Solana’s Clockwork Next Project Closure: Trouble in Paradise?

• Clockwork, a Solana-based project known for its smart contract automation project, recently announced its plans to cease vital infrastructure operations by the end of October.
• Garfield assured that the Clockwork code will continue to retain its open-source status and will be accessible to the public online.

On August 27, Nick Garfield, the founder of Clockwork, shared the news through several posts on X, formerly Twitter. He revealed that the team will suspend proactive development of the protocol, and the protocol’s nodes on both the devnet and mainnet will be deactivated on October 31

When delving into the reasons behind this decision, Garfield pointed to what he termed a “simple opportunity cost”. He acknowledged that Clockwork’s continuation offered limited commercial returns. In addition to this, the team’s inclination to probe new avenues and explore different prospects supported the decision.

Way Forward for Clockwork

While the news may sound dire to the followers and users of Clockwork, there’s a silver lining. Garfield assured that the Clockwork code will continue to retain its open-source status and will be accessible to the public online. Moreover, he wholeheartedly encouraged any enthusiast or developer with a passion for the protocol to “fork and ship” – essentially, to use and develop it further.

It is interesting to note that Clockwork’s journey had a promising start. Approximately a year ago, the project secured a commendable $4 million seed round from venture giants such as Multicoin Capital and Asymmetric. Solana Ventures also contributed to the round. In this context, a Twitter user inquired about the remaining seed money and whether investors would receive a refund. In response, Garfield conveyed that a significant amount from the fund still remains untouched. However, he intends to tread carefully and deliberate thoroughly before finalizing how to proceed.

Hi all, bittersweet news today.

The team and I behind @clockwork_xyz have decided to step away from active development of the protocol.

1/

— Nicholas Garfield (@time_composer) August 27, 2023

It’s crucial to note that Clockwork isn’t the sole Solana protocol to face such challenges. In recent times, several Solana platforms have ceased operations. For instance, Friktion, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, wrapped up its services in January. Similarly, its counterpart, Everlend Finance, followed suit a month later. In June, the non-fungible token protocol on Solana, named Cardinal, too, revealed its plans to conclude operations amid unfavorable economic conditions, even after successfully raising a robust $4.4 million about a year prior.

This wave of shutdowns comes after the migration of some top Solana projects to other chains last year. In 2022, Solana’s two top projects by transaction volume, y00ts, and DeGods, moved from Solana to Polygon and Ethereum, respectively. Likewise, gaming platform Fractal, co-founded by the creator of Twitch, also made the switch from Solana to Polygon.

The Solana ecosystem appears to feel the ripple effects of FTX’s downfall, as a significant portion of its support came from customer deposits funneled into Solana projects by Alameda Research and FTX Ventures.

About Clockwork

Clockwork stands out in the tech arena as a unique protocol on the Solana network. Its primary function is to enable users to set up transactions and craft smart contracts. These smart contracts can then automatically activate specific applications when they detect a specific event or trigger.

Solana (SOL) Continues Its Bull Run

The latest price analysis of the Solana (SOL) token has only confirmed ChatGPT’s prediction of good things to come for the token. The 24-hour market activity shows that SOL gained a significant 4.83% of its price value. This sees the price of SOL trade at $20.76 at the time of this writing.

The trading volume of Solana has also experienced a significant 58% increase in market activity within the last 24 hours to see a return of $563.99M.

It is worth noting that Solana has been on an extended bullish run, as the Solana token has gained over 19% in price value within the last 30 days. These positive stats could add to the reasons ChatGPT is listing Solana as a must-have token.

Polkadot (DOT) Rallies As Imminent Surge Expected

Polkadot (DOT) has had a significant rally in price in the last 24 hours, which may suggest a boost in price within the coming days. Polkadot gained 0.15% in value within the last day to trade at $4.28 currently. The token has also had a trading volume of over 100M within that same time frame.

This recent rally of Polkadot is coming at the back of an extended downward slip in price value. This is evident in the 7 days stats, which show a 1.7% loss in value for DOT.

Also, Polkadot lost 2.0% in the last 14 days. However, analysts expect that the recent upturn in price will be the beginning of an extended surge in price value. With ChatGPT listing Polkadot as a coin worth investing in, we anticipate the coin entering a bull run soon.