This week we released our project roadmap, a carefully mapped out timeline of events designed to engage our early adopters as we continue to develop the DNN platform. The roadmap also features our slated crowdsale date: the fourth quarter of this year.

The plan lays out our accomplished milestones, including the release of DNN’s open source Alpha testnet in July, which was the first iteration of the platform. The roadmap extends until the fourth quarter of 2018, the last phase of the project designated for the final build out of key communities — writers, readers, and reviewers — required for the news network to properly run.

“Our biggest milestone to date is of course the release of our alpha,” said Samit Singh, CEO and co-founder of DNN. “We managed to do this after months of research and concrete feedback from the crypto-community, as well as journalists.”

“For the most part, we have solidified how DNN will work for its users, but we’re seeking to more rigorously outline the economics of the system and the viability of the token on the platform,” he added.

We are currently revising the white paper and improving on the initial alpha version. The next milestone on the roadmap will be an update to the Alpha release that will provide a simulated DNN platform for mainstream users who are not familiar with blockchain technology.

The simulated experience, which will be available via the DNN website, will allow the broader community, specifically the journalism community, to test the platform and provide valuable feedback without having to purchase and provide tokens.

“To truly build a great product, you need to be certain that you’re building something that people actually want,” Singh explained. “There isn’t as much trust in conducting a crowdsale without a minimal viable product, since nobody can actually see what they’re backing. Perhaps it would’ve been just as easy for us to attract buzz over the concept without any alpha, but that isn’t the way to show commitment. By doing things this way, we’re demonstrating our intent to fully follow through with this exciting project.”

While development continues, don’t miss out on any updates, sign up. A recent blog post does a deep dive into how Ethereum’s smart contracts power our article review system, read it here.

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