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You're now plugged in to the Delphi Podcast.
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What's up guys?
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Welcome back to the Delphi Podcast.
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I'm Tom Shonatson.
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I help lead Delphi Ventures as well as host some of the most in-the-weeds and thought-provoking guests across crypto, spending layer ones, D5, NFTs, and beyond.
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The goal is to have fun, but also to dive deep and offer foundational episodes of projects and founders.
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Also, check out our research on Delphi Digital or miss out of the most compelling research there is.
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It's up to you.
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As a reminder, nothing set on this podcast is a solicitation to buy or sell any security or token or to make any financial decisions.
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Delphi Ventures may all tokens mentioned.
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So check out our transparency page in the show notes for more info.
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With that, let's dive in.
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See you guys on the other side.
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Before we jump in, we'd like to thank our sponsors for making this episode possible.
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Together with me today, I have uh Chris from PUP Protocol.
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PUP is a um generic token uh bridge across uh different scaling solutions uh revolving around Ethereum.
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And it's a very exciting project, and I can't can't get to uh uh dive into it.
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But uh yeah, um actually uh it's a it's a pleasure to have you uh here with me today, Chris.
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Uh welcome.
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Thanks for having me on today, Ken.
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Um so before we dive in, actually, I know Hop is not the first project you've been working on, uh, and uh you've been in the space since uh many years now.
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So can you um talk a little bit about what you've been doing, what it made you to arrive uh to hop protocol today?
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Sure.
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Um so you know, I I think I first got introduced to to crypto around um 2014, but it wasn't until kind of late uh 2016-2017 that I started to work um full-time.
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Um so I was living in Boston uh doing iOS development, and you know, there wasn't a lot of opportunities to work in crypto.
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And so I was working for an agency and I ended up uh quitting the agency and uh I started the Boston Ethereum Developer Meetup um to kind of meet other people that were into Ethereum at the time.
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And then uh with a few friends started a dev shop called uh Level K.
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And we were building um smart contracts for for people that that were looking for that um as a service and using that to kind of bootstrap ourselves and start building projects.
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Um and so you know with Level K, we ended up uh starting an auditing practice, and and that was you know something that that I led up uh within the company.
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And you we we worked with a lot of great projects, like we audited the Open Zeppelin framework, uh DYDX, Trust Token, Decentraland, uh, and and a handful of others.
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And so that that was kind of my first you know, full-time job within the crypto space.
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And so I met my my current uh co-founders, uh Shane and Miguel, um, when I moved out to Los Angeles uh maybe three, three and a half years ago.
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Um and so you know, we were all working together at level K, and then we ended up spinning the auditing business out um to go after this new opportunity that we're really excited about.
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And that opportunity was um contract-based accounts.
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And so we we launched Autherium, which is a contract-based account uh wallet built for casual users.
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And so the idea behind Autherium was you could just kind of sign up uh with a username and password and just made the onboarding process and getting in, you know, starting to use uh you know Ethereum applications really easy for first-time users.
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And then pretty quickly, DeFi took off and and you know, so did the gas market along with it.
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And when it cost us maybe 15 cents to deploy this contract-based account for new users when we started, uh it would, you know, we we quickly pushed that cost over to the
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user.
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And at one point it would cost you know over$250 just to deploy to deploy this contract-based account.
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Uh, I think it would cost even more than that um some days today.
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So uh, you know, we we really saw layer two as kind of the only future for Authereum and for casual users in general.
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Like Ethereum itself was just too expensive.
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The cost to deploy an Autherium account was roughly two Uniswap swaps.
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So even if you could get the account deployed, there wasn't much you could do unless you were dealing with large amounts of money and you could kind of justify that that cost.
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Um, so we you know, we kind of had our backs against the wall and we're looking for ways that we could uh you know allow users to move directly from one layer two to the next so that they didn't have to kind of come back to layer one.
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So, you know, with with Aetherium, you know, we we started integrating with layer two solutions, um, you know, such as like Diversify and Loop Ring, and we saw that users would kind of uh bridge over to the solution, uh, they make a few transactions and then they bridge back.
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Uh, but the cost just to kind of get onto and off of layer uh layer two was more than they were saving if they just used the layer one um applications, you know, directly.
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And and so we knew that users kind of had to be layer two native and that they had to be able to, you know, get onto layer two and and then stay on layer two.
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And and you know, so we we came up with hop protocol, we put out um a paper about it um earlier this year, and uh just just to get some feedback and and uh along with a demo for for how it could work.
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And and the response was really overwhelmingly positive.
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So we we decided to kind of uh focus on this completely and realized that you know this could be you know true Ethereum core infrastructure and and could be uh you know a bigger opportunity than we what we were looking at with Aetherum.
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So that's kind of how we we got uh started on hop and and um to where we are today.
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Yeah, I appreciate that information.
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So the the future of Ethereum is as stated by Vitalik is a roll-up-centric one.
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I mean, he he laid out this vision uh years back, and only now we're we're seeing a glimpse of it uh with the start of uh launch of Optimism, uh, Arbitrum.
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There are also ZK rollups uh like Starkware and ZK Sync.
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So but I noticed that many people are still not very familiar with how rollups work in general.
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And uh given that you're you're really accustomed to them, could you could you maybe um explain how would uh a roll up, how is a rollup working in general sense?
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And uh what is it that makes them so special?
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Sure.
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So yeah, you know, with Ethereum scaling, we've always heard that scaling is right around the corner for for like years and years and years now.
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And it feels like roll-ups are kind of the first one that that really addresses everything that we've dreamed of with layer two, where you know, it it feels like layer one, we can deploy applications, we can deploy smart contracts.
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And so a roll-up is kind of this partial scaling solution.
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And so what I mean is that it scales in terms of execution, uh, but it still uses, you know, a scaling solution has um execution and then uh data availability.
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And so those are the two pieces that kind of uh are the two main costs of using Ethereum.
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And so any scaling solution uh needs to scale, you know, both of those, or you know, in the case of a roll-up, uh it's a partial scaling solution because it just scales execution and and not uh data availability.
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Uh but this trade-off allows us to basically use layer one Ethereum to, you know, as this data availability layer uh and and allows us to kind of order all of our transactions.
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So what I mean by that is is each rollup has what's known as a state route, and Ethereum itself has a state route, and this basically represents all of the state on uh on the solution or on Ethereum.
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And and so a rollup state route is is rooted into a uh smart contract on Ethereum.
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And when uh as kind of the rollup progresses, uh we basically say, you know, here are all the transactions, these are kind of updates to state, and we'll get from the current state route to some new state route, and then have um some uh validation around whether or not these these updates or these transactions that went from uh you know state route A to state route B are kind of uh you know is a valid transition.
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And so that's where you know the way that that those updates are validated, that that's kind of where the difference between an optimistic rollup and a ZK rollup um you know start to diverge.
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And so, you know, when when users are making um transactions, they they basically submit them to the rollup, and then those will actually get posted on chain.
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So all of the transactions that you're making on, say optimism or arbitram, they're actually going and being posted on layer one Ethereum.
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And then that's why you'll see that that rollups have this kind of non-negligible cost uh like you might see with with the these non-rollup uh scaling solutions like like uh Polygon and XDive.
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Um and so what once these transactions get posted onto Ethereum, they're they're not executed.
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You know, it's just posted for data availability, and but it does kind of lock in the order.
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So if anyone's kind of looking at these transactions, they can say, like, okay, here's here's the last update that we have on Ethereum, and then here is the the data of all these transactions.
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Um, but you know, no one's actually run the execution of these transactions on chain.
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But if I'm an off-chain participant, I can look at the ordering of these transactions and I can look at the state route that we had last, and I can actually um figure out the current state of the chain by just executing um them myself off-chain.
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And that's kind of where you get the scalability, uh, where you know the execution has been pushed off-chain for the most part.
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And so then, you know, the the uh kind of harder part is getting to that next update.
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And so with an optimistic roll-up, someone will just post the update.
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And then there's it's actually a week uh before that's uh finalized.
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And that week long um period, it basically gives enough uh people enough time to challenge the the, you know, that this these transactions that were posted between this state route and this state route actually led, you know, we're we're all valid state transitions.
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And and it, you know, if there's a challenge, the challenge can play out, and then the state can be updated within that week.
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And then a ZK rollup uses some some really cool, you know, uh cryptography to basically prove that that all of these transactions that were posted led from state from the you know state route A to state route B.
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And then it could just be proved on the spot, it's final on the spot, and there's no challenge game, there's no uh you know, week-long wait period.
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And that's why you'll see the exit times on ZK rollups are way faster than than they are on optimistic rollups.
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Uh yeah, thank you for that.
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Really good, um, really good intro.
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Um so with that, actually, uh you you touched on the point between the the ZK and optimistic rollups, and um especially with regards to the optimistic uh optimistic rollups, I also find that uh a lot of people misconfuse the uh seven-day challenge period, uh seven-day withdrawal period, actually.
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So just want to clarify that when uh when optimism writes the uh posts, uh optimism is called the sequencer, there's an entity that that that posts um transactions to layer one, but when they when they post that in in order, actually, and uh a full verifier node would actually be able to, as soon as it's minted on on layer one, uh a full verifier AL2 node would execute them and he would know 100% uh the state of the uh uh the state of the optimistic roll-up.
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So there would be no risk uh uh for for them.
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So the the seven-day withdrawal period is for users who not necessarily have the resources to compute these uh themselves.
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So I think that's uh the fundamental piece that that most people miss.
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And it's also a crucial part of how Hub Protocol functions, right?
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Yeah, that's exactly right.
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And we think of it as kind of on-chain finality and off-chain finality.
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If you're an off-chain participant, you can pretty easily compute you know all this, this, these state uh updates and and you know, get to finality, you know, pretty much after uh that that batch has been submitted or your transaction has been submitted.
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And then if you're on-chain, you know, the execution can't play out on-chain, otherwise we wouldn't be scaling.
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And and therefore you have to kind of wait for this uh week-long uh challenge period.
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Got it.
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So with that, um let's uh let's walk through how how hub protocol uh comes into play here.
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So I I'm on I'm a user on rollup A, and I want to transfer my tokens to uh roll up B, let's say up from Optimism to Arbitrum.
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So what is it that Hub Protocol helps me to do?
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And uh what what guarantees do I get as a as a user?
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What security guarantees I have?
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Uh sure.
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Yeah, so so hop basically allows you to um transfer your tokens directly from from one roll up to the next or one scaling solution to the next.
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And this happens almost immediately.
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We we basically wait for that, you know, the source chain to to reach off-chain finality.
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So so that takes about five, uh roughly five minutes for the most part, and then um then your transfer is completed.
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And hop doesn't introduce any new uh trust assumptions.
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You know, that there's obviously um smart contract risk with any kind of uh DeFi application that you're using, um, but it doesn't introduce like a new validator set, it
doesn't introduce a new consensus algorithm, it's uh actually just using um and leveraging the scaling solutions themselves, uh the message bridges between the scaling solutions and Ethereum.
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Um, and it you know does the rest completely trustlessly.
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And so, you know, to kind of uh get an idea of how hop works, it you know, I think it's important to understand how the the kind of native bridges for uh rollups themselves work.
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And so um each rollup will have a uh cross-domain messenger.
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And so that this basically allows um you know uh contracts on the rollup to talk to uh contracts on layer one Ethereum and then layer one Ethereum to talk to uh contracts on the rollup.
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And so the the communication from Ethereum to the rollup uh that happens almost immediately.
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Uh you know, uh it happens in the time it takes for layer one to reach finality, so also you know, five to ten minutes.
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And then communication from uh layer two to layer one, that that is uh only as fast as the exit time of the rollup.
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So if we're talking about an optimistic roll-up, then messages from the the roll-up to layer one Ethereum are are gonna take that full week before they can be executed.
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And so, you know, the reason that all uh rollups have this messaging bridge is because it's needed for the native bridge.
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And and so, you know, the idea um with roll-ups is you don't want to just have this siloed environment where you have like, you know, tokens on that rollup.
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You want to actually use the tokens that are on Ethereum on that rollup.
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And so, in order to make uh this this um kind of native token bridge for the rollup, um, the rollups will have this kind of lockbox on layer one Ethereum, users deposit tokens into it, and then they're minted a representation of that token on layer two.
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And and that native token bridge is all built around their cross-domain messenger, uh, which allows the messages to be shared.
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And and so that's why that's you know, why the exit time is also weak, uh, because you know the the user actually will um decide to exit, they'll burn their token on layer two.
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Uh, that will trigger a message from layer two to Ethereum, and it won't be able to be executed, you know, the exit won't be able to be executed for a full week.
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So, you know, that's kind of the the um native cross-domain messenger and the native bridge for each rollup.
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And so what hoc uh essentially is at the core is is this cross-rollup messaging protocol.
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And and so the
the core of the problem is is actually the messaging itself, not you know, and then on top of that, we we've built um token transfers.
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And so you could imagine kind of a naive way to, you know, if we're trying to talk um, say from Arbitrum to optimism, uh the naive way to send a message would be to you know propagate your message down to layer one Ethereum and then back up to uh the destination.
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Um and so that's not very scalable because for each uh individual message, we're gonna need a transaction on layer one Ethereum.
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And then we're you know, kind of have this big bottleneck because you know we we can't kind of scalably send messages uh between um optimism and arbitrum.
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And and so uh what we came up with hop is is we actually aggregate many messages at the source.
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Uh so what we won't actually trigger them to be sent, what we'll just kind of like store them in state um on the rollout itself.
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And then at some point, we will um move the whole batch of aggregated messages from the source to the destination.
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So so we kind of compress this this uh whole batch of transactions into what's known as a Merkle route.
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Um and then so we just have this single hash, and then we can propagate this single hash that could represent um thousands of messages uh down to layer one Ethereum to the destination, and then at the destination, it can be unpacked, and that kind of alleviates this layer one um bottleneck uh for kind of cross-cross-roll-up communication.
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And so just like uh the roll-ups on top of their cross-domain messengers, the first thing they built is is their native bridge.
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Um, on top of our kind of uh cross uh scaling solution uh messaging protocol, the first thing that we built on top of that is uh cross-scaling solution um token transfers.
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And so the way that the token transfers work is we introduce our own um you know asset.
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Uh and so this asset we call an H token.
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And so just like with the native bridge, you deposit into a lockbox and you get some representation of that token on layer two.
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Uh for the native bridge, we call it the canonical token.
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Those are the ones that users actually want, uh, like you know, USDC, ETH, uh, et cetera.
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And then for hop, you deposit and then you get H token, like HUSDC, HE, um, et cetera.
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Right.
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So so just to um uh expand on that point, the you you mentioned about the uh message uh message contracts.
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Um so correct me if I'm wrong, but uh any application, I
mean, once it's fully deployed on an open uh mainnet, these these roll-ups are are not whitelisted, et cetera.
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Any application can actually interact with that messenger and then represent uh and then create a representation of L1 token inside the rollup.
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So you would, for instance, see a bunch of dies there, right?
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Uh the different versions of die.
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But eventually there is a native rollup bridge uh uh and um and that's the one that you're referring to as canonical uh token.
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So there will be, for instance, in the case of let's say arbitrum, there we can call it maybe a die, uh, an arbitrum die, and that would be the canonical one.
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But but the but the hop bridge would be a different token, right?
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It would be like H die.
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So and you mentioned that eventually users want to get um uh arbitrum die.
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So how does this uh this work after that point?
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So we have an yeah, hopeful version of a token.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, that's exactly right.
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And and so you know, users ultimately want this A die or or you know canonical die.
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And uh we introduce this HDI because we need to kind of program in this special function, this special bridging functionality directly into the asset.
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Um so what when a user kind of transfers an H token from one role to the next, uh, the H token is burned at the source, and then um you know we have this liquidity provider role that mints it at the destination.
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Um but ultimately users don't want HDI, they don't really care about HDI, they they want real dye, the A dye.
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Um so we have uh stable swap AMMs uh between the H tokens and their their uh you know true or canonical assets.
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Um so that would be you know, say H DI to A DI.
00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:59.759
And so that way when when um the liquidity provider, we call this role the bonder, um uh mints um HDI for for the user because they they've made a transfer, then it immediately gets swapped uh through the AMM into uh the canonical.
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:05.599
And then that's the one that the user can go on and you know deposit into Ave using Uniswap.
00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:10.319
That's the one that's going to be kind of widely adopted in that roll-up ecosystem.
00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:11.519
Right, right.
00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:28.960
And and also just to make sure this point doesn't get missed, um, we you also touched on the point that in a roll-up, a lot of transactions you you batch them together into a compact size, and then this get gets propagated uh through uh layer one to another rollup.
00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:39.039
But the um so here actually um the the question then becomes like why why there's any uh need for an intermediate token.
00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:43.039
And then uh you're also talking about the the bonders minting tokens.
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:52.480
So uh what is the motivation be behind this uh to to have a hop representation of tokens uh to to cross access, actually?
00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:54.079
Uh can we expand on that?
00:22:54.720 --> 00:23:06.400
Yeah, so so you know for hop to function as it is functioning, we we we need to be able to basically burn this token at the um at the source and and then uh mint it at the destination.
00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:20.720
And so with kind of the canonical tokens or the you know, basically the tokens that that are the representations produced by the the roll-ups native bridge, um, we aren't able to to kind of program that that functionality into them directly.
00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:27.200
Um and so uh what sorry, what what do you mean when you say like we cannot program the the functionality?
00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:28.640
Um yeah.
00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:57.039
So so um so when with the H tokens, um they they basically will uh send a a very uh or when an H token is burned, that's when it kind of um adds a message to uh the list of of kind of you know pending transfers uh that will kind of eventually get aggregated into um the the batch that gets transported from the source to the destination.
00:23:57.200 --> 00:24:10.640
And so it we we aren't able to kind of uh you know with with the uh native bridge tokens, when they're burned, you basically just get to claim it on layer one, and we want to actually claim it at the the destination.
00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:19.759
So so we we kind of need this different um model that that we can't uh and we don't have that level of control with the the native assets.
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:21.119
Understood, understood.
00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:24.799
And then uh let's let's continue from that point on.
00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:28.079
A user burns the uh the uh age token.
00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:34.400
Let's say he he wants to, yeah, and then uh what's the following chain of events uh from there on?
00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:48.799
So so the user burns the H token, and then uh the this uh role called the bonder, one of the bonders will kind of see this this um uh transfer has been initiated, and then they will come in and um complete the transfer.
00:24:48.880 --> 00:25:05.599
And you know, they basically have uh collateral locked up, and that allows them to um mint H token you know per you know the same amount that the user transferred minus a small fee at the destination, and then that immediately gets swapped into the canonical token.
00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:12.559
So from the user's perspective, they're just going from you know die on optimism to uh die on arbitrum.
00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:17.119
They don't really have
to think about this intermediary H token um at all.
00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:22.240
It's completely abstracted away from them, um, but then they get tokens at the destination.
00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:23.359
Got it.
00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:29.200
So so user has uh uh again the canonical die on optimism.
00:25:29.440 --> 00:26:05.200
He um he he basically wants to transfer it to to Arbitrum, he um he uh creates a hop transaction, and the hop transaction is um uh uh is is first converting that to uh H version, the the hop version of DAI uh on the original roll-up, and then uh this this one gets burned, and then in Arbitrum, again hop version of die gets minted, and then it gets converted to the the the canonical uh die on Arbitrum.
00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:05.839
Is that correct?
00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:09.440
Yeah, that's exactly correct.
00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:15.440
So um the the bonders here are actually playing a crucial role, right?
00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:21.920
Because um what once they see the intention of user, uh they the front liquidity.
00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:33.119
And in order to do that, they're uh putting up a collateral um during the time it takes for the transaction to settle out on layer one.
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:41.279
So uh in terms of um capital efficiency, how uh how how do you see uh HOP protocol?
00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:41.920
Yeah.
00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:50.000
Yeah, so in terms of capital efficiency, um, we so to take a step back, uh Hop basically has two types of liquidity.
00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:55.519
We we kind of have this passive liquidity, and these are people that are providing liquidity to the AMMs.
00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:01.519
Um and then we have this what we call active liquidity because the bonder needs to kind of run this off-chain process.
00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:09.119
They're the ones that are kind of fully verifying the source chain, making sure that they're not being um defrauded or something like that.
00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:19.599
And you know, so so it's kind of this active role uh where their liquidity is is um, you know, they're consistently making transactions with their liquidity.
00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:40.160
And so the you know, ultimately with bridging, there needs to be some reserve of the canonical token that can be accessed by um folks that are are bridging because they they there needs to be um you know basically some pool that they can kind of tap into and pull tokens from uh when they they arrive at the destination.
00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:43.039
And so that's how we kind of think of the AMM liquidity.
00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:45.759
And so that I think is is optimal.
00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:55.519
Like there's no there's no way to kind of uh I don't think there's a way to kind of better use that liquidity because there ultimately has to be some reserve pool.
00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:03.519
And then the the kind of collateral that the the bonder locks up, uh this is where we see an inefficiency in the
current implementation of Hop.
00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:11.759
And so the bonder uses this collateral to uh you know to to kind of front liquidity or or you know, mint these H tokens.
00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:15.839
Um and right now they're using it, they're using the same asset that they they're bridging.
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:18.640
So if it's die that they're bridging, they're locking up DIE.
00:28:18.799 --> 00:28:21.519
Uh, you know, if it's ETH that they're bridging, they're locking up ETH.
00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:30.400
Um in the future, uh, we're going to kind of decouple the the uh bonders uh collateral um from the asset they're bridging.
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:34.559
And so you know this is gonna allow the bonder to hold you know productive assets.
00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:39.440
You know, this could be urine positions, it could be, you know, uh tokens.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:48.160
They could uh have a basket of assets in Ave and only borrow as they need to collateral, uh collateralize these transfers.
00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:55.200
And this is ultimately gonna remove all capital inefficiencies around um uh around you know the bonder role.
00:28:55.279 --> 00:29:07.440
That you they'll basically be able to hold the same basket of assets that they would otherwise and just earn a you know uh you know some extra yield um by performing this active service um with their their basket of collateral.
00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:13.200
Um so that's kind of how we think of uh capital efficiency with hop today and and hop in the future.
00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:14.319
Right.
00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:28.720
Um yeah, uh it's it's important to separate these liquidity providers because the the AMM liquidity providers, which we're accustomed to as as users, um, it's just that you're providing uh liquidity.
00:29:28.799 --> 00:29:43.759
And in the in the case of hop, that would be uh one side would be the canonical uh token, and the the other side would be the the hop version of the of the token so that it can be swapped one another at destination or or the origin.
00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:56.720
So uh the um so from here actually I I want to dig into like uh we we mentioned that bonders they they lock up collateral.
00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:01.359
And um so what is the let's let's play the worst case here.
00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:10.480
So a bonder he just mints a bunch of uh H tokens uh and sends it sends them to himself uh fraudulently.
00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:13.279
Uh such a transaction doesn't exist.
00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:16.160
And uh how do we protect it from this?
00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:30.880
Yeah, so so when when the bonder um mints a bunch of age tokens in the current model, since we haven't decoupled the like the collateral from the asset that's being bridged, they'll actually have uh an equal amount of uh that H token.
00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:45.680
So say it's dye, uh so they mint a bunch of H dye, they'll have an equal amount of H dye uh that was uh that is
locked up and collateralizing um that uh that mint or you know the completion of that transfer.
00:30:45.920 --> 00:30:58.160
And so if that was actually a fraudulent transfer, um when it's not a fraudulent transfer, their collateral is basically unlocked until they can prove that that H dye was burned at at the source chain.
00:30:58.319 --> 00:31:06.640
And so you know that that uh proof will that's what's actually gets uh propagated through layer one as part of uh of the batch.
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:30.480
And so if they kind of bond something fraudulently and there never will be proof that that does reach the destination, um then their their HDI collateral will be um permanently locked up, and the bonder just ends up in a complete wash because they basically you know locked up HDI, they've minted an equal amount of H dye, and now that uh locked up HDI is is permanently locked.
00:31:30.559 --> 00:31:35.039
So they they ended up exactly where they would be in the system stays fully collateralized.
00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:40.160
And um yeah, that's that's that's great to know actually.
00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:49.039
So in terms of like trust assumptions, this is pretty much as close as you can get to uh Ethereum layer one trust assumptions, right?
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:50.319
Um exactly.
00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:51.039
Okay.
00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:58.400
Um so when Hub Protocol, it um integrates with with many rollups.
00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:08.480
Um and each roll-up roll-ups don't necessarily like based on the implementation of the specific rollup, it can differ in terms of security, right?
00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:13.599
And also there is there's side chains that that uh hub protocol uh also supports.
00:32:13.839 --> 00:32:24.640
So in terms of the the risk here, uh am I as a user, am I exposed to uh to the weakest link here of the of the scaling solutions?
00:32:25.440 --> 00:32:26.480
That's a really good question.
00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:30.079
And so uh the answer is no uh from a user perspective.
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:37.440
Um the the the bonders um are tend to be more at risk just because they touch more of the networks.
00:32:37.519 --> 00:32:43.359
But as a user, you're only exposed to the risk of um the networks that you're using and Ethereum.
00:32:43.680 --> 00:33:01.279
And so um what that means is you know, say you're on XDI uh and you're uh bridging to Polygon, um, then then you know you're you're subject to the risk of XDI, um, you're subject to the risk of Polygon and Ethereum, but not the risk of Optimism or Arbitrum.
00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:17.519
Um and so the the way that we do this is uh we we kind of track the um the H tokens that that you know so so user deposits say die into the layer one uh hop contract and then they're minted H tokens on um the layer two.
00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:30.160
And so we we track how many um H tokens are are minted uh for each layer two and and make sure that the H tokens that are kind of exiting that layer two can't exceed the amount that went in.
00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:38.400
And so that kind of uh silos or limits the liability any um single scaling solution uh presents to the rest of the system.
00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:59.039
Because, say, if the scaling solution were to go rogue and say um you know try to exit way more uh liquidity than actually existed on that scaling solution, um, then then uh this kind of mechanism would would just kind of stop it uh you know at the point where they they can only kind of compromise the H tokens that are on that scaling solution.
00:33:59.279 --> 00:34:08.079
Um and then the bonder role, uh, you know, they they are kind of uh facilitating transfers across um these different scaling solutions.
00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:15.599
Um bonders can choose to only um support uh just a subset of scaling solutions and they can limit their liability that way.
00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:21.280
Um but uh ultimately you know that they're gonna be touching more scaling solutions.
00:34:21.440 --> 00:34:34.320
And if they bond a transfer from a scaling solution that's gone road, uh there's a chance that that scaling solution doesn't propagate the proof uh over to the destination and they don't get to kind of unlock their collateral.
00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:42.000
So so that's how you can kind of think about the um the liability that that you'll face um when using hop.
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:50.159
And so another point important note is that users don't end up with this, you know, wrapped hop token.
00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:52.719
Um they end up with the canonical token.
00:34:52.960 --> 00:35:01.599
So what you know you'll see with something like, you know, or what we saw with like, for example, poly network is is uh users were bridging assets to another chain.
00:35:01.679 --> 00:35:02.960
I forget what the chain was.
00:35:03.119 --> 00:35:06.800
Um but but the these were kind of wrapped tokens.
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:07.760
What was it?
00:35:08.079 --> 00:35:09.360
I said no one knows.
00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:11.119
Yeah, yeah.
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:17.519
Um and so users had this wrap token that was um produced by poly network.
00:35:17.679 --> 00:35:27.280
And and uh this is dangerous because users were kind of using this these wrap tokens on that network and not realizing they still had exposure, you know, risk exposure to the bridge.
00:35:27.440 --> 00:35:33.760
Um and ultimately a lot of those users lost their funds without ever kind of uh when they didn't realize that.
00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:48.079
With hop, uh you're going from one canonical asset to the next, you're only very briefly exposed to this um intermediary asset, which means that you only have risk exposure when you're making the transfer from point A to point B.
00:35:48.159 --> 00:35:51.599
And then the second you have funds on point B, you no longer have risk exposure.
00:35:51.760 --> 00:36:01.840
So uh if you're a user, the chances of of you
know using losing funds through hop are very, very low because you only have like a very, very short window of risk exposure.
00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:10.480
Yeah, this is this is like a great property to have for a cross-chain, cross-domain, any cross-domain messaging protocol.
00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:25.679
Um so just to break down here and sum up, users only get to have exposure during the time of swap, and bonders only get exposure uh in the uh in the scaling solution for which they provide liquidity.
00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:29.519
So um, yeah, that's uh that's that's great actually.
00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:43.519
So moving on from here, um I want to also have your maybe drifting a bit from Hop protocol, but talking about rollups specifically, I wonder your take about the uh the rollups.
00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:46.639
How how do you see the space to evolve?
00:36:46.800 --> 00:37:03.599
Like uh many giga brains are obviously working uh to onboard people into uh scaling uh scaling solutions, rollups, but um do you see uh any any potential resistance from users to to onboard to those scaling solutions?
00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:08.800
If any, what could be a what could be a concern concern there?
00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:11.679
Um yeah, that that's a good question.
00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:15.119
So I I'm you know very excited about optimistic rollups.
00:37:15.280 --> 00:37:25.119
I I think that's kind of the uh you know one of the better trade-offs in terms of um security and um and costs that we have right now.
00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:29.519
But the you know ultimately the the cost of optimistic rollups is still pretty high.
00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:39.679
You know, we we see kind of like uh it's like roughly 10% of what we see on uh you know mainnet Ethereum, and even 10% of what we see on mainnet Ethereum can still be pretty ridiculous.
00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:58.000
So I you know, I'm still still you know bullish on on chains like uh Polygon and and XDI where they don't necessarily uh you know share the same security level of Ethereum, but they do kind of allow these kind of use cases that even optimistic rollups today are are are pricing out.
00:37:58.079 --> 00:38:03.119
And and so these could be like you know, uh very small time users or traders.
00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:16.400
Uh this could be uh people that are playing games, um, where just like if they're they're playing with$10 of value, it doesn't make sense for them to be paying uh one or two dollars uh per transaction, which is kind of what optimistic roll-ups look like.
00:38:16.480 --> 00:38:37.920
Um that being said, if if a user is using DeFi, they have you know a large part of their you know net worth or even you know a portion of their net worth on um a scaling solution, it probably makes sense for those, you know, for that to be you know optimism or arbitrum where where we know that the security is is kind of matched by uh at the same level of Ethereum.
00:38:38.079 --> 00:38:42.639
And so
um, yeah, so I I think that there's gonna be room for both.
00:38:42.800 --> 00:38:46.320
There's gonna be use cases that that kind of um shake out for both.
00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:51.599
Um and then in the long term, I think uh ZK rollups are are uh really, really interesting.
00:38:51.679 --> 00:39:00.159
Um we we've kind of seen, you know, I I think like looking back in kind of the history of uh scaling solutions, we've seen how important it is to be EVM compatible.
00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:06.559
So like we saw like uh plasma, people trying to build application, you know, application-specific plasma implementations.
00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:11.920
We saw um state channels and generalized state channels and like games to start playing out there.
00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:24.960
Uh, but but you know, the second we kind of saw EVM compatible uh scaling solutions where we could just use the same tools, the same development tools, that you know, uh we could just point block explorers at them and they just work.
00:39:25.039 --> 00:39:33.920
Uh, that's where we've kind of really seen this explosion of activity on on scaling solutions, you know, as well as kind of non-ethereum uh EVM chains.
00:39:34.159 --> 00:39:39.519
And and so like I really think that that's where ZK rollups need to ultimately get.
00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:42.559
Um, but it's a really, really difficult challenge.
00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:47.760
Um, you know, that there's a people that much much smarter than I am that are working on this challenge.
00:39:47.840 --> 00:40:11.920
So, you know, excited to kind of see where those kind of develop because I think ultimately that that is kind of the holy grail, is the EDM compatible uh ZK rollup where where the exits are instant, uh the level of scalability is higher than what we can achieve with optimistic rollups, and and yeah, that that's kind of um the ultimate uh scaling solution, I think.
00:40:12.320 --> 00:40:14.559
Yeah, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
00:40:14.639 --> 00:40:27.599
And in that world where uh in that imaginary world where ZK proofs are so efficient and then we checkpoint every like uh frequently, uh then would hop evolve into something different?
00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:36.960
Um because because now like uh providing like fast, let's say uh fast exits is kind of uh loses its benefit, right?
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:38.079
Yeah, that's right.
00:40:38.159 --> 00:40:58.079
And and I actually I don't think hop would would kind of evolve into something different because we so we see fast exit as like our big market today, um, but ultimately we see the real value of hop uh is kind of enabling these layer two native users where where they can just move directly from one layer two to the next and they don't have to kind of touch uh layer one at all.
00:40:58.320 --> 00:41:10.880
And so um while while yes, hop does kind of solve this fast exit problem, and and that's very, very needed today, that that is kind of like the the um
one of the main benefits of hop today.
00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:25.920
Um even in a world where where there is no long exit times and you can exit a ZK rollup immediately, um, exiting a ZK rollup to move to the next rollup is still gonna cost$100 today or hundreds of dollars today, could cost thousands of dollars in the future.
00:41:26.079 --> 00:41:33.760
And so we still uh you know see huge benefit for users to be able to move directly from one ZK rollup to the next uh using something like that.
00:41:34.880 --> 00:41:35.840
I see, I see.
00:41:35.920 --> 00:41:42.320
And also there is the uh there's there's the area of like uh just cross-chain messaging, right?
00:41:42.400 --> 00:41:48.719
It's not it's not only a value transfer, ultimately, they have to talk to each other ideally.
00:41:49.199 --> 00:41:51.760
But I I also wonder your take take there.
00:41:51.920 --> 00:42:08.000
So when when one rollups communicates to another, if if there is no bonder to to to front liquidity immediately, uh as it is right now, then the communication would would still be delayed with the with the L1 uh finality, right?
00:42:08.079 --> 00:42:16.320
So in Ethereum you need to wait so many blocks, uh depending on the the the amount uh let's say involved.
00:42:16.480 --> 00:42:25.519
But uh so it's it's not like we're we have this full composability that uh Ethereum L1 has today.
00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:29.360
Do you do you think that could be a um potential problem?
00:42:29.519 --> 00:42:31.679
How could that be mitigated?
00:42:31.840 --> 00:42:33.679
Um yeah, wonder your toss.
00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:36.559
Yeah, yeah, it will definitely be a challenge.
00:42:36.719 --> 00:42:51.280
So so kind of in in terms of um you know cross-chain messaging and and composability, uh, we we kind of see this move from you know a synchronous paradigm where where uh you know each contract can just kind of talk to other contracts.
00:42:51.360 --> 00:43:01.599
Uh each each transaction is uh completely atomic, where if if you know the transaction reverts anywhere along the way, uh the entire thing um is unwound.
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:33.840
Um and then we're moving towards uh this like asynchronous paradigm where where you know now we have uh kind of you know the transaction starts and then and then uh there's like different um times where we wait, uh and then you know uh the transaction is completed at a later time, and you also lose that atomicity of the transaction where you know, say the the transaction reverts at you know during the second part, uh you can't necessarily unwind the first part because they they're kind of happening at um different times.
00:43:34.079 --> 00:43:38.559
And and so this, you know, this kind of presents a challenge.
00:43:38.639 --> 00:43:51.119
I I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a very bad thing, uh, but but uh you know, you have to kind of deal with the problems that come with this uh asynchronous communication.
00:43:51.280 --> 00:43:59.199
And and so the way we kind of think about uh the trust model on layer one Ethereum today is is you know, you you have this um this.
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:03.119
From one contract to the next, it happens immediately.
00:44:03.360 --> 00:44:14.639
And then it's also like an owned um, it's like an owned message where you can actually see who sent it and uh verify that um in absolute terms.
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:21.039
And and so with uh cross-chain communication, uh it kind of breaks up into two kind of two trust models.
00:44:21.119 --> 00:44:31.199
And and so one of them is where you can um communicate from one uh contract on one roll-up to the next roll-up um immediately, but that's not like an own message.
00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:33.199
You can't actually verify who sent it.
00:44:33.440 --> 00:44:37.519
It's more or less just you know triggering a meta transaction at the destination.
00:44:37.679 --> 00:44:42.960
Um, but this can still be very useful, especially if you can attach uh tokens to that message.
00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:58.639
So um, for example, someone could you know send USDC through hop uh to the destination and trigger um some functionality that that deposits it into um you know a vault contract uh with you know a specific owner address.
00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:04.480
And you know, that we don't need to verify who sent the funds, we just need to verify that funds showed up.
00:45:04.559 --> 00:45:10.239
And and so you know, we don't that you know that type of communication is fine, it can happen pretty much immediately.
00:45:10.320 --> 00:45:14.960
Um and then there's this kind of second type of communication where we actually need to verify the sender.
00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:21.599
So to clarify, that is the case where the transaction uh involves some token transfers, right?
00:45:21.679 --> 00:45:25.679
It has the token, so you don't bother with any further information.
00:45:26.400 --> 00:45:27.599
Is that why so?
00:45:28.320 --> 00:45:29.199
Yeah, exactly.
00:45:29.360 --> 00:45:52.960
Yeah, and and um yeah, and and for for most use cases for this type of communication, there there would need to be some token attached, um, unless you just want to kind of you know uh kick off some process or something, you know, it there's easier ways to do that than uh cross-chain um, you know, cross-chain call, uh you know, unless there's tokens attached.
00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:58.480
Um and so this other type of communication is that that's where things are really delayed.
00:45:58.559 --> 00:46:08.159
And so so this is where uh we actually need to verify who sent the um transaction at the um you know at the source.
00:46:08.320 --> 00:46:16.559
Uh and so for that to kind of fully verify uh who sent it, we actually need to wait for the exit time of the source uh roll-up.
00:46:16.800 --> 00:46:36.320
Um and then that will, you know, and then once it reaches the destination, then we can know in absolute terms that you know it
was sent from you know this address with uh on you know this roll-up, and then you know, that could be used for something like withdrawing from a vault that that is owned by a cross-chain owner or you know, on a different scale solution.
00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:40.719
Um so yeah, that's kind of how we think about the two two different models.
00:46:40.960 --> 00:47:15.840
Um and so I and so Vitalik actually released a really interesting paper on on doing um cross-chain NFTs that that um and it and he he has a very interesting twist on the second model where um, and it, you know, it's it's you know, Hopp has kind of a similar twist for for uh ERC20 transfers, where basically you complete it immediately, it can be verified off-chain, uh, and then it isn't until it can be verified on-chain uh that that um you can like you know completely uh release the collateral.
00:47:16.159 --> 00:47:16.719
Like settled.
00:47:17.039 --> 00:47:18.320
Yeah, exactly.
00:47:18.559 --> 00:47:37.039
Um so with with with the his proposal, you basically um can can transfer an NFT from one source chain, um, mint a kind of claim to that NFT at the destination, everyone can verify that off-chain, and then it's not until it's verified on-chain that it's kind of like uh completely settled up.
00:47:37.199 --> 00:47:50.159
So um it kind of shows how you can get around the constraints of this uh this asynchronous communication and and these uh long exit times without significantly damaging the the user experience.
00:47:50.639 --> 00:48:02.800
Okay, that that's very, very interesting because like almost all in almost all cases, NFTs cannot be ported over bridges uh due to due to their unique uniqueness.
00:48:03.280 --> 00:48:09.360
I mean the this uh yeah, this talk was like super insightful uh in my in my opinion.
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:22.559
And uh when you think about it, like if a bunch of roll-ups exist, eventually there will be a cross uh roll-up uh communication, a cross-side chain as well, communication in the Ethereum world.
00:48:22.719 --> 00:48:29.440
But moving on from uh Ethereum world, do you what's your take on uh L1 versus L2s?
00:48:29.679 --> 00:48:39.519
Uh there we see a bunch of uh L1 uh uh projects also uh running EVM chains like Avalanche, for instance, and and and others uh as well.
00:48:39.679 --> 00:48:42.880
I mean, uh Solana is is doing great stuff as well.
00:48:43.119 --> 00:48:46.960
So so yeah, how do you see this competition to to to move on?
00:48:47.039 --> 00:48:50.800
And can Hop eventually support other chains as well?
00:48:51.440 --> 00:48:52.880
Yeah, that's a great question.
00:48:52.960 --> 00:48:57.760
And so yeah, I think it's undeniable that we're headed to this multi-chain world.
00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:06.960
You know, like like we're both seeing Ethereum kind of scale on its own layer two, and and then we're also seeing, you know, like competing layer ones popped up, like like you mentioned.
00:49:07.119 --> 00:49:26.480
And those kind of also provide uh, or they also are like cheaper environments because they they either you know make different trade-offs or or you know, they're also just you know less congested than what Ethereum is today, and and that kind of you know unlocks use cases that just aren't possible on Ethereum today or allows you know smaller users to interact.
00:49:26.639 --> 00:49:30.960
And so, yeah, I I think it's undeniable that that's that's where things are headed.
00:49:31.039 --> 00:49:34.639
We're we're seeing you know chains like Solana get get serious traction.
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:46.239
And so, you know, we we definitely want to support bridging um across uh you know not just Ethereum's uh scaling ecosystem, but but also to these disjointed layer ones eventually.
00:49:46.559 --> 00:49:49.039
And there's a few ways we can do it.
00:49:49.119 --> 00:49:59.599
So so uh you know, like we talked about, uh, you know, hop very much relies on the cross-domain messaging uh between Ethereum and whatever scaling solution we're we're supporting.
00:49:59.760 --> 00:50:11.519
Um of these, and it and so when we think about risk of a user on a scaling solution, um that they uh they they're subject to the risk of that um scaling solution, and then also its bridge.
00:50:11.599 --> 00:50:14.480
And and so with with roll-ups, those are one and the same.
00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:22.320
Uh and and and then also with uh you know chains like Polygon, they're they're you know pretty much one and the same as well.
00:50:22.480 --> 00:50:35.920
Um but some of these uh kind of more disjointed layer ones um have introduced uh messaging bridges with Ethereum and those might have different um trust models uh that they introduce.
00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:53.280
And so we we could tech, you know, we could support these disjointed layer ones, and uh they would basically be subject to whatever uh the trust model of the messaging bridge is, um, as well as you know, the the uh security of of that chain itself.
00:50:53.599 --> 00:50:58.960
Um so this is one option that we see, and uh that that option is really available in the near term.
00:50:59.119 --> 00:51:34.880
Um and then another option uh that that's available or or that we we um will likely head towards um in the future is you know, for chains that don't even have a messaging bridge with Ethereum um today, uh, we could actually create one and and you know uh possibly um you know create our own uh messaging bridge and and our own you know this would likely involve introducing a new validator set that that um approves these messages and and um that would you know kind of allow us to bridge to completely disjointed uh layer ones.
00:51:35.440 --> 00:51:36.400
Yeah, got it.
00:51:36.559 --> 00:51:45.679
Yeah, I just yeah, the the the bridges is is quite complex and so it's a very uh open open design space.
00:51:45.840 --> 00:51:52.079
And uh um we're it seems like we're uh using them more and more more now.
00:51:52.239 --> 00:51:54.559
Uh and it's it's gonna keep increasing.
00:51:54.639 --> 00:51:55.679
So yeah.
00:51:56.239 --> 00:52:11.519
So uh it's um so I I think this this was a great conversation, and uh we we've covered uh I think almost all important properties of protocol, and I'm super, super excited uh about Hop.
00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:17.039
Before we uh close out, uh I have to ask this question, and it'll be the short one.
00:52:17.280 --> 00:52:18.320
When token.
00:52:20.719 --> 00:52:32.159
Yeah, I I can't uh say much, but um you know we we would like to kind of further decentralize the protocol and and and so we are kind of exploring ways that that um we can do that.
00:52:32.719 --> 00:52:41.119
Okay, so the details around the token is is I assume are not um uh let's say publicly disclosed at this at this point.
00:52:41.440 --> 00:52:42.320
Is that correct?
00:52:42.639 --> 00:52:46.320
Yeah, we we we're still kind of uh figuring out which which direction we'll take.
00:52:46.480 --> 00:52:47.199
Um yeah.
00:52:47.599 --> 00:52:48.800
Got it, got it, got it.
00:52:48.960 --> 00:52:51.519
Okay, Chris, thank you very much for joining.
00:52:51.679 --> 00:52:53.119
It was it was a great pleasure.
00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:54.480
Thanks for having me on, Karen.
00:52:54.719 --> 00:52:57.440
It was a great conversation and yeah, I really appreciate it.
00:53:04.079 --> 00:53:08.000
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