Technology
Elite XP will be launching on the Solana blockchain because it is the most decentralized blockchain that has low transaction fees, high transaction speeds, and is scalable.
When deciding which blockchain to build on, we knew that for a wager placing platform to be successful, the platform needed to have:
- Low transaction fees, encouraging users to enter contests
- Quick transactions, allowing for users to receive their winnings instantaneously
- Demonstrated scalability, ensuring that the platform will perform well at scale
With those requirements in mind, Ethereum was immediately disqualified. At the time of writing, ETH 2.0 has not been released and gas fees on the mainnet are currently too cost prohibitive for low stakes contests ($5 - $10 USD). Furthermore, notable games such as Axie Infinity have struggled to scale on the Ethereum network, leading them to introduce the Ronin network, an Ethereum sidechain. This is not a risk our project is interested in taking.
As Ethereum had been disqualified, we turned to L2 solutions such as Polygon and Optimism. However, while the gas fees were at least half as much as the mainnet, they continued to be too cost prohibitive for low stakes contests. We are confident that a L2 solution will be able to meet our requirements in the future, but at this point none have shown that capability.
The two largest networks that meet our requirements are Solana and Binance Smart Chain. Both of which have been battle tested with projects such as Serum and PancakeSwap respectively. The only differentiator between the two chains is their level of decentralization. At this time, there is a cap of 21 validators on the Binance Smart Chain, with Binance being in control of the majority of those validators. On the other hand, Solana currently has 1217 validators with anyone with the appropriate hardware being able to participate. Therefore, Solana is more enticing between the two due to the greater amount of decentralization.
As blockchain gaming is relatively young, some game features may be offloaded to centralized servers. From a user experience, every contest entry will be completely tamper-proof and there will be tamper-evident results, allowing users to be able to fully trust all contest results. This middle ground between decentralization and centralization will allow us to pull the best from both worlds and craft a user experience impossible without blockchain.
The team is excited to be building on Solana and to introduce a gaming experience unlike any other on Web 2.0.
Last modified 9mo ago