the year, this groundwork paved the way for us to achieve a number of milestones in quick succession. In November, we launched the Integritee mainnet and conducted our token generation event (TGE). This was a proud moment for the whole team: for the first time, Integritee became a functional network capable of securely processing sensitive data. The first practical deployment on the Integritee mainnet is the TEER exchange rate oracle. The oracle connects to the authenticated SSL servers of market data providers from a TEE and publishes relevant TEER exchange rates to an Integritee chain. This deployment demonstrates Integritee’s ability to provide data with verifiable non-repudiation and will be used in future to ensure stable USD-denominated fees. The blocks produced by the mainnet so far can be viewed on Subscan or Polkadot.js.

At the end of November, two tremendously successful token sales were conducted which served to distribute TEER to a wider user base and further spread ownership of the network. User demand was phenomenal. The busy month of milestones was capped off on December 1 when TEER was officially listed on the Gate.io exchange and became transferable.

We continue to participate in the Kusama parachain auctions through our crowdloan campaign. We recently announced new, fixed rewards for Integritee crowdloan backers which means that for the first time, supporters will receive a fixed amount of TEER for each KSM they bond. This will make it easier for KSM holders who are considering whether to back Integritee to estimate their potential rewards. This comes in addition to our other crowdloan incentives such as loyalty rewards, referral rewards, and guaranteed rewards. For full details and FAQs, visit our dedicated crowdloan page. Furthermore, we launched our Integritee Ambassador Program to celebrate our most engaged and active community members and reward them for their contributions with TEER tokens.‍

‍Strategic  Collaborations & Partnerships

We believe in the concept of cooperative competition — the idea that by partnering with complementary firms in the blockchain space, we can build an ecosystem that results in better outcomes for both partners and their communities. With this goal in mind, we have forged a number of new collaborations over the course of 2021.

For many Web3 services to be viable in the long run, they will require an effective way to manage and verify user identities, while protecting privacy. In October we teamed up with KILT, a blockchain identity protocol. KILT is aiming to change the way the “Know Your Customer” process takes place, which is typically needed to access services such as opening a bank account or signing up for an exchange. KILT’s SocialKYC service enables users to verify their identity by proving that they control their social media accounts or email addresses. By partnering with Integritee, KILT will allow its users to audit the SocialKYC service from the source code to the deployed service they’re sharing their data with, and rest assured their data won’t be stored anywhere in the process.

One of our core beliefs is that users should be able to access data-driven products without needing to sacrifice their privacy in return. This made Web3 Champions Fractal a perfect partner for Integritee. Building on their success in developing and launching an ID and wallet solution, Fractal is now aiming to establish a decentralized data commons that will allow users to share and monetize their data on their own terms. We look forward to continuing to work towards these shared goals with Fractal in 2021.

The gaming sector is characterized by a passionate and relatively tech-savvy community that is restricted by the walled gardens of existing, centralized platforms. As a result, it is ripe for innovation through the adoption of Web3 technologies. This is why we partnered with the decentralized gaming platform Ajuna in October. The partnership will allow gamers to play games and trade virtual goods without depending on centralized servers. This ensures that wherever there is a community of active players, online play can continue, even if a developer discontinues online support. A proof of concept was presented at the Sub0 Conference on October 14.

‍‍Looking Ahead to 2022

Although we have achieved many milestones in 2021, some of the most exciting are yet to come in 2022. Among the many upcoming landmarks include securing a Kusama and Polkadot parachain slot, releasing sidechain and smart contract functionality, deploying the first enterprise proof of concepts, partnering with research institutions and universities, and establishing a decentralized governance council. To stay up to date with all the latest developments as they happen, follow us on Telegram or Twitter, or to learn how to back Integritee in the Kusama auctions, visit our dedicated crowdloan page.