Metis is an optimistic general purpose rollup protocol built on top of Ethereum. The protocol is designed to solve the scalability trilemma, providing security, scalability and decentralization, and creating an accessible environment for applications, businesses and the development of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
Optimistic Rollup is a second-tier solution that executes transactions outside the core network. Instead of validating each transaction, the core network simply broadcasts them and assumes by default that they are legitimate unless challenged by validators.
Nearly 14,000 unique wallet addresses currently own the protocol token. There have been approximately 50,000 transactions since its inception.
How it works
An optimistic rollup requires multiple participants. In the Metis protocol, these are
- User
- Block producer
- Sequencer
- Verifier
Users submit transactions to block producers. Sequencers take requests for user transactions, sequence them, and then send them to a specific blockchain layer. To achieve transaction consensus and improve speed, only one sequencer is active at a time.
Verifiers read and process transactions, verify correct state roots, and initiate and perform fraud protection tasks. Finally, block producers are responsible for updating the network by distributing blocks through the peer-to-peer network.
The lifecycle of a cryptocurrency transaction in Metis is like this:
- Producer receives transaction from user and creates blocks for L2
- Producer distributes blocks through the peer-to-peer network
- Peer-to-peer network sends complete transaction data to the sequencer
- Sequencer computes the data packet and sends it to the main network
What are the advantages of Metis?
The main benefit of the Metis protocol is its Ethereum-compatible virtual machine – MVM. It looks, feels and works like Ethereum, but offers lower fees and faster transactions. The protocol supports Solidity smart contracts as well as Ethereum’s first-level blockchain.
In addition, off-chain applications can interact with Metis by updating the RPC endpoint and doing a little customization. This makes it easy to implement Ethereum-based DApps in MVMs.
What is MetisDAO (METIS)?
MetisDAO (METIS) is the native ecosystem token. It has three main functions:
- Serves as collateral to activate the Metis Virtual Machine (MVM)
- Contributes to staking when users want to collaborate with each other
- Used to pay for gas
The total amount offered by METIS is 10,000,000. Of these, 49.3% will be distributed to the team and early investors, 35.84% will be used to develop Discovery Age, 10% will be used for network validators, and the rest will be distributed to members of the project community.
Some centralized exchanges – such as Gemini and Kucoin – currently support METIS. The token can also be stored in the non-custodial Coinbase Wallet, Math Wallet and MetaMask.
What the future holds for the protocol?
Metis has attracted investment from a number of venture capital organizations. These include gate.io labs, AU21 Capital, Master Ventures and others. From November 20, 2021 to March 22, 2022, the total value of assets locked into the protocol jumped from $800,000 to $750 million ATH, with native tokens accounting for over 50% of the TVL rollup.
But there are issues with the protocol. The main one is that the fraud validation feature is not fully implemented in Metis. This poses a serious security risk because user funds can be stolen if an invalid state root is submitted.
Also, Metis uses a centralized sequencer. This means that operators can take advantage of their position and perform user transactions. The benefits of the protocol will eventually outweigh the drawbacks if the Metis developers fix these problems.
WARNING!
The contents of this article are not to be construed as legal, business, investment, or tax advice.
This article is intended for use and should be used for informational purposes only.
