Talking about TelePORT with its creators

Warp Contracts, the most known source for Arweave smart contracts, regaled the ecosystem with a new protocol aiming to teleport liquidity directly into the permanent bowels of the network. They already released a quite comprehensive article, but given the importance of this particular area for our entire space we took the liberty and asked them a couple more questions to shed even more light upon Warp's creation.

First, lets start with a quick TLDR on what TelePORT really is, made by no other than the Warp Contracts founder Jakub:

TelePORT would connect the Arweave ecosystem to the mature DeFi infrastructure of other EVM-chains bringing much-needed liquidity and allowing thousands of users to discover data-rich assets.

Q: Recently, you presented to the public the TelePORT protocol. Can you explain in a condensed form what it is all about?

 We saw that you already presented the strengths of your solutions in comparison with the traditional bridging solutions. Still, can you humour us and present them again?

A: TelePORT fancy wording is a non-custodial & trustless cross-chain asset transfer protocol. Nonetheless, it's fundamentally different from traditional bridging solutions. 

What I mean by this is that telePORT is actually a cross-chain transfer protocol, but not a bridge itself. Bridging refers to bringing (transitioning) assets from chain A to chain B through various forms of mechanisms, such as locking tokens on chain A and releasing an IOU token on chain B. Due to their complexity and attract vector, these operations have historically been the primary target for Web3 hacks.

TelePORT tackles Arweave asset trading with a distinct approach, eliminating the need for complex safety measures typically associated with bridge infrastructures. Assets never leave the Arweave network in TelePORT's design. Instead, trade settlements are performed on any EVM-based network, leveraging their deep liquidity which Arweave currently lacks. The settlement results are then transmitted to Arweave, culminating in a trade's finalisation.         

Q: What are the actual use cases? Can it be used for both atomic assets (NFTs) and PSTs (tokens)? What about PSTs that try to emulate tokens from an EVM chain at a 1:1 ratio (let's say wrapped ETH on Arweave)? I'm asking you this because I think that one of the reasons traditional bridges lock assets on one side of the bridge is to ensure the 1:1 swap possible at some point in the future. TelePORT doesn't hold assets after the transfer execution happens.

A: TelePORT's transfer standard can be applied to all content forms on the Arweave's weave, including PST, Atomic NFTs, and future standards, ensuring its flexibility and wide applicability!

To reiterate the previous point, telePORT is not a traditional bridge, but a cross-chain transfer protocol, enabling Arweave native assets to trade via settlement on EVM-based chains. 

In essence, telePORT leverages existing liquidity, decentralised trading infrastructure, lending markets etc. on chains such as Polygon, Arbitrum, and Ethereum. This allows the trading of unique digital assets minted on the Arweave blockchain, without them ever leaving the Permaweb.

Regarding actual use cases, the only limit is your imagination. NFT marketplaces, DEXes, and advanced offerings like lending markets can all harness the potential of Arweave-based assets. Most crucially, it's here and now. With telePORT, there's no need for bootstrapping or liquidity mining mechanisms as the protocol leverages the financially robust EVM-based infrastructure.

Q: How long will it take from the inception of the transaction cycle (post price) to the transfer of the asset in a real-life scenario?

A: As soon as the transactions on the corresponding EVM-compatible network are finalised, the operation will be completed. Ethereum Mainnet takes approximately 1-2 minutes, while alternative L1s & L2s may take a few seconds.

Q: How will the integration with an oracle actually behave?

A: In essence, one appoints an external service, an oracle, to automatically inform a user when the corresponding transaction on the EVM network reaches finality.

Q: Given this phrase from your initial article: "Using Warp contracts, assets are temporarily locked at a stated price using a hashed secret. Unlocking occurs when the secret is revealed or after a set lock period, permitting re-locking with a new price."  Will it be possible to be "granular" enough to "go with the flow of the markets"? 

(can unlocking and re-locking with a new price happen every minute for eg.?; Crypto markets tend to see massive swings in rather short periods)? 

A: Absolutely, we view it as highly responsive and readily adaptable to market dynamics. On one hand, the protocol is bound by the transaction finality window of the corresponding EVM chain, which, as previously noted, can range from a few seconds to several minutes. Conversely, the confirmation from the Warp Contracts side is nearly instantaneous. All of these factors contribute to an infrastructure capable of promptly reacting to the user's actions, without sacrificing security.     

Q: We saw that you are already looking for teams to implement the protocol in a production-ready app. How do you envision the ideal user story mapping? Do you think that it will be closer to the UX users encounter on DEXs, or on peer-to-peer, escrow-like services?

A: Our ultimate goal with telePORT was to make interacting with Arweave-based assets as effortless as possible. We aimed to expose the features of Arweave's atomic assets to those unfamiliar with Arweave and make it so seamless that there's no need for Arweave-specific tools like arweave.app or Arconnect wallets. Instead, thanks to Warp's EVM plugin, the entire exchange process can be managed through an EVM wallet like Metamask!

As for the design, that's completely up to the innovators who take it to market, and we're fully committed to supporting all initiatives!

However, we envisage a slick, user-friendly AMM-like interface with just a few essential buttons, something that everyone would be familiar with. 

Q: Can you elaborate on a sort of comparison between the rareweave's way of dealing with atomic assets and TelePORT's way?

A: Firstly, it's truly exciting to see a variety of approaches emerging to tackle liquidity on Arweave. Liquidity is key to the onchain economy and PermaWeb's mainstream success. The presence of multiple viable ways to trade Arweave-native assets not only strengthens the ecosystem but also mitigates any single point of failure.

However, Rareweave and telePORT take distinctly different approaches. While Rareweave handles all trading infrastructure using the SmartWeave protocol, telePORT delegates the settlement process to an EVM-based network. Each solution brings its own unique trade-offs, so it's advantageous to have varied solutions addressing this fundamental challenge, ultimately letting market forces decide which initiative gains wider adoption.