Table of Contents
Researcher
1. Researcher Comment
This month, major projects in the modular blockchain sector, Scroll and Celestia, made their mainnet debuts. Notably, after a long preparation period, Celestia launched its mainnet and, being the first network specialized in data availability, it received significant interest from communities outside of Ethereum. While it remains to be seen if Celestia can achieve what Ethereum has built within its modular ecosystem, the fact that many projects have already announced their intentions to use Celestia as a DA layer is promising. The mainnet release of Celestia is a significant milestone in the modular ecosystem, and the debut of other DA solutions such as Avail and EigenDA is also anticipated with interest.
2. Major Updates
2.1 Celestia Finally Launches Its Mainnet (feat. Blobstream & Arbitrum Orbit Integration)
Source: Celestia
Previously known as Quantum Gravity Bridge (QGB), Blobstream allows Ethereum-based rollups to use Celestia as a Data Availability (DA) layer. Existing Ethereum-based rollup networks have incurred significant costs by storing transaction data on the Ethereum network. By using Celestia as the DA layer, scalability can be further enhanced. Blobstream submits a commitment corresponding to Celestia's data root to the Ethereum network, and it is considered valid if more than 2/3 of Celestia validators sign the commitment. Based on ERC-20 transfer standards, Celestia is expected to offer 9k-30k TPS through Blobstream. Additionally, Succint Labs developed Blobstream X, which introduces ZKP to effectively verify signatures corresponding to the commitment.
Source: @dferrersan
Furthermore, Celestia became the first external DA layer to be integrated into Arbitrum Orbit. Arbitrum Orbit is the rollup framework of Arbitrum, allowing developers to easily build rollup networks based on Arbitrum Nitro. Networks developed via Arbitrum Orbit had to use either Arbitrum One or Arbitrum Nova as the settlement and DA layer, but now Celestia has been added as the first external DA layer. Thanks to Blobstream, Arbitrum Orbit chains can store transaction data separately in Celestia. There also exists a fallback mechanism to store data in L1 if sequencers cannot store data in Celestia.
Celestia has successfully rolled out its mainnet on 10/31, boasting a range of pivotal features. The preparation for this launch was extensive, and being the premier DA-centric layer, it captured significant attention across different communities. To celebrate this milestone, Four Pillars has released an in-depth article on everything about Celestia.
2.2 Scroll Mainnet is Live
Source: Scroll
Scroll was founded by Ye Zhang, Sandy Peng, and Haichen Shen in 2021. After an extensive testnet phase, the Scroll mainnet was finally introduced. Designed as an Ethereum-centric zkEVM project, Scroll's goal is to maximize compatibility with the EVM. With support for all EVM Opcodes and six precompiles, developers can easily adapt their existing Solidity codebase, although some Opcodes may differ and certain precompiles aren't supported yet.
Scroll's architecture consists of three layers:
Settlement Layer: This is the underlying Ethereum network on which Scroll is based, determining data availability and the canonical chain of Scroll.
Sequencing Layer: It receives transactions from users, determines their order, and executes them.
Proving Layer: It receives execution traces from the Sequencing Layer and generates ZKP.
Since its launch roughly two weeks ago, data from l2beat suggests Scroll has accumulated a TVL of $26.44M, placing it 15th in the ranking among L2 networks. It will be interesting to observe if Scroll can leverage its developer-friendly approach to establish a strong ecosystem presence.
3. Fundraising
The data was collected from DefiLlama's raises page.
3.1 Initia (Source)
Initia is an L1 blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem, aiming to host various app-specific optimistic rollups called Minitia. Thanks to an in-built communication layer, Minitias can easily interact with each other. Moreover, Minitia offers flexibility in terms of execution environments, including options like MoveVM, EVM, and WasmVM.
4. More Reads
4.1 Projects Updates
Celestia introduces CIP process and foundation
OP Stack’s first fault proof system is live on Goerli Testnet
Espresso Systems collaborates with Cartesi on design options about decentralized sequencing
Arbitrum DAO has voted to fund the Short Term Incentive Program (STIP) to distribute up to 50M $ARB
Espresso Systems annnounces a partnership with Offchain Labs for shared sequencing
4.2 Suggested Reads
This article delves into how Rollup frameworks and RaaS services capture value. It categorizes rollups into three parts: the Execution Layer, the DA Layer, and the Settlement Layer, likening the Execution Layer to B2C, and the DA Layer and Settlement Layer to B2B businesses. The Execution Layer, where the most value accumulates, is also the primary revenue source for RaaS. The article further explains how rollup frameworks accrue value, dividing the methods into 1) Indirect value accrual, 2) Semi-direct value accrual, and 3) Direct value accrual.
The Road to Danksharding by L2IV Research
This article covers the background and history behind EIP-4844 and delves deep into topics such as how Blobs are verified and how gas fees are determined.
Based Rollup FAQ by Lisa A. (Taiko Labs)
Based rollup is a concept proposed by Vitalik Buterin and Justin Drake, with few implementations available, making it relatively unknown to many. Taiko plans to use the based rollup approach for sequencing, distinguishing it from other rollups. The article discusses what based rollup is and addresses various misconceptions and FAQs about it.
Shared sequencers for Starknet and Madara app chains by apoorvsadana (Madara)
This piece explains how shared sequencing can enhance fragmented decentralization, composability, and developer experience. It draws a comparison between the Polkadot ecosystem and shared sequencing, shedding light on Madara's direction within the Starknet ecosystem.
The EigenLayer Universe: Ideas for Building the Next 15 Unicorns by EigenLayer Research
Developers can leverage ETH's economic security to develop applications through EigenLayer, referred to as AVSs. This article introduces 15 examples of AVSs that can be built on EigenLayer, categorizing them into five categories: Rollup Services, Applied Cryptography, General Decentralized Networks, MEV Management, and AI Inference.
Thanks to Kate for designing the graphics for this article.
