Lately there’s been a lot of chatter about current Cardano DApps utilizing toolkits from other chains & NFT platforms exploring opportunities in other blockchains. The platforms being mentioned are:

1. MELD: The DeFi protocol for lending and borrowing fiat & cryptocurrencies is partnering with Ava Labs to build a subnet on Avalanche, but will offer native ADA staking & use a multi-sig wallet on Cardano.

2. WorldMobile: A mobile network built using Cosmos Software Development Kit (SDK) to be connected with the Cardano’s public mainnet.

3. Gamespad: A gaming launchpad built on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) but is backed by Emurgo, one of the three entities that formed Cardano. You can find Emurgo’s name on the investors and partners section of their homepage.

4. DanketsuNFT: An Anime-inspired gamified NFT building on Cardano is expanding to Polygon.

5. Book.io: A decentralized e-books & audiobooks marketplace whereby you mint books primarily in the Cardano blockchain, while it’s already expanded to other blockchains such as Ethereum & Polygon.

While many people may generalize this as DApps & NFTs from Cardano “moving on” to other blockchains, the true intentions for this movement are very far from this perception.

There are two misconceptions that should be clarified for the above statement:

a) Utilizing toolkits from other blockchains ≠ moving to other chains

In cases like MELD & WorldMobile, building sidechains using Avalanche & Cosmos blockchain toolkits do not directly meant these platforms are moving to Avalanche & Cosmos blockchains. While MELD has yet to specify the details on how their Layer-1 DApp built using Avalanche Subnet will work, their main target audience would still be the Cardano users. Likewise, WorldMobile collaborates with Input Output Global (IOG, another entity besides Emurgo that formed Cardano) to build a sidechain that even though they are using the Cosmos software toolkit, Cardano will still be used as the financial settlement layer.

While Cardano just launched a documentation about building a sidechain on Cardano, the toolkit is not yet matured and widely adopted like Cosmos SDK or Avalanche Subnet, so utilizing other blockchains’ established toolkits is a great way to speed up the development time of building their intended products with multi-chain features, while they can work with Cardano to slowly build and integrate Cardano tools into the ecosystem when they are already live on the mainnet. On the other hand, if they only stuck with using the Cardano sidechain toolkit, it may take more time for MELD & WorldMobile to learn how to develop & use this toolkit that may result in project timeline delays.

b) Minting NFTs on other blockchains ≠ moving to other chains

Ambitious NFT projects such as Danketsu requires continuous funding and vast amounts of time to develop them. Cardano has lesser Venture Capitalists (VCs) than other blockchains like Ethereum & Polygon because the main funding platform for Cardano is Project Catalyst, which is basically a decentralized VC fund that is funded by a treasury collected from block rewards. While decentralized funding mechanism is ideal to the values of a public blockchain-powered ecosystem, the treasury is funded with ADA which poses volatility risks against the USD. With the whole world still uses fiat currency as a medium of exchange, as ADA value to the USD drops, so is the funding power of ADA to developers. On a short-term horizon, listing NFTs on Ethereum or Polygon may not be a bad choice as the market prices listed on Ethereum is much higher than Cardano (Just compare blue-chip NFTs such as BAYC’s floor price (~54 ETH or $113k) and The Ape Society (~4,800 ADA or $2.1k)), so developers are able to earn higher revenue listing in these blockchains.

However, we need to think on a bigger picture that blockchains are more beneficial being interoperable with other blockchains, as the goal of interoperability is to transact value between cryptos from different blockchains permissionless & without centralized control. With NFT platforms such as Book.io & Danketsu expanding to different blockchains, they can bring their real-world utility & unique gaming experiences to other blockchains that are lacking in these properties, while also pulling more interest from people outside of Cardano to join the Cardano ecosystem.

Milkomeda

As a matter of fact, Cardano already has a well-established sidechain in Milkomeda, where you can bridge your assets to other EVM chains, starting with Ethereum, BNB chain & Algorand. The code is also run in Solidity, which is the native programming language of Ethereum & other EVM chains. They also currently have more than 40 DApps built on Milkomeda, with more to come. Furthermore, Milkomeda also has a rollup built on the Algorand blockchain last October. Other than that, they are also building a lot of unique features in their upcoming V2 such as:

1. Wrapped smart contracts.

2. Liquid staking.

3. Bridge aggregator with a rescue treasury for users.

4. New validator software.

5. Oracles.

The only thing left standing is to onboard more developers that have the goal of building a multi-chain DApp platform. With Solidity, developers building on the Ethereum blockchain will have an easier time to create a bridge for both Ethereum & Cardano users to participate in their platform via Milkomeda.

Summary

There’s a big difference between the meanings of “interoperability” & “migration”. Interoperability involves collaboration between blockchains, while migration involves moving into a new ecosystem and leaving the old one. These examples above strongly suggest that interoperability between blockchains is the name of the game, not migration.

As I covered in my previous article, blockchains are like countries. Sure, there will be people leaving Malaysia to go to Singapore for a better living standard, or businesses expanding to other countries to market their brand globally, or companies outsourcing manufacturing to other countries to reduce cost. In the end, there will always be Malaysians returning home from Singapore to start their own businesses to grow the Malaysia economy, or global businesses still running in their native countries, or products being manufactured in other countries importing back to their native country.

These countries benefit from each other and grow together, so I don’t see how blockchains can’t do the same. In fact, more collaboration between blockchains will definitely benefit the growth of the whole crypto space.

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