Exploring Blockchain from the inside

In the world of decentralized finance, the gap between technological potential and real user experience is still enormous. Complex interfaces, private key management, and fragmentation across blockchains continue to make mass adoption of DeFi a challenge. Together with Xcapit, we dove into a project that allowed us to explore this problem from its roots, investigating and building proof of concepts (PoC) that bring the technology closer to simpler, safer, and more usable experiences.

More than reading documentation, the work required understanding how major Web3 projects actually operate, studying their security models, technical flows, and the architectural decisions that make them scalable. From that analysis, we designed functional prototypes across key areas of the DeFi ecosystem.

Below is an overview of the most significant PoCs.

1. On chain investment suite: integrating Aave through custom contracts

The DeFi ecosystem offers complex products that must be abstracted for the end user. To understand how to do this securely, we used Zapper as a case study, one of the most well known platforms for managing DeFi positions through a unified interface.

From that analysis we built:

• Smart contracts capable of interacting directly with Aave, handling both deposits and borrowing.

• Simplified investment flows, after studying how to abstract complex interactions such as collateral management, health factor, variable or stable rates, and on chain validations.

• A design focused on minimizing user friction, while maintaining the security standards required by a protocol like Aave, including audits, address verification, and liquidation risk management.

This PoC allowed us to measure gas costs, latency, and critical integration points when working with real DeFi products.

2. Asset price quoting analysis inspired by MetaMask Swap

MetaMask Swap has become one of the most robust price aggregators in the ecosystem, combining data from multiple DEXs to offer the best possible rates.

We studied in detail:

• How routing flows are built across pools and protocols.

• Dynamic fee models that adjust commissions based on liquidity and volatility.

• Gas optimization, evaluating which routes enable cheaper transactions without sacrificing execution price.

• Risks associated with slippage, arbitrage, and real time fluctuations.

Based on these concepts, we created our own PoC that simulates the quoting process. It compares pools, AMM models, and transaction costs in order to identify efficient routes.

3. Multichain swap interaction: experiments with AnySwap

The future of DeFi is multichain, although interoperability between networks still faces major technical challenges. To explore these challenges, we worked with the architecture of MetaMask Swap (later merged into Multichain), one of the first cross chain swap solutions.

Our goal was to build:

• A suite of contracts capable of initiating and receiving swaps across different blockchains.

• Services that handle signatures, validations, and on chain event proofs.

• A complete user experience flow, including estimated times, confirmation states, and failure detection.

This analysis helped us understand the real risks and limitations of the cross chain world, for example dependence on external validators and latency between networks.

4. Account Abstraction and Social Recovery: building more human friendly wallets

Account Abstraction (AA) redefines how wallets work. It makes it possible to replace traditional EOAs with smart contract controlled accounts that can include:

• automated payments

• delegated signatures

• usage limits

• integrated recovery systems

Based on the ERC 4337 proposal and implementations such as Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe), we investigated:

• Social Recovery mechanisms, where a group of guardians can help restore an account if the key is lost.

• Modular contract structures that allow new functions to be added without compromising security.

• UX strategies that bring advanced security features to users without technical backgrounds.

• Our goal was clear: bringing wallet level security to intuitive experiences, without sacrificing decentralization.

5. An exchange inspired by Uniswap: our own functional AMM

To deeply understand how Automated Market Makers work, we developed an MVP inspired by Uniswap, allowing token swaps through the same pool based model with dynamic pricing determined by supply and demand.

Building it from scratch was essential for understanding how AMMs behave under different scenarios.

At Grava, we believe the best way to learn is by building. This project with Xcapit allowed us to explore, question, and validate technologies that are redefining global financial infrastructure. What once seemed like a space reserved for blockchain experts is now becoming a field where we can contribute accessible, robust, and user centered solutions.

If you want to learn more about our projects, visit: Grava.io