Dear Diamond Community,

This has been a spectacular year for DMD Diamond and cryptocurrencies in general. The level of world wide adoption and acceptance of this new type of asset class has driven market caps to all time highs. So far this positive trend is likely to continue in 2018  which creates a tremendous opportunities and new possibilities. As crypto industry matures, we will see a greater market focus on established coins and long term quality projects. DMD Diamond with its 4.5 years history and experience is greatly poised for seizing this unique opportunity.
DMD Diamond has yet again proved to be an excellent hedge against crypto market volatility. In 2017 DMD was much better storage of wealth than BTC. Last year, BTC rose from  $963 to $14581$ which was a x15 increase while DMD increased from $0.20 to just over $20 making it an astronomical x91 increase in value. Such gains are unheard of in any investment product in classical nowadays economy that is open to ordinary unsolicited investors.

Nothing happens without a reason though. In 2017 DMD Diamond has significantly improved its fundamentals by releasing a Layer 2 network (Masternodes) on top of DMD Diamond blockchain and improved Proof of Stake mechanics to make the Diamond Network more useful, robust and safe. This development proved DMD Diamond team is constantly striving for making DMD a better storage of wealth and profit generating product for investment, hedging and trading.

The level of success of employing state of the art Masternode technology can be measured by the number of participants in the program. More than 50% of all issued DMD coins are locked in Masternodes making it over 130 nodes in total. Masternode owners get daily payouts with current investment return of 25% per year.
Even though 65% of each block reward is allocated to Masternodes and 35% to Proof of Stake, the former one is a very good earner too. The design of Layer 1 and Layer 2 reward scheme ensures that Proof of Stake stays rewarding with returns comparable to having a Masternode.

However, the development of Masternode technology will be a centre piece of creating an extended DMD ecosystem. Diamond Masternodes will be turned into utility nodes that facilitate additional services for DMD Diamond and others. This coming year will be one of the most exciting chapters of DMD Diamond development!

2017 was also a year when DMD Diamond became a fully self sufficient project. DMD team has launched a program of co-financing community based initiatives that add value to DMD Diamond. We've seen projects such as Shared Diamond Masternodes, Masternode hosting or a chronicle about DMD Diamond among the others to be supported by DMD Diamond Foundation.

What's more DMD was also much better represented in media this year with coordinated and sustained advertising campaign across multiple platforms and channels. This has brought awareness to this mature crypto gem which resulted in Diamond Community organically growing this year from 2000 followers on Twitter in January to over 11000 by the end of December; while Slack chat is now followed by over 600 people. It is the community that has formed around the idea of DMD we're the most proud of because DMD Diamond is not only the technology, the code, the mechanics, but also the people who support it, contribute to it and participate in it. 

DMD Diamond team would like to wholeheartedly wish you all a very Happy New Year with great profits and fulfilled dreams! Thanks for all the support and let's  keep making DMD the best blockchain based wealth storage and profit generation solution!