Zebec Improvement Proposal 1 (ZIP-1)
ZIP-1: Nautilus Chain (or Naut Chain)
Summary
A year after initially launching as a Solana native app, the Zebec team has been able to expand the reach of its product by successfully deploying on the BNB and NEAR blockchains.
The community has concluded that it is necessary to take steps toward launching its own app chain. To ensure a successful launch in the future, a staging chain called Nautilus will be deployed to cultivate a preliminary ecosystem and provide an environment for the development of the technology before the launch of Zebec Chain.
At the same time, we will continue to offer payroll tools and infrastructure to as many companies, protocols, and funds as possible as we also work towards launching Zebec Chain. Amid the proliferation of languages and VMs in the last year, Web3 desperately needs a chain with more programming flexibility. An L3 app chain, like Zebec Chain, will fill that need, and a staging chain launched first, like Nautilus, will help us achieve a successful launch.
Abstract
In this proposal, the community will deploy a “staging chain” called Nautilus on mainnet to prepare for what will become Zebec Chain. Nautilus will use $ZBC for gas fees, governance, validator rewards, and securing the network (PoS). Existing partners of Zebec Protocol will deploy dApps to Nautilus to help test it. Nautilus will allow Zebec to test the concepts that will eventually be used in Zebec Chain.
Projects and partners wanting to deploy on Nautilus will have to pay for security in their own native token. Validators that are participating in the Nautilus network will therefore receive part of their yield as native tokens from these projects. We expect 20+ ecosystem dApps to quickly deploy their code on Nautilus; many of these projects come from a pool of partners already affiliated with Zebec.
Nautilus will be the first general-purpose L3 EVM chain in Web3, featuring a modular architecture instead of a monolithic one. In a monolithic chain, functions like transaction execution, settlement, data availability, and consensus are all handled together on the same chain. But in a modular design, like Nautilus, each of those functions is split and handled on separate layers that can be optimized according to developer needs.
With Nautilus, developers will be able to choose between various L1s for data availability and consensus, including Celestia, Cosmos, or Ethereum. Starting out, developers will be able to use Ethereum for consensus and Cosmos’ IBC connectivity. For the transaction execution layer, they can choose between using the EVM, Solana VM, and Move, with others to follow.
The execution layer, however, is a little different. Developers will be able to deploy modular rollup chains for their apps, also known as app-specific rollups. This is the “L3” part of Nautilus, and will give developers unprecedented scalability in the neighborhood of 100k TPS or more. It will also allow them to balance decentralization, throughput, and speed as they wish.
Since it is a staging chain, Nautilus will be operated by a single node controlled by Zebec DAO. This will make it easy for the DAO to protect community members as new features are developed. The community of $ZBC tokens will control the node.
Rationale — Why is it Important?
Current Web3 chains leave teams and developers needing more flexibility when building and deploying a dApp. Nautilus, and later Zebec Chain, will be the L1 to solve some of the problems with current Web3 blockchains, such as lack of throughput and limited programming flexibility.
Nautilus is a new type of chain: a general-purpose L3. It allows developers to choose which VM they want to use for data storage and finality, whether it’s Ethereum’s, Cosmos’, or Solana’s VM. Nautilus functions as a scaling layer for these VMs. Developers can also deploy app-specific chains on Nautilus for maximum programming flexibility and transaction throughput.
Because of its unique and experimental structure, Nautilus solves the biggest problems facing current blockchains. Scalability won’t be a problem, and a modular structure means they won’t be crippled if one layer suffers an outage. Because Nautilus initially uses Optimistic and will later expand to ZK rollup technology on the execution layer, it may even be able to provide privacy not offered by other chains.
This proposal is a community-led experiment. It will help pioneer new systems, methods, and technology for blockchains and change how Web3 processes transactions.
Because the concept is novel, we want to deploy Nautilus to mainnet as a soft opening before fully deploying Zebec Chain later in Q4 of 2023.
Motivation
There are four motivations behind creating Nautilus Chain:
- Zebec Protocol has many ecosystem partners. This will make it easy to start onboarding dApps into the Nautilus Chain and start building the Nautilus ecosystem.
- We want ecosystem partners that take part in building on Nautilus Chain to give out and distribute a small percentage of their tokens to incentivize token stakers.
- The creation of Nautilus will function as a soft launch for Zebec Chain. Due to the various novel features involved, an initial soft launch is the best way to guarantee a smooth transition to a fully operational chain later this year.
- Finally, we want to enhance the value accrual of ZBC for holders.
Specifications
- Ecosystem Token Mechanism: This chain will use Zebec’s token ($ZBC), and will adopt Zebec token mechanics. Tokenomics. * Validators will earn rewards from ecosystem projects along with ZBC tokens.
- Zebec Gas Distributions: For the first year, 50% of the transaction gas fees will go back to Zepoch Node holders, 25% will be burned, and an additional 25% will go back to the foundation to further advance and support the research of Zebec Protocol and its ecosystem.
Because it is a modular chain, users will be able to choose whether they want to pay gas in wZBC or wETH. For the first 100 million transactions on the chain, gas paid in wZBC will be 10x cheaper than gas paid in wETH. Specifically, transaction gas paid in wZBC will cost only .01 wZBC instead of 0.1 wZBC worth of wETH.
After the first 100 million transactions, gas will increase exponentially, as the chain becomes more popular and the price of ZBC increases. However, the gas will be capped at no more than $0.01 USD (1 cent) worth of ZBC.
If the Nautilus Chain reaches 80% of the Solana ecosystem transaction size, 80% of the total supply of ZBC will be burned.
- Language: Core programming will be written in Solidity.
- Initial Deployment: Initially, consensus will be handled via the IBC protocol and the Tendermint engine, making Nautilus immediately compatible with Cosmos ecosystem blockchains.
References:
L3s will be the true competitor to Cosmos
