Across the Cryptoverse #36 - ACX Token Anniversary Party

Across is the cross-chain ecosystem’s optimal bridge design. Why? Because it costs far less than other solutions .... and because it consumes far less gas than any other cross-chain bridge. But how? The answer to this question is in Across intents-based architecture.

The contracts are meticulously engineered to make gas savings throughout every stage of the bridging process: no matter if it is the deposits stage, the fills or the repayments. Across minimizes its gas expenditure at every stage, saving users money. When a user wants to transfer their funds, they make a deposit at the origin, while relayers compete to fill the order at the destination.

For the order to be filled, the user must pay the destination gas fee and a fee to incentivize the relayer to fill the order. This is what’s known as an intents model. Unlike other solutions, Across does not require on-chain messages to verify deposits, so it saves on gas. Then Across settles the relayer repayments in bundles, using UMA for optimistic verification. This means the gas cost per transaction gets amortized, falling when there are more transactions.

On top of bridge efficiency, the $ACX token maintained a positive growth pattern. We celebrated the token's first anniversary on the 28th of November, and this made me (again!) realise how fast time flies in the Cryptoverse. It feels like yesterday Hack VC, Placeholder, and Blockchain Capital purchased 50,000,000 Across Success Tokens from Risk Labs, a $10MM investment in Across Protocol.

Each success token will matures on the 30th of June 2025 and returns 1 ACX along with the value of one call option on ACX struck at $0.50. As long-term strategic partners, Hack VC, Placeholder and Blockchain Capital will use their experience and network to provide advice and resources to help the Across Protocol succeed.

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The launch was smooth, and the tokenomics were easy to understand. All of the 1,000,000,000 $ACX were minted, and one quarter was allocated for the strategic fundraise and for the token swap with Risk Labs for $UMA tokens. This gave ACX holders a meaningful way to participate in the oracle that secures Across–UMA’s optimistic oracle.

The Treasury kept 52.50% of the supply, while 12.50% was distributed community members, bridge liquidity providers, and early bridge users. The remaining 10% were used to incentivize capital pool liquidity and the referral system.

Fast-forward to 28th of November 2023, when the first anniversary party was scheduled! How it went? Absolutely perfect! We had over 2 hours of games and prizes, and special drop-ins from our frens at ZKittyDAO and Taho. We had a good attendance, and the euphoria lasted for days.

We had updates from the Across team and spoilers about what's yet to come! We had old games, top games... and new games! Over 6,000 ACX, approximately $840, were shared through games and giveaways to the attendees!

On top of that ... we had ZKitty spoilers! This is how the ZKitty x Across stamp will look, and holding it in your wallet will entitle you to a share of every airdrop that the kittyz will farm. Check it and boost your chances for $ZKS or LayerZero bounties.

The most loved game was The Price Is Right, where the party-cipants had to guess the product's price in ACX. The twist? The product was bought on a certain date, so Coingecko was a good aid. Also the price had to be converted to dollars from pounds or euros, making the prediction more difficult.

In preparation for this event, our community held an Across BAKE-OFF competition! While all of the baked goodies looked delicious, my favorite entry was the one that finished third!

Winning $34 worth of was sweet enough, as Legend's cake was ... legendary. Everyone was a winner, with slices of ACX being shared to all the participants. We rewarded cakes, pancakes, biscuits and even a slice of toast!

The Great Across Bake-Off winner was a superb chocolate cake, but this cute gingerbreads were the ones I liked the most. Shall we bake more and make this a recurring event?

Steve's gingerbreads were the runner-ups of the competition, being rewarded with 210 ACX tokens. Some expensive cookies you could say, with a market value set high by the prize. You could say that one gingerbread was worth over 7 USD! Yummi-Yummi Cha-Ching!

We had the Lucky Wheel as well, but an enhanced version. Usually you have to react to the emoji and you win a set amount of ACX if you are lucky enough! Usually the prize is 100 ACX tokens... but this was a special event.

I prepared six cards with values between 50 and 500 tokens, and the wheel winners had to choose a card. Yes... the winners! We had 4 winners at the party, and the smallest prize was 100 tokens. The biggest? Valdyr won the jackpot after choosing card number 4... and 500 ACX tipped immediately!

We want to thank all of the Across Rangers and Committee Members for organizing this event, and to all those that participated. An extra thank you goes to those that donated ACX during our charitable event!

Everyone was invited to drop some spare tokens throughout the party, and then the CEC members will start a charity chain. Both ACX and opACX were collected, and the amount achieved was beyond expectations.

I was blessed to be the last link of the charity chain, and gathered the funds before they were processed for our December crypto-donation. The full amount was donated to Save the Children, and hoping underprivilege young ones around the world will have a reason to smile.

(opACX are ACX tokens on Optimism chain, the preferred way to tip the games and events participants)

Over 4,600 $ACX were raised by the Across community and donated to "Save the Children" through TheGivingBlock. They made crypto donations so easy, that deserve our appreciation and gratitude.

The $591 donation was matched 1:1 by the Maui Emergency Response Fund, raising our combined effort to $1182. There is no better way to enjoy the festive season, than making sure everyone will have a reason to celebrate. Thank you all for the support!