XLabs — Nerds of Xord
Introduction:
XLabs stands for Xord Laboratory. As a self-explanatory name, the purpose of this circle of Xord is pretty clear: to do research on solving the most pressing problems in blockchain and making our contribution to it. But things are never as simple as they seem.
This is a permanent circle in Xord with two sub-circles: Research and Blockchain. The main idea behind this circle is to lead Xord from the perspective of innovation, research, and to rethink the world from first principles.
Let’s deep dive into this nerdy circle of Xord.
Motivation:
There is always motivation behind every action. The roots of XLabs go back to 2019.
Bridge:
The concept of a technical content writer always seems vague and undermining from my perspective. And from a technical content writer, we can’t expect discussion upon the code base or architecture of the platforms. At Xord, we wanted to write those kinds of publications, a bridge between researcher and developer. If we read a whitepaper as a developer we are always curious about the code implementation of the formula or concept. And as a maths nerd we are always curious about the thought process of the formula.
Innovative Thought Process:
At Xord we are solely focused on bringing innovation to the blockchain space. We promote a growth mindset and product ideas. To be innovative, we first need to build the thought process of finding problems then researching for solutions.
So we need something new, something that no startup in Pakistan ever thought about to execute the vision. We started our research department (unnamed at that time) in January 2020. And we started a new job role in Xord as Research Engineer.
Journey:
At first, we only started with a single goal in mind, to bridge the gap between developers and researchers. So our first few publications reflect this thought process and idea. The very first publication we did was on the Uniswap V2 protocol.
In this publication, we pushed ourselves from a mathematical, logical, and technical understanding of the code base of Uniswap. After that, we wrote publications on different protocols and projects, which includes:
- Chainlink V1.
- Uniswap V3 (This was really exciting to work on)
- Flash Protocol
- DAI Stablecoin
- Balancer V1
In the beginning, there were only 2 people in XLabs: Zainab Hasan and me. Later on, our team was joined by Rabia Fatima and Samra Tayyab as well.
Work Ethics:
Research sounds boring, doesn’t it? But nope. Here at Xord we make it fun and exciting. We have our color philosophy of the room. Our room is painted grey which denotes uncertainty. We have our weekly sessions on blockchain discussions as well.
Other than that we also engage in productive conversations which involve imagining a decentralized world with blockchain agnostic networks.
We exercise our brains with deep philosophical reasoning and mathematical challenges as well. We enjoy this work! We enjoy the process of building a mindset that can see the world from a different perspective.
Impact:
As we were working on the research of Uniswap V3, we understood the need for building a platform that can automate liquidity management for the LPs. And that idea was so viable that we are now currently working on that product which is known as Unipilot.
Other than that, we were always curious about the underlying technology of the blockchain network and the scalability that the layer 2 solutions provide over layer 1.
We have found a new venture which is totally dedicated to the research and development for the blockchain protocols and layer 2 known as Novon.
Having a broader perspective of the deep technical layer constantly helps us as well in aligning the technical vision and expertise of Xord as well.
Future:
I have talked enough about our journey and our impact until now. But what’s ahead? Where are we going?
As I mentioned above XLabs has two sub circles, Research, and Blockchain. The inclusion of the Blockchain was recently done and after that XLabs became a full-fledged RnD department of Xord.
Blockchain:
As we work on products and services, we are also building a team of blockchain engineers who contribute to the betterment of the protocols in the form of EIPs, libraries, or any open source contributions as well. We don’t want to limit our blockchain engineers to work on products and services.
Research:
Core:
The purpose of the Core team is to build expertise in the understanding of the visualization of the deep layer of blockchain. And to reflect upon the possible scaling philosophies that are widely used in the current market. Once we grab an understanding of the current system, we will be able to build scalable systems for the future. We want to provide a robust solution for the blockchain agnostic world we imagine.
Topics that we’re building our expertise and researching includes:
- Blockchain core
- Scalability
- Interoperability
DeFi:
The purpose of the DeFi team is to build expertise and research on a wide range of topics which includes:
- Stable coins.
- DEXes
- Derivatives
- Staking
- Yield
The research does not only include understanding the technical perspective of the defined scope but also performing quantitative and technical analysis on concepts. We are also researching how the current financial systems can be revolutionized by the promising underlying technology.
Future Research:
We have plans to expand our team to do cutting edge research in these areas:
- Governance: How to build the most effective governance systems for the decentralized autonomous organizations that are able to converge the speed of centralized organizations and the reliability and trust of decentralized ones.
- Digital Identity: Lack of a digital identity is one of the biggest problems in the world at the moment. We aspire to contribute to that goal of one person, one identity.
Conclusion:
We are doing something that has never been done in Pakistan by carrying this vision. We are new to this. But we are constantly pushing ourselves. We want to establish examples such as Vitalik that you can perform academic-level research on a groundbreaking technology without a proper academic degree. We want people to join us. And work with us as well. If you are a mathematician, a computer scientist, an engineer, or anyone with the passion to learn and grow and you believe in blockchain technology, our doors are open for you!
Let’s build a great team together!
