Saga CEO on Chainlets Feature | First Mover
Saga automates the launching of these
chain lights if you look at our web app
experience now it’s about 5 Seconds to
putting in the chain parameters you hit
submit and then it takes about a minute
for the validators to sync and then you
have your own chainlet you have your own
layer one within about a minute and you
can have as many of these as you like
automating the experience of launching
chains is something that is unique to us
and we are the first to market for that
the protocol is presented by the Stellar
Community Fund accelerate your we
project with Sellar
funding there’s a new layer one on the
Block and it’s focused on enabling the
next 1,000 chains in gaming and
entertainment Saga recently launched on
mainnet with 350 projects in its
innovator program and an airdrop
campaign that includes several gaming
Partners The Saga mainnet hopes to
simplify the process for developers to
launch their own dedicated blockchains
called chain lits so how does this all
work what does the future look like for
web 3 games and what makes this layer
one competitive in a growing landscape
we have the perfect person here to
unpack this layer one that’s been
getting a lot of hype lately Rebecca Lao
welcome to First mover thanks so much
for having me Jen it’s great to be here
well let’s talk about Saga I mentioned
it in my introduction there your mission
is to enable the next 1,000 chains in
gaming and entertainment that sounds
like quite a feat talk to me about how
you’re going to do this well it’s
wonderful to be with you and you’re
absolutely right SOA is a layer one but
we are a very unique layer one in that
we are a layer one to launch layer ones
so by definition everyone who’s building
on us is on their own layer one or set
of layer ones which we call chain LS and
all of these chain LS speak to one
another there is interoperability out of
the box and therefore you can have as
many layer ones as you like supporting
your particular application so it is a
very high performance environment and
that’s why
we always say we are designing for
infinite horizontal
scalability you can have as many layer
ones supporting your application as you
need and the reason we’re focused on
gaming and entertainment is when we
looked at the landscape and thought who
really needs this it really is games it
really is games that are focused on UI
ux above everything else on that
Costless experience for the end user on
reducing friction and making it a fun
and entertaining experience as much as
possible how does this solve the
challenges that that folks who are
building web 3 games and folks that are
building entertainment applications that
use web 3 how does it solve some of the
challenges for them absolutely so let’s
get down to fundamentals um the way that
a game or even an nft project that’s
doing a massive drop the way that they
are structured is they have lots of
onchain transactions so you imagine all
the actions in a game that matter and
that would want to be recorded on chain
there’s a lot of them throughout the
course of any play session
and the only way that an layer one or
any sort of blockchain can really handle
that kind of volume is by scaling now
the trick um with gaming and
entertainment as well is that you want
to make it as frictionless as possible
for that end user and cost does factor
into that so high and variable gas fees
are a distinct barrier to entry for
these kinds of applications now you
think about defi which has dominated web
3 applications so far defi has the
opposite Dynamic so defi has actually a
relatively low volume of transactions
comparatively speaking but each
transaction value is high enough such
that gas fees while painful for everyone
they are tolerable and so really in
gaming and entertainment you are looking
for as high performance and environment
as possible and you’re looking to reduce
cost on the front end as much as
possible if you can get it to Costless
transactions which sakea has all the
better so in many ways even though we
are a general purpose layer one so there
is def5 building on us as well as
various kinds of applications outside of
gaming and entertainment truly it is
gaming that has come to this chain you
know there have been a lot of layer twos
that are working to solve the same
problems that you just laid out for me
talking about the differences why might
a developer choose to uh build a chain
lit on top of saga rather than uh Layer
Two absolutely so I would focus on three
main differences so first and foremost
every single chain LD on SOA is its own
fully decentralized proof of stake chain
it is a full chain with a full validator
set the way that we accomplish this is
every single time a developer is
deploying on Saga we are replicating
ourselves so we have a saga main net
it’s got a decentralized set of
validators and every single chainlet is
a replica of that validator set and
security model so that opens up a world
of possibilities first and foremost that
architecture is unique every single
layer two out there um is buy and single
sequencer rollups so a centralized
database in other words not a chain and
it’s got to roll up to the mother chain
in order to settle their transactions so
that opens up a whole host of
differences in feature set so first one
is
automation so Saga automates the
launching of these chain lights if you
look at our web app experience now it’s
about 5 Seconds to putting in the chain
parameters you hit submit and then it
takes about a minute for the validators
to sync and then you have your own
chainlet you have your own layer one
within about a minute it and you can
have as many of these as you like
automating the experience of launching
chains is something that is unique to us
and we are the first to market for that
so that’s the first distinction it’s
just ease of use for the developers the
second major distinction is the Costless
fees so um for most layer 2os the way
that they try to reduce cost on gas is
they will batch transactions from a
bunch of layer twos But ultimately a
layer two has to settle on a layer one
and so once they batch these trans
transactions it is sent to the layer one
and the hope is that the aggregate
transaction amount um when the
transactions are sent at a more optimal
time will hopefully reduce the gas fees
and by and large they have been
successful in reducing fees but
definitely not getting them down to a
level where it’s sustainable for an
application like gaming and
entertainment so you have to um keep in
mind that even for a gaming application
gas fees that are as low as 5 cents or
sub Penny are still really really
expensive when you aggregate that over
the number of transactions that you’re
dealing with in a game now for Saga we
are theless so on the front end we do
not show up the Saga token does exist
but it is used only by developers to pay
the validators to keep their chain LS
alive on the front end we by default do
not show up so we don’t charge gas fees
to the end user we leave it entirely up
to the developer to monetize however
they like so if they want to charge
their own token if they want to charge
Fiat stable Co if they have a big
community in another ecosystem and they
want to charge that token instead that’s
totally fine if for whatever reason they
want to use SG as a fee token for
Branding purposes we’re okay with that
but we do not mandate it at all so
second big Advantage is the Costless
transactions and the third is
interoperability none of these l2s are
able to speak to one another or have
fast bridging to other chains and when
it comes to scaling of course you need
all these instances to speak to each
other as much as possible and you need
that fast bridging to other
ecosystems now gaming is really near and
dear to my heart so I’m focusing in on
that part I know that it’s 80% of what’s
going on on Saga right now but I have to
ask you the we’re talking about the
automation of these chains it sounds
like um you’re really working to make
the process of bringing games especially
in the web 3 space to life easier yes
are you hoping to attract web 3
developers who are already building
these games or are you hoping to maybe
get some of those web 2 Developers been
reluctant they’ve been on the sidelines
it’s been a little bit difficult for
them to implement this technology into
the games that they’re already building
more comfortable with with web 3 who’s
your target there absolutely so the way
that we have approached it is we are
well aware that we have to win at home
first and so the web3 developers who are
looking into gaming who have been
building games for the last two three
years that is the core audience and I
would say that most people who are in
the innovator program with games that
are ready to go this year they fall into
category having said that there is a
huge advantage in web2 gaming
traditional gaming um but the way that
we approach it is yes we do have to make
the developer experience as easy as
possible but that’s not enough because a
web three game is very different from a
web to game it’s not enough to just say
to a web to game well it’s it’s so easy
to get onto web 3 all you have to do is
just put a few transactions on chain all
you have to do is take your in-game
assets and make them nfts on chain or
introduce a token into into your game as
opposed to your usual in-game currency
none of those Solutions are going to
translate to dollar signs for these game
developers in web too so you have to
really speak their language and achieve
the goals that they want to achieve they
are looking for user acquisition they’re
looking for retention of users they are
looking to grow their communities
through ugc user generated content they
are looking for greater social
engagement they’re looking for stronger
communities that is what matters to a
web to game developer it matters to a
game developer as well but web to has
been thinking about these problems for a
very long time um there are many ways in
which crypto uniquely solves these
problems but when we talk to a web2
developer we do emphasize the ease of
the development experience but we’re
really focused on making sure that their
business really their game or their game
Studio can grow using
crypto I’m so happy you said that it is
definitely not easy to just take a web 2
game and slap some web 3 elements on it
and then get people to actually use let
alone developers to to build it out and
really think thoughtfully about in-game
economies and so yes thank you for
saying that now I want to talk about
something that lots of people have been
talking about um people are very excited
about it on Twitter your airdrop
campaign that is named after a a Dragon
Ball Z reference a meme that I think
everyone knows power level over 9,000
tell me about it yeah absolutely so
power level over 9,000 is an incredibly
ambitious go to market campaign for all
of our closest Partners so we launched
mainnet obviously had a very big Genesis
airdrop of our own and what we learned
during that launch campaign is that we
have got a user acquisition engine going
and all of our partners noticed it as
well and so when it came time um to
really reward the ecosystem for being
early and reward our community for being
early we thought this is the perfect way
to do it so power level over 9,000 is a
campaign of over a 100 tokens and nfts
that are going to be air dropped to Saga
stakers and a lot of these tokens are
going to be coming from our chain Leets
so it’s going to be innovators who are
building on us um some of them will be
tokens that are actually recognizable in
the market already but many of them will
be new but I think what’s really
distinctive about this particular
program is that we are including a lot
of live tokens from Partners on other
ecosystems um that are coming onto Saga
so people like trapnel Wilder World
White GG um the sandbox OG and the
metaverse um explo which is a come to us
chain the largest mobile game publisher
in the world uh Marvel X which is a net
marble chain third largest game
publisher in the world overall um engin
of Fury which is a new game and then a
few special collaborations that we’re
going to announce over the next few
weeks but the idea was to really give
back to the ecosystem and the community
and I think all these partners are here
because they recognize the Saga
Community is where gamers are at this is
where they are going to grow their user
base um so 100 plus tokens it’s not
going to all come at once um everyone’s
going to get their due and time in the
spotlight so this is going to roll out
over the next few months it’s an
incredibly exciting project and we’re
just very grateful for all the
partnership and collaboration um with
with all these projects in our
ecosystem look into your crystal ball
for me tell me you know if this all
works out if this thesis that we all
have who work in this industry works out
what does the future of gaming look like
to you in five
years five years um so I’ll talk about
what web free gaming looks like and then
I’ll talk about wider gaming because I
do think that we will make it because we
will have made a greater impact on the
gaming industry and given the size of
the gaming industry I would say on
society RIT large so I’ll go small first
into saga’s contribution and then go
into the larger social VI um so in terms
of saga’s goals so I’ll never forget
that um had a conversation with the head
of gaming at Samsung who was talking
about getting a saga storefront onto
Samsung Galaxy play and was asking a top
web three game how many Maus monthly
active users and I this was deep in the
bare Market but still um I said about
50,000 and he said what is this web
three gaming Revolution I keep hearing
about uh if a game does not have at
least a million Maus it is not
considered competitive and so my goal
this year um especially with our
innovators but really with a saga
Publishing House called Saga Origins we
are going to land that game or maybe a
couple games that are going to reach
those levels at least a million Maus so
that’s the goal of saga in terms of user
um acquisition and
retention now in terms of what we hope
to contribute to wider gaming I would
say that growth in gaming is dependent
on games like fortnite like Roblox where
they really encourage user generated
content they really encourage modding of
the game so not moderating but modifying
of the game and it really is about
fostering that creative expression among
your gamer community that you really
grow your title and everyone would like
to capture that magic but I don’t think
a big centralized Studio can do it um a
web three title is much better position
to do it now um you zoom out and look at
all the trends that are happening in AI
as well everyone is using generative AI
in all of their gaming artwork uh and
all of their gameplay and the marriage
of that in crypto I think is going to
happen first in gaming um and so the
Confluence of those two technologies in
the hands of individual users with
democratized generation of creative
content is incredibly powerful and I
think it’ll be exactly what um iTunes
Facebook Tik Tok um that kind of impact
on our society that’s what we have to
look forward to over the next 5 10 years
I’m so surprised to hear that that came
from Samsung Samsung has been pretty
Forward Thinking I think when it comes
to web 3 pretty open to experimenting
but they also really understand the
gaming space so I don’t know I was
surprised to to hear that were you
surprised I was not surprised to hear
because I think that it was um it was
definitely put it this way it was
difficult um feedback to hear because
the difference between 50,000 and a
million Maus is quite a lot but I think
it was necessary and it was very welcome
feedback um because now we know in all
honesty what is the goal what is the
goal for us to be taken seriously not
just Saga but for the industry RIT large
to be taken seriously in wider gaming
what does success look like uh and so
Samsung is incredibly forward thinking
they’re one of the few they are the only
App Store at the moment to really
welcome on um uh applications that have
those tokens or those nfts uh and they
have obviously invested uh in a lot of
web 3 projects so they are incredibly
forward thinking but I think they wanted
to deliver a hard truth and it was very
welcome because it’s given us a real
gold to work
towards and the last question here
before we wrap up why do you think there
hasn’t been a really good web 3 game yet
and when I say really good I guess like
really successful why do you think that
it’s been so tough for web through games
to break out into the mainstream I think
that the development cycle for web 3
gaming is something that developers
frankly have to um really figure out and
I do think that after a couple cycles of
going after these games they are
figuring it out but in traditional
gaming you have years to work on a game
so you tease a game and then the
community gets excited you go away for a
few years to really work on it and a
game is complicated I mean think about a
movie that you can actually interact
with it’s not easy to build a game um
and then a few years later it comes out
big Hoopa all of that so the time frame
is a lot longer now in crypto you can
already imagine a few years is maybe two
cycles uh and so timing is incredibly
important and if you um if you put out a
game that’s like half baited it’s not
going to be very good you may capture um
the revenue from nfts or a token sale
but it’s not going to be a very good
game but I mean that is not casting
aspersions at all on the development
team you just had to face the pressure
of the cycle in crypto um so now I think
people are figuring out okay what is it
that we can give the community before
the game is fully finished such that we
can start to build that Community we can
get them engaging um we can get them you
know very interesting opportunities and
assets to work with but um we still
preserve the opportunity to release a
really really great game I think people
are figuring out that cycle that’s
probably why you haven’t seen a
breakthrough title yet it’s just the the
pressure um of the the user cycle in
crypto just hasn’t really allowed for it
but I think it’s getting better I keep
saying that we have to go we really have
to go after this one but one last
question do you think that a a small
game a small game company is going to
come up and Dethrone the centralized
players or do you think it’s going to
take participation from some of the
centralized players the big game
Publishers we know today um working with
the web 3 companies to really make the
stream come to
fruition I definitely think that
Innovation always comes from the
Grassroots and so it’s not necessarily
just going to be web 3 native Studios
that are going to produce these games
it’s also going to be Indie Studios um
in in traditional gaming that are going
to realize the opportunity here that
have the freedom to experiment who are
also going to bring those great titles
to Market I do think that for the large
Studios and we’ve seen this in in
Greater entertainment as well is it’s
incredibly hard to innovate because they
are followers they will see that a
technology really takes hold before they
inevitably pour money into it and then
try to catch up so while we always
welcome conversations with the larger
Studios we understand that it really is
in the smaller more Nimble more
Innovation minded Studios um where we’re
going to see the first adoption and
inevitably whatever the big studios
produce The Taste the look and feel the
artwork the gameplay all of that is
going to follow what’s already come um
so it really does come from the
Grassroots it’s much harder work um to
sell to many as opposed to just a few
but inevitably I think every technology
Trend follows that pattern Rebecca
thanks so much for joining first mover
was pleasure
Saga CEO Rebecca Liao joins “First Mover” with an introduction to the protocol’s new Chainlets feature, which allows the automation of layer 1 creation. Plus, challenges faced by Web3 games and insights on Saga’s “power-level over 9000” campaign.
#cryptocurrency #digitalfinance #finance #bitcoin #crypto #layer1 #automation #chainlets #tech
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