Introducing Warp Protocol
Overview
Achieving automation on blockchains is a highly resource-intensive practice. Many applications require their developers to scan the chain for activity and make updates when certain parameters are met. Typically, developers create bots to automate these processes that run perpetually on servers. These bots require server maintenance and constant upkeep to ensure that they are running smoothly, which consumes development time that could be spent building and innovating. Not to mention, the costs of running a server — especially a highly performant one — can add up quickly, and the lack of decentralized automation means users are required to use centralized services to accomplish basic tasks.
However, Web3 builders and users cannot simply do away with blockchain automation due to the costs. Without it, decentralized applications would not be able to offer basic features that their centralized counterparts can implement with ease, and users would be forced to do everything manually.
For example, on-chain limit orders are a highly discussed engineering problem in DeFi, yet centralized exchanges have had them since their inception. Grid bots are impossible to create without running a script, and making periodic investments into one’s favorite assets is a manual task.
Most of these transactions are responses to various changes that happen on-chain. Limit orders are swaps that happen when an asset price reaches a desired level, and grid bots are multiple limit orders in a sequence.
Other examples include liquid staking derivatives, which periodically withdraw staking rewards and compound them back into the protocol, or arbitrageurs, which respond to price deviations between two or more exchanges by swapping between them.
In short, many users have a need to sign transactions as soon as the blockchain data aligns with their needs. Currently, there are two main ways in which this can be done. A user can either:
- Manually sign transactions using their wallet when the conditions for doing so are met (i.e., swapping two assets when the price is right); or
- Create a bot that scans for changes and automatically deploys transactions when certain conditions are met.
Both of these solutions are incredibly resource-intensive. A user either needs to delegate their attention and time, or spin up expensive infrastructure to sign their transactions.
Enter Warp Protocol
Introducing Warp Protocol, a decentralized event handler built on the Terra blockchain. Warp is an automation primitive that allows users to queue transactions to be executed in the future, without the need for centralized bots and scripts. To enable decentralized automation, Warp allows a set of keepers to execute the queued transactions, called jobs, when the conditions for doing so are met. Over time, Warp could replace the need for bots and power the next generation of decentralized applications.
Key Features
Warp enables a wide variety of use-cases, leveraging:
- Generic Conditions
- Generic Messages
- Permissionless Execution
- Attractive Incentives
- Decentralization
Generic Conditions
Warp is designed for generalizability. Users can therefore compare any value on-chain with an expected result and submit any Cosmos Message type as a transaction. Jobs can also have multiple conditions, chained together through boolean expressions. For example, all conditions must be satisfied for a job to be executable if they’re connected with ‘AND’ expressions, and one of many conditions must be satisfied if they’re connected with ‘OR’ expressions. Expressions can also be nested within themselves. Warp conditions offer the same capabilities as if-statements in modern programming languages.
Generic Messages
Warp can be used to execute virtually any transaction a protocol or user might want to complete, based on anything occurring on-chain. Multiple transactions of any type can also be chained together into one atomic message; if one transaction fails, the entire Warp job will be reverted to the original state. It is even possible to create another job within the list of transactions.
One can think of Warp like a programming language for the Terra blockchain.
Permissionless Execution
Jobs are structured in a queue, ordered from highest to lowest reward. Users who execute jobs for others are known as keepers. Keepers scan the list of jobs and look for those whose conditions for execution are satisfied. As long as the conditions specified in a given job are met, anyone can execute the job, earning the associated reward specified by the job creator for doing so.
In Warp’s current beta phase, all rewards paid to keepers will come in the form of $LUNA. In a future release, the $WARP token will be introduced.
Attractive Incentives
Warp runs on a free market incentive mechanism whereby job creators submit a reward claimable by the keeper who successfully executes their job. Keepers may choose whether or not to execute a job based on the size of the reward given. If the reward is smaller than the gas it costs to execute the job, then the job will likely remain in the ‘Pending’ state until it is either removed or the reward is increased.
After the release of the $WARP token, there will be a long-running keeper incentive program that supplements rewards for all jobs and makes them more attractive for keepers.
Decentralization
Due to the permissionless execution property built into Warp, anyone can become a keeper. Given the incentives available, it is likely that several keepers will begin scanning the queue and competing to be the first to execute profitable jobs. The more keepers there are, the more decentralized and reliable the protocol will become. In the event that one keeper fails, another will be ready to take its place and execute jobs to earn rewards. Compute power is spread across all keepers wishing to participate in Warp.
Testnet Release
Warp is now live on Terra’s testnet, here.
Please be aware that Warp is in its testnet phase, so changes to the protocol may come quickly and on a whim while functionality is being stabilized.
To provide UX and UI feedback to the Warp team, simply click the chat button at the bottom left-hand side of the app, as seen below.
Retroactive Airdrop
For both Warp’s testnet and mainnet beta releases, the protocol will run a retroactive airdrop for creators of jobs and the keepers that execute them. More information about the airdrop will be released in the very near future, so stay tuned!
Conclusion
Warp Protocol is the solution to:
- The costliness associated with conditional transaction execution, and
- The lack of decentralized automation that exists on present-day blockchains.
Manual transactions and centralized bots will no longer be the only ways to automate functionality for dApps and users. With Warp, users can queue transactions to be executed in the future based on custom on-chain conditions, leveraging the power of generic messages, permissionless and decentralized execution, and attractive incentives.
In the future, Warp will look to add complementary, powerful functionality such as looping, variables within execution messages, and more operators on query results. However, in its current form, Warp is a smart contract automation primitive that can supercharge existing applications on the Terra blockchain, as well as enable previously impossible ideas to be created as new protocols.
The possibilities are infinite ♾️
Join the Warp Community ☄️
- Follow @warp_protocol on Twitter
- Follow @warp_protocol on Medium
- Join the Warp Discord
- Join the Warp Telegram
- Read the Docs
