2018 is quickly coming to a close and looking back there is quite a lot for DFINITY supporters to be excited about. In a Medium post earlier this month, Dominic Williams, President & Chief Scientist of DFINITY, gave an update on the development of the network. So as we prepare to say good bye to 2018, we’re sharing some of the many things that have happened this year for the DFINITY team and community. We hope you enjoy and thank you for your support throughout the year!

We kicked off the year with the release of our first white paper on consensus.

The origins of the DFINITY consensus mechanism date back to 2014 when Dominic Williams started to look for more efficient methods to drive consensus in large networks. Since then, a significant amount of research has driven into the protocol over several iterations to reach its current design. You can find the DFINITY white paper and other technical resources on our website. In the video below from BPASE 2018, Timo Hanke, Chief Research Officer, and Mahnush Mohavedi, Senior Engineer & Research Scientist, present on DFINITY’s consensus mechanism.

BPASE 2018, Stanford, CA, USA

We’ve seen the creation of new community channels and have been introduced to new faces around the world.

2018 has been full of surprises for all of us on the community team. What has been especially great to see is the amount of support that has manifested in the growth of our community channels. This wouldn’t have been possible without the dozens of community members who have stepped forward to volunteer time and talent in making our community channels a better place to interact and learn more about DFINITY.

We shared the DFINITY vision at meetups and events across the world.

With the help of our community, the DFINITY team was able to make a number of appearances at meetups and events. Over the year, we’ve hosted over 60 meetups in 35 cities. We’re excited to visit the community in more places in 2019 and share the DFINITY vision.

Interested parties can find some of the presentation from this year at the DFINITY Youtube channel. Below, we’ve shared some of our favorite recorded presentations from this year.

Nasdaq Entrepreneur Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

Web3 Summit, Berlin, Germany

Hashed Night, Seoul, South Korea

We’ve continued efforts to create a NASA for decentralization.

2018 has also brought many new faces to the DFINITY team. Andreas Rossberg, Senior Staff Engineer & Researcher and co-designer of WebAssembly, Dr. Jan Camenisch, Head of Privacy & Cryptography, Mack McCauley, Vice President of Engineering, Judy Piper, Director of Engineering, and more chose to lend their talents to bring the DFINITY vision to life.

At DFINITY, we believe that it is an imperative to share information about the growth and evolution of the team. Giving the community a better look at the people behind DFINITY is one way we intend to establish accountability for those that are interested in building upon the DFINITY network. In the following graphics, community members can learn a bit more about the educational backgrounds of current team members and the places around the world they call home.