The Battle Contract Runs on a Sidechain, but Waiting Still Breaks Flow

Background: A-Zhen’s earlier research into sidechains had found concerns about security and finality alongside their lower costs; the team still needed to verify whether a contract could support an actual battle. The goal that day was to get the battle contract running and see whether waiting for confirmation would interrupt the pace of play.

Today: The battle contract ran successfully on a sidechain, with costs ten times cheaper, clearing an engineering hurdle. But confirmation time still interrupted the flow: the round had ended, while players had to wait for the result to settle. A-Zhen recorded “it runs” separately from “it feels smooth,” so a successful deployment would not be mistaken for a solved experience problem.

Impact and next steps: Compared with the previous day, when the team was still weighing options, it now had a battle contract running on a sidechain and a tenfold cost advantage. The tradeoff was that waiting remained part of the player flow. The team still needed to study how to handle feedback and pacing during confirmation, and concerns about security and finality had not gone away.