It was an event that was impossible to miss, but for anyone who hasn’t heard, Mantle Network Mainnet is officially launched! 

And with the launch, let’s hear from developers building on the testnet & key community contributors who have been pivotal in moving Mantle Ecosystem forward. As we close on Mantle Network’s testnet chapter, we look back on the community’s experience with Mantle in the past six months from a developer ecosystem and community-building perspective.

From the Amazing Dev Community

Q. Why did you decide to build on Mantle Network?

@levertz_: A thriving community and incredible hackathon dev support led me to build on Mantle.

@jordanst3000: I was surprised by how optimized the fees were and efficient the network was, especially storage. Deployment on the testnet was effortless.

@ac_crypto: I see Mantle as a blank canvas with a lot of potential.

Q. What are you building on Mantle, and which specific features and/or advantages of the Mantle network made it the correct choice for your project?

@levertz_: I built Donation Station, and also another project Progress Pool with my co-founder @geoist_. It introduces a new funding mechanism that rewards those hackathon participants that pursue their projects beyond the hackathon weekend by setting aside some of the prize money and distributing it to projects with a proven track record after x days. Hackathon organizers and participants are able to vote on the distribution of funds. Mantle can serve as a great proof of concept for certain novel use cases. EVM compatibility makes the transition from Ethereum frictionless. Furthermore, users will expect to save a lot on gas costs.

Anonymous: I have built a ZKML verifier. Being an L2, the low gas costs are ideal from a user point of view.

@ac_crypto: I built a proof of concept dApp, for forecasting gas prices on Mantle and submitting transactions when gas prices are the lowest. Since Mantle is an optimistic rollup, the implementation of how gas prices are calculated is unique.

Q. How was your experience when building on Mantle Network?

@levertz_: All the tools I’m familiar with worked out of the box. The learning curve for someone who has deployed on any EVM chain is low.

@jordanst3000: It was a frictionless experience. I configured my toolset, and everything worked on the first try. Acquiring $BIT from a faucet was easy work too. The explorer is synced well, I could see my contracts immediately.

@ac_crypto: The experience was similar to Ethereum mainnet.

Q. What are some notable outcomes since you’ve started building on Mantle Network?

@levertz_: Received incredible hackathon exposure and experienced increased user engagement while building on Mantle.

@jordanst3000: Was rewarded by BitDAO for both the projects that I built on Mantle. I continue to receive encouragement from the Mantle team.

Q. What sets Mantle Network apart from other networks?

@levertz_: Developer support for sure — in person through hackathons and also via detailed documentation.

@jordanst3000: The instant finality and controlled fees set the network apart. The massive backing will ensure Mantle keeps its performance promises and the network is here to stay.

@ryan_nguyen200: The support of BitDAO is immense. As a DAO is already present from Day 1, Mantle is in a unique position.

Anonymous: Modularity is an invaluable addition to the space.

Q. What improvements and/or new features do you want to see in the future?

@levertz_: Faced some issues with verifying contracts. The configuration in hardhat is partly unique, and rpc/apiURL reachability was only sometimes given.

@jordanst3000: Implementing the ZK rollup tech will be interesting. It will give users more confidence when moving funds between Mantle Network and Ethereum.

Anonymous: A clear unique selling proposition will help Mantle Network, I see it missing.

@ac_crypto: I want access to more on-chain data to understand what’s happening on Mantle Network.

Key Takeaways

1. Developers choose Mantle due to its efficiency, thriving community, and significant potential for growth.

2. A range of innovative products are being built on Mantle Network, emphasizing the network's diversity. EVM compatibility, low gas costs, and unique handling of gas prices contribute to this interest from the developer community.

3. Developers reported a generally smooth experience during their building process, although they found some areas for potential improvement, like using $BIT as the native currency. However, this will be resolved with the rebranding.

4. Building on Mantle Network increases exposure, user engagement, and reward recognition, signaling a robust support system

5. Mantle Network distinguishes itself with robust developer support, controlled fees, Mantle Ecosystem backing, and the value of its modularity.

6. Future expectations include improvements in contract verification, more on-chain data access, potential implementation of ZK rollup tech, and a clearer unique selling proposition for Mantle Network.

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From Key Community Contributors

Q: Where are you from and how did you come to join the Mantle community?

@0xMrAlvand: I found out about Mantle through a crypto Telegram channel.

@pierrexp81: I’m a blockchain consultant from France and am involved in a lot of DAOs. A fellow DAO member told us about Mantle last year, so we came to discover the project and I liked it. I’m always looking for disruptive projects.

Vincent: I’m from Vietnam and have worked in the blockchain industry for two years. I like to search for new projects on Twitter and that’s where I found out about Mantle from reading a thread.

Q: What was your first impression of Mantle and the community?

@0xMrAlvand: It’s quite a big community with an amazing team and support staff.

@pierrexp81: I found that the community is benevolent, and one thing I think would make it even better is to have more technical discussions with the team on Discord. 

Vincent: When I joined Mantle, it stood out as an innovative layer-2 solution with a modular architecture that was incubated by the largest DAO globally.

Q: ​​In your personal experience, if you could highlight one aspect of Mantle that you believe sets it apart from other similar projects, what would it be and why?

@0xMrAlvand: Clarification from the team about their activities, proper communication between team members and mods, and easy access to project admins.

@pierrexp81: Like I said before, I find the team members care a lot, and I think the mods are all doing a great job. When someone has a question the answers are accurate and well described. 

Vincent: I’d say it's the professionalism from the team behind Mantle, and the dev team is working very fast to fix issues on the testnet. 

Q: What tools or resources did you find most helpful as a Mantle community member?

@0xMrAlvand: The official project documentation, and asking questions directly to team members.

@pierrexp81: I find that the documentation made available is very complete, and you can easily find all the information you need. I think that a point of improvement, however, would be to better discover the projects that will be launched on Mantle Network...maybe with a special channel on discord?

Vincent: The Mantle docs are a really helpful tool for any community members to read and research about Mantle.

Q: What improvements or new features would you like to see on Mantle Network for the community in the future?

@0xMrAlvand: I don't have anything in mind at the moment, but I would like to learn more about gaming projects that are building on Mantle.

@pierrexp81: A few more fun events, with maybe some Mantle merch as prizes, and then AMA sessions on Discord with team members taking live questions from the community. On-chain quests would also be fun, but I can imagine there are some plans for that already. 

Vincent: I’d love to see a community-run Twitter account that’s dedicated to covering news about projects launching in the Mantle ecosystem.

Key Takeaways:

1. If you’re looking to learn more about Mantle, two of the best resources are the Documentation and asking questions in the discord, as the team members are always happy to give answers.

2. There’s so many different projects being built across the Mantle ecosystem, and community members are looking for more dedicated resources to learn about them. (One way the team is working to address this is by creating Mantle Journey, coming soon, which is geared towards incentivizing user activities within Mantle Ecosystem and providing rewards based on these activities).

3. The community has some great ideas for putting on engaging events like on-chain quests, contests, and live AMAs. We hear you!

4. The quality of the testnet has visibly improved over its course, something our developer team takes great pride in as we prepare for mainnet. 

Some fantastic feedback from our community of builders and contributors! If you have any questions or ideas of your own, don’t hesitate to bring them up in the Discord.