About Boba Network (BOBA)

Boba is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum. The platform has a native governance token, BOBA.

According to Messari, Boba leverages EVM-compatibility and Optimistic rollups to effectively scale Ethereum.

Within the network, BOBA tokens are used to facilitate governance and can by staked on the platform for an annual yield. A layer-2 scaling solution, Optimistic rollups work to execute transactions in an off-chain environment before bundling them up and sending the corresponding call data to the Ethereum ledger. Within this framework, Boba is able to effectively scale Ethereum while also leveraging is powerful security protocols, documentation explained.

More specifically Boba’s optimistic rollups are based on the framework developed by a fellow scaling solution project, Optimism. The term “optimistic” comes from the fact that the transaction is assumed valid unless challenged by a member of the network. If challenged, the transaction can be checked and verified via a computational process.

Likewise, Boba’s EVM compatibility enables the network to execute (in theory) any smart contract currently deployed on Ethereum. Per documentation, this helps minimize the effort needed for developers to transfer their Ethereum-based contracts over to Boba’s more scalable layer-2 network.

Together these components work to reduce transaction/computational fees and increase throughput while also expanding upon the capabilities of Ethereum-based contracts.

Among these enhanced capabilities is the ability to bring complex off-chain algorithms on chain, creating an environment in which Boba is capable of executing advanced machine learning and calculation models.

Another feature the sets Boba apart from its competitors is the fact that users can transfer funds into and out of the network within a matter of minutes. Using community-backed liquidity pools, Boba is able swap digital assets between core and ancillary layers at a far faster rate than more conventional scaling solutions, which generally adhere to a transfer period of about seven days.

When was BOBA created and how much was it worth?

Boba launched in September of 2021. It was founded in 2018 by Alan Chiu, a blockchain developer with prior experience creating Enya, a blockchain and AI company that currently supports the platform’s development.

Per Cryptopedia, Enya is also a contributor to the OMG network which is noted as one of Ethereum’s earliest layer-2 scaling solutions. Formally known as OMGX, Boba Network is the product of a joint development effort between the two firms (ie, Enya and the OMG Foundation).  

The testnet launched in May 2021. At the time, it was under the name OMGX, but the rebrand to Boba Network soon followed, reflecting the joint effort between Enya and the OMG foundation.

In April of 2022 Boba announced that it had raised roughly $45 million via a Series A funding round that valued the project at roughly $1.5 billion. Investors included Crypto.com and Huboi as well as a series of celebrities including Will Smith, Paris Hilton and Joe Montana, blockworks said.

Boba’s native governance token, BOBA, was first distributed to the public via an airdrop to eligible OMG token holders in November of 2021. Tokens were disseminated on a 1:1 basis with one OMG token representing one BOBA.

Data from CoinGecko shows that BOBA beginning trading at a price of $1.00 before making a near parabolic move up to a record high of $7.93 within days of its release. This momentum ultimately proved short-lived with the token subsequently losing most of its value shortly thereafter. Amid general market uncertainly, BOBA has spent much of the last four months trading within a tight, consolidating range. As of September 2022, the token was trading for less than $0.35.

How is the price of BOBA determined?

Initially, some 500 million BOBA were pre-mined with 150 million entering circulation. The supply is capped, though, at 500 million so it is a deflationary asset. Still, tailwinds for a new asset tend to blow heaviest in early days and BOBA hit its all-time within days of its release, at the tail end of 2021, as crypto was starting to cool off.

Why does BOBA have value?

Boba stakers get a taste of network transaction fees. Boba’s treasury emits tokens, used for incentivizing growth, and stakers are recipients of these tokens which are used for liquidity mining rewards, bug bounties and bridging incentives. If Optimistic Rollup technology proliferates, as expected, then demand for the token could rise, and there will be BOBA value arguments to be made, owing to its relative scarcity.

Is BOBA secure?

It’s secured by Ethereum. Boba, as a layer-2, benefits from the Ethereum network’s robustly decentralized structure.

What are the main benefits of BOBA? 

• Transactions can be carried out inexpensively relative to Ethereum where costs can range on average in the neighborhood of $10-$50 per transaction. Boba Network reduces costs dramatically.
• Boba Network allows users to create and trade NFTs among a wide swath of platforms, both layer-1 chains and layer-2 solutions.
• Users can transfer funds into and out of the network within minutes.

What do critics say about BOBA?

 Rollup technology remains very much a work in progress, as Coinspeaker noted in July.