Flare Network vs Kava Labs

[XRPnoob007]

Is there a difference? I was going to buy some Spark Tokens (got XRP after dec 12) so I could earn interest on an exchange. I thought the Flare Network was unique, but is Kava Labs doing the same thing? Earn interest, farming, etc? It might be a little different like the exact interest earned, coins minted, etc, but is the overall idea the same between Flare and Kava Labs? Thanks! 

[brianwalden]

There are a number of DeFi (decentralized finance) options out there. I don't know much about Kava in particular. I don't think there's anything out there that's totally unique. Flare is aiming to combine Ethereum's smart contract engine, avalanche's consensus mechanism, and Ripple's concept of securing the network only by consensus, not PoW or PoS.

One thing that really makes Flare stand out is that it's building a data oracle right into the base layer of its network. So importing price feeds and any other type of data from the outside world is one of the core network functions. Will that be a big advantage for Flare? I don't know, we'll see.

[brianwalden]

I will add, in theory, Flare will be able to do everything Ethereum does, but faster and cheaper. This should be a huge advantage for Flare. But being technically better doesn't always transfer over into real world implementation (if it did Ripple would have had widespread long ago). Betamax was technically better than VHS, but still lost out.

In short, I'm very excited for Flare. It has a lot of potential, but I temper that excitement with the knowledge that it's difficult to convert potential into reality.