Quicknode

May 28, 2025 — 4 min read

We’re excited to spotlight TEN, a cutting-edge encrypted Layer 2 network on Ethereum built by the team behind R3’s Corda—engineers, cryptographers, and Web3 pioneers with deep roots in TradFi and blockchain infrastructure. With a bold mission to unlock a new entertainment vertical in Web3, TEN combines Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) with AI-native, on-chain games of skill and luck.

Q & A with TEN 👇

Who are you, and what’s the mission behind TEN?

I’m Cais Manai, co-founder and part of the team building TEN.

We’re the team that previously built R3 Corda. Cryptographers, TradFi engineers, privacy researchers and early crypto natives. We took R3’s Corda from concept to production across 300+ institutions. The same architects, QA leads and protocol engineers are on TEN.

One of the guys on the team was at the first ever Ethereum meetup, another launched a $5M TradFi aggregation platform. R3 has this incredible set of alumni from Bitcoin core engineers, to Dogecoin, SUI, Athena and Tezos founders. We’re proud to be part of that.

We’re now laser‑focused on shipping TEN, the first fully‑encrypted L2 on Ethereum using TEEs (Trusted Execution Environments) - the same technology that banks and practically every modern smart device uses. We think there’s a huge gap in the entertainment market right now for AI-native on-chain games of luck and skill. In fact, we think it’s an entirely new vertical in Web3. A showcase of this is the game we recently released called House of TEN (https://houseof.ten.xyz).

Online poker is virtually dead with botting, collusion and opaque code. It’s impossible for the casual player to stand a chance. We fixed it. Our version of Poker is played by AI bots and players stake on the agents instead. This isn’t just a new game, we think it’s a new primitive for Web3 where AI agents battle across game worlds and jackpots flow back to players, and it’s only unlocked on the TEN network due to it’s encryption capabilities.

What drew you to Quicknode’s Rollup Accelerator, and how has it shaped your journey so far?

I’ve been pretty vocal in saying that the sessions arranged by the Quicknode team have been far the best I’ve attended in the space. Each intimate session was hosted by perhaps the best people in Web3 at what they do - think Nader Dabit for developer ecosystem, Jason Yanowitz for PR, Suga Bera for Marketing - simply incredible! The learning has been immense and we’re incredibly grateful. We’re looking forward to the infrastructure support we’ll get when we go live too.

What’s been the highlight of your experience in the accelerator over the past few weeks?

The learning from the session with Jason Yanowitz was something we put into action almost immediately and landed ourselves interviews with some of the hottest press establishments in the space. The friends along the way have also been a highlight. There’s a real sense of collaboration - just drop a message in the group and people do respond with solid advice and support.

What key milestones have you hit during the program, and what lessons have stuck with you?

So many! We signed up auditors, completed mainnet code release, reframed our thinking around PR, launched our developer incubation program, released our lighthouse dApp, House of TEN. We know we need to do a lot more around supporting developers and working on getting that right.

What’s next for TEN, and how do you plan to make waves in Web3?

Everyone is asking for something new and we’re delivering that. We’re the innovation engine for Ethereum, we’re the entertainment network for Web3, we’re building things the world has never seen before and we’re super excited to see how people interact with TEN

Check them out at ten.xyz and follow along on X: @tenprotocol.