Supra, one of the fast-growing and high-performance Layer-1 blockchain network with integrated decentralized oracle price feeds and verifiable random number generators, is now turning its attention to developers with the launch of Supra Containers.
With Supra Containers, it offers developers a compelling alternative to building on Layer-2 and Layer-3 networks or dedicated AppChains. It says they provide all of the benefits of those secondary blockchain layers, but without any of the problems they cause – such as fragmented liquidity, security problems and higher infrastructure-related costs.
According to Supra, L2s, L3s and AppChains have all become popular solutions to the scalability problems of traditional blockchains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, which struggle to process large volumes of transactions. For instance, a blockchain game developer will need instant transaction processing, so players get their weapons the instant they purchase them, for example. However, with Ethereum’s blockchain often taking several minutes to confirm any transaction, it simply isn’t a viable option anymore. Instead, that developer will build their game on an L2 network, such as Polygon or Arbitrum, so they can process transactions off-chain and ensure they’re processed immediately.
However, the use of L2s and AppChains brings about its own problems. For one thing, they throw a spanner in the works of atomic composability, making complex transactions impossible to process. They also result in fragmented liquidity spread across multiple networks, which makes it harder for users to buy and sell digital assets, and they can even struggle with security issues as they’re no longer using the main network.
Supra is pitching its Containers as a better alternative, giving developers the same ability to utilize a dedicated execution layer for their dApp, while enjoying all of the advantages provided by the Supra L1, including liquidity, security, low costs and composability.
Supra’s advantage
The Supra blockchain has emerged as a compelling option for dApp developers, thanks to the power of its innovative Moonshot consensus mechanism that’s able to process 530,000 transactions per second with 500 millisecond optimistic finality, and a range of other features. These include its Distributed Oracle Agreement or DORA protocol, which integrates off-chain asset price feeds natively within the blockchain, and Supra dVRF, which is a decentralized and verifiable randomness generator for apps such as casino games that need to demonstrate they are truly random.
What’s unique about Supra’s Containers is that, unlike other L2s which disinherit many of the capabilities of the network they build on, they fully integrate with the L1 to preserve atomic smart contract transactions and share liquidity with the entire Supra ecosystem. At the same time, they also inherit the security of Supra, using the same validators as its L1. As a result, developers who build their dApp in a Supra Container won’t be handicapped by the need to integrate a complex bridging mechanism for asset transfers or bootstrap security.
The Containers can also take advantage of Supra’s price feeds and onchain verifiable randomness capabilities, further reducing the complexity and costs for developers.
Another advantage is that Supra’s L1 is compatible with multiple virtual machines, including EVM, MoveVM and soon, the SolanaVM, eliminating the need for complex migrations of existing dApps. As a result, any EVM, MoveVM or SolanaVM-based dApp has a much easier way to interoperate across multiple networks, Supra said.
Supra’s chief executive Joshua Tobkin said Supra Containers aren’t just suitable for individual dApps, as they can actually support entire ecosystems – essentially multiple dApps and smart contracts that can benefit from operating in the same, custom environment.
“Developers now have the freedom to launch their own ecosystems with full control over governance and token economies, while enjoying the security, composability, and shared liquidity of Supra’s Layer-1 infrastructure,” he explained.
As an example, a gaming studio could create its own Container and use it to host its entire ecosystem of games, with its own, novel token incentives, and even use the same tokens and NFTs across all of its games. It all adds up to a much more flexible environment for games developers, Supra said.
All told, Supra claims its Containers represent a “paradigm shift” for blockchain developers, paving the way for not only more powerful dApps, but entire custom economies.
