The Octopus Guild is a community of developers, enthusiasts, appchains, and appchain candidates who seek to transform the current internet status quo into an avant-garde, decentralized-first community-owned network. We are enthusiastic “octopodes” eager to contribute and grow Web3 until it can succeed Web2.
Photo byIsabel Galvez on Unsplash
Web1 and Web2: What Was So Bad?
Each age of the internet is distinguished by how people interact with content, with the platform, and with each other. Long ago, in the age of Web1, the internet was still in its infancy. The only exciting thing you could do was open a static HTML site on the internet — but it kicked off a revolution anyway. The web was a new world, exciting to investors as well as entrepreneurs, and that excitement led to the dotcom bubble of the early 2000s.
Web2 itself was created in 2004, after the dotcom bubble burst, and was initially considered a way to make large platforms less centralized. This was done through integrating the open source movement into the new platforms — implementing OpenAPI concepts, getting developer contributions, allowing open access to information, and letting user contributions become the primary mechanism for content. So, even Web2 started as a way to democratize an aspect of the web — through user-generated and user-created platforms.
The problem is that, as the ecosystem progressed, each platform started to compete with each other for user-generated data. This led to strategies of user optimization, and then to strategies of user manipulation. These companies were for-profit companies, and when your primary metric is users' data, you end up optimizing your metrics via control over users themselves. This leads to the corporatization of platforms, and corporatization of user control.
What's worse, Web2 platforms are only user-generated and user-created. They were never user-owned.
This is where Web3 comes in.
The Plan to Revolutionize the Web
Web3 refers to decentralized apps that run on a blockchain owned by the user community. Web3 is designed to "redemocratize" the internet by initiating a community-owned internet platform.
To do this efficiently, a lot of Web3 applications should actually be implemented as appchains — apps on top of specifically tailored blockchains for different purposes. This approach is very different from the kind of general-purpose blockchains where only the app logic (smart contracts) are defined. An appchain is a full-stack approach where the entire platform can be customized, yet maintain decentralization.
Substrate has initiated this approach and created multiple tools to utilize. However, the primary issue with the current deployment environments is that there has not been a suitable network designed specifically to host appchains in an economically viable, idea-first way. The cost barrier to enter many of these networks are too prohibitive for many appchains.
In Comes the Octopus
Octopus Network is a brand new multichain network specifically designed to bootstrap and operate appchains ready to unleash innovations on Web3. It is a one-stop "Infrastructure Octopus" that is ready to accept an unlimited number of appchains who want to change the world.
The Octopus Network lowers the cost barrier by a factor of 100, and allows a flexible security strategy that fits each appchain’s needs via the LPoS leased security mechanism. Trustless cross-blockchain interoperability sits at the core of the Octopus Network protocol stack. The Octopus Relay enables appchains to be interoperable with the mainchain, or NEAR protocol. Appchains can interoperate with blockchains outside the Octopus Network, by bridges on NEAR — such as with Ethereum via Rainbow Bridge — or via out-of-box IBC pallet to connect with any IBC enabled blockchains directly. For other features, you can see this slide:
At present, there are already several initial appchains that have joined the Octopus Community. To help jumpstart the project awareness further, we are announcing the official launch of the Octopus Guild. (octopusguild.com)
What is the Octopus Guild?
The Octopus Guild begins with the initial appchains in the Octopus Network, along with their developers. As of today, the initial appchains are:
DeBio Network is building an anonymous-first, decentralized platform for your personal medical needs, starting with genetics. DeBio encourages synergy between labs of all scales while guaranteeing user anonymity and sovereignty at every step of the genomic data science workflow.
Discovol is a decentralized autonomous co-op, which shares the mission of discovering and propagating science-based, high-value health information across the internet with the vision of enabling more people to benefit from Omni-humane wisdom and creation.
Atocha is a decentralized protocol built for people who love puzzles, riddles, and trivia.
Muse Network is a high-performance music public chain to provide credible and low-cost copyright NFT solutions geared to simplify the copyright authentication process in the music industry.
Myriad is creating a decentralized meta-social platform built for freedom with our three revolutionary features: anonymous cross-platform monitoring to monitor posts from centralized platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, custom user-defined algorithms, and cross-platform monetization and tipping.
Octopus — The Internet of Blockchains
The operation of multichain networks would be akin to an octopus as each blockchain has a decision-making mechanism, efficiently adapting to dynamic environments. When connected as a whole, all members will benefit from a significant network effect and economies of scale. All public blockchains and multichain networks will be interconnected, forming the Internet of Blockchains.
The Octopus Guild welcomes all Octopus Network developers, fans, and future appchain makers to join us in the forum.