Once one of the important Parachains in the Polkadot ecosystem, Manta Network has now transformed to become a Layer 2 on Ethereum with many differences compared to the popular Layer 2s on the market today. So where is the difference and what is the difference? Let’s find out together in the article below!
A Look at Manta Network’s Past
In the past, Manta Network was a Blockchain platform aimed at returning privacy to users by applying zkSNARK technology. With zkSNARK technology, Manta Network not only ensures privacy for users but also ensures the parameters of scalability, interoperability, security, ease of use, and user-friendliness. user.
Manta Network’s development team are leading professors in the field of cryptocurrency in the US with experience at many universities such as Harvard, MIT or Web3 projects such as Algorand and Consensys. In the past and in recent times, Manta has undergone capital calls including:
- February 2, 2021: At the Pre Seed round, the project successfully called for $1.1M with the leadership of Polychain in addition to the participation of 3AC, Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research, Genblock Capital,…
- October 19, 2021: At the Seed round, the project successfully called for $5.5M with the leadership of CoinFund, ParaFi Capital, besides the participation of Zee Prime Capital, SNZ Holding, SkyVision Capital, Moonrock Capital,…
- November 17, 2021: In an undisclosed round, the project successfully raised $28.8M with undisclosed information.
- July 19, 2023: At the Series A round, the project successfully raised $25M with the leadership of Polychain, QiMinng Venture Partners, besides the participation of Coin Fund, Alliance DAO, SevenX Ventures,…
In the TOP 10 first successful Parachain projects on the Polkadot ecosystem, Manta Network ranked 7th with more than 4M DOT successfully called from the community equivalent to an amount of about $34M. However, Manta Network’s development team has returned DOT to its community.
The Change Was Not So Surprising
Polkadot ecosystem landscape
Apparently, Polkadot and its ecosystem have not had outstanding activities or updates in recent times. Most recently at a Polkadot event, Garvin Wood shared the Polkadot 2.0 vision with many drastic changes, but it stopped there.
The infrastructure is not upgraded and changed, the ecosystem does not have new pieces and is falling into a rut that no longer matches the trend, Parachain development teams are frozen in the period 2022 – 2023. All elements to describe a disjointed Polkadot, lacking vision, lacking action and still only a promising future from 2020 until now.
In fact, Polkadot is not the first and only name. We have seen the wheels of history crushing undeveloped and uninnovative Blockchain platforms such as Neo, Monero, Oasis Protocol,… and many names are on the alarm list such as Cardano, Celo, etc. ..
Obviously, being part of an inactive Blockchain platform, Manta Network’s development team must have a new strategy.
Manta Network transforms into Layer 2
Based on its strengths and available resources with Zero-knowledge technology, it led to a transformation that took place in the summer of 2023 when Manta Network decided to become a Layer 2 platform on Ethereum with a number of outstanding features. turn on as follows:
- Manta Network’s ambition is to become a zkEVM platform.
- The Manta platform allows developers to build ZKApps using the familiar Sodility programming language on Ethereum.
- Manta Network will use Celestia as the DA layer and OP Stack to improve scalability. However, Manta later converted to the Polygon CDK toolkit to build zkEVM.
It can be seen that grasping the Layer 2 trend is getting closer and closer, besides the development team’s strength is zk technology, so Manta Network is shifting from a Layer 1 Blockchain on Polkadot to a Layer 2 Blockchain on the Internet. Ethereum is completely understandable.
Completely New Model & Airdrop Plan to Attract Liquidity
Completely new operating model
The model that Manta Network is aiming for is Passive Income that I mentioned in a previous article, everyone can see more here. This means that normally the user’s assets in Hot Wallet will not be quiet or profitable, but the new Blockchain platforms that have been born recently with their strategies have allowed these assets to automatically generate profits for users. no need to do anything.
If you bring it into your life today, it’s like your bank account will automatically increase without needing to save or do anything. Manta Network’s model also operates according to the same mechanism as follows:
- When users send ETH to Manta, Manta will send this ETH to its LSD partner, StakeStone. StakeStone will hold ETh to stake and then share profits with users, and StakeStone also pays users STONE representing ETH in the platform. This STONE can be used in Manta’s DeFi ecosystem.
- When users deposit USDC into Manta, Manta will send this ETH to its Real World Assets partner, Mountain Protocol. Mountain Protocol will use this USDC to buy US government bonds and then share profits with users, and Mountain Protocol will also pay users wUSDM representing USDC in the platform. This wUSDM can be used in Manta’s DeFi ecosystem.
In fact, this is not a completely new model, there was a project that previously applied it, Blast, but Manta Network still has some differences. If Blast only stops at profit sharing, Manta Network also offers users many more strategies including:
- Additional profits coming from the Box Pieces/NFT program are converted to MANTA Tokens.
- Additional profits come from providing liquidity on DeFi protocols, GameFi, SocialFi and other dApps that have been deployed on Manta Pacific.
- Additional profits come from the Incentive harvest that Manta dedicates to featured projects in their ecosystem.
- Additional profits come from users’ ETH staking on EigenLayer.
Manta Network’s differences also come from some of the development team’s innovations, but it doesn’t stop there.
NFT & Airdrop rewards for early birds
Along with the introduction of a new operating model design, Manta Network immediately introduced the MANTA Airdrop search program. First, Manta introduced the concept of Box Pieces. To get Box Pieces, users need to:
- Move assets (USDC, ETH) to Manta Network.
- Invite friends to join too.
First, on an individual basis, every 1 ETH (or equivalent USDC value) will receive 25 Box Pieces per week. These 25 Box Pieces are combined into a Lucky Box, each Lucky Box will be opened into many types of NFTs at different levels such as:
- Level 1: Tier One Backers
- Level 2: Leaderboard Scores
- Level 3: Secure Multisig
- Level 4: Legit Teams
- level 5: Fixed High Yields
- Level 6: L33t Codes
Not stopping there, there are some notable points as follows:
- The more you open, the higher the percentage of rare NFTs will be.
- Collecting 6 NFTs at 6 different levels, users can merge them into the rarest NFT, The First Modular L2.
In addition, Manta Network also announced rewards for users and projects on its ecosystem as follows:
- 30,000,000 MANTA will be allocated to NFT holders from level 1 to level 6. The higher the level, the greater the reward.
- 15,000,000 MANTA distributed to those holding the rarest NFT, The First Modular L2.
- 5,000,000 MANTA allocated to projects used as Liquidity Mining program to attract liquidity.
Manta Network Ecosystem & Things to Pay Attention to
Remarkable numbers
It can be seen that since the launch of the Earn NFT program, Manta Network’s TVL has grown strongly from $14.5M to more than $200M and shows no signs of stopping. It can be seen that with a model similar to Blast, Manta has also succeeded in attracting a certain amount of cash flow to its ecosystem. However, Manta’s FOMO wave is not as high as Blast’s.
The development team also quickly deployed the Incentive program to preserve future cash flow using 5,000,000 MANTA given to protocols in the ecosystem. 5,000,000 MANTA is divided into 2 parts:
- Part 1 is 4,200,000 MANTA used for DeFi protocols on Manta Network. Some of the projects that Manta regularly shares include QuickSwap, Izumi, PacificSwap, LayerBank, KiloEx,…
- Part 2 is 800,000 MANTA used for Web3 Wallet partners such as OKX Wallet, Trust Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Bybit Wallet,… with the goal of attracting users from Web2 to Web3.
The ecosystem still lacks highlights
Although it has taken a long time to build an ecosystem before transforming into a Layer 2 platform, Manta Network’s ecosystem, despite having many Protocols & DApps, still lacks highlight projects and important projects. heart of the entire ecosystem. At the present time, the Manta Network ecosystem is still relatively outdated DeFi pieces such as DEX, Lending or Yield Aggregator.
In order for an ecosystem to be able to stand firm and not be dependent on Airdrop, and not be too bound by Incentive, each ecosystem needs to have its own color, thereby creating a difference and attracting users. This will be the next problem that the Manta Network team needs to solve if they want to be truly different from other platforms on the market.
Why Manta Network is still remarkable
What the project has accomplished is what makes us should spend time on Manta Network for the present and the future. It’s really not simple to become one of the first Parachains on the Polkadot ecosystem because it’s really a battle. A battle of products, media, community,… and the winning projects are all really good, especially in the Marketing element.
Next, after leaving Polkadot, he changed his vision from a Layer 1 to a Layer 2, but Manta still successfully called for $25M with the leadership of Polychain, QiMinng Venture Partners, and the participation of Coin. Fund, Alliance DAO, SevenX Ventures,… bringing the total successful fundraising amount up to $60M. We must ask some questions as follows:
- Why do investment funds still put faith in this project and this team even after they have changed direction?
- Why did Polychain invest in the Pre Seed round and continue to invest in this round?
However, there are also many funds investing in the 2021 project that did not accompany Manta Network in the most recent round in July 2023.
Next, although the project has not had breakthroughs in the ecosystem. But with the basic puzzle pieces, they are doing relatively well and if these basic puzzle pieces continue to develop, it will be the foundation for breakthrough ideas and innovations to be born.
Finally, Manta Network’s development team actually has a relatively thick profile and achievements in the Crypto market with projects, companies, and organizations they have worked with. These people are still worthy so we can expect breakthroughs in the future.
Summary
Although newly transformed, Manta Network promises to become one of the formidable opponents of Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync or Starknet. Hopefully through this article, everyone will have more perspective on Manta Network and its ecosystem.
