2024 has been a year to remember for Status!
In the past 12 months, we made significant progress on developing Status Desktop and Mobile, journeying from major beta releases to the public launch of the Status Mobile and Desktop Beta applications.
At the end of 2023, we gave you a look into Status's history, the challenges we faced in development, and the goals we were committed to achieving in 2024.
We are proud to have not only delivered on the commitments we shared back then but also made exciting progress in many other areas.
The Status development team remains one of the most active in the blockchain space, and we’ve continued to build throughout the highs and lows of 2024.
Let’s take a walk through the past year and look back at all we accomplished.
Launch of Keycard v2
We made a solid start to 2024 with the announcement of Keycard v2, an improved version of the original Keycard with a striking new look.
This new version of Keycard was updated to reflect the product’s maturity and priorities security by removing the possibility of altering the installed software–functionality that was previously retained to allow developers to add new applets to their Keycards.
Equally important, the new Keycard sported a beautiful, bold orange finish to distinguish it from the previous version.
Token-gated Communities and Tokenised Ownership
Major development updates for the Status apps appeared early in the year with the announcement of new token-related features for Communities.
Communities are censorship-resistant, decentralised sovereign zones that offer everything from group chats to customisable sub-channels and more. Think of Communities like decentralised Discord servers without any risks of surveillance or your access being revoked by a centralised entity.
In 2024, we introduced tokenised ownership of Communities as well as token-gated Community management to the Status Desktop app, which allowed Community permissions to be transferred while maintaining privacy and without compromising on features.
Status Desktop and Mobile Betas
Halfway through 2024, we achieved a significant milestone - the launch of the new Status Mobile and Desktop Betas!
In May, a new beta version of Status Desktop was launched, giving early adopters a preview of the functionality they could expect later in the year. This release included early versions of the app’s messenger, multi-chain wallet, and Communities.
This was shortly followed by the release of Status Desktop Beta 2.0 and the new Status Mobile Beta, which offered users a chance to try out the features of the decentralised messenger and crypto wallet across various platforms.
These Status Mobile and Desktop beta releases used Waku v2 for optimised p2p messaging and delivered improvements to everything from the multi-chain wallet to Communities.
Both apps encouraged users to try out the beta releases and continued to roll out incremental improvements in response to bug reports and user feedback.
SNT Staking and Status Network
While working hard on the Status apps, we also found time to hold a community vote, giving SNT holders a say in the future direction of the token’s utility and Status itself.
Once the votes were in, it was apparent that the community's favourite initiatives were the development of an SNT staking mechanism and the launch of a Status Network layer-2 rollup.
We committed to delivering both SNT staking and Status Network, simultaneously developing the projects to maximise their utility for SNT holders–and we didn’t waste any time getting started.
In August, we announced a partnership with Linea Network to launch the Status Network layer-2 rollup. This partnership both delivers the layer-2 infrastructure for Status Network and furthers the overall decentralisation of the Ethereum ecosystem, an outcome on which Status and Linea are aligned.
Public Mobile and Desktop Beta Releases
One of the most significant announcements of the past year was the public release of Status Mobile and a new Status Desktop Beta in September.
These versions of Status are still under development, and users can expect to encounter the occasional bug, but these releases marked a moment when we felt excited to have the public try out the apps and their various impressive components.
By this point, the list of features available in Status Mobile and Status Desktop Beta had grown substantially, with the latest versions of Status offering customisable profiles, an integrated Activity Centre, Keycard support, and much more.
Read our full announcement for all the details on the Status Mobile and Desktop Beta releases.
Rolling Out Regular Updates
Following the public release of Status Mobile and the new Status Desktop Beta, we adopted a regular upgrade schedule and began rolling out updates more frequently.
Two months after our major releases in September, we pushed another update to Status Desktop and Mobile with Status v2.31.
This upgrade saw native token swaps integrated with both the Status Mobile and Desktop through integration with ParaSwap, meaning users could now use ParaSwap to easily swap tokens across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Optimism from directly within the Status app.
This new cadence of regular updates to Status Mobile and Desktop will continue into 2025. The next release, slated for early 2025, is set to include some exciting features, including new ways to connect with dApps and expanded integration with Keycard.
As we look back on 2024, we’re proud of the strides we’ve made and grateful for our community's continued support.
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