Venom Venture Fund invested $5 million in Everscale on January 31. This news has sparked many discussions on what to expect from the interaction of networks, the benefits of the joint work of Venom and Everscale, as well as what the next steps will be. You will find answers to these questions in an interview from EverKit with Broxus co-founder Sergey Shashev.
EverKit: Why does Venom need Everscale? If they're built on the same architecture, what can Everscale do that Venom can't?
Sergey Shashev: There is a world of EVM, there are many blockchains: Ethereum, BNB, Polygon, etc. The more development branches you have, the better for the technology, because you can launch different technological and economic experiments in different networks and what shoots, it can scale on other networks.
If we remember the first DEXs, they were all in Ethereum at first, and when they more or less started earning, DEX appeared in Binance, and then in other networks. Most of the innovations originated in Ethereum, but now they often arise in Polygon.
The presence of different networks on the same architecture can accelerate the growth of this technology. We have 4 TVMs, ideally before the end of the year, everyone should build a relationship with everyone. That's what I do.
EverKit: Are all four TVMs backward compatible or, for example, the same TON went in the other direction at all?
Sergey Shashev: So far, the differences are not strong, but in a couple of years they will be significant, so if we find a technical, economic and, most importantly, human consensus, compatibility will remain.
EverKit: Why does Everscale blockchain need Venom?
Sergey Shashev: Everscale became very weak economically after the fall of Terra. We have just overcome the problems of helicopter tokens of the first year of the network and farming, as crypto winter began. Funding has greatly decreased and this has led to a decrease in productive forces in the ecosystem. Thanks to Venom Ventures, we are returning to life, a lot of people are writing to us again, old partners have come to life. New press releases will be published soon.
Venom paid for audits of the root components of the ecosystem and conducted them, the level of security has grown. Finally, Everscale has a normal reputation, because Venom's choice fell on our technology.
EverKit: Can you say something about Venom tests, how do they go?
Sergey Shashev: Many things work faster in Venom than in Everscale. The equipment for validators and several protocol modifications are also better.
EverKit: What is the difference between Everscale and Venom networks?
Sergey Shashev: Venom is regulated, Everscale is not. In terms of niches, Venom has its own focus in three directions. As for technology, the networks will disperse, but we will maintain compatibility. Venom's challenge is a variety of workchains for different types of businesses.
EverKit: Do you have theoretical examples in which the Venom community uses Everscale?
Sergey Shashev: The Everscale network has launched various dApps that have not been regulated in Venom.
EverKit: In this case, are gas fees paid by Venom users? Where do they get EVER from?
Sergey Shashev: dApps gas fees can only be paid by the network in which they are launched. The user pays with the tokens he has.
EverKit: What are the options of networks interaction, what do they depend on?
Sergey Shashev: There are only three options. The first option: Everscale becomes a hierarchical workchain inside Venom. That is, Venom is developing as a blockchain of blockchains. Naturally, it is quite logical to run all the technologies on Everscale. The second options: different networks connected by strong liquidity flows, some kind of quick interaction tools. The third option: blockchains develop independently, without such a close economic connection. That is, blockchains are connected, for example, as if only by a bridge, without integration methods.
These options depend on the development of Venom and Everscale, on regulation, on various business cases.
EverKit: Which of these options do you consider the best for Everscale?
Sergey Shashev: I also have a dependence on the external surroundings, we need to see how it will work.
EverKit: What can networks give each other in terms of technology development?
Sergey Shashev: Contributors from Everscale will help in Venom's tasks, primarily in the Core part. Venom's contributors will help Everscale. Venom has 3 contributor companies that develop the ecosystem. Some of what they create can be used in Everscale.
EverKit: In the press release, it was mentioned that Everscale functions as an experimental network for Venom: can this be compared to Polkadot and their experimental network Kusama? Will Everscale be used exclusively to create features for Venom, or will they still coexist as separate networks? What does the word "experimental" mean in this context?
Sergey Shashev: Some ideas that you want to implement in Venom will be tested on Everscale. Naturally, Everscale has its own established economy, which is developing, and it does not depend on the interaction. That is, we have a powerful business partner who can periodically run something on our network, both independently and through tasks. The metaphor "PolkaDot — Kusama" is simplified. I don't know about similar cases in other blockchain technologies.
EverKit: Peter Knez said that Everscale is a potential Layer 2 for Venom. This statement has caused a lot of discussion, some users believe that Layer 2 is needed for slower networks, and in this case the interaction is not suitable, please, reveal Peter's statement in more detail.
Sergey Shashev: This is a statement that Everscale is a separate category of Venom, an area with its own business processes, emission and gas rules, its own validators and economics. In fact, we are not talking about speed. The implication here is that in the Venom category there are two networks integrated into Venom, with their own domestic economy, in which Venom does not interfere, but Venom provides interoperable interaction between everyone and each other within itself.
Example: You have a country where CBDC is running. You have a user who pays for the Korean dApp launched on Everscale with his native currency. This is called interoperability. That is, the user does not think about gas, about different networks, the service will work natively.
You have a colossal decrease in the barrier for users. And you get access to a potential audience of a billion people that you will have in those countries where CBDC will work.
EverKit: There has been strong growth in EVER in recent weeks. Who bought EVER? Many believe that $5 000 000 was spent on EVER's redemption from the market, can you comment on this?
Sergey Shashev: Not a single dollar of this money was spent on EVER redemption.
EverKit: And who bought EVER?
Sergey Shashev: Discussions about the interaction between Everscale and Venom have been going on since last year. It was an expected event, so some players put their money on the fact that this event will happen.
EverKit: Can you comment on new investors, what is their lock period?
Sergey Shashev: All Crystal Hands investors are in the same conditions more or less, the lock range is from 1 to 2 years.
EverKit: Do you know if Venom will have a grant system? And how projects from Everscale, or maybe from other networks, can get into Venom? What is the common ground?
Sergey Shashev: There is a Venom Foundation and it seems to be even public, and there are application forms. But since Broxus works in both networks, we will probably do some kind of high-quality process for Everscale in order to make this migration. Wait for the news.
You can use your application as you want, but if you do not have permission, accordingly, you will not receive any public support, references in chats. If the application is malicious, it will most likely be banned. In this case, it is better to coordinate everything.
EverKit: Is the plan for Everscale entering the top 10 at CoinMarketCap still relevant?
Sergey Shashev: The growth strategy has changed due to market conditions. But we are moving in terms of capitalization. The more products and developers in the ecosystem, the more likely the plan is to be implemented. If everyone waits for someone to do it, then the plan will not work. If everyone works, then this plan will be relevant.
EverKit: Will mere mortals be able to buy Venom?
Sergey Shashev: No. But such options may appear. Wait for the news.
EverKit: A lot of tasks haven't been completed from the Eversale roadmap 2022, tell us what it's related to? And what tasks have lost their relevance completely, and which need to be finished off, transferred to the new roadmap?
Sergey Shashev: You have to understand that everything has become bad with the budget, some things have decreased in terms of development, so everything went wrong according to schedule. It is very difficult to follow the roadmap without a budget. Accordingly, we need to refresh the roadmap, work is underway on this. The most important things that concerned REMP and SMFT consensus, they already work, they are tested and gradually deployed into the mainnet.
EverKit: Is there something already in the mainnet?
Sergey Shashev: Part of REMP is already in the mainnet.
EverKit: Apparently, the global update of the nodes was associated with this.
Sergey Shashev: Yes, REMP is a difficult thing, so it is deployed gradually.
EverKit: What tasks have lost their relevance, maybe a bridge with Bitcoin?
Sergey Shashev: We have developed a bridge with Bitcoin, there is a very understandable use case with the UAE, we just haven't put it in the mainnet yet, since we have our own queue of tasks. The work on Drivechain has been suspended, because it is necessary to work on the communications of workchains. Without it, Drivechain won't matter.
EverKit: You mentioned a marketing campaign that will start thanks to the investment of the fund, can you tell us more?
Sergey Shashev: All press releases you have seen regarding Venom's investment in Everscale were funded by Venom. So far, I can't talk about the future.
EverKit: What are the next steps for Everscale and Venom to interact, what to expect in the future 2-4 months?
Sergey Shashev: The first important process is the organization of core development. The second is the coordination of technical documentation and tools around development.
The third is the establishment of interaction between teams. It is clear that Broxus is already here, but, for example, the SDKs are also needed in Venom.
It is also important to establish interaction in joint PR activities, the deployment of Everscale dApps within Venom, through various processes of grants, investments. Of course, we also talk about the bridge between networks with joint liquidity. And Everscale's birthday in the UAE, where everyone will get to know everyone.
EverKit: Please comment on the latest events.
Sergey Shashev: I worked hard on this interaction, and this allows me to calmly say that everything is fine in Everscale again.
You need to be able to draw conclusions from history. Our blockchain was launched on the news that TON was not launched. Accordingly, when TON Coin appeared, it became clear that there were two development branches. We had negative mutual stories in the information field. It must be understood that the model of the people's Governance was utopian, it did not work. Some things should only work centrally. Only a few people thought about the economy.
EverKit: Thank you very much for your work and for your interview!