Clockwork on Solana announces closure

Nick Garfield, founder of the Solana-based Clockwork project, said that he and the team are stepping back from ‘active development of the protocol’ and will shut down its infrastructure on October 31.

The startup was developing technology to automate regular transactions such as payroll payments using smart contracts.

“Ultimately the reason we’re stepping away is simply the opportunity costs. We acknowledge that there is limited commercial potential in continuing the development of the protocol, and there is growing personal interest in exploring new opportunities,” Garfield wrote.

According to him, the protocol’s code remains freely accessible. Developers “fully support” any forks by those wishing to continue work on the solution.

According to Crunchbase, in August 2022 the startup raised $4 million in a seed round with investors including Multicoin Capital, Asymmetric and Solana Ventures.

In response to a user asking about refunds to investors, Garfield said the project had preserved a meaningful portion of its funds, but would need time before deciding what to do.

Earlier in January, the Solana-based DeFi project Friktion announced its closure. A month later, the developers of the Everlend lending protocol in the blockchain ecosystem adopted the same decision.