On June 18, Moonbeam Network and PolkaWarriors together organized an AMA to introduce Moonriver Network - The canary network of Moonbeam and reveal Moonbeam’s plan to participate in the upcoming parachain auction.
Moonriver is the Kusama implementation of the Moonbeam Network and also a canary network of Moonbeam. It is like a place to test and deploy new technologies to see if it is stable enough to be deployed on the Moonbeam parachain on Polkadot Mainnet.
This AMA was held in PolkaWarriors Global Telegram Group with the participation of Nate Hamilton - Director of Business Development for Moonbeam and PureStake & Katherine Quilca Barcelli - Marketing Communications Manager of Moonbeam. Many interesting questions about their products and their upcoming plan were answered by Nate and Kathy.
Below is a summary of the outstanding questions and answers from the AMA session.
1. Can you give me some characteristics that distinguish your project from other projects and how to convince whales to invest in your currency?
Nate:
Sure! This is not investment advice, anyone should make a decision based on the information found about each project. But, I can talk about what makes Moonbeam & Moonriver unique.
We have been talking to a lot of Ethereum based projects and protocols. At this point, a majority of projects have a multi-chain deployment strategy. Our value proposition for these projects is that they can use their existing Ethereum codebase, and with minimal-to-no changes deploy it to Moonbeam, and in doing so have a Polkadot-based deployment.
Projects are interested in having Polkadot-based deployments to be able to serve different users and use cases than they are able to serve on ETH MainNet. And at the same time, they are interested in access to Polkadot-based assets, and to be a first mover in this new and quickly growing ecosystem.
Additionally, Moonbeam has the biggest portfolio of integrations with the most-requested developer tools and services like APIs (The Graph, Biconomy, Covalent, OnFinality), assets (Ocean Protocol), bridges (ChainSafe, Interlay, and an NFT bridge in the works), DeFi protocols (SushiSwap, IDEX), oracles (Chainlink, Band Protocol) and many more.
2. Why did you choose Kusama and the Polkadot network? What are your plans for Moonriver's project in the future? How will Moonriver develop to compete or replace Ethereum?
Nate:
The most important reason we are building on Polkadot & Kusama is the developer activity we see there. Outside of Ethereum, Polkadot is the most active ecosystem in terms of developers.
Given that we are building a developer-oriented platform, we need to go to where the developers and builders are. And Polkadot offers more of a greenfield opportunity vs Ethereum, where there is a more mature and established ecosystem
The Substrate and Polkadot technology stack was another important factor. Substrate is a Rust-based blockchain development framework that helped us build Moonbeam much faster than if we had built it from scratch. We were drawn to Polkadot based on its vision of cross-chain integration. We believe the design of Polkadot will lend itself to new kinds of native cross-chain applications in the future.
3. DeFi is evolving too fast and the ability to break is very high. What do you think about this and can you be sure that your products will be in demand in the long term? What is the plan to contribute to DeFi's growth?
Nate:
You’re right DeFi seems to be changing daily! As we’re a platform for teams to build on we actually don’t have any end user facing products. That being said, we certainly value high quality teams who are able to push the envelope while understanding some of the risks that are present. All of this experimentation will drive the space forward so always DYOR and make sure you’re looking at projects with teams who understand the protocols they’re building.
We’re collaborating with great projects and we have a few different ways to contribute to the growing DeFi ecosystem on Moonbeam including grants and potential liquidity programs.
4. How does Moonriver work? What are the priority points of the solution that Moonriver brings to everyone?
Nate:
Great questions! So, as you might know, Moonbeam is our deployment to Polkadot. Moonriver is the same code base but is targeted toward Kusama (a companion network of Polkadot that runs the same code and code is deployed there first before they deploy to Polkadot).
We want a permanent environment where Moonbeam software can be deployed first before it is deployed to Polkadot. We believe this will result in higher software quality, better security, and faster development. Having different deployment environments starts to make blockchain development look a little more like regular Web2 development, with more frequent iterative releases, instead of the 1-2 releases per year that are the current norm for public blockchains.
Moonriver is the “community-led” network, where the majority of tokens are given to the community through crowdloans and other incentives. Like Kusama, we expect this to create a very different environment over time that develops distinct use cases that are not necessarily the same as Moonbeam.
5. What inspired the development of the Moonbeam project? What did you prepare? For the long-term development of Moonriver?
Nate:
What inspired the team to develop Moonbeam & Moonriver is to make the multi-chain future a reality. Moonbeam & Moonriver will facilitate and accelerate the adoption of the Polkadot ecosystem by becoming a platform where many projects are built, thanks to our rich developer toolkit.
Moonbeam is a natural fit for many Ethereum-based projects that want to pursue a multichain strategy because they can simply leverage their existing codebase to build on Moonbeam and access Polkadot.
Our goal is to provide the best experience for developers on Polkadot & Ethereum! For the long term, we aspire to continue growing our ecosystem of integrations and provide the best-in-class devs tools.
We are all looking forward to the launch of Moonriver! Here’s more information about the launch plan: https://moonbeam.network/networks/moonriver/launch/
6. Many investors hit and run in the sell and sell session after listing on the first exchange. How did your project prevent early investors from selling their tokens, and what benefits would you give them?
Nate:
This is a great question! As I mentioned before, Moonriver Network is community-led. This means that community members will own a significant portion of MOVR tokens, giving them considerable control over the direction of the network. No early backers or founders will receive tokens. There are no special token allocations or carve-outs for the founding team or early backers, resulting in a unique Moonriver token distribution.
You can check out Moonriver’s tokenomics here: https://moonbeam.foundation/moonriver-token/
7. How secure is Moonriver? How has Moonriver developed technology and security to build Moonriver into a truly secure and reliable platform?
Nate:
Moonriver benefits from the shared security and interoperability that the Kusama network provides. Same with Moonbeam on Polkadot, the shared security model is amazing.
8. As far as I know, Moonriver will Contribute to Moonriver in the Kusama slot auction. Can you explain the process of doing this? How many times will #Moonriver bid for the position and how many weeks will it take?
Nate:
On #7 I should have shared some info on Polkadot's shared security model, highly encourage anyone to go take a look
Correct, so in order to launch the Moonriver network to Kusama, the project must secure enough funds to cover the cost of leasing a parachain slot on the network. To meet this objective, the Moonbeam Foundation is running a crowdloan campaign on behalf of the network.
For the Moonriver crowdloan, individuals can agree to lock up a portion of their KSM in exchange for the native network token. These tokens will be locked from the point of participation until a slot is successfully won, and then through the entirety of the lease period (48 weeks)
A pool of 3,000,000 tokens representing 30% of the network will be distributed to crowdloan participants as a reward (proportionate to their share of the overall KSMs contributed to the crowdloan) over the duration of the lease period.
Users can contribute to the crowdloan through the Moonbeam Foundation dapp or through exchanges like KuCoin & Kraken.
Here is helpful information about the Moonriver crowdloan:
https://moonbeam.foundation/moonriver-token/
Also, how to contribute to the Moonriver crowdloan using the web app:
https://moonbeam.foundation/tutorials/how-to-contribute-moonriver-crowdloan-using-dapp/
9. What kind of partnerships with different projects/platforms/protocols can we expect from Moonriver NW in the future? Could you give us some examples of how other projects can leverage MoonriverNW?
Nate:
We are in conversations with current projects that have integrated into Moonbase Alpha and will announce the deployments to Moonriver very soon. Currently, we already have 40+ publicly announced projects building on the Moonbase Alpha (our TestNet) with many more in the works, all before we’ve even launched.
Those integrations have already proven to be a really diverse set of projects, from critical DeFi tools like oracles and AMMs/DEXes to NFT platforms, games, and bridges. Because we’re focused on smoothing the transition from Ethereum, we’ve also taken the extra step of testing and verifying integrations with popular developer tools like MetaMask, Hardhat, Truffle, Remix, and Ether.js/Web3.js. These are all valuable to DApp developers because they add a rich set of tools and integrations out-of-the-box, which of course makes Moonbeam and Polkadot more attractive to new users who want to try those decentralized applications.
There are so many so I'll just mention a few
- APIs: The Graph, Biconomy, Covalent, OnFinality
- DeFi: SushiSwap, Frax Finance, 0.Exchange, Balancer (by the Moonbeam and Parity teams), Orion Protocol, IDEX, Linear Finance, Injective Protocol
- NFT: SeaScape, Unify
- Oracles: Chainlink, Band Protocol, DIA, Razor
You can actually check out our community page here - https://moonbeam.network/community/projects/
10. For each crypto project, the ambassador has a rather important role. So does Moonbeam have an ambassador program? Do you currently have plans for global expansion? How to get more users, investors, and partners?
Nate:
The ambassador program is open to everyone and designed for those who want to help promote and grow the Moonbeam ecosystem. We are interested in expanding the engagement in communities where we are getting traction. In particular, we find our communities are growing quickly in China, Russia, and Latin America
Anyone who is interested can apply on the Moonbeam website (https://moonbeam.network/community/ambassadors/). We are going to continue to come up with ways people can engage, and we are excited by the interest from the community.
Currently, we have global communities managed by Moonbeam Ambassadors & Senior Ambassadors
Ones in your region are
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Chinese: https://t.me/moonbeam_CN
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Vietnamese: https://t.me/MoonbeamVietnamese
but we've also got everything from Russian to Spanish! If anyone is trying to find a group they can just reach out and we can get to the right spot.
In the live questions section, Nate and Kathy did answer several short questions from the PolkaWarriors community.
1. I would like to know if you've completed any security audits? Perhaps by third-parties? We've seen dozens of hacks, exploits and stuff like that this year. What measures have been taken to protect the Moonriver community from it?
Nate:
Yep - Audits are current ongoing and are a big deal to our team to ensure security
2. What is the main direction for Moonriver to focus on developing and promoting the entire ecosystem to go up?
Nate:
Get as many teams building as possible and create an ecosystem of collaboration
3. Do the token holders have the right to participate in the governance of the project? On what kind of decisions can they vote on about the project?
Nate:
Yes, the tokens for both Moonbeam and Moonriver are used for governance. Everything from upgrades to system changes
4. What are the use cases of your token, and how are we as users motivated to buy and hold long term? Will new use cases come along time?
Kathy:
Both have similar token utilities:
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Gas Metering
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Protocol Security
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Onchain Governance
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Network Transactions
For more info, go to:
https://moonbeam.foundation/moonriver-token/
https://moonbeam.foundation/glimmer-token/
5. What is the ambition Moonriver wants to achieve by the end of 2021?
Kathy:
A full deployment to Kusama! We are so excited and looking forward to what is coming up! Here's more detail about the Moonriver launch plan:
https://moonbeam.network/networks/moonriver/launch/
6. What is your plan for global expansion? Which market does Moonriver focus on currently?
Nate:
Our team is spread out globally along with a massive group of ambassadors - we'll continue to grow as the projects launch
7. After the moonriver Kusama auction finishes, the parachain auction in Polkadot starts. What is the $MOVR token? Can we transfer $MOVR to GLMR?
Nate:
Yes, we'd expect the auctions to start on Polkadot in the coming months. MOVR token is the token for Moonriver on Kusama. No, they're separate networks and trokens.
8. Which regions are you focusing on???
Nate:
The globe
Awesome, I put the links for both Moonriver and Moonbeam's twitters above but if folks missed thme - https://twitter.com/MoonriverNW & https://twitter.com/MoonbeamNetwork
9. Moonriver consists of four basic layers— EVM, Web3 RPC, Unified Accounts, DeFi Integrations. How does this help Moonriver improve compatibility? What makes you become a multi-functional coding environment for coders?
Kathy:
By mirroring Ethereum’s Web3 RPC, accounts, keys, subscriptions, logs, and more, Moonriver minimizes the changes required to run existing Solidity smart contracts on the network. Ethereum projects can simply replicate their DApp and deploy it to Moonbeam using Hardhat, Truffle, Remix, and other popular deployment tools.
So, in easy words, this means that Ethereum projects & devs can easily deploy their projects and codes to Polkadot very quickly & with minimal required changes.
