All The Infrastructure to Launch Your Own Blockchain in Crypto: Tanssi Explained

This episode explores Tanzi Network's innovative approach to simplifying decentralized network deployment, leveraging Ethereum's security and addressing key infrastructure challenges for developers, with significant implications for the future of AI-driven decentralized applications.

Tanzi Network: Deploy Your Own Chain in Minutes

• The speaker highlights Tanzi's tagline, "deploy your own chain in minutes rather than months," emphasizing the platform's efficiency.
• Tanzi addresses the "cold start" problem for new networks by leveraging Ethereum's staked ETH and other ERC-20s through a key partnership with Symbiotic, and also via Polkadot's shared security model.
• "They remove the heavy lifting of many backend blockchain infrastructure puzzle pieces so that devs can focus on their use case launched as an app chain."

The Problem: Building App Chains is Complex

• Poor infrastructure led to fewer builders and limited consumer adoption.
• Bootstrapping sequencers, validators, wallets, block explorers, oracles, indexes, and RPC endpoints was a complex and time-consuming process.
• Weak economic security posed a significant risk to new networks, and the lack of interoperability was a major drawback in a multi-chain future.
• Audits and time-to-market delays further complicated the process, often taking months or even a year before reaching product-market fit.
• The speaker uses a meme to visually represent the difficulty of building an app chain before Tanzi.

Why Not Just Use a Rollup?

• Rollups often rely on a single sequencer, creating a potential point of failure and censorship risk.
• Slow time to finality (potentially days or a week) is unsuitable for many use cases, especially those requiring cross-chain interactions.
• The speaker emphasizes that Tanzi and Symbiotic prioritize permissionless and decentralized systems.

The Tanzi Solution: Streamlined Network Deployment

• Tanzi allows decentralized networks to access key infrastructure components: shared security, block production, data availability, and interoperability.
• Symbiotic enables deployment via restaking, leveraging Ethereum's security.
• Tanzi bootstraps operators, recruits validators, and attracts restaked value, providing an "out-of-the-box" solution for developers.
• "They essentially agree to validate the network of networks within Tanzi."

Architecture Deep Dive: Symbiotic and Orchestration Chain

• Symbiotic's restaking capabilities are fundamental to Tanzi's operation, providing secure and decentralized validation for networks without requiring standalone validator setups.
• Symbiotic uses pooled restaked assets to ensure secure validation.
• Tanzi's expansion into Ethereum relies heavily on its partnership with Symbiotic, a key player in the restaking space.
• Symbiotic's mainnet recently launched, boasting $1.5 billion in TVL (Total Value Locked).
• The Orchestration Chain connects networks deployed via Tanzi, providing access to decentralized sequencers, operator management, preconfigured templates, and substrate infrastructure for customization.
• The speaker emphasizes that the key theme is to reduce operational complexity for developers.

Customization and Interoperability

• Customization options include block time, finality, gas fee structures, virtual machine type (not limited to EVM), and governance models.
• This flexibility allows developers to tailor their networks to specific use cases, such as gaming or RWA (Real-World Asset) networks.
• The speaker highlights that this is not a "one-size-fits-all" approach.

Decentralized Sequencing: A Key Advantage

• Tanzi manages a pool of sequencers that collect, order, and process transactions, ensuring execution before finalization on the main chain. This decentralized approach eliminates the single point of failure associated with centralized sequencers.
• Tanzi's incentivized workers produce blocks for networks built on the platform.
• A decentralized pool of sequencers ensures liveness and prevents censorship.
• The number of sequencers dynamically adjusts based on block production and network configuration.
• Sequencers rotate every 12 hours to maintain decentralization and optimal distribution.
• "So via this setup censorship via a centralized sequencer is not possible and this removes that single point of failure and provides a key advantage over rollups."

Simplified Network Management and Ecosystem

• The platform offers a numbered launch process (1-5) for intuitive network setup.
• Preconfigured templates for EVM and Substrate networks enable rapid deployment.
• A no-code solution simplifies the creation of decentralized networks.
• The ecosystem page showcases a growing list of integrated tools and protocols, including wallets, RPC endpoints, oracles, and restaking partners.
• The speaker anticipates a "canrian explosion" of growth in the ecosystem.

Key Partnerships: Symbiotic, Level, and Renzo

• Symbiotic provides shared security through restaked assets.
• Level Finance offers Level USD, a non-volatile asset, to secure decentralized networks and provide predictable validator rewards.
• Renzo is a key player in liquid restaking, future-proofing Tanzi's integration with the evolving restaking landscape.
• "Tanzi's already integrated with some of these key players which is obviously bullish in my opinion."

Team and Roadmap

• Tanzi is led by a team with deep experience in the blockchain space, particularly within the Polkadot and Moonbeam ecosystems.
• The team includes four co-founders: Francisco (CEO of Moondance Labs), Thiago (CEO of Tanzi Foundation), Cathy (CMO), and Gorka (CTO).
• The team's background includes significant contributions to Moonbeam and cross-chain initiatives.
• The 2025 roadmap includes deploying the Symbiotic integrated testnet, the "Let's Fork in Dance" initiative, a token generation event, ecosystem onboarding, and mainnet launch in Q1 2025.

Tokenomics: Tanzi Token Utility

• The Tanzi token (TANZI) serves multiple purposes within the network, including staking, security, payments, governance, and incentivization.
• Operators, sequencers, and those securing the network via restaked collateral are rewarded with TANZI tokens.
• The token is used to pay for various services within the network.
• It plays a role in governance and the allocation of future treasury rewards.
• The total supply is 1 billion tokens, with a transparent distribution plan.
• "So in a crypto space where we have often very opaque tokenomics everything is neatly laid out here from Tanzi so full marks for the transparency."

Let's Fork in Launch (LFL) Initiative

• The LFL initiative, starting March 4, 2025, offers early contributors the opportunity to acquire TANZI tokens at the same price as the previous private round.
• Tokens are priced at 4.2 cents, with 50 million (5% of supply) allocated to the initiative.
• The fully diluted valuation is $45 million, matching Moondance Lab's last private round.
• The speaker notes that this provides a favorable entry point for the community.

Final Thoughts: AI Agents and Decentralized Networks

• Tanzi's focus on simplifying decentralized network deployment, upholding the crypto ethos, and providing a permissionless, automated environment positions it favorably for the future, particularly in the context of AI agents.
• Tanzi allows developers to concentrate on application development without worrying about infrastructure.
• The platform's "Shopify-style" experience abstracts away complexities, enabling broader participation in the space.
• Decentralized sequencing and restaked assets further decentralize L2s.
• The speaker poses a rhetorical question about AI agents' preference for decentralized versus permissioned networks, suggesting that AI agents would likely choose the decentralized route.
• "What do you think AI agents would choose to deploy networks on if they want to spin up their own decentralized network? Are they going to use permissioned tech or permissioned L2? Are they going to use things that are easily automated or things that are more complex? Well, I think the answer is they'll choose the decentralized route each and every time."

Reflective and Strategic Conclusion

• Tanzi Network's innovative approach to decentralized network deployment, combined with its strategic partnerships and focus on automation, positions it as a key infrastructure player for the future of crypto and AI. Crypto AI investors and researchers should closely monitor Tanzi's development, particularly its integration with restaking protocols and its potential to become the preferred platform for AI-driven decentralized applications.