Conflux AMA Series Presents: Matic

Aiming to bring more visibility to great crypto projects in the blockchain space, we have started a series of AMAs (Ask me Anything) with some of our partners.

The first one of the series was with the Matic Network team, a Layer 2 blockchain scalability platform which provides secure, scalable, and instant transactions. They were the 4th Binance IEO project, and is one of the most successful Indian blockchain companies.

Missed the AMA? Not a problem. Below you can find a transcript of this great conversation, and get familiar with the Matic Network team and their project. The following AMA is between Zhe Tang from the Conflux operations team, and Sandeep Nailwal, Matic co-founder and COO.

Zhe | Conflux:

Matic is made in India and is one of the most successful blockchain companies coming out of the country, would you like to give us an overview of the project?

Sandeep | Matic:

Sure. 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.

We believe the answer to enabling widespread adoption of blockchain technology lies with second-layer solutions focused on scalability. In this way, Matic Network provides massive scaling capabilities whilst leveraging the security and decentralization of the mainchin.

Matic therefore aims to be the de-facto platform on which developers will deploy and run decentralized applications. 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’s key strengths are :

· L2 transactions secured by Plasma

· Zero effort deployment for existing Ethereum programmers

· Extremely low-cost transactions

· High throughput

· Fast (~1second) confirmation times

Zhe | Conflux:

What can you tell me about blockchain adoption in India right now? How has the recent government crackdown on exchanges affected the country’s crypto industry?

Sandeep | Matic:

Blockchain in India is thriving, (as demonstrated by the frequency of blockchain hackathons, meetups, and conferences ) though entry to the space still poses challenges to Indian developers and projects. That said, these challenges don’t come from the regulatory front.

There is currently a misconception that the Indian government is blockchain and crypto adverse. We however fully believe that Indian regulatory bodies wish to support and foster upcoming technologies, this includes blockchain and digital ledgers. There is strong backing within the Indian technology communities to support these emerging technologies and we expect regulation will follow in due course to cement this. In fact, Telangana in India has a Blockchain District currently under development supported by government.

The real challenges to blockchain adoption in India are 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, India-based 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 India’s massive 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.

Zhe | Conflux:

As the 4th Binance IEO project, what are the challenges Matic are facing in solving the scalability issue? What’s the current state of scalability the project is tackling?

Sandeep | Matic:

Blockchains are experiencing what Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin describes as the ‘scalability trilemma’. The thesis dictates that of the three foundations of a public blockchain, (decentralization, security, and scalability), only two can be effectively prioritized. As the longest-standing and most developed platform, Ethereum for example represents the most decentralized and secure smart contract platform in existence, but is notoriously lagging behind on transaction throughput due to infrastructural limitations.

Whereas some major credit cards providers can process up to 45,000 transactions per second, Ethereum can currently only manage 15 per second. Unable to facilitate mass adoption, many blockchains protocols exist primarily as proof of concept.

Matic believes the answer to enabling widespread adoption of blockchain technology lies with second-layer solutions focused on scalability. To this end, Matic provides massive scaling capabilities whilst leveraging the security and decentralization of the mainchain.

Proposed scaling solutions suffer from their own inherent drawbacks in the way of user experience and centralization. It’s clear that Ethereum needs a novel approach if it is to become the reliably fast and scalable smart contract system it was intended to be. Without the Ethereum Foundation building their own, it is the responsibility of open source teams like Matic to facilitate Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling.

Zhe | Conflux:

New blockchain platforms are frequently emerging in an attempt to provide an answer to Ethereum’s scalability issues, but carry their own burdens in their trade-off of decentralization and security for the sake of solving the problem of scalability.

Sandeep | Matic:

Many scaling solutions are focused on a specific type of dApp, for example, Loom Network with gaming. Does Matic have any main focus areas in terms of dApp types at this stage and if so why are they the focus?

Yes, many scaling solutions are built to cater more specific use cases, and their infrastructure reflects this. Let’s take Loom Network as an example. Since Loom has integrated Plasma Cash, there is no fungibility for the assets supported on the sidechains. Everything there is represented as an NFT/ERC721, meaning payments aren’t natively supported. Further, when utilizing an implementation of Plasma Cash block times will always be longer than those of Ethereum, since every block of the sidechain needs to be pushed to the main chain, while Matic uses checkpoints for 1-second block times.

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 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.

Zhe | Conflux:

What steps will Matic take to keep itself unique if any new project appears with the same Plasma protocol in POS or with the same concept?

Sandeep | Matic:

Beyond our technical advantages over current scaling solutions, Matic aims to differentiate itself from others- both current and upcoming- 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 community growth support through our Matic Ecosystem Initiative. 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.

Zhe | Conflux:

With blockchain being such a young industry, partnerships are an integral component of any project’s journey. Which types of partnerships have Matic already attained and what are the plans on this front moving forward?

Sandeep | Matic:

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 onboarding 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 onboarding 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, Harmony, Celer 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.

Zhe | Conflux:

How do you think Conflux differs from other layer 1 public chains?

Sandeep | Matic:

Conflux has caught our eye as a particularly promising Layer 1 chain due to its unique algorithm with a Tree Graph structure. Able to achieve high TPS without sacrificing decentralization or security, Conflux represents a promising solution to address the performance bottleneck of blockchains and opens up opportunities for the development of a wide range of blockchain applications.

Both of our projects share the core vision of building the infrastructure to enable mainstream-ready Dapps and usher in the new decentralized paradigm. This is no small task, but by fostering meaningful partnerships we can work together to make mainstream-level Dapps a reality sooner.

Matic is honored to be collaborating with Conflux and we look forward to assisting one another in building our decentralized future.

AMA CLOSED

Stay tuned for our next AMA, to be announced very soon! Who would you like to see responding your questions next? Let us know in the comment section below.

Conflux is the State-of-the-Art public blockchain system that can achieve high TPS without sacrificing decentralization or safety. By weaving their DAG 2.0 Tree-graph data structure into Conflux’s PoW consensus algorithm, its testnet has achieved a throughput of 6,500 Transactions Per Second (TPS), while supporting at least 20,000 nodes.