8 Questions for Injective Protocol

1. Please describe Injective to those unfamiliar with it. What’s your vision and mission?

Injective is an open, interoperable layer-one blockchain optimized for DeFi applications. It uniquely provides plug-and-play modules, including an order book and derivatives trading module, that make it easy for any developer to quickly launch finance applications with inherent value. Coupled with smart contracts capabilities, any developer can build complex applications with cutting-edge protocols. Built with Cosmos-SDK, Injective utilizes a Tendermint-based Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to achieve instant transaction finality while sustaining lightning-fast speeds.

The current financial system is broken and too inefficient. DeFi has been promising in taking the first step towards breaking down the centralized infrastructure of the traditional exchange markets. Our mission is to take it a step further and to provide the most advanced, next-generation financial infrastructure for building DeFi applications on top of the Injective blockchain. Users can access these applications in a fully decentralized, fast, cross-chain, low-fee, and secure manner.

2. When was the idea behind Injective born, and what led to it?

Injective originally set out to rectify a pressing need in the world of finance: to create a truly free and fair financial system for all. This in turn could only be achieved by creating financial applications that are on par with the performance of centralized counterparts while still retaining complete decentralization.

At its very inception, Injective joined the first-ever cohort of the Binance Labs incubation program. Inspired by the world of cryptography, Injective Labs co-founders Eric Chen and Albert Chon started initial experimentations with Ethereum before quickly realizing that the difficult problems at hand could not be rectified by a generalized blockchain since they are neither customizable or performant enough for building robust financial applications.

This led the two founders to the promised land of Cosmos where they became two of the earliest contributors to the nascent interchain ecosystem. While still early, it was undeniable even at that time that the great promise of Cosmos as a whole sought to bring about a world of connected blockchains. Injective began to create a number of innovative Web3 modules such as the first fully on-chain orderbook and derivatives that can be utilized to build a whole host of powerful interchain dApps.

Ultimately, Injective helped to create the first sector-specific blockchain that would be both MEV resistant and highly scalable. Helix, the premier decentralized derivatives exchange, was one of the marquee dApps launched on top of Injective. Helix rapidly became one of the fastest-growing exchanges in history, surpassing $1 billion in trading volume within its first 30 days.

3. Tell us something about your team’s background.

Our team comes from world-class universities and some of the most respected companies in the world today. Our core team members hold degrees from the likes of Stanford and Harvard. In addition, we have worked at leading tech companies such as Amazon. Lastly, we possess a strong background in finance with experience at hedge funds such as Two Sigma, which currently is one of the largest quantitative hedge funds.

Our experience with blockchain technology and cryptography emphasizes many years as well, having worked at crypto-focused funds and designing our own unique token standards that later was adopted by several protocols.

To create a layer-one blockchain for building powerful DeFi applications, it is crucial to assemble a team with extensive technical and financial knowledge. This is what makes our team so unique, we can harmoniously blend together our prior experiences with software, digital assets, and trading to create the fastest sector specific blockchain.

4. Let’s say I want to start using Injective. Where do I start? Where can I find some how-to guides?

Injective has a multitude of products today that all help to make it the most robust blockchain specialized for DeFi.

To start, you can first go to Injective Hub, which includes a suite of tools for Injective, such as a staking dashboard, INJ burn auctions, wallets, insurance funds and a comprehensive governance portal.

Under the “Featured dApps” section, you can find a couple of decentralized crypto exchanges built on Injective where you can trade there with the lowest fees. Before you trade on any of the exchange dApps, make sure you transfer some funds to Injective through the Injective Bridge. The Injective Bridge is a fully trustless cross-chain bridge with native support for Ethereum, Cosmos, and a number of new layer ones such as BNB Chain through the upcoming Wormhole integration later this year.

For how-to guides, you can check the FAQs or watch video tutorials on the Youtube channel.

5. Why did you decide to migrate/build on the BNB Chain?

Binance has long served as a valuable partner for Injective. We were first incubated by Binance Labs back in 2018 and later became the first-ever incubated project to host a successful IEO on Binance Launchpad. Binance’s primary asset, BNB, is already available on exchange dApps built on Injective. It is only natural to deepen this relationship further and leverage the Binance ecosystem to reach new user bases that may prefer building on BNB Chain.

6. What do you hope to see next from the BNB Chain community?

We hope to see more developers as BNB Chain builds a more friendly community for different developers. As Binance has a large number of users worldwide, we are looking forward to seeing more of them on BNB Chain overtime.

As Injective is able to connect to BNB Chain through Wormhole integration, we expect to see a lot of users from the BNB Chain community to access Injective and use dApps built on Injective.

7. What do you see as the main challenge for the future of DeFi?

Currently, we see many issues for DeFi applications, such as high gas fees, security vulnerabilities, poor UX, and slow speeds.

Injective seeks to rectify many of these problems moving forward. We are devoid of any gas fee; the exchange dApps on Injective integrate robust security parameters with an intuitive UX while also far surpassing the speeds of other DEXes.

8. Where do you see DeFi and BNB Chain in five years?

We envision the DeFi market to grow exponentially for the next few years with various types of projects that meet user demands. As traction grows, the need for more established platforms will rise in conjunction. This is why BNB Chain can become a market leader in this sector with various platforms leveraging it to introduce novel DeFi products.

Where to find Injective:

Website | Discord | Twitter | Telegram | GitHub |