What is Moonriver? All You Need to Know About MOVR

In today’s world, a well-tested smart contract can be the difference between a successful project and one that fails. Since smart contracts are the heart of many blockchains, ensuring the security and smooth running of any smart contract before they are fully launched is necessary. Moonriver is a project developed to test out smart contracts and ensure the smooth running of the project.

This article takes a look at Moonriver, including how it works, its features, and token information.

What is Moonriver?

Moonriver is a smart-contract parachain built on Kusama, a test network for the Polkadot network. It will be used to test out and verify new codes under realistic economic conditions. Once these codes are successful, they are shipped to Moonbeam on Polkadot.

The smart-contract parachain can achieve this by utilizing three essential elements; Web3 API compatibility, full EVM implementation, and bridges that connect Moonriver to existing Ethereum networks. These elements give developers a chance to launch existing Solidity smart contracts and DApp codes on Moonriver with lower gas fees.

History of Moonriver

Moonriver is a network built by the Moonbeam Foundation’s CEO and founder, Derek Yoo. He created the project with the Foundation’s COO, Steflan Mehlhorn. Yoo had a history in the tech space, previously being a cofounder of Thinking Phone Networks and a product manager at BladeLogic, an enterprise data center automation and server configuration management software company.

Steflan Mehlhorn attended the Chemnitz University of Technology and, together with Derek Yoo, launched Moonriver on the Kusama network in June 2021.

Moonriver vs. Moonbeam

These two have several similarities that may make them look identical, but they also have differences that separate them from each other. Both protocols were developed to help boost innovation on the Polkadot blockchain, which is a major similarity they both share. Moonriver is a testnet for Moonbeam and allows developers to build, alter and test their protocols before it is officially launched on Moonbeam.

Moonbeam on the other hand is the mainnet and was the first operational parachain for the Polkadot ecosystem, making it a level ahead of other chains. Parachains were initiated by Polkadot to find the best projects to add to their blockchains. Moonbeam is a layer-1 chain that is equipped to be fully interoperable with the Ethereum ecosystem.

Moonbeam is capable of executing EVM instances on the Polkadot chain. It greatly increases developer options with built-in integrations and supports ERC-20 standard and DOT protocols.

Moonriver was developed to give developers on the Moonbeam network a head start. It eliminates the delays during projects launch and improves the mainnets security. Developers can ensure the smooth running of their protocol. Users can be a part of the network while it is still testing.

What makes Moonriver Unique?

Moonriver is a high-functioning smart contract parachain that allows developers to test new codes. Once the codes have run successfully, they are moved to Moonbeam on Polkadot. It’s a simple process, but to achieve this, the protocol needs certain features to ensure the codes’ smooth running. Some of these features include:

Staking

On the Moonriver network, users can only stake at least five MOVR tokens and are rewarded in two separate rounds. Each round comprises 300 blocks that take approximately an hour to complete.

The rewards are split between two essential bodies; collators and nominators. Collators produce blocks and receive user transactions to create proof used in validation. Nominators are the network’s token holders who invest in the network, stake their tokens in the network, and vouch for the collators.

Collators are rewarded at a 20% fixed annual inflation rate, while nominators earn several rewards depending on the number of tokens staked in the nominator reward pool.

Treasury

The Moonriver network will have a community-led treasury to fund the proposal approved by the MOVR holders. The treasury is made up of 20% of the transaction fees gotten from users on the network, which accounts for around 0.5% (50,000) of MOVR tokens. One thing that sets this feature apart from other protocols is that any other network based on Moonriver will have its personalized treasury, making the approved funds easier to manage and allocate.

How does Moonriver Work?

Moonriver works similarly to how Kusama provides a testing platform for projects before moving to the Polkadot network. The network is designed as a protocol for developing dApps and smart contracts capable of functioning on the Ethereum and Kusama ecosystems. This allows developers to avoid the numerous scalability issues plaguing Ethereum by shifting focus to the new testing platform on Kusama.

This subsequently reduces the fees and commissions on operations, which leads to quicker and more secure transactions. Moonriver facilitates this without requiring developers to rewrite the smart contracts of their dApps, improving interoperability and facilitating easy launch on the platform.

To achieve such a delicate task, Moonriver focuses on four major components:

EVM Implementation

Moonriver can execute smart contracts written in the Solidity language and is also compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). To achieve this, Moonriver replicates Ethereum’s RPC Web3 specifications and interfaces, users’ systems of accounts, crypto ECDSA, registers, and others to ensure a platform identical to that of Ethereum.

The two platforms are so identical that the smart contracts look alike because they are written in Solidity and other languages capable of producing bytecode for the EVM. This ensures that dApps are replicable in Moonriver without making any adjustments, but with the added advantages of the Kusama parachain.

This is suitable for developers since they will not go through the stress of learning a new language or learning to operate a new network. They only have to launch their contract on the new network, which has added benefits like higher scalability and lower gas rates.

Web3 Compliant API

One major feature of Moonriver is its ability to interact with dApps through the use of Web3. Moonnriver is able to interact with any Web3 wallet without significant changes. The only step needed is to add the Moonriver network to the Web3 wallet, giving the user access to metamask to interact with dApps in Moonriver without making any changes.

Bridges

Bridges play a vital role in the operation of Moonriver. They enable token transfers, status visibility, and message transmission between Moonriver and other connected blockchains. With Bridges, Moonriver is closely linked to the Polkadot and Ethereum networks. Some popular bridges include Orbit Bridge (Ozys), Multichain, WanBridge, RelayChain, and Solarbeam.

Governance

The main governing body in the network is the MOVR token holders. They can submit proposals regarding the network, hold referendums, choose the launch time for specific projects, delegate their voting power to other users, and many more abilities.

Moonriver’s Main Features: from Cross-chain Integration to Randomness and Treasury

Moonriver is being developed by the same development team as Moonbeam, which means it is equipped with the same features as its mainnet. To be able to test protocols before they are moved to Moonbeam successfully, it has the same features as Moonbeam, some of which include Cross-chain integration, ETH compatibility, parachain consensus, randomness, staking, and treasury.

Cross-chain Integration

Moonriver eases the use of smart contracts by developers to integrate with other chains in the Polkadot ecosystem. The Polkadot network is equipped with a protocol called cross-chain message passing (XCMP) that allows communication between parachains. By promoting interoperability, Moonbeam aims to help encourage collaboration and teamwork within the blockchain space.

ETH Compatibility

Moonriver is able to move portions of existing workloads and states off Ethereum Layer 1 without significant changes to the project, meaning that applications, contracts, and tools will remain the same.

Parachain Consensus

At a parachain level, block producers are referred to as collators. They keep Moonriver running by gathering transactions from users and offering the blocks to the relay chain validators.

Randomness

Moonriver utilizes VRF- Verifiable Random Functions to produce randomness that can be certified on-chain. VRFs are cryptographic functions that take some input and generate random values and a proof of authenticity that the values were generated by the submitter. The generated proof can later be verified by anyone to make sure the values randomly generated were produced accurately.

Staking on Moonriver

Moonriver makes use of Polkadot’s proof of Stake model that involves collators and validators. The collators are in charge of the parachain by collecting transactions from the users of the chain and also producing state transition proofs for the relay chain validators.

The network collators are selected based on their stake in the network. Collator candidates are selected by the amount staked and after being selected they are to produce blocks with a valid set of transactions. A part of the block’s reward is shared with the collators that produced the block, who later share it with delegators considering their percentage contributions towards the collator’s total stake. This gives other users an incentive to stake tokens to improve their overall security.

Treasury

Treasury is a collection of funds on-chain. Each network developed on Moonriver has a community treasury for supporting network initiatives to develop the network further. This growth is funded by a percentage of transaction fees gotten from the users.

What is the MOVR Token?

Decentralized smart contract platforms all over the ecosystem require a utility token to run effectively. Moonriver has one called MOVR, and the token is pivotal to the design of Moonriver and cannot be gotten rid of without the platform sacrificing functionality in certain areas.

As a utility token. MOVR can be used for the following:

• Support the execution of smart contracts
• Pay network transaction fees
• Facilitate the on-chain governance mechanism
• A form of incentive for validators

MOVR Tokenomics

The MOVR token, which has a total supply of 10 million and is called the Genesis, was created for several uses. It serves as a means to create funds that help to guarantee the network’s safety, which involves maintaining the parachain slot of the Kusama network for the project.

The MOVR token will be distributed in the following ways:

• 30% of the Moonriver token will be distributed to crowd loan contributors
• 40% will be distributed to community initiatives and parachain slot reserves
• 24.5% of the token supply is allocated to long-term network stewardship and adoption
• 4.5% will be assigned to the developer adoption program
• 0.5% will be allocated to the treasury
• 0.5% will be allocated to the parachain bond reserve

The project also has an annual inflation rate of 5%, which grants it an unlimited token supply. The inflation maintains a flow of tokens used to access the network and meet the network’s security needs. The 5% inflation will be focused on in three major ways:

• 1% of the inflation rate will go to incentivize validators
• 1.5% will go to the reserve of parachain bonds
• 2.5% goes to users who stake with MOVR tokens within the system and support the network validators in their tasks

How To Buy Moonriver Token (MOVR)?

Users can get MOVR toke by using the various crypto exchanges out there. MOVR is available on exchanges such as Gate.io. To start trading, users only have to create a Gate.io account and complete the KYC procedure, then review the procedure to buy Moonriver (MOVR) on the spot or in future markets once they have added funds to their account.

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