Injective Protocol Interview with Eric Chen

Feb 07, 2023

Missed the recent interview between Cryptocito and Eric Chen - CEO & Co-founder of Injective Labs?

Check out my notes from the interview below!

1. What is Injective?

Injective is a blockchain built for finance.

Injective works on the next-generation DeFi applications. These include decentralized spot exchanges, prediction markets, innovative lending models, and more.

2. Major achievements

$8 Billion in trading volume.
Block time is reduced to 1.1s.
>150 Million on-chain transactions.
Astroport deployment on testnet and soon on mainnet.
Wormhole integration to bring Solana and SPL tokens to Injective.
Canto and White Whale collaboration.
Institutions support & ecosystem fund.

3. Is block time important?

Yes, but also the stability and consistency. For DeFi applications, having downtime could cause cascade liquidation.

Injective has optimized the exchange module to function extremely stable and have around 1s block time.

4. Will increasing the number of validators affect the speed of block finality?

No. The current implementation of Cosmos SDK and the theoretical design of Tendermint consensus allow you to reach a much faster block time. Besides speed and stability, the surrounding infrastructure (e.g., indexer) is also important. In the end, it is about the balance between usability and speed.

5. Injective as a sector-specific chain

For Injective, the core modules stay the same and are utilized by applications built on top of Injective. It is designed for interoperability and composability without increasing transaction costs and loss of speed. The exchange module has an on-chain orderbook with margin and risk isolation modules that have been battle-tested and shared by all the applications. Margin accounts can be built on Injective and could bring a CEX-like experience.

6. Competitive Landscape

Eric doesn’t see other teams as competitors. Each team focuses on different things, so everyone can collaborate and work together. The pie is big enough for all of us to share.

7. Exciting Applications on Injective

The most exciting one is the deployment of Astroport on top of Injective since they will provide liquidity directly to the Injective orderbook. Then there is White Whale, an Interchain flash loan and arbitrage protocol, has already interacted with Injective Dapps. Others include @HelixApp_, @INJ_Dojo, @QwertyExchange, and @frontrunnerxyz.

8. What about Project X?

It is currently undergoing an extreme testing period, both from academic and production perspectives. More information on its name and launch will be released this quarter.

9. On the recent $150M Ecosystem fund

It helps connect supportive and resourceful institutions with cool applications built on Injective. The focus is not only on the Injective ecosystem but also on the greater Cosmos and DeFi ecosystem.

Apply now and start building: https://injective.com/venturegroup

10. Do VCs interest in the Cosmos ecosystem?

Most of these institutions are familiar with the Cosmos ecosystem since there are a lot of great projects built on top of the Cosmos SDK. However, we’re still lacking coordination effort to support projects that are building within the ecosystem. Mark Cuban is backing Injective and also multiple Cosmos projects.

11. On $INJ burn model

How $INJ burn mechanism works:

Fees from all the DeFi protocols are collected into a pool throughout the week.
Community members will bid for the pool in the pool with $INJ.
Those $INJ will be burnt forever.

⇒ Deflating the total supply of $INJ.

12. Thought on Cosmos Hub?

Cosmos Hub should take a minimalist approach. Since it is the biggest Zone, it should take careful steps and innovate at the right place.

13. Will there be Airdrops for $INJ stakers?

There are a lot of apps and products building on top of Injective, so there could be airdrops for early supporters.

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