We are constantly evolving in the way that we provide transparency and visibility to the public. The aim of this report is to provide summarized data and financial reporting not included in monthly reports.
For Q2 we have focused on ensuring there is improved context to the spending and its value to the community. TCD and Liquidity Budgets are handled outside the foundation but have been included for easier viewing.
In the previous quarter, we did a tremendous amount of hiring, increasing our staff by up to 4x. These talented individuals wasted no time settling in, and as Q2 commenced, they were already locked in and firing on all cylinders. Consequently, it was no surprise that the team significantly boosted output in social presence, leads, partnerships, community building, and events.
Total TF Spend $882,447.47
As part of our commitment to total transparency, we have prepared the following financial summary of Q2 spending. Our goal is to provide easily digestible information for the Telos community to assess that our allocation of funds was not only handled diligently but also resulted in the impressive growth of the Telos ecosystem within a quarterly window.
It’s very easy to overlook the tremendous progress made without the vantage point of a summarized document. This quarter we have consolidated the total spend in both USD and TLOS (based on a 20c TLOS price) to make for easier viewing rather than broken down into multiple currencies.
Projected TF runway as per June 2022: 13 months (up 1 month from Q1)
Despite the drawdown across global markets, we have retained and even extended our current runway since last quarter through vertical integration initiatives and hiring. We are currently looking at additional opportunities to extend our runway as a cautionary measure stemming from the markets; however, at present, there is no need for layoffs outside of those required through structural improvements.
Expenses Summary
Marketing consists of salary for marketing employees as well as different marketing initiatives. Significant expenses included Consensus and Decentral, which, while paid up in advance (in Q1), included travel and hotel expenses that were absorbed in Q2.
Social Media Key Achievements (Q2 vs Q1):
Events — Consensus, Decentral, Bitcoin 2022, NFT New York etc
Our team was successful in their efforts to boost the presence of Telos while in attendance at DeFi events throughout Q2. This helped tremendously to move Telos from a relatively unknown ecosystem to a quickly emerging one.
One of the massive benefits of our sponsorship of Consensus was the Telos World side event that allowed us to shine a light on a number of the Telos ecosystem projects, service providers and partners.
Telos world at consensus featured a swath of different eco system partners
Expenses Summary
Business Development consists of the salary and expenses of the BD team, whose primary focus is the onboarding of DApps and creating partnerships for Telos. Throughout Q2, the Business Development team has delivered on its objectives, recruiting and partnering with developers to build new projects on the Telos EVM and incubating them alongside the projects built on Telos Native.
We are pleased to have welcomed the following 29 projects during Q2:
One of the main focus areas for the BD team last two quarters was growing the EVM ecosystem which now has over 50 projects and counting with more than half of these joining during Q2.
In addition to the substantial increase in Telos EVM adoption over the past quarter, we continue to support Telos native. We are expecting a huge increase in Telos Native apps over the next few years with our considerable investment alongside EOS, WAX and UX to upgrade and promote the core code layer and smart contract platform. Our maiden platform presents itself as a home for apps that we believe to be potentially game-changers with large user bases. Below are just a few of the Telos native apps we provide ongoing support and assistance to. Our team is excited about what each is building as they demonstrate early signs of mass market potential.
Taikai Network -TAIKAI is a builder hub that connects creators and companies using hackathons, bounties and hiring challenges to help you grow.
Qudo — A cutting-edge app that aims to revolutionize the multi-billion dollar gaming industry. Players can achieve In-App-Unlocks using QUDO-friendly games, while developers can improve their games through the QUDO B2B marketplace or give back to the community by creating additional rewards.
Appics — A reward-based social media application that runs on top of the blockchain and enables people from around the globe to turn likes into currency.
Zeptagram — Zeptagram is a blockchain based trading platform where music ip-rights owners can tokenize their assets.
Grant And Venture Recipients in Q2:
Rubic, Sky Meta, Imuunify, 6-C Index, Gami, Reign of Terror, FitEvo, Chainport, Kyte One, Arize, Mystery of the Moon, Tranching and BitKeep
The BD team deployed over 1.3 million TLOS in grants and venture investments via the 12 million TLOS initiative. These costs are not included in the figures above.
Operations consist of SAAS tools, job postings, legal fees, etc., used to ensure an efficient working environment at the TF, along with the salaries of the CEO and COO. Both of these roles make contributions across all the different responsibility areas of the TF.
It also includes any contractors, strategy, or operations hires that do not fall under other business areas and payment to strategic Telos partners to cover RAM costs.
Community spend consists of a regional community manager, Telos Eagles, and management Salary. In addition, community relations has initiated giveaways and influencer spending to broaden Telos’ exposure to the DeFi community.
Highlights:
PR consists of the salary for a PR manager and the costs for vendors managing PR publications. PR shares some staffing with Marketing, hence the considerable low spend. We paid for many PR services up front in Q1 which lead to a low spend. In future we are contemplating including PR spend under marketing.
Q2 was a roller-coaster ride, but overall, we were able to withstand the harsh market conditions by working proactively with our partners. Though the market conditions hampered our strategies, during this period, we achieved an ATH in volume and have managed to sustain adequate levels over time.
We have also worked very hard to secure prominent exchanges, fiat gateways and DeFi partners like Huobi (among other CEXes), Simplex, ApeSwap, BitKeep, and others. Our CEX listings resulted from organic growth and widespread attention toward the expanding Telos ecosystem.
We joined other Telos team members at DCentral, Consensus in Austin, Texas and attended Binance’s 5th anniversary in Paris. During these events, we followed up with our existing partners and made a lot of new connections with top exchanges, wallets, and service providers in the industry. We are actively following up on these connections and working towards new partnerships.
Looking ahead to Q3 and Q4, our focus will be primarily on securing top-tier exchange listings, DeFi platforms, Market Makers, Liquidity Providers, Fiat Gateways, Wallets and service providers. We will continue working with our existing and new partners to launch an incentive program to boost the DeFi activity across Telos.
Service Provider Expenses (paid from Liquidity Funds) :
April: 7067 USDT
May: 6000 USDT
June: 6000 USDT
Total: ~$19067 USDT
Q2 Salaries(paid from TF): $60000 (Includes USDT and TLOS)
Exchange Fees:
Listing, referral fees and Campaigns — ~$450,000 (Includes USDT and TLOS)
We have grown the core development team significantly since March 2022 to add further full stack and front-end resources to deliver on the demanding roadmap for Q3/Q4. Our team also increased in size to a total of 19 members, which includes retainers and associated resources. But adding personnel was far from the only growth the TCD achieved.
Telos Core Development had an outstanding second quarter due to consistent delivery of innovation and improved user experience. Adding a full-time Product Management resource will allow us to speed up the user experience projects, including “Telos-Station” in quarter three, which will be another milestone for our chain.
Our continued efforts to drive EVM 1.5 and 2.0 will deliver cutting-edge technology and innovation to the EVM Ecosystem. EVM 1.5 is an exciting precursor to 2.0 because it includes various upgrades and user experience modifications. One crucial component is a new indexer, which enables further improvements and additions to Teloscan. Such upgrades include a token overview, holder lists, performance improvement for various services, and a revised block header architecture. Due to significant changes, we will re-index our chain once deployed.
We are also excited to announce that staking is coming to the Telos EVM. This development provides EVM users with the chance to access attractive passive rewards. Furthermore, as a result of our sTLOS and EVM 1.5 developments, we will also be able to offer a native, non-custodial bridge feature very soon.
Q2 was also an essential quarter for Open Block Explorer (OBE) iteration. This continuous developmental process ensures the availability of an open-source tool for Telos Native. The Q2 release included features such as:
Our subsequent iterations in Q3 will include:
On the community front, our bi-weekly “Telos Tech Talks” AMAs provide an effective way to communicate and inform the community. They have been well received, as we can measure from total views and interaction.
Our further streamlined roadmap for Q3 and Q4 allows us to deliver strategic projects and innovation. The team is working relentlessly on additional improvements to our block explorers, EVM, governance, and especially user experience and end-user and developer onboarding.
Though further scaling, adding team members and external development teams added to our costs, it also resulted in many achieved milestones that established Telos as a leader in blockchain/DeFi innovation. Our clear focus is to provide the required resources to deliver our roadmap objectives while closely monitoring the cost levels and treasury to ensure sufficient runway.
Total quarterly cost Q2 2022: 550,000 USD*
Projected runway as per July 2022: 13 months
A small selection of what is to come in Q3/Q4 in the Telos Ecosystem.