L2 Planet Issue #33
In this issue of L2 Planet, we focus on the latest developments in the Dencun, Ancient8, Optimism, ZKM, and CyberConnect ecosystems.
Blob blob blob O.o
Dencun update is live on the Ethereum mainnet! EIP-4844, which provides a dedicated data area (blobs) for rollups and aims to reduce the cost of rollups, has been implemented with the Dencun update.
If you're curious about the details of EIP-4844, you can read the 10th issue of L2 Planet! Let's take a look at Rollup transaction fees post-Dencun.
In networks that have supported the Dencun update since day one, we've seen a dramatic decrease in transaction fees post-Dencun. For example, transaction fees on Starknet and Optimism are lower than 0.01 cents.
In Layer 2 networks built on top of the OP Stack, transaction fees have experienced a decrease of over 90%. Although not depicted in the visual, Starknet has also witnessed the same reduction rate. Nearly 50% of all blob usage so far belongs to Starknet.
What about Arbitrum? Arbitrum announced its support for the Dencun upgrade one day after its release and aims to launch a second transaction fee adjustment on Monday.
Ancient8
Ancient8, a gaming Ethereum L2 built with OP Stack, has launched its mainnet on Feb 22!
Ancient8 chain is built with OP Stack and posts data to Celestia for data availability. The project has raised $4m in seed rounds led by Pantera, Dragonfly, Animoca, Coinbase, and many others.
Currently, the team is running a Galxe campaign where you earn points while completing basic tasks. According to the campaign page earned points will considered future surprise rewards :)
Optimism
When proofs? Soon. Optimism announced permissionless fault proofs will be enabled on OP Sepolia testnet in 6 days.
When Optimism activates its fault proofs, it means that all other Layer-2 networks built on the OP Stack such as Base, Zora, and Blast can also activate their fault proofs. This will make state validation secure across OP Stack networks.
It's been quite some time since the RPGF Round 3 ended, but Optimism RPGF is working on new ideas with the outputs. According to the proposed idea, RPGF is transitioning from broad-scope rounds (rewarding all contributions to Optimism) to narrower-scope rounds (rewarding contributions within specific categories).
Thus, in RPGF Round 4, specific categories will be executed through separate grant rounds, and the amount of rewards will vary according to the category. For example, only education projects will be included in the education category, and only wallets will be included in the wallet category. With this differentiation, badgeholders will be able to better measure contributions and distribute their votes more efficiently.
The news from the Optimism ecosystem doesn't stop there. The 4th airdrop targeting the Superchain ecosystem by Optimism has been announced. In this airdrop, over 10 million OP tokens were distributed to NFT artists within the Superchain ecosystem. More than 22,000 unique wallets qualified to receive this airdrop. You can find detailed airdrop criteria on the blog page. If you didn't qualify for this airdrop, don't worry, over 560 million OP tokens have been reserved for future airdrops.
ZKM Testnet
ZKM has announced the launch of its zkVM alpha testnet.
ZKM aims to establish Ethereum as the global settlement layer for secure, verifiable computing. Their zkVM combines zero-knowledge technology with MIPS processor architecture to create a unique verifiable computing solution, opening up tremendous possibilities for both new and existing applications to harness the many potential benefits of zero-knowledge proof technology.
You can find more info about the proof generation process in ZKM docs.
Cyber
CyberConnect has introduced Cyber, a social Layer-2 solution with restaking.
Just in the past year, 2M+ users completed over 20M txs spending more than $2.6M in gas fees through the CyberConnect social network protocol. It’s time to evolve a more powerful and efficient social network.
Cyber powered by EigenLayer and OP Stack, in partnership with AltLayer. Cyber will be part of Optimism’s Superchain and commit it with its social power. Cyber will natively support account abstraction with EIP-7560 and native EIP-7212 support empowers users to control their accounts with passkeys or FaceID.
Cyber has announced partnerships with Optimism, EigenDA, xPET, ether.fi, Omni, and Polyhedra. It is expected that the number of these partnerships will increase further soon.
Spectating Corner
Reading Corner
zkMesh February 2024 recap, ZK HACK
Ethereum Dencun Upgrade: Everything you need to know, Consensys
Why wait a week? Fast Finality Optimistic Rollups, Mikerah
Incentivizing honesty and participation in the OP Stack’s Fault Proof System, Mofi Taiwo
That’s all from L2 Planet for now, hope to see you in 15 days :)