The Radix Engine Can Change DeFi Forever – Coverage from the RadFi Keynote Event

The CEO of Radix, Piers Ridyard, unveiled their latest technology, the Radix Engine and programming language Scrypto – custom-built for rapid and intuitive Web 3 development. 

Radix has presented these two technologies as having the potential to radically change the entire DeFi industry. Outlining the space as lacking intuitiveness, challenging to navigate, and missing UX elements, Ridyard demonstrated the current issues in the DeFi industry. Without usability, developers, general users, and entrepreneurs aren’t taking to the space, citing it as too complicated to scale effectively.

Specifically targeting the role of developers in kickstarting a technological ecosystem, the keynote outlined their plan to increase uptake in DeFi by shifting the dynamic around developing in the space. 

Let’s break down their event, demonstrating how the Radix Engine has all the markings to be the future of DeFi.

The Current State of Decentralized Finance

On paper, the world of DeFi looks incredibly successful. In the space of a few years, DeFi has grown into an industry with nearly a 12 billion USD valuation. Perhaps more impressive is its current U.S. market CAGR rate, coming in at a whopping 42.1%. Yet, despite the forecasted growth, DeFi suffers from a lack of developers within the space. 

Currently, there are around 20,000 smart contract developers actively working in the DeFi space. Once again, that’s an impressive start. Yet, when put into conversation with the 27.7 million developers that work worldwide, this figure hardly makes a dent. The same goes for the public perception of DeFi. While those of us that actively work in this community may see news surrounding blockchain all of the time, that doesn’t change the fact that only a very small percentage of the general public knows what DeFi is.

Taking this further, even with people you know that understand DeFi, how many of them actively use it? Apart from holding cryptocurrency, do you know anyone that uses DeFi as a primary financial system? The main reason for the lack of usage within DeFi is that it has poor usability. Without an intuitive way of accessing this system, it will never truly compare to CeFi.

Another major reason for the lack of DeFi adoption from a developer perspective is the lack of available resources. If we look at the gaming industry, the invention and proliferation of Unity and Unreal leveled the playing field. Instead of new developers having to muddle through bugs on their own, they instantly had access to a range of reusable art and digital assets that streamlined production.

With this ease of access, developers from across the world started to flock to this space. With renewed interest, this brought more entrepreneurs to the space, causing an explosive period of growth for gaming. In the space of a few years, gaming surpassed other industry giants like TV and music, becoming a world leader.

Today, gaming is worth over 220 billion USD, and is growing bigger every day with a 12.9% CAGR. The accessibility, structure, and support that engines like Unreal and Unity offer are a huge driving factor of this impressive growth.

With this in mind, Ridyard revealed that Radix believes the lack of adoption within DeFi development does not come from a lack of technology. Rather, the lack of accessible support systems and increased difficulty are driving developers away. If there were something like Unity or Unreal in DeFi, developers would have all the tools they need to thrive in this ecosystem.

How Radix Is Set to Change the DeFi Industry 

Radix outlined the above problems in their keynote, explaining the lack of Web 3 adoption. They then revealed that since December 2021, they’ve been working directly on these problems, creating a new way to develop within DeFi.

Radix dicussed the Radix Engine, an all-in-one system that takes the low-level and monotonous work out of developing in Web 3 ecosystems. The work that developers will spend 80% of their time agonizing over is simply removed by Radix. Asset behavior is incorporated into the very fiber of the engine, allowing for dApps and wallets to integrate with new token types almost automatically.

Instead of having to fight for interoperable connections, wallets, applications, and tokens are now instantly compatible with each other. With this announcement, Radix ushers in the world’s first Web 3-build developer engine. 

What Unity and Unreal did to gaming, Radix is doing to DeFi right before our eyes. This revelation did not come alone, with Radix then diving into their new programming language built especially for their engine. 

Scrypto – A Web 3.0 Programming Language

In order to harness the true potential of the Radix engine, the platform wanted to push the developer experience as far as it could possibly go. In order to offer the best possible system, they needed a programming language that was built for and adopted into the fabric of the engine itself.

Much like how JavaScript allowed web developers to interact with a browser without having to continually move between the server and the page, Radix proposes a new language to facilitate building within the Radix Engine.

Their programming language, Scrypto, is built with the needs of Web 3.0 in mind. Seamless integration into the Radix Engine allows developers to build and deploy in a matter of seconds, offering an intuitive coding system. As Radix demonstrated in their keynote, the user experience had to come first if this had any chance of succeeding.

As Javascript innovated Web 1 to Web 2, providing access for companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to dominate that space, Scrypto will be the leading force behind Web 3. With over a year of planning and refining under its belt, Radix has already tested the Radix engine with over 4,500 developers.

Participants in early development have been overwhelmingly positive, citing the language and engine as revolutionary. One respondent stated:

“As a Google software engineer, this has to be one of the best programming languages I’ve ever seen.”

Eclipsing other languages and ecosystems in the Web 3 space, the Radix Engine and Scrypto work together seamlessly, allowing developers to create the DeFi space they desire with ease.

The Future is Bright for Web 3

The Radix event was one of the most pivotal keynotes that we’ve seen in the entirety of DeFi history. Proposing and delivering a whole new DeFi engine that uses its own programming language, Radix have pushed the boat out further than any before them.

The event has already gained mass media attention, with the blockchain developer community flocking to the engine to try it out for themselves. Although still in its early stages, the Radix Engine has all the markers of an industry-changing technology.

This won’t be a keynote we forget anytime soon.