Welcome to a multi-chain future
When we talk about blockchain 2.0, we talk about smart contracts and decentralized applications especially DeFi applications that are the first killer category for blockchain technology. Behind this, Ethereum has been the holy grail for decentralized application developers. Indeed, the most successful DeFi applications, Maker Dao, Uniswap, Compound etc. are all built on Ethereum and they capture the majority of the value locked in DeFi.
However, exactly because of the rise of DeFi, the capacity of Ethereum has been challenged and that the fees have reached a threshold that makes it too expensive for the majority of crypto users. Accompanied with the value increase in ETH, using Ethereum becomes a “premium” service in crypto — with hundreds even thousands of dollars worth of gas fee being spent on transactions. This gives a chance for the “Ethereum competitors” — public blockchains like Binance Smart Chain and different layer 2 solutions.
For instance, the TVL for BSC, starting with $400 million at the beginning of this year, has grown ~75x to $30 billion. Moreover, with fees 100+ times “cheaper” than existing DeFi blockchains, the Binance Smart Chain has reached 1M in daily active users. The top layer 2 solution, Polygon (Matic), has also been aggressively competing for the market share. The TVL on Polygon increased from ~$70 million mid-April 2021 to ~$2 billion at the end of April by partnering with top DeFi applications like Aave and Curve.
Ethereum will still be the backbone of large scale value storage, but there will be a multi-chain future for decentralized applications
These changes tell us something about what the users nowadays need in blockchain applications — they are cost conscious, return driven and chain-agnostic. As long as the product suits the user’s demand, and that the return is lucrative, users are willing to bear the trouble and use it. People are not loyal to one single platform, but loyal to returns. Just like not all the fiat transactions happen on bank transfer (but through Venmo, PayPal, Alipay etc.), not all the crypto transactions need to happen on Ethereum. With more progress made in developing the layer 2 rollup chains and other layer 1 infrastructure protocols, there is every reason to believe that we will embrace a multi-chain future.
Raydius is built with the mission to make the blockchain ecosystem more connected. Just like you don’t need to know where this article on Medium is hosted, AWS, Google or some private cloud, users shouldn’t need to distinguish which chain your USDT is on when you make a trade. Currently, this could be achieved with centralized exchange (which is also a middleware solution) while in DeFi, users need to transfer the assets manually. With Raydius, developers could develop scalable and cheap applications, and connect with the solution that they see fit. At the core, Raydius offers an EVM compatible blockchain that could easily support existing DeFi applications on Ethereum. With bi-directional bridges to Ethereum and other blockchains, developers now have a “second chance” on which ecosystem they want to be part of.
