BuilderTalk #7: Boba Network - Elevation of Multichain Layer 2

Boba Network is a layer 2 scaling solution on Ethereum that reduces fees, improves transactions, and expands smart contract throughput.

This is an Optimistic Rollup built on a combination of Optimism's open source code and the development and research efforts of the Enya and Boba team on features such as swap-based trading, cryptocurrency withdrawal in Short lead times, and cross-chain asset transport.

Schlaufman is an experienced startup leader. He is known for helping dozens of brands and companies develop quality products and services and attract a large customer base. Before joining Boba Network, Schlaufman served as Head of Development at Uber.

In particular, he started to love crypto after joining Valor Inc. Schlaufman shared that he took up the position of Vice President of Marketing and Communications at this crypto trading service provider. Under his tenure, Valor expanded rapidly and won the 2022 Financial News (FN) Startup of the Year award.

In early March 2023, Curtis Schlaufman began to be appointed as Global Marketing Manager at Boba Network and developed this layer 2 projects.

When it comes to "build" or "builder," Schlaufman thinks of sticking to boundaries. Not only looking for new territories, but Boba Network representatives also say that developers should start before anyone builds and perfects anything. It's like finding new frontiers in the crypto space.

“Blockchain is like a new frontier. So we're all here to explore and establish new things in this industry even though it's not quite settled yet," Schlaufman said in the builder talk.

Blockchain Scaling Challenge

Schlaufman thinks scalability is one of blockchain's biggest problems, and so is the Boba Network. Network scaling solutions can promote faster transaction speeds at a lower cost.

In addition, he also emphasized that Boba's development team saw the potential of combining Web3. Schlaufman thinks that if the project only focuses on scaling, the project can only get to a certain extent where problems are still possible for the blockchain. Combining Web3 will help developers unlock the network's potential in the near future and quickly achieve their goals.

He asserted that the scalability of smart contracts on Boba helps Ethereum developers build dapps using algorithms, without having to spend a lot of money. In addition, Boba allows developers to feed executed code into algorithms on web-extensive infrastructure such as AWS Lambda.

Multichain development journey

Boba Network's Marketing Director said that the project team soon recognized the need to expand the blockchain network and believed in it. More and more layer 1 and layer 2 projects are born and bring many new things to the entire crypto ecosystem.

It is also a challenge for developers to build applications or dapps that serve the needs of end users. Schlaufman said it is important to pioneer this field and develop a multi-chain platform. That's what Boba Network did, starting with Ethereum and then to BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Fantom.

In addition, the representative of Boba said that the project currently has no plans to expand or add any new blockchain to the multi-chain solution because this process takes a long time and consumes resources. Schlaufman asserts that Boba Network has made a difference for Optimistic Roll-Ups and met the needs of users on different blockchains.

All blockchains face the problem of scalability and require a particular layer 2 solutions. Like BNB Chain or Ethereum, for example, activity on these blockchains is increasing.

Currently, Boba Network is the only layer 2 platform that works on BNB Chain and has started to profit from a large number of transactions in the past few months.

Difference between Boba Network and other Layer 2

Boba Network is looking for the future of Layer 2. As mentioned, there are too many optimistic rollups deployed. All of rollups and L2s are on Ethereum. And Boba is not. Boba Network is the only multichain Layer 2 scaling solution. Developers need to choose which chain to build on. Boba's team gives them a choice, not locking them in a specific environment. 

"We make Layer 2 general for competitions. If you do not have competition, you don't have innovation."

Curtis thinks that people need to think about a multichain approach. Not only because giving users a choice to build or play but because it will push the boundaries and the industry forward from a competitive perspective. It helps improve user experience and encourage mass adoption. 

Development of Boba Network

Boba Network on BNB Chain has seen tremendous growth. In Feb, they had 500,000 transactions on BNB Chain. And then in March, they had 2 million. And then, in April, thay had 3.8 million transactions. So they have 50,000 active wallets on BNB Chain. 

BNB Chain has huge opportunities in terms of features and is cheaper in fees. Right now, BNB Chain is the winning horse. One of the Dapps performing well is Rovi Network. Users can play games, chatting, paying bills on it. They have web3 infrastructure with web2 experience. People don't realize they are using blockchain with Rovi Network. They are utilizing a traditional super app that you use on mobile phones.

Compared to 2020-2021, the transaction volume is down; activities are down on most chains. But Boba Network is still growing in the past few months. 

Q&A Section 

This is a difficult time for crypto. Every team tries to deliver their product to the market. You guys have many difficulties at this time. Can you share about it? 

Most activities in most of the blockchains are blown away. 90% of the transaction is down. I joined Boba Network in December 2022. So I'm new, only working with the company for six months. Part of keeping me here is building for the future, for the next bull run. Because I genuinely believe in advanced technology, I are not just here for speculation. We are improving Boba Network in general and providing a better user experience. 

How is the bridge from Layer 1 to Layer two on Boba Network?

Our bridge is being improved upon. We are redesigning our gateway, our bridge. The moment we just updated it a couple of weeks ago, after a few months of working on upgrade và development. You can bridge from each L1 to each L2, and we are focused on improving the experience when launching a new bridge within the next 4 to 6 weeks. The new bridge will be faster in the transaction and cheaper fee. 

What is your community like around the Boba network? How can I get into it? How to build a relationship with the developer?

Our community, just like others, is on Telegram and Discord. In addition, you can join Telegram Channel; it is very active. Our community Lead, Yan, is always available to answer any questions you may have. She even chitchats if you like. 

And we also have Discord, which has games and contests for community members to engage. And with our developer, Boba Network is not more extensive as Arbitrum or Optimism. We are very involved with our developers and help them if they are building on our ecosystem. 

How does Boba Network secure transactions?

With any Layer 1, you will get advanced security like Ethereum, BNB Chain, or Avalanche. If you send those transactions up to Layer 2 to be batched, they are also saddled on Layer 1. So we utilized the security on the Layer 1 blockchain like BNB Chain or Avalanche.

Can you tell me more about the BOBA token in your system? How can you attract value to BOBA holders?

The role of BOBA tokens in our ecosystem is governance and paying fees. For example, if you are in Boba on Ethereum, you can pay for transactions by BOBA. 

We build better experience on our ecosystem, growing to a fully decentralized Boba Network. Boba plays a vital role in the decentralized Boba entity. 

What are some futures used for the Boba network?

We are working on that. Right now, web3 is very shield in its bubble—infrastructure built for specific Dapp. But we have not seen that killer app encourage someone from web2 to notice. So we have yet to see mass adoption.

On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, Rovi Network provides users with a traditional web2 mobile app with web3 infrastructure. So a super app enables people to pay for the utility. So I think in the short term, we will see Dapp use case like that while there is the reward system. 

Is there any leak about the Boba network for us to double down on Boba Network? 

Sure, account aalphabstractions are coming very soon on Boba Network. Some features allow fees to be paid by alternative tokens and transaction fees to be sponsored by someone else. The most exciting thing is that it enables a gasless experience for the user. If you play a web3 game, you don't have to do the on-chain transaction; have fun. 

An additional security measure also allows the co-sending transaction and enables social login and spending limit. I am excited about how developers utilize account abstraction because I see a vast improvement in user experience on Boba Network.