During the gold rush, the most profitable are often not the miners, but the upstream merchants selling various services.
The number of infrastructure projects has shown an exponential growth trend in recent years, and many upstream solutions have begun to emerge in the market.
From the very beginning of one-click chain creation to the one-click issuance of Pump fun, these actually belong to the upstream ecological niche.
This article reviews these tracks and related protocols that are upstream.
Let's summarize first:
1) One-click chain creation (L1)——Cosmos/Polkadot.
2) One-click chain creation/RaaS (L2)——Optimism.
3) Cross-chain bridge deployment——deBridge.
4) Deployment of wallet and chain abstraction solutions——Particle.
5) Modular deployment of dAPPs——ICE Open Network.
6) Quick deployment of tokens/Meme——Pump Fun.
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1. One-click chain creation solution (modular tools/RaaS (Rollup-as-a-Service)).
1.1 Upstream of Layer1—Cosmos/Polkadot.
The earliest to modularize the chain creation method should be the past cross-chain giants Cosmos and Polkadot, not OP Stack.
The framework provided by Cosmos feels a bit like 'pre-made dishes.' By providing pre-built modules, such as consensus mechanisms, token management, governance, etc., developers can directly use these modules without having to write code from scratch.
Polkadot, which launched concurrently with Cosmos, also adopts a similar method, providing a series of open-source frameworks to help developers with one-click issuance of chains.
What is the difference between the two? The difference lies in that if it is based on the Cosmos framework, the binding with Cosmos itself is not deep.
However, if it is based on the Polkadot framework, one can choose to bid for a parachain for deeper binding.
Looking back now, the price of Cosmos's coin $ATOM is not doing well, but the ecosystem has seen some outstanding projects born every year.
In contrast, Polkadot's coin price is poor, and its ecosystem is even worse. In the past two years, some Polkadot ecosystems that have garnered market attention have only revived through [leaving Polkadot], such as CESS and Manta.
Note: In terms of cross-chain interoperability, Cosmos has integrated an interoperability protocol (IBC), while Polkadot has entered the field through a relay chain to share security and message passing.
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1.2 The upstream of Layer2—Optimism | RaaS (Rollup-as-a-Service).
Optimism provides the OP Stack, a modular and open-source Layer2 framework that simplifies the construction of Layer2 and can be said to be the first framework in the market to define RaaS (Rollup-as-a-Service).
Based on the OP Stack's [Superchain] pattern, the most notable is Base. Moreover, as part of Superchain, Base will also contribute a portion of the fees earned through transactions to the Optimism Collective (primarily for funding purposes).
Currently, over 30 L2s have been incorporated into the SuperChain ecosystem.
Currently, there are also many entities in the market focusing on the RaaS track. Because I was optimistic about the RaaS paradigm in 2023, I have since paid attention to several others, such as AltLayer, Gelato, Eclipse, etc.
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1.3 Additionally, there are market solutions providing zk-RaaS, Move-RaaS, and even SVM-RaaS, but I won't list them all.
The launch of these solutions has actually decentralized the way applications are built onto the Rollup. If a team is building a universal chain based on the RaaS solution, that's just trickery.
With the emergence of these solutions, it actually helps more applications land, but the RaaS solutions have also led to the further dispersal of liquidity. Therefore, the various Stacks launched in the market will be accompanied by a native interoperability protocol.
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2. One-click deployment of cross-chain bridges——deBridge @deBridgeFinance.
deBridge defines an IaaS (Interoperability-as-a-Service) service that can deploy cross-chain interoperability services for any EVM or SVM ecosystem. Simply put, it builds bridges.
Last year, when I first wrote about deBridge, I mentioned that deBridge is not just about building bridges, but also about being the construction team for bridges.
By adopting a subscription model, a single chain can quickly achieve interoperability with other chains through a simple subscription process, without the need to build bridges on its own.
Clients are more focused on B-end services, which allows clients to actively acquire services. Although there are many cross-chain bridges in the market, most focus on asset transfer or message passing, while [deBridge IaaS] provides a more comprehensive solution covering the three pillars of interoperability: messaging, asset custody, and cross-chain assets.
Currently, about 20 chains are using the IaaS solution.
However, deBridge currently lacks C-end scenario applications. With such a high market share, there is not much community voice.
Additionally, I believe chain abstraction will actually have a certain impact on traditional cross-chain bridges. If interoperability protocols continue to focus on B-end business without reforming on the C-end, they are very likely to be eroded in market share.
After observing the deBridge team for so long, I believe they still have strong mobility. I think it is foreseeable that they will launch products targeting the C-end that align with their original technical characteristics in the short term.
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3. Wallet services/chain abstraction——Particle @ParticleNtwrk.
Recently, Particle completed its TGE, and the market's main understanding of it at this stage is still the UniversalX application, but it is itself an L1, serving as a foundational infrastructure for chain abstraction, providing not only related services but also abstract wallet services.
3.1 WaaS (Wallet-as-a-Service).
Particle Network provides a WaaS stack that simplifies the entry threshold for Web3 applications by offering social login and embedded wallets, enabling developers to implement account abstraction in their applications.
Around August 2023, I learned about Particle through Myshell, when Myshell had integrated this service.
At that time, my initial good impression of Myshell was brought about by the smooth login supported by Particle.
Moreover, WaaS provides a modular stack, allowing developers to choose different segmented solutions for the implementation of AA.
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3.2 Universal account (core of chain abstraction solution).
The concept of universal accounts can be regarded as the core of the Particle chain abstraction solution. The first use case of this solution, UniversalX, has received widespread praise.
I have introduced the core functions many times: universal Gas and universal liquidity, which simply means that by using Particle as an intermediary layer, it coordinates liquidity across chains, combined with a non-fixed Gas paradigm, to achieve smooth on-chain interactions on the C-end.
This solution can be integrated by other applications in the market at this stage, and by integrating it, developers can also build chain abstraction applications similar to UX @UseUniversalX.
Similarly, in these applications, users do not need to consider which chain their assets are on; they only need to consider the use of the assets.
In the future, the [universal account] solution will be usable without permission, but I expect that in the second phase, this solution will be prioritized by many mainstream applications in the market, especially in high-frequency interaction application scenarios (trading, gaming).
3.3 The market trend in the past few days $PARTI has been somewhat unsatisfactory, but currently, with a market value of over 50 million, there is a good cost-performance ratio. Particle itself is also a token representing a new technological paradigm in the market, and this technology has gained favor in the market.
A few days ago, the team also stated that it would pay attention to token trends and would not only talk about product stories. In the short term, especially next week, I think it is worth looking forward to what actions will be taken.
Current price: I think it is exceptionally cost-effective.
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4. Modular construction of dAPPs——ICE Open Network @ice_blockchain.
This is also a project I have been following for a long time. Its framework provides a modular dAPP building method that anyone can use to build and deploy dApps without any IT experience.
Moreover, this framework is not limited to any specific ecosystem; you can use it for Solana, BNB Chain, or any chain you want to build.
To validate the framework, the team also created an application Online+, which is a comprehensive application integrating posting, video, chatting, and wallet functionalities.
In fact, there have been some simple dAPP development tools provided by Layer1 in the past, but they were far from requiring no programming experience. It is unclear whether what ICE Open Network says is consistent with this, that one can build an on-chain application without any programming experience.
This framework is still in the internal testing phase and has been delayed for a while. We need to wait for the official release to unfold further details~
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5. One-click issuance of tokens/Meme——Pump fun @pumpdotfun.
As the 'torchbearer' of Solana Meme season, Pump provides an easy panel for Meme creation to issuance. Users only need to input the token name, code symbol, and image to easily create their own meme coin.
Based on this, Pump fun has also become the most profitable protocol for the entire year of 2024, holding the highest market share in the industry at that time.
(Someone in the market has estimated the revenue situation of Pump fun: on average, for each coin issued, the official income is $68.)
After Q3 of 2024, the market gradually began to see many launchpads with similar models, but the market response has been minimal.
After experiencing almost a whole year of on-chain Meme boom, Solana began to enter a period of weakened on-chain liquidity after Trump issued tokens this year.
The 'graduation rate' performance of Pump fun's token has also attracted considerable attention from the market, and this indicator is regarded as a major signal of fund activity on the Solana chain.
At the end of last year, there were rumors that Pump fun would issue tokens, but so far there has been no 'scheduled date.'
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6. The above are some protocols that I have sorted out, which are either upstream in the ecosystem or provide simplified building solutions.
Actually, there is a question about how to reasonably empower between the provided simplified solutions and tokens, which is very important.
If not bound, it will fall to become like $ATOM.
Being too deeply bound or 'exploited' makes it easy to become like $DOT.
