Tieshun Roquerre, the creator of the NFT marketplace Blur, also referred to as "Pacman," is introducing a new layer-2 network aimed at lowering transaction fees for digital collectibles. In a message shared on X on November 21, Roquerre highlighted the issue of high network charges, noting that "hundreds of millions have been expended on gas for NFT trading."

Additionally, Roquerre points out that "almost every" decentralized application (DApp) on the blockchain faces a challenge when users' funds are tied up in pools that fail to produce any yield for them.

In an effort to address multiple challenges simultaneously, the founder of Blur has initiated the launch of Blast, a novel layer-2 network. This network is designed to offer native yield for decentralized applications (DApps) and to help users avoid the devaluation of assets while also cutting down on transaction fees for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For this new project, Roquerre successfully secured $20 million in funding from Paradigm, Standard Crypto, and other contributors.

Blast is engineered to generate yield by directly engaging in Ethereum (ETH) staking, with the staking returns being automatically distributed to the network's users and DApps. Besides ETH, Blast also generates yield for stablecoins through USDB, its native auto-rebasing stablecoin.

In addition to the development of Blast, Roquerre has announced the raising of an additional $40 million to bolster the Blur ecosystem. This funding is anticipated to be channeled into the creation of DApps on the Blast platform, with the aim of further enhancing the presence of NFTs within the Ethereum ecosystem. Following this announcement, the value of Blur’s native token, BLUR, experienced a 12% increase, reaching $34, as reported by CoinGecko.