The Next Chapter for Prosper

Oct 9, 2024

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min read

In the past couple of weeks, we have unveiled the the vision for the next chapter of Prosper. As we look forward to continuing to deliver on this vision for the Prosper community and the wider Web3 ecosystem, we are conducting a community endorsement vote on PIP-0 to validate this new strategic direction.

To assist both existing and new community members that are looking to engage with Prosper going forward, we have prepared a recap of recent developments below.

Welcome to the next chapter

Prosper is bridging institutional-grade Bitcoin mining power on-chain and aiming to fully unlock the potential of Bitcoin, the most decentralized cryptocurrency. This new strategic direction has emerged after spending many months to identify a new direction, secure mission-aligned industry partners, develop new platforms and features, and create the right structures that would enable Prosper to grow sustainably as a decentralized protocol going forward.

Why is Prosper focusing in on Bitcoin? It’s simple—Bitcoin is the OG network, and it’s only getting stronger:

It’s a recognized store of value, often referred to as “digital gold”
It has 54% market dominance (of total cryptocurrency market cap)
71% of Bitcoin is estimated to be held by long-term hodlers
There’s increasing mainstream adoption, as evidenced by Spot ETFs launched by BlackRock, Fidelity, and others

And the $1.3 trillion Bitcoin ecosystem is reliant on one key process: Bitcoin mining—the process of validating and securing transactions on the blockchain through the use of intensive computational power (a.k.a. hashrate) to solve complex cryptographic puzzles. The Bitcoin mining industry is huge—the top U.S. listed Bitcoin mining companies have a combined market value of ~$20 billion.

Even though Bitcoin mining is an established traditional asset class, there’s a gap in the market with a distinct opportunity. Even as the Bitcoin ecosystem has seen explosive growth, most projects focus on Layer 2 solutions, LSDs, infrastructure (e.g., bridges, wallets), and other applications (e.g., DEXs, NFTs). There is no project with a singular focus on Bitcoin mining, and this is where Prosper comes in.

In this new chapter, Prosper will bring institutional-grade Bitcoin mining power on-chain. By doing so, Prosper will be creating a new foundational block that the Bitcoin and broader DeFi ecosystem can build upon. By doing so, Prosper will evolve to be a new decentralized protocol for a more prosperous community.

We are confident that this singular vision to build a flywheel around hashrate and the Bitcoin ecosystem long-term will prove to be a sustainable and rewarding strategy, which includes these key pillars for success:

Hardware delivering Bitcoin mining power
Protocol treasury accumulating Bitcoin
Bitcoin rewards for active protocol participation by the community

Continuing as a pioneer

From its inception, Prosper has been known as a pre-eminent on-chain liquidity platform for bringing innovations to the DeFi ecosystem (it was one of the very first to offer on-chain liquidity pools for binary price prediction and real-world event prediction markets—two years before Polymarket gained mainstream attention). But as the industry evolved and matured in recent years, the platform’s offering created increasing concern of potential non-compliance with gaming laws for the project itself, as well as for exchange partners.

With this new vision and next chapter, Prosper aims to continue to innovate in the broader Web3 ecosystem.

New chapter, new look

As part of the commitment to revamp Prosper, a brand new website has been launched at https://www.prosper-fi.com/. Alongside the new website and as seen across our social media channels, Prosper also has a new, sleek brand identity that captures the professionalism, scale, ambition, and innovation of the vision and mission going forward.

What’s next—community endorsement

As we look to execute on Prosper’s new vision in earnest, we are conducting this community endorsement vote to validate this change in strategic direction.

All community members are strongly encouraged to participate in this vote to have your voice heard regarding this next chapter for Prosper. Your endorsement is crucial for validating this strategic update and ensuring the future success of the protocol.

Forward, together

We are deeply appreciative of the community’s patience and support up to this point. To both current and future community members, we hope you are as excited as we are to bring this new vision and next chapter for Prosper to life.