How Infrastructure Flexibility and Multi-VM Blockchains Are Leading Web 3 - Denko Mancheski

Transcript

Hey guys, so this is actually a talk by Denko Mancheski, Reef CEO. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to join us here live today, but he's taken an opportunity to pre-record the talk and a slide deck will go up shortly. So, he's going to take a look at infrastructure flexibility, the challenges that come with launching multi-chain protocols and dApps, particularly around bridges and token liquidity there. User experience experience challenges that are still present at this time, and of course how Reef is working on overcoming these challenges. We welcome your participation in the network to help us overcome them and help onboard the next billion users to web3 technology.

Hi everyone. Thanks for attending this talk as well as visiting our Reef booth and the Reef Metal Wall. If you haven't seen the Metal Wall, you definitely should. Our team on our booth will help you find the location and then you can take a photo and win some very cool Reef merch. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I unfortunately I couldn't attend the conference this year. But end of next month, 28th of March, Reef is a sponsoring partner on Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai. So, looking forward to meeting some of you there.

Now, let's let's move on with the presentation. So, I will first do some introduction of myself and what the project is about, the current challenges, the multi-chain and multi-VM landscape, the future, and launch of the Reef ecosystem. So, I'm Denko. I'm the CEO of Reef. I have a tech background myself. I've been a developer since I was uh 16 years old and I moved into the blockchain landscape in 2016 with Ethereum, of course, as well as NXT and some of the early blockchains. And over the years, I've been building a team of developers and around a year and a half ago, we decided to build Reef.

So, Reef stands for reliable, extendable, and efficient and fast layer one blockchain for DeFi, NFT, and gaming. It's built with substrate framework and it has it has EVM support. Now, let me run you quickly through these attributes, like what is reliable and extendable. So, basically, Reef is powered by an NPoS, which stands for nominated proof of stake. It's basically an evolution from the traditional proof of stake, where you have validators and nominators here. So, validators, they provide the infrastructure and the maintenance of the network. They're responsible for new blocks. They need to be responsive at

all all times, run secure and reliable infrastructure. Basically, they are the ones that are guaranteeing finality and ultimately securing the network. That's why the validators that we are running are run on dedicated infrastructure that that we own in multiple geographical regions, and this is what we also suggest to the other validators to to try to run their own servers. Then you have nominators on the other hand, which are the token holders who are contributing to the security of the network by economically backing up to 16 validators.

They earn part of the reward, but also if some of the validator is slashed for misbehavior, they also get slashed themselves. So, that's that's on the reliable part. This this is basically uh uh probably one of the rare, maybe even one, layer one blockchains that run NPoS. Uh this uh consensus algorithm is also powering Polkadot and and Kusama, but those are uh uh those are basically network of blockchains, not layer ones themselves.

Next on the on the extendable part. So, basically, Reef is a very modular blockchain. It's self-upgradable and it has it has support for multiple virtual machines. Uh but let me start with the EVM support first. So, the way our blockchain is built, the the smart contract execution layer is completely separated from the rest of the blockchain infrastructure such as the governance module, the networking layer, and so on. So, it's a separate module which can further be expanded. So, this is where EVM extensions come into play. So, we can build a certain module in a completely different programming language, let's say Rust, do some uh module that does some heavy computing or maybe some different type

of storage, and then we can expose this functionality directly into the EVM context. We all know the the limitations of the EVM and we believe this is the best solution to allow developers to do more in EVM. Now, since the EVM is just a module on its own, we are able to add more modules. This is where multiple virtual machines come into play. Imagine a blockchain where you can run different types of smart contracts written in different programming languages but using the same tools to interact with it, the same tools to to deploy it, basically same wallet, same seed same user experience throughout all the virtual machines.

Um and on top of that, Reef has something which we call internal bridging layer which is synchronizing the state and the addresses between all the VMs. So, for example, if you're spending in the EVM, it's automatically synced in another context and so on. Uh what this does on the long run is it's basically abstracting away the complexities and it allowing for a better user experience. But I will tackle the user experience part a bit later. Uh now, how how is this extendability achieved in practice? Like, what's happening? How how how are new modules created on the on the blockchain? So, basically, it's uh Reef chain is

self-upgradable by default. So, all the new features, security upgrades, performance optimizations, they can be installed with a forkless scheduled updates. So, what this does is basically the the Reef networking layer has a um it has a it can handle upgrading whenever we want. So, let's say we want to deploy a new module, we can schedule it for a certain block number, and when that block number happens, the the validators, the ones that are basically running the network, are automatically upgraded. The whole update is pushed through the networking layer and rerun.

Uh so, there is no forking. The validators, they don't need to install new software, like new versions, no version crashing, nothing. the cool thing about this is that this functionality has its own like rollback mechanisms and other redundant layers. So, uh that this mechanism is actually resilient. So, nothing could basically go wrong because you could just if there is some issue, it's very easy to to roll it back. So, this is where the extendability comes.

And then we have the efficient and fast. So, basically, from the ground up, the blockchain is built to handle a lot of users. We have 10-seconds blocks and 40-seconds finality. It's a very high throughput while maintaining very low energy consumption. Uh on the tables below, you could see some comparison to another ecosystems in the multiple uh uh attributes. So, additionally, the cost of interacting with the chain is minimal. For example, it takes around $2 to mint an NFT or around 5 cents to to make a transfer.

one more thing is that the fees are burned. So, this is a deflationary mechanism on its own. And the cool thing about this is that the incentives between the participants, basically the users and the hosts, the validators of the network are aligned. This is one of the big issues that other proof-of-work blockchains have because the more scalable it becomes, the less the fees, the less the miners are earning. So, there is there is a lot of clashing there between the actors participating in the system. So, that's that's that's a reliable, extendable, and efficient efficient and fast.

So, now I want to talk about the the current challenges that they're happening in this landscape. So, basically liquidity fragmentation between ecosystem, need for multiple programming languages, unreliable token bridges, scattered developer tools, and fragmented user experience. But, let's let's go back for a second. So, at the beginning of this cycle, we've seen the rise of a multi-chain world. We we believe the the future will be multi-chain. Uh and the reason why we we've seen this rise is because the smart contract landscape was underserved. Developer developers wanted more programming languages. They wanted more efficient environments. While user users demanded better user experience and and cheaper, more

uh more affordable interaction. Uh but, multi-chain led to a new set of challenges such as fragmented liquidity between ecosystems. So, in order to resolve this, we started creating all these bridges, right? So, one of the issues here is that with bridges is that there is no standardization. So, technically, anyone can run a bridge. And usually, each of them each bridge has their own instance of wrapped token. So, what this does is further creating complexity for the users. So, instead of making it simpler, we went in the opposite direction. We made it harder for normal normal users to interact. Since now, if you take your tokens from one bridge, you get you're

getting let's say wrapped ether A. If you take it from the second bridge, you get wrapped ether B. So, it's extremely hard for And and then when the users get those tokens, they when they want to let's say participate in an NFT marketplace, maybe that NFT marketplace doesn't support the wrapped token B. So, now they have to convert it and it's just it it it it good luck, right? It's it's it's not easy and it's every day with more and more bridges, it's it's getting harder and and harder. And uh one of the reasons is because the bridges are currently all external infrastructure that's run by third parties. It has nothing to do with the blockchain. You really have mostly centralized bridge centralized monitors

and everything is is done uh most of the time in in in a SQL database, right? Uh so, what are we doing to solve this? We're deploying native bridges, so they're part of the blockchain layer. They're run by the same validators. And those bridges are not just external, but also internal between between VMs. And uh then basically on top of bridging, the the swapping functionality is again natively supported. So, one can expect reliable bridges at all times.

So, this is what developer wants and basically what what what this would look like is um uh from a user perspective, they would stop seeing certain things that they shouldn't. Basically, just uh uh trying to go in the opposite direction. So, we're reducing complexity, right? So, unified user experience. Like, what they would be doing Let let me give you Let me give you uh an example. So, for example, if a user wants to buy an NFT uh in ecosystem B, but he has a token in ecosystem A.

Uh so, they need to find a bridge. They have to search which one is the most reliable, the best, the the most efficient, the cheapest, etc. Once they found it, they have to link the wallet to this third-party website. They have to paste the target's ecosystem address where they want to get their wrapped token. And once this is done, they have to go to their other wallet. They have to probably add the token in the wallet because that wallet might not accept the wrapped version of that token. And what happens is um Now that they have it, they have to maybe swap that wrapped token for the main one that the NFT platform is using.

Uh otherwise, they still wouldn't be able to do that. And now they have to go on a different DEX, swap it there, then go to the NFT marketplace, then once they once they bought it from the marketplace, sure they will be able to see the NFT there, but now their wallet might probably is not supporting that NFT marketplace and so on. So, as you can see, it's like a chain of complexities and every step creates just more and more like um hassle for the user. And uh that's why I I I believe we are facing um some some resistance some for for newcomers. So, how would this work in Reef's case?

Since everything is integrated natively, you can just send uh your token from ecosystem A to a bridge address. And that's it. It's done. Automatically, the tokens are received on the address. You can up a predefined uh of to which token you just want it to be uh converted. Uh all of them are standardized, so the NFT marketplace is supporting them. And from there, right away, you can just go on the NFT marketplace, click buy, and that's it. Now you can go in your wallet. You the the wallet is also supporting NFTs. We can plug more than one marketplace easily. And uh and you're pretty much done.

So, all of this integration again are unifying the user experience, allow for easier onboarding of users, easier interaction with the blockchain, as well as easier easier offboarding. And we believe this is the only way to achieve mass adoption. It's basically how Apple brought the personal computer into every house by making the computer software actually usable for someone like my mother, like not very technical person. So um basically the future. So we again, we believe multi-VM blockchains with native bridges and unified user experience are the future.

Uh so need for multiple programming languages, native UI development kits and plugins. So for developers, you should check our our website. We already released our Reef UI kit. So you can build your dApps and they would look exactly like our dApps, basically like our wallet, like our block explorer, like our extensions. So all of the snippets for picking addresses, everything is released. Then you have the unified tooling environment. For example, in our case for EVM, we have Remix, but everything is done in Remix. So automatic contract validation, automatic verification, like you just obviously integrated with our own extension. So you just go there, you deploy your smart contracts, everything is done. You have the green check check

boxes in the block explorer and so on. Then the blockchains have to be flexible because we've seen that this landscape is shifting extremely fast. So you have to add another VM, you have to extend certain things. Even bridges on their own are an extension. It's something new that we've seen. Before we we didn't have that many bridges because we didn't have a multi-chain world. And then those bridges, for them to not cause additional complexity, they have to be integrated in the in the core blockchain layer.

So this is this is what we believe that the future is and that that's why we're building Reef. Um now a little bit on the Reef ecosystem update. We're launching this quarter. A lot of these products are being launched this month. So, the browser extensions are already out there. They're uh waiting for the UI kit uh to be added, which has to be any day now. So, we have both for Mozilla and Chrome. We have the web wallet. We have ledger support and we have the block explorer. And all of those four products are integrated with each other. For example, the web wallet uh is using the extension and the extension is using, you know, ledger has ledger support. So, you could use the wallet with ledger right out of the box.

Same for the block explorer. So, the way we did the block explorer, you could interact with the smart contract directly. And again, with our extension, ledger support, and so on. And besides this, this is what the core team is building. We're also like obviously helping other projects and one of the upcoming projects is Reef Pad and Squid. Uh so, one is IDO platform and the other one is an NFT marketplace. We are working with uh uh really popular artists to bring their first collections on Reef and this is this is very very exciting.

So, here is just a small sneak peek of the uh updated products. So, this is the this is the block explorer. All of those are very modular. So, when I say unified user experience, you might be able to see the same UI in a different product. For example, a transfer, you could see the exact same UI in the extension, in the wallet, in the mobile app in the future, and so on. So, this is the this is the web wallet. This is the extension. As you've seen, they're all built with the same principles in mind, with the same design, same UX. It has to seem like it's built from the same team. Even though we have multiple parallel tracks, multiple teams in Reef, everything has

to be done just like how Apple is doing everything. And on top, when we're releasing all these libraries, other developers will be able to create products such as these that that look and and feel the same. So, thanks everyone for listening. Uh I hope to see some of you in Dubai. The weather is great here. Uh it will be a pretty big blockchain week. Uh but do not forget to also go to the today's afterparty in Denver. It's a I regret missing this one. You could see you could you can find more info on reef.io/party.

It's a it's a three-floor nightclub in a church, so yeah. I'm jealous. Anyway, again, thanks everyone. Check out our documentation for more questions. You can directly message on ethdenver.reef.io. If you have questions regarding this presentation in particular, if not, you can go to our team in the booth and they will connect you to the to the right team. We've launched the ecosystem program. It's over 20 mil worth of fund of grants. We've already started releasing out these grants, but we we are supporting projects in um in different stages also. Some projects

that do not need grants, maybe they need maybe they they need help with fundraising, maybe they need help with with introductions to some other other partners and so on. So, what what we've been doing is we've been creating basically different categories for assisting different projects to be able to onboard them from like young pet projects, someone who is like a hobbyist, and help them get to a point where they will, you know, will help them gather a team, will get help them with fundraising, and so on. To projects that are already established, we are already onboarding like big names as They don't need funding. They they know everyone in the landscape, but they have

to own a part of part of the network and this is how it becomes more decentralized. Again, I'm running out of time. Thanks everyone again and hope to see you soon.