A New Path

Valis charts a new bold path in blockchain strategy and economics. Through vertical integration, we prioritize Frictionless, Instant, Reliable, and Easy UX for users and developers over crypto debates. This early look explores shifts on purpose, approach, structure, and rewards to achieve our goal.

Spelunker, April 1, 2025.

From Solving the Blockchain Trilemma to Delivering the User Value Quartet

Every new blockchain faces the inevitable question: "How do you plan to solve the trilemma?" —the trade-off between scalability, security, and decentralization. It’s a rite of passage. A loaded question implying mastery of this puzzle is the ultimate goal. At Valis, we take a different view: the trilemma isn’t our endgame. We’re here to deliver value users truly seek.

Beyond crypto orthodoxy circles, users rarely dwell on scalability or decentralization. They ask practical questions:

• "Is it free?" (zero costs, frictionless).
• "Is it instant?" (zero delays, immediate).
• "Does it always work?" (zero errors, reliable).
• "Is it easy to use?" (zero complexity, effortless).

This quartet—Frictionless, Instant, Reliable, Easy or, for short, or FIRE—defines our mission. Businesses succeed by solving customer needs, not chasing abstract ideals. Project Tockchain prioritizes the user value quartet over the blockchain trilemma. Does this sideline scalability, security, or decentralization? No. It reframes them as tools for user outcomes, not trophies. Across our product lifecycle (Discover, Define, Design, Develop, Deliver, Debrief) and audiences (users, developers, investors), FIRE remains our north star, shaping an ecosystem delivering tangible benefits.

The question is not "How do you solve the trilemma?" but "How do you deliver FIRE?".

From Modularity Purism to Vertical Integration

Traditional Layer 1 blockchains champion modularity, minimizing dependencies to enhance resiliency—an approach often hailed as crypto’s gold standard. This "crypto purism" contrasts sharply with vertical integration, a proven business strategy where a company expands its operations across multiple stages of its supply chain.

Apple is a textbook example of vertical integration done right. By mastering hardware (M and C series), software (iOS, macOS, watchOS), services (Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud…), and distribution (Apple Stores, Apple.com), Apple delivers FIRE:

• Frictionless: Hardware profits fund OS updates at no cost.
• Instant: Tight integration boosts performance.
• Reliable: Fewer vendor dependencies enhance stability.
• Easy: Seamless user experience (UX) sets them apart.

This fosters ecosystem lock-in, yet fuels Apple’s edge. Crypto largely favors modularity’s adaptability and community-driven innovation, sidestepping seamless integration. Exceptions like Binance Smart Chain’s centralized ecosystem tie-ins, Solana’s performance-driven stack, and Cosmos’s hub-linked chains showcase the promise of integration, but the approach remains rare and underexplored in crypto. Valis breaks this mold, with tight ecosystem integration to forge a cohesive whole. We’re building a streamlined system where control drives efficiency and value, not a modular platform for all purposes.

In today’s overcrowded, hyper-competitive crypto space, we believe delivering FIRE UX through integration—not modularity—will set us apart.

From Multiple Third-Party Chains to a Single First-Party Chain

Our goal is to deliver next-generation stablecoins for crypto and traditional finance users alike. Unlike incumbents like Tether and Circle, who deploy stablecoins across multiple third-party chains with varying speeds and fees, resulting in an inconsistent UX, Valis pursues a first-party, single-chain approach. We prioritize a consistent FIRE UX over broader reach. Meet user and developer needs and the market will follow.

A key driver for developing our own blockchain is greater control over our upstream technology stack. This opens the door for tight integration across all layers in our stack, both economically and technologically, including:

By making these layers connected and interdependent, we ensure a unified ecosystem that delivers seamless value, eliminating the inconsistencies of the modularity and multi-chain approaches. See the diagram later for a visual comparison of Valis’s integrated approach versus traditional modularity.

This first-party single-chain strategy leverages vertical integration to unify our technology stack, reducing dependency on external chains. It sets the stage for frictionless economics and streamlined development, enhancing user and developer experiences.

Control of the Layer 1 is a prerequisite for tight integration across layers.

From Siloed Chains to Native L1 Bridges

Traditional blockchains operate in silos, limiting asset movement across networks via disparate protocols, often relying on external bridges that add friction and risk. Valis reimagines this through Project Tockchain, integrating native cross-chain bridges at the L1 protocol level, ensuring seamless, frictionless interoperability. Unlike siloed multi-chain approaches, our strategy unifies assets and data within a cohesive framework.

At Project Tockchain’s core, transaction types like bridgetx and hashlocktx enable direct, cost-efficient cross-chain transfers, eliminating bridge-specific fees and delays. This leverages vertical integration, aligning our blockchain, System App (Valis Stablecoins), and User App (Valis Wallet) layers to deliver FIRE—frictionless, instant, reliable, easy—swaps for users. Economically, native bridges reduce overhead, enhancing liquidity and supporting VNET’s value, as outlined in our tokenomics below. Technologically, they simplify developer onboarding by embedding bridge functionality in the protocol, avoiding smart contract complexities.

Through our research, Project Tockchain will refine this L1 bridge integration, offering a secure, unified alternative to siloed chains. This positions Valis as a leader in cross-chain interoperability, minimizing risks like hacks or delays.

Valis’s native L1 bridges will ensure frictionless, instant cross-chain value.

From Free Transactions to Frictionless Transactions

Consider cost from the end user perspective. Many chains struggle to offer truly frictionless transactions, even efficient ones incur network costs that users bear as processing fees under modularity’s model, typically through acquiring the chain’s coinbase token, adding friction like wallet setup or token swaps. Valis takes a different tack. We aim to redefine blockchain transactions as truly frictionless for next-generation stablecoins, eliminating explicit (e.g., bridge, transaction fees) and implicit (e.g., volatility, slippage, liquidity, trading) costs.

Balanced vertical integration is key to minimize costs, making subsidization feasible.

First, we minimize costs. Control of the L1, via Project Tockchain, opens the door to become the best chain at cost-efficient performance. Currently, at $0.000000058158 per transaction, or 58 nanocents. We minimize costs:

1. Network costs: via full-core utilization for high throughput of multiple transaction types, even on standard nodes.
2. Trading costs: via zero-fee orderbooks.
3. Liquidity pool costs: via zero-fee pools.
4. Slippage costs: via deep reserves, VUSD fiat peg reduces volatility.

Second, we offset costs. Part of the revenue generated at the system app layer (Valis Stablecoins) is redirected to offset Stablecoins costs:

1. Bridge processing costs: originating at L0 and incurred by end users at L3.
2. Transaction processing costs: originating at L1 and incurred by node operators at L1.
3. Volatility and slippage costs: originating at L1 and incurred by end users at L3.

To remove transaction processing costs we use Valis Stablecoins revenue to set up a price floor for the coinbase received by node operators at L1 (see Tockchain’s Tokenomics below). To remove bridge processing costs, and volatility and slippage costs we leverage identity verification (KYC) as an anti-sybil mechanism and establishing usage quotas per end user at L4. Initially, our fair-use policy will exclude automated trading (high-frequency trading firms, market makers, arbitrageurs).

Valis integrated approach will create the world’s first truly frictionless stablecoins.

From Smart Contracts to Transaction Types

Modular blockchains rely on smart contracts (SCs) for functionality, which can foster community-driven development and flexibility, but they introduce risks for developers and users. Smart contracts suffer from unreliable code, prone to exploits like reentrancy and integer overflow, risking hacks and downtime. They’re insecure, with vulnerabilities exposing funds or data to malicious actors. Developers face a steep learning curve mastering SC languages, such as Solidity, gas optimization, and testing, slowing ecosystem growth. Custom smart contract development is complex, delaying innovation and increasing friction for builders and users.

Valis counters this with native transaction types at Project Tockchain’s protocol level, embedding SC-like features: multisig, swaps, locks, airdrops, dividends, orderbooks, and potential for lending, NFTs and many others, surpassing existing chains’ slower development, and avoiding SC cons. Creating these functions takes hours or days, versus weeks or months for SCs, due to direct core integration and fewer constraints. This boosts reliability by avoiding bugs, enhances security by sidestepping vulnerabilities, and simplifies onboarding with pre-built, C-coded tools, reducing the learning curve and accelerating ecosystem growth. Developers can code custom transaction types and request protocol inclusion, fostering community-driven innovation.

Valis’s transaction types will enable SC-like features, simplify developer onboarding, and rapidly expand our ecosystem, outpacing slower chains.

From Node Operation-Based Reward to Liquidity Provision-Based Rewards

Traditional blockchains reward node operators—miners or validators—with coinbase tokens for securing the network, tying value to computational or staking effort. This model, while reliable, often burdens users with fees and sidelines those who drive ecosystem activity. Valis reimagines this through Project Tockchain’s tokenomics, prioritizing liquidity provision over node operation to fuel a FIRE-centric economy.

Our native token, VNET, powers this shift. Unlike mining or staking rewards, VNET incentivizes capital contribution. Most blockchains distribute tokens solely to nodes, but our vertically integrated approach allocates 80% of VNET issuance to liquidity providers via hourly richlists—rankings of VUSD-equivalent holdings across wallets, pools, and orders. Participants holding assets, like Valis Stablecoins or paired liquidity, earn VNET based on their stake’s size, not node uptime. Another 10% supports Valis’s ecosystem development, while the final 10% rewards Tockchain’s generator nodes for consensus, ensuring network stability without user cost.

This liquidity-driven model integrates economics seamlessly. Valis Stablecoins’ application-layer revenue not only offsets blockchain costs (delivering free transactions) but also bolsters VNET’s value. A portion of this revenue converts to VUSD, deepening liquidity pools and supporting VNET’s price floor, reducing friction for holders. Rewards scale with contribution, not operation, fostering a vibrant, user-focused ecosystem.

Shifting rewards to liquidity provision aligns value with user participation.

Comparing Approaches: Solana’s Traditional Modularity vs Valis’s Vertical Integration

Solana’s modular approach relies on third-party components across layers. At L0, Wormhole enables cross-chain transfers but introduces fees and risks (e.g., a $320M hack in 2022). L1’s Solana Mainnet handles consensus and transactions, with base fees around 250,000 nanocents per transaction. L2 hosts applications like DEXs (Serum, Saber, Raydium, Orca, GooseFX), and stablecoins (Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC), built via smart contracts, adding complexity and vulnerabilities. L3’s Phantom Wallet provides user access but requires token management, adding friction.

Valis’s integrated approach unifies all layers (L0-L3). At L0, Valis Bridges enable cross-chain transfers with no fees, secured by protocol-level design. L1’s Valis Tockchain handles consensus and transactions, with costs at 58 nanocents per transaction, offset by L2’s Valis Stablecoins revenues, and uses Transaction Types to eliminate the need for smart contracts, avoiding their complexity, vulnerabilities, and slow ecosystem development. L2’s Valis Stablecoins (VUSD) are implemented at the protocol level and support orderbook-based and liquidity pool-based trading at the protocol level, free of charge, eliminating the need for a third-party DEXs. L3’s Valis Wallet provides user access with no token management, ensuring a frictionless FIRE UX (Frictionless, Instant, Reliable, Easy) via KYC and quotas.

A New Path

At Valis, we’re carving a bold path apart from crypto norms with four defining shifts:

1. Purpose Shift: Prioritizing FIRE over the trilemma.
2. Approach Shift: Pursuing integration over modularity.
3. Structure Shift: Building a first-party single-chain ecosystem over third-party multi-chain sprawl, bridging assets over siloed protocols, eliminating friction over user costs, streamlining technology over SC complexity and risks.
4. Rewards Shift: Rewarding liquidity provision over node operation.

We hope this early look into Valis business strategy and economics offers valuable insight as we build ahead.

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On this Page

• A New Path
• From Solving the Blockchain Trilemma to Delivering the User Value Quartet
• From Modularity Purism to Vertical Integration
• From Multiple Third-Party Chains to a Single First-Party Chain
• From Siloed Chains to Native L1 Bridges
• From Free Transactions to Frictionless Transactions
• From Smart Contracts to Transaction Types
• From Node Operation-Based Reward to Liquidity Provision-Based Rewards
• Comparing Approaches: Solana’s Traditional Modularity vs Valis’s Vertical Integration
• A New Path

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