Metis released the roadmap for the first half of the year, which will introduce the DAC framework, NFT bridge, and decentralized storage

Author: Metis

Original Title: 《Metis First-Half 2022 Roadmap》

Compiled by: Linqi, Chain Catcher

Introduction

2021 was a fruitful year for Metis. Our development team completed multiple iterations of the testnet, ultimately launching the Metis Dragonfire testnet in September, followed by the Andromeda mainnet two months later. The popularity of Andromeda has been steadily increasing, with its TVL soaring to $500 million within the first eight weeks of launch. Metis has attracted 75 ecosystem partners for collaboration, and many DApps have been deployed on Andromeda.

2022 will be an even more prosperous year for Metis. Our team is ready to deliver key milestones and is prepared to unveil our ambitious mission roadmap to outline our vast vision.

The blockchain world is evolving at lightning speed, making long-term predictions nearly meaningless. With this in mind, we will first release the roadmap for the first half of 2022.

Vision

Metis was born from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin's initial vision of a decentralized economy. Now, we are ready to further scale this original vision:

a) Decentralization ------ Metis's unique "EVM Equivalence + Ranger" Optimistic Rollup solution will uncompromisingly maintain decentralization on Layer 2.

b) Scalability ------ Metis's multi-chain, multi-VM solution will unleash dynamic, flexible, and virtually limitless scalability to support DAC-based DApps.

c) Functionality ------ As promised in the technical white paper, Metis will integrate decentralized storage features into the mainnet. The integrated decentralized storage will not only enhance performance but also increase the functional space needed to support exciting Web2+Web3 hybrid DApps and metaverse virtual platforms.

d) Usability ------ Metis's vision for a thriving DAC economy seeks new users, builders, and innovators to participate without the arduousness of blockchain development. To this end, Metis will implement its Polis middleware framework and plug-and-play DAC launchpad. We expect more participants to join our network in 2022.

Infrastructure

Decentralized Storage Based on Memolabs

The decentralized storage functionality based on Memolabs is scheduled for release and integration into the Andromeda mainnet by the end of Q1 2022.

Centralized storage is used to aggregate data and anti-fraud testing processes, allowing for the aggregation of a larger number of transactions simultaneously, significantly reducing transaction costs. The cost will drop from the current $2-3 to just a few cents after the new storage layer goes live.

This native, IPFS-like decentralized storage solution will support all types of API frameworks for easy integration with DApps looking to leverage the native storage advantages on the Metis L2 network.

In Q2 2022, any community member will be able to provide their own storage space to join the decentralized storage solution and earn rewards. As with all transactions executed on Andromeda, Metis tokens will also be used here as gas fees and incentive rewards.

Peer-to-Peer Network

As the network grows, people naturally wonder whether larger transaction volumes will lead to congestion and slower transaction speeds, as seen with Polygon and BSC. Another key question is: How does Metis avoid single point of failure issues, like the constantly problematic Solana and Arbitrum networks?

The answer: Metis has been developing a peer-to-peer network as a key solution to address these potential challenges. As a peer node, it will function like a true node, handling read and write functions. Additionally, in high-traffic situations, network traffic may be routed to different peer nodes, allowing for dynamic adjustments to TPS capacity.

Anyone can deploy this node anywhere, serving as a community-based decentralized mechanism. This way, people no longer have to worry about AWS or other server outages.

Moreover, peer nodes will act as validators, comparing state submissions with the blocks they produce. They will also become part of the sorting pool, ready to be deployed as sorters based on validation consensus.

This unique architecture is at the core of the Metis Advantage.

Ranger System

The Metis Ranger functionality is scheduled for release and integration into the Andromeda network by the end of Q2 2022.

Now, two months after our mainnet launch, our validation process remains single-layer and limited to participating peers. The Metis Ranger system will decentralize this process. Rangers will operate on peers, staking and making themselves available for on-chain validation work.

Each batch of transactions will be validated by multiple Rangers, similar to our current validator system. The Ranger system will be supported by DAC infrastructure and will operate on our L2 network.

Rangers add an extra layer of security and decentralization to our network by validating validators; Rangers must wait for two batches of validation to be completed before receiving Metis token rewards. These cycles are marked in the smart contracts of our L2 network, and different peers can notify when batch validation is complete.

The launch of the Metis Ranger system also means the start of mining 5 million reserved tokens, which is half of its total token supply. These 5 million tokens will be distributed over the next nine years based on the contributions of these Rangers. A detailed tokenomics white paper will be released alongside the Ranger System at the end of Q2 2022.

NFT Bridge

Currently, most NFTs are minted and traded on Ethereum Layer 1, leading to high transaction fees and sometimes causing congestion on the Ethereum network. L2 networks like Andromeda solve the issues of high transaction fees and network congestion, making them the most obvious choice for users to mint and trade NFTs.

Based on our previous research and discussions published on ETHResearch, Metis is now developing a native NFT bridge. We are excited to announce that the first version of our NFT bridge will be launched at the end of February, allowing users to transfer their NFTs from the Ethereum mainnet to the Metis L2 network and back. This way, users will be able to trade NFTs at low costs on Metis Layer 2 while ensuring the uniqueness and excitement of the emerging NFT world.

Polis Middleware

Metis is building a middleware layer called Polis. Polis is powered by smart contract templates and is the key to connecting end-users, those without blockchain experience, and Web2 developers to the Web3 world. In short: any company or group can benefit from blockchain through Polis, whether they are existing blockchain companies or non-blockchain giants like Nike or Samsung, or a group of friends wanting to trade NFTs.

More importantly, Polis is a tool that will drive a cohesive and explosive multi-chain future, which is key to the mass adoption of blockchain. On the Metis Layer 2 network, every large enterprise/business will be able to have its own chain with a unique chain ID (for better privacy and real business operational needs). Polis is an essential part of the multi-chain vision, enabling users to utilize various applications without worrying about network changes. Meanwhile, developers can build and deploy their applications in a unified environment without switching to different networks.

From January 27 to June 30, Polis will focus on optimizing user experience to facilitate user onboarding processes, supporting more connection methods, mobile devices, dashboards, etc. Additionally, Polis will continue to work on smart contract templates and deployment. APIs will be automatically generated upon deployment, providing automatic domain API documentation (swagger) for easy integration.

As an interface into the Web3 world, there is another very important aspect to emphasize: the Reputation Power System. In the Web3 world, merely having a wallet address is not enough. To prevent potential bad actors (and reward reliable actors), Metis is building a Reputation Power system, a continuous, programmable NFT-based system for recording each user's on-chain track record. This track record will then serve as a passport, social contract, and decentralized business credential in the Web3 world, establishing trust and enabling collaboration.

We will soon release a separate white paper describing how Metis will implement this blockchain tracking record and how we plan to build it so that everyone in the Metis ecosystem will benefit from their Reputation Power.

DAC Framework

Eight years ago, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin proposed the concept of Decentralized Autonomous Companies (DAC), which are decentralized enterprises running their entire business on the blockchain. Since then, DAOs have become a way for groups to organize under the banner of decentralized voting and governance. However, no one has picked up the baton for DAC proposed years ago.

At least, not until now. Today, Metis is building DAC with Buterin's vision in mind… and much more. The vision of Metis's DAC is to serve as the center of the Web3 economy, where every individual, team, like-minded group, community, or small business can create their own decentralized enterprise and collaborate with others in the Web3 world.

Traditional companies are limited by a finite circle of personnel and resources, while DAC breaks the boundaries of traditional companies, using blockchain as the central infrastructure and tokens as incentives, allowing everyone to create their own decentralized business and collaborate with others in the decentralized world. A DAC can be as small as one person or as large as thousands of community members collaborating with each other.

The Metis Layer 2 network provides the infrastructure for fast, low-cost on-chain transactions. Metis DAC will encompass all the functionalities of real-world companies. We are adopting the best open-source versions of these tools, such as enterprise software, payroll management tools, messaging platforms, etc., and integrating them into templates to suit various business needs. However, we believe that the successful operation of decentralized businesses requires more than just tools. In this trustless world, we still lack mechanisms to establish trust and incentivize people to act collaboratively and reliably.

Therefore, Metis will focus on the design of collaborative mechanisms, charters, processes, templates, and APIs. The common thread among all these will be our Reputation Power (RP) system. RP will become the cornerstone of DAC collaboration, opening doors for anyone within the community to submit their applications to the DAC App Store (developed based on open standard APIs) and earn rewards based on the popularity of their applications.

Thus, we plan to release community-oriented DAC templates at the beginning of Q2. This will enable community members to create their DACs, manage memberships, mint tokens and NFTs, manage multi-signature secure wallets, make investment or operational decisions collaboratively, manage payrolls, and more. More DAC templates will be released soon.

Decentralization

Last year, we released the Decentralization Roadmap, becoming the first L2 network to do so. As discussed in that roadmap, here are the milestones you can expect from now until mid-2022:

Q2 2022: Validators will perform real-time validation, shortening the finality window for transactions. Withdrawals from L2 to L1 will take a week or longer, while withdrawals using Metis's L2---L1 will only take a few hours, ultimately aiming for just a few minutes.

Also in Q2, the Metis Sequencer Pool will open for community participation. All validators will be automatically added to the sorting pool. A testing and voting mechanism will be implemented to select which one can become the next sorter, ensuring effective rotation of sorter positions.

Conclusion

At Metis, we see the future of blockchain as multi-chain, supported by multiple interconnected metaverses. We are building our infrastructure to support the vast and prosperous economies of Web3 and those metaverses. Join us; our journey has just begun.