Ruby Connect — Dapp Status Report
Hey Rubies,
Around the end of 2022, as a part of our unremitting efforts to build a privacy-centric programmable access control middleware for Web3, we introduced to the world a new Layer 2 application, Ruby Connect.
Ruby Connect was initiated in response to the growing concerns about privacy and security in online payments and it aims to address the most fundamental need of crypto space, which is to enforce value transfer with guaranteed privacy and to enable cross-chain privacy-preserving access control while protecting your assets and on-chain data.
To ensure its success and, more importantly, make Web3 privacy possible everywhere, the launch was accompanied by a series of growth and marketing campaigns, namely the Bug Bounty Program and the Reward Program.
The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of
- Ruby Connect Background
- Its Key Metrics & Usage State
- The results of the growth and marketing campaigns
- The lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities
- The future plan
Ruby Connect Background
Privacy payment layer2 applications are becoming increasingly popular as people become more concerned about their online privacy and security. These applications provide a layer of protection on top of traditional payment methods, making it more difficult for hackers and other malicious actors to access users’ personal and financial information.
While many privacy payment layer2 applications are available, their adoption rate varies widely. Factors such as ease of use, security, and availability on different platforms can all impact their popularity. Considering these factors, we took a different approach to build Ruby Connect.
We primarily focused on developing technical demonstrations to showcase how our solutions can be executed and utilized in real-world environments to help with the expanding data management needs. And upon the current version, we can add more functionalities in the future.
We consider the current Ruby Connect to be very plastic in the sense that it is a first-step technical foundation on which we can build our future private data management system.
Key Metrics & Usage State
Through different social media channels, we regularly update our communities on how fast and steadily Ruby Connect is growing across various metrics.
As a Layer2 application that aims to check the boxes of privacy, security, and value transfer, we believe the following metrics are essential when judging how successfully our community receives Ruby Connect.
According to on-chain statistics, at the end of March 2023.
Ruby Accounts grows to 4,205
Active Addresses is around 4,021
Total Volume has exceeded $2,797,000
Total Deposit reached over $1,520,000
With the total transactions growing to 13,793
The total deposits made on Ruby Connect is over 4,388
We believe the above numbers are the best representation of the current usage and adoption status of Ruby Connect.
Bug Bounty & Reward Program
To ensure its success and, more importantly, make Web3 privacy possible everywhere, the launch was accompanied by a series of growth and marketing campaigns, namely the Bug Bounty Program and the Reward Program.
By working with our community, we get to turn to our fantastic community and their collective wisdom and imagination to enhance our solutions. This campaign allows us to manage many great iterations to Ruby Connect.
In the Bug Bounty Program, we received great feedback. Here is the breakdown.
- A total of 187 responses were submitted
- 70% of users use Ruby Connect on PC and the rest 30% on Mobile.
Bug Categorizations:
- Front-end display errors
- Auto Filling issues
- Goerli network test token issues
- Pop-up messages
- UX design errors
- Mobile compatibility issues
- Wallet connection
- Long bridge time
- Failed transactions
Reward programs are a vital tool for tech startups to build a user base, breed loyalty, increase tractions, and gain a competitive advantage. Ruby Connect Reward Program is such an initiative where your time, effort, and insightful feedback are fairly rewarded.
In this campaign, once a user interacts with Ruby Connect in the ways mentioned, he or she is a valid participant in this reward program.
Here is the breakdown of the results from this Reward Program.
- A total of 4,021 users (ETH address) participants
- A total of 4,205 accounts (ruby account) were created
- A total of 13,793 valid transactions were executed
*The winner list of the Bug Bounty Program and the Reward Program will be sifted through thoroughly to filter out any malicious behaviors and possible Sybil attacks.
*Any $RUBY reward will go through such a process to ensure the interest of the Ruby Protocol community is protected.
*All $RUBY rewards will follow the official vesting schedule and only be distributed after the official TGE.
Lessons Learned, Challenges & Opportunities
After 90 days, after many iterations, the lessons learned are invaluable for our future development, which also helps us understand Ruby Connect and Layer 2 applications more.
Please note that the challenges and opportunities listed below mainly evolve around Ruby Connect specifically
Challenges:
- Scalability: As more users adopt Ruby Connect and with more transactions it needs to process while guaranteeing privacy and security, scalability can become a bottleneck if the underlying blockchain technology is not designed to handle high transaction volumes.
- Trust: Privacy is a critical component of crypto applications. And users need to trust the application or sometimes take a leap of faith before using it. Unfortunately, users in the crypto and blockchain community often suffer from such psychological pain.
Opportunities:
The above challenges also present us with a myriad of opportunities that, if solved, can push Ruby Connect and Ruby Protocol to a different level. With that said, in the Dapp world, many gaps remain to be filled.
- A trust protocol/standard: Layer 2 privacy payment applications allow users to transact anonymously. However, it is only useful when an industry-agreed standard can prove one application is trustworthy. It sets clear expectations and guidelines for ethical behavior and responsible conduct in a particular context.
- Speed: Layer 2 solutions can provide faster transaction processing times than the main blockchain, making cryptocurrency more viable for everyday use cases.
- Cost: Layer 2 solutions can also reduce transaction fees, making it more affordable for users to transact. This can open up new use cases for cryptocurrency, such as microtransactions.
- Innovation: Layer 2 solutions enable developers to build new applications and services on top of existing blockchain infrastructure. In the context of Ruby Protocol, Ruby Connect can be used in conjunction with Ruby zkAuth in the future to enable private transfers across chains. It will customize the keys to reveal the transaction details you want to see, such as addresses, input, output, or identity.
The Future Plan
The future of Ruby Connect is obvious.
Ruby Connect will remain an indispensable part of Ruby Protocol’s solution matrix, designed to build a programmable privacy & access control middleware framework.
As mentioned, in the next stage:
- Ruby Connect will be used in conjunction with Ruby zkAuth to enable private transfers across chains. It will customize the keys to reveal the transaction details you want to see, such as addresses, input, output, or identity.
- We will continue to improve the current version and enhance Ruby Connect’s scalability, along with other fine-tuning suggested by our community.
- Ruby Connect will be integrated with various blockchain platforms and other payment applications to provide users with a seamless payment experience.
- And regulatory compliance is also one of our plans in order to achieve mass adoption of our solutions. It will help build trust and confidence with our users, investors, and future token holders.
About Us
Ruby Protocol is a programmable privacy & access control middleware framework encrypted with zero-knowledge proofs (zkp) algorithms.
Driven by abstract accounts, it builds an access control gateway across different entities and organizations in DeFi and Web3. The solutions and products include all kinds of private tokenization (zkToken, zkNFT, zkDID, etc), private payment bridge (zkConnect), authentication (zkAuth) and account/sub- account system (zkWallet), etc.
