Nischal Shetty on Shardeum’s Unstablenet, Developer-First Approach, and Building a Community-Driven Blockchain

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After the turbulence at WazirX, Nischal Shetty, CoFounder of Shardeum, shares exclusively his experience, learnings, and plans for a bold new path. Prioritizing resilience, transparency, and scale from day one, he’s unveiling Unstablenet as a developer-first, community-driven testnet. It is designed to embrace instability as a feature, not a flaw. 

By allowing developers and early adopters to build, break, and co-create, Shardeum is setting the stage for a truly scalable, decentralized blockchain ecosystem, one that is ready to go global. He sums up why it’s all worth taking the risk and conducting this experiment.

After the WazirX challenges, what key lessons did you take away, and how are they shaping your approach as you look ahead?

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Resilience, transparency, and building for scale from day one are the lessons that shaped my journey. The crypto industry is unpredictable, so your response to adversity is what defines you. We learned that open communication and swift action to protect users, especially during crises, are crucial for long-term trust. Another big learning was realising how quickly fast growth can strain infrastructure, if scalability is not built in from the start. 

This directly shaped Shardeum’s design philosophy, i.e., linear scalability, consistently low fees, and decentralization without compromise. Lastly, our local-first approach proved vital. By building for India first and then scaling globally, we made adoption more organic and natural. Shardeum is continuing the same approach by empowering Indian developers and making scalable infrastructure accessible to billions worldwide.

Shardeum has introduced Unstablenet as an unconventional testnet, deliberately designed for resets and downtime. What was the thinking behind embracing instability as a feature rather than a flaw?

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Most blockchain testnets are built to operate flawlessly, but that doesn’t reflect how blockchains perform in the real world. Unstablenet is deliberately named, with downtime, resets, and rolling to be expected. For developers, this means an opportunity to test their dApps on a work-in-progress version of our sharded EVM blockchain. 

Users will ultimately benefit because a network built in collaboration with consumers and the developer community will feel more at home when used than one that was built in isolation within an organization. Stress-tested by the community, it is far more resilient on the mainnet. This approach reflects our belief in transparency and co-creation. By letting the community build and break alongside us, we make the Shardeum infrastructure truly community-built.

This is the first time Shardeum’s smart contract functionality is open to the public ahead of the mainnet. How do you see this shaping developer confidence and adoption before the official launch?

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We made our smart contract testnet public ahead of the mainnet to prioritize developers who are actively working on it. Our goal was for builders to experiment and launch projects early, rather than waiting until after the mainnet. Using Unstablenet, developers can deploy Solidity contracts with familiar Ethereum tools, test under simulated real-world loads, and see our linear scalability in action, not just in theory. 

This ensures that when the sharded EVM mainnet launches, the ecosystem isn’t starting from scratch. Projects and users will be ready from day one, and developers can experiment freely without cost barriers. It’s a developer-led growth strategy that fosters trust and engagement from the outset.

Shardeum positions Unstablenet as a community co-building exercise. Beyond developers, how do you envision early adopters and testers contributing to shaping the ecosystem?

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Decentralization is as much about community as it is about code. While developers build the foundation, early adopters and testers are equally vital in shaping the ecosystem. Testers help us surface bugs, stress-test dApps, and provide feedback on usability. Sometimes the most valuable insights don’t come from engineers but from everyday users who interact with applications in ways we might not anticipate. 

Our “Proof of Community” initiative has engaged over 30,000 people in 500+ events worldwide, including 288 in India, encompassing students, entrepreneurs, validators, and first-time users. Many of them go on to run nodes, organize local meetups, or contribute documentation. Their feedback ensures we’re building something inclusive, not just technically impressive. By making Unstablenet open and participatory, we invite everyone to help co-create Shardeum as one of the world’s most scalable and community-driven blockchains.