Ronin, Fantom, Polygon, AVAX, Layer 2, Binance Smart Chain/BNB side chains, NFT projects and more on Umbria Twitter Spaces
Security, blockchain agnosticism, the importance of Layer 2 blockchains for deploying dApps, Binance Smart Chain’s launch of application-specific side chains and blockchain trends were just a few things discussed in our latest Twitter Space. We also heard from a variety of our partner projects and gave an overview of our newly launched Fantom bridge.
Here’s the first of our digests from our Twitter Space on March 31st — https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1djGXPABzORGZ
(quotes unless otherwise stated are from Dev Oskii and Dev Barnyard).
The Ronin hack
As the crypto space is maturing there’s growing incentive to orchestrate high profile hacks. One of the issues for Ronin, which led to the attack, was the scant number of validators for the network. Dev Barnyard explains…
You need to have five out of nine of the validator voters to approve particular transactions. In this case, four of those nine belonged to one organisation and a fifth was also available to that organisation for particular events. Effectively, one entity had control of the Ronin blockchain and was able to confirm transactions. Once the perpetrator/s hacked this one organisation and got four of the keys, they could then use that organisation’s public RPC to get that fifth validator signature and they were able to do anything they wanted on the blockchain.
This is a lesson for everyone and shows how important it is to have high levels of decentralisation so that it isn’t possible for one organisation to be the ‘weak link’ in the whole system. Umbria takes a security first approach to everything it does and double, triple checks everything we do. Not getting hacked should be the absolute top priority for any crypto project.
Fantom Bridge
We’ve just launched our Fantom Bridge so you can migrate your ETH from the Ethereum network to Fantom; it is the cheapest and fastest way in the entire space.
Now we’re reaching out to Fantom projects that need a cheaper or faster bridging solution in order to onboard users. They can add our bridge widget to their site or point their community to our bridge so that they can take advantage of this superior UX. We provide one-to-one human support for anyone who gets stuck and if anyone has any questions, we’re on hand to answer them. We’re expanding our operation to all these new chains and are about to launch our Arbitrum bridge.
Narni Bridge: Fantom to Ethereum — cost: $6.66
Multichain Bridge: Fantom to Ethereum — cost: $66.74
Narni Bridge: Ethereum to Fantom — cost: $6.57
Multichain Bridge — Ethereum to Fantom — cost: $9.29
Anyone interested in partnering should fill out this form. You can see what Umbria offers partners here.
Importance of Layer 2 blockchains for deploying dApps
The Layer 2 blockchains that are scaling Ethereum are going to be the most important platforms for deploying dApps in the future.
Ethereum has got to the point now where it’s not that useful on a dApp level. If you deploy some smart contracts on Ethereum it’s really expensive to interact with them, which isn’t a very good basis for creating anything complicated and compelling. Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche et al is where people need to be deploying dApps otherwise they just won’t be able to execute anything interesting, unique or innovative.
We see so many more people coming over onto these Layer 2 chains and other Ethereum alternatives. This is where all the growth is happening and this is where all the innovation is going to be happening in the next 12 months.
The fact that platforms are deploying on Polygon, AVAX or Fantom etc means they have the wisdom to realise this is the only way forward for the future of dApps on Ethereum.
Often the projects that have the greatest need for Umbria’s Narni bridge are the smaller ones, which is why Umbria doesn’t discriminate on project size when it comes to partnerships. Conversely, if you look at Bored Ape Yacht Club, the people involved in that ecosystem are often willing to spend something like 90 ETH on an Ape or 15 ETH on a Mutant Ape. They’re probably not so concerned about spending $100 on Ethereum gas. However, if you’re only spending $100 on an NFT, these $50 transactions add up really quickly. This is why these smaller projects are really in need of a cost-efficient bridge, and these are the ones that we can help the most.
Which chains will take off in the next year? How is Umbria implementing?
It’s difficult to know which chains are going to take off. There are things like Cardano that are essentially stand alone, but I think a really exciting area are the chains that are scaling Ethereum, so Polygon is definitely a big one — and we’ve seen a lot of action on the Polygon chain so far — but there are other things like Arbitrum, which we’re really excited about as we’re seeing quite a lot of volume there; Optimistic Ethereum is another one I think has good potential.
Ultimately it’s not for Umbria to decide which chains it thinks are going to be ‘the best’ and then just implement those or give those priority. Our strategy is to have a foundation where we can add any chain easily as it comes up and then let the whole space evolve as opposed to trying to second guess. That said, we’re trying to add the chains that have the most demand in order of demand. We would like to add as many chains as possible and have plans for about 20 more over the next year or so.
I think as we move forward in the space, all these different chains are going to have their own unique use cases. They’re going to have their own reasons to live, and they’re also going to have to interoperate with each other, so it’s important for us to add as many chains as possible.
It’s essential to have variety in the types of chains that we add. Networks such as Polygon and Avalanche are very similar from an architecture perspective. Then you have completely different blockchains like Solana, which isn’t really strictly even Ethereum compatible at a solidity programming level. It’s difficult for anyone in this space to really know which of these protocols is going to end up being the most important one/most widely used. It’s important to have some of the Ethereum forks such as Polygon, Avalanche and Fantom alongside protocols that have different architectures; the likes of Solana, Arbitrum and Optimism. We will incorporate that variety in the one hub.
Binance Smart Chain’s launch of application-specific side chains
It looks like Binance Smart Chain/BNB is doing what Polygon and Avalanche did where they have two separate chains: one for native transactions and one for smart contract stuff. We see that on Polygon with the plasma chain and proof-of-stake chain, and we also see that with Avalanche with its C-Chain, which does all the ‘contract stuff’. This seems to be a way of making the entire blockchain cheaper to use. If you look at all the different blockchains out there, BSC is a bit more expensive than something like Polygon. One reason for this is that Binance Smart Chain is essentially a fork of Ethereum and they’ve changed the price of the op codes that are used to actually run the smart contracts; they’ve changed the amount of gas each one of those costs. This does make the chain cheaper but it also makes it more congested.
I think Binance have realised that the changes they’ve made to the Binance Smart Chain compared to Ethereum aren’t going to be as compelling going forwards as what some of their competitors have. So they’ve taken inspiration from Polygon and Avalanche and are implementing those changes into the Binance Smart Chain. I believe these changes are going to be really good for Binance Smart Chain and it’s definitely going to reduce the cost of transacting on there. However, people still have their criticisms about Binance Smart Chain; the fact that it’s not particularly decentralised and that all the validators are strongly tied to the Binance ecosystem. It’s up to the community to decide on whether these changes are a positive for the chain.
Umbria central to NFT project success — a word from some of our partners
Friday Night Punks
Friday Night Punks is a collection of Parody Fan Art spotlighting the world’s fastest growing sport. It provides a series of limited-release NFTs that pair with the excitement of Fantasy Football. FNPs can be used to enter unique weekly and seasonal competitions. Holders’ wins and loyalty are rewarded with exclusive drops and experiences.
When we first launched and blew up back in November Umbria was very important to our success. I basically spent a month non stop just coaching the entire community on how to bridge their Ethereum from the Ethereum network to the Polygon Network and it was all with Umbria, it saved a lot of money which really vaulted Friday Night Punks from four ETH volume to almost 200 ETH volume in a few months. — FNP
Find out more about the project by listening from 8 minutes 42.
Nummy
NummyBoy is a 3D printable NFT project. Buying a NummyBoy puts your Nummy into a monthly lottery to get it 3D printed, once 1k owners is hit. Owning the NFT and physical 3D model increases the value of your collection.
I love Umbria, you guys have saved my project. I spent $300 using the Polygon Bridge just to move over 50 bucks. Then I found out about you guys and I spent just $10 moving from Polygon to Coinbase so that I could cash out my money. It makes Polygon projects possible, and not just Polygon. — Nummy
Find out more about the project by listening from 14 minutes 52.
Hedge Fund Hyenas (HFH)
Hedge Fund Hyenas is a multi-chain NFT project. It delivers project reviews, community sourced alpha and equity ownership to traders. HFH is also building the Hyena Den, a marketplace to find trusted sellers in Web3 services. HFH has already sold 1233 pieces on Polygon on OpenSea and will have its final 2100 pieces on Ethereum on April 29th.
We launched the first part of our collection on Polygon in January and were directing all of our traffic to Umbria to bridge. We had people on support non stop explaining how to do the bridge. It’s far and away the best one out there. — HFH
Find out more about the project by listening from 36 minutes 20.
We’ll be announcing our next Twitter Space soon. Keep an eye on our social channels for details.
