Dialogue with Analog Business Head: AI, RWA and meme, providing three major growth opportunities for cross-chain communication

Interview: flowie, ChainCatcher

Guest: Eric Wang , Analog Business Director

Organized: flowie, ChainCatcher

Recently, Analog, the full-chain interoperability agreement, announced the completion of a US$5 million expansion seed round of financing invested by Foresight Ventures, Gate Ventures, etc., with a post-investment valuation of US$300 million.

In February 2024, Analog also received a seed round of $16 million. The investment team behind it is also very luxurious, including Tribe Capital, NGC Ventures, Wintermute, GSR, NEAR, Orange DAO, Balaji Srinivasan, etc.

Behind the bets by many well-known investment institutions, the Analog team’s senior and diverse background in the field of encryption, the members of its founding team have experience in many key projects in the crypto industry such as Polkadot, X Fund, Chainlink and Y Combinator.

In the highly competitive cross-chain communication track, Analog hopes to solve the problems of fragmentation, centralization and security in cross-chain. Eric Wang, head of Analog's business, said that Analog positioned itself as a "one-stop" store for cross-chain developers, committed to meeting all native cross-chain DApp development needs, allowing developers or users to seamlessly fit within a single and unified application. Use different blockchains.

In 2025, Analog will actively expand innovations in AI data oracles, RWA interoperability, cross-chain memes and other fields, and strive to become the most widely adopted "chain abstraction" product.

Analog announced its main website to be launched in December last year and launched a public token offering in January this year. What are the differentiated paths and key roadmaps for Analog in 2025? What are the growth opportunities in the cross-chain communication track? Recently, Eric Wang shared in an interview with ChainCatcher.

Analog Differentiated Path

1. ChainCatcher: Can you share how you entered the encryption field? What important work experience and achievements did you have before joining Analog?

Eric Wang: I graduated from UCLA undergrad and then studied for my master's and doctoral degree in chemistry at Stanford. While studying for a Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University, he suspended his studies and started ROK Capital, a crypto hedge fund that has invested in more than 40 projects and raised about $30 million in funds.

I have also been fortunate to contribute to some global cryptocurrency activities, such as the Korean Blockchain Week, and have also provided strategic advice to some top Web2 companies.

In addition, I also founded Archon Technologies, a company that used to be centralized storage with friends. When I was working at Parity Technologies, a Web3 infrastructure company, I gradually became the director of strategic growth from being responsible for ecosystem development, and also took the lead in establishing the Substrate Builders Program, which led to some important cooperation.

Currently I also provide strategic advice for some well-known projects in the Polkadot ecosystem. I feel very lucky to be able to combine technical background with business experience and build in the blockchain and crypto industry.

2. ChainCatcher: According to public information, other Analog 's founding team members come from well-known projects such as Polkadot, X Fund, Chainlink and Y Combinator. Can you please introduce the members of Analog’s founding team in detail? How do they support the development of Analog projects?

Eric Wang: Chief Architect Victor Young plays an important role in the development of Analog's strategic development. He graduated from the University of Waterloo with his expertise covering cryptography, security, distributed systems, full-chain frameworks and privacy. He has a deep understanding of blockchain and decentralized protocols and is also good at designing innovative business models.

Victor Young has also accumulated key experience in developing startups among many well-known companies such as Hyperloop, DocSend and eNet. He has built the first actuarial automatic underwriting and policy binding app for Fortune 100 Life and Health Insurance Corporation, shortening the underwriting process from 8 weeks to just 8 seconds. He has also grown the company from 0 employees and contractors to 500 without any risk financing.

Co-founder Sanchal Ranjan is currently responsible for product development, token economics and financing at Analog. He is a founding member of OrangeDAO and has consulting backgrounds in companies such as Deloitte and KPMG. Sanchal Ranjan once built a YC-funded B2C cohabitation platform acquired by Tiger Global's portfolio.

3. ChainCatcher: What was the original intention of Analog’s founding team when creating the project? What vision and goals do they hope Analog can achieve in the blockchain field?

Eric Wang: Currently, the Web3 blockchain data field is decentralized, with users, assets, applications and ecosystems operating independently. Although useful, existing blockchain bridges are mostly temporary solutions, centralized and vulnerable. These attacks erode trust and pose systemic risks to the blockchain ecosystem.

Is there a way to safely let users and developers interact with users and dApps on any platform?

This is where Analog comes in. Analog is a trustless full-chain interoperability protocol that provides powerful low-level communication primitives for building diverse cross-chain applications. Engineers can implement cross-chain applications such as cross-chain decentralized exchanges (DEXs) or multi-chain earnings aggregators without relying on trustworthy trustees or encapsulated assets.

Analog is committed to making direct, trustless transactions between all chains possible, integrating decentralized liquidity and empowering users to make the most of their applications on the different chains. We are creating network structures for the future full-connected and full-chain ecosystem.

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4. ChainCatcher: The competition in the cross-chain communication track is fierce. What are Analog 's main competitors in the crypto market? What are Analog's differentiation paths and competitive advantages compared to them? What are the unique features of Analog's technical architecture?

Eric Wang: Analog's main competitors include Axelar, LayerZero, Chainlink, Gelato, Wormhole, Graph and Hyperlane. These competitors usually focus on 1-2 cross-chain development services, and developers need to integrate multiple products to build DApps.

In fact, most interoperability solutions today make it difficult for developers to create seamless applications. Analog allows developers or users to seamlessly use different blockchains under a single and unified application. This means that smart contracts deployed on multiple chains can work closely together, and developers can more easily see them as part of a single subsystem.

The AnalogOne SDK provides developers with a single access point to access all products in a seamless and integrated manner. Developers can use Watch (for data), GMP (for sending transactions/assets) and Automation (for automating business processes) alone or together. This reduces the need for multiple integrations and provides a more efficient and coherent development experience.

In addition, Analog provides native cross-chain capabilities that competitors lack. For example, Analog Automation allows setting conditions and triggers on different chains, making it easier to automate cross-chain workflows. Watch can merge data across multiple chains, unlike Graph, which requires individual subgraphs for each chain.

Analog also takes a different approach in terms of security. Analog provides customizable security parameters for different transactions. Currently, Axelar uses a single parameter for all transactions and lacks certain flexibility. LayerZero's security is defined by the application and cannot be guaranteed.

In addition, Analog is built on Substrate and has the advantage of being easy to upgrade, ensuring that new proof mechanisms can be easily implemented, which is also different from competitors. By solving these key aspects, Analog positiones itself as a "one-stop" store for cross-chain developers, meeting all native cross-chain DApp development needs.

Three common challenges of cross-chain communication

5. ChainCatcher: Cross-chain communication projects are often criticized as not decentralized enough and vulnerable to major security attacks. What is Analog 's response to this?

Eric Wang: Our approach is centered on Timechain, an independent blockchain that adopts a nominee proof of stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism that ensures that all network activities are transparent and verifiable. This decentralized framework eliminates single point of failure and significantly reduces the vulnerability to security attacks.

In addition, following our Token Generation Event (TGE), we plan to implement a more decentralized governance structure that draws on Polkadot’s OpenGov model to empower the community in the decision-making process.

6. ChainCatcher: What common challenges does the industry still face in solving cross-chain communication interoperability?

Eric Wang: Cross-chain interoperability faces critical obstacles, but Analog is developing solutions that can redefine possibilities:

First, the standards and complexity of fragmentation. Most protocols force developers to choose between incompatible systems (such as IBC vs CCIP vs LayerZero). Analog Watch solves this problem with a cross-chain view—a unified query layer that aggregates data from any chain in a single request. Think of it as a SQL for Web3: designers create codeless automation rules, collectors are rewarded for maintaining data integrity, and consumers seamlessly query through our SDK. There is no need to piece together an isolated agreement.

The second is the bottlenecks and security risks of centralization. Bridges and validators are still the main attack vectors. Analog's GMP eliminates the pre-registration requirement for contracts—a first in the industry—and offers Boost mode for instant transactions, bypassing slow verification. Each transaction is protected by our Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus and time proof-of-time protocol and end-to-end tracking on Analog Explorer. In addition, our decentralized automation does not require a centralized server to run.

The third is dislocated incentives and governance. Projects tend to prioritize short-term growth over ecosystem health. Analog's token economics balances rewards between designers, collectors and consumers, while our governance draws on Polkadot's iterative model. After TGE, stakeholders will drive upgrades through on-chain voting – no centralized team controls progress.

In addition, Analog is also committed to broadening its boundaries, not limited to the field of encryption. Analog is trying to connect the on-chain system to the traditional financial system. Combining our SDK’s customizable trust model (optimized speed, cost, or security), we are not only solving interoperability issues, but also want to build infrastructure for a unified financial ecosystem.

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7. ChainCatcher: Analog has recently launched the main network. Can you share the functions of the main network online and what upgrades have been made? What are the next plans?

Eric Wang: In the initial stage, the mainnet runs as a Proof of Authority (PoA) network, laying the foundation for subsequent runtime upgrades to gradually add core Analog functions before Token Generation Events (TGE). When our tokens go online, our main network will have functions such as NPoS consensus mechanism, cross-chain messaging, cross-chain query, etc.

After successfully completing the three-stage testnet, the mainnet will enable true decentralization and interoperability solutions for developers, protocols and users. Analog has now become a one-stop interoperability platform, providing a seamless technology stack to build cross-chain applications. By implementing complete smart contract execution on multiple chains, developers can create and respond to complex applications in multi-chain ecosystem events.

The Analog Testnet campaign achieved an unexpected success, attracting more than 12 million website visits and more than 400,000 participating accounts. In Analog Watch, users list over 290,000 smart contracts and create more than 1.9 million data sets on supported chains. More than 42,000 users have completed the "Proof of Humanity" (PoH) verification, and this number is expected to grow significantly by TGE.

The launch of the Analog main network marks a major advancement in providing a secure and scalable platform for decentralized applications. With a simple, developer-friendly tool set and a growing ecosystem, Analog hopes to redefine the standards for future multi-chain experiences.

8. ChainCatcher: Analog recently started a public sale. Can you share the details of the token generation event ( TGE ) and airdrop plan? How has the public sales of tokens been progressing so far?

Eric Wang: Public sales were conducted on Fjord Foundry and Republic, with initial success.

Regarding airdrops, on January 15, the incentive test network tasks and ATP points accumulation were officially discontinued. We sent notifications to each participant to make sure they had enough time to connect their Substrate wallet and Discord account.

By January 18, based on all accounts connected to Substrate addresses, the first batch of addresses that meet the criteria will be whitelisted, and the first batch of users' collection websites will be launched on January 19. We have currently conducted four rounds of token distribution.

For any remaining eligible users, additional batches may be introduced. It should be noted that any unreceived rewards will be returned to the Analog Ecosystem Fund in six months.

To maintain fairness in the process and to recognize everyone’s efforts, we allocate rewards as follows:

• The top 91.7% of participants received rewards based on square root calculations.
• PoH users receive additional reward boosts, starting at least 205 tokens.
• 5% of the token supply is reserved for the community, and the validator's reward will be issued later.

9. ChainCatcher: What is the current state of Analog 's ecosystem development? What are the important partners?

Eric Wang: Currently, more than 50 projects have been used in multiple fields or are committed to using Analog for development.

For example, Rarible, a market for NFTs with over $350 million in total transaction volume, can mint and store NFTs on any blockchain supported by Analog, and allow an NFT created natively on Ethereum to be minted and stored in the Solana wallet. This eliminates the need for users to deal with blockchain complexity and provides a seamless experience.

StationX, a multi-chain DAO creation and management platform, leverages Analog’s automated workflow to simplify cross-chain processes, from fund allocation to trigger-based actions, and strives to make DAO management more efficient and user-friendly.

AI proxy protocol Parami leverages Analog to enable AI proxy to interact in decentralized communities across multiple chains.

The decentralized stablecoin project Frax Finance improves the transparency and accuracy of FXS-USD pricing by integrating Analog Watch to send real-time oracle data across chains.

Decentralized geolocation technology platform XYO uses Analog to enhance accessibility to data supported by DePIN.

Converting locked crypto assets into a platform that can tradable NFTs, Vemo Network, uses Analog's cross-chain technology to lock assets on multiple chains, and then present them in the form of NFTs.

We plan to have more than 200 eco-partners by the end of this year, and at least half of them will be active.

AI, RW A and Meme **provide growth opportunities for cross-chain

communication**

10. ChainCatcher: What are your expectations for the crypto market in 2025? What do you think are the development opportunities for cross-chain communication track and Analog in 2025?

Eric Wang: The cross-chain communication track is the core of blockchain development in 2025. As DeFi, NFT and tokenized assets expand on different blockchains, interoperability will become a must-have feature, not a niche capability anymore.

It is expected that the demand growth in the following major areas will give Analog greater development potential in 2025.

The first is the AI-enhanced data oracle system. The rise of AI proxy will also require secure cross-chain access to real-time data. Analog is exploring collaboration with AI-driven protocols to provide trusted timestamp data to drive automated decision-making processes in decentralized finance (DeFi) and other fields.

The second is interoperability RWA. We initially implemented cross-chain tokenization of NFT through Pixelport. We will also leverage the same underlying technology to create interoperable real-world assets (RWAs). We believe this area will continue to grow and we are currently in talks with many projects in this area.

The third is cross-chain Memes. This year, Memecoins are very popular, but they are mostly active on the Solana chain (and a small number on Base). We hope to realize the vision of cross-chain Memes. We will soon announce a product that will achieve this.

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11. ChainCatcher: What other important roadmap projects or goals does Analog have in 2025?

Eric Wang: Committed to launching products that users really need .

We have built the core infrastructure. We will launch projects built on Analog in the fields of DeFAI , Memecoin, AI meme, RWA, etc. We believe these projects will bring huge heat and usage to our ecosystem.

We also firmly believe that DeFi will usher in a huge revival this year and in the future. We have established partnerships with some large DeFi projects such as Frax and Asymmetry Finance and plan to continue to expand on such collaborations.

We are committed to becoming the most widely adopted "chain abstraction" product.