Web3 Innovators - #70 - What's next for layer 2?

#70 - What's next for layer 2?

04/04/23 • 24 min

In the tenth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Elena Sinelnikova is the Co-Founder and Decentralization Coordinator at Metis. She is also CEO at Crypto Chicks.

Episode highlights:

How and why Elena founded Crypto Chicks
The diversity of people working within Web3
The advice that Elena would give to recruiters trying to encourage applicants from a more diverse background
How Metis was formed to create the infrastructure for a layer 2 solution
Other work that Metis is focusing on
The biggest challenges with layer 2 networks
Elena explains what ZK rollups and optimistic rollups are and the work Metis is doing to combat the challenges they face
Elena’s advice for anyone wanting to become involved in Web3
Where Elena believes Web3 technology will be in 10 years time

Key Takeaways:

When we opened Crypto Chicks back in 2016 at Conferences there were hardly any women, probably one or two women per thousand people. And now we see about half and half. So the picture changed dramatically. - Elena
We wanted to create layer two. And not only layer two, we also wanted to create a Web3 economy where people can go create a business, find a job, create a nonprofit organisation, create their own project, and fundraise. - Elena
Optimistic roll ups - and here is a little educational piece, is the transactions process in batches. So instead of adding transactions, one by one and saving them into layer one, layer two actually captures these transactions, bundles them up in one batch, and saves the whole batch into layer one. - Elena
All layer twos are innovating. We already have successes where layer twos are lowering the cost quite significantly and also speeding up transactions quite significantly. - Elena
So right now, for us, the most important part is we have this ability to build. We have the capability, we have great minds that are building and we know that we are bringing good to the world. - Elena
We need more people, like entrepreneurs who create those ideas, create those businesses, who go and try and build and make mistakes. And we see in the space right now there are a lot of projects, but we can always have more because each one brings a very unique value proposition. - Elena

Follow Elena on Twitter

Shout outs:

Natalia Ameline

Connect with Us
Join the Web3 Innovators community and engage with like-minded individuals passionate about the potential of blockchain technology.Contact Chainlens: Twitter | Discord | Telegram

Episode highlights:

How and why Elena founded Crypto Chicks
The diversity of people working within Web3
The advice that Elena would give to recruiters trying to encourage applicants from a more diverse background
How Metis was formed to create the infrastructure for a layer 2 solution
Other work that Metis is focusing on
The biggest challenges with layer 2 networks
Elena explains what ZK rollups and optimistic rollups are and the work Metis is doing to combat the challenges they face
Elena’s advice for anyone wanting to become involved in Web3
Where Elena believes Web3 technology will be in 10 years time

Key Takeaways:

When we opened Crypto Chicks back in 2016 at Conferences there were hardly any women, probably one or two women per thousand people. And now we see about half and half. So the picture changed dramatically. - Elena
We wanted to create layer two. And not only layer two, we also wanted to create a Web3 economy where people can go create a business, find a job, create a nonprofit organisation, create their own project, and fundraise. - Elena
Optimistic roll ups - and here is a little educational piece, is the transactions process in batches. So instead of adding transactions, one by one and saving them into layer one, layer two actually captures these transactions, bundles them up in one batch, and saves the whole batch into layer one. - Elena
All layer twos are innovating. We already have successes where layer twos are lowering the cost quite significantly and also speeding up transactions quite significantly. - Elena
So right now, for us, the most important part is we have this ability to build. We have the capability, we have great minds that are building and we know that we are bringing good to the world. - Elena
We need more people, like entrepreneurs who create those ideas, create those businesses, who go and try and build and make mistakes. And we see in the space right now there are a lot of projects, but we can always have more because each one brings a very unique value proposition. - Elena

Follow Elena on Twitter

Shout outs:

Natalia Ameline

Previous Episode

#69 - How can we secure DeFi?

In the ninth episode of our new season of Web3 Innovators, our host Conor Svensson is joined by Arthur Gervais, Associate Professor of Information Security at University College London

Episode highlights:

How doing his PhD on blockchain increased Arthur’s interest in the space
The growth of Bitcoin technology within the academic world
The research he and his PhD students are doing, looking at how challenges are evolving over time
The disconnect between the academic and the practitioner communities
The differences between the technology which may be valuable in practise and what academics are focusing on
Applying existing understandings and lessons learned from the regular Finance domain to their research
The lending and borrowing side of DeFi
The topics they are working on for their next paper
How we can mitigate the risk of security exploits
Where Arthur sees DeFi in 10 years

Key Takeaways:

In many cases we are more fascinated by interesting problems that bring new security properties about. And blockchains and particular proof of work, at that time was such a technology, right? It solved the double spending problem in a new way that we haven't thought about before. And this in itself was already groundbreaking. - Arthur
With DeFi and the advent of Ethereum and more aggressive smart contracts in general. We found this great new playground. Now we have an expressive language and we can play on that. - Arthur
I feel this is where, for me, most of the exciting opportunities lie on the research side, what is unsolved and how can we solve it? Arthur
The decision trade table they created is designed to help classify protocols into different models, it's a tool that brings a lot of power. It's an enabler for anyone to try out these protocols, and it's an enabler for attackers too. - Arthur
Security is all about having multiple walls and having multiple layers of protection, right? Your iPhone, for example, doesn't have only one feature to protect you from somebody hacking your phone, right? - Arthur

Resources:

Next Episode

#71 - How Did Polkadot Bring Governance On-Chain?

In the first episode of Season 7, host Conor Svensson interviews Bill Laboon, Head of Education and Grants at the Web3 Foundation.

Key Moments:

Bill's journey into the blockchain world, triggered by his fascination with hash functions.
His early interest in Bitcoin and Ethereum, leading to full-time involvement in the blockchain industry.
Polkadot's innovative approach as a foundation for other blockchains and its scalability-focused architecture.
The concept of parachains and how developers can build their blockchains using Substrate or the Polkadot SDK.
Polkadot's on-chain governance, where referenda are voted upon and enacted by the code itself.
Contrasting Polkadot's on-chain governance with Ethereum's more traditional approach.
The potential use cases of Polkadot beyond DeFi, including government regulatory agencies and real estate ledgers.
Polkadot's scalability which makes it suitable for various applications.

Standout Quote:
"Polkadot is really best described as a bet against blockchain maximalism. That it makes sense to have different blockchains that can do different things. However, all of these blockchains share the same security, right? So if you're part of the Polkadot network, your parachain is as secure as any other parachain."

Resources:

• Web3 Foundation: Nurturing and stewarding technologies and applications in the fields of decentralised web software protocols.
• Polkadot: Learn more about the Polkadot network and its innovative approach to blockchain interoperability and scalability.
• Substrate/Polkadot SDK: Explore the software development kit that allows you to create your own blockchains and parachains on the Polkadot network.
• Governance on Polkadot: Dive into the concept of on-chain governance and how it empowers participants to propose and implement changes to the Polkadot ecosystem. • Polkadot Wiki: A comprehensive resource to explore all aspects of Polkadot.

Contact Bill Laboon: Twitter | LinkedIn

Bill Laboon is the Head of Education and Grants at Web3 Foundation. Prior to the Web3 Foundation, he spent five years teaching Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Bill also has several years of experience in software engineering and management. He is the author of two books: A Friendly Introduction to Software Testing, an undergraduate textbo