An article to understand the technical advantages and ecological layout of moonbeam

Recently, there has been a lot of exciting news from the Polkadot ecosystem, especially the news about the opening of the Kusama testnet parachain slot auction has attracted the attention of many people in the industry, and many projects are also gearing up for this auction , to prepare for future access to parachains.

The following is a recap of the content of this AMA:

The following is a recap of the content of this AMA:

Mr. Block (host):Recently, the Polkadot ecosystem has frequently announced exciting technological progress, among which we are most looking forward to the parachain slot auction. According to the plan of Parity, the Polkadot technology development team, the Kusama network will be launched first, which is the well-known experimental network, and a parachain slot auction will be held on this network. Projects that successfully bid for slots will be able to become Kusama’s parachains and gain the benefits of its relay chain’s shared security, cross-chain interoperability, and on-chain governance. Today we invited Moonbeam founder and CEO Derek to further introduce Moonbeam.

Derek Yoo：Hello host, everyone, thank you very much for being able to share my thoughts with you here.

Mr. Block (host):Could you please give a short self-introduction first?

Derek：certainly! I once started a software company and ran it for about 25 years. Since 2019, I have started to start a business in the blockchain, and have studied the Polkadot ecology in depth. I am currently the CEO of PureStake. PureStake is the operating company behind Moonbeam. We are also running Moonriver, which is the deployment of Moonbeam on the Kusama network. I believe we will also talk about this topic in today's talk.

Mr. Block (host):Could you please briefly introduce the Moonbeam network? What problem is Moonbeam trying to solve?

Derek Yoo：Moonbeam is a Polkadot-based smart contract blockchain dedicated to providing development tools and networks familiar to Ethereum developers for compatible functionality. Moonbeam is a developer-friendly blockchain that is fully EVM compliant, Web3 API compliant, and a bridge that connects Moonbeam to the existing Ethereum network. Developers can easily deploy existing Solidity smart contracts and DApp front-ends to Moonbeam with only minor modifications based on their own development results.

At the same time, we regard ourselves as a high-level development platform that can provide powerful functions in the Polkadot ecosystem compared to Substrate. And provide developers with a preferred entry point for easily deploying and developing projects to Polkadot.

Mr. Block (host):It seems that many developers can regard Moonbeam as a "second home" compatible with EVM.

Derek Yoo: Yes, our primary goal is to provide maximum Ethereum compatibility, so developers can use their familiar tools to develop on Moonbeam, and easily migrate their existing code to our ecosystem, and No changes are required. We think compatibility is very important because it can save a lot of cost and uncertainty, and improve adaptability.

Mr. Block (host):Then we would like to know, what blockchain technology did you use in the Moonbeam project? Why did you choose these technologies and frameworks? And what advantages does Substrate have?

Derek Yoo：We chose Substrate because it offers the most flexibility and customizability for building your own blockchain. The vision of our project requires its own blockchain, and Substrate is currently the best framework for building a professional blockchain. And we chose Polkadot because of its developer ecosystem and because of its built-in cross-chain integration capabilities. We believe this native cross-chain functionality is a key and unique feature and will drive new types of multi-chain applications to become parachains when Polkadot is released.

Mr. Block (host):On the Moonbeam official website, there is a button "Connect Metamask". Does this mean that we can now transfer Token to Moonbeam? Can you explain in detail?

Derek Yoo：Moonbeam is fully compatible with Ethereum, including the underlying accounts and keys used. Intuitively, existing Ethereum DApps can be directly deployed to Moonbeam without any changes.

Users of these DApps will use MetaMask just like on Ethereum. You can use Metamask on our Moonbase Alpha testnet now, but our Moonriver network on Kusama will launch soon, after which you will be able to use Metamask on Moonriver and Moonbeam.

Full support for Metamask is critical to us as it is the most widely installed wallet and the top choice for all of our DeFi partners.

Mr. Block (host):What's the difference between Moonbeam and Moonriver?

Derek Yoo：Moonriver is a parachain deployed on Kusama, while Moonbeam is a parachain deployed on Polkadot. We followed in the footsteps of Parity by sending code and updates on Kusama before sending them to Polkadot.

Having a real economy is key, and we want to have a better and more secure platform by having both Moonriver and Moonbeam environments. But we also plan to take different directions for the two networks. Moonriver's Token distribution is different from Moonbeam in that Moonriver has no venture capital or founding team participation. We see Moonriver as a great way to increase community interaction and help the network grow into a community-driven one. We hope to have more experimental use cases deployed to Moonriver before deploying to Moonbeam to see what happens.

Mr. Block (host):Moonriver is like a "fair launch", how does the community participate? Is crowd lending open to everyone?

Derek Yoo: Yes, the crowdlending that the Moonbeam Foundation is running is a way for users and our community to get involved with Moonriver. Moonriver Crowd Loan is about to open, and there are two ways to participate, through the Foundation Crowd Loan DApp, or through an exchange that supports Crowd Loan.

Mr. Block (host):How to setup nodes on Moonbase Alpha? Are there any relevant tutorials that can be referred to? What are the functions of a node?

click on this linkclick on this linkCheck out the tutorial.

Mr. Block (host):Can you tell us about the Moonbeam ecosystem? Which first-level projects have been confirmed to be built on Moonbeam?

Derek Yoo：At present, we already have many ecological partners, especially in the DeFi field. Major partners include SushiSwap, CREAM, Linear, Convergence, Frax, etc.

What really excites me is the entire DeFi ecosystem formed on Moonbeam, our collaborative projects filling all the key DeFi functions such as centralized exchanges (DEX), lending, stablecoins, synthetics, etc. In the near future, there will be a complete DeFi ecosystem on Moonbeam, similar to the Binance Smart Ecosystem (BSC).

Mr. Block (host):It's a pretty big ecosystem, and it's great to see these projects join Moonbeam.

Mr. Block (host):How do project parties and DApp creators apply to join Moonbeam?

Derek Yoo：We are always looking forward to communicating with DApp creators and project founders. Please feel free to contact Yuki, our China Marketing Manager or contact us through the official website. We are very happy to communicate with you and find a suitable way of cooperation to support the development of their DApp/project. We have a trusted team of development engineers who provide great support for Moonbeam development and deployment.

Mr. Block (host):As a community developer, I've seen many good projects led by community members. The next thing I want to ask is, what is a parachain? Do Moonbeam and Moonriver have any plans when the parachain auction approaches? When is the expected launch time of the Moonbeam mainnet?

Derek Yoo：Parachains are member blockchains of the Polkadot and Kusama networks. As a parachain, it will be able to share the security of the main relay chain and be able to use Polkadot's native cross-chain integration capabilities. Due to the upcoming launch of Moonriver, the entire team is now focusing on Moonriver. Because it means a lot to us because it's our first network to go live and carry value. We expect the Kusama parachain to start soon, and the Moonbeam Foundation will open crowdlending to enable users to support Moonriver to win one of the slots to become a parachain.

Mr. Block (host):The last question, how can we participate in Moonriver crowdfunding? Where is the detailed information?

Derek Yoo：Regarding Moonriver crowdfunding, you can visit the following Moonbeam Foundation website to participate:

https://moonbeam.foundation/

At the same time, you can also participate in the event through exchanges that support Moonrvier crowdfunding. Details will be announced in the near future.

Mr. Block (host):Today's AMA event will end here, and I am very grateful to Derek Yoo for participating. In the future, we will hold more AMAs and keep in close communication with the community! Next up is our community Q&A session, where questioners will have a chance to win prizes sponsored by Moonbeam and Mr. Block!

Community question one:Have Moonbeam's official partners also expressed interest in deploying to Moonriver?

Derek Yoo：Most of the partners listed on the Moonbeam.network website do plan to deploy to both Moonbeam and Moonriver. There are only a few exceptions, and those few projects are only planning to deploy to Moonbeam. Also, I know at least 1 partner that only plans to deploy to Moonriver because of its Kusama-based strategy. Deploying on Moonbeam or Moonriver is basically the same, with a few exceptions that only occur on one or the other.

Community question two:Given that Ethereum has so many sidechain and Layer 2 deployment options, why did the protocol choose Moonbeam for deployment?

Derek Yoo：I agree that there are many projects in the market that focus on EVM compatibility. Moonbeam's advantage comes from being part of the Polkadot network. This means that we can access Polkadot-based users, as well as Polkadot-based assets (such as DOT), and deploy these advantages to our partners, allowing them to access these users and assets.

But in the long run, the native cross-chain interoperability achieved by Polkadot will become the most powerful technical differentiation advantage. First, we will do asset integration, but we will continue to add cross-chain integration with other ecosystems, such as adding precompilation on Moonbeam, allowing developers to access other dedicated parachain functions on Polkadot. This is unique and we believe will enable many new types of cross-chain applications.

Community question three:Moonbeam and Clover have similarities, so what advantage does Moonbeam have?

Derek Yoo：One strength I would like to highlight is that we worked closely with Parity to create the EVM compatibility features in Substrate (the frontend, so to speak, with them). Other projects like Clover are also incorporating these efforts into their chains.

We all know that since the code is open source, anyone can use it and get results. However, we feel we have a unique advantage because we are its developers (initiators) and the ones driving the EVM compatibility features forward.

Also, I would like to emphasize that we are taking a full Ethereum compatibility approach, which includes changing the underlying accounts and keys on the parachain to be similar to Ethereum.

As far as I know, no other Polkadot parachain team is doing the same thing as us. This means we can provide better compatibility than other parachains.