War mode = Focus Mode

Exec summary

Here is a brief and compressed summary of the main points covered:

1. Refocused execution: We’ve re-established clarity around the mission, prioritize core initiatives, and align all efforts with a focused strategy aimed at winning.
2. Clearer separation of entities and responsibilities: We’ve set a clear distinctions between MultiversX Network (blockchain infrastructure), MultiversX Foundation (adoption and awareness), and MultiversX Labs (technology development and growth-driven ventures).
3. Cost optimization: We have implemented a cost reduction across various projects, to make things leaner, lighter, more focused, and ready for speed and action.
4. All key side projects have undergone review and realignment: Some ventures have been paused, others further separated and set on an independent path, while still others are ready to enter funding mode to accelerate and focus growth.
5. The path to winning for MultiversX: We re-defined key verticals of focus, KPIs and levers for growth to align the strategy for winning for the entire ecosystem, and set the stage for new growth experiments, adoption and strategic acceleration.

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We have built something remarkable — the world’s most scalable, advanced, and secure blockchain network. It is all live and open source TODAY.

This achievement alone solves a multi-billion-dollar problem with global implications.

Most people never get the chance to work on problems like this. Much less to properly tackle them, and see the day where progress milestones add up, to an unprecedented solution.

Yet we did just that. We achieved an incredible feat—we cracked the problem, and the solution is live, today.

But beyond that, we have also undertaken to solve several other distinct problems, investing significant thought and effort, into building several other products and solutions.

Some of them have been used by millions. Others have hardly taken off the ground.

Despite these relentless and unyielding efforts, we have not yet reached the tipping point we were aiming for.

But why?

We are doing too many things.

Too many products, too many efforts, too many initiatives.

Too little focus, too little clarity, too little structure, too little systemic alignment.

In fact, we have taken on so much that our team has been effectively paralyzed by a mental DDoS attack—a flood overwhelming our thinking, processing, resources, and execution. If left unchecked, this can be the path to a slow and painful decline. Entropy jamming our system.

Unless we change things, filter heavily, and refocus everything on winning.

What does it take to win?

There's only one way: war mode.

This plan will be executed in 2 steps:

1. Step 1 — War mode means immediately re-evaluating, stopping and deleting the things that don’t work, drain our energy, and make us lose focus. We must do less—much less—but with fiercer intensity and boldness.
2. Step 2 — War mode means re-clarifying why we're doing this and, most importantly, defining what will help us win. A clear strategy, effective communication, alignment with key stakeholders, and aggressive execution. This may be the most difficult thing to pull off, but once initiated, it will change the game.

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Step 1 - Clarify. Delete. Divide. Conquer.

Here is a list of urgent and important activities we have already began:

A. Clarify — Network, Foundation, Labs

1. The MultiversX Network: is a distributed global system, run by a global group of geographically distributed validators. The relevant stakeholders of the network are: developers/builders; validators; investors/contributors.
2. MultiversX Foundation: The continuous development and expansion of this decentralized network are stewarded by the MultiversX Foundation.
3. MultiversX Labs: As part of the development, evolution, and expansion plans, the MultiversX Foundation has undertaken many different experiments, most in close collaboration with MultiversX Labs.
4. Clarifying Roles:
   • MultiversX Network — purpose: provide a hyper-scalable decentralized blockchain protocol to enable next-gen internet applications.
   • MultiversX Foundation — purpose: create awareness and accelerate adoption for the MultiversX Network and technology. For growth, not for profit.
   • MultiversX Labs — purpose:  build the technology and provide infrastructure, incubate products and new ventures. For growth, for profit.

MultiversX Foundation

1. Separation and differentiation: As of September, we have established a clear separation between the MultiversX Foundation, MultiversX Labs, and all other ventures or experiments.
2. New leadership: During the next 3-6 months the Foundation will look to appoint a new well networked President, to bring in new energy, open new doors, and accelerate expansion efforts across key verticals of the ecosystem.

MultiversX Labs

Here are some important updates on MultiversX Labs:

1. Cost optimization: As of September, we have implemented a 25% cost optimization for all aspects related to MultiversX Labs and are in the process of achieving a 35% cost optimization for all other projects.
2. New key people: New key people joining different teams on strategic roles, to strengthen, and accelerate strategy, delivery, and expansion.

B. Delete, divide, conquer — MultiversX Side Bets

Here is an overview and status update on all key projects undertaken as side bets. It is worth noting that none of these experiments should be at any point confused or compared in scope and scale with the MultiversX Network, which shall remain the core focus.

xWorlds

Status and lessons learned:

xWorlds has been an important experiment, offering both valuable insights and challenging lessons. The product's direction was—and still is—highly promising. However, the timing was not right. Why?

The technology is not yet ready. The costs associated with any experiment in this area are still 10 to 100 times higher than necessary to make a meaningful contribution to the space and to build a compelling product and business line. The fact is, to have a good chance of winning would require a new commitment of approximately 50 million USD over the next two years -- a bet we do not believe makes sense at this current moment.

After evaluating the experiments done with Improbable, the investment in their round did not move forward, and the round did not conclude. At the end of the day, we have made a substantial investment of energy and resources into this experiment, have learned invaluable lessons for the future, and have decided that all activities on this project be halted as of June 2024. By making this difficult but important decision, we are strategically saving energy and resources to focus them on what matters most.

Outcome: Zero additional cost on focus or resources allocation for the xWorlds project moving forward. To be potentially re-evaluated at a later point in time when the bet might become viable and strategically opportune.

xFabric

Status and Lessons Learned:

xFabric has been another important experiment, providing both valuable insights and challenging lessons. The project has undergone two iterations.

In the first iteration, we targeted the wrong market with the wrong product—a market with little and transient demand, unable to sustain real growth. The product offered too much in some areas, yet somehow not quite enough to make a significant impact.

In the second iteration, we developed an entirely new product: a simpler, composable development environment and framework, complete with a marketplace to sell what you build and a straightforward interface for user activities in Web3. The goal was to reduce time-to-market for developers by a factor of 10, offer a marketplace for their creations, and seamlessly inject Web3 primitives into all Web2 technologies. This product has enormous potential; however, if we are serious about maintaining focus, we currently lack the necessary bandwidth and resources to properly pursue this initiative and win. Given everything we know today, we have decided to temporarily halt all efforts on xFabric as of the end of September 2024.

Outcome: Zero additional cost on focus and resources allocation for the xFabric project moving forward. To be potentially re-evaluated at a later point in time when the bet might become viable and strategically opportune.

xExchange

Status and Lessons Learned:

On the technical and product side, xExchange has made great progress. Version 3 has now launched—a significant milestone. So what comes next?

By the end of October, we will have established a completely independent setup, with clear team roles, more autonomy, and increased focus. The project will be funded entirely from the xExchange treasury, ramping up growth, business development, and marketing activities beyond just product development. The entire focus for the xExchange team will be to 10x volumes, 10x users, and 10x value, with rapid experimentation occurring on several fronts.

There will be many new experiments and lessons to learn, and we are confident in the team's capacity to elevate the xExchange growth game.

Outcome: New setup, clear team leadership, clear targets, refreshed strategy, increased speed.

xLaunchpad

Status and Lessons Learned:

xLaunchpad has been making great progress and is, in fact, fully self-sustainable and growing in terms of profitability.

As of September 2024, we have established an independent setup with separate entity, a focused team leadership, concentrating on achieving 3–5x growth in new startups launched, value created, user participation, and user engagement.

Outcome: New setup, clear team leadership, clear targets, refreshed strategy, increased speed. This will add new value in terms of projects launched, user participation, ecosystem expansion, and profits.

xMoney

Status and Lessons Learned:

xMoney has been by far the most unique, challenging, and insightful experiment to date. Surprising cost structures, heavy regulation, slow execution, and lengthy business sales cycles—all factors that made this an initial bet we could not fully win under the previous setup. This project has required the largest investment of energy, resources, and focus among all our undertakings.

This is all going to change now. xMoney Fiat and Crypto together have built an unparalleled money and payments infrastructure stack, comprising technical components, product elements, important licenses, and a robust regulatory pipeline. Given the rapidly growing regulatory pressure in Europe, we believe we have finally reached a point where the tides are turning strongly in our favor.

Outcome: xMoney has recently welcomed new key leadership, and is now in the process of closing a strategic investment round, enabling a new and lucrative business pipeline. More info will be released by the team once ready.

xPortal

Status and Lessons Learned:

xPortal has been steadily gaining momentum, with more and more users embracing and loving it. In fact, it is now approaching a stepping stone. xPortal has developed one of the most compelling crypto products in the world. Its beautiful user experience, robust and secure infrastructure, multi-chain support, on-ramp/off-ramp flows, exchange, and card components make it stand out as one of the highest-potential bets for both user growth and revenue generation. So, what comes next?

We have established a completely independent setup, with focused leadership and team, emphasizing deep focus on marketing, sales, user growth, and revenue acceleration.

This marks the next chapter of xPortal.

Outcome: xPortal is now ready to proceed to its first funding round, to accelerate expansion, execution, and growth.

xDay

Status and Lessons Learned:

xDay has served as an important platform for presentations, global communication, product unveiling and distribution, ecosystem alignment and acceleration, strategic business deals, and building notoriety. However, it has also been an intensive and resource-heavy undertaking.

So what's next? We are establishing a completely independent setup, with focused leadership and team, taking the necessary steps to transform xDay into a self-sustaining project that becomes one of the most prominent global platforms for ideas and startups at the intersection of Web3 and AI.

Outcome: xDay is now ready to move into the self-sustaining phase, starting with xDay Global 2025.

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Million dollar lessons

Below we outline some seemingly simple but critical lessons we have learned that will apply across each and every project we engage with or undertake:

1. Guard your core focus: Nothing should be allowed to cloud or replace the core purpose and focus of a team or entity, whether it's the foundation, labs, or any other project. Core focus should be crystal clear and guarded as if life depended on it—because it does.
2. Experiment fast: In the life of a startup, experiments are crucial. Without them, you can miss new lessons, new insights, new trends, and new growth opportunities. Some will work, some will not. What’s important is to do them fast, set them up properly — with separate, independent teams, budgets, and timeframes—and most importantly, learn the useful lessons you can incorporate afterwards. Most often, investments are the price you pay for the lessons you need to learn. Once you’ve learned the lessons, they’ll enable you to get your big win.
3. Think in bets: A simple and productive way to evaluate any new project is to think of it as a bet. When making a new bet, ask a few simple questions: (a) What is the goal?, (b) What is the target outcome?, (c) How much am I willing to invest?, (d) Over what timeframe? Once you have answered these, the conclusion of whether the bet is worth making should become fairly obvious. Things can and will become much more complex, but the basics go a long way.
4. Set the structure conducive to success: For any bet you are making, set the proper structure conducive to success. While these steps are simple, they are crucial to remember as you scale. Set up independent teams with clear leads, clear goals, clear budgets, and clear timelines. Most things in life will not work as expected initially, but having clarity on the basics will enable you to learn faster and navigate more effectively.
5. Do not forget the goal—to win: Less is more.  Make bets worth making. Make bets you believe you can win. Make bets that bring you closer to your objectives without killing you in the process. Your bets will either be your most important wins, or your most important lessons. Make them worth it.

Step 2 - Winning. The most important question

This is a wake-up call. A call to fight entropy with all we've got. It’s focus mode fully on.

With this first important and healthy exercise completed, we are now lighter, stronger, and ready to grapple with step 2.

We have built the most scalable, advanced and secure blockchain network in the world live TODAY, and have gathered a team with which we can literally build rockets.

The single most important question to think about, and fiercely attack becomes:

What must we do to win with MultiversX?

MultiversX simplified

So what does MultiversX stand for? What is our goal?

Mission – To build the most scalable, fast and secure decentralized blockchain network.

Vision — To scale trust and human collaboration for unbounded growth.

Strategy, simplified

Now, what’s our plan to achieve this, and win?

Our path to winning involves a 5-pronged flywheel, with a focus on scalability, development, ecosystem growth, capital markets, and maximum impact marketing.

This is not a short term plan. It is the general strategy we’ll never stop chasing.

This will evolve, get tracked and updated, until we win.

Flywheel Pillar 1: A Hyper-Scalable Blockchain Network

Build a scalable, fast, secure, accessible and decentralized blockchain network, to enable mass adoption.

First step north star KPI: 100K TPS, 1s finality, 99,99% availability, $0.002/transaction

Key drivers:

1. Sub-second finality
2. Sovereign Chains
3. Parallel execution

Flywheel Pillar 2: Powerful Dev Platform

Build a powerful dev platform, that enables anyone to build compelling, scalable and secure onchain products.

First step north star KPI: 1,000 monthly active builders/developers

Key drivers:

1. Simplify and Refine Dev Tools: Enhance tools for faster time to market
2. Expand Educational Resources: Offer tutorials and examples to lower the learning curve
3. Boost dev/builder onboarding: Engage via xAlliance meetups, houses, community experiments

Flywheel Pillar 3: Vibrant Ecosystem of Apps

Cultivate a vibrant ecosystem of apps giving consumers and businesses a magical and compelling reason to be onchain.

First step north star KPI: 1 million monthly active addresses

Key drivers:

1. Performance Based Incentive Program: Launch a growth-based incentive program for builders.
2. Provide Starter Incentives: Offer milestone-based support for builders
3. Launchpad and co-incubation program: Co-incubate with partners and DeFi protocols to ensure faster product-market fit

Flywheel Pillar 4: Deep Capital Markets

Nurture deep capital markets, that make MultiversX and EGLD the center of the interconnected, multichain economy.

First step north star KPI: 1 billion assets on platform

Key drivers:

1. Incentive programs: explore two experimental incentives programs
   • MultiversX Growth Games
   • 5 Unicorns on MultiversX
2. Strategic bridge integrations: Bridge V3 / Axelar integration / LayerZero integration
3. Native stablecoin integration

Flywheel Pillar 5: Maximum Impact Marketing

Analogy: We have created the perfect island; if no one visits it, its value is wasted. To unlock its full potential, we must ensure the world knows about it and is compelled to experience it.

The MultiversX blockchain network is unparalleled, but without widespread awareness and engagement, its true value remains untapped. Maximum Impact Marketing is about illuminating our "island," attracting visitors, and turning it into a bustling hub of activity and growth. To clearly tell the world the MultiversX story.

Maximum-impact marketing ignites and fuels the growth engine. Marketing turns every milestone into a dynamic, meaningful and shareable moment, driving awareness, user adoption and capital inflows.

North Star KPI: 10x amplification in awareness, user adoption, developer engagement, and capital inflow across all pillars.

Key drivers:

1. Global Awareness and Brand Amplification
   • Objective: Showcase our achievements to the world.
   • Actions: Launch global campaigns, secure media coverage, and participate in industry events to highlight our innovations.
2. Strategic Partnerships and Influencer Collaboration
   • Objective: Leverage established networks to expand reach.
   • Actions: Partner with industry leaders, influencers, and organizations to endorse and advocate for MultiversX.
3. Community Activation and Viral Growth
   • Objective: Transform users into ambassadors.
   • Actions: Implement referral programs, community challenges, and interactive platforms that encourage sharing and engagement.
4. Business Development Catalyst
   • Objective: Accelerate enterprise-scale engagement and adoption.
   • Actions: Target the key-sectors, industries and regions with a focussed BD GTM.

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Time for action

Read this document slowly, multiple times, and sleep on it.

This is a wake-up call. A call to fight entropy with all we've got.

The path to winning is never a straight line. It is a labyrinth full of twists and turns, challenges to overcome, and lessons to be learned.

But once the lessons are absorbed, the path forward reveals itself with unflinching clarity.

We have come a long way, and have learned some invaluable, hard-earned lessons.

Most importantly, we have built the most scalable, advanced, and secure blockchain network in the world, live and operational today. We have also assembled a team with which we can literally build rockets.

No matter what comes next, we are ready to face it head-on.

The stage is set. The moment is ours. Now, we execute.