Is MetisDAO a Good Investment?

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Contributor, Benzinga
April 26, 2022
verified by Ryan McNamara

Decided MetisDAO is a good investment? You can invest in METIS today on Gate.io!

Despite being the leading blockchain for building decentralized applications (dApps), Ethereum is painfully slow, gas fees are too high when the network is busy and it's expensive to store data on Ethereum. These serious issues must be addressed for the mainstream adoption of Ethereum as a sustainable and enjoyable platform to build applications. Layer 2 solutions –– projects that are designed to increase the speed and efficiency of specific blockchains –– solve these issues to a certain extent. 

MetisDAO (Metis) is one of the most promising Ethereum Layer 2 solutions that aims to solve Ethereum’s six biggest challenges: simplicity, speed, storage, scalability, security and savings. This way, Metis is able to offer extremely fast transactions that take just a few seconds and cost just a few cents, while maintaining the security of Ethereum Layer 1. 

The entire goal of Metis is to build out Web3 infrastructure, allowing companies to operate entirely on the blockchain without coding templates. With arguably undervalued fundamentals, strong competitive advantages and a market capitalization rank that exceeds the top 200, METIS could be an extremely lucrative crypto gem to add to your portfolio before it reaches the masses. 

What is MetisDao?

Metis is a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that allows for cheaper and faster transactions. It facilitates the creation of a multipurpose, easy-to-use and scalable framework for apps and businesses transitioning from Web 2.0 to Web3.

More specifically, Metis deploys Optimistic Rollups, a type of Layer 2 construction built on top of Ethereum that allows smart contracts to be executed while being secured by Ethereum. The Metis Layer 2 network assumes all transactions are valid until proven otherwise –– hence the Optimistic part of Optimistic Rollup. 

Unlike many other Layer 2 solutions, Metis’ primary aim is to make developing decentralized applications (dApps) and decentralized autonomous companies (DACs) on its platform easy and straightforward, especially for blockchain novices. By using Metis Polis, a middleware developed by the team to manage and interact with smart contracts, Metis aims to allow developers to integrate dApps into Metis Layer 2 with no blockchain coding

Moreover, the platform has various use cases such as blockchain-based crowdfunding, decentralized finance (DeFi)-powered social media platforms, integrated decentralized exchanges (DEXs), yield farming, open-source communities, development of investing and trading business models. In fact, the Metis team and early investors created a DAC with $100 million in grants exclusively earmarked to support high potential projects in all major crypto verticals including gaming, DeFi and DAOs. 

Who is Behind MetisDao?

One afternoon, two women –– Elena Sinelnikova and Natalia Ameline –– met for coffee to discuss how to make blockchain more accessible to the mainstream. As one idea transformed into another, and more individuals contributed to the idea, MetisDAO was soon born.

MetisDao was founded by current CEO Elena Sinelnikova in 2019, with a simple-yet-ambitious goal of making blockchain simple and accessible to everyone. The team is experienced, has deep connections and can be verified online. 

Elena is a well-respected blockchain educator, having founded CryptoChicks in 2017 –– an education nonprofit that focuses on blockchain education for women. Among the other competent members of the Metis team is Natalia Ameline, who is also the mother of Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum’s co-founder). Buterin has openly stated that Layer 2 solutions are pivotal for improving the scalability of Ethereum, and Metis aims to be the leading project that meets this need.

The project has acquired multiple significant partnerships recently with organizations including Tristan Metaverse, PAID Network, PARSIQ and OpenDeFi. 

MetisDAO Price History

MetisDAO has a current market capitalization of roughly $215 million, placing it in the top 300 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. With a circulating supply of roughly 3 billion and a max supply of 10 billion METIS, METIS is down significantly from all-time highs during the current 2022 bear market. Bearish and fearful market sentiment presents a potential buying opportunity for investors who believe in the fundamentals of METIS.

It is important to note that 50% of the supply of METIS is reserved for community mining. Namely, the project offers member DACs a reward in METIS for each transaction conducted on the Metis platform. Projects will be financially incentivized to contribute to the long-term success of Metis platform and the token, ultimately helping grow the thriving Metis ecosystem.

MetisDAO Competition

Arbitrum and Optimism are Metis’ core competitors. They are both Layer 2 solutions that also deploy Optimistic Rollups. However, despite the similar Layer 2 framework, Metis’ unique mission of making blockchain more accessible is a crucial differentiating factor that separates it from all other competitors. 

This competitive advantage is primarily driven by MetisDAO's middleware, Metis Polis, an innovative tool to move dApps and DACs to Metis with zero blockchain coding knowledge. With their middleware, all an entity needs to make the transition from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 is a viable product to deploy. Under this framework, DACs will be able to deploy their own dApps and tokens with a click of a button while users will have access to roles, permissions, HR, payroll, communications and marketing. 

For end users, Polis is another web wallet. However, with a Polis account, all transaction history will be recorded and eventually turned into Reputation Power –– a feature that will benefit users when they collaborate in a DAC (benefits such as higher decision-making power and more discounts). 

Overall, if successful, Polis will provide a significant incentive for DACs and end users, particularly those new to the blockchain space, to use Metis over Arbitrum and Optimism. 

In addition to making blockchain extremely accessible, Metis differs from Optimism and Arbitrum in the following ways: 

  • At the time of writing, Metis is the only one of these solutions that has its own native token (METIS). 
  • Metis is less vulnerable to delay attacks than Optimism.
  • Metis is more scalable than both Arbitrum and Optimism.
  • Builder Mining: every time a dApp performs a transaction, the dApp generates a token reward –– an ecosystem incentive many other Layer 2s don’t have.
  • Abritrum and Optimism both support intelligent contract execution, but only Metis provides InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)-integrated decentralized storage for smart contract computing –– support of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

IPFS is a distributed system for storing and accessing files, applications, websites and data. In other words, it allows for users to directly store and download their NFTs on the Metis network at any time, right away. 

For other Optimistic Rollups, the withdrawal time from Layer 2 to Ethereum is seven days. Currently, withdrawal times are a few hours, and once Metis is fully developed, they will be cut down to a few minutes. This goal will be achieved through a network of Rangers who validate transactions and Metis Virtual Machine (MVM). 

MVM is a virtual machine that is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which separates the computing and storage of the Ethereum construct for Layer 2s. This feature ultimately allows for shorter wait times when withdrawing to the Ethereum network.

Rangers are financially incentivized to auditors or validators that stake and mine METIS to verify transactions. If they process a invalid transaction, their stake will be slashed, which disincentivizes bad actors. The process is secured by Ethereum’s Layer 1. 

How to Buy METIS Tokens

METIS is already listed and trading on a few major exchanges such as Gate.io and Poloniex. At the time of writing, the Gate.io exchange possesses the most liquidity. The liquidity is predominantly centered around METIS/USDT trading pair.

Additionally, you can purchase METIS tokens on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap. Uniswap allows trading METIS tokens with the ETH pair and has the highest volume.

Cryptocurrency Market Outlook

While METIS may boast a strong value proposition compared to other cryptocurrencies, like most altcoins, METIS is heavily affected by the general trends and sentiment in the cryptocurrency market. So far into 2022, the broader cryptocurrency market has been hammered by uncertain macroeconomic conditions, resulting in bearish and fearful market sentiment.

Is MetisDAO a Good Investment?

If you believe in the importance of Layer 2 solutions, Metis could be a perfect choice. Metis’ layer 2 is highly scalable, fast and low-cost compared to Ethereum’s slow and expensive Layer 1. Additionally, with Ethereum as its base Layer 1, Metis’ level of security and decentralization is equivalent to Ethereum's and is much higher than other alternative Layer 1s such as Solana, Avalanche and Cardano. As such, Metis can be viewed as the best of both worlds.

Even after The Merge, formerly ETH 2.0, Layer 2 solutions will continue to play an important role in empowering Ethereum to realize its full potential and functionality, as stated by Buterin. The potential of METIS is boundless and limited only by the effort of the team and community. If Metis continues to execute its mission while successfully dealing with the challenges inherent to Optimistic Rollups such as bridging delays and the potential for fraud, an investment into METIS could prove to be a profitable endeavor.

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