Founder, Team Members of Solana-Based Clockwork to Step Away From Protocol

The team behind Clockwork, a decentralized automation protocol for the Solana blockchain, will no longer maintain the codebase, stating that there was not enough profit to continue developing the project.

The announcement comes a year after Clockwork received seed funding from backers like Multicoin Capital and Asymmetric.

Clockwork Team Leave Project to the Community

Nick Garfield, founder and CEO of Clockwork, announced the news in an X thread, stating that the team will shut down their “nodes on devnet and mainnet” by Oct. 31, 2023. The Clockwork founder said the team will be moving away from the protocol to take a break and focus on exploring other opportunities.

“Ultimately the reason we are stepping away now is simple opportunity cost. We admittedly see limited commercial upside in continuing to develop the protocol, and have a growing personal interest to explore new opportunities.”

Meanwhile, the announcement does not signal the end of Clockwork, with Nick stating that the code will remain open-source and available on GitHub for any developer looking to fork it, meaning that anyone interested in the project could continue from where the original team stopped and perhaps make some modifications. Open-source development is often praised by crypto proponents because it is in line with the decentralization ethos.

Nick also recommended alternatives for Clockwork users who wanted to use other projects, such as the decentralized Oracle network Switchboard, Helius Labs, and Triggr, a no-code automation solution.

Clockwork is an on-chain automation tool leveraging Solana’s speed and high performance. The project enables developers to “schedule transactions and automate smart contracts.” In August 2022, Clockwork received $4 million in a seed funding round co-led by Multichain Capital and Asymmetric, with Solana Ventures also participating.

Decentralization is the Goal

Nick further said the move was a transition to full decentralization, adding that the success of the Clockwork project now rested on users and the broader Solana community.

“For those who currently rely on Clockwork, we will do what we can to ensure continued service. Understand this process is an accelerated transition to full decentralization. Its success will depend on you and the will of the Solana community.”

As previously reported by CryptoPotato, e-commerce giant Shopify integrated Solana Pay — Solana’s decentralized payment protocol — to enable USDC payments.