The delay in the launch of ETH 2.0 has created many gaps. These gaps are being filled with the emergence of Layer-2 solutions that have changed the landscape of the cryptospace as we know it.
Till date, several governance models have come to light but none with the kind of flexibility that Metis a unique Layer-2 (decentralized autonomous organization DAO) has brought to the table.
Recently, Metis successfully completed its $1 million seed investment round. The round was completed with interest from Ralf P. Gerteis, P1X Capital, Waterdrip Capital, DFG, Chain Capital, AC Capital, Block.power Combinator, Hotbit, SSSnodes, Crasolum, Kernel Ventures, Catcher VC, Jubi Labs and Ming Liu, former co-founder of Tron.
E-Crypto News reached out to Elena Sinelnikova, CEO and Co-Founder of Metis for further insight into this situation. Here is what she had to say.
Elena Sinelnikova, CEO and Co-Founder of MetisDAO
E-Crypto News:
- Congratulations on your funding round! What’s next for Metis?
Next is the exciting building phase! Our development team is working full speed to release the MetisDAO platform on mainnet. We have some very cool announcements coming up in the next three weeks. Platform users will be able to start minting their own.
E-Crypto News:
2. How can Layer-2 solutions help with blockchain transitions?
Blockchain itself is an amazing immutable, secure and decentralized platform and tool, but with certain limitations – low speed and scalability, high transaction fees, transaction approval latency. Layer 2 is the layer built on top of the blockchain that allows you to overcome all these issues. MetisDAO is being built based on the Layer 2 scaling solution called Optimistic Rollup, which will provide the maximum usability, speed and cost effectiveness of the platform.
E-Crypto News:
3. What are your thoughts on the release of ETH 2.0?
I think it is pretty cool that Ethereum Foundation is working on this release and we are looking forward to it. MetisDAO is being built on top of Ethereum, but is also portable to other blockchains such as Casper. We designed our architecture to be technology independent and flexible. We also use microservices that allow us to plug and unplug different functionalities in our platform.
E-Crypto News:
4. How will Metis work with the Ethereum decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem?
We are working on DeFi features that will be released soon, such as NFT minting and decentralized hedge fund management.
E-Crypto News:
5. How does governance work on Metis?
The governance in Metis is based on staking and pull back mechanisms. It means when you sign up to do any job on the platform, you will be required to make a commitment in the shape of a deposit. Your deposit will stay safe and will be released back to you along with the reward once your job is done and delivered. If you fail to deliver, you lose your deposit. The more jobs you complete, the more reputation you gain, and the more benefits you receive from the platform. Reputation power can’t be bought – only earned.
E-Crypto News:
6. Do you think decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are the future of blockchain governance? Please tell us the reasons for your answer.
It is only logical to leverage the innovation and technology to take care of the governance mechanisms, to free up valuable human resources so they can concentrate on performing more sophisticated work, instead of carrying out routine governance work. In addition, the trust that is usually a cornerstone of each governance will be taken care of. And I definitely believe in decentralization above all other governance mechanisms.
E-Crypto News:
7. What are the incentives for developers to port their projects to Metis?
We will launch the developers’ onboarding program when we launch the mainnet. Please stay tuned for more on that coming soon.
E-Crypto News:
8. How can developers port their projects to Metis?
It’s quite simple as Metis Virtual Machine is compatible with EVM, so they just need to port their smart contract and start to build. For non technical projects, we will provide an easy-to-use user interface and user flow for them to get engaged.
E-Crypto News:
9. Do you have any secret features that are coming on Metis this year? Care to spill the beans?
We are focusing on the Layer2 framework construction all the year, and we define a whole new structure to support every DAC/DApps to run on the layer2 highly efficiently and with low cost. The whole new infrastructure will be released in a whitepaper, please stay tuned with us.
E-Crypto News:
10. How does Metis deal with Cross-Chain interactions?
Most of the transactions will happen on Layer2, so for the users or builders, they don’t have to think about cross-chain issues. And our layer2 construct can be migrated to different chains.
E-Crypto News:
11. What are the features of Metis that make it unique?
Everyone can launch a DAO/DAC on the blockchain, to run and manage their community, applications or business. Metis’ infrastructure can make it happen.
Also we are not limited in the DAO layer, for every individual in the DAO, we define a standard module to describe it, which includes his wallet, Reputation Power, different attributes, and the basic Optimistic Governance mechanism. So when two individuals hope to collaborate, it’s the way they make connections, build trust and implement detailed tasks.
E-Crypto News:
12. Speaking of security, just how secure is Metis? What features have been put in place to ensure the security of user assets?
Metis is highly secured, and it’s guaranteed by the technical design. As business is conducted on the sidechain, it is highly private and only visible to the collaborators who participate in. The Layer2 transactions rollup to layer1 is secured by the gaming theory and also our extra permission layer.
E-Crypto News:
13. What are your thoughts about governments and the regulation of decentralized entities?
The magic part of DAO/DAC is that governance is enabled by the code and consensus. But this is not a land of nowhere and without regulations, incentives and penalty systems should work to incentivize the good and punish the bad. Also there should be a social contract, or what we call a Reputation Power, accumulated via their behaviors, to detain bad conduct.
E-Crypto News:
14. What can governments do to ensure that a legal paradigm exists for decentralized organizations to run effectively?
Wyoming State is pushing through a landmark DAO law to enable companies to be set as DAO. We believe that more detailed laws may coming to regulate this as more and more organizations may turn decentralized.
Meantime, the governance is needed in case of disputes happening in the collaborations. And all the track record on the blockchain can act as the evidence if some arbitration is needed
E-Crypto News:
15. How did you get into the decentralized space?
I was introduced into blockchain by my longtime friend Natalia Ameline. It was around the time that ethereum was born and we were trying to figure out how to create an ethereum wallet. We began to study all blockchain technology concepts ourselves, started helping other people to understand them and as a result we founded the CryptoChicks non-profit organisation to educate women worldwide on blockchain and crypto.
E-Crypto News:
16. What does the future hold for Metis? Where do you see Metis in the next decade?
We want to become the go-to platform for decentralized companies to build on, their trusted technology partner in making their blockchain vision a reality. We are just beginning this journey at what is a really exciting time and market opportunity and the future looks bright.
E-Crypto News:
17. What are your thoughts on the rapidly rising prices of digital assets?
The prices are just indicators of growing popularity and people’s trust in blockchain technology. I have never looked at digital assets as an investment mechanism, but rather the key performance indicators of the technology adoption.
E-Crypto News:
18.Tell us about your non-profit activities? What is Cryptochicks? What do you guys do? How effective has your impact been?
CryptoChicks is an international non-profit organization with programs, chapters and people in 56 countries. Despite the size it is a volunteer organization that is managed in a decentralized way – every chapter is an independent entity supported by their work that is performed by each chapter ambassador – perfect use case for MetisDAO. CryptoChicks is helping women and youth in multiple ways. For example, CryptoChicks Hatchery is a mentorship program for women that build their businesses in blockchain. CryptoChicks Academy is a platform for blockchain, cryptocurrency and other technology courses created for women by women. At CryptoChicks we are constantly creating new programs, courses, events, that are now started getting support from Canadian and other governments to educate women and youth.
E-Crypto News:
19. What is the optimistic governance mechanism? How does it work?
The core of Metis Layer2 protocol is Optimistic Governance, which aims to build the trust foundation for trustless community members to form the collaborative relationship and validate the computation process and results in the DApp in a decentralized way.
Metis deems that minimum or even no governance involved in the DAC is the best and most efficient practice. So, referring to the algorithm of Optimistic Rollup, Metis leverages staking bonds as the guarantee for each Meta Collaborator to act as their promise.
Both Meta Collaborators should stake bonds into the escrow account of the Meta Staking Contract to establish the Meta Collaboration. In the collaboration process, by default, both Meta Collaborators are acting coordinately and as their promise, and the bonds will be automatically returned when the Meta Collaboration is finished. However, if any collaborator (aka “Bad Party”) defaults, the other collaborator (Good Party) can apply for Arbitration service right away, the to-be-allocated bonds will be revoked, the Meta Staking Contract will be suspended.
According to the arbitration result, the Bad Party’s bonds will be taken away as a penalty. The revoking and arbitration mechanism of Metis enables every distributed collaborator to establish a collaborative relationship with anyone else in the world quickly, protectively, and permissionlessly.
E-Crypto News:
20. If you had three wishes for the decentralized space and a Genie who could make them come true, what would your wishes be?
- Decentralized business to really running on the blockchain.
- Defi combining with the real world economic activities and becoming part of everyday life.
- More innovations to emerge via the ever-expanding MetisDAO designs for infrastructure, organizations, and mechanisms .
