High gas fees and network congestion got you down?
Tired of having your tokens trapped on one blockchain?
Then let’s take a trip.
I have two ambassador class tickets to the other blockchains. Come onboard. You can bring your tokens too.
Our first stop, Darwinia. From there, the substrate.
The Discovery
It was 2018. I was searching DappRadar for the next crypto game to get into and came across Evolution Land. At the time, Evolution Land was in its genesis. The game play was simple, consisting solely of bidding on and purchasing land plots. However, underlying Evolution Land was a revolutionary technology and ambitious plan for a game world that would span multiple blockchains.
The primary token of Evolution Land is the ERC-20 token RING, which is used for all in-game transactions. I was able to buy RING with ETH using an in-game exchange. RING could also be deposited into something called the Gringotts Bank. By depositing RING into the Gringotts Bank, a player would immediately receive the ERC-20 token KTON. KTON is Darwinia’s commitment token, and could only be created by players committing RING to the Gringotts Bank. The amount of KTON received was dependent on the amount and duration of the deposited RING.
The next progression in Evolution Land was the addition of humanlike characters called Apostles. Apostles are NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) owned by players with two primary functions:
- Players could breed and trade Apostles in a fashion similar to CryptoKitties. Like CryptoKitties, Apostles would be of a certain generation and have certain physical traits. Apostles would also have certain attributes (talents) with a numerical value assigned to each talent.
- Players could send up to five of their Apostles to land plots to mine one of five resources. The minable resources are FIRE, SIOO, GOLD, WOOD, and HHO. Each of these minable resources are ERC-20 tokens, one of which (WOOD) recently started actively trading here on Uniswap.
The next progression for Evolution Land was the ability for players to assign a CryptoKitty in their wallet to an Apostle as the Apostle’s pet. This CryptoKitty pet would grant the Apostle owner bonuses to some of their talent values.
The next big step for Evolution Land was the addition of Land Byzantine on the Tron network. Land Byzantine was almost exactly the same as Land Atlantis on the Ethereum network, except for a few slight variations:
- Although RING and KTON functioned in the same manner with regards to gameplay, they were TRC-20 tokens, not ERC-20 tokens.
- Apostles could not have CryptoKitty pets, as CryptoKitties do not exist on the Tron Network.
- The Apostles had a different appearance. On Ethereum’s Land Atlantis, Apostles looked like normal humans (for the most part). On Tron’s Land Byzantine, Apostles had a bit of a skeletal Day of the Dead look.
At this point in Evolution Land’s development, the game play remained relatively simple. However, underlying Evolution Land’s simple game play was some robust blockchain functionality:
- The two native tokens (RING and KTON) existed as both ERC-20 and TRC-20 tokens.
- KTON’s use as a reward token for staking RING.
- Cross game interoperability, in the ability to attach a CryptoKitty NFTs to an Evolution Land Apostle to increase that Apostles talent values.
- Each minable resource (FIRE, SIOO, GOLD, WOOD, and HHO) is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, as well as a different type of token on Tron.
The Return
Fast forward to 2020. After a brief hiatus from crypto, I returned to discover Evolution Land version 2.0, and an exciting new feature. I was now able to make cross-chain transfers of RING and KTON tokens between Land Atlantis (Ethereum) and Land Byzantine (Tron). It was a good thing too. Darwinia Network had gone live, but only the ERC-20 versions of RING and KTON could cross the bridge to Darwinia network.
This is where we still are today. The Ethereum to Darwinia cross-chain bridge is open for transfers. The cross-chain bridge is still a one way ticket, meaning users are only able to transfer tokens from Ethereum to Darwinia. However, my RING and KTON tokens are sitting cozy in Darwinia. They are staked with validators earning RING rewards, waiting for more bridges to travel back to Ethereum and other blockchains.
Darwinia Ambassador Program
Darwinia network recently announce a program called the Ambassador Program in a Medium article titled Join the Darwinia Ambassador Program. The purpose of the Darwinia Ambassador Program is best described by its mission:
“The mission of Darwinia Ambassador Program is to enable those who are passionate about blockchain technology, familiar with Darwinia Network, and active in Web3 Community to collaborate with Darwinia to grow the global community.”
I promptly completed and submitted an application to become a Darwinia Ambassador, and recently received a recruitment email from Darwinia asking me to respond to the following questions:
- What is Darwinia? Please introduce it regarding its technology, economic model, community or anything else you know? (must)
- In the recent future, Darwinia will launch its initial version Mainnet. Do you know anything about the Darwinia progressive Launch plan? Could you explain it in detail? (must)
- Could you please provide a plan on the Darwinia community building according to self-situation? (must)
- To expand awareness of Darwinia Network with other Polkadot ecosystem projects, which project do you recommend to collaborate with? (optional)
- For the position of Darwinia Ambassador, Could you please provide any relevant supplementary or portfolio? (optional)
Rather than simply respond to these questions with an email, I am responding with this, a Medium article about Evolution Land, Darwinia Network, and My Ambassador Application.
Ambassador Program Application
What is Darwinia? Please introduce it regarding its technology, economic model, community or anything else you know? (must)
The macro-architecture of Darwinia is akin to airline hubs. Airline hubs or hub airports are used by one or more airlines to concentrate passenger traffic and flight operations at a given airport. They serve as transfer (or stop-over) points to get passengers to their final destination. (source: Wikipedia)
I can take the above definition of airline hubs and apply it to Darwinia by changing just a few a words:
Darwinia is used by one or more blockchains to concentrate token traffic and cross-chain operations at a given blockchain. It serves as a transfer (or stop-over) point to get tokens to their final destination.
Darwinia will connect blockchains like airport hubs connect global destinations. Connecting blockchains (or improved interoperability) between blockchains is a key step in the evolution of blockchain. Connecting blockchains is also a huge technological feat, which is why it must be done progressively in stages, which segues well into the next questions.
In the recent future, Darwinia will launch its initial version Mainnet. Do you know anything about the Darwinia progressive Launch plan? Could you explain it in detail? (must)
Darwinia intends to connect multiple blockchains. This is an enormous feat that needs to be done in progressive steps. We are currently in Stage 2 of the below chart. Users are able to transfer the ERC-20 versions of RING and KTON tokens from Ethereum network to Darwinia.
An ERC-20’s journey to Darwinia is still a one way trip. The next stage will be the ability to transfer KTON and RING from Darwinia network back to Ethereum network. From there will be Stage 4, connecting multiple blockchains with Darwinia serving as the hub.
Could you please provide a plan on the Darwinia community building according to self-situation? (must)
The blockchain community is still relatively small given its global reach. One of the primary reasons for blockchain’s slow adoption rate is a general lack of understanding by the public. Blockchain is still a technology in its infancy and a very foreign concept to most people.
Darwinia faces an even more difficult task of attracting adoption to its cross-chain bridges integrating multiple blockchains. Understanding what Darwinia does and its importance to the evolution of blockchain is difficult for even a regular blockchain user to conceptualize.
My role as an Ambassador to help build the Darwinia community is to use and learn more about Darwinia, so that I can better write about Darwinia. It is important to explain Darwinia in layman’s terms so that it can be better understood by its potential user base. I hope to do just that with the Ambassador Class to Darwinia Medium series.
To expand awareness of Darwinia Network with other Polkadot ecosystem projects, which project do you recommend to collaborate with? (optional)
There is an endless list of Ethereum based projects that could benefit by expanding to other blockchains via Darwinia. There are a handful of projects that I am intimately involved with, that for me, would make a good starting point for exploring possibly connecting to Darwinia. There are also a few Polkadot projects that I have been following as good potential project to collaborate with Darwinia.
A detailed listing of potential project integration and collaborations for Darwinia will be better explored in a future Ambassador Class to Darwinia article.
For the position of Darwinia Ambassador, Could you please provide any relevant supplementary or portfolio? (optional)
I tend to become pretty active as a community member for projects that I become involved with. This usually takes on the form of providing relevant graphs and statistical information, as well as being an active and engaging community member. The best thing I could point someone too with regards to a portfolio would be my Medium (if you’re reading this you found it) and my Twitter (see Other Related Link below).
This concludes are maiden Ambassador Class trip to Darwinia.
Perhaps I should have warned you that this was a one way trip.
But don’t worry.
Relax. Look around.
The bridge back will be open for travel before you know it.
