NEAR Chill & Shill: Octopus Network
GM Nearians,
Yesterday, we finally had the Octopus Network team on Chill & Shill. It’s been long overdue as Octopus is a leading infrastructure project in the NEAR ecosystem. 🐙
Thanks to everyone tuning in, and congrats to the winner of the 5 NEAR.
You can listen to a recording of the space here or read on for our recap of the most important points.
From the Octopus team, Sheldon and Luana joined us to share more about the work they do with Octopus.
Can you quickly introduce yourself and discuss how you built the Octopus network?
Sheldon: I come from a network engineering background. I went to school for music composition, and being in corporate really makes you think about the management of keys, public and private keys. Now we’re used to them, but ten years ago, it wasn’t yet frequently talked about. It was just one of those mysterious parts of bitcoin. I ended up doing a security engagement where someone was trying to maliciously mine bitcoin and monero at a corporate franchise. So we had to learn how to get them out of the network. And then I remembered there was this crypto thing, and since that time in late 2013, I’ve been involved.
Octopus was the first project where I came on board full-time. Octopus started with the research organization CDA. It’s basically the core team, and they were teaching substrate and rust before in China when it was still not popular. They made many discoveries in that position, including IBC is great for pairing modular tech stack. Eventually, that led to them starting their own project and carefully evaluating where their project should live, leading them to NEAR.
I think it’s really special that we’re building a concept for the little guys, for the startups with their chains, and it’s been an incredible journey so far.
Luana: I’m based in Miami, and marketing was actually one of my bachelor’s since 2009. I was growing in the web2 environment. After 2018 I started entering crypto initially as an investor. In 2020 I graduated as a full-stack dev, and after that, I went into a deep dive into the blockchain. I’ve been with Octopus since 2021 and have been trying to implement different web3 marketing strategies.
Many people also compliment your marketing and the mascot you have. Moving on, multi-chain has only been in my mind as a structure for layer 1 or layer 0. I’ve never encountered a multichain network that wasn’t a separate blockchain but on top of an existing chain. Can you explain why this was the architecture you went with?
Sheldon: I agree that there isn’t another model that builds layer0 on top of layer 1. Part of the mentality is being more of a software services provider where you build new software on top of existing software. In a sense, that describes middleware, but it’s different from the notions people have when talking about multichain. When you talk about Cosmos or Polkadot, you think of them as protocols that communicate with each other with protocols they already understand because of their base tech stack. In octopus, our model is taking advantage of NEAR’s capabilities (liquidity & solid, smart contracts) to make our service happen. That replaces the gravity dex (hub in cosmos) and the relay chain (in Polkadot). We’re making chains dependent on NEAR to offer them services at a steep discount, which is great for startups.
The way appchains on Octopus function is more similar to the AVAX model than the cosmos model. In the Octopus network, you start connected to NEAR, and you can connect to other chains if wanted. Out of the box today, you’re compatible with Cosmos if you have an appchain. That doesn’t mean integration is easy. Appchains can control their own partnerships, and we look forward to expanding on that.
How are appchains secured?
Sheldon: The security for each appchain comes from validators. They’re using a software stack that’s already validated as a stable version. There is capital-oriented security, such as staking and software security. Octopus’s security has a bottom line: NEAR validators.
What exactly is substrate?
Sheldon: Substrate is the underlying technology of the Polkadot ecosystem. Polkadot and Kusama use the same tech stack, called Substrate, maintained by Parity, the institution behind it. Both the realy chain and parachains in Polkadot are made of substrate.
Does Octopus just use the same tech or also depend on Polkadot?
Sheldon: So we are using a stable version and not currently supporting XCMP, which is the main interoperability protocol in Polkadot. We’re borrowing the best tech for different components of our network.
Would you say Octopus is a gateway from NEAR to other ecosystems such as Polkadot and Cosmos?
Sheldon: Yes, that’s our mission, and that’s why we’re doubling down on these technologies alongside NEAR. We see the value in these other ecosystems, but we want them also to take advantage of the efficiency and the value of NEAR. We’re specifically working on uniting these ecosystems under data standards and technologies they all want to play nice with. We’re leveraging the capabilities of NEAR to deliver a better solution for startup organizations. It’s tough to get started in some of these ecosystems in crypto. When launching a chain with us, it’s easy to leave our ecosystem and join the Polkadot ecosystem. We’re effectively the place for startups, and Polkadot is the place for fully-fledged products. If anyone wants to use us as a pre-Polkadot launchpad, we’re all for that. With IBC, it’s not the same level of integration, so chains can’t transition to Cosmos but could become their own substrate chain and maintain IBC relations.
We expect appchains to either go through a second TGE or mature and leave to another ecosystem.
Would you say you’re an incubator?
Sheldon: Incubator is more the feeling of one-on-one assistance, but generally, incubators are also seen as taking equity, having partnership requirements, etc., which we do not have. We’re helping projects with their tech and reaching out to venture, but we have a vested interest in making cool concepts a reality. We want people to join as appchain candidates and then make their interest public. I believe you should be at least 30% towards your PoC or MVP to get into that relationship with us. We’ll still be able to answer questions if you get in touch before that, but we won’t be providing any marketing support.
What kind of projects have you already onboarded?
Sheldon: Vitalik talked about this in a couple of papers, and we’re in sync with him on that that there’s too much DeFi in crypto. There is too many money-making applications when we got into this to use the money to do stuff. Right now, we’re not allowing DeFi for the purpose of security. There still is DeFi tooling, such as the exchange technology appchain Fusotao. Our focus is on on-chain value propositions. Myriad is one of the larger projects. They wanted to run a substrate chain that supports social media functions. We’re dedicated to models that have an on-chain value proposition and, secondly, that the people who benefit from their project aren’t just the teams or investors but the community.
What are three favorite projects you launched?
Sheldon:
- Atocha, a puzzle protocol that is exciting because it incentivizes solving of puzzles, is a very useful tool in computing.
- Myriad has the largest community, which makes sense for a social network
- Fusotao got a lot of excitement because they help users run a dex with the efficiency of a centralized exchange.
Another one worth mentioning is Discoball, a curation DAO.
How do you think NEAR foundation sees Octopus benefitting the ecosystem?
Sheldon: One of the main topics we discussed between the nerds is that NEAR isn’t trying to be everyone’s L0 but that it’s the infrastructure that can support other infrastructure supporting other infrastructure. That’s not a common conversation in crypto. Most of the other technologies don’t have that level of stackability or interoperability. So when protocols grow on Octopus, there is a synergistic benefit with the NEAR ecosystem as well.
