Introducing Archway: Empowering Developers in the Blockchain Ecosystem
In this article we will get an overview of how Archway Revolutionizes Blockchain Development for Developers?
Blockchain technology has revolutionized the way we think about decentralized systems and has given rise to a vibrant developer community. These visionary individuals have been instrumental in creating decentralized applications (dapps) that attract users and generate substantial network fees. However, despite their significant contributions, developers often do not receive a fair share of the value they help create. The Archway protocol aims to address this issue by building an equitable blockchain system that enables developers to capture the value they generate.
A thriving developer community is vital for the long-term success of any smart contract platform. These developers are the life force of a network, continuously building and enhancing dapps that drive user adoption and generate substantial daily network fees. The rapid rise in valuations of many blockchain networks can largely be attributed to the vibrancy of their developer communities.
Sadly, in the current landscape, the lion’s share of network-level value is accumulated by a small group of entrenched “whales” and well-connected industry insiders. The dapp developers who work tirelessly to build innovative products and foster communities often lack a significant stake in the Layer 1 protocols they contribute to, and therefore, they do not directly benefit from their creations’ success. As a result, these developers resort to alternative fundraising techniques and business models to sustain their projects.
Enter Archway, a Cosmos-native incentivized smart contract chain designed to reshape how value is created and distributed across blockchain ecosystems. Archway enables developers to deploy high-performance dapps that capture the value they create for the network. As developers build and launch impactful dapps, they receive a proportional share of network fees, inflation, and premiums. This shared revenue model provides dapps with recurring value generation and allows them to participate in the upside of the underlying protocol. It aligns the incentives of developers and their dapp communities with the overall ecosystem, fostering a truly developer-centric economy.
Archway’s technical design focuses on providing a seamless developer experience. It offers a full WebAssembly (Wasm) implementation for cross-language support, a Web3-compatible API, and native bridges that connect to other networks for cross-chain communication and asset transfers. Leveraging the power of Cosmos and the native integration of the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC), Archway enables the creation of cross-chain dapps that can scale. Developers can launch their contracts directly to an established Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, instantly connecting with users, assets, and communities from across the Cosmos ecosystem, without the need to spin up a new dedicated chain.
With Archway, dapps can earn both transaction fees and a percentage of inflation in proportion to their contributions to the network. This earning model resembles the incentives provided to validators operating nodes for a Proof-of-Stake chain. By allocating a portion of network-level fees and inflation to dapps, developers and their communities gain a true stake in the protocol. Additionally, dapps retain 100% of any premium they add to their smart contracts, further incentivizing their innovation and growth.
The Archway protocol also introduces a flexible token management and distribution system. When a contract is instantiated, the developer specifies an “owner” address where all tokens earned are automatically deposited. This target address can be controlled by the developer themselves, a multisig, or a separate custom contract. Ownership can be transferred to a new address as needed, requiring only the signature of the previous owner.
To ensure fairness and security, the Archway protocol splits the collected gas fees between dapp developers and validators. Fifty percent of the base gas spent is burned, while the remaining fifty percent is given to the contract creators as Gas Rebates. These parameters are configurable and subject to adjustment through network governance. From the dapp developer’s perspective, a contract receives a 50% rebate on all gas paid. This incentivizes developers to create efficient and optimized contracts, as they directly benefit from reducing gas costs.
From a protocol security perspective, Archway implements measures to prevent potential abuse. Gas fee rebates recoup only part of the fees paid (50%), making it unprofitable for an attacker to spam transactions on the network. The protocol also enforces a minimum consensus fee per transaction. Moreover, uploading new contracts requires higher gas fees than normal transactions to prevent the deployment of spam contracts. However, the gas fee for uploading contracts remains low enough to allow smaller projects to participate and contribute.
Gas fee rebates are automatically paid out by the network on a per-block basis, ensuring timely and transparent distribution of rewards to dapp developers. This allows developers and their communities to benefit from the value they create in real-time, fostering a sustainable and inclusive ecosystem.
Conclusion: the Archway protocol is poised to revolutionize the blockchain ecosystem by empowering developers and enabling them to capture the value they generate. By creating a developer-centric economy, Archway aligns incentives, rewards innovation, and fosters the growth of vibrant dapp communities. With its seamless developer experience, cross-chain capabilities, and fair revenue-sharing model, Archway sets a new standard for blockchain platforms, unlocking the full potential of developers in shaping the future of decentralized applications.
Here are a few references related to the concepts discussed in the article:
- Cosmos Network: Official website of Cosmos, a decentralized network of independent parallel blockchains, on which Archway is built. Website
- Archway Protocol: The official website of Archway, providing information about the protocol, its features, and its goals. Website
- Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC): Information about the IBC protocol, which enables secure communication and transfers between different blockchains within the Cosmos ecosystem. Website
- Proof-of-Stake (PoS): An overview of the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism used by Archway and its implications for validators and dapp developers. Article
- WebAssembly (Wasm): An introduction to WebAssembly, a binary instruction format that allows for efficient execution of code in multiple programming languages and is supported by Archway. Website