Introduction
Fastex Chain is a public, permissionless, open-source, layer 1 blockchain solution. Fastex Chain is a fork of Ethereum 2.0 with a novelty consensus - Proof of Stake and Activity (PoSA). In PoSA, the activity parameter represents the gas usage of a Validator-deployed smart contract. Each time gas is being spent by the said smart contract, activity is accumulated for the given validator account. The activity is taken into account whenever considering the chance to become a block proposer in the next epoch. The larger the activity of the given smart contract, and correspondingly the validator node, the greater the chance to be elected as a block proposer and earn network rewards. More information is available in the official documentation here.
In other words, if somebody has an active smart contract - NFT collection, ERC20 token, DEX, Bridge, etc. - and they set up a validator node, they will become eligible for a second revenue stream, which is directly influenced by the usability and quality of the said smart contract. To put things into perspective, a simulation we’ve run has shown that if Ethereum utilized activity as PoSA proposes, some of the most active smart contracts like Uniswap would earn an estimated 1500 ETH per month from block proposals and validation rewards.
Key Ideas
PoSA introduces several key ideas to the web3 space:
Validators are no longer simply stakers that, in the vast majority of cases and the grand scheme of things, do not care about the contingency of the network they stake on, as long as it makes them a steady income. With the introduction of activity, Validators become more invested in the platform they stake on, since it becomes a part of their business and/or revenue stream.
PoSA proposes a much fairer way of distributing network rewards, rather than allowing stakers with a large bag to capitalize on block rewards. With PoSA, the network prioritizes rewarding validators who bring value to users and advocate the development of web3.
Potential to create competitive advantage - The business models of several web3 applications have the potential to drastically reduce the network fees for their users for the sake of gaining an edge over the competition, up to zeroing out those fees entirely. For example, let’s consider a decentralized feed provider oracle. The common business model for similar apps is to charge an X% for the service provided. With PoSA, the deployer of the Oracle smart contract will be eligible to earn more network rewards proportional to the gas usage of their Oracle. The deployer can then choose to “refund” some amount of the accumulated network fees back to its users, let’s say in some consistent time interval (weekly, monthly, etc.), essentially making a discount for the users.
The PoSA consensus has been developed by the Fastex ecosystem, which incorporates a number of products including the Fastex centralized crypto exchange, ftNFT marketplace with both digital and two physical shops in Dubai, Fastex Pay payments ecosystem, FastexVerse B2B metaverse solution, and other brands.
Motivation
Being one of the first Bridges to integrate with Fastex Chain and deploy the smart contracts for numerous popular assets including USDT, USDC, wBTC, and wETH, Synapse will have the opportunity to accumulate a large amount of activity whenever these smart contracts get called by users and other dApps like decentralized exchanges. At the same time, Synapse will gain exposure to a large user base that comes in from various partner businesses of Fastex - most notably through SoftConstruct brands. SoftConstruct is a leading IT solutions provider with over 700 partners, 1 million active users, and 50 million user reach within its network. SoftConstruct is currently home to over 20 brands in the fields of gaming, finances/traditional finances, AR and VR, website building, e-commerce, agriculture, etc. SoftConstruct is a long-term partner of Fastex on multiple fronts including business, development, and marketing. At the time of writing, over 300,000 users and 200 partners have already migrated/started to utilize FTN in their daily operations in the fields of gaming and settling business arrangements via FTN instead of fiat.
Synapse will connect different chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, and more within the multi-chain EVM ecosystem with Fastex Chain, enabling users to transfer assets between these chains. This will help Fastex Chain grow by attracting more users and assets while allowing Synapse to expand its reach to new users. As transaction volumes increase, this will positively impact activity accumulation, bringing more network rewards to Synapse.
