AMA Recap: The Dude x Rangers Protocol
On Sunday, October 3rd 2021, the Dude community had the opportunity to chat with Nicolas Zhu, BD Head of Rangers Protocol: a future-oriented virtual world blockchain infrastructure incubated by MixMarvel, integrating cross-chain, NFT, and EVM protocols.
This will be a recap of our interactions, along with all the questions asked by our chat members.
The Dude:
Thank you for taking the time to tell us all about Rangers Protocol today.
Before we get into the project itself, why not tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
You can tell us about the team too, if you’d like.
Zhu:
Of course.
I am Nicolas from Rangers Protocol, and I am the BD head.
The Rangers core team has an average of more than ten years of technical development experience, including data security experts from Alibaba, Tmall architecture chief Engineers, and Huawei’s core developers, representing the Engineering capabilities of Asian industries and super-high R&D standards.
At the same time, the leading creative team has been at the top of cryptographic security technology of the Ali Security Department in the early years and has fully mastered the core technology of the blockchain field. As the core architect of the commercial, public chain, they have entirely implemented the construction and development of the underlying infrastructure.
The Dude:
You weren’t kidding about super-high end R&D…From Alibaba to Huawei, I can tell the team is incredibly talented and good at what they do. Thank you for sharing this with us.
So, about Rangers itself, how would you introduce it to someone as briefly as possible?
Furthermore, what motivated you to start this project?
What is its mission statement?
Zhu:
Rangers Protocol is a future-oriented virtual world blockchain infrastructure incubated by MixMarvel, integrating cross-chain, NFT, and EVM protocols.
As a high-performance chain group that can realize the EVM multi-chain contract interoperability, Rangers Protocol serves all entrepreneurs who want to explore the blockchain world. It allows pioneer developers to freely try out diverse content and applications in the Rangers Protocol ecosystem without permission.
For this purpose, Rangers Protocol has gathered a group of senior technical engineers. It took three years to develop an underlying technical solution with a clear framework and functions. This infrastructure can provide developers and users with the simplest operation, high performance, and high applicability.From the technical point of view, Rangers Protocol is divided into two parts: Rangers Engine and Rangers Connector.
The reason why we created Rangers Protocol is straightforward because, in 2018, the congestion of Ethereum caused gas fees to soar. So the MixMarvel team set out to incubate Rangers Protocol. The version developed at the time was Rocket Protocol 1.0, which was applied to “”HyperDragons.”” With its help, congestion has been avoided in many popular blockchain games, and gas fee consumption has also been reduced.
The mission statement of Rangers Protocol is becoming the infrastructure of the Metaverse.
The Dude:
With crypto games and the whole Metaverse concept being more popular than ever now, it only makes sense to want to create more utilitarian applications based around it. I can immediately see a practical use case for it.
I’ve been made aware that Rangers is compatible of multiple blockchains. Having said that, how do you achieve cross-chain interoperability?
How do you tackle the compatibility issues that it brings?
Zhu:
Rangers Protocol performs cross-chain through Rangers Connector. Rangers Protocol itself is compatible with Ethereum and can be compatible with all blockchains in the Ethereum system. For a blockchain that is not compatible with Ethereum, as long as it has a smart contract, Rangers Protocol can be used for cross-chain intercommunication.
The Dude:
How is the development roadmap for Rangers Protocol right now?
Could you go into detail about current development status, partnerships, etc?
What is there to look forward to?
Zhu:
What has been achieved so far is that the Rangers Protocol testnet has been launched, and the first dapp, BlueStone, has been successfully deployed. Our next target is to upgrade the testnet and launch the mainnet in Q4. we can show you a technical roadmap so that everyone can see what we have already achieved, what we are doing, and where we will succeed in the future.
Rangers Protocol tech roadmap picture:
The Dude:
I see some huge, huge names in both the parner and investor charts…🤩
This is super exciting.
Zhu:
About the future: after the Rangers team’s in-depth research on the industry and in-depth analysis of various projects, the team believes that many existing solutions currently have relatively scattered support for NFTs.
They do solve some of the problems individually, but they have not formed a complete unified solution.
The complex application scenarios for NFT are more complicated than DeFi and require higher underlying layers.
That is why we saw the demand for Rangers Protocol.
The Dude:
Right, Rangers really does seem like a catch-all solution. Something meant to run alongside as many NFT/Metaverse applications as possible.
Zhu:
You got it.
The Dude:
Regarding the roadmap you shared: I’m seeing something about VRF+BLS consensus here as well…
We’re all familiar with PoS (proof of stake) and PoW (proof of work), but what is the VRF+BLS consensus?
How does it work?
How does it solve the high-frequency trading issue that we talked about a moment ago?
Zhu:
It is composed of Rangers Protocol Engine and Rangers Protocol Conector.
Engine aimes to become the blockchain version of the Unreal game development engine.
The Dude:
If you’re aiming to take inspiration from a game engine, well, I’m glad you’ve chosen Unreal.
Again, the experience of the team behind the project is showing right now.
Zhu:
Conector aims to connect all blockchains.
VRF consensus algorithms such as Algorand usually select multiple verification nodes to vote for the candidate blocks in each consensus round. The verification group signature mechanism mainly uses the BLS algorithm.
The VRF algorithm guarantees that the proposal nodes and verification groups are random, unpredictable, unselectable, and unconcealable. From the perspective of communication complexity, signature length, and performance, we believe that the BLS threshold signature algorithm is more suitable for the verification groups rather than the Byzantine fault-tolerant algorithm.
For the developers and users who want to know more about this. We have published an article that explicitly describes the block generation process under the VRF+BLS consensus mechanism. It will let you understand what role VRF+BLS plays in Rangers Protocol. You can read it here https://medium.com/rangersprotocol/how-does-rangers-protocols-rpg-come-into-being-7d5075e982aa"
The Dude:
Thank you very much for the link.
Just wanted to circle back to what you said before about interoperability across chains, and this is more from a security standpoint.
What sets the Rangers’ Bridge apart from the bridges of other protocols?
How safe is it for investors to migrate their assets from one chain to another?
Zhu:
Rangers Protocol designed Rangers Connector for assets cross-chain.
The difference from other cross-chain bridges is that Rangers Connector adopts the consensus mechanism of VRF+TSS. If you make a comparison, you can see that it is currently one of the most advanced solutions among all cross-chains that have been launched, and Ethereum can verify it.
In the cross-chain process, this solution can completely guarantee the security of assets.
The Dude:
Very good! Thanks for clearing that up.
Just a few more questions before we start the community round.
I just wanted to ask about two things first:
Rangers is supposed to be an all-encompassing solution for blockchain games, that much is clear.
But what isn’t clear yet is your connection to the crypto gaming project MixMarvel.
What is your connection with them? Does Rangers already work with any of their games? (For instance, I know they have a GameFi game called DeHero).
Zhu:
First of all, MixMarvel is a blockchain game publishing platform. So, Rangers Protocol is totally different project from it.
The former version of Rangers Protocol, Rocket Protocol, was a layer-2 solution that supported the applications of the MixmMarvel ecosystem apps. After years of development and upgrade.
Rocket protocol became Rangers Protocol then, an independent blockchain infrastructure.
So they are ecosystems on two different dimensions.
However, Rangers Protocol and MixMarvel will be able to help complete the missing parts of each other.
Currently, Rangers Protocol has established cooperation with DeHero, a DeFi game published by MixMarvel.
MORE partners including NFT music market, NFT ID provider, DEX, NFT lending protocol are also on the pipeline.
A world wide community co-making programes will also be held soon!
Stay tunned! Let us surprise you!
The Dude:
Thank you for clearing up the MixMarvel bit. I was just curious about you guys’ connection.
Zhu:
sure~ MixMarvel is our incubator, and they are very experienced in NFT AND GAMEFI area~
The Dude:
I know for a fact a lot of our chat really likes GameFi, so all the more reason to be excited about what Rangers can bring to the space 🚀
But finally, after all’s been said and done…When, and where, can we buy the Ranger token?
When is your IDO?
Zhu:
Thursday, October 7th.
Stay tuned with our official announcement for more information of IDO/testnet/mainnet.
The Dude:
How about we tackle the chat questions now?
Zhu:
Sure.
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS:
I could read that Rangers Protocol had great mechanisms and tools, but really what will be the solutions that it will provide to DeFi? And if your focus is not to provide a solution, then what are you looking to achieve?
Zhu responds:
Thank you so much for following us! Rangers represents our vision, which is to boost the construction of metaverse, so we focous more on NFTs and GAMEs. We offer many useful tools and features targeting painpoints for NFT/GAME related problems.
Regarding DEFI, we believe there are already many great applications and solutions, we will invite them to Rangers eco such as BLUESTONE, which is used to be a ETH based defi protocol, and now it’s migrating to Rangers. Besides, as Rangers is fully compatible with ETH, developers will be able to migrate their applications easily to Rangers.
Here is the link:
https://medium.com/rangersprotocol/rangers-protocol-testnet-launched-developers-state-the-dapp-migration-process-is-exceptionally-c096807e65e9
In your website you mention that Rangers Engine is the core of your protocol, which supports complex applications including the VRF+BLS consensus mechanism based on RPOS, could you give us more details about what is this mechanism based on? And what are its benefits?
Zhu responds:
Great question!
The consensus mechanism of VRF+BLS mainly adopts random group formation and random signature within the group, ensuring security, stability, and block generation speed. VRF is used primarily to select proposal nodes and verification nodes, which are random and unpredictable; BLS is mainly used for the signature of verification nodes.
It takes only 1 sec for Rangers to generate each block. You can find more details in our whitepaper. This kind of second-level block generation will not cause network congestion but will ensure low gas consumption. It will support more dapps deployed on Rangers Protocol and attract more users to experience the dapps on Rangers Protocol because of the low gas fees.
https://linktr.ee/rangersprotocol
It strikes me that Rangers Protocol is a project incubated by MixMarvelGame, but I understand that MixMarvelGame is a Blockchain game publishing platform, does this mean that in the future it is possible for you to release a game or this has nothing in common with the incubation and backing of MixMarvelGame? 👀👀 Why choose this platform to be incubated?
Zhu responds:
[In reply to Juan Sandoval]
haha, let me tell you some history of Rangers first.
The reason why we created Rangers Protocol is straightforward because, in 2018, the congestion of Ethereum caused gas fees to soar. So the MixMarvel team set out to incubate Rangers Protocol. The version developed at the time was Rocket Protocol 1.0, which was applied to “HyperDragons.” With its help, congestion has been avoided in many popular blockchain games, and gas fee consumption has also been reduced.
BTW, MixMarvel’s first game Hyperdragons was launched on 2018/04, and surpassed Cryptokitties on 2018/08 on ETH, thx to Rangers~~
To answer your question, we are cooperating with MixMarvel closely. MixMarvel and Rangers Protocol are two ecosystems that work on two different layers.
MixMarvel is a blockchain game publishing platform and content community. It is in the application layer and can connect many resources for publication.
Rangers Protocol is a virtual world’s blockchain infrastructure. It is in the underlying technology layer. It can provide solid, strong, and comprehensive support to the application developers.
I believe that they have their own strength and combined together it makes them 1+1= more than 2 🙂
As Rangers Protocol is the blockchain infrastructure of the virtual world in the future. In addition, it is fully compatible with Ethereum.
It looks really interesting,!!!!👏🏻😊
but,,,, I have a question because there is news that Ethereum is migrating to ETH 2.0. So your opinion on this issue. How will this news affect the Rangers Protocol? Will you not be affected?
Zhu responds:
yeah, very good quesion. Ethereum is in the process of upgrading from Eth1 to Eth2.
First of all, Rangers Protocol has its REVM that is fully compatible with the Ethereum EVM. The function of REVM is to provide support for asset interoperability and cross-chain. When Ethereum is upgraded, Rangers Protocol will also upgrade REVM simultaneously.
Secondly, Ethereum 2.0 is to improve the speed, efficiency, and scalability of the Ethereum network to handle more transactions.
The impact on Rangers Protocol is minimal.
We have an article answering this quesiton: https://rangersprotocol.medium.com/will-the-ethereum-2-0-upgrade-affect-rangers-protocol-9b7fb2986da9
feel free to check and more info could be found on our Twitter and Medium~
Can you tell us more describely about your IDO on October 5th? What will be the IDO price and what will be the listing price? Will you listed on CEX or DEX first?
Zhu responds:
Rangers Protocol Gas $RPG IDO launch onn Polkastarter. October 7th .
The IDO PRICE is 4usd per RPG.
After the launch, everyone can purchase $RPG in the secondary market.
You can follow our Twitter https://twitter.com/rangersprotocol for timely information.
Could you tell us about how efficient the VRF + BLS mechanism is and what are the objective solutions that it would provide to game developers? Basically how would you sell me this mechanism.
Zhu responds:
VRF+BLS has already been explained. The reason why we use VRF+BLS, is beacuse it ensurs security, stability, and block generation speedIn the future. And one more key feature, is that VRF+BLS can realize real-time confirmation, which is crucial game developers.
In the future, Rangers Protocol will add new tools sets and IDE, and other functions that lower the developer’s development threshold.
How long has Rangers been in development for?
Zhu responds:
Rangers Protocol has already been under development for three years. The previous version Rocket Protocol, used to serve the MixMarvel ecosystem applications.
With all this development and advanced technologies created in the three years of hard work. our Project has already been recognized by many top tier investors.
Zhu:
I gotta run, but it was a pleasure being here today.
Thank you all!
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Rangers Protocol social media links:
Twitter:https://twitter.com/rangersprotocol
Website:https://rangersprotocol.com
Telegram: https://t.me/RangersProtocol
Medium: https://medium.com/rangersprotocol
