Metis is building a Rollup platform that offers the optimal combination of security, scalability, and performance. Doing so requires constant analysis, frequent decision making, and occasional tradeoffs. So today we’re excited to share with our community the current progress, breakthroughs, and short-term milestones of our expansion.
Our aim is to launch with the most advanced, complete, and comprehensive product that users will be comfortable with, enabling a deployment experience that’s as simple as possible. As a result, we’re taking no shortcuts. Our timeline reflects our team’s commitment to ensuring that the Rollup platform we release is the best in its class.
The Metis Development Team is constantly innovating. One of the biggest recent improvements to our original design is building and adding a Peer Node system to our Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup platform.
Peer Nodes play an essential role in the delicate balancing act of scalability and performance combined with security and stability. They do so by enabling the workload that’s funnelled through a chain’s Main Node to be rerouted to the Peer Node, relieving excess pressure and enabling scaling while mitigating the risk of a crash. This will allow us to address and prevent the kind of overflows which caused recent outages experienced by multiple major chains. Including the Peer Nodes into our design aims to prevent that type of crash.
As for what lies ahead, the next step is the release of our Public Testnet within the next few weeks, with the goal of measuring how well our network can handle large amounts of transactions and heavy loads. (The $1 million Metis Hackathon will start as planned on October 2, and we will have a dedicated Testnet unrelated to the Public Testnet ready for the express purpose of running during the Hackathon.)
Once we’re satisfied that we’ve properly and thoroughly stress-tested our Public Testnet, we’ll launch the first version of our Mainnet. Placing that level of care and attention to detail into our deployment builds trust for the partner projects that will rely on Metis to handle the scalability, speed, and cost efficiency of transactions performed on their DApps.
In between Metis’ Public Testnet and the initial Mainnet launch, we’ll offer users the ability to form Decentralized Autonomous Companies (DACs) and stake and mine real $METIS tokens. We recently hosted a livestream walking people through how this staking and mining program will work. We will soon release more precise rules and steps, outlining what lies ahead for users who choose to form DACs and take part in that staking and mining process. The heavy activity that will result from widespread DAC formation and active staking and mining will serve as another valuable stress test to ensure that Metis is as functional, scalable, and secure as possible before we move onto the next phase.
That forthcoming phase will be the Pioneer version of the Metis Mainnet, Version 0.1. When Metis Mainnet v0.1 goes live, you can expect the following features:
- Base technology stemming from the Optimistic Rollup architecture
- Peer Nodes to take pressure off our Main Node and ensure fast, robust, secure, and uninterrupted performance
- Multi-Virtual Machine architecture, which consists of multiple engines supporting various businesses running at the same time, with the ultimate benefit of infinite scalability
After the launch of our Public Testnet and Metis Mainnet Version 0.1, numerous additional iterations of our Mainnet will follow, as we continue to build out Metis’ infrastructure, middleware, and DAC framework. At the same time, we will introduce new and exciting products and features. Those will include:
- Our Polis middleware, which will enable no-code integration onto Metis’ Layer 2 platform via smart contract templates
- Our IPFS-based data storage, which will enable inexpensive, on-chain storage of NFTs and all kinds of other data
- A third-party decentralized exchange on which you’ll be able to trade and stake a wide variety of both Layer 1 and Layer 2 tokens.
…and much more.
As we’ve previously noted, we’ll also accelerate the growth of the Metis ecosystem. Our growing list of partners will include DeFi protocols, NFT, DAO, Gaming, Infrastructure, Wallet, Community, Social, and Launchpad projects, and Web2 companies that will be able to migrate onto the Metis platform thanks to Polis. We’ve got loads more exciting partnership announcements coming up, so stay tuned.
The projects that integrate onto Metis will be able to manage their wallets and smart contracts and launch DApps, all with just a few clicks. They’ll also leverage the DAC framework and tools to manage their communities and businesses, while benefiting from our ongoing staking and mining program.
Come be part of this evolution with Metis. We are so excited for all that lies ahead.
