A simple answer would be Phat Contracts went live in June 2023. From there, we have gotten developer feedback and done our best to find our target audience.
Timeline:
- June Announcement: https://twitter.com/PhalaNetwork/status/1665706872597512194?t=v9fNLczWvlT3B80XfgFhHA&s=19
- Introduce First Phat Contract Template for No-Code/Low-code one-click deployment with minimal JS script to transform data
- Launch Builders Program to support developers with up to $50k in funding to build on Phala
- Outside of the first Phat Contract template, Devs needed to be build in ink! with the Phat Contract Rust SDK
- July to August:
- Demo at Decoded how to deploy Phat Contract template for customizable oracle and we teased our next template where developers can build Phat Contract 2.0 fully in TypeScript/JavaScript https://youtu.be/98Uz9axjrJo?si=TMaEtODtkQstvVoc
- Hosted first Hackathon with DeveloperDAO where devs built out use cases with the first Phat Contract template called the LensAPI Oracle https://twitter.com/PhalaNetwork/status/1697995187472257082?t=tk9i9kimeD62elW90j_TZQ&s=19
- September to Now:
- Create the Beta version of Phat Contract 2.0 for the second hackathon with DeveloperDAO where developers are able test & deploy their Phat Contracts using the Phat Contract Starter Kit. https://twitter.com/developer_dao/status/1707811049011925196?t=RQIGyvZyFisovQsgi-w_Xg&s=19
- Continue to listen to developer feedback and continue to revamp the DevX until devs have everything they need to build cross-chain dApps quickly with access to off-chain data & automation for most EVM chains out-of-box. GitHub - Phala-Network/phat-contract-starter-kit: Send data from any API to your smart contract with Javascript
This is likely the case for the small steady growth. We will continue to find & cater to our target audience, and continue to improve the DevX as we onboard more devs. Please test it out and reach out to me for any suggestions or help building on Phala.