What is Moonriver （MOVR）？The unspoken giant with limitless potential

[TL;DR]

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What is Moonriver? Moonriver is a crypto network project focused on offering advanced smart contract capabilities that are compatible with the Ethereum network, but built under the Kusama network and its many parachains. The goal is to offer greater speed and scalability to apps that are built in both Ethereum and Kusama networks.

How does Moonriver work? Moonriver replicates the specifications and interfaces of decentralized Web3 codes of Ethereum, its baseline network, ECDSA cryptography, registry system and much more, all to guarantee an exact experience of execution that is found in Ethereum. Even the smart contracts implemented are identical, written in any language capable of generating response within the EVM.

Therefore, it is possible to replicate the dApps and their behaviors in Moonriver without any alteration to the Ethereum source. The only noticeable difference is in the execution, where developers and users are able to enjoy the low transaction fees and high speeds of Kusama, Polkadot and their parachains.

The MOVR token: The MOVR token is the native token of the Moonriver ecosystem, mainly responsible for the four following tasks: pay transactions fees of the network, support execution of smart contracts, incentivize validator notes and governance token for votes and updates. The MOVR token has a 5% annual inflation target and, therefore, doesn’t have an actually limited supply of tokens to be used. The goal of such an inflation rate is to keep a constant flux of tokens to use and access the network as it expands, besides attending to safety measures that are increasingly important as Moonriver becomes more popular.


[Full Article]

The crypto market evolved massively over the past few years, creating a range of different crypto ecosystems to explore, use and invest in. When basing these crypto ecosystems by market cap, there is a vast range to choose from. For starters, we have Smart Contract platforms, with Ethereum leading this vertical as the most used cryptocurrency. Following it we have the BNB Chain Ecosystem, which comes off as no surprise, then Polygon and Avalanche ecosystems, both very popular and heard about.

But the fifth-biggest ecosystem in all of crypto is one rarely spoken about, although it encompasses over 274 billion in market cap and millions of users to date. That is the Moonriver ecosystem, an unspoken giant in crypto.

So what is the Moonriver crypto network? What about its MOVR token? This article answers these questions regarding the fifth-largest network in crypto.

What is Moonriver?

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In a nutshell, Moonriver is a crypto network project focused on offering advanced smart contract capabilities that are compatible with the Ethereum network, but built under the Kusama network and its many parachains. The goal is to offer greater speed and scalability to apps that are built in both Ethereum and Kusama networks.

Its main use up until now is to work as scaling and testing ground for Kusama, Ethereum and also Polkadot, under the test name Moonbeam. It was projected to bring proximity between all these networks and the Ethereum blockchain, which is still the largest DeFi and NFT network by far but suffers from major speed and scalability issues.

Along with the network and Moonbeam testing ground, the team created the native token MOVR, which functions are in operation and maintenance of the network. The MOVR token is used to pay transaction fees, smart contract support execution, incentivize node validators and as the governance token to vote for updates in the blockchain.

How does Moonriver work?

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As mentioned previously, the Moonriver network was projected to serve as a smart contract implementation platform capable of integrating with Ethereum, Kusama’s parachains and Polkadot. The idea is that DeFi and NFT developers will eventually be able to leave Ethereum behind due to its many issues, having room for new executions based on ERC-20 and 721 tokens - but within Kusama and Polkadot parachains.

Therefore, Moonriver-compatible dApps are able to reduce the commission of operations and drastically increase scalability to offer fast and secure transactions to their users. The past part about this deal? Moonriver makes that possible without the need for developers to rewrite their Ethereum smart contracts for the dApps, which greatly increases the chances of adoption and implementation of the platforms.

In order to make this possible, Moonriver focuses on three key factors of its operation:

Implementation with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

In order for Ethereum developers and users to be able to use dApps based on its blockchain but in Moonriver, the Moonriver network must be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine - the source of dApp development and usage.

And that is exactly what Moonriver accomplishes. Moonriver replicates the specifications and interfaces of decentralized Web3 codes of Ethereum, its baseline network, ECDSA cryptography, registry system and much more, all to guarantee an exact experience of execution that is found in Ethereum. Even the smart contracts implemented are identical, written in any language capable of generating response within the EVM.

Therefore, it is possible to replicate the dApps and their behaviors in Moonriver without any alteration to the Ethereum source. The only noticeable difference is in the execution, where developers and users are able to enjoy the low transaction fees and high speeds of Kusama, Polkadot and their parachains.

This is an ideal framework for all, as developers don’t need to get accustomed to new ways of programming, without needing to learn new languages or backend structures. If they can build on Ethereum, they can build on Moonriver.

Web3 compatible API

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Having a Web 3 compatible API (Application Programming Interface) is essential for the development of long-lasting protocols. After all, Web 3 is the future of the decentralized internet and a huge part of what crypto projects strive towards.

Ethereum’s Web3 standard for APIs is a communication pattern called RPC, which allows anyone to interact and connect to their dApps through digital wallets that support Ethereum. One common example of using the RPC standard is when connecting a MetaMask wallet, the most popular crypto wallet in the world, to Ethereum-based dApps.

Same as the EVM integration, Moonriver can work seamlessly with Ethereum dApps, with just one core difference: users of the protocol must add the Moonriver network to their crypto wallets, and change it manually when choosing to use the ecosystem - which is very fast and usually a couple of clicks away.

Therefore, users can use Moonriver for any ERC-20 based application such as UniSwap and SushiSwap DEXs. But be aware: you cannot mistake the Ethereum network for the Moonriver network, so be careful when conducting transactions since what you do in your Ethereum version will not be seen in Moonriver’s, and vice versa.

Here’s the data you need to connect your MetaMask wallet to Moonriver’s network:
Network name: Moonriver
URL for the RPC: https://rpc.moonriver.moonbeam.network
Chain ID: 1285
Symbol: MOVR
Block explorer: https://moonriver.moonscan.io/

MOVR Tokenomics, inflation and commission models

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The MOVR token is the native token of the Moonriver ecosystem, mainly responsible for the four following tasks:

- Pay transactions fees of the network
- Support execution of smart contracts
- Incentivize validator notes
- Governance token for votes and updates

The MOVR token has a 5% annual inflation target and, therefore, doesn’t have an actually limited supply of tokens to be used. The goal of such an inflation rate is to keep a constant flux of tokens to use and access the network as it expands, besides attending to safety measures that are increasingly important as Moonriver becomes more popular.

Out of the fixed 5% inflationary rate, 1% goes to the node validators, 1.5% to the project’s reserves and the rest goes to the users which stake and govern their tokens within the MOVR network to support the project.

Besides the inflation rate and distribution, the network’s transactional commissions are split between a couple of sections. Out of 100% a total of 80% is burned, eliminating the tokens out of circulation in order to maintain a realistic supply of tokens that are actually being used in the network. The remaining 20% go towards the treasury to be allocated to certain projects and initiatives.
Conclusion

Moonriver is a project that keeps its promises, able to integrate the Ethereum network to Kusama and Polkadot parachains in order to make Ethereum-based apps more efficient and easy to use. Those migrations are extremely easy to implement both for developers and users, with a seemingly transparent transition. It is a project with truly limitless potential, if we consider that its interoperability measures are not limited only to Ethereum itself, but any other blockchain that connects to it. Therefore, as Ethereum, Kusama, Polkadot and others grow, Moonriver can transform into a massive cross-hub platform and finally take its place in mainstream adoption.



Author: Gate.io Researcher: Victor Bastos
* This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all other cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.