Octopus Network Update: Showcase Day 2021
Octopus Network has recently posted a series of videos about the Octopus Network and projects building on it from their 2021 Showcase Day. In the introductory video, the founder Louis Liu gave a full presentation on the Octopus Network: the problem it addresses and how, its design architecture, the appchain pipeline, and more. Starting this week, we will be posting writeups on the different projects that presented for the Octopus Network Showcase Day 2021.
Quick Intro to the Problem Octopus Network Solves and How
The major obstacle to Web3.0 applications going mainstream is poor user experience. This is a problem that can be addressed by leveraging application specific blockchain tech, aka appchain, which has better performance, customizability and evolvability over smart contracts.
As Louis explains, there are three major reasons why appchain provide a better solution to the usability problem:
Compared with smart-contract, appchains have three edges:
The first is performance. Each appchain, in PoS setting, will independently enjoy 1000 TPS throughput, and the computation cost is very low.
The second is that developers can customize the entire tech stack of an appchain to fully optimize for a specific use case, while DApps have to follow the unified setting of the public chain.
The third is appchain can evolve quickly with legitimacy. Each appchain is a self-governed economy with code-defined explicit processes to reach agreements on protocol upgrades, either for eliminating software defects or changing the economic rules. Thanks to Substrate, the basic function of on-chain governance is ready for use, and crypto networks could borrow the governance process from others by copy-paste. Blockchain governance in itself will evolve like open-source software.
However, the costs associated with running and developing appchain from a monetary and time perspective, make appchain difficult to be deployed. Octopus Network addresses this problem by providing a framework that will decrease capital expenditure:
“By providing flexible leased security, out-of-box interoperability, one-stop infrastructure and an active community, Octopus Network will decrease the capital expenditure to bootstrap an appchain by 100X, unleashing a new wave of innovation on Web3.0”.
-Louis Liu
How Does Octopus Network Work?
The core of Octopus Network is Octopus Relay, which is a set of smart-contract running on the NEAR blockchain, that implements a security leasing market:
“There are two types of participants sitting on the supply side of the market, appchain validators and appchain delegators. Validators will stake OCT to an appchain in Octopus Relay and set up a node to run the appchain’s protocol, while delegators delegate their OCT to validators for rewards sharing. Appchain protocols will reward validators and delegators by distributing their native tokens. Validators that failed to keep their nodes up running will lose a part of the rewards”.
Interoperability is another important feature of Octopus guaranteed by the Rainbow bridge, which allows any asset issued on Ethereum, NEAR or any IBC enabled blockchain to be transferred into and utilized by the Octopus appchains.
“What’s more, Octopus Network provides a complete set of infrastructure to appchains, including API Gateway, Blockchain Explorer, Archive Gateway, and NEP141 wrapper contract for each native token of appchain, this will make appchain native token to be integrated by wallets and exchanges without any difficulties. So appchain teams only need to do Substrate runtime and front-end development, and Octopus Network will be responsible for all the other technical works”.
Appchain Integration Process
To be able to apply and become an Octopus appchain a white paper or spec should be provided as well as runtime release internally tested. One it is registered, the appchain is audited by the members of the community. If the appchain passes the auditing then the appchain enters the candidate queue, where it is subjected to the voting of the OCT holders.
“In a rolling period that lasts one or two weeks, the appchain at the top of the queue will enter the staging period. This one is the most supported appchain by the Octopus community. In the staging period, OCT holders could really stake or delegate on the appchain. When the staging period ends, if the appchain has attracted enough staking, which is more than the security bottom line, it will enter into the booting state. In the booting state, task force members will run 4 bootstrapping nodes to start the appchain. Then validators could run their own nodes to join appchain consensus. Octopus network will also run a full node cluster for each appchain, and provide API access service to the appchain front-end. Appchain developer just needs to change the front-end configuration, then the appchain is ready for end-users to use”. -Louis Liu
Octopus Network Roadmap
Octopus Network Project Showcase
Stay tuned for the upcoming blogs about the different projects building on the Octopus Network. They are very diverse and exciting- if you can’t wait, check out the Octopus YouTube Channel and you can find all of the videos there for yourself!
LaDevochka is a writer for 4NTS Guild. You can check out their Medium for more content or follow them on Twitter.
