<\/p>\n
While crypto enthusiasts are busily debating which blockchain architecture is better, the average end user of future decentralized applications probably won\u2019t care what\u2019s operating under the hood \u2014 nor should they, says Drift Labs co-founder Cindy Leow.<\/p>\n
Arguments over whether monolithic, modular or appchain architectures are the best blockchain scaling strategies will fade into obscurity if Leow has her way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the Lightspeed podcast (Spotify<\/a>\/Apple<\/a>), Leow explains to Blockworks that Drift Labs\u2019 goal with the company\u2019s perpetual swaps protocol is to \u201cattract an audience that doesn\u2019t need to know about whatever underlying blockchain it\u2019s on.\u201d<\/p>\n The Drift protocol \u201cenables on-chain perpetual and spot trading with leverage,\u201d according to the company website<\/a>. While it operates exclusively on Solana<\/a>, Leow explains that the company\u2019s mission is to become a \u201cneutral player\u201d in the crypto space.<\/p>\n Simple onboarding mechanisms like email logins, with a \u201cmagic link\u201d that creates a wallet for the user in the backend will make things accessible for users who don\u2019t spend their days learning about validators, anti-spam mechanisms or the latest network consensus solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cOur philosophy with the branding and with the product is that eventually, you really don\u2019t need to be a hardcore Solana user to use and love the app,\u201d Leow says.<\/p>\n Leow notes that many of Drift protocol\u2019s users are passionately dedicated to Solana\u2019s ecosystem<\/a>. \u201cWe love being part of the narrative,\u201d she says, \u201cbut we want to get to the stage for the product that anyone clicking in from a TikTok ad for Drift should be able to use it, without knowing what Solana is.\u201d<\/p>\n Leow says that to achieve true scalability, additional layers of abstraction will need to be added over the underlying blockchain technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n Drift protocol lead engineer Crisp Heaney agrees. \u201cOver time, there should be more abstractions and it should be easier to interact with things without knowing the blockchain you\u2019re on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n A common strategic misstep, Heaney says, is believing in the concept of abstraction but instead trying to do \u201ctoo much at one time\u201d by building on multiple chains. Competitors who are \u201csuper-focused,\u201d building on a single chain are likely to draw more consumer demand, Heaney says. And if they\u2019re better at delivering a good product, he says, \u201cyou\u2019ve just lost everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven though, in theory, you should keep abstracting, in practice, you need to be super-focused on where you spend your time,\u201d says Heaney.<\/p>\n Heaney says he is a \u201cbig proponent\u201d of going \u201call-in\u201d on one place, \u201cand making that place great \u2014 versus trying to hedge our bets and have Drift deploy on multiple chains.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just really tough to do that and not lose to a more focused team,\u201d Heaney says.<\/p>\n Leow says the company is working on putting themselves \u201cfront and center\u201d for broader distribution opportunities. She mentions Solana\u2019s Backpack wallet<\/a>, where the company built a xNFT leaderboard feature that drew people into using Drift.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe found that that was a funnel for a lot of more NFT<\/a>-focused traders to actually come in and start using it via Backpack<\/a>,\u201d she says. \u201cOur app has so many different functions, you need to build pockets of access in multiple different places.\u201d<\/p>\n Heaney adds: \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to make it as easy as possible to get to Drift.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s top crypto news and insights delivered to your email every evening.\u00a0Subscribe to Blockworks\u2019 free newsletter<\/a>\u00a0now.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want alpha sent directly to your inbox? Get degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance, can\u2019t-miss tweets and more from\u00a0Blockworks Research\u2019s Daily Debrief<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Can\u2019t wait? Get our news the fastest way possible.\u00a0Join us on Telegram<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While crypto enthusiasts are busily debating which blockchain architecture is better, the average end user of future decentralized applications probably won\u2019t care what\u2019s operating under the hood \u2014 nor should they, says Drift Labs co-founder Cindy Leow. Arguments over whether monolithic, modular or appchain architectures are the best blockchain scaling strategies will fade into obscurity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-137597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137597"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148360,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137597\/revisions\/148360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Too much at one time<\/h2>\n
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