Defi is the perfect fit for Solana Blockchain

‍

Image Source: Pexels‍

Defi — short for “Defend” — is a fast-paced and interactive game of tag. It involves players assuming secret identities as either an attacker or defender, with the goal to remain in your team’s base (the “defend”) while tagging the other team members and forcing them out by their own base. This post is about how we at Solana got involved in this new awesome blockchain project and how our previous experience as avid gamers helped us understand how to build awesome products from scratch. We are excited that after several rounds of user testing, Defi has finally released its private beta to the general public, so you can all try it out for yourselves!

text

## Solana’s Path to Defi While we were building the Solana network, we were on the lookout for other exciting projects that we could collaborate with. We also wanted to create a community that fostered collaboration and exchange among blockchain projects. We were already hosting the Proof of Work conference, but we wanted to create more ways for people to interact, learn from each other’s experiences, and help each other out. Defi was the perfect fit for Solana Blockchain Defi is a new, live, fully-functional blockchain network based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It is a fork of the Ethereum network and therefore shares many of the same operational properties, such as a smart contract language, and the same virtual machine. But Defi is different in a few very important ways. Defi is live and fully-functional — meaning that you can create your own identities, write a smart contract, and send tokens between each other, all from your own browser with zero downloads or installations. Defi is built to be easy to use, but also to be fully decentralized so that there is no central authority who can shut it down or interfere with how it works. Defi is free to use for everyone, and all of the source code is and will be available publicly on the Defi GitHub. Defi is the perfect fit for Solana because we share the same values, and we both want to promote and help foster open-source collaboration. Defi is the perfect fit for Solana because we share the same values, and we both want to promote and help foster open-source collaboration. ## Why we built Defi As we built the Solana network, we had three core goals in mind. First, we wanted to build a network that is fully decentralized. This means that no single person or company controls the network; anyone can use it, and no one can stop them from doing so. The network is protected by a large group of independent computers distributed around the world that all work together to process transactions, like a decentralized internet. Second, we want the network to be scalable: so if it is used by millions of people, it doesn’t stop working. This is a different problem from being decentralized, and we are tackling it by designing a new type of network that can process transactions in parallel. Defi shares many of these same engineering principles and is a fork of the Ethereum network, which means that it is fully decentralized and also built to be scalable. Finally, we wanted to build a network that is censorship-resistant: so that no government, corporation, or hacker can stop people from using it. We are doing this by designing a new type of network that is not hosted by any company, but instead works using computers in many locations around the world. Defi is a fork of the Ethereum network, but it is specially designed to be censorship-resistant. Defi is also fully decentralized and scalable, which means that it is designed to be fully censorship-resistant. ## Building Defi: the technical details Defi is a public, permissionless blockchain that is fully decentralized. All users are able to read the blockchain, write to the blockchain, and participate in running the blockchain. Defi is built on top of the Ethereum network, which means it uses the same underlying technology: the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The EVM is a decentralized network of computers that run smart contracts. The Defi network is a fork of the Ethereum network, meaning it shares the same technical properties and has the same EVM. Defi is fully decentralized and censorship-resistant because it uses a completely different consensus algorithm that allows many computers to run the network and make it censorship-resistant. Defi uses a consensus mechanism called Proof of Stake (PoS). PoS is a consensus algorithm where the people who run the network are the ones who have the most to lose if the network fails. Defi is fully decentralized because anyone can run a computer that participates in the network by validating transactions and earning a reward for doing so. Defi is fully censorship-resistant because someone who controls a computer that earns a reward for validating transactions on the network cannot shut the network down, because they don’t control all computers. ## User Research and Product Development : What We Learned from Defi As we developed the Defi product, we conducted a variety of user research activities to better understand how people perceive the product, how they interact with it, and to identify any areas for improvement in the product or experience. Defi was created to be a fun, engaging experience for people who are already familiar with blockchain and want to practice interacting with the technology in a new way. Defi was built to be easy to understand and use. The interface was designed to be simple and intuitive, and the game itself encourages people new to blockchain to be playful and creative. ## Conclusion Defi is a new, live, fully-functional blockchain network based on the EVM. It is a fork of the Ethereum network and therefore shares many of the same operational properties, such as a smart contract language, and the same virtual machine. Defi is live and fully-functional — meaning that you can create your own identities, write a smart contract, and send tokens between each other, all from your own browser with zero downloads or installations. Defi is built to be easy to use, but also to be fully decentralized so that there is no central authority who can shut it down or interfere with how it works. Defi is free to use for everyone, and all of the source code is and will be available publicly on the Defi GitHub. Defi was created to be a fun, engaging experience for people who are already familiar with blockchain and want to practice interacting with the technology in a new way. ## We hope that you enjoy playing and learning with Defi, and we look forward to seeing what everyone creates!

‍