The Bahamut Foundation‘s Blockchain Program Lead, Pavel Aramyan, recently joined BeInCrypto for an exciting AMA session. Aramyan provided an in-depth look into the Bahamut.io project, a groundbreaking Layer 1, permissionless blockchain that forks from Ethereum v2.0 and employs a novel Proof of Stake and Activity (PoSA) consensus.
This innovative approach rewards validators who actively deploy and engage with smart contracts, enhancing network participation and security.
Aramyan also highlighted successful DeFi projects launched on Bahamut, including Lolik, Mutuari, and Silkswap, and discussed the foundation’s grants, community meetups, and educational initiatives to foster a knowledgeable and active blockchain community.
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AMA Session With Pavel Aramyan of Bahamut Foundation
BeInCrypto: Today we welcome the Blockchain Program Lead at Bahamut Foundation โ Pavel Aramyan ๐
๐ฃ COMMUNITY
As usual, Iโll have some questions for Pavel. After that, he will answer 5 questions from our members previously chosen ๐๐ปโโ๏ธ
Pavel Aramyan: Happy to meet you, everybody! thanks for hosting me today @cryptosoka
BIC: Ok, Pavel, letโs start our AMA with this point: Can you please provide an overview of the Bahamit.io project and its mission in the blockchain space? ๐
Pavel Aramyan: Gladly. So Bahamut is a layer 1, permissionless, public blockchain. It’s a fork of Ethereum v2.0 and utilizes a new consensus called PoSA (Proof of Stake and Activity). The core idea of PoSA is to further reward validators that have active smart contracts on-chain – active as in Gas is being spent to interact with these smart contracts. The more the activity, the higher the chance to be elected as a block producer, and thus, the more rewards can be earned from the network.
BIC: ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฏ Could you tell us more about the DeFi projects that were successfully launched on the Bahamut blockchain?
Pavel Aramyan:
Recently, Lolik – liquid staking, Mutuari – lending, and Silkswap – decentralized exchange prototypes have been launched in Bahamut. Lolik is currently boasting close to 15 million staked FTN, which is about $30 million in just a few months of operations. Mutuari is a decentralized lending protocol that allows to stake collateral assets and borrow others – most commonly stable coins like USDT and USDC. Silkswap, as a DEX, makes it easy to navigate between different tokens on-chain and swap one to the other at any point in time.
BIC: And how do the Bahamut Foundation’s grants support new participants? What do you look for in projects applying for these grants?
Pavel Aramyan: So the foundation offers its support in marketing, advice, and of course, FTNs. As a rule of thumb, all projects are welcome to apply regardless of their sphere as the Foundation looks through each single application. Applicants are requested to fill-in some initial/general information and upload a pitch deck of their product/service, and after review, if the initial stage is passed, a video call is organized to get a feel of the team’s experience, review the demo (if available) and to clear further possible questions. At the final stage, the applicants can be accepted as grant-ies, and the distribution is usually split into milestones or paid in full after the product is delivered.
The foundation takes into account the team’s experience and dedication to their work as priorities.
BIC: How does the Bahamut Foundation measure the impact and success of its initiatives in the DeFi, gaming, and NFT sectors? ๐
Pavel Aramyan: These are mostly measured by the number of Bahamut addresses, active players/addresses for deployed games, as well as the number of NFT collections on marketplaces. Also, there are key metrics that are unique for every type of product and should be revised accordingly. For example, liquidity thresholds for various products or continuous updates to the protocol and enhancing services. The global idea is to incentivize the applicants to continuously improve their products and keep it alive.
BIC: Btw, what strategies does the Bahamut Foundation employ to ensure ongoing support and success for the projects that have already been launched??
Pavel Aramyan: If the projects have been grant participants, there are certain criteria – different for each project as I already mentioned – that make them eligible for further funding when met. Also, the PoSA consensus plays its own role – the better applications one creates, the more rewards one earns due to being able to create more blocks and participate in the consensus matters more often, which can be considered as a secondary income flow by some apps.
As a numbers example, I can say that IF Ethereum was working with PoSA consensus, somebody like uniswap would be earning around 1500 ETH/monthly, just due to their activity in the network, we ran this simulation a while ago. Given the current pricing of Ethereum, that’s nothing to scuff at ๐
BIC: Let’s talk about the meetups organized by the Bahamut Foundation ๐ฅWhat has been the community response to them, and how do these events enhance the blockchain community?
Pavel Aramyan: Community meetups have always been well-received since the people are keen to learn, especially when it comes to blockchain. The meetups are first and foremost for educating the community on both technical and business aspects of blockchain and web3. As a result, you get more educated users, which in turn leads them to want to learn more, which leads to wider web3 adoption – which we believe should be a common cause among all web3 products and businesses nowadays.
BIC: And can you share insights on the Bahamut meetups, particularly the ones that happened in Dubai?
Pavel Aramyan: The Dubai community meetup had been a blast. Not only was it the first meetup in the FtNFT store in Dubai, but also the community was genuinely interested and keen to learn about Fastex, Bahamut, and web3 as a whole. We had a number of lectures regarding technology, leadership, and legal aspects in the world of web3, which were wrapped with a cozy networking event right after, as is the custom for all meetups.
BIC: What about other events? How did the Bahamut Foundation’s participation at Paris Blockchain Week contribute to your goals, and what were the key takeaways from this event?
Pavel Aramyan: As a matter of fact, we place a lot of influence on real-time events, which is why you can find us being present in over 50 events annualy. In particular, Paris blockchain week was one of these events that have a very respectable community and as a result, Bahamut aquired numerous grant applicants, partnerships and integrations that are currently being implemented.
BIC: Over 50 events annually ๐คฏ๐คฏ๐คฏ
Pavel Aramyan: mind-boggling I know ๐
BIC: Pavel, I’ve heard about your educational programs. Could you please tell us about it more? Does Bahamut Foundation plan any new collaborations with local or international universities?
Pavel Aramyan: So this has been a new venture for the foundation, and the idea is to establish some kind of an educational portal/session/even semester for Master’s degree and above students, who’re interested in learning about the technology. The collaboration with minor courses (1-2 months long) is already underway with the State University in Yerevan, with more collaborations and semester-long courses to follow in the near future.
We believe that proper education (even if it’s just the basics) will be a key nail-driver in securing a bright future for blockchain and web3 usage in general, simply since not being alienated to a topic is already a big win in many cases.
the “oh I’ve heard about this before” vs the “well, this sounds too complicated, I’ll pass” can go a long way
BIC: WOW!!! How does Bahamut support outstanding students within these educational programs, and what are the criteria for receiving the scholarships? ๐๐๐
Pavel Aramyan: Since this is just the start, we haven’t had any students actually complete the course, but the idea is to offer them a job (part-time, full-time, internship) depending on the results and recruit young blood into the space. And as we all know, youngsters are always more keen on the unknown and happy to explore it to its ends, which basically results in an educated community and people who care about web3.
BIC: Now I want to be a student again ๐
Pavel Aramyan: ha! Now, that’s a term I thought I’d never say after I graduated myself, but I would’ve liked that, too ๐
BIC: Finally, could you share any upcoming events or announcements that enthusiasts and potential collaborators should look forward to? ๐
Pavel Aramyan: Sure, so as I said you can find us on many major industry events so expect to see us in Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam, Hong-kong and other spots in the next few months.
As for announcements, there are gonna be up to 30 additional grant distributions in the next quarter, as well as numerous integrations and infrastructure additions.
BIC: Great! Now let’s move to my favorite part โ questions from our Community ๐คI saw you have chosen the next questions ๐
Pavel Aramyan: lets get to it!
BIC: @AppleChichi:ย How does Bahamut’s new approach to the distribution of block validation rewards differ from traditional blockchain reward mechanisms, and what advantages does it offer to validators and the network as a whole?
Pavel Aramyan: ok, so this is a very good one since it highlights the PoSA advantages. So what we have with Activity is that it’s a parameter in the blockchain code that the consensus is programmed to take into account when distributing the chance to become a block producer in the future.
Now validators that have active smart contracts deployed on the network have a much higher chance to be elected again and again, versus traditional PoS systems where the chance is the same for everybody. This is a small yet fundamental tweak to the PoS consensus since it sees and recognizes these validators as participants who bring value to others (because others are willing to spend gas to interact with these contracts), thus, they should be rewarded appropriately, in a decentralized manner.
For example, you could choose to deploy an ERC20 (or, in our case BHRC20) token on Bahamut, and with every transfer from wallet A to wallet B, you’ll build up activity as the deployer of this token. As a result, the more transfers happen, the more you’ll be able to earn from the network in the form of fees. And this model can be implemented for any other smart contract application.
BIC: The next one is by @VuongKy3: What specific industries or use cases is Bahamut targeting with its public blockchain solution, and how does its unique reward distribution mechanism benefit these applications?
Pavel Aramyan: So the beauty of PoSA is that it doesn’t care what industry you’re from, as long as you create GOOD smart contracts since this is what people will be willing to use, and in that case, you get activity. And the blockchain recognizes this and rewards everyone accordingly, in proportion to the total activity pool in the chain.
This is why this can be considered universal, since every type of business will be able to benefit from this type consensus.
BIC: @JuliusDunham asks: How does Bahamut handle scalability and transaction throughput? Are there any innovative technologies or protocols implemented to manage high transaction volumes and network congestion?
Pavel Aramyan: So, currently, Bahamut functions exactly like Ethereum in terms of speed and scalability. We’re also implementing second-layer scaling solutions currently and looking into sharding technologies to overcome these issues. Like Ethereum, we value decentralization more than any other factor when it comes to blockchain operations, and this is why we have chosen it as our working platform.
BIC: @wangsu4: How does Bahamut ensure decentralization and prevent the concentration of power among a small number of validators or stakeholders? What governance mechanisms are in place to support this objective?
Pavel Aramyan: Bahamut currently has over 4400 validators in its network. With decentralization in mind and PoSA, we encourage everyone to become a validator to be able to participate in the activity generation, as a result creating a healthy atmosphere for everyone involved.
Because you can only benefit from activity if you’re a validator on Bahamut, and every smart contract can be linked to one validator, if you’re looking to create value for yourself, you’ll need to operate a full node on-chain. This results in good spread among validators and secures the chain from countless threats that come with centralization possibilities.
BIC: And the last one โ @EzequielMarrero: In terms of interoperability, how does Bahamut facilitate interactions with other blockchain networks and existing financial systems? Are there any specific protocols or partnerships that enhance cross-chain compatibility?
Pavel Aramyan: Bahamut is very keen on interoperability and creating a vibrant “blockchain-to-blockchain” atmosphere in web3. We’re always looking to integrate existing protocols that have interoperability in their fundamentals as a top priority. Currently, Symbiosis bridge offers the ability to migrate assets from other chains to Bahamut, with 8 more interoperability protocol integrations currently in discussion and/or finalization stages.
BIC: Cool! Pavel, thank you for being here today ๐ค
Pavel Aramyan: Thanks for hosting me @cryptosoka!
Final thoughts
Through the unique PoSA consensus, Bahamut rewards active validators and drives substantial network engagement. The successful launch of DeFi projects like Lolik, Mutuari, and Silkswap showcases the platform’s potential and the foundation’s commitment to supporting innovative projects through grants and community initiatives.
With a focus on education, ongoing support for projects, and a keen eye on interoperability, Bahamut is poised to make significant contributions to the blockchain industry. As Aramyan hinted, exciting developments and new opportunities are on the horizon, promising a bright future for both Bahamut and its growing community.
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