CUSTOMER SNAPSHOT
Discover How Edgio Transformed Toklas's Progress with munko.io
Toklas, a Web3 enablement company, recently partnered with Edgio to build munko.io, a digital non-fungible token (NFT) trading platform. The realm of Web3 is novel and complex, requiring a high level of technical expertise.
Toklas's Challenge
Toklas needed a team of skilled engineers to seamlessly combine various tech stacks to create an information flow that delivered a unique product.
Toklas’s Solution
Toklas and Edgio built a headless, high-performance website in the budding NFT industry where customers buy, sell, own, and generate unique Munkos. The site became home to a collection of 10,000 unique NFT video art pieces called Munkos, designed by world-renowned artist, David Choe that sold out just weeks after launching the site.
For a successful project, it was important that individuals with complementary skill sets collaborate and share knowledge. Edgio’s Expert Services team brought deep knowledge of the chosen tech stack and outlined plans to quickly compose an interactive, fast, progressive web app from the ground up.
Toklas CTO, Justin Metros, calls out a particular Ukrainian engineer who brought expertise in one of his weaker areas, “I had confidence in the project knowing that we were working with a skilled and trustworthy team.” The Edgio Ukrainian team became known for their productivity, communication, and a willingness to be flexible — despite the ongoing war.
Maximizing productivity was achieved through the collaborative efforts of several teams – UX/UI design, front-end engineering, backend engineering, and DevOps. An Edgio Expert Services product manager supported each team to provide effective project coordination and ensure that milestones were met on time.
“Edgio provided highly skilled developers that were right for the project, which was crucial for the speed of the work.”
“We want to recognize the Ukrainian engineers who delivered a seamless product, in the midst of moving their families out of the country. They were team players, good listeners, good learners – it’s a story in and of itself of how conscientious and professional the team is.”
Rolle Hogan, CEO, Toklas
Edgio delivered and executed the site’s UI/UX design to complement the artist Choe’s visionary genius and brand goals. Color schemes, typography, and iconography were designed to reflect the brand’s edgy identity – while whitespace, minimalism, and hierarchy guided users to take action. Through web design best practices, munko.io is built to attract and convert visitors with high usability, accessibility, and responsiveness on both web and mobile.
Edgio successfully delivered the primary website for munko.io in less than four months. This was made possible through the use of the Remix front-end framework, which was deployed to Edgio’s Applications Platform. Additionally, a Moralis middle layer was used to efficiently fetch important business data from the blockchain.
To achieve optimal performance, the Edgio Applications platform was implemented as a caching layer for both dynamic and static data. To further expedite loading times, the application was designed to retrieve data from sources closer to the blockchain whenever available. This process was streamlined using server-side rendering and incremental static regeneration, an approach Remix doesn’t generally support but the Edgio team made possible. By leveraging sophisticated integrations between Remix and Edgio to aggressively cache dynamic data, the site’s speed and responsiveness were significantly enhanced.
“Our product manager was highly technical and very experienced. That alone allowed our team to focus on other engineering tasks.”
Justin Metros, CTO, Toklas
In addition, Edgio integrated several Web3 APIs and applications, such as a Typeform questionnaire which utilized a proprietary algorithm to generate distinct and customized Munko tokens for token holders. Edgio used Moralis.io API to record NFT transactions directly onto the Ethereum blockchain and seamlessly integrated the metamask wallet to enable crypto purchases.
Managing protected routes that require a certain level of access control was critical for the Munko project. With EdgeJS, the world’s first JavaScript-configurable content delivery network (CDN), all routes can be effectively managed using JavaScript – configured within the same codebase and committed to the same repository. This streamlines operations by eliminating the need for external tools on other servers, and ensures that everything is under version control with enhanced security measures.
“We get data from the blockchain and serve it as fast as any 2.0 site.”
Justin Metros, CTO, Toklas
Passing Core Web Vitals and achieving high performance was a top priority for the Toklas team. Through Edgio’s Core Web Vital dashboard, Munko developers are able to see what real users are experiencing at the edge in real-time – versus in 28-day intervals with PageSpeed Insights.
Leveraging Edgio DevTools also became particularly useful during the performance optimization process. DevTools is a widget that provides real-time performance feedback for any changes made to the site. A developer can immediately understand if their update impacts performance and optimize accordingly.
“This gives me real-time web vital feedback. Having it there while I work is mandatory – and there’s no going back.”
Justin Metros, CTO, Toklas
Outcome
Together, the Edgio and Toklas teams successfully built an imaginative NFT store that processed over 7,000 Munko NFT transactions within two weeks of its launch, without any errors or downtime.
Munko sales would not have been possible without achieving the established project goals:
- Assemble a skilled team of engineers for a complex project with minimal ramp-up time
- Build a Remix front-end framework deployed on Edgio with a Moralis middle layer
- Integrate Web3 APIs and applications, including a Typeform questionnaire and metamask wallet for secure purchases
- Pass Core Web Vitals, ensuring a smooth user experience
