Waves Announces Three-Stage Roadmap Towards Version 2

Waves, an open-source blockchain platform focused on DeFi, has entered 2021 riding on the wave of success it saw last year. Aside from its internal initiatives, the protocol also established a high-profile partnership with Microsoft, enabling it to integrate with Microsoft Azure and offer its enterprise clients better service.

The company’s success has, however, left it facing a significant challenge. According to a blog post published on 30 March, the Waves ecosystem has seen significant adoption and needs to “step it up a notch” to keep up with its vision.

To do that, the company has announced a detailed roadmap towards launching Waves 2.0, the second iteration of the protocol set to bring significant improvements. The roadmap will consist of three separate stages, each one divided into smaller, more achievable goals.

Tanhauser gate

The first stage will be establishing the gate to liquidity. The goal is to get at least $10 billion in total value locked (TVL) on the protocol by October 2021 through several key directions and milestones. 

Ethereum interoperability will be the most important milestone, as it will enable users to use Ethereum private keys and Metamask on Waves. Aside from providing Ethereum interoperability, the phase will also enable Waves to interact with other major blockchains, such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

The Waves.Exchange will be enhanced with on-chain and off-chain liquidity pools. Various types of volatile synthetic assets and a lending protocol will also be added to the protocol. Interchain dApps based on the Gravity protocol will enable users to export Waves DeFi tokens to other networks. 

However, the first new major milestone in the first stage will be the Waves node release, scheduled for this spring. The node will enable interacting smart contracts and flash loans on Waves, essentially paving the way for other more complex applications.

Wormholes

Once enough liquidity is achieved, the protocol will enter its scaling stage. Set to last between September 2021 and February 2022, the stage will introduce a novel fast sidechains model that will support app chains. The Waves network governance will be used to launch the sidechains, using stakers to guarantee the consistency between sidechains and the main chain. 

In parallel to the sidechains, Waves will also launch EVM chains enabling full Ethereum compatibility.

Starships

Waves described the third and final phase of the launch as the “going beyond” phase. Set to be launched sometime in 2022, the phase will see Waves developers coming up with new approaches to distributed ledgers within the Waves 2.0 framework. The company noted that most blockchain projects are working on realizing ideas that first emerged between 2014 and 2016, essentially working on outdated concepts. 

“It is high time to try and come up with something genuinely new, going beyond the concept of fully synchronized consensus approaches,” the company explained.