2020 was not an easy year for anyone by any means, but in the blockchain ecosystem it was also a time of tremendous innovation and growth. Here’s a look back at the moments that defined Bison Trails over the past twelve months.

January

• We added support for Edgeware on the Bison Trails platform, the first proof of stake mainnet to launch in 2020
• Coinbase Custody and Bison Trails joined the Proof of Stake Alliance alongside Tezos, the Interchain Foundation, Web3 Foundation, and others to advance the alliance and public policy discussions about proof of stake technology (see CoinDesk’s coverage)
• Joe Lallouz, CEO of Bison Trails, was elected to the newly-formed Technical Steering Committee (TSC) of the Libra Association (now Diem Association), governing the project’s technical development

February

• We announced support for Polkadot and Ontology on the Bison Trails platform (see BlockTribune’s coverage)
• “Joe and his team built the gold standard for proof of stake infrastructure.”—Garry Tan
• In this ETHDenver 2020 Recap, Protocol Specialist Viktor Bunin reflects on the event and what makes ETHDenver so special
• Bison Trails is “one of the most important companies in digital assets going forward.”—David Nage, Base Layer Podcast (Ep. 107)

March

• The herd became fully distributed and we did our best to adjust to life with COVID-19
• Bison Trails added support for NuCypher and WorkLock (see coverage in Cointelegraph)
• Building on a year of experience working with the Solana team and protocol, we welcomed Solana token holders to the platform (see coverage in Decrypt)

April

• We added support for Keep, bringing BTC closer to on-chain usage in DeFi applications. Learn more in our guide to Keep and TBTC
• Our collaboration with Coinbase Custody provides secure staking for Polkadot (DOT) token holders (see coverage in The Block)
• When Libra (now Diem) announced changes to their white paper, we reaffirmed our support of the initiative and its potential to drive massive adoption of crypto around the world (see coverage in Forbes)
• “Exercising extra patience and empathy is probably the most important thing that anyone in a leadership position can do.” Read more of Joe’s perspective on leading remote teams in Psychology Today

May

• Our overview of Polkadot’s token economics includes info on validator rewards and why participation is incentivized in the early days of the network
• We joined Celo's Alliance for Prosperity to further their their mission of financial inclusion and added support for Celo on the Bison Trails platform (see coverage in Modern Consensus)
• The Proof of Stake Alliance published new industry-driven principles to guide staking providers, created with input from Polychain Capital, Coinbase Custody, and Bison Trails (read Coindesk’s coverage)
• Trinity Montoya, Protocol Engineer at Bison Trails, shared her perspective on the development, evolution, and potential for NFTs
• Evan Weiss, Head of Business Operations, wrote an Op-Ed on how revisiting U.S. tax law to better address the emerging proof of stake ecosystem can foster innovation

June

• We announced our suite of products to interact with the eth2 Beacon Chain, enable network participants to easily add validators, and scale their infrastructure automatically (see coverage in Decrypt, Coindesk, and Modern Consensus)
• Joe shared thoughts on how our value of empathy “extends beyond our company to how we interface with the world” especially during difficult times. Empathy is “a value to uphold in all areas of life and is deeply connected to the future world we envision.”
• We added support for NEAR and published a guide to NEAR’s Token Economics covering the protocol’s consensus method, validator rewards, stake distribution, and participation incentives (read more in Coindesk)
• We posted a detailed guide to Keep active participation
• We joined Dieter Fishbein, Head of Ecosystem Development at the Web3 Foundation, and Will Pankiewicz, Master of Validators at Parity, for our first video event “Building for the Future: Polkadot + Bison Trails” to discuss Polkadot’s vision, learnings from Kusama, and the intricacies of running infrastructure for nominated proof of stake networks

July

• Former BlockTower Capital Legal & Compliance Director—and ex-Goldman Sachs Vice President—Elizabeth Ralston joined Bison Trails as General Counsel (read more in Bloomberg Law)
• CoinList partnered with Bison Trails to launch CoinList Pro, a “full-featured crypto spot exchange, built on trusted, compliant infrastructure and backed by some of the biggest names in the space" (read CoinDesk’s coverage)
• We published a detailed guide to Optimizing Participation with our Participation product
• The company’s first governance proposal aimed to help sustain the Livepeer network. Read our Q&A with Viktor Bunin
• Joe was a guest on the Pomp Podcast discussing blockchain infrastructure, advice for founders, and innovation in the blockchain space

August

• We extended our integration with Coinbase Custody to Solana, enabling SOL token holders to participate in the network by staking with secure offline storage of their assets (read more in Decrypt)
• We announced our innovative Double Signing Protection software, addressing one of the biggest risks of participating in a proof of stake blockchain network: slashing penalties if a validator double signs blocks (read more in Modern Consensus)
• We published a Guide to the NuCypher WorkLock and announced support for Flow and All Node Types (read more in Cryptonomist)

September

• We announced support for the Oasis Network and the creation of a responsible data economy (read more in Modern Consensus)
• Viktor Bunin’s eth2 update launched, providing the most important information to know about eth2 and our enterprise product offerings as we prepared for the beacon chain launch
• Elias Simos, Protocol Specialist, launched his monthly Substrate Ecosystem Update
• We published our first customer story on ZKValidator’s community-focused staking as a service promoting privacy research and participation in governance on emerging PoS networks. Learn about the origin of ZKValidator and how Bison Trails facilitates their participation across Cosmos, Polkadot, Kusama, and NEAR
• Aaron Henshaw, CTO and co-founder of Bison Trails, was interviewed on the Relay Chain podcast on the state of node infrastructure, risk management, and possibilities for the future
• Viktor Bunin participated in the first NEAR Community Town Hall before proposing a set of criteria to move the network forward to a fully decentralized mainnet launch via governance

October

• We introduced our QT product to the world. QT nodes are fully managed query & transaction nodes for developers to connect to blockchain data. QT infrastructure processes billions of transactions per month
• Watch the recap of our QT product launch featuring Joe Lallouz (CEO), Aaron Henshaw (CTO), and Rob Christensen (Head of DevOps)
• NuCypher successfully launched their mainnet with over 2,861 CoinList users locking 147K $ETH (~$54M USD) to participate in the WorkLock, powered by Bison Trails
• We published a *lot* of content on eth2, including Viktor’s frequent eth2 updates, an eth2 Insights Series by Protocol Specialist Elias Simos, a post on “What to consider when choosing your eth2 provider” by Mara Schmiedt (Business Development Manager at Bison Trails), a guide to eth2 terminology, and info on our eth2 Pioneer Program
• Joe Lallouz discussed remote working, leadership, the ecosystem, and infrastructure on the Encrypted podcast
• Mara Schmiedt co-authored the whitepaper “The Internet Bond: Digital Work Agreements in the Web3.0 Era”

November

• Eth2 launched and we proudly sponsored Messari’s definitive report “ETH 2.0: The Next Evolution of the Cryptoeconomy,” providing insights and analysis throughout the publication
• Watch the recap of Messari’s live event “The Road to ETH 2.0” featuring Joe Lallouz, Viktor Bunin, and Mara Schmiedt along with other eth2 experts
• Libra rebranded as Diem and we announced support for Diem QT (read more in Cointelegraph)
• We announced another flavor of QT: “QT Archival: ‘When a Full Node is Not Enough’” with support for Algorand, Celo, Cosmos, EOS, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Tezos, and TRON
• Our integration with Coinbase Custody expanded secure staking support for Celo (read more)
• We announced support for Cardano on the Bison Trails platform and published a complete guide to Cardano with information on the protocol’s innovations, how it works, and economics (including inflation, rewards, and staking)

December

• In December we shared more insights and information on eth2’s progress
• NBA star and blockchain pioneer Spencer Dinwiddie enlisted Bison Trails to power Calaxy’s nodes on the Flow and Polkadot blockchains (see coverage in Sportico and Brooklyn Magazine)
• Crypto.com announced they picked Bison Trails to provide validator node infrastructure for the Crypto.com chain testnet and upcoming mainnet
• Evan Weiss wrote an Op-Ed on eth2 for CoinDesk’s Year in Review: “Policymakers understand this is a clear movement towards enabling users to own a small part of the next generation internet.”
• Bison Trails was selected as one of the honorees of the inaugural Blockchain 50, CB Insights’ list of the most innovative companies that are applying or analyzing blockchain technology to solve business or consumer problems

The Herd

In 2020, our team grew to nearly 60 people. I had the honor of interviewing a few members of the team for our Meet the Herd profile series:

• Meet the Herd: Engineering Manager Sasha Semenyuk
  An interview with Bison Trails’ first employee: how Sasha got into blockchain, his interest in creating a culture of learning at the company, and his thoughts on what protocol teams have done well
• Meet the Herd: Engineering Manager Paul Hurlock-Dick
  Paul shares his thoughts on the secret to shipping great product experiences and reveals how a serendipitous meeting with an old friend inspired him to join Bison Trails
• Meet the Herd: Head of DevOps Rob Christensen
  Rob demystifies DevOps, explains how he leads a remote team with empathy, and details the mischievous origin of his interest in technology
• Meet the Herd: People and Development Manager Melissa Meister
  Melissa shares her outlook on People and Development, kindness in interviews, and maintaining a value-based culture as the company continues to grow
• Meet the Herd: Content Strategist Casson Rosenblatt
  Casson explains the role of content strategy, her focus on clarity, how she started working at Bison Trails, and tips for effective communication
• Meet the Herd: Product Manager Jaron Parnala
  Jaron shares the story of his journey to product management and crypto, his engagement with the blockchain community, and how he stays calm and focused
• Meet the Herd: Customer Success Manager Anne Hathaway
  Anne explains the ethos of Customer Success at Bison Trails, learning by doing in the blockchain space, and the industry’s shift towards increased usability

I feel very fortunate to be a part of this tremendous team. Looking forward to big things from the herd next year. Best wishes for good health, happiness, and success in 2021. Happy New Year! 🎉

– Mark Forscher / Head of Brand & Design

About Bison Trails

Pioneering Blockchain Infrastructure®

Bison Trails is a blockchain infrastructure platform-as-a-service (PaaS) company based in New York City. We built a platform for anyone who wants to participate in 22 new chains effortlessly.

We also make it easy for anyone building Web 3.0 applications to connect to blockchain data from 30 protocols with Query & Transact (QT). Our goal is for the entire blockchain ecosystem to flourish by providing robust infrastructure for the pioneers of tomorrow.

In January, 2021, we announced Bison Trails joined Coinbase to accelerate our mission to provide easy-to-use blockchain infrastructure, now as a standalone product line. The Bison Trails platform will continue to support our customers. With Coinbase’s backing, we will enhance our infrastructure platform and make it even easier to participate in decentralized networks and build applications that connect to blockchain data.