In this week’s AMA, the host, VolumeFi, CEO Taariq Lewis @LewisTaariq gives a recap of the Paloma network’s journey of discovery, learning, and milestone achievements in 2023. The many challenges demanded not only creativity and innovation from the team, but also tenacity and dogged determination to build one of the smartest, and fastest blockchains in cryptocurrency space.
Improving message relaying performance, the introduction of multiple signing keys, and Pigeon performance weights leading to shorter block times and faster throughput delivery all contribute to Paloma’s core mission - to deliver more messages faster than any other blockchain.
Paloma deployed to six chains namely: Ethereum, BNB, Optimism, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Base. The successful launch of Palomabot, which peaked at $8.5M in three months, is a testament to the power and usefulness of Paloma. The Curve TWAP and Euro Off-Ramp bots generated the highest volume of transactions and continue to remain popular among users.
Pigeon Feed is top of the agenda in 2024 marking the launch of Paloma’s online marketplace enabling validators to set their fees and earn rewards for their work. Pigeon Feed will pave the way for the much-anticipated launching of $GRAIN tokens.
Taariq extends Happy New Year greetings and welcomes all listeners to Volume’s Twitter Spaces. Today’s episode is a recap of the community’s amazing milestones and accomplishments for the past year, the wins as well as the challenges.
Taariq recounts Paloma’s journey from testnet to mainnet launch in early 2023. He gives a shout-out to former lead dev Matija, whose valuable contributions brought the Paloma network to life inspired by Gravity Bridge, Axelar, and UMI.
The team took the direction to build on the Cosmos SDK, rather than bridges, with a vision to create an arbitrary logic cross-chain execution infrastructure protocol. While companies working on bridges like Axelar are doing a great job, Taariq believes that because they can become so large, bridge security can be tough to maintain. The vision was always about arbitrary logic calls where Paloma validators secure the execution of transactions rather than secure the holding of funds.
The goal is for Paloma to be the secure model that takes custody of executions. Taariq maintains that it is not how much TVL is locked into the system, rather it is how much TVL can be touched where Paloma can collect fees and make more money. He adds that because transactions are ephemeral, it also reduces the surface area cost.
Paloma became the first chain to implement Cosmos SDK 4.7 in the first quarter of last year. Launching to mainnet at that time led to many learning lessons about starting a network, inflation, relaying executions and behaviors, and improving coordination among the flock. The next four months witnessed the deployment of Paloma to six new chains from Ethereum, BNB Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base.
Palomabots were launched in the second half of 2023 showcasing the power and usefulness of the Paloma network. Taariq proudly shares that the Palomabots peaked at a total of $8.5M in volume transactions in just over three months. This amazing accomplishment was done through the pure functionality of the bots without incentives on the GRAIN token.
The latter half of 2023 focused on Pigeon performance improvements and making it easier for validators to get better UI/UX. One of the key features introduced was parallelised key execution enabling validators to sign multiple transactions.
Taariq hopes to bring back devs to build on the network and then turn on incentives. Paloma SDK which is currently in Python will be upgraded in JavaScript to encourage more devs to build on Paloma and execute on any chain.
The launching of Pigeon Feed, Paloma’s on-chain marketplace for message relaying, takes top priority in this year’s agenda.
Validators with the most uptime and a higher delivery success rate will earn more money.
Pigeon performance will be weighed based on the success of message relays. Higher-performing validators will get more messages to relay and collect more rewards.
Once Pigeon Feed is launched, Paloma can create pools for GRAINS so that Pigeons get paid directly for their work. Users can pay fees in the native token on the target chain, or in GRAIN. With Paloma’s shorter block times and faster throughput delivery, validators will earn more rewards in GRAINS.
AI Art Competition
Taariq thanks everyone who participated in the ongoing Paloma AI Art Competition. Submissions will be accepted until January 15th. The winner walks away with 1M in GRAINS. To join, follow @paloma_chain & @palomabotai on Twitter and reply with your AI-generated Paloma Pigeon.
Taariq reiterates Paloma’s core philosophy.
By scaling throughput, more messages can get signed, and more messages can come through the network.
Pigeon Feed is a top priority so that validators can make money. Taariq assures that once pools for GRAINS are created, GRAINS will have a price. GRAINS will have demand.
Taariq thanks the community of validators and the hardworking team at Volume and Paloma for making these possible. He assures that the work on the Paloma network architecture will continue to scale up more volume so that validators get paid more money. He extends congratulations for the over $8M in volume in Palomabots since September.
Stay tuned for the next AMA!
To find out more about Volume, check out Volume Finance (
), join the Discord (
), and follow us on Twitter (@Volumefi). Check out Paloma Chain on
(
), follow them on Twitter (@palomachain), and join the flock on Discord (
). Coo!