Author: Koiwa
Editor: Curry
Speaking of the hottest projects in the cryptocurrency circle recently, Blast must be one of them. Less than two weeks after Blast went online, its TVL has exceeded 600 million US dollars. The results are very impressive and can even be described as "amazing". Who is Blast, and why can it get the benefits of "all-network milk" as soon as it goes online? Today, let's talk about Blast in detail.
Blast's core competitiveness: Ethereum Layer 2 expansion solution.
Blast Network is a new Ethereum Layer 2 solution that has already collected over $600 million in TVL across the network.
Blast Network was founded by Tieshun "Pacman" Roquerre, who is also the co-founder of the well-known NFT project Blur. Blast aims to improve the efficiency of the Ethereum blockchain and solve the current problems of Ethereum such as excessive congestion and high costs. In the future, Blast will focus more on speed, cost-effectiveness, user-friendliness and other aspects.
Blast encourages users to deposit crypto assets by staking ETH and stablecoins to earn returns. It is worth mentioning that Blast is currently quite active, with 10,000 ETH, equivalent to US$21 million, deposited in just one wallet.
Blast is so popular that it seems to have some cutting-edge technology, but in fact, Blast is not a difficult project. The logic behind it is very simple, which is to put the ETH originally locked in Layer 1 on LIDO to obtain Staking interest. The interest income will automatically go to the ETH holders on Layer 2 Blast. The operating process of other stablecoins is the same, and RWA interest can be obtained. Therefore, in essence, Blast is a Layer 2 network where funds passively generate interest.
The current Layer 2 market is "unclear", and Blast, which plays its cards clearly, is taking advantage of this to seize the market.
From this, we can draw the conclusion that Blast itself has no innovation at all. It just adds a layer of Stake and RWA to make use of the originally deposited Layer 1 locked funds. Its core is still the points airdrop.
Even so, the emergence of Blast is still very important because it eliminates the ambiguity of the current Layer 2. With the "guess it" approach, Layer 2 has attracted a lot of funds to be active on the chain, and many Layer 2 project parties have made money without any effort.
The sudden emergence of Blast has taught a good lesson to Layer 2, which has been "winning by doing nothing" all the time. Once Blast's airdrop was released, Layer 2, which still relied on PUA, could no longer hold on, and the time for issuing airdrops was accelerated. In this way, the liquidity of the Layer 2 market will continue to be attracted by Blast.
As we all know, liquidity is very valuable to Layer 2. Blast, which holds liquidity, has core competitiveness and has become a catfish in the Layer 2 track, stirring and stimulating the nerves of every Layer 2 project.
We can foresee that there may be two outcomes with the emergence of Blast.
First, it will trigger a wave of coin issuance in Layer 2. The emergence of Blast will drain most of the liquidity in the market. In this case, ZK-rollup, which is already unpopular, seems to have nothing to do except to attract traffic by issuing coins. Second, it will trigger the reshuffle of Layer 2. The emergence of Blast has torn off the fig leaf of Layer 2, and the shortcomings and pain points of Layer 2 have been completely exposed. The entire industry is bound to accelerate the reshuffle and speed up the survival of the fittest.
Cybersecurity and legality issues raise questions, what will be the future of Blast?
Blast currently has more than 53,000 users, with a TVL of more than 600 million US dollars, achieving rapid accumulation of funds. Some traders have questioned this, believing that Blast has the potential risk of a Ponzi scheme. In particular, the network's referral system provides an "explosion point" for the planned airdrop in May, which adds a bit of "suspicion".
In addition to this, Jarrod Watts, a developer at Polygon Labs, expressed concerns on social media about the network's alleged centralization. Watts pointed out that transactions on Blast require approval from three-fifths of anonymous key holders, which he believes could be a security vulnerability. Watts believes that this structure deviates from the intended decentralization of the second-layer network and puts user funds at risk.
In response, the Blast team explained and defended its architecture. He said that Blast is on par with other Layer 2 solutions such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon in terms of decentralization. They believe that the network's upgradeable contracts are a necessary feature to solve potential errors and ensure the safety of user funds. The team ensures that the keys of secure accounts (which are essential for authorizing transactions) will be securely stored and independently managed, which reflects the practices used by other Layer 2 networks.
What's interesting is that many technical experts couldn't sit still when Blast made its defense. They believed that it was an indisputable fact that Blast had too much authority and that there were risks, and that they spoke out just to warn players. But Blast officials insisted on giving a contrived explanation, which seemed to be a cover-up.
Regardless of all the arguments, there is one objective fact that cannot be changed: Blast currently uses an upgradeable 3/5 multi-signature wallet. Therefore, fundamentally speaking, there is no technical guarantee for this matter. What we can do is limited. We can only unconditionally trust that centralized institutions such as Paradigm will not do evil. If you are interested in Blast, be sure to consider the risks before taking action.
It is reported that Blast is preparing to put its bridge into use in February next year. It is worth mentioning that the success or failure of the network is quite critical and may have a wider impact on the Ethereum ecosystem and the evolving decentralized financial landscape. Therefore, the Blast team's commitment to transparency and security is particularly important at this time.
P.S. This article does not constitute investment advice
