Q&A: WAX CTO Lukas Sliwka on Core Upgrades, Decentralization, and What’s Next
WAX CTO Lukas Sliwka joined us for an X Spaces session focused on recent technical upgrades and where the chain is headed next. Below is a streamlined Q&A covering the most relevant updates for builders, infrastructure providers, and ecosystem contributors.
Q: What were the biggest technical milestones on WAX recently?
Lukas: We delivered several key upgrades across wallet infrastructure, developer tooling, and interoperability.
Highlights include:
- Cloud Wallet updates, including mobile support on iOS and Android
- Removal of the account creation fee, reducing onboarding friction
- New Unity and React Native SDKs
- Deeper WharfKit integration to simplify wallet adoption for dApps
- Bridge expansions, including Solana NFT support and TON integration
- Continued progress toward open sourcing and decentralizing core infrastructure
Q: Why is decentralization and open sourcing such a focus right now?
Lukas: We want proven, audited infrastructure to be available to the ecosystem. Open-sourcing and decentralizing key systems lets builders reuse patterns, extend them, or run their own versions without starting from scratch.
This strengthens the ecosystem and reduces long-term reliance on centralized components.
Q: WAX RNG was a major release. Why is it important?
Lukas: WAX RNG is the first major example of this approach. It’s fully decentralized and will be open-sourced.
It provides:
- A transparent, verifiable randomness source for applications
- A reference architecture for teams that want to deploy their own RNG systems
Building a decentralized RNG correctly is complex. Open-sourcing it provides builders with a secure, audited foundation, rather than requiring them to reinvent it themselves.
Q: Are similar changes planned for the bridge?
Lukas: Yes. The bridge is next in line for decentralization and open sourcing. The goal is to let infrastructure providers run bridge nodes while also giving developers a blueprint if they want to launch their own bridges.
Q: What changed with CPU staking and PowerUp?
Lukas: WAX uses two resource models:
- Staking WAXP for reusable CPU and NET
- PowerUp, which works more like a gas model
Since removing the 5 WAXP Paywall in March, we’ve slowly adjusted txn resources to favor Power-Up over traditional staking. This provides the chain with flexibility under various traffic conditions. Most users still rely on staking, with PowerUp used as a fallback when needed.
Q: Will regular users notice the block producer and guild changes?
Lukas: No. These changes are designed to happen behind the scenes.
We are concentrating rewards among fewer infrastructure providers so they can continue operating high-quality public APIs, full history nodes, and block production reliably. The goal is long-term stability.
Context: As part of several behind-the-scenes infrastructure updates, WAX also announced changes to how block producers and guilds are structured and compensated. These adjustments are focused on long-term sustainability and keeping core services reliable.
Q: What’s changing with Cloud Wallet under the hood?
Lukas: The biggest shift is moving transaction signing to the client.
This:
- Gives users more direct control over their signing credentials
- Reduces backend load and infrastructure costs
- Aligns Cloud Wallet with modern wallet architecture
This also helps mitigate issues like botnet pressure that centralized signing systems face.
Q: Why introduce passkeys?
Lukas: Passkeys improve security by removing password reuse, reducing phishing risk, and adding built-in multi-factor authentication. They are becoming an industry standard across major platforms and fit well with client-side signing.
Q: Will the wallet be open-sourced, too?
Lukas: It’s part of the longer-term roadmap. We are moving toward more open, decentralized systems overall, and the wallet is included in that direction, though details are still being worked out.
Q: How do SDKs fit into WAX’s strategy?
Lukas: SDKs let builders focus on their product instead of cryptography, signing flows, and low-level blockchain logic.
With Unity, React Native, WharfKit, and other tools, WAX already has a very strong developer stack. We’ll continue maintaining and expanding it where it makes sense.
Q: How is WAX Labs evolving now that core tooling is mature?
Lukas: WAX Labs is shifting away from funding more tools and SDKs.
We want to support:
- Real business ideas
- Working prototypes
- Early traction or usage
- Clear use cases and plans
Teams should treat WAX Labs like any serious funding partner and come prepared.
Q: What are the main technical priorities going forward?
Lukas: Continue decentralizing and open-sourcing core infrastructure
- Maintain and improve existing tools and SDKs
- Support gaming as a major adoption path
- Keep infrastructure resilient and scalable
The focus moving forward is not on flashy experiments, but on building durable systems. WAX is strengthening its foundation so builders can ship, infrastructure can scale, and the ecosystem can keep growing regardless of market conditions.
