The Blast Mainnet is scheduled to go live on February 24, 2024, enabling withdrawals and allowing users to redeem their Blast Points for actual rewards starting from May 24 next year.
Recently launched Ethereum (ETH) Layer-2 blockchain Blast has earned itself some popularity in the last few days, although a significant portion of this fame has not been for the right reasons. Blast is the first-ever Layer-2 blockchain protocol to provide its depositors with native yield and this singular action has differentiated it from the likes of top rivals including Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base.
This proposition amongst other factors has pulled a considerable percentage of the market inflows to the new L2 network. About a week ago, Blast recorded over $301 million in staked Ethereum (stETH) and stablecoins. So far, the protocol has seen more than $616 million in inflows, per data from DefiLlama. With such investor activity on the protocol, Blast has fully taken the position of being the third-biggest Ethereum layer-2 network and fastest-growing blockchain network.
Base, which was launched in August, equally recorded tremendous results in a very short while following its release. However, the Total Value Locked (TVL) that Blast has seen in the last one week within its launch far exceeds that of the Coinbase-linked rival. At present, Base’s TVL is hovering around $582 million, three months after it went live.
Paradigm, a research-driven technology investment company which led a $20 million funding round for Blast, has openly criticized the Ethereum L2 splashy introduction to the Web3 world. Dan Robinson, Paradigm’s Head of Research and General Partner shared a post on the X app which conveyed the firm’s stance on Blast’s action.
“There are a lot of components of Blast that I’m excited about and would be interested in engaging with people on,” Robinson explained. “That said, we at Paradigm think the announcement this week crossed lines in both messaging and execution.”
Paradigm Disagrees with Blast
The Blast Mainnet is scheduled to go live on February 24, 2024, enabling withdrawals and allowing users to redeem their Blast Points for actual rewards as from May 24 next year. Robinson clarified that Paradigm was never in support of any of these decisions, citing that it sets a negative precedent for other projects with regard to the sustainability of the system. In addition, Paradigm thinks that “much of the marketing cheapens the work of a serious team”.
Unfortunately, the criticism from Paradigm and other crypto leaders has not stopped users from locking up their assets on Blast in preparation for its mainnet launch in 2024. It is worth noting that all staked funds can not be accessed until February next year when the Blast network finally goes live.
Considering the history and trend of network bridge attacks like that of Axie Infinity Ronin bridge, many crypto enthusiasts have security concerns in relation to Blast. Some people are already referring to the L2 protocol as a Ponzi scheme that is out to cheat investors of their hard-earned assets.
Blast and Blur co-founder Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre posted a thread on the X app to refute the numerous criticisms, stating that there were a number of misunderstandings and ultimately re-affirming the position of Blast as a legitimate L2 protocol.
