Category: Brand Decision
Team Description:
Myself, Tommy WorldPower and my team as seen on www.Energi.world/team
I’ve been in blockchain since 2013, originally a crypto Youtuber, I invested in the Ethereum ICO in 2014 and was teaching people about Ethereum when it was $1 (as seen on my Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/tommyworldpower). I built up a following to around 20k people (which was a substantial crypto Youtube following at the time), until I got a powerful message to create a blockchain myself.
On the 4th of July 2017, with the strong energy of American Independence Day in the air, I began my journey to create a blockchain, Energi, with a vision of a blockchain that would help truly liberate humanity. I didn’t know exactly what that would like or how we would differentiate ourselves at that time, but I do now.
Energi is an EVM L1 blockchain (very similar to Ethereum), We’ve innovated in a number of ways but hands down our biggest real-world achievements are in the realm of security.
Energi was one of the first blockchains with a built-in DAO (with our V1 launching April 2018) - much like the Apecoin DAO with the ability to vote on proposals and allocate funds. But our governance also evolved to include asset protection and asset recovery out of necessity. I didn’t originally aim for Energi to be a security-focused blockchain, but we were having users scammed frequently in our first year or two, by which time I realized I had to do something about it (by the way crime is much worse now than it was then).
This set me on the path of developing advanced decentralized governance capabilities which allows Energi to freeze bad actor addresses and recover stolen assets. On top of that we have developed additional advanced Defense-in-Depth security protocols, far exceeding what any other blockchain has done in the realm of security (note that many blockchains use the word “security” as a misnomer, talking about the hashing algorithm or such, but not about actual protection of user assets).
As a result of our innovations, there have been no successful thefts on Energi in over 3 years, which is something I’m very proud of as I believe true leadership is about taking responsibility and protecting the citizens of the blockchain.
Abstract:
I was originally writing this proposal as I wanted to bring Energi’s technology to Apechain. However, in thinking about this for a number of hours, I came to the conclusion that is not in Apechain’s best interest to pursue its own blockchain — and hear me out why.
Firstly, I’ve been building the Energi blockchain for over 6 years and spent over $10 million dollars doing so, and I can say out of experience that building a competitive blockchain is not an afterthought, or a one-and-done kind of thing. It’s a long term commitment with a lot of cost, overhead and upkeep (especially in keeping it current with the latest and greatest innovations in the very fast moving crypto space).
I know there are a few proposals to build a blockchain for free — but lets be honest, nothing in life is free, and I’m concerned that Apecoin & Yuga may shoe-horn itself into blockchain tech that isn’t the most competitive, which could a disaster in the long term.
I feel most existing proposals are focused on getting the blockchain out, without consideration of the ecosystem that needs to be built around a blockchain (apps such as an Explorer, secure bridges, and other integrations) or upgrade flexibility.
I think a good way to look at this is to consider that blockchains are just infrastructure, and right now Yuga has the benefit of choosing whichever infrastructure serves it best. I really want to emphasize this point, because it’s important — it’s a major lesson I learned myself over my years building, which is, its very important to heed the pareto principal (the 80/20) rule, and focus on ONE thing and be damn good at it.
A blockchain is a MASSIVE endeavor, not to be underestimated. Putting this on the plate will undoubtedly take a lot of resources and attention from both Apecoin and Yuga, while Yuga should instead be focused on building the best Metaverse possible, and beyond that have powerful marketing and branding campaigns (which is a ton of work on its own, and probably where the focus should be). I know that Yuga publicly stated it wanted its own blockchain a year or two ago, but I’m really not confident this is the best move for Yuga — rather partnering with leading edge blockchains would be far more tactful and far-sighted.
Benefit to Apecoin Ecosystem:
To recap, after thinking about this for some time, the conclusion I came to as the wisest move for Apecoin / Yuga is rather than focusing on building a blockchain (again especially with a Metaverse on the plate already!) - is to instead pick a few strong blockchains to partner with, and to instead of building a blockchain, build a strong NFT bridge, to be able to move between the most innovative blockchains. This is the direction the space is going with Omni-chain technology and Layer 0 — and I think it’s hugely beneficial for Apecoin / Yuga to avoid putting this project on the plate and ending up with a lot of technical debt, overhead, and hidden costs.
As part of my proposal I would also welcome Apecoin & Yuga to use the Energi blockchain, where I will do everything and anything to be of service. We are an EVM-compatible blockchain, very similar to Ethereum, but again with next-gen security, super low fees (a fraction of a penny), and fast transactions). This is the nature of business — building good partnerships that are win-wins with each organization having its specialization.
On top of our blockchain infrastructure, we also have GonnaMakeIt - an NFT marketplace which is a combination of Opensea & Blur’s best features, bringing all the pieces together to fully serve NFT/Metaverse needs. GonnaMakeIt is a marketplace where you can trade assets safely, without worrying about theft or worrying about royalties not being paid. I’m aware there are some initiatives on other blockchains to protect royalties but I’m worried about new backdoors arising on other blockchains — or otherwise giving users a clunky user experience such as users having to royalties for simply transferring assets from a hot to cold wallet.
Energi solves the issue of guaranteeing royalties at the root level by our network having the power to simply blacklist bad actors, solving this problem at the root level and again having a track record of 3 years of fully protecting those who use our technology. We’ve been building GonnaMakeIt the past 2 years nearly live now, so this could be also be a huge benefit to Yuga assets and a way to also enforce royalties on the BAYC and MAYC collections without having to deploy new contracts (which I dont think many community members want that). We would just need to have a good bridge the assets to/from the Energi blockchain, which certainly can be done.
Key Terms:
In summary: Rather than building a blockchain, Apecoin / Yuga should focus on partnering with cutting edge blockchains which provide what Yuga needs, and focus on building a bridge which would allow Yuga to move between blockchains as blockchains compete to provide the best service to Yuga labs. This allows Yuga to focus on building the best Metaverse possible, and empower Apecoin to focus on marketing efforts, rather than be bogged down by a massive, unnecessary project.
Platform and Technologies:
Energi (www.Energi.world) - The blockchain that would provide the underlying infrastructure for Yuga assets with both asset protection and royalty protection.
GonnaMakeIt (www.GonnaMakeIt) - The NFT Marketplace which Yuga could use on the Energi blockchain to re-enforce royalties without having to upgrade contracts
NFT Bridge - The critical infrastructure Apecoin should focus on building to allow it to deploy on whatever blockchain serves it best.
Steps to implement and Timeline:
The Energi blockchain is already built and fully functional, so that is ready to go.
The GonnaMakeIt NFT marketplace is in beta currently and already being deployed in mainnet, this will be ready to go within 2 months or so.
NFT Bridge - This is the project that I suggest Apecoin to focus on building rather than relying on 3rd party because bridges hold a lot of assets and thus Yuga have custody and have high security protocols to keep the assets safe. Alternatively, if assets are launched on Energi altogether, bridging is not needed and Yuga can benefit all the security and royalty enforcement Energi provides without having to leave the chain.
Overall cost:
If using our blockchain and GonnaMakeIt, there is no cost there, and thus is assets are directly deployed on Energi, there would also be no cost.
The main cost in my proposal would be for building and maintaining the bridge. To give an estimate, I’d say ~$200K. We are already building an NFT bridge and could help Apecoin & Yuga labs have its own branded NFT bridge to facilitate the movement of its assets. I do feel strongly though Apecoin & Yuga should have its own bridge and not rely on a 3rd party bridge.
Thanks for your time, hopefully this was helpful.
In closing, I will say that I want whatever is best for the Yuga ecosystem, and again I feel that strong partnerships where we build off each others strengths is the way to go — rather than trying to re-create or re-build massive things, which is both costly and time-consuming in a highly competitive and fast-paced environment. Embracing each others strengths is how we free up our resources to focus on where we truly need to, and ultimately provide the best experience to the end user.
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