Matic Network: Q&A
Sandeep Nailwal — Co-founder & COO and Chandresh Aharwar — VP — Operations & Marketing.
1. So many blockchains projects focused on scalability, why Matic is the answer?
As the most pertinent problem facing blockchain today, it’s no surprise that a plethora of scaling solutions tackle the scalability conundrum each in their own way.
However, current scaling endeavors offer only a partial solution due to limited functionality, poor user experience or their sacrificing of decentralization for the sake of performance. Unlike other scaling solutions, Matic Network is committed to achieving massive scale alongside decentralization by utilizing checkpoints for 1-second block times and fraud proofs for security on its enhanced version of the Plasma framework.
Matic chains are based on an account based EVM (inspired by Plasma MoreVP) and support ERC721 in addition to ERC20 tokens, along with asset swaps right out of the box. This makes Matic the go-to platform for deploying Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications in particular. As a general purpose platform, however, our blockchain agnostic infrastructure is capable of housing a limitless array of Dapp types, and we are keenly focused on gaming as well as welcoming of all Dapps which stand to further the decentralized movement.
For a comparison of scaling solutions, we have written a comprehensive article on the topic, which includes a detailed infographic comparing Matic to some L2 solutions alongside a couple of L1 blockchains. You can check it out here:
2. Why Matic is unique, better than the other projects and why it will thrive?
Beyond our technical advantages over current scaling solutions, Matic aims to differentiate itself from others by taking an active role in assisting in the development of projects within the Matic ecosystem and that of the wider overall space. To this end, we have already laid out our plans to assist up-and-coming blockchain innovators with financial, technical and through our Matic Ecosystem Initiative (https://blog.matic.network/matic-ecosystem-initiative-supporting-marlin-protocol/). High-performance fundraising on Matic Network is one part of the initiative, which Marlin Protocol will be the first to take advantage of.
Moreover, Matic intends to play a key role in the spearheading of India’s decentralized movement. Our efforts to seek out and empower India’s blockchain developers do not stop with our hackathon endeavors, of which we have hosted upwards of 20 in the last year. Through our Developer Support Program, India’s budding blockchain developers will be provided with technical, financial, talent sourcing, and outreach-related support. We believe it’s imperative that we position developers in the best way possible for them to build innovative solutions.
Our goal is to serve as more than simply a scaling solution, but as an entire collaborative ecosystem of dApps running on Matic Network which will become stronger together as the ecosystem expands. To view a more comprehensive recap of all the community engagement initiatives, outreach efforts, conference keynotes, and technical developments, please read more at our official blog at:
3. How will Matic simplify the usage of crypto for mass adoption?
When it comes to facilitating adoption, we believe the core components are twofold: providing the infrastructure for the building of mass-adoption level dApps, and providing up-and-coming blockchain innovators with the means to see their ideas come to fruition.
Matic believes the technical answer to enabling widespread adoption of blockchain technology lies with second-layer solutions focused on scalability. To this end, Matic Network provides massive scaling capabilities whilst leveraging the security and decentralization of the mainchain. With this infrastructure in place, blockchain innovators will be empowered with the tools to create high performance mainstream-level Dapps without considerations of forfeiting any of the core components of decentralization.
Aside from the technical challenges, the real roadblocks to blockchain adoption lie with the barriers to entry in terms of education regarding blockchain development and challenges in gaining recognition in the fledgling space. Many blockchains place a strong emphasis on user experience but lack a focus on the experience of those who will actually be building out their ecosystem- the developers. This often leaves developers without proper guidance or tools to be able to build innovative blockchain-based solutions. With few opportunities for fundraising and difficulties in sourcing developer talent, blockchain startups are currently facing multiple challenging hurdles.
We believe spreading knowledge and providing education about the opportunities that blockchain development can provide is one of the core components in pushing our space forward and opening up new opportunities for the wider developer community, thus increasing adoption. Alongside hosting and attending regular hackathons (we’ve hosted upwards of 20 in the last year), conferences and events, and conducting active outreach to India’s educational institutions, we have recently launched our Developer Support Program designed to assist developers to spread their wings in the blockchain space.
You can find more information on our Developer Support Program here:
4. Who is behind Matic? Backgrounds?
We currently have 15 team members and are hiring more as we continuously expand. Our team has been making valuable contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem for a long time. This includes working on implementations of Plasma MVP, developing the WalletConnect protocol (which allows users to access Dapps in a secured and user friendly way), and the development of the widely-used Dagger Ethereum network event notification engine.
Here is an overview of our core team:
Jaynti Kanani- Co-founder & CEO: Laying out vision for Matic. Leading tech and research. Wears many hats to push Matic forward the goal of making it best scalability solution for blockchains. Contributor to Web3.js, Plasma, WalletConnect.
Sandeep Nailwal- Co-founder & COO: Leading Marketing, Branding, Adoption and Operations at Matic; Partnering with key stakeholders to push Matic ; Leading community interfacing for Matic.
Anurag Arjun- Co-founder & CPO: Leading products at Matic; Laying out long term vision for Matic products; Managing product development and roll outs
More information about the wider team, including social profile links, can be found here:
5. How the IEO funds are being used?
We have currently spent around 12% of our funds raised during our private sales ($600K) and IEO ($5m):
80% of the spent funds have been used for tech and development. 20% of the spent funds have been used for marketing and community efforts.
6. Plans for exchanges?
We were honored to be the 4th project selected for the Binance Launchpad initiative, and so we were first listed on Binance.
Since then, we have been listed on various exchanges including: BitMax, Dcoin, BitForex, Hotbit, TOKOK, Bilaxy, IDEX, WazirX, & BiteBTC.
Our listing efforts will be a continuous process on our journey, so you can expect much more action on this front moving forward.
7. What current partnerships Matic has and what will be its purpose?
Our experience, unique vision and innovative solution has captured the attention of much of the cryptospace, leading to the on-boarding of and collaboration with some of the industry’s most recognizable projects even at this relatively early stage of development.
Other than our seed round partner (Coinbase Ventures) and our IEO partner (Binance) with whom we work closely, as a Layer 2 solution our partnerships comprise of Dapps/projects on-boarding to Matic Network, strategic industry partnerships, as well as Layer 1 platforms which wish to use Matic Network to improve their performance capabilities.
We are consistently on-boarding Dapps to our network. Many projects are already building on top of Matic, including Marble.cards, Cryptostaw, Chainbreakers, Springrole, Cryptocontrol, and Betprotocol. More Dapps and Platform Partners can be found here: https://matic.network/dapps
Collaborative partnerships include ChainLink and Marlin Protocol (Marlin Protocol have also conducted a private sale round on Matic Network using exclusively MATIC tokens, and many more projects are in the pipeline to do so).
As a blockchain agnostic Layer 2 scaling solution, Matic Network can partner with any Layer 1 platform which is looking to increase its performance and scalability and we will look to partner with Layer 1 platforms which come to establish themselves as key players in the decentralized movement. Harmony Protocol is a recent Layer 1 platform which has entered into such a partnership, for example.
8. Please explain Matic products.
Matic Network is a Layer-2 scaling solution that utilizes sidechains for off-chain computation, while ensuring asset security using the Plasma framework and a decentralized network of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators. Thus, our main ‘product’ is providing the infrastructure to facilitate the creation of ultra-powerful mainstream-level dApps whilst retaining the key components which make blockchain technology so inherently valuable, namely decentralization and security.
In the process, we are building the tools to make Dapp development as seamless as possible for Ethereum developers. This includes native mobile apps and SDK with WalletConnect support.
We are also hard at work consistently developing our Wallet which will be an integral component of our ecosystem. Matic Wallet aims to bridge the gap between scalability issues & user experience on Ethereum. It makes it easier for users to interact with scalable DApps deployed on plasma chains & Ethereum. We have been working relentlessly to transition our Wallet from Testnet to Alpha-Mainnet, and are thrilled that it is now running on our Alpha-Mainnet! Check it out here:
Our team has also previously developed the widely-used Dagger realtime Ethereum events notification engine. More information can be found here:
9. Why scale Ethereum and not other blockchain?
With close connections to, and active participation in, the Ethereum ecosystem even long before the formation of Matic Network, Ethereum is the first Layer 1 platform in our sights for assisting with scalability.
As the longest-standing and most developed platform, Ethereum represents the most decentralized and secure smart contract platform in existence, so is currently leagues ahead of others in terms of its importance to the overall dApp ecosystem. However, even Ethereum is notoriously lagging behind on transaction throughput due to infrastructural limitations. Our purpose is to solve this scalability trilemma through our unique approach.
Though we are beginning our journey by scaling Ethereum, our infrastructure is blockchain agnostic- meaning it can be used to scale any Layer 1 blockchain which comes to prove itself as a key player in the decentralized movement. Matic therefore aims to be the de-facto platform on which developers will deploy and run decentralized applications, no matter their chosen base Layer 1 architecture.
10. A token is ultimately needed, why not go tokenless?
The MATIC token plays an important role in the Matic ecosystem, and has several key use cases:
1) The primary use case of the MATIC token is to pay for the transaction fees in the network. The more users onboard to use the apps on Matic Network, the more the transaction volume and hence the higher the demand for MATIC to pay for transaction fees.
2) Participating in the Proof of Stake consensus: Matic sidechains enforce consensus using a Proof of Stake (PoS) layer in which network participants stake Matic tokens in order to participate as validators.
3) Supporting ecosystem projects: having taken inspiration from Livepeer and its “protocol funding the ecosystem” model, Matic intends to enable a separate staking mechanism for the supporting of the ecosystem projects. This will help create a fund out of the “block rewards” that can help support developers working on features and dApps needed by the network to acquire a part of block rewards. This mechanism is funded by reserving a percentage of the transaction fees in-protocol to support the projects building to enhance the Matic Ecosystem.
4) Participation in exclusive funding rounds: select projects collaborating with Matic Network will take place exclusively in MATIC tokens. Marlin Protocol was the first project to raise funds on Matic Network, as part of our Matic Ecosystem Initiative, and many more are in the pipeline to do the same.
Furthermore, once we incorporate more Layer 1 base chains into our wider ecosystem, it will make more sense to utilize the native MATIC token on all Matic sidechains, as opposed to having a conversion process for each native base chain token which would negatively impact usability and user experience.
11. How will Matic approach interoperability?
Ethereum is the first Layer 1 base chain Matic Network supports, but Matic intends to offer support for additional base chains, based on community suggestions and consensus, to enable an inter-operable decentralized Layer 2 blockchain platform.
Thus, the greater the Matic ecosystem expands, the greater the opportunities for interoperability will become. We plan to implement inter-operable cross chain gateways between Ethereum and other chains.
12. In 50 words or less why should anyone invest in Matic?
Matic is effectively solving the scalability trilemma across blockchains, whilst building an entire ecosystem to push the decentralized movement forward.
We also have an awesome community, talented and dedicated core team running ahead of roadmap in development & focus on building a development ecosystem to accelerate blockchain adoption.
Matic Network Resources
- Website: https://matic.network/
- Whitepaper: https://whitepaper.matic.network/
- Github: https://github.com/maticnetwork
Social Media
- Telegram: https://t.me/maticnetwork
- Medium: https://medium.com/matic-network
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/maticnetwork
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