In the course of the Polkadot Decoded 2022 convention in New York, Derek Yoo, CEO of Moonbeam, launched linked contracts to the world. He mentioned how builders can obtain interoperability on the platform. Then, he offered a glance forward at what Moonbeam has in retailer in its pipeline.
Earlier than we delve into the speech, allow us to recap about Moonbeam.
What’s Moonbeam?
Moonbeam is a great contracts platform with interoperability in thoughts. Constructed on Polkadot’s relay chain, Moonbeam can be the primary Parachain. It goals to onboard Ethereum’s Solidity builders to their blockchain.
However, how do they plan to do that?
Firstly, Moonbeam is appropriate with the usual instruments utilized by Solidity builders, akin to Metamask and Remix. With this, builders can construct new tasks simply on Moonbeam. They’ll additionally transfer their Solidity-based tasks over with out a lot effort. Moonbeam is EVM appropriate.
Secondly, the preliminary design of Moonbeam focuses on interoperability. With that, builders constructing tasks interoperate with different Polkadot Parachains. There are plans to bridge to Layer 1 chains outdoors of Polkadot! In different phrases, Moonbeam empowers builders to achieve a bigger variety of networks. And that’s with out builders deploying on separate chains. That is potential with “linked contracts”, which we are going to focus on within the subsequent part.
For an in-depth look into Moonbeam and its token ($GLMR), you may check with our earlier analysis.
Related Contracts
In easy phrases, linked contracts are distinctive cross-chain sensible contracts. It is a key characteristic of Moonbeam’s ecosystem. Throughout his presentation, Derek defined how his challenge helps linked contracts with 3 options:
- They’ll entry a number of chains by means of cross-chain messaging (XCM).
- They’re constructed and deployed inside an excellent developer-friendly atmosphere.
- They’ve superior Substrate performance. This enables scaling of Parachains by means of Parathreads.
But, what downside do linked contracts hope to unravel?
Issues – Centralized and Multi-Occasion Deployment

Supply: https://moonbeam.community/
Right now, we reside in a multi-chain world. Regardless of that, Derek says builders have bother reaching a big consumer base. It is because mentioned customers reside inside many sensible contract platforms. To beat this, that they had to make use of 1 of two options:
- Centralized deployment – Builders first deploy on the principle blockchain, earlier than utilizing bridges to achieve out. This isn’t favorable for the consumer expertise. Moreover, bridges pose a safety threat as they’re a simple goal for hackers.
- Multi-instance deployment – Builders deploy on a number of blockchains progressively. The draw back is that dApps on every chain don’t interoperate. Additionally, they might have completely different options. That is additionally not good for the consumer expertise.
Options and Use Instances for Related Contracts
In view of those issues, linked contracts are a novel answer. With XCM, linked contracts might be deployed throughout chains in a single go. Derek supplies some examples beneath of present tasks constructed on Moonbeam:
- Lido Finance – Lido is a liquid staking protocol constructed on Moonbeam. It permits for $DOT staking and in return, customers will get $stDOT. To perform this, linked contracts had been deployed on Moonbeam. When customers stake their $DOT on Moonbeam, these contracts work together within the backend with Polkadot’s most important relay chain. This completes the staking operation with out customers interacting with the relay chain. Word: To stake your $DOT on Lido, take a look at our information right here.
- Prime Protocol – Prime is a lending protocol. It makes use of linked contracts for cross-chain lending. For example, a consumer can collateralize their belongings on Ethereum to borrow on Avalanche. That is enabled by XCM because the Avalanche handle acknowledges the collateral on Ethereum.
Initiatives within the Pipeline
Derek additionally offered info on upcoming tasks constructing on Moonbeam, and the way they’re leveraging linked contracts:
- Osmosis – Related contracts are in improvement to realize 1-click $DOT deposits. With the assistance of Axelar community, customers solely have to click on as soon as on Osmosis to deposit $DOT. On the back-end, a myriad of transactions will happen throughout Osmosis, Axelar, Polkadot and Moonbeam. Normally, this requires customers to execute 7 to 9 transactions. With XCM and linked contracts, the consumer solely executes 1 transaction.
- Uniswap DAO – XCM will allow governance motion outdoors of Ethereum. Merely put, governance proposals from $UNI voters are first outlined on Ethereum. Thereafter, ensuing governance motion will use XCM for implementation throughout a number of chains.
Conclusion
Transferring on, Derek re-states the important thing advantages of linked contracts. These are:
- Bettering deployments to achieve a bigger consumer base.
- Decreasing inefficiencies for cross-chain transactions.
- Bettering consumer expertise.
He believes that the above would enable Moonbeam to achieve consumer adoption.
He then concludes his speech by sharing his long-term imaginative and prescient:
“To create a decentralized Amazon Net Providers (AWS), powered by many blockchains.”
Certainly, Moonbeam has been making the correct strides within the interoperability area. We’re excited to see what this challenge has in retailer sooner or later. Who is aware of, Derek would possibly simply obtain his imaginative and prescient.