Komodo is nearly six months into the rebranding process with Ideas By Nature, a leading blockchain agency. The initial rebranding announcement was made in August 2018 and the first rebranding update was published in November 2018.

Now, the time has come for a second rebrand update. The Komodo team is excited to share all of the progress we’ve made with the community and to provide some insight into where the rebranding process stands.

Before we dive into the details, let’s take a high-level look at the status of all the different elements of the rebrand.

The graphic below, first shared in Komodo’s 2018 Year-End Report, shows the 4 main dependencies necessary for the launch of the rebrand: visual identity, messaging, developer resources, and UX/UI.

Items in green are major milestones that have been completed, while yellow indicates those that are still in progress. As shared in the report, the overall scope of the rebrand has been widened, with 2 major products now factored in to the rebrand timeline.

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these different rebranding projects.

New Visual Identity Is Complete

The talented design team at Ideas By Nature is finished with Komodo’s new logo, color palette, and typeface. The new visual identity looks incredible and, while the Komodo team can’t wait to reveal it all, the new identity will remain internal until the full rebrand is launched.

At this point, it’s worth restating that Komodo is undergoing a full rebrand, which encompasses much more than a new logo and an updated website. Instead, the Komodo team is redefining itself from the ground up, developing products that are go-to-market ready, creating more developer resources, and creating a business strategy that will ensure Komodo’s success for decades to come.

New Messaging Is Almost Complete

Komodo’s new messaging includes clear, static definitions for each individual technology offered within the Komodo ecosystem. This is essential because, in some cases, the names of various technologies may no longer be completely accurate and need to be updated to reflect the power of the technology itself.

For example, when Komodo Lead Developer James ‘jl777’ Lee first discovered a way to make the Komodo code base Turing complete, the new technology was variously referred to as “Crypto-Conditions” or “Custom Consensus framework" and "UTXO-Based Smart Contracts."

The name Crypto-Conditions originally came from an IETF draft standard that jl777 had adopted, modified, and implemented in the Komodo code base. However, after several crucial enhancements, the technology is now unique to Komodo and deserves a fitting title.

At the same time, the name “UTXO-Based Smart Contracts” is limiting. While this new technology does, in fact, make the Bitcoin protocol Turing complete, allowing for the implementation of smart contracts, it can do much more than what the term “smart contracts” ordinarily implies.

Komodo’s enhanced Crypto-Conditions technology allows a blockchain’s consensus rules to be modified in a dynamic way, on a transaction-by-transaction basis, without needing to make changes to the blockchain's consensus mechanism itself. It is much more than a standard smart contract.

Needless to say, coming up with clear and fitting names for all of Komodo’s cutting-edge technologies is a challenging task. The Komodo marketing team is happy to report that this stage of the messaging project is complete.

The Komodo marketing team has also been working on a new messaging framework and this process is well under way. The new framework includes a new way to define Komodo, something that has proven difficult in the past.

It is easy to see why Komodo can be hard to grasp. With so many cutting-edge technologies and development that moves at breakneck speed, it can be difficult to find terms that truly do Komodo justice.

In the last year alone, Komodo has developed a handful of new features that don’t receive any mention in the Komodo white paper. Komodo’s multi-chain features, for example, such as Blockchain Interoperability features and the Multi-Chain Syncing scaling technology, were released in July 2018, several years after the white paper was published. These technologies now sit at the core of Komodo’s technology offering.

Thus, while the Komodo white paper is a comprehensive and extremely informative document, it has become outdated. Hence the need for a new white paper as part of the rebrand. The new white paper will be the final step to completing the new messaging.

A New Website Is Under Construction

The Komodo and Ideas By Nature teams have already laid the initial groundwork for a new website. As the new website will necessarily include the new messaging, that must be completed first. While the new messaging is almost finished, it is not finalized and will require technical and industry validation before it is ready for publication.

While the specific text that will appear on the new website is paused, several other higher-level tasks are under way. For instance, the Komodo team is designing optimal user journeys for new visitors to clearly understand Komodo. The team is also doing a great deal of planning to scope in what new features— graphics, animations, interactive elements, dynamic statistics and data— will be included on the new site.

In addition, the Komodo team is working on a Developer Portal. This will integrate with the new Komodo website. The initial version of the developer portal will feature several common developer necessities, including documentation and tutorials.

Product Strategy & Development

The largest task remaining in the rebranding process is product strategy and development. Let’s take a look at each of the products Komodo is working on.

Mobile Wallet

First and foremost, Komodo is working on a new UX/UI for a mobile version of the open-source ecosystem’s multi-coin wallet. Of course, Komodo’s Agama wallet has been finished for some time and is constantly being improved. Users can now store over 200 different coins and tokens in Agama wallet.

As such, this is a new UX/UI to sit atop the existing Agama wallet. The Ideas By Nature team has made an enormous amount of progress on the new mobile wallet and it is almost complete. Here are a few samples of how you can expect the new mobile wallet to look.

Blockchain Generator

Komodo’s multi-chain architecture makes it unique among blockchain platforms. Anyone can launch a customizable, independent blockchain with Komodo’s technology in just a few minutes from a command line interface.

Now, the Komodo Dev Team is developing a product that will allow users to customize and launch a blockchain in a modern web interface. With just a few simple entries and a few clicks, a user will be able to create their very own blockchain, complete with seed nodes and optional mining nodes, all launched on AWS Marketplace in less than 60 seconds.

To give you an idea of what this will look like, here’s a short teaser video.

Of course, this is just a first iteration of the blockchain generator web app. The Komodo and Ideas By Nature teams are still working on it and will constantly improve the product based on research, UX/UI best practices, and feedback from the Komodo community. There is already a robust feature plan that looks to add a smart contract library and Custom Consensus modules, as well as a future vision for automation and orchestration features.

Decentralized Exchange

As many familiar with Komodo will already know, an updated protocol for Komodo’s atomic-swap-powered decentralized exchange (DEX) is in alpha testing. The Komodo Development Team has completely restructured the way peer-to-peer trading works, building a brand-new p2p communication layer that improves connectivity and enables the protocol to become fully mobile-ready. Enabling atomic swaps from mobile devices is an essential improvement, as it removes barriers and makes peer-to-peer trading more widely accessible.

Moreover, the new atomic swap protocol can support any digital currency with the ability to do hash-locked transactions. Previously, Komodo’s atomic swap technology supported an impressive 95% of coins and tokens after bridging the gap between BTC-protocol coins and ETH-based ERC-20 tokens, but now that figure is up to roughly 99% of all coins and tokens in existence.

Once released, the new DEX will fundamentally alter the way that crypto is exchanged, making trading digital assets easier, faster, and more secure than ever before.

Of course, extensive testing is needed before the DEX is finalized. Heavy internal alpha testing is under way and plans are being made to run a public beta test once internal testing is complete. After thorough testing, a final product with outstanding UX/UI will also need to be developed before the DEX is ready for a full go-to-market release.

The Komodo team will make regular updates as progress continues. At this time, it’s not clear whether the rebrand will be released before or concurrently with the new DEX.

Rebrand Strategy

Komodo is evolving and it’s important to wait until all the pieces are in place before launching the rebrand. As noted earlier, the rebrand is much more than a simple new logo and a refreshed website.

Komodo is working on a complete go-to-market launch, including a new visual identity, new messaging, new developer resources, new business strategy, partner programs and, perhaps most importantly, several world-class products. While many blockchain projects, even some that raised tens of millions of dollars in ICOs, are still in the initial development phase, Komodo is preparing several completed products that will be ready for mass adoption.

The Komodo rebrand has several major dependencies. The Komodo team is committed to executing across all 4 focal areas of the rebrand simultaneously and will continue to publish updates leading up to the launch.

If you have any suggestions or feedback for the Komodo team, you can email [email protected] or join the Komodo community on Discord to share your thoughts with the team and see the many fascinating solutions being created within the ecosystem.

Join us as we continue to accelerate the global adoption of blockchain technology.