With "Gateway,' DeFi Money Market Compound embraces a multi-chain future.

[Cordillerabit]

The Gateway testnet, which will be the next home for Compound, a decentralized finance (DeFi) money market, is now operational.

Compound Finance founder Robert Leshner said in a phone interview that the Substrate-based blockchain is fully embracing interoperability, with application developers building on every base layer, not just Ethereum.

Leshner explained, “Gateway is really designed for a multi-chain future where assets live on multiple blockchains and decentralized finance applications and logic run on multiple blockchains as well.”

The project was first described in a white paper published in December 2020 under the name Compound Chain, with a focus on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It's currently available on the Ropsten testnet of Ethereum.

“While Ethereum may be at the heart of most applications and assets, there will be popular DeFi applications and assets issued on other chains. Gateway is designed to connect Ethereum to various blockchains so that users can more easily move value between them,” he added.

Gateway, according to Leshner, will be able to transfer assets from one blockchain to another via “starports,” which are Gateway-specific bridges. According to him, an Ethereum starport is now operational on testnet, with the community responsible for adding additional bridges. Before going live, he expects the testnet to run for two months.

Gateway, like Compound, will be governed by the same COMP token that was first released in June 2020. Owners on Gateway have the same rights and responsibilities as token holders, such as the ability to add new assets. Gateway, however, will have more functionality as a Substrate-based blockchain due to its highly modular design, according to Leshner.

Gateway's flexibility allows for no hard forks when a new version of the blockchain is released, according to Leshner. “Whenever that code is ready, you can update the chain in real time.”

Source: Bityard