Introduction
In this tutorial, we will delve into the transcript of an interview between Anna Rose and Alex from Aurora, featured on cLabs Pirate Radio. The interview focuses on Aurora, its relationship with NIR, and its role in enabling cross-chain interoperability. We will explore the key concepts discussed in the interview and provide an overview of Aurora’s capabilities.
Background and NIR
- Anna Rose, co-host of the podcast Zero Knowledge, introduces herself and welcomes Alex from Aurora for the interview.
- Alex briefly shares his background, mentioning his involvement in the oil field modeling and his transition to the crypto industry in 2015.
- Alex joined NIR, a third-generation blockchain aiming to solve scalability issues through sharding.
- NIR offers a developer-friendly environment with a complete virtual machine similar to Ethereum, although it requires smart contracts to be written in Rust or AssemblyScript instead of Solidity.
Introducing Aurora and its Purpose
- Anna questions Alex about the differences between NIR and Aurora as smart contract platforms.
- Alex explains that Aurora acts as a compatibility layer between Ethereum and the NIR blockchain, enabling Ethereum developers to run their smart contracts on NIR.
- Creating a native language for NIR would have been a complex task, so Aurora leverages WebAssembly to allow any language that can compile to WebAssembly, starting with Rust.
- Alex emphasizes the importance of Aurora’s goal to enable Ethereum developers to easily deploy and run their existing code on NIR.
Unique Features of NIR and Aurora
- Alex highlights NIR’s unique approach to gas fees, aiming to continuously incentivize users without relying solely on goodwill.
- Anna inquires about the Rainbow Bridge and its relation to Aurora.
- Alex explains that the Rainbow Bridge is part of Aurora’s brand, enabling users to bridge tokens from Ethereum to NIR quickly and at a low transaction cost.
- The Aurora smart contract on NIR manages a DAO that interacts with Ethereum, allowing users to utilize the liquidity on the Ethereum blockchain while benefiting from NIR’s scalability.
Technical Implementation and Benefits of Aurora
- Alex elaborates on how Aurora works, clarifying that it is not a sidechain but an entire ecosystem on NIR.
- Developers can create transactions for Ethereum using MetaMask or other software, and these transactions are sent to the Aurora smart contract on NIR.
- Aurora has an internal bridge that facilitates quick token transfers between Aurora runtime and NIR runtime, with finalization happening on NIR.
- Aurora aims to be compatible with existing Ethereum addresses, providing a familiar experience for Ethereum developers.
Roadmap and Future Developments
- Anna inquires about Aurora’s roadmap and upcoming plans.
- Alex mentions the importance of governance in bridging solutions and Aurora’s focus on implementing a decentralized governance system.
- Alex expresses his desire to collaborate with the Ethereum Foundation to align with Ethereum’s future developments, such as incorporating pre-compiles for inter-shard communication.
- Aurora aims to enhance the user experience by enabling faster transfers and scalability beyond the current market solutions.
- Alex emphasizes that Aurora provides answers for scaling Ethereum in the present and the future.
By exploring this interview transcript, we have gained insights into Aurora’s role in enabling cross-chain interoperability and its relationship with the NIR blockchain. Aurora’s compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts and its focus on scalability solutions make it an interesting project to watch.