Bifrost’s Co-Founder and CEO Lurpis Speaks Exclusively with CryptoNewsZ

Team CryptoNewsZ is in conversation with Lurpis Wang, the co-founder and the CEO of Bifrost, Liebi Technology CEO & Founder, PAKA Fund LP & Founding Member, a Web3.0 Bootcamp Instructor, and previously an Early Full Stack Engineer at SINA.

About Bifrost

Bifrost is a web3 derivatives protocol that provides decentralized cross-chain liquidity for staked assets. Leveraging the cross-consensus message (XCM) can provide cross-chain liquid staking services for multiple chains.

Bifrost’s mission is to provide standardized cross-chain interest-bearing derivatives for Polkadot relay chains, parachains, and heterogeneous chains bridged with Polkadot. Furthermore, by aggregating over 80% of PoS consensus chains’ staking liquidity through cross-chain derivatives lowers users’ staking threshold, increases the multi-chain staking ratio, and improves the application of the ecosystem interest base by creating a three-way positive cycle for the StakeFi ecosystem by empowering users, multi-chains, and ecosystem applications.

Bifrost has raised over USD 2M from top-tier venture capital firms by the likes of NGC, SNZ, DFG, CMS, and other institutions. In addition to being an early receiver of a Web3 Foundation Grant, Bifrost is also a member of the Substrate Builders Program and the Web3 Bootcamp.

CryptoNewsZ: Lurpis, it’s a pleasure to have you with us at CryptoNewsZ. Our readers would like to know why it is crucial to provide staking liquidity and how Bifrost achieves the same.

PoS consensus has come to dominate most public chains in the present blockchain world. It needs to balance the amount of tokens pledged to ensure the blockchain network’s security and the ecosystem’s economic stability. This is a game process; the more the pledge amount, the higher the security, but the less circulating token, and vice versa.

From the perspective of Token holders, participating in Staking will increase their interest in holding Tokens, but the lock-up time limits the opportunity they may gain. And this is the problem that Staking Derivative wants to solve: issuing a wrapped Token at the time of Staking gives the Staker a chance to capture liquidity while still being able to receive staking interests. Bifrost aims to achieve multi-chain staking liquidity in 2022; as a Substrate native blockchain, we will start from Substrate chains at first and then expand to more heterogeneous chains like Avalanche, Solana, etc.

CryptoNewsZ: What are Bifrost’s milestones for Q2 2022? How does the roadmap plan on providing more value to your user base?

Q2: 2022 will be a historical quarter for Bifrost, which includes the core protocol SLP (Staking Liquidity Protocol) to go live on Mainnet. The SLP will adopt a similar underlying implementation logic for the staking mechanism of the isomorphic chain, which is based on Substrate and shares Polkadot’s generation logic.

The estimated order in Q2 for these derivatives achieving will be:

1. vKSM
2. vBNC
3. vMOVR

Meanwhile, we are discussing upgrading the BNC utility model to vToken minters and capturing more value for users who participate in staking. Users will be able to unlock the liquidity of their staked assets and use their vToken for opportunities in different DeFi scenarios.

CryptoNewsZ: We are curious to know more about the vToken and its utility!

vToken is a yield-bearing Token with original chain staking revenues, without barriers to use on multi chains. Security and decentralization of the Bifrost network laid the foundation/groundwork for deploying the vToken and its utility. The nature of the Polkadot parachain ecosystems, which uses its native messaging format, allows the achievement of cross/chain connection and communication. As a result, the vToken is a fully decentralized, wrapped asset run wholly by the Bifrost module. The vToken doesn’t bear the centralized risk of using a relayer, a middle man bridge, or oracles.

The vTokens will have unique features depending on various parochial scenarios. For example, using vTokens on DEX and unique AMM pools, routes and farming will boost vToken liquidity through being able to use the token on many trading venues. In the money market scenario, the
vToken can be used as a collateral asset and leveraged in various mortgage lending and borrowing scenarios. Users will be able to lend new tokens and mint vTokens of these assets – thus providing multiple yields generating avenues for vToken utility when leveraged.

CryptoNewsZ: According to you, is Bifrost ready to move from Kusama to Polkadot? When do you plan to secure a Polkadot parachain, and what is your plan to get there?

Bifrost has (and plans to have) only one mainnet. All statuses on the Kusama parachain will be smoothly transferred to the Polkadot parachain once the official Kusama ⇔ Polkadot bidirectional bridge is released. Following the bidirectional bridge release between Kusama and Polkadot, we will start the Polkadot parachain bidding process. As of now, there is no date set for the auction yet.

CryptoNewsZ: How does Bifrost engage with its community? Do you have any community-based/community-supported projects?

Bifrost has just released an Open Grant Program: we encourage all novel ideas that may empower Bifrost’s ecosystem to apply for this grant for the maximum grant amount of 50,000 USD. The Open Grant Program focuses on software development and research in decentralized finance protocols that benefit the Bifrost protocol and its ecosystem. We also have several Subquery grants, including monitor service, analysis tools, and dApp for Bifrost SALP.

CryptoNewsZ: How does Bifrot’s on-chain governance look like? How do you ensure security?

Bifrost Governance and other parachains use the same structure as Polkadot. This sophisticated governance mechanism allows it to evolve gracefully overtime at the ultimate behest of its assembled stakeholders. The stated goal is to ensure that the majority of the stake can always command the network.

Bifrost is a decentralized network governed by its community of token holders. The goal of Bifrost’s governance mechanism is to advance the protocol according to the community’s desires. In that shared mission, the governance process seeks to include core developers, application developers, collators, users, and other contributors. An on-chain process will drive the “hard” governance process for Bifrost. It will leverage the Democracy, Council, and Treasury Substrate frame pallets, similar to how Kusama and the Polkadot relay chain are governed. As such, when Bifrost council elections will start at the end of 2022, when Bifrost main pallets are deployed and running stable-all BNC holders will be able to participate in the mechanics of this on-chain governance. The overall intent of these modules is to allow the majority of tokens on the network to determine the outcomes of critical decisions around the network. These decision points come in the form of stake-weighted voting on proposed referenda.

CryptoNewsZ: Is there a special meaning behind Bifrost’s name?

Yes, I am thrilled you asked about this. Our name refers to the Bifrost Bridge, a burning rainbow bridge from Norse mythology. But as many Marvel geeks will know, in Marvel comics, Bifrost is dimensional energy that allows travel between the Ten Realms and worlds beyond. The meaning of Bifrost’s name corresponds with Norse mythology and Marvel’s Bifrost as we hope Bifrost will become the bridge for staking on the connected parachains (the realms) and later a bridge for staking on other PoS chains (other worlds). Maybe there will be a gold bucket at the end of each Bifrost chain-to-chain bridge?

Thanks a ton for the interesting interview and your time, Lurpis, we look forward to exciting developments at Bifrost!