Sei, dubbed the ‘Solana killer’ and built on the Cosmos SDK, is on the move with its TVL, transactions, and user wallets. But what does it offer that other blockchains don’t? How has it surpassed some aspects of its counterparts, including Ethereum and Solana?
With a $120 million Ecosystem Fund backing the project, it has ample room to grow and onboard the next generation of applications onto the blockchain. Let’s explore the features of Sei V2, the role of the $SEI token in the ecosystem, and the thriving gaming and DeFi landscape within the Sei network.
Sei is a Layer-1 blockchain created to optimize the trading of digital assets within the Cosmos ecosystem. It addresses common issues faced by decentralized exchanges, such as slow transactions and liquidity problems, by offering a high throughput of up to 12,500 transactions per second and achieving block finality in roughly 400 milliseconds.
Faster than counterparts like Ethereum and, more importantly, Solana, it is often framed as the Solana killer of its time.
Sei was launched in August 2023 by co-founders Jeffrey Feng and Jayendra Jog. The project, which began in 2021, has attracted significant venture capital, resulting in the creation of a $120 million Ecosystem Fund.
Jayendra Jog, who grew up in the Silicon Valley Bay Area, has been immersed in the tech scene for most of his life. Motivated by his experiences and the pitfalls of centralized financial systems, Jayendra, along with his co-founder Jeffrey, formed Sei Labs in 2021.
The Sei Foundation and Sei Network team also includes Mike McCoy, the Director of Infrastructure, who previously worked at Protocol Labs, ConsenSys, and Blockdaemon. Giga Chad Hugghins, the Head of Community, who previously worked at Polygon, explores topics like crypto, tech, culture, and art.
GigaJeff, a Co-Founder of Sei Labs, previously worked at Coatue and Goldman Sachs. Jack Lipstone, the Head of DeFi Business Development, was an Investment Partner at Chapter One and a DeFi Founder.
This review of Sei (SEI) was created for informational purposes. This article is not intended for promotion.
Sei v2, launched in July 2024, was the first parallelized EVM and achieved several milestones, including over $250M in TVL, 400k daily active addresses, 150 mainnet projects, and 6.5M total users.
An upgrade from its predecessor, Sei v1, that incorporated several enhancements, including EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatibility, parallelization, and improvements in state access and execution.
EVM compatibility is a significant addition to Sei v2 because it allows developers already familiar with Ethereum’s environment to easily transition to Sei. This compatibility reduces the learning curve and potential risks associated with adopting a new platform.
However, the EVM wasn’t designed with high performance in mind. As smart contract activity surges, the EVM faces a critical scalability challenge. Today’s EVM chains can only handle about 100 transactions per second (TPS), severely limiting what developers can build. In contrast, major web2 applications often need to process over 100,000 TPS.
Gigagas, introduced by Sei, refers to billions of gas units processed per second, where “gas” measures the computational effort required for operations on the EVM. It is a more nuanced performance metric than simply transactions per second.
Sei is committed to achieving 5 gigagas per second—a 50x improvement over any current mainnet EVM chain.
Sui was created using a relatively new programming language called Move, which was designed for smart contracts and blockchain. Which they proclaim as making Move much more intuitive for writing secure and efficient on-chain code compared to general-purpose programming languages like Rust, which Solana uses.
Sei and Solana may seem identical in many ways, but they differ significantly in how they process transactions. Solana, like many other blockchains, uses a single global state where transactions are processed sequentially, one at a time in a single line. This can slow things down during high network traffic because validators must process transactions one by one.
If one part of the network slows down, the entire system can be affected, as every transaction depends on the previous one being confirmed first. In contrast, Sui uses parallel transaction execution, which means individual transactions can be processed simultaneously without having to wait in line. This makes Sui faster and more efficient during busy periods and less likely to experience gas fee spikes amid high network activity.
Parallelization refers thus to the ability to process multiple transactions simultaneously, rather than sequentially. By processing multiple transactions at once, parallelization significantly reduces the time needed to process large volumes of transactions.
Sei Network: Interview with Sei Labs Co-Founder Jay Jog
Many of the games in SEI’s ecosystem incorporate play-to-earn mechanics and GameFi elements, allowing players to earn tokens or NFTs through gameplay that have real-world value. Examples of games with these features include Botwars Ascendance, Heroes of Holdem, and MetaArena.
The ecosystem includes both web-based games that can be played directly in the browser on gaming platforms such as Good Game Arcade and KAP Games, as well as fully-fledged PC and mobile titles.
In addition to individual games, SEI’s ecosystem also includes tools and platforms focused on user-generated content and game creation. For example, GameBuild is a platform that allows users to build their own games.
SEI provides support to many of the games and studios, which includes assistance with technical integration of the games with the Sei blockchain, design of tokenomics and in-game economies, and go-to-market strategy.
Recently, the Sei gaming ecosystem has been a hub of exciting activity and developments. One notable event was the launch of Gaming on Sei – The Arcade. This new gaming platform on the Sei blockchain features an impressive lineup of 26 different games.
Another significant milestone in the Sei gaming ecosystem was the release of GPT Wars. Developed as the first AAA shooter built on the Sei blockchain.
Further underlining the strength and quality of Sei’s gaming ecosystem, Sei games made a significant impact at the Blockchain Game Awards 2024.
$SEI is the primary cryptocurrency of the Sei blockchain and serves two main purposes:
Sei operates on a proof-of-stake model, rewarding validators with tokens for supporting the blockchain’s consensus mechanisms.
Featuring a total supply of 10 billion tokens, a significant 51% of these tokens are dedicated to the Sei community, including a 48% allocation to ecosystem reserves aimed at rewarding stakers, validators, and developers, and 3% reserved for an airdrop to engage early users.
Additional allocations include 9% to the Foundation Treasury to fund operations and initiatives, and 3% to a Launch Pool for future development.
The Team, Private Sale Investors, and Foundation tokens are subject to linear vesting schedules ranging from 24 to 60 months.
As of the current date, 36.36% of the total supply (3.64 billion SEI) is unlocked, while 63.64% (6.36 billion SEI) remains locked.
Staking SEI involves locking up your tokens to support the Sei blockchain’s operation and earn rewards. Users can delegate their tokens to validators to receive a share of the staking rewards.
To get started with staking SEI, first acquire some SEI tokens and transfer them to a compatible wallet like Compass, Fin, or Gem. Then, select a validator based on factors such as commission rate, uptime history, and communication quality.
In your wallet, navigate to the “Stake” section. Choose the amount of SEI you want to stake and pick a validator. Confirm the transaction to delegate your tokens.
Although some are optimistic about Sei’s potential to challenge existing Layer-1 blockchains, it has been dubbed a possible “Solana killer” due to its focus on speed, scalability, and efficiency.
Other Layer 1 platforms incorporating EVM haven’t achieved similar performance levels, which positions Sei V2 as a potentially superior choice for developers needing high transaction throughput.
In contrast, newer blockchain environments, such as those built on Move VM, have struggled to gain traction due to the steep learning curve and the scarcity of developers proficient in new blockchain languages.
In conclusion, Sei Network has emerged as a strong contender in the Layer-1 blockchain space, offering a unique combination of high performance, EVM compatibility, and a thriving gaming and DeFi ecosystem.
As the project continues to grow and attract developers, it will be interesting to see how Sei shapes the future of blockchain and its applications in various industries.
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