Ankr Twitter Spaces - Partner Spotlight with Sei Network

In Ankr’s Twitter Spaces which took place on September 22, 2023, Sergio and Nathan from Ankr are joined by Grover and Joe from Sei to discuss Sei’s blockchain evolution, the role of RPC in Web3, the significance of blockchain latency, Sei’s collaborative ecosystem, future prospects for scaling RPCs, and more! Read our notes below to learn more.

Background

Sergio – Head of Community at Ankr

Nathan Duft – Business Development at Ankr

Grover – Contributor at Sei

Joe – Marketing at Sei

Ankr – a blockchain-based cross-chain infrastructure with a DeFi platform that enables staking and dApp development

Sei – a sector-specific Layer-1 blockchain, specialized for trading to give exchanges an unfair advantage

Introduction

Nathan says that he has been in the web3 space for three years, initially working on blockchain development and Solidity at the Telos blockchain. He mentions that he transitioned into business development at Ankr, an infrastructure company. Nathan highlights his role in nurturing relationships and helping the industry with infrastructure solutions.
Grover says he is the head of marketing at Sei, a layer-1 blockchain. He describes his team’s diverse responsibilities, ranging from PR to social media management.
Grover says that Sei is not just a DeFi chain but is designed to facilitate any kind of digital asset exchange. He argues that the core use case of blockchains is the ability to exchange digital assets, and Sei is the first blockchain specifically built for that.
Joe says he is part of the growth and marketing team at Sei, working under Grover. He focuses on community growth and engagement and agrees with Grover’s explanation of Sei’s vision.

Sei’s Blockchain Evolution

Grover says that the co-founders Jeff and Jay initially wanted to build an exchange. They realized there wasn’t a blockchain that could support the kind of exchange they wanted, leading them to create a highly performant blockchain optimized for exchanges.
Grover highlights the importance of “time to finality,” mentioning that Sei achieves single-block finality. Unlike Ethereum, where finality is achieved over a period of 20 minutes, Sei’s blocks are finalized instantly. He adds that they initially aimed for 250 milliseconds per block but settled on 380 milliseconds for better stability. Grover points out that this provides a seamless user and developer experience, similar to Web2.

Exploring RPC’s Role in Web3

Nathan explains what an RPC (Remote Procedure Call) is and its significance in Web3. He notes that Ankr operates its own bare-metal servers worldwide, optimized for high performance, rather than outsourcing to AWS.
Nathan mentions that low latency is crucial, particularly for a blockchain like Sei, which has a block finality of about 300 milliseconds. Ankr’s infrastructure ensures that Sei can handle high throughput requests from high-frequency traders and developers.
Nathan says that RPC is the standard protocol for making calls to the blockchain and it plays a vital role in the interaction between users and blockchain networks.

Evolution of Blockchain Latency

Grover explains that the latency was artificially increased from 250 to 400 milliseconds for testing purposes. He adds that reducing this latency is a priority for their engineering team over the next 6-12 months. Grover notes that centralized exchanges are naturally faster than blockchains due to the absence of consensus mechanisms.
Grover introduces the term “Twin Turbo Consensus,” a proprietary consensus mechanism based on Tendermint. He highlights that Tendermint has proven to be a robust foundation, mentioning its performance during turbulence in the case of the Terra blockchain in May 2022.
Grover adds that their team consciously chose to build a monolithic layer-1 blockchain rather than a layer-2 rollup on Ethereum. He argues that rollups are constrained by competition for block space on Ethereum.
Grover says that the theoretical upper limit for transactions per second on a roll-up would be 6,000 without competition, whereas Sei can achieve 22,000 transactions per second. He uses this to emphasize the advantage of building a standalone layer-1 blockchain.

Sei’s Collaborative Ecosystem

Grover explains that contributors to Sei include Sei Labs, the software development company that built the original Sei blockchain, and the Sei Foundation, a nonprofit aiming to further decentralize and fund initiatives.
Grover highlights the importance of a robust RPC layer as a link between applications and the Sei blockchain, calling Ankr’s role in providing this service “crucial.”
Nathan elaborates that Ankr is providing the necessary backbone for Sei by spinning up clusters of nodes for developers and offering a reliable, fast RPC service. He notes that they aim for sub-150 millisecond RPC call requests and mentions that Ankr aims to exceed developer and customer expectations in terms of performance and reliability.
Joe asks a question on how easy it is for developers to integrate Ankr’s RPC into their Sei-based products.
Nathan responds that the ease of integration varies. For beginners, it’s as simple as adding an endpoint and running a command, especially if they are following a tutorial. However, for multi-chain projects, the process can become more complex due to different configurations. Nathan assures that Ankr’s RPC will behave exactly like Sei’s and that developers can get up and running relatively easily.
Joe says that Sei is not limited to DeFi, but its infrastructure supports everything that involves digital assets like NFT marketplaces and online gaming platforms. He notes that the core use case for crypto currently is the exchange of digital assets, which is what Sei is optimized for. Joe highlights that the only limitation for using Sei is the creativity of developers.
Grover adds that Sei is optimized for exchanging tokens, contrasting it with blockchains like Ethereum that prioritize running nodes for millions of people at the expense of performance. He states that the design choice for Sei is to move toward higher performance without sacrificing excessive decentralization.
Grover explains how Sei ensures security and integrity by mentioning that it has been audited twice by top firms. He points out that it’s an open-source project that has benefited from community contributions.

Sei’s Achievements, Vision, and Engaging with the Community

Joe talks about Sei’s achievement in rapid time to finality in crypto as a key milestone. He highlights the importance of community support, saying the ongoing commitment from their community has been impressive.
Grover talks about abstracting away the virtual machine they’re using, mentioning that a project called Nitro allows Solana-based applications to be deployed on an optimistic rollup on top of Sei.
Joe says that one of the best ways to get involved in an ecosystem is through its NFTs. He gives a shout-out to NFT teams deploying on Sei and mentions he will be active in their Discords.

Scaling RPCs for Web 3.0

Joe asks the Ankr team about their vision for the future of RPCs in the evolving blockchain landscape, particularly interested in the scaling and challenges ahead.
Nathan provides a detailed answer, stating that Ankr plans to collaborate with large Web 2.0 companies like Tencent, Google, and Amazon to provide accessibility to the RPC space. He believes that the industry is still in the infrastructure phase and that Ankr aims to be a central hub for connecting to various blockchains. Nathan also anticipates significant growth in the RPC industry, stating that it is crucial for scaling Web 3.0.

Q&A

Q: Given Sei’s strong focus on products, what strategies are you implementing to attract more users, especially considering the drop in engagement post-mainnet launch and the comparatively low TVL?

Grover explains that Sei is focusing on infrastructure, believing that the key to attracting users is to support killer applications. Sei is actively funding various initiatives to create a developer-friendly environment.
He also mentions an upcoming “Entrepreneur In Residence” program for bringing in experienced project leaders and underscores the importance of selectivity in funding and long-term survival, especially during bear markets.
Joe adds that Sei is putting out content emphasizing incubator and hackathon winners, focusing on empowering developers in the ecosystem. He agrees with Grover’s points and suggests that the teams that build on Sei are pivotal for its success.

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Show Information

Medium: Twitter Spaces (Audio)
Project: Ankr
Show Title: Partner Spotlight: Sei
Show Date: September 22, 2023