Turning Your Blockchain Into a Living Ecosystem - A Guide for Founders

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In the euphoric aftermath of any new blockchain’s launch, most founders unexpectedly find themselves hitting a wall, as deploying a chain (be it a standalone network or a protocol on an existing platform) is only the first step. The harder challenges often emerge after their launch, i.e. transforming a bare-bones network into a living product with real users, integrations, and sustainable activity. 

In fact, around 90% of blockchain projects initiated since 2017 have ultimately failed to gain any sort of traction and therefore have had to be abandoned. This sobering statistic reflects how frequently teams pour immense effort into launching, only to struggle with “what now?” once the network is running. 

The causes can range from technical hurdles to a lack of clear use-cases, but the outcome is the same because, without guidance and infrastructure, a newly launched chain can quickly become a ghost town rather than a thriving ecosystem. 

One major reason for this post-launch stagnation is the complexity of infrastructure and integrations. In this context, ‘infrastructure fatigue’ has emerged as a real phenomenon because post getting a basic chain or application live, teams often lose momentum wrestling with a myriad of technical additions such as assimilating oracles for price data, bridges for cross-chain asset transfers, identity modules for user management, analytic tools for monitoring activity.

Furthermore, many teams routinely get hit with unexpected infrastructure costs or delays  resulting in early users finding no explorer to view their transactions, no bridges to bring liquidity, and no real-world data feeding into smart contracts – in short, an empty ecosystem. 

Aurora’s No-Code Console to the Rescue

For founders facing such post-launch dilemmas, Aurora Labs (known for its EVM-compatible network on NEAR Protocol) recently introduced the Aurora Cloud Console (ACC) Marketplace, a no-code, plug-and-play console designed to make launching and growing a blockchain dramatically easier. 

In essence, the ACC Marketplace allows a team to deploy a Virtual Chain (Aurora’s term for a customizable blockchain instance) rapidly, with an array of powerful features and integrations already built in. Rather than coding every component from scratch or negotiating separate integrations, founders can select from a catalog of ready-made infrastructure modules and have them pre-configured in just a few clicks. 

Additionally, the console incorporates tools spanning identity verification, payments, data oracles, computing, data indexing, and security services, all of which are key elements that a modern decentralized application or network might need.

Through a simple dashboard interface, founders configure their chain’s settings and pick which integrations they want from the marketplace catalogue. When they hit “deploy,” Aurora Cloud spins up the new chain with all the selected services pre-wired and active (for example, price oracles feeding data in, an indexer tracking blockchain data, a cross-chain bridge connected, an identity provider in place, and so on). 

Each integration available has been reviewed and hardened for production use, so teams do not have to fear unvetted “spaghetti code” or unreliable third-party modules. 

Aurora Mainnet vs. Virtual Chains

Founders considering Aurora’s ecosystem can choose from one of two main paths, i.e. they can either build on the existing Aurora Mainnet or launch the aforementioned Virtual Chain. Each path comes with its own post-launch scenario, with the Aurora Cloud Marketplace designed to support projects in both instances. 

For teams that deploy their dApps directly on Aurora’s mainnet (which is Aurora’s public EVM-compatible blockchain on NEAR), much of the baseline infrastructure is immediately available. The Aurora mainnet is a live, shared network  and already has a bridge to Ethereum (the Rainbow Bridge), block explorers, and a growing community of users. A technical founding team might opt for this route to take advantage of the established network effects and not worry about running their own chain. 

That said, founders still need to plug in services like oracles for external data, identity and compliance modules for user onboarding, or analytics to track usage. Doing this one-by-one can be as daunting as on any other chain. 

This is where the Aurora Cloud Marketplace comes into play as a resource, serving as a one-stop directory of battle-tested integrations and partners that a project on Aurora can leverage. Even if a dApp is not launching its own chain, the marketplace’s offerings – from data feeds to payment rails – can be integrated into the application’s smart contracts or backend with guidance from Aurora’s ecosystem team. 

A technical team might discover, for example, that they can easily incorporate price oracles from DIA or API3 via Aurora, or add an identity layer from Billions Network for KYC, all with support readily accessible.

On the other hand, for founders who choose to launch their own Virtual Chain through Aurora Cloud, the experience is even more streamlined as it offers a custom blockchain environment that inherits the security and validator infrastructure of NEAR Protocol, but is fully customizable and dedicated to the project’s needs. 

This path is attractive for those who want more control (such as having native chain token economics) without having to build a blockchain from scratch. The Aurora Cloud Console makes this path viable even for small teams or non-technical founders by handling the heavy infrastructure lifting. All the services in the Marketplace can be pre-installed from day one on the new chain. 

Typically, setting up things like an on/off-ramp for fiat might cost tens of thousands of dollars, or integrating with a centralized exchange could be a million-dollar endeavor, and deploying an oracle or a custom bridge can take significant time and money. Aurora flips this script and makes features (such as on-ramps, CEX connectivity, oracle feeds, cross-chain bridges, and more) available at launch. 

Because the Virtual Chain inherits NEAR’s validator set and Aurora’s infrastructure, the new chain instantly enjoys a high level of security and performance without the founder needing to recruit a single validator or run custom consensus. And thanks to Aurora’s cross-contract call technology, the Virtual Chain can communicate with Aurora mainnet and other virtual chains seamlessly, enabling interoperability without separate bridge development.

 

Everyone deserves a chain.200 launched. 1,000 coming.And now, they’re launching with more than Aurora & @NEARProtocolThey are launching with the best of Web3, already plugged in.Introducing the Aurora Cloud Console Marketplace 🛠️👇 pic.twitter.com/rP7Q6RKvxc

— Aurora (@auroraisnear) June 4, 2025

 

From Launch to a Fully Functional Live Product 

In recent times there’s been growing interest in AI-native chains tailored to support AI agents, data marketplaces, or machine learning models. As a result, founders in this domain might worry about how to incorporate complex identity and data management tools into their blockchain. Through the Aurora Cloud Marketplace, they can launch an AI-oriented chain with specialized modules for these needs. 

Partners like Billions Network provide verifiable digital identity and zero-knowledge privacy solutions that can be crucial for AI applications that require trust and privacy. Additionally, the Marketplace includes data indexing and API services (such as The Graph or API3) that are invaluable for AI projects which depend on accessing and processing large datasets. 

Similarly, in the case of a startup bringing Real World Assets (RWA) or other traditional financial products onto the blockchain, Aurora’s marketplace offers robust oracle services to source real-time off-chain data about asset prices or interest rates from day one (thus greatly accelerating the timeline from a conceptual RWA product to a functional marketplace where real assets can be issued and traded with confidence). 

In short, by enabling a launch with comprehensive features and by continuing to support projects post-launch, Aurora significantly shortens the journey from a bold idea to a fully-fledged product.  

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.