Update 0

This is the first official public Zero update.

1. Strategy

A useful frame for describing Zero is the story of Pixar and Renderman. Everyone knows Pixar; few remember Renderman. Renderman is the proprietary 3D animation technology developed by Pixar. In the early 90s Pixar's primary strategy was licensing the Renderman software to traditional animation studios. The problem at that time however, was that 3D animation was relatively novel and it wasn't yet clear that it would ever become a thing. The team suffered many years on the brink of bankruptcy until they were left with no other viable choice than to create their own full featured animated film – Toy Story.

At the time this idea was crazy – producing big box office films was for major Hollywood studios, not Silicon Valley upstarts. We all know what happened next. Pixar created Toy Story and the movie industry was never the same again.

Recently I've been thinking of Zero as Renderman. For six years we've been working on Zero's core technology stack with no shortage of challenges. Similar to those early Pixar days, the biggest challenge of all has been describing the scale and scope of what Zero enables for communities. In many ways, I see modern communities as being analogous to the manual animation studios that existed before Toy Story. One in which reality is 2D, work is mostly manual, and everyone is blissfully unaware of the technological sea change in our midst.

Over the past number of years we've spent a lot of time prototyping different collaboration models with various communities. In almost all cases however we ended at the same conclusion – that we would have to significantly alter our long-term vision in order to accommodate what these groups thought they wanted. The quote that comes to mind here is from the late Henry Ford: "If I had of asked people what they wanted they would have said a faster horse." In a world obsessed with instant gratification and cheap capital, building something meaningful that does not to conform to the conventional capital model is and can only be hard. The more fundamental the shift, the less likely that people are to see it in advance.

With this realization, we've made the deliberate choice to focus the majority of our efforts on our own first Zero Universe – Wilder World. We believe Wilder World will make the highest and best use of Zero's core technology stack – without compromise. Wilder will give future Universe builders a very real example of what a new generation of sovereign digital communities can be.

2. Wilder

Wilder is an Immersive 3D Universe in the Zero Metaverse that is powered entirely by NFTs (Non-fungible Tokens). Utilizing Zero technology, Wilder solves three core problems related to existing NFT marketplaces and virtual worlds:

1. Liquidity: Popular NFTs are incredibly expensive for regular people and lack liquidity, meaning that they are difficult to sell after they are purchased. In Wilder World, NFTs are liquid, meaning that they can be fractionalized and made price accessible to a wide audience. We think that this is a requirement in order for NFTs (and virtual property in general) to go mainstream.
2. Decentralization: Current NFT platforms are effectively middleman, operating in diametric opposition to the underlying ethos of crypto. Wilder is fully decentralized and operated as its own DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) called the Wilder Artists Guild. 3D Artists become members of the Guild in exchange for $WILD token and receive a percentage of sales based on the art they contribute. There is no company or platform in-between Guild members, patrons and collectors. There is also 0% artist fees taken (other than Ethereum GAS).
3. Utility: Existing NFTs lack utility and photorealistic quality. NFTs today simply sit in a wallet and do not enable any real world use beyond being purchased, viewed, and (potentially) resold. In Wilder, NFTs are 3D, photorealistic, and useful. They are Metaverse ready – 3D hats you can wear, vehicles you can race, and apartments you can own – the possibilities are endless.

In the last ninety days Wilder has made meaningful progress towards delivering this reality:

• Signed up over 250+ of the industry's leading crypto-artists and top collectors.
• Generated a waitlist of over 15,000 member signups.
• Secured partnerships with 80+ crypto influencers.
• Generated over $1 million in staked value in a single NFT drop – The Defi Dinner.
• Launched the new Wilder World brand, website, and 'in-world' cinematic trailer.
• Created 10+ 'game ready', fully 3D photorealistic playable characters.
• Secured funding for a $3 mm private sale with a number of crypto's top investors (announcing soon).
• Launched the Wilder Artist Guild on Zero – a network of 3D artists and developers collaborating in 10+ countries on the build and production of Wilder World.
• Launched the Wilder Zine – a digital magazine for all things Wilder.
• Launched the first alpha version of Wilder's liquid NFT marketplace (Launching publicly in May).
• Founded Wilder Studios – Wilder World's in-house concept studio for original characters, stories and world development.
• Secured major drops/collaborations on three of the leading NFT platforms – NiftyGateway, MakersPlace, and MEME – all happening leading up to the Wilder IDO. Here is a sneak peak of the Wilder x Primal drop, filmed entirely inside Wilder World.
• Secured the launch of the $WILD token on one of the preeminent IDO platforms (public announcement coming soon).
• And last but not least, made significant technological advancements on the first virtual city in Wilder World – Zion. Zion is a 64 km² smart city, connected with an innovative underground high-speed transportation system. We've also completed the construction of the Timeless Temple – a fully immersive world where Wilder's first annual Cyber Gala will take place. The event will be an interactive art gala and live NFT auction inside Wilder World, that is scheduled to take place on July 15th, 2021. Tickets will go on sale shortly.

For more information on how virtual real estate will work in Zero and Wilder World be sure to read the Zine – zNS: Sovereign Programmable Property, Scarcity, and Virtual Land in the Metaverse. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak of Frank Wilder himself running around inside the water temple.

Next month, Wilder will launch as the first official Universe on Zero OS and zNS (Zero Name Service) at '0://Wilder', followed by the release of Wilder's $WILD and $LOOT token. For more information on Wilder and its tokenomics, please checkout the recent token sale deck, which was minted as an NFT, the Wilder Telegram, as well as the Token Issuance section below.

2. Product & Technology

Nearly 100% of our collective coordination – from team conversations, task management, token transactions as well as video and community calls – is now happening inside Zero OS. The Wilder Guild, the first network in the Wilder Universe, is also being built 100% on Zero OS.

Significant progress has been made on the Zero Tech stack over the last several months:

• zBanc: We deployed the first version of our native token system to the Ethereum Blockchain, as well as our very first Zero Dynamic Token – Infinity (III) – on December 21, 2020, the grand conjunction. Zero Dynamic Tokens are a novel type of token that utilize both a bonding curve model and Dynamic Reserve system to enable liquidity between community currencies built on Zero. zBanc completed two successful audits with both Consensys Diligence and Peckshield. For more details please visit the Dynamic Tokens section on Zero Knowledge.
• Trinity: We deployed the first version of the Trinity multi-sig wallet to the Ethereum Blockchain. This is the primary treasury system that will hold assets on behalf of the Zero Network, which will be governed entirely via three independent DAOs using zDAO. For more details please visit the zDAO section as well as the Governance & Issuance section in Zero Knowledge.
• zNS & zAuction: On April 19th, 2021 we entered our final audit for the v1 release of the Zero Name Service and zAuction Protocol with Consensys Diligence, one of the industries leading technical diligence firms. zNS is our native protocol for managing the issuance of zNA's (Zero Name Addresses such as '0://Wilder') on the Zero Network. zAuction is a general purpose and flexible NFT exchange with 0% fees, which is capable of facilitating the sale of NFTs with any type of auction model. For more information please visit the zNS Section in Zero Knowledge and/or our zNS and zAuction GitHub repositories.
• Zero OS: Since January 2021 we've made 51 enhancements to Zero OS. Notably, we've made significant upgrades to our public channels system, as well as shipped secure live audio and video discussions. We have also introduced Network Tokens, which enable communities to create their very own community currencies (as Dynamic Tokens) within minutes. Every Dynamic Token on Zero is tradeable with every other Dynamic Token, irrespective of a token's daily trading volume, and without the need for an actual exchange or liquidity pool. For more details on the significance of this, please check out the Zine – Liquidity: An Internet of Money.
• zSpace: We have made meaningful progress on the development of zSpace and zOWS (Zero Open World System). We have solved one of the hardest technical problems, which is the ability to elegantly stitch together massive real-time landscapes across a distributed network of Zero Nodes (effectively independent servers). Today zSpace is still in alpha but is fully operation (i.e. up and running 24/7), with 3-4 automated releases being shipped each day. Basically, if you have access, you can jump into zSpace at any time, find other Wilders, meet up and chat over live audio. It's pretty unreal.
• zChain: One of the final pieces of infrastructure in the Zero Master Plan is the release of zChain. This will move the Zero Network to not only being decentralized but also being distributed. We have determined a number of the core architecture decisions to actually ship this, as well as deployed our first useable prototype. Our goal is to have this released in production by the end of the year.

The Zero OS platform is still in private beta. Today we have two primary Networks operating internally: '0://Cyber.Guild' and '0://Wilder.Guild'. We have an average of 100 daily active users who send a combined average of 1,138 messages per day. This right now is mostly key members and advisors of Zero and Wilder. We expect to be opening public invites to Zero shortly, where anyone will be able to buy their own zNS identity and establish their own Universe, Galaxy, or World.

Please review the recently released Zero Technical Trailer to get a better understanding of how various aspects of the Zero stack integrate as a connected whole.

3. Team

In the last year we've roughly 10x'd the size of our core team. Across Zero and Wilder, we've grown to ~54 full-time equivalents, operating in 13 teams in over 10 countries:

• zOS: Two full-stack developers, one part-time full-stack developer (2.5)
• zNS & zDAO: One PM, three protocol developers, and two front-end developers (6)
• zAuction: Two protocol developers, one front-end developer (3)
• zSpace: Six Unreal Engine developers, two QA testers (8)
• Character Team: Four character artists (4)
• Level Team: Two level designers (2)
• Wilder Universe Team: Five team leads (5)
• UX: Three designers (3)
• Creative Team: Three designers, one full-stack developer, one sound designer (5)
• Wilder Studios (Concepting Team): One writer, one story board illustrator (2)
• Community Team: One social media manager, two telegram managers, and three writers (6)
• Fund Team: Two fund managers, one part-time designer and one part-time advisor (3)
• Accounting, Legal & Admin: One finance person, one book keeper, one part-time CFO, three part-time law firms (4)

The following diagram provides a visual illustration of the organizational structure we are working towards. Our biggest challenge as of late has been finding exceptionally talented people to join us as we scale. After the Wilder IDO we will be a global campaign to further scale the team.

4. Token Issuances

We expect thousands, and eventually millions of tokens to be created on the Zero Network. Since its launch four months ago, Zero's first and primary currency token, Infinity ($III), has performed well and is up over 7x from its initial price of $0.03. Currently $III can only be purchased inside the Zero Desktop or Web app, however we expect it to be available publicly on Zero.Space, zer0.io and wilderworld.com soon, as well as exchanges later this year.

In sequential order, here are Zero's initial token launches worth paying attention to:

• Launched: $III is the primary reserve currency (as noted above) for the Zero Network. Network Tokens created on the Zero Network are made liquid by holding a portion of $III in their token's internal reserve. This enables the seamless onchain exchange of any token within the Zero Network, without the need of a centralized or decentralized exchange.
• Launching May 2021: $WILD is the primary governance token for the Wilder DAO and is being launched as an IDO this May on a leading industry launch pad (announcing soon).
• Launching June 2021: $LOOT is the primary reserve currency of the Wilder Universe and fractionally backed by $III. Staking $LOOT is required to mint and trade NFTs on the Wilder World liquid NFT platform, as well as inside the Wilder Universe in zSpace.
• Launching Q3/Q4 2021: $ZERO will be the primary governance token for the Zero Platform, set of protocols, and ecosystem. It will govern the Zero DAOs (Trinity), which holds responsibility over $III and it's internal reserve system. We expect $ZERO to launch on a major IDO platform after $WILD, with major exchanges to follow.

To learn more about Zero's next major token launch, $WILD, please visit the Wilder World Telegram Group, Website, Zero Zine, Wilder Zine, Twitter, Instagram or Medium page.

5. The Future

If you've made it this far, you are a true Wilder.

We could not be more excited about the progress we've made in the last several months and years. We expect this pace to continue.

Thank you to everyone that has supported and believed in us along our journey; they say it takes a village, and Zero and Wilder certainly has. We would like to especially thanks those who've supported us through the most challenging times – the abyss. You know who you are.

We honor you and salute you.

From Zero to Infinity,

n3o