L2 report vol. 30

A biweekly update on Layer 2 protocols, 2nd April — 16th April

TL;DR

• The sum of all funds locked on Ethereum converted to USD is $38.99 B at the time of writing.
• Arbitrum celebrates its first anniversary with a unique NFT. Ongoing DAO Security Council Elections. Chapter 5 of ArbitrumArcade is concluding.
• Optimism allocates 850M OP to incentivize impactful work, partners with Zeeve for enhanced RaaS support, and sees integrations like API3 & Contango on Superchain.
• Base achieves 2M daily transactions, partners with Frax Finance. Synthetix v3 live on Base, using USDC as collateral. Chainlink Functions are now live on Base. Renzo Native Restaking is now live on Base.
• Mantle introduces Rewards Station, integratipn mETH with ZircuitL2, expands presence in Hong Kong, and unveils Alice Mantle Bridge Station.
• Metis DAO decentralizes its sequencer and prepares for Phase 2 of the upgrade.
• Boba Network launches Light Bridge for fast bridging and sees Zoth deployment on Boba Network Ethereum.
• Aztec proposed integration with Astria for faster finality and account-based transactions.
• Linea announces Dev Cook-Off and UX improvements. The closure of Linea Park.
• Scroll welcomes KelpDAO and prepares for VORTEx Hackathon. The very first Compound market is live on the Scroll ZKP zkEVM.
• StarkWare reveals a user-centric roadmap focusing on gas fee reduction and throughput enhancement.
• zkSync hosts ZK FEST, a deep-dive series, and welcomes Trala for AAA games.
• dYdX releases Chain v4.0, crosses $100B trading volume.
• Immutable X introduces Immutable Nexus for gaming chains and sees partnerships with GAM3SGG.
• Crosschain GHO goes live on testnet, enhancing utility and accessibility.
• HashKey Group unveils Ethereum L2 chain in Hong Kong.
• a16z unveils Jolt, a zero-knowledge VM.
• Mezo, a Bitcoin L2, launches after $21M Series A funding.
• And more!

Stats

• The sum of all funds locked on Ethereum converted to USD is $38.99 B at the time of writing.

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How much does it cost to use Layer 2?

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Optimistic rollups

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Arbitrum

• Arbitrum DAO Security Council Elections are happening.
• The team celebrates Arbitrum DAO 1yr anniversary with a one-of-a-kind free NFT: The ArbitrumDAO: Celebrating The First Anniversary SBT NFT is live on NiftyKit & up for grabs.
• Chapter 5 of the ArbitrumArcade is coming to a close.

Projects based on Optimism’s codebase

Optimism

• The Collective has allocated a total of 850M OP to incentivize impactful work across the Optimism Collective and the Superchain.
• Zeeve partners with Optimism to bring enhanced RaaS support for OP Stack Superchain.
• API3 & Contango make an appearance on Superchain.

Base

• Base crossed 2M in the number of daily transactions.
• Base gas target increased to 5 mgas/s.
• Base partnership with Frax Finance.
• Synthetix v3 live on Base, using USDC as collateral.
• Chainlink Functions are now live on Base.
• Renzo Native Restaking is now live on Base.
• Nimble has integrated with Base.
• Bubblemaps announced integration with Base.

Mantle

• Mantle Rewards Station announced — a world of rewards and perks from your fave Mantle Eco dApps await.
• Integration of mETH with ZircuitL2.
• Mantle makes waves in Hong Kong.
• Alice Mantle Bridge Station unveiled.

Metis DAO

• Metis recently became the first Ethereum L2 to decentralize its sequencer. For Phase 2 of the historic upgrade, users will be able to:

• Interact with the Decentralized Sequencer Front End

• Lock METIS tokens to participate in Sequencer Mining

• Watch the next episode of EcoNodesTalks ft. pavel_sinel from ProjectZKM discussing current use cases of various networks and their cross-chain capabilities on Ethereum Denver’s stage.

Boba Network

• Introduced the Light Bridge: A Boba Network solution for a fast, cost-efficient bridging across chains without the 7-day wait. Bridge between L2s, Boba L2s, and L1s with ease. Routes include BOBA, BNB, and ETH with specific caps.
• Zoth has announced its deployment on Boba Network Ethereum, marking a new era for investors and businesses alike. As an institutional-grade fixed income marketplace, Zoth is setting a new standard for accessing high-quality fixed income assets through stable coins. The platform’s focus on cross-border trade finance receivables, sovereign bonds, and money market funds, including T-bills, aims to significantly enhance economic dynamics.

Zero-knowledge rollups

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Aztec

• Astria published a proposal to integrate the Astria decentralized shared sequencer into Aztec Network’s sequencer nodes, enabling off-chain block building infrastructure while leveraging Astria’s MEV marketplace for faster finality and ordering guarantees for bundle inclusion.
• Every account in Aztec is a smart contract that defines the rules for whether a transaction is or is not valid. More for devs about our approach to accounts and account abstraction here.

Linea

• Announcing the Linea Dev Cook-Off: The team announces the Linea Dev Cook-Off, a monthly online buildathon to level up the dev-curious, reward new builders, and celebrate ongoing projects building out on-chain experiences.
• Part 1 in case you missed it:

Linea Dev Cook-Off Mini-Bootcamp Part 1: Smart Contract Basics

• Linea Park is closed. The team shared the statistics.
• Linea UX improved with onthisxyz (powered by AcrosProtocol).

Polygon

• Introducing the Polygon Community Treasury Board and Governance Framework
• WTF is Polygon?
• Tutorial: Launch a Custom Native Gas Token for a Polygon CDK Chain
• Check out the latest Polygon integrations here.

Scroll

• The team welcomed KelpDAO to the Scroll community.
• The very first Compound market is live on the Scroll ZKP zkEVM.
• There’s still a little time remaining to register for the Scroll VORTEx Hackathon (April 24–29).
• Twitter Spaces: Native restaking on Scroll.
• DapDapMeUp Odyssey Vol. 3: Scroll Expedition is here.

StarkWare

• The team published its user-centric roadmap with two main goals:

➯ Completely destroy gas fees for users; while EIP4844 is a great start, it’s just the beginning.

➯ Increase throughput through Transaction Parallelization.

• What the ecosystem is working on:

Expanding the use of Paymaster, which will allow users to pay gas fees in any token

- Social Recovery, which prevents fear in case of a seed phrase lost

- Session Keys, which eliminate the need to constantly sign transactions during a game

- Developing solutions to make onboarding easier

• A continually updated list of projects building on StarkNet.

zkSync

• Register for ZK FEST: https://lu.ma/ZKFEST
• How zkSync approach layer 2s compared to optimistic and other ZK rollups.
• zksync Deep-Dive Series Ep.5 with Scott Dykstra, Co-Founder & CTO at Space and Time. SxT is building a zkSync hyperchain to become the first decentralized data warehouse that supports verifiable SQL execution against both on-chain and off-chain data.

• Trala is the latest studio to bring AAA games to zkSync.
• This week’s ecosystem roundup of the latest news.

Projects built using StarkEx

dYdX

• dYdX Chain v4.0 Release: dYdX Trading shared that v4.0 of the v4 open source software (”dYdX Chain”) has been released. The release includes various feature, risk, governance, and performance upgrades to the protocol.
• The recent dYdX Chain protocol software upgrade brought a ton of new features and improvements: The x/authz Module, community-enabled Slashing, Expedited Proposals.
• That’s a wrap for Trading Season 3 of dYdX Chain Launch Incentive Program.
• dYdX Chain has officially crossed $100 B in lifetime trading volume.
• The dYdX community voted to stake $60M from its treasury to boost economic security.
• Stay up to date with the latest governance conversations and participate in forum discussions.

Validium

Source.

Projects build using StarkEx

Immutable X

• Momentum at Immutable: Recap of the Q1 2024: Read about the massive Q1 months in 2024 for Immutable including new partnerships, an expanded game library, and surging on-chain activity across our gaming ecosystem.
• Introducing Immutable Nexus — The Ecosystem of Gaming Chains: Immutable will be offering Dedicated zkEVM chains with complete Immutable platform support. These game-specific chains, alongside the public Immutable zkEVM blockchain, a shared liquidity service, and a network of partners, will form Immutable Nexus — an ecosystem of chains with shared liquidity, accessibility, and security.
• Ho Web3 Gaming Increases Player Retention: More than 40% of web3 gamers spend more than 10 hours playing web3 games every week.
• GAM3S.GG and Immutable Partner to Expand Web3 Gaming Ecosystem and Foster Future Growth: The partnership will bring millions of players into the Immutable web3 ecosystem, while providing GAM3S.GG with the leading web3 gaming platform on the market.

MISC

• Hong Kong’s HashKey group unveiled its Ethereum L2 chain.
• a16z unveiled Jolt, a “zero-knowledge VM.”
• Mezo, a Bitcoin L2 focused on yield, launched after its $21M Series A funding round.
• Dive into Tenderly’s latest report for exclusive insights on optimistic trends, optimistic rollups.
• Crosschain GHO, using Сhainlink’s CCIP, is now live on testnet. You can seamlessly transfer GHO across various testnet networks including Base and Arbitrum, with plans to soon include Optimism, Avax, and more. This expansion enhances GHO’s utility and accessibility.

That’s all for today! Your feedback is highly appreciated! Let us know what you think about the format & content.

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