Xelite Pulse | Episode 16: December Monthly Review

10 min read5 days ago

As 2024 comes to a close, December has been one of the busiest and most impactful months in XELIS history. Packed with game-changing developments, strategic partnerships, ecosystem expansion, and remarkable community engagement, this month has set a strong foundation for Xelis as we step into 2025. Below is an in-depth review of all the progress we’ve made this December.

Development Milestones

Public Launch of Silex Language
This month saw the release of Silex, Xelis’ custom-built smart contract programming language. Inspired by Rust, Silex brings robust, secure, and efficient coding to the Xelis Virtual Machine (Xelis VM), setting new standards and flexibility for smart contract development in the crypto space. The Silex Developer Playground (https://playground.xelis.io) was also launched, providing an interactive environment where developers can experiment with Silex. This tool includes detailed documentation, example code, and full access to all available functions, making it easier than ever for developers to build on Xelis.

2. Smart Contract Testnet Launch
A key milestone in our roadmap, the testnet for Xelis smart contracts has launched.

We’re thrilled to invite developers to explore, experiment, and contribute to the future of decentralized technology with Xelis Smart Contracts. 🎉

📚 Documentation & Updates:

Our documentation and SDKs are still being refined, but you can find the latest details in API.md within the xelis-blockchain repository (use the smart-contracts branch). https://github.com/xelis-project Your feedback will help us improve and move closer to Mainnet!

🌟 Resources to Get Started:

Testnet Explorer: https://testnet-explorer.xelis.io
Node/API Endpoint: testnet-node.xelis.io/json_rpc
Online Playground: Quickly create, test, and export programs as hex files: https://playground.xelis.io
Launch Article: https://xeliscommunity.org/xelite-pulse-xelis-smart-contracts-live-on-testnet-episode-15-a49804f79385

3. Developer Bounty Program
We introduced a bounty program targeting specific tasks essential for the completion of Xelis Smart Contracts and the Xelis VM. This program has already attracted new developers from the community who have contributed to various aspects of the project. Supported by the Xelis development fund, these bounties ensure that we can move forward quickly by incentivizing talented contributors to help achieve our goals.

4. Genesix Wallet Upgrades
December brought several launched updates to the Genesix Wallet, focusing on user convenience and security.

Custom Fee Settings: Users can now set custom transaction fees, giving them greater control over cost and transaction speed.
Enhanced Seed Phrase Restore: Improvements to the seed phrase restore functionality ensure a smoother, more reliable recovery process, enhancing user trust and experience.
Improved Reporting: More detailed wallet history exporting available with Date/TimeStamps. Great to assist users with any documentation for taxes

5. Xelis Network Upgrade (Hardfork)

The Xelis network underwent a major update on 12/30/2024 to implement the following changes to the protocol:

Multisig feature enabled
New P2P Key exchange protocol DH.
Security patch: Success story of the bug bounty program.
Several optimizations and changes.

We would like to personally thank the community and all third-party services (exchanges, and mining pools for their patience during this required update.

Ecosystem Expansion

Xelis for Retail Payments
The adoption of XEL as a payment method took significant steps forward this month. Here are some notable examples:

A barbershop successfully accepted XEL as payment for a haircut, marking a new milestone in real-world utility. Step aside Bitcoin Pizza man, meet Haircut Man! https://x.com/XelisCommunity/status/1865150882133815619
Nucleo Music School in Brazil joined the growing list of merchants accepting XEL for music lessons and instruments, showcasing the cryptocurrency’s versatility and ease of use.

2. E-commerce Integration with Xelis Pay
This month, Xelis partnered with Pool Party Nodes (https://poolpartynodes.com/product-category/xelis-clothing-store/) to launch the official Xelis merchandise store. This was made possible by the first-ever implementation of the Xelis Pay WooCommerce Plugin, developed by our team. This plugin integrates XEL payments into online stores, simplifying cryptocurrency adoption for businesses and paving the way for broader merchant acceptance. Read more about it: Xelite Pulse | Xelis Partners with PoolPartyNodes to Launch Xelis Merch Store (Episode 12) | by Xelis Community | Dec, 2024 | Medium

Market Achievements

Market Capitalization Milestone
Xelis for the first time entered the top 1000 cryptocurrency projects by market capitalization on CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. This milestone reflects the growing trust and adoption of Xelis within the broader crypto community.
Mining Revenue Recognition
Xelis ranked in the top 10 projects globally in terms of mining revenue emissions, as reported by Mining Pool Stats. This demonstrates the project’s strong appeal to miners and its competitive position within the decentralized ecosystem. https://miningpoolstats.stream/
New Exchange Listings
Expanding liquidity and accessibility, XEL secured listings on three new exchanges this month. The dedication of securing exchange listings displays the team’s dedication to improving adoption. This is just the start though, as more exchanges are on the way (of similar, and higher tiers)!

Biconomy: XEL/USDT trading pair

Safetrade: XEL/USDT trading pair.

BIT: XEL/USDT trading pair.

These listings make it easier for users to buy, sell, and trade XEL, contributing to a more vibrant and liquid market.

4. Partnership with Nicehash
In collaboration with Nicehash (https://nicehash.com), Xelis is now supported on their platform, enabling miners to buy and sell hash rates. This partnership includes integration with Nicehash’s mining software and stratum pools, further strengthening Xelis’ mining ecosystem and accessibility. https://xeliscommunity.org/xelite-pulse-xelis-now-supported-on-nicehash-unlock-new-mining-opportunities-episode-11-e3dabdb0cf3b

Community Engagement

Community Nickname Vote: XELITES!

Our community solidified its identity this month through a nickname vote. After a spirited discussion and voting process on X/Twitter, Xelites was chosen, beating out other options like Xelistars. This marks the beginning of a unified and recognizable community identity. https://x.com/XelisCommunity/status/1869537196627116215

2. Xelite Mascot Design Contest & Giveaway
The Xelis mascot, Xelite, is in the works! We launched a community-driven design contest with a prize pool of 100 XEL (approximately $1,000 USD). This initiative has spurred creativity within the community while bringing more visibility to the project. https://x.com/XelisCommunity/status/1864076614075568310

3. AMA and Q&A Sessions

AMA on Twitter Spaces: Engaged live with our very own Cyber from Xelis BD/Marketing/Partnerships team and CryptoWhale Communities, discussing Xelis’ vision, technology, and future plans. https://x.com/i/spaces/1vOxwraZWdRJB

Xelite Pulse | XELIS Q&A: Behind the Vision, Technology & Team (Episode 10): An in-depth Q&A session with the Xelis team revealed insights into each team member’s background, personality, interests, and discussed the overall mission, technology behind Xelis, and goals for decentralized finance innovation. https://xeliscommunity.org/xelite-pulse-xelis-q-a-behind-the-vision-technology-team-episode-10-7f5d81d08a6c

4. Educational Content

Xelite Pulse | Privacy and Confidentiality in Cryptocurrency: Restoring Balance with Xelis (Episode 13): A deep dive into privacy in crypto, breaking down misconceptions and highlighting how Xelis balances confidentiality and transparency to be a unique solution in the cryptoverse. We introduce the concept of Xelis not being a privacy coin, but truly a confidential coin. https://xeliscommunity.org/xelite-pulse-privacy-and-confidentiality-in-cryptocurrency-restoring-balance-with-xelis-episode-8e2acc7f925b
Xelite Pulse | Balancing Privacy, Scalability, and Speed: The Trade-offs (Episode 14): An exploration of the trade-offs between privacy technologies and scalability, offering a unique perspective on how Xelis addresses these challenges and why privacy & encryption are a needed addition to the traditional trilemma, forming a Quadlemma whereas optimizing pillars of each requires innovative solutions to avoid trade-offs. https://xeliscommunity.org/xelite-pulse-balancing-privacy-scalability-and-speed-the-trade-offs-episode-13-b5ee9fb2ffb2

5. Community Marketing Thread Campaign & Merch Giveaway
The #XelisThreadChallenge encouraged community members to create Twitter threads showcasing Xelis’ unique features. This initiative was launched to organically help spread the key benefits and innovation behind Xelis. Prizes include exclusive Xelis merchandise, further spreading awareness about the project. https://x.com/XelisCommunity/status/1870137870431772766

6. Xelis Merchandise Store Launch

Xelis enthusiasts can now proudly represent the project with official Xelis-branded merchandise, available through the newly launched merch store. The store, developed in partnership with Pool Party Nodes, offers high-quality items featuring the Xelis logo and designs. This initiative allows the community to show their support for Xelis in style, while also marking the first commercial use of the Xelis Pay WooCommerce plugin. https://xelis.io/merch

Key Milestones

10% of XEL Coins Mined
Reaching this milestone is a testament to the growing interest in Xelis mining and the robustness of our network. https://x.com/XelisCommunity/status/1869127302660931644
Bug Bounty Success Story
Thanks to the vigilance of our community and the Xelis Bug Bounty Program, a potential security issue was identified and promptly addressed with our network upgrade — before it could be exploited or posed any risk. This Bug Bounty program enables anyone to audit the chain for rewards, and already has proved its immense value

Looking Ahead

With smart contracts on the horizon and a growing ecosystem of users, developers, and miners, Xelis is positioned for even greater achievements in 2024. Our focus remains steadfast on innovation, ease-of-use, privacy, scalability and community collaboration as we aim to revolutionize decentralized finance.

Thank you to our incredible community, developers, and partners for making this a record-breaking December. Let’s keep the momentum going! 🚀

Community Stats:

Discord Members: 7218 members

(7126 12/5, 7030 members 11/11, 7051 members 10/9, 6950 members 9/6)

Telegram Members: 2855members

(2813 members 12/5, 2853 members 11/11, 2964 members 10/9, 2983 members 9/6)

@xelis_project-Twitter/X Followers: 8247 followers

(7815 followers 12/5, 6700 followers 11/11, 6511 followers 10/9, 6165 followers 9/6)

@xeliscommunity, Twitter/X Followers: 1669 followers

(1454 followers 12/5 1192 followers 11/11, 1079 followers 10/9, 860 followers 9/6)

Mining Stats:

Current Hashrate: 4.69GH (4.22GH 12/5, 2.70GH 11/11, 3.45GH 10/9, 5.4GH 9/6)

# of Miners: 6198 Miners (6653 12/5, 4790 11/11, 5809 10/9, 7557 9/6, 6751 8/19) (as per https://www.miningpoolstats.stream/xelis )

Pool Percentage of Hashrate: 55% Herominers, 15% K1Pool, 15% Kryptex, 12% Vipor (please decentralize your hashrate!)

Community Posts of the Month:

It was a great month for Xelis and our community on social media with some great interaction and posts! Even a little bit of lively debate! There is no doubt that Xelis is getting noticed. Let’s dive into a few of our favorite posts from December.

First off we have @xelis_fans who is showing off some of the recently released Xelis Merch through our partnership with PoolPartyNodes. We do agree, those hats are fire!! Hope everyone has a chance to pick up some Merch and help market Xelis!

Next we have @amd_alnj who shows off his creative AI image generation to show his excitement for the release of the XELIS smart contract testnet launch coming on 12/31! We are just as excited as you for this next phase of our project!

How could we go through a month of posts and not get a gem from one of our hardest working community marketers! CryptoMX_ aka “Eevil” making connections and networking with anyone that wants to publicly support Xelis through our quadlemma/xelis icon! Nice work CryptoMX, your tireless support is very appreciated.

The Xelis Smart Contract & VM launch is creating a lot of excitement throughout the twitterverse, and @londoncoinguy aka “Moonshot” is no exception. This beautiful posts shares another exciting part about our Smart Contracts from a security and tokenomics perspective. A portion of smart contract fees will be burned! This prevents spamming attacks, and causes Xelis to be deflationary!

We love new miners jumping on the network, even small hobby miners like @cryptomatt1983, and yes as winter comes along, mining can help in more than one way with the nice heat it creates! Earn Xel, and be warm this winter. What a great combination

Thank you for reading this article on Xelis! If you enjoyed the content and found it useful, please consider supporting my work with a tip in Xelis $XEL. Your contribution helps us keep producing quality content like this, and we genuinely appreciate your support!

— Cyber (Telegram: cybernated_coinage | Discord: cybernatedcoinage )

Tipping Address: (XELIS ONLY)

xel:82zfcy3aa2pk2rzx6jpfnv7u3vkjcxhqs3hyghj45u9g2ccrrslsqk3vm3x

Important Links:

Xelis VM Playground: https://playground.xelis.io

Xelis LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/xelis

Website: https://xelis.io

Documentation: https://docs.xelis.io

Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.xelis.io/

Github: https://github.com/xelis-project/

Xelis Merchandise Store (PPN) : https://xelis.io/merch or https://poolpartynodes.com/product-category/xelis-clothing-store/

Telegram: https://t.me/xelis_io