Original author: Haotian
If the Ethereum ecosystem has entered the "old age" of DeFi, which is involved in the battle of Restaking points + locking ETH liquidity, then Metis uses the decentralized sequencer to run and the staking mining of the @ENKIProtocol LST platform to form a linkage. Will there be a chance to reproduce the growth process of DeFi's "embryo" on layer 2? Next, let me tell you my opinion:
1) When Restaking platforms appear one after another on Ethereum, ETH native assets will become a hot commodity among platforms. Therefore, a large number of platforms use Wrapped ETH to exchange for users' ETH assets. Although the wrapped version of assets can also circulate in the DeFi system, users cannot redeem their native ETH assets.
The reason is simple. Imagine if a Restaking platform only stores LRT certificates from other platforms without ETH native assets, this LST platform is like a tree without roots. Therefore, of course, we have to think of ways to "kill two birds with one stone" to get users to "hand over" their native ETH assets.
Of course, users don’t care about this issue during the Restaking Fomo period. Depositing ETH can be exchanged for the packaged version of ETH (which can be circulated), and they can also obtain Eigenlayer platform points and LST staking platform points. These are all certificates for obtaining future airdrops. Why not do it?
If the assets of these Restaking platforms are combined and there are no security issues in any link, there is no big problem. Once the user settles the account, he hands over the native ETH, but in exchange for the tradable packaged ETH and the future multi-platform points airdrop opportunities, it seems to make sense. But all this requires that the Restaking combination economy around @eigenlayer will not collapse. If security issues emerge and users want to redeem their native assets and flee, they will find that it is too late.
This does not mean to Fud the Ethereum Restaking DeFi ecosystem. In fact, as more and more Staking+Restaking platforms emerge, the battle to grab ETH native assets has to be launched. Everyone is scrambling for ETH native assets. There are fewer and fewer ETHs that can be circulated in the market, and the "leverage" of the DeFi financial Lego building will be stacked higher and higher. To be radical, it can also be regarded as a new summer of DeFi.
However, from another perspective, this is also a typical feature of an "aging" ecosystem. There are only so many native assets without leverage in the market, and we need to assemble a leveraged Empire State Building. Whoever can grab the native assets is qualified to build the building. As a result, everyone is doing high-leverage things. An Eigenlayer has revitalized the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, but the risks behind it are hard to think about.
2) As a part of Ethereum layer 2 ecosystem, Metis has made some unusual moves in the past few years:
1. Replace $ETH as the Gas Token of the layer 2 platform. At the beginning of the chain launch, Metis was used as the Utiliy Token, allowing $METIS to build a foundation as the native Token;
2. As an OP-Rollup, it chose the combined DA paradigm of decentralized Storage DA + key verifiable data submitted to Ethereum from the beginning, which can greatly reduce Gas. It can also flexibly adjust DA as the Ethereum Blob expansion space increases to provide a DA method that is more in line with market trends. This also provides basic flexibility for the implementation of its Hybrid Rollup;
3. Launch a decentralized sequencer system, and use native tokens to incentivize decentralized sequencer nodes to mine. After the official launch, you can get a 20% APY income. You need to pay money, which is the native underlying income. Just like users can get a 20% income by staking ETH in Lido, the value of the utility token will be maximized in this link. In theory, the stronger the sustainability of this native mining income, the greater the help to the subsequent combinatorial development of the DeFi ecosystem. Just imagine that Lido's current 4% income is still continuing to derive, not to mention the early Metis DeFi ecosystem that started with 20%;
4. With the bottom-level decentralized Sequencer mining incentives of the native token, many LST platforms like @ENKIProtocol @Artemisfinance will emerge. After all, this mining income is quite attractive to some funds that are unwilling to take the risk of playing Restaking points on the main network;
5. When a large number of LST platforms emerge, LRT platforms will follow suit, because staking METIS generates eMetis. In addition to mining points on the LST platform, eMetis can also be staked to other LRT platforms to further earn income. At the same time, some other DeFi platforms such as DEX, Derivatives, CDP, etc. will also participate in this overflowing liquidity relay. Slowly, the old DeFi Farming path that Ethereum DeFi has taken can theoretically be reproduced by Metis.
In short, when layer 2 is flourishing everywhere and is in a development dilemma, Metis's original rebellious move of abandoning ETH as a Gas Token has established the foundation for the development of the DeFi ecosystem, and its choice to implement the underlying decentralized Sequencer system has laid the foundation for the operation of the DeFi economy.
At present, the fundamental reason why many Ethereum layer 2 DeFis are developing relatively poorly is that the second layer has no native assets to drive value growth. It is difficult to build a healthy and sustainable ecosystem relying solely on the second layer encapsulated ETH tokens and governance tokens.
Obviously, Metis is still a small baby in the market value of layer 2 compared with those layer 2s with a valuation of tens of billions that were born with a silver spoon. However, if everyone agrees with this paradigm of driving the growth of decentralized economies based on native utility tokens, at least compared with other layer 2s, Metis is obviously the most thorough and most likely to grow in the future DeFi ecosystem growth potential.
