AMA with Tate Berenbaum

Earlier this week, we started our first on-chain AMA with Tate Berenbaum and it went amazing! For those who don’t know how this AMA works check out our Github for more informations. And now, let’s take a look at the answers

Question 1 : Verto is a DEX. Is it fully decentralized, or are there still some centralized elements (e.g., Github) in Verto’s tech stack? If so, how hard is it to get decentralize those?

txID: 65UlHOKrVov5LmR1rk-KWHe3aqbfXUbXKkHVYz6Bz5w

Answer : Verto’s decentralized exchange protocol is composed of a global network of trading posts, or servers running to handle inbound and outbound orders. The trading posts are running code accessible on GitHub, but we also mirror the repository to https://gitopia.org/, which means the source code is stored on Arweave as well! Verto.exchange is also deployed on Vercel, but we will be deploying and serving the site to/from the permaweb when we get to a more stable stage of development.

Question 2 : What have been the greatest challenges to starting Verto? And what was easier than you thought it would be?

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Answer : On a technical level, the greatest challenges have been with the initial trading post infrastructure. We had an initial idea as to how it could be built, and we ended up getting 80% of the way there, but we ran into an issue that resulted in a complete rewrite of the entire codebase. On a non-technical level, I greatly struggled (and still do!) with explaining the way Verto works to non-technical people.

I found it much easier than expected to meet/collaborate with others in the ecosystem. I think Arweave’s Open Web Incubator greatly helped with this.

Question 3 : What necessary infrastructure for the Arweave permaweb is not yet built?

txID: LUBnnwBImIAUcq-1vVcrztUcD_zjYHa9RT__Yu9z7Ic

Answer : If I had received this question three to four months ago, my answer would have been drastically different. I truly think we’re to the point where all of the foundation that people need to build applications and profit-sharing communities on top of exists. With that said, I think one of the biggest subjects we need to continue focusing on is ecosystem composability. As the ecosystem scales, if it loses the incredible composability it currently has, it’s going to be much more difficult for people to build and support new protocols coming to the permaweb. In turn, that will make it less likely for a new piece of “necessary infrastructure” to come into existence.

Question 4 : What are your biggest concerns about scaling Arweave? Are you worried at all that a large influx of users could be counter-intuitively bad for the ecosystem at this stage?

txID: TqM2WzXSY2iERjsTTKW5Lur6d1WSW4in5SpiqAICAc8

Answer : The answer to the previous question indirectly addresses this, but I believe that strictly organic growth is constructive for Verto at this stage in its development. For other products/protocols on the permaweb, a large influx of users may be exactly what they need. There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to both, but I think a consensus would ideally be reached at a project level and not a wider ecosystem level.

Question 5 : How secure is arweave smart contract execution?

txID: NyblEo6uT9sYozA1ay6OV_pQ7MJp2cepfwz0wcOpx6Y

Answer : Given the fact that clients are evaluating JavaScript in their browsers, malicious contracts could be conceived. However, I think we’re going to see an increasing number of security measures built into the safe contracts to prevent running malicious contracts (assuming foreign contract invocation from one to another). Users could also conceivably build a sandbox to evaluate these contracts, which would create a safe environment for contracts of any type.

Question 6 : Will verto support erc tokens in the future?

txID: eIQnFkvJYZjHAZgoYhHkkHHieE3ppUQtVSR44Xnzuj4

Answer : As of now, this is not planned simply because our core focus for the protocol is on Arweave-based tokens. With the addition of the Ethereum Bridge, one could currently swap an ERC-20 for ETH and then route that ETH through the bridge on Verto to end with AR or PSTs.

Question 7: Is there any possibility of being wrapped AR on ETH?

txID: axnr1y4QbHP62q7WEtJs7_HW-EjltwK9smJtByApxqA

Answer : Totally! I personally can’t wait to see this. I’m currently unsure of a decentralized way to achieve this though…

Question 8: I don’t know whether this AMA has aired or not. What I want to ask. Suppose I minted NFT on AR network, then wanted to make sales on ETH network (like opensea or rarible). Can verto facilitate this?

txID: TZExSWRHZoNc7VT8jco37PDMroEfluJBbZFXsP-n4Eo

Answer : Verto is only built to facilitate the trading of Arweave-native tokens, which means that one wouldn’t be able to trade ERC-721s on the protocol. However, if you minted these tokens as atomic NFTs, you could theoretically accept ETH as a payment to then route through the Ethereum Bridge on Verto, which would allow you to finally make a buy order for the NFT with AR.

Question 9 : What do you see as the main challenges in bringing more liquidity to Arweave and PSTs?

txID: 1qELlA7wrZ_NvhUvvvMsBJJ3Zw0w2MZNRTF2bmrYYh8

Answer : I definitely believe that the “chicken and egg” issue we’re seeing with new profit-sharing tokens will resolve itself over time. The founders of these projects are incentivized to seed their markets on Verto so there can be liquidity flowing. We’re even beginning to see founders designing protocol mechanisms that simultaneously act as market-makers to supply liquidity on Verto.

I feel strongly that once we can accomplish the same goal with the Ethereum Bridge, there will be no barrier to entry for this ecosystem.

Tate Berenbaum twitter : https://twitter.com/TateBerenbaum?s=09