L2 Planet Issue #22

In this Issue of L2 Planet, we focused on the developments regarding Base, Nil, Scroll, Arbitrum, Aztec, zkSync, Optimism, and StarkNet Ecosystem.

Feb 24, 2023

Coinbase? Base? Based on OP Stack.

Coinbase introduced Base, a Layer-2 network forked from Optimism’s codebase.

You may know Optimism and Coinbase have been working last nine months on EIP-4844, which will reduce 10-100x the CALL DATA costs of Ethereum Rollups. They joined their forces to accelerate EIP4844 from sometime in 2024 to Q2 or Q3 in 2023. Through this work, Coinbase understood the potential of OP Stack and how it will scale Ethereum to benefit web3 developers, users, and the broader crypto economy. At the end of the day, Coinbase is joining as the second core development team to accelerate the development and decentralization of the Superchain and the OP Stack.

So, what is the Base? The base is a fresh Optimism Rollup forked from Optimism’s codebase, like Boba Network or Metis Andromeda. It allows the Base to have a modular architecture. However, the Base does not have a fraud mechanism because the current Optimism codebase does not have a fraud-proof mechanism. It will change with the upcoming Optimism upgrade, Bedrock. Also, Coinbase will be the only sequencer for Base transactions, but the team have planned to have a fully permissionless validator set.

When $BASE? The team do not plan to issue a new network token. $ETH will be the native token of the Base network. Anyway, the price of Base Protocol’s BASE token, an unrelated token to Coinbase’s Base L2 network, increased 1.93$ to 7$ after the announcement. The same price moves were seen on Optimism’s OP token.

Coinbase’s goal with the Base network launch is to make on-chain the next online and onboard one billion users into the crypto economy. Let’s wait and see how developers, users, and the market will react to the Base launch.

Nil’s Proof Market

We all know zero-knowledge proofs. The crypto market is already aware of the potential of zk tech. Zk-Bridge, zkRollup, zkID, ZK EVERYTHING.

In zk tech, a Prover tries to convince and prove the correctness of data to a Verifier without releasing any pieces of the data. Provers need to generate zk proofs to do this. The cost and the time for generating proof depend on Prover’s capabilities. Ideally, proof generation should be fast and low-cost. We can increase efficiency by motivating the actors to generate proofs. What if we build a proof market for a decentralized proof generation? Nil Foundation wants to do this.

According to the announcement, Nil Foundation raised $22m in a funding round led by Polychain Capital, including Blockchain Capital, Starkware, Mina Protocol, and angel investors. The announcement also contains the introduction of Proof Market. But a proof is not an asset. Which market?

That is right, it is not an asset. It is a commodity. This means we’re talking about a proof generation market.

Considering proof generation market, there will be two critical points which will determine the market itself:

Proof generation cost.
Proof generation time.

Also! Since the supply of the proofs is supposed to be handled by entities dedicated to that (e.g. running specialised FPGA hardware), considerations for them will include:

Can I make it cheaper?
Can I make it faster?

This induces a competition between proof generators to provide a proof with a smallest latency or with a cheapest generation cost.

It enables decentralized proof generation and increases efficiency across different zk networks. We will see how the proof generation process will change over time. If you want to learn more, check Nil’s blog post.

Polygon zkEVM

Polygon @0xPolygon

Roses are red 🌹 Violets are blue Poems are hard 😩 Mainnet Beta is here ON MARCH 27, Polygon #zkEVM launches the future of Ethereum scaling 🚢💜🚢💜 beta.polygon.technology/blog/to-ethere…

This is one of the best gifts for Valentine’s Day we have ever seen, zkEVM! According to the announcement, Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta will go live on March 27.

Here are some of the milestones Polygon zkEVM has hit along the road to Mainnet Beta:

Over 84,000 wallets
Over 300,000 blocks produced
Over 75,000 ZK proofs generated
Over 5,000 smart contracts deployed
Two public, third-party audits
Six months of battle-testing on public testnets
Passed 100% of Ethereum test vectors that apply to a zkEVM
Proof generation time down to almost two minutes
Cost for generating a proof for a large batch of transactions down to about $0.06

The stats are very interesting. We are curious about testing it on the mainnet!

Scroll Ecosystem

Scroll’s scheduled testnet reset has been carried out successfully.

Users must perform an account reset for both Scroll L1 and Scroll L2 networks. Want to learn how?

Open the MetaMask extension in the browser.
Click the round account icon in the top-right corner.
Select Settings, and click on advanced.
Select Scroll L1 Testnet in the top area, and click "reset account"
Select Scroll L2 Testnet in the top area, and click "reset account"
Done! Check the Scroll’s Common Errors Guide for further instructions.

So, what else happened in the last two weeks in the Scroll ecosystem?

Scroll’s documentation and guides have had a refresh.
Scroll engineering team is working on future deployment on Goerli and an improved v2 bridge design.
The Poseidon hash circuit and ECDSA signature verification circuit have been added to the super circuit this week, bringing us two steps closer to full-featured zk proofs.
Scroll lowered its prover memory requirement from 870 GB to 275 GB.
Scroll Pre-Alpha testnet has officially produced 1M blocks.
Swagtimus, a well-known actor in the StarkNet ecosystem, have joined the Scroll team as developer relations.
sharqwy, have joined the Scroll team.
Filip Pajić, have joined the Scroll team as an R&D engineer.
BlockPI have added support for Scroll's Pre-Alpha testnet.
Transpose have integrated with Scroll Pre-Alpha testnet.
Scroll’s Pre-Alpha testnet now have more than 397k unique addresses.
Since the testnet began, more than 6300 unique contracts and more than 600 unique tokens have been deployed.

Arbitrum Ecosystem

Rumors, rumors… $ARBI, are you there?

Several DeFi projects tweeted by pointing Monday. Airdrop hunters thought Arbitrum will do $ARBI airdrop on Monday, but projects unrelated to Arbitrum also tweeted it. You can ask what happened on Monday. Nothing. Stay tuned for airdrop, Arbinouts :)

So, what else happened in the last two weeks in the Arbitrum ecosystem?

OpenLeverage have launched on Arbitrum.
Arbitrum Network has been integrated onto Coinbase.
Starfall Beta is launching on Arbitrum Nova.
Sonar Studio now supports Arbitrum.
Kraken now supports ETH deposits and withdrawals on Arbitrum.
ARB ID, .arb name service on Arbitrum, opened its pre-registration.
NodeReal added the Arbitrum Nitro RPC to their API Marketplace.
Treasure DAO announced the MagicSwap, the first AMM in crypto with universal token compatibility, supporting pools for both ERC-20s + NFTs through a single router and enabling trading of all items within game economies.
Treasure DAO announced the GBP (Game Builders Program), which aims to support and incentivize aligned, high potential games building in the Treasure ecosystem.
Railgun Project have launched on Arbitrum.
Arbitrum announced the integration with the Elixir Game Launcher.
Bitmates will integrate with Arbitrum.
Bubblemaps, an innovative blockchain data visualization service, is now supporting Arbitrum.
TalenTale has joined the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Securo API is now supporting Earn API on Arbitrum.
Beamer Bridge is now live on Arbitrum.
Jeffrey Garcia joined the Arbitrum team as Community Manager.
Lava Network has announced the Arbitrum and Arbitrum Nitro API support.
UXD Protocol has announced that they expanded into Arbitrum Ecosystem.
QuickNode has published a guide about deploying smart contracts on Arbitrum Nova.
Graph Protocol will support Arbitrum soon.
PARSIQ's Tsunami API is now live on Arbitrum.
Notifi Network now supports Arbitrum.
TownStory Social Game is coming to Arbitrum Nova.
Opensea now supports Arbitrum Nova.
Cask Protocol’s automated money flows are now live on Arbitrum.
Bebop Dex is now live on Arbitrum.
gTrade is now live on Arbitrum.
Cross-chain margin platform Prime Protocol is launching on Arbitrum.
Ondefy Ramp is now available on Arbitrum.
Lyra Finance is now live on Arbitrum, integrating with GMX.
DeFrogDAO has launched the first lending protocol for NFT assets on Arbitrum.
Alchemy has released a transaction simulation API for Arbitrum developers.
Read Jon Ramvi’s medium article about BRØK, The Norwegian Government’s cap tables platform for unlisted companies on the Arbitrum.
The Arbitrum engineering team has released a new Nitro 2.0.10 version. Nitro nodes now support RPC queries with the "safe" and "finalized" block numbers. This release also includes various bug fixes and improvements.
Arbitrum has surpassed 100M+ transactions in total.

Aztec Ecosystem

Here is a short summary of what happened in the Aztec ecosystem in the last two weeks.

Liquity, a fully decentralized borrowing protocol, is now integrated with Aztec.
Aztec's DeFi aggregator zk money now has a flatter, cleaner, more responsive design.
Aztec Connect has crossed 1 million network transactions since launch.
The active user count of Aztec Connect has crossed 45k.
ChainSafe’s Solutions team managed to add a layer of privacy to ENS names using Aztec Network and a custom resolver they wrote for ENS.
Aztec has launched a local dev environment for Aztec Connect builders. The Aztec Connect Local Developer Testnet lets you to run a fork of Ethereum mainnet on your own machine, with more control, higher configurability, and faster testing cycles.
Aztec runs a Grant Program for consumer frontends, Aztec-native apps, Connect bridges, Noir libraries and projects, and external events.

zkSync Ecosystem

Gimme some zkEVM! zkSync Fair Onboarding Alpha is here. zkSync Fair Onboarding Alpha is a fully open-source zkEVM mainnet phase for registered projects.

So, what is the meaning of the Fair Onboarding Alpha phase for end users? During this phase, the system will be closed to users, and devs can test their code in a closed environment. Check the blog post for further details!

What else happened in the last two weeks in the zkSync ecosystem?

While zkSync Full Launch Alpha is getting closer, zkSync 2.0 contracts are audited by OpenZeppelin and Secure 3. zkSync have shared the results of OpenZeppelin audit.
zkSync have released a new SDK in Swift to make zkSync’s features accessible to more developers and applications.
Gitcoin’s s grant rounds are coming to zkSync to continue funding vital development and public goods in web3.
Unstoppable Domains is bringing its digital identity superpowers to zkSync 2.0. The zkSync community can get a free web3 domain to start using with zkSync Wallet and zkSync Checkout.
Institutional-grade structured derivatives ecosystem Derivio announced its plans to bring perpetual trading, digital options, and several other products to zkSync 2.0.
Espresso Systems will bring their leading privacy technology, CAPE, to zkSync 2.0 to enable the next wave of Web3 adoption.
Blockchain data solutions from GeniiData will soon be available to the zkSync ecosystem in their mission to empower Web3 ecosystems and bring blockchain data to the world.
The one-stop solution for game developers bringing their games on-chain, LYNC, announced their collaboration with zkSync to make blockchain gaming more accessible for everyone, allowing developers to launch games on zkSync in just minutes.
Seamless fiat to crypto infrastructure solution Payfura announced their integration with zkSync, allowing users to buy crypto in more than 130 countries with card and local payment methods.
Early access registration for SynFutures’s NFTures is live, promising users the ability to maximize profit opportunities while hedging risk & exposure on NFT collections.
Web3 infrastructure provider Router Protocol announced the integration of Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol to bring near-infinite liquidity to dapps building on zkSync.
RNS.ID had integrated with zkSync for on-chain KYC.
O3 cross-chain wallet is now live on zkSync 2.0 testnet.
iZiSwap Pro from iZUMi Finance is now live on zkSync 2.0 testnet.
Phase 2 of Nexon Finance’s testnet is now live on zkSync.
The primary lending platform of Fringe Finance’s decentralized financial ecosystem is coming to zkSync 2.0.
RaisePay Wallet, a native smart contract-based wallet, was announced by Raise Finance, aiming to revolutionize the Web3 wallet market by leveraging the native account abstraction and scalability of zkSync 2.0.
zkSync has announced that zkSync will collaborate with buidlbox in the coming months to create community-first hackathons for zkSync builders.
Nansen recently released a report about zkSync.
zkSync has released a new Hardhat plugin that supports smart contract verification.
Credentialing for communities with rep3 is now live on zkSync 2.0 testnet.
Web3 Ad Network protocol and provider Piggi.ai announced their collaboration with zkSync, explaining why the move is a natural next step for their decentralized, unbiased network of publishers and advertisers.

Optimism Ecosystem

Optimism successfully completed the upgrade of Optimism’s Goerli Testnet to Bedrock on January 13.

After the upgrade, Optimism experienced a degraded performance on the Goerli Testnet on January 25. The engineering team has resolved the issue causing degraded performance. The Optimism Goerli sequencer is now operating normally. The team also started a bug bounty and audit program with Sherlock. If you'd like to learn more, please check the contest details.

Do you like airdrops? Optimism have announced the second OP airdrop. 11.7M OP distributed to over 300k unique addresses to reward positive-sum governance participation and power users of Optimism Mainnet. If you wanna learn more, check the Mirror post they have posted.

Context of RPGF Round 2, the nomination period is over. A total of 260 unique nominations were received during the nomination window. The projects have to opt-in using the application manager. Just a reminder, L2 Planet is also running Optimism Turkiye. Please consider supporting us by liking our nominated post and mentioning us on Twitter.

So, what else happened in the last two weeks in the Optimism ecosystem?