Dear XYO Founding HODL’ers and Community:

We have a much-anticipated announcement for you today!

But first, an explanation.

Let’s start by talking about what this announcement IS NOT.

Sorry folks! It’s not an enterprise partnership update.

But don’t fret; we’ll have dozens of those in the coming months — with a few MASSIVE ones sprinkled in.

If you were looking for an Amazon-type partnership announcement, this isn’t it.

But for the rest of you who got into crypto in large part due to the tech, this anouncement is going to make your year — especially when we fully roll it out!

Here’s what this announcement IS:

A massive leap forward in XYO technology!

At XYO, we operate at the intersection of Internet of Things (IoT) and Location, which we combine to call “Location of Things” (LoT). But how we combine this with blockchain is where it gets really interesting.

XYO Network is a **Relative** location network — a network tied together by constantly moving nodes. If you need a visual, here’s what that looks like:

Yet as humans, we have a hard time reading location data this way. Why? Because it’s nearly impossible to understand location data unless one overlays maps as context. We need **Absolute location** protocols — latitude-longitude coordinates, for example — to see and understand exactly where things are in the world.

Need an example? Here’s how Relative location and Absolute location work together:

Relative location: Jim and Jenn are 1.5 meters away from each other.

Relative location AND Absolute location: Jim and Jenn are 1.5 meters away from each other…at Lat. 53.343813 and Long: -6.263538 (bonus points if you’ve been there — I hear the beer is amazing).

And that’s where the big news comes in.

But first, a brief story of how it all went down

There had been rumblings about “LayerOne” for some time amongst the most connected blockchain developers in the space. They were a group of blockchain developers that first came onto the scene during the ETHDenver Hackathon earlier this year. We had heard that this was a company led by some of the most die-hard and innovative blockchain developers out there. And word on the street was, they were building an innovative geospatial blockchain technology… and it actually worked!

We then heard about LayerOne from one of our close friends at Consensys (co-founder of Ethereum). Our friend met LayerOne at Consensys’ San Francisco headquarters during a blockchain conference. He came away impressed with not just what they were building, but also their talented team.

We were very excited about connecting with them. After being introduced, I spoke with one of the founders. And I was struck by how collaborative, and frankly, just plain “cool!” They were!

I spoke with Graham McBain their founder for about an hour while walking around nearby American Plaza here in Downtown San Diego right by our office. We hit it off right away. From very early on in the conversation it seemed clear that he shared the exact same excitement I had about geospatial blockchain technology. But more importantly, he was on the same page as us as realizing that we’re so early in this space, it only makes sense to collaborate, open-source our technology and grow this space as a whole.

From the very beginning it seemed like there was a perfect fit for us to work together in some way. XYO Network’s focus centers on **relative location data**; whereas LayerOne focuses on **absolute location data**.

Over the course of the following months we had another few phone calls with the dev teams and kept in touch. During the entire time we kept thinking how great it would be to combine our two efforts to create a geospatial blockchain empire and really take things to the next level.

We decided to pursue this idea. On May 31st we met with Graham and Kevin, the two core co-founders of LayerOne in San Francisco during the Mapbox Locate conference. After having them meet with the rest of our team and sitting down to view the LayerOne technology, it became clear that this was an ABSOLUTE MUST to join forces!

Over the next coming months we met a few more times and ironed out the deal terms, did the legal docs, etc. The ink is finally dry and we’re happy to officially announce…

We’ve Acquired LayerOne — The Most Advanced Technology and Team Innovating Around Blockchain Absolute Location Data.

This is the company responsible for some of the most mind-blowing, cutting-edge absolute location data on the blockchain. With absolute location data in our toolbox, we can now provide multi-layered, complex, 3D-level data to the LoT market and decentralized blockchain apps (dApps).

Location data, meet context.

There are a TON of huge components for this exciting acquisition and what this does to XYO Network — as well as how it expands what we’re doing to the next level. And as part of the deal, LayerOne will be rebranded as XYO Sacramento. Here’s way more on what this all means:

What is LayerOne’s Secret Sauce?

LayerOne brings a ton development goodies to the table, but everything stems from LayerOne’s own creation: The Quadhash.

A Quadhash is the fastest, most versatile storage protocol for saving locations on the blockchain. On the blockchain, every Bit counts, and location storage needs to be fast, efficient, and precise. With LayerOne’s Quadhashes, everything about a location can easily be packaged in a single unsigned integer.

So, what’s just as cool as an unsigned integer? A Quadhash library to solve complex location-related problems using simple math and bit-shifts. This entirely extensible library can be used for things like Geo-Indexes, Non-Fungible Tokens, Spatial aggregation, a 3D space representation, or anything that targets a specific point in space/time.

At XYO, Quadhashes will be used to store real-world locations and events, and build spatially aware smart contracts on the blockchain. LayerOne’s tech will also cache blockchain transactions and events, and be used to deploy your own web3 apps.

Visit us on Medium for our very first Dispatch from the Tech Cave, where we outline XYO Relative Location Data technology. We’ll also be releasing an amazing, beautiful suite of absolute data technology tools.

And here’s the best part: It’s nearly complete!

If you’re a blockchain developer, you’ll be able to get your hands on our geospatial dApp tools very soon, specifically the dApp Deployer tool which can be used by ANY Ethereum dApp developer today!

Who is LayerOne?

The LayerOne Team (now XYO Sacramento) is made up of four insanely talented blockchain engineers. If you don’t already know, today blockchain engineers are the most sought-after types of developers out there. To be a blockchain engineer, you have to understand cryptography, dApps, Ethereum, blockchain AND on top of that, just be a great engineer.

Here’s who they are as individuals:

Graham

Graham is passionate about making technology accessible to everyone. His non-traditional background has shown that people of all walks of life can find success if they can recognize opportunity and seize it. Blockchain technology is the largest shift in financial tools in generations. This change in how money is managed has the opportunity to move people out of poverty, but will require the active involvement of passionate people. He believes that the work XYO is doing will help to create a more fair, decentralized future.

Bonus image: Graham’s laptop (because we just had to)…

Kevin

Kevin is an interesting combo: soft-spoken and insanely talented. He did his Master’s thesis with NASA while deploying a satellite. He then worked with top-secret defense agencies, protecting our home turf from the absolute worst kind of people, and next moved to the consumer sector where he helped build the Nook reader app. He ultimately jumped into startups, with his most recent being acquired by Spark Networks for more than $7 Million! That startup housed more than 30k users per day, and was managed by JUST TWO brilliant engineers: Kevin + CJ, who you’ll meet now…

CJ

CJ is a versatile engineer who is always ready to dive into something totally new. After spending a few years in the finance world, he switched gears to work on an up-and-coming dating app, where he single-handedly wrote a backend that supported over 30,000 daily active users. Ready for a new challenge, CJ joined Kevin to enter the exciting world of blockchain for the first time.

Rasheed:

You know the phrase: “Those who can’t do, teach.”? Rasheed is one of the rare exceptions to that rule. Unlike the other rock stars on the team, Rasheed is not a born programmer. Before programming, he was teaching kids math at an after-school program. Rasheed struggled for two years before he figured out how to install an npm library. Now, he combines his pedagogical skills and two years of learning how not to program to coach and mentor working professionals. He’s done technical training and development for many companies, from the technology team of a local credit union to the logistics lab of MIT (yep, that MIT). Rasheed enjoys challenges, so he readily accepted the opportunity to work on this blockchain project.

Where will the new XYO Sacramento work?

When we purchased LayerOne, we demanded that this new arm of XYO exist in the coolest place in Northern California. And they came through!

Since just recently, LayerOne has been working out of the McClellan Innovation Center near Sacramento. What’s McClellan? An old Air Force manufacturing base that is now a privately owned business campus.

And here’s the best part: Over the next few months the team at XYO will be working with McClellan to create a real-world blockchain innovation laboratory on campus.

The XYO Sacramento team (formerly LayerOne) is already teaching blockchain developer courses at McClellan through their relationship with Blockchain Developers United. But this location should serve as a meeting place for all blockchain developers and startups in Northern California, so they can all learn together.

XYO is excited to support this community as it expands and grows, so please welcome LayerOne to the XYO team, and stay tuned for more updates on our new dev tools!

Thanks for stickin’ with us and remember… JUST HODL!

Warm regards,

Scott Scheper

Co-founder & XYO HODL’er