A Quick Overview of Delta: Seed Round Raises Millions in Funding to Build a Global State Sharing Network

Original Title: “We are excited to introduce delta”

Author: delta official website

Translated by: Felix, PANews

On October 10, delta, a network aimed at creating global state sharing, announced the completion of a $11 million financing round. This financing was divided into two phases, including a pre-seed round led by Figment Capital and Maven 11, and a seed round led by Variant and DBA. Other investors include Reverie, Castle Island Ventures, Credibly Neutral, Ambush Capital, Robot Ventures, Delphi Ventures, Public Works, Komorebi Collective, and others.

The delta network provides developers with a balanced solution for sovereignty and interoperability by separating execution and data availability. The system also introduces a zero-knowledge proof settlement method to achieve seamless multi-domain interoperability.

What is delta ?

delta is a network composed of autonomous execution environments connected by a decentralized, censorship-resistant base layer. delta separates ① execution and ordering from ② data availability and settlement. Execution and ordering occur on domains (similar to rollups/execution sharding), while data availability and settlement are provided by a network of validators operating the base layer. These components collectively form a unified global state machine.

While the global state is shared, domains have complete control over their block space. They can be application-specific or general-purpose computing platforms; they can use any existing virtual machine or develop their own custom programs; the operational model can be decentralized, centralized, or even permissioned. Any application, enterprise, or service provider can set up their own domain without permission. Their users can pay fees in any token through off-chain subscriptions or not pay at all.

Users gain censorship resistance from the base layer. They decide how to use their assets and maintain self-custody— their funds are secure, and they have the right to exit the domain without permission. Assets exist on the base layer, so there is no need for each domain to implement separately.

The base layer facilitates native interoperability between domains. For users, delta provides an instant, nearly free, bridge-less experience for transferring assets from one domain to another.

The key to achieving these features is zk settlement. Similar to rollups, domains can take various forms but all settle to the same base layer. Unlike rollups, they achieve settlement through direct integration of zero-knowledge proofs into the base layer. This "fixed" zk settlement approach elevates global interoperability between local networks to unprecedented levels. Domains can interact with each other, and even perform atomic interactions, without the need for global coordination like in blockchains.

delta's state model implements a leaderless consensus protocol that outperforms any blockchain. The domains in delta essentially isolate the ability to change the global state based on spending. Due to this limitation, there is no need for full ordering of transactions on the base layer. Without ordering, domains can continuously stream their state changes using minimal Byzantine Reliable Broadcast (BRB) protocols. In addition to reducing communication overhead per transaction, delta's leaderless, unordered consensus is more robust and scalable than the fully ordered consensus implemented by all existing blockchains. Unlike these systems, delta can linearly scale throughput simply by adding more machines.

Solving the Biggest Problems in Cryptocurrency

Platforms and applications have as much optionality as Web2 and are as composable as smart contracts on the same blockchain. However, application chains and rollups require complex interoperability solutions to "glue" independent blockchains together. The downsides of this approach currently far outweigh the benefits of sovereignty.

For example, consider the challenges new chains face in onboarding users.

All on-chain applications should provide a seamless experience for new users to deposit assets like stablecoins. To achieve this experience, new chains face significant challenges in their choices:

1. It is crucial to have stablecoin issuers deploy locally on-chain in terms of cost and process. This option is only viable for projects with ample funds and resources.
2. Requiring users to bridge from the Rollup's settlement layer is highly secure but poses a significant barrier for users who do not yet hold stablecoins on the Rollup's settlement layer.
3. Application chains and Rollups can collaborate with third-party bridges, but this approach requires significant trade-offs. Relying on a single vendor may pose unbearable security risks, while using multiple vendors results in a poor user experience as users must consider multiple versions of the same underlying asset.

Because it is an integrated system, delta addresses the most critical challenges associated with launching application chains or rollups:

Attraction

• On integrated chains, attracting users and liquidity is a shared goal between the chain and its applications. On application chains, builders can only rely on their own efforts— users and assets cannot be shared.
• On delta, assets and users are globally shared— once they are loaded onto delta, they can be accessed by all domains built on delta. At the same time, domains retain maximum control, owning and optimizing their own user experience.

Interoperability

• Users want to interact with multiple applications simultaneously without friction. To facilitate this experience, application chains must reintroduce intermediary services (third-party infrastructure and liquidity providers) to abstract away a lot of complexity. Blockchains are designed to eliminate these intermediaries, and each layer of abstraction moves away from the original value proposition.
• On delta, because the state is globally shared, domains no longer need intermediaries to connect with other domains. Users can move from one domain to another without any friction caused by intermediaries or routing complexities.

Barriers to Entry

• Building and maintaining an application chain or rollup requires more costs and resources compared to deploying a set of smart contracts on an integrated chain.
• On delta, domains can be lighter than other forms of application chains and rollups. Unlike rollups, domains do not need to prove a complete execution path and/or handle long withdrawal periods related to fraud proof dispute periods. Unlike independent application chains, domains do not need to bootstrap a validator set.

Returning to the previously mentioned challenge of stablecoin accessibility, this challenge does not exist for domain builders on delta. On delta, stablecoin issuers only need to deploy once, and all domains can access their holders and liquidity equally without sacrificing control and reasoning about interoperability complexities.

The Vision of delta

delta will broadly enhance the vision of application chains and horizontal scaling. But delta not only addresses the problems of existing approaches; it also creates a new design space.

delta provides its users with two inalienable rights— self-custody and permissionless exit rights. With these guarantees, delta can safely reintroduce a range of trust models at the execution layer. For the first time, blockchains can offer permissioned services while still ensuring that user funds are completely secure and can be withdrawn at any time. This allows a new category of enterprises, games, and even government blockchains to coexist on public networks alongside trustless and decentralized blockchains, achieving unprecedented levels of interoperability between them.