Skate, a universal application layer, breaks the liquidity silos

We are excited to announce the launch of Skate, a universal application layer that allows DApps to run on thousands of chains with only a single state. By using Skate, users and developers only need to interact with one application to gain instant access to thousands of chains.

With the emergence of rollups scaling solutions and the rise of modularity, L1 and L2 have emerged in large numbers, improving throughput and reducing transaction costs. However, these advances have also brought with them a series of problems, including complex user experiences, redundant development efforts, liquidity fragmentation, and harmful liquidity.

The above problems are caused by application fragmentation. In todays multi-chain landscape, applications are faced with the urgent need to deploy, adjust and maintain on an increasing number of chains. Each deployment on each chain represents a fragmented application state.

Skate provides an easy way for new DApps to be deployed on any network and connect all existing liquidity through a central hub architecture. This relies on the user signing the intent and executing it in real-time using EigenLayer for fast determinism.

Why are we building Skate?

Application fragmentation is the root cause of many of Web3s current liquidity challenges and is the result of applications having different states. Status refers to the current state of the system at a specific point in time, such as how many projects/assets each user owns.

Take DeFi as an example: currently there are more than1200 a decentralized exchange,380 a loan agreement and220 Derivatives protocols, each DApp is deployed on up to 30 networks. This means that countless states must interact with each other, introducing huge complexity and inconsistencies. Other areas of Web3 face the same challenges, which are a major barrier to mass adoption in the industry.

The problem can be summarized as follows:

• High development costs: Deploying and maintaining separate application state on a new network requires significant development resources and liquidity to boot.

• Poor user experience: In today’s multi-chain environment, user friction is increasing. Users must bridge assets, learn about different applications within each chain’s ecosystem, and find the best interest rates. This is a major barrier to bringing new users on-chain.

• Liquidity Fragmentation: Fragmented liquidity on each application state leads to poor pricing and slippage for end users. This situation becomes more and more common as the number of chains increases, but not all chains can build deep liquidity pools.

• Harmful liquidity: The current landscape of application fragmentation leads to harmful liquidity flows like arbitrage and MEV. The only purpose of arbitrageurs and MEVs is to extract value from LP, not to add value to the chain.

Applications are inherently monolithic, causing them to have different states on each network they are deployed on. This means that supporting each new network is a major undertaking, and existing mobility and interoperability solutions that focus on solving this problem at the network level are insufficient. Applications have different states, which is the root cause of application fragmentation and cannot be solved with network-level solutions alone. True interoperability requires networks and applications to work closely together, and without addressing this issue, every area of ​​Web3 will struggle to scale.

Skate introduces the concept of universal application scope

Skate introduces the concept of universal application scope, that is, Skate maintains a global state and application logic that is accessible to all chains.

We made this possible by creating Skate based on the OP Stack and using a hub and spoke model to connect to other networks. Transactions are executed through user signed intent and rely on EigenLayer for fast, deterministic, real-time execution.

This means that Skate can monitor information such as pending orders, available liquidity, and the application’s internal mechanics (application logic) simultaneously, across all networks. The Skate network itself will only save the application logic, not any assets. This means that the state and application logic of applications leveraging Skate will reside on the Skate chain so that parties called executors can monitor signed intents and help execute them. This makes it easier to deploy any type of application on a new network.

We will also leverage external interoperability networks to connect different Layer 1 and Layer 2 ecosystems, such as Axelar, Wormhole, and LayerZero.

What does the launch of Skate mean?

This means that applications become multi-chain and can be easily deployed by developers without the need to initiate liquidity. There’s also no need to expose yourself to bridging risks or keep liquidity fragmented; instead, intents simply need to be signed and matched.

This has significant implications for nearly every crypto space, with use cases spanning all verticals including DeFi, NFTs, gaming, SocialFi, and more.

For example, a user may wish to purchase $1,000 worth of ETH on Polygon. They sign an intent, Skate broadcasts it to other networks (like Mantle or Arbitrum), and the buy order is matched with an order to sell $1,000 worth of ETH. Alternatively, in GameFi, users may wish to sell in-game NFTs on Arbitrum. They sign an intent, which is broadcast to the rest of the GameFi network and matched with a party looking to purchase the NFT. Anyone is eligible to monitor signed orders and then match them in real time.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, with Skate, many possibilities are revealed, with the emergence of innovative cross-application and cross-chain products.

Skate Overview

Our team consists of financial engineers and Web3 developers with extensive experience in digital asset trading. During the Range Protocol, we supported 10 blockchain networks, achieved over $30 million in TVL, and established partnerships with leading DeFi networks and applications. We previously completed a seed round led by Hashkey Capital and Nomad Capital.Spark Digital Capital, Mirana Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Asymm Ventures and Comma 3 Ventures participated.

Recently, Skate has received support from Web3 founders such as EigenLayer, Manta, Axelar, Biconomy, Pendle, A 41, Vertex, Navi, Obol, Galxe, etc.

In the short term, we will focus on integrating with head partners and applications. We will also share more specific architectural information at a technical level.

Skate will launch test network activities in the future. Everyone is welcome to interact. There may be airdrops in the future, so please pay attention to ourTwitter, and join our new Discord.