What is the point?

DeFi and the entire industry have gone through multiple iterations and cycles. Yet, the need for seamless and unrestricted cross-chain interactions remains a top priority. Achieving mass adoption in this space hinges on creating a cohesive ecosystem where the application layer, processing layer, and settlement layer work together harmoniously. Mantis addresses this need by providing a comprehensive solution that ensures these layers interoperate effectively, paving the way for the creation of "super apps" that offer both simplicity and cost-effective on-chain experiences.

Every team talks about mass adoption and building for the next billion users. At Mantis, we genuinely believe this is within reach through our vision. Over the past three years, we have been building solutions for interoperability with the Picasso Network. Josh Gibson at GSR has said “we have seen the team build incredible projects at a particularly amazing rate; building a suite of cross-chain DeFi applications, will ultimately lead to greater user adoption”. Mantis is the culmination of our efforts, combining an infrastructure and application layer into a cohesive whole. Recently, Blast coined the term 'full stack' chain to describe this kind of vision, and this perfectly encapsulates what Mantis represents—an infrastructure designed to facilitate chain-abstracted on-chain interactions and execute these orders from an application layer.

The Mantis Solution: The Stack for Chain Abstraction

While various solutions for chain abstraction exist, none match the comprehensive and opinionated approach of Mantis. The Mantis framework is built upon three fundamental layers:

• Application Layer: Mantis will introduce its own application designed for socially oriented trading experiences. Beyond this, Mantis aims to become the backend engine for Telegram bots, AI agents, and wallets that offer user intents. Future plans include integrating with MPC wallets and other expression layer components, expanding the reach and functionality of the application layer.

• Processing Layer: At the heart of Mantis lies a robust solver network capable of supporting various order types such as Coincidence of Wants (COWs), Request for Quotes (RFQs), and partial fills. These permissionless solvers will integrate with a wide range of orderflow destinations, including games, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), lending protocols, and more. This multi-domain processing capability will support Ethereum, Solana, and other ecosystems connected via the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.

• Settlement Layer: Mantis emphasizes multi-domain settlement, initially focusing on settling transactions through IBC. Future developments include research into cross-domain Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) and combinatorial pre-confirmations, aimed at introducing atomicity with synchronous composability. These advancements will enhance the efficiency and reliability of cross-chain settlements.

At every level of the stack, Mantis is collaborating with various ecosystem partners such as wallets, builders, solvers, searchers, and shared sequencers. The team is excited to reveal these partnerships in the coming weeks, inviting more collaborators to join this transformative journey.

Native Yield: Your On-Chain Account

Think of Mantis App as your account and key to opening the doors to the on-chain playground (or casino, whichever you prefer to call it). At the on-chain playground, as a user, you can fulfill any user action you wish, regardless of the blockchain you are on, and the chain where you want to fulfill your order.

Mantis offers an experience for on-chain user interactions that feels familiar, much like the user experience on a dynamic protocols dYdX, (app chain perp DEX) except, on Mantis, your account can be used for any on-chain action you desire.

Users typically fund their accounts on dynamic DeFi protocols like dYdX, leaving funds idle without earning yield. Mantis addresses this issue by allowing users to access chain abstraction while still earning yield. Any asset can be deposited into Mantis over IBC, but only specific assets will earn native yield. When you deposit your assets to your Mantis, you assets will be earning yield, imagine having idle assets that you use for shitcoining on-chain now you can earn yield on them when you are not apeing.

With Mantis, users can interact with any on-chain action they wish to fulfill, with chains abstracted. Borrow SOL from Ethereum mainnet, open a leveraged long using ETH as collateral on Drift, ape into SOL shitcoins from any IBC-connected chain—the possibilities are limitless.

Everything you imagine is real on Mantis.

Why a Solana Rollup?

Mantis will be the first SVM rollup in production.

The SVM rollup era is on the horizon, and it’s time to move beyond an Ethereum-centric view of L2s and rollups. On Solana, the focus isn't merely on solving scalability issues on a secondary layer. It's about leveraging sovereign blockspace to create a custom, technically optimized environment tailored to your specific needs, while still settling on Solana.

This rollup approach enables more efficient, secure, and user-friendly DeFi applications, fostering mass adoption, enhancing cross-chain interoperability, and unlocking new financial primitives and opportunities. Solana will be THE settlement layer, ensuring robust finality and security for all transactions.

Choosing Solana as the foundation for Mantis's Layer 2 (L2) rollup was a strategic decision driven by several factors:

• Fast Finalization: Solana’s fast finalization on its Layer 1 (L1) provides a robust foundation for the rollup.

• Privacy Control: The ability to control privacy through leader-based consensus mechanisms ensures secure and confidential transactions.

• Custom VM Components: Solana allows for the creation of custom virtual machine (VM) components, enabling modular control over orderflow.

• Native IBC Integration: Utilizing IBC to move assets between L1 and L2 ensures quick and easy transfers without the long withdrawal times typically seen in other rollups.

Users can submit intents to the Mantis network from any location, but the rollup acts as the central hub for processing, settlement orchestration, and misbehavior proofs. Additionally, intents can be generated directly from the rollup itself.

Mantis hopes to be the first L2 in production on Solana, eliminating the fragmentation and siloed liquidity issues seen in Ethereum-based L2s. With IBC baked into the core rollup, Mantis enables seamless chain abstraction between connected chains, significantly improving interoperability and creating a unified DeFi landscape.

Join us for Everything SVM!

Brainjar and Alex will be hosting a series of Live Streams next week to chat all things SVM.

• They will be hosting the founders of different teams on each stream.

• Streams happen daily at 12-1 EST

• Mark it on your calendar if you want to hear the latest on whats being built in this community

Restaking and Picasso Network

Mantis leverages the Picasso restaking layer as the second Actively Validated Service (AVS), utilizing Solana's first restaking layer for fast withdrawals. Specific assets like JitoSOL and bSOL can earn additional yield from restaking, allowing users on the rollup to benefit from two layers of yield: staking and restaking. The infrastructure provided by Picasso Network and the cross-ecosystem IBC makes this possible.

The Road Ahead

Mantis's roadmap is ambitious, focusing initially on ensuring the best execution for cross-domain swaps. The goal is to roll out best-in-class intent settlement between Ethereum, Solana, and the Cosmos ecosystem. Subsequently, Mantis will generalize intents to include lending, borrowing, gaming, NFT actions, and more. Ongoing research into cross-domain MEV will unlock the future of atomicity, a critical mechanism for ensuring seamless inclusion between chains and introducing new primitives that benefit users. This approach aims to make cross-domain MEV resemble Payment for Order Flow (PFOF) in traditional equity markets.

Mantis is poised to lead the next wave of DeFi innovation, creating a future where cross-chain interactions are seamless, efficient, and highly rewarding. As the execution layer for this new era, Mantis will transform the DeFi landscape, with Solana serving as the settlement layer. Stay tuned for more exciting developments as Mantis continues to shape the future of decentralized finance.