L2 report vol. 5

Paradigm

Published in

Paradigm

14 min readAug 4, 2022

A biweekly update on Layer 2 protocols, 21st July — 4th August

TL;DR

EIP4844 (proto-danksharding) will drastically decrease rollup fees, enabling Ethereum to scale without sacrificing decentralization. Researchers and devs from Optimism, Coinbase, ConsenSys, Prysmatic labs, and the EF recently joined the second community call coordinating these efforts. EIP4844 call video and notes.
Arbitrum Rinkeby testnet upgraded to Nitro. Arbitrum Nitro is the most advanced rollup stack ever built, and it enables massively higher throughput and lower fees. Follow this thread for updates on the Arbitrum Rinkeby migration. The team is hosting a web3 builder meetup in Brooklyn this Thursday, August 4th. If you’re building out a DeFi/NFT/DAO project on Arbitrum or want to learn more about why you should, RSVP. Understanding Arbitrum: 2-Dimensional Fees by Daniel Goldman. Arbitrum: The Layer 2 Scaling Solution Increasing Speed and Reducing Fees on Epicenter. Twitter Space: L2sDay: Arbitrum. Exploring Arbitrum on Dune — Layer3. The new Arbitrum Nitro Goerli testnet is now fully supported on Alchemy. Arbitrum included in Sushi Swap’s new crosschain swap AMM.
Optimism Bedrock is coming soon. It will lay the protocol’s foundation for years to come and serve as THE model for rollup architecture. The Optimism team has been heads down hard at work building & shipping to continue to solidify Optimism as THE go to rollup. Meanwhile, there have been some major developments in the ecosystem — check out a weekly recap thread to get you up to speed. OP in Paris: Rollup Recap: A recap of all things Optimism at EthCC Paris, with links to presentations on Bedrock, EIP-4844, Cannon, and more. The team has launched a new onboarding flow designed to introduce Optimism to new users in an accessible way regardless of their previous experience with crypto. After completion you’ll be able to claim an NFT with art reflecting your interests. Twitter space: Optimism X TrueFi. Send to beginners: Optimism starter guide.
MetisDAO Foundation announces “Metis Marathon” Builder Incentive Program: As if Metis 2nd half of 2022 Roadmap wasn’t exciting enough, MetisDAO Foundation has just announced Metis Marathon, a 26-week long builder incentive program that aims to incentivize a fierce development of the Metis ecosystem. Besides introducing some of the Top DeFi protocols by TVL to the ecosystem, the Marathon will also help create a native powerhouse by directly incentivizing some of Metis’ most innovative native dApps. Reputation Power Matrix — Concept and Design. CEG Spotlight #1: Hera Finance. July CEG Nominations — Week 11. Twitter spaces: Blockworks Pulse: DeFi Growth on L2s, SUSHIxMETIS, QiDAO x METIS.
Congratulations to all the winners of the Boba Network x DoraHacks hackathon. Twitter space: Boba x DoraHacks Hackathon winners announcement. The makings of a legendary Bobarian; The new Bobarian of the Month came down to a tight race but ultimately, one had to be chosen. Read up on the latest Bobarian of the Month for the month of July. Crypto.com app lists Boba Network (BOBA). This week’s Boba Network news. Inside ETHCC #3: Scaling Ethereum and DeFi to Billions with Boba. Bridge network partners with Boba. Boba partnered with Arab Network.
ICYMI GameStop NFT is live on Loopring L2: GameStop NFT comes straight out of the box on top of Ethereum’s second layer, enabling minting and trading at approximately 100x lower cost relative to Layer 1. The GameStop marketplace scales NFTs without compromising on UX or security. This is because zkRollups are well suited to support NFTs. On Loopring, users don’t need to wait for a challenge period to withdraw their NFTs, or have to rely on any new validator sets as zkRollups inherit Ethereum security guarantees. Loopring HQ 2 in Decentraland is finally almost here. As Loopring L2 continues to get a big influx of new users each week, please be sure to check out their knowledge base for all things Loopring L2.
Polygon zkEVM, the first EVM-equivalent ZK L2, has been announced. Tech startup, Nothing, will use the Polygon network to offer NFTs on its new Android-based Nothing phone. Polygon is one of six companies, and the only blockchain-based firm, to be selected for Disney Accelerator, a business and development program designed to spur the growth of innovative companies around the world. Reddit launched a Polygon-based NFT avatar marketplace. The avatars can be stored on Reddit’s own blockchain wallet, Vault, which is currently used to earn community points and spend them on in-app features, such as badges. Polygon partners with Kaleido to bring the power of custom blockchains to enterprises. An update on distribution of staking token rewards.
Days to Mainnet: zkSync 2.0 will be launching to Mainnet in about 75 days (at the time of writing), and unveil the public roadmap. Twitter space: zkEVM: The Road to Mainnet. A testnet migration for zkSync v1.0 took place. Argent is hosting a twitter space this week to discuss zkSync 2.0.
Announcing the Scroll pre-alpha testnet: After over a year of building the zkEVM-based zkRollup in close collaboration with the PSE (Privacy and Scaling Explorations) group at the Ethereum Foundation, the Scroll team is releasing the pre-alpha version of Scroll for external testers. If you’d like to be an early tester, sign up at signup.scroll.io for access.
Back in 2019, Aztec founder Zac Williamson built the Huff programming language to support hyper-optimized smart contracts directly in EVM machine code. Today the Huff language team released Huff to the world, making it accessible to all. Here’s the history of Huff. Congratulations to 0x87…, the winner of the first privacy set raffle. Aztec Network-The Privacy Layer for Web3: video.
Starknet.js v4 is released with RPC support. A new version of starknet.py (v.0.4.3-alpha) has been released. Orbiter has been integrated into StarkGate of StarkWare. StarkNet Community Call #19. The next StarkNet community call August 8th: Presentation of Burner Wallet, roadmap updates. Haven’t had the chance to attend StarkNetCC in person? The team has got you covered! Here are some of the main highlights of the knowledge-packed event. Starkware isn’t leaving Ethereum” Eli Ben Sasson & Uri kolodny of StarkWare: Video here. Starknet House Week 8 seminar with: Video here. ZK-rollups and Starkware — with Henri Lieutaud. Video here. StarkNet Buildoors: a Twitter space series by the builders for the builders. 45min weekly discussions of all things StarkNet with talented members of the ecosystem. Mega thread of all the episodes so far. Here’s 20 hours of high signal StarkNet/Cairo starknetcc content from StarknetCC true Library of Alexandria. Stage 1 video; buidlers tech talk stream. StarkNet Roundup #27. A new developer partnership with Empiric Network.
ZKSpace Monthly Dev & Operation Report — — July 2022: During the month of July, the team has made some exciting progress regarding $ZKS, Mobile APP downloads, and James Rodríguez NFT Collection. Perks, utilities & James’s latest photos: inside legendary colombian footballer James Rodríguez’s NFT launch on ZKSea. Learn with ZKSpace Academy.
DeversiFi becomes rhino.fi: the first multi-chain platform to bring you all the best DeFi opportunities in one place. ‘Daniel Yanev — Ethereum L2 + multi-chain = the next step in DeFi UX’ at EthCC.
Free Trading: dYdX to be the first crypto exchange to offer truly free trading for up to $100k in volume per month to all users, across all markets. dYdX v4 AMA with Antonio: Antonio touches on v4 product features, company plans, Android app, governance, and much more. Temporary Downtime on August 3rd: On Wednesday, August 3rd at 10AM EST, dYdX was migrating servers.
Immutable X enables gasless, carbon-neutral NFTs and transactions for ‘Deviants’ Factions’ trading card game: Cyberpunk-themed TCG grounded in real-world events enters Immutable X ecosystem for web3 capabilities, scalability and growth. Early access: Immutable X on the GameStop wallet. Trade to Earn with Immutable X: 40,000 IMX tokens available daily. ‘Between 2 Layers’ — official show trailer.
Rainbow mobile wallet adds NFTs on Arbitrum & Optimism.
KyberSwap launches integration with Optimism.
Sushi launches on Metis.
Prioritize proto-danksharding (EIP4844) over withdrawals for low-cost roll-up transactions.
Draft proposal for BLS transaction type.
Layer 2 fixed and variable actual gas costs.
Mental models for L1 and L2 by Patrick McCorry.
The zkWars on ‘Bankless’.
L2 stats. Check out how much it costs to use Layer-2.
And more!

Stats

How much does it cost to use Layer-2?

Optimistic rollups

Arbitrum One

Arbitrum Rinkeby testnet upgraded to Nitro. Arbitrum Nitro is the most advanced rollup stack ever built, and it enables massively higher throughput and lower fees.
Follow this thread for updates on the Arbitrum Rinkeby migration.
The team is hosting a web3 builder meetup in Brooklyn this Thursday, August 4th. If you’re building out a DeFi/NFT/DAO project on Arbitrum or want to learn more about why you should, RSVP.
Understanding Arbitrum: 2-Dimensional Fees by Daniel Goldman.
Arbitrum: The Layer 2 Scaling Solution Increasing Speed and Reducing Fees on Epicenter.
Twitter Space: L2sDay: Arbitrum.
Exploring Arbitrum on Dune — Layer3: Congrats to the 10 winners of the Dune Analytics Dashboard contest.

🚀Live on Arbitrum:

Rainbow mobile wallet adds NFTs on Arbitrum & Optimism.
The new Arbitrum Nitro Goerli testnet is now fully supported on Alchemy.
Arbitrum included in Sushi Swap’s new crosschain swap AMM.
Dework officially launch on Arbitrum One.
Angle Protocol has just deployed on Arbitrum.
Deposits & withdrawals for ETH on the Arbitrum One network via Bitrue are now live.
Welcome to Arbitrum One Radiant Capital.
You can now trade on ZigZag Arbitrum’s alpha release.

Projects based on Optimism’s codebase

Optimism

The Optimism team has been heads down hard at work building & shipping to continue to solidify Optimism as THE go to rollup. Meanwhile, there have been some major developments in the ecosystem — check out a weekly recap thread to get you up to speed.
Optimism Bedrock is coming soon. It will lay the protocol’s foundation for years to come and serve as THE model for rollup architecture.
OP in Paris: Rollup Recap: A recap of all things Optimism at EthCC Paris, with links to presentations on Bedrock, EIP-4844, Cannon, and more.
The team has launched a new onboarding flow designed to introduce Optimism to new users in an accessible way regardless of their previous experience with crypto. After completion, you’ll be able to claim an NFT with art reflecting your interests.
Twitter space: Optimism X TrueFi.
Send to beginners: Optimism starter guide.
OP Token Rewards are live.

🚀Live on Optimism:

KyberSwap Launches Integration with Optimism.
Rainbow mobile wallet adds NFTs on Arbitrum & Optimism.
You can now visit op.atlantis.world & connect to Optimism network inside of your Web3 wallet.

Metis Andromeda

MetisDAO Foundation announces “Metis Marathon” Builder Incentive Program: As if Metis 2nd half of 2022 Roadmap wasn’t exciting enough, MetisDAO Foundation has just announced Metis Marathon, a 26-week long builder incentive program that aims to incentivize a fierce development of the Metis ecosystem. Besides introducing some of the Top DeFi protocols by TVL to the ecosystem, the Marathon will also help create a native powerhouse by directly incentivizing some of Metis’ most innovative native dApps.
Reputation Power Matrix — Concept and Design.
CEG Spotlight #1: Hera Finance.
July CEG Nominations — Week 11.
Twitter space: Blockworks Pulse: DeFi Growth on L2s.
Twitter space: SUSHIxMETIS.
Twitter space: QiDAO x METIS.

🚀Live on Metis:

Sushi Swap has officially arrived Metis Andromeda.
Congratulations to QiDao Protocol for passing the community voting and welcome to Metis family.

Boba Network

Congratulations to all the winners of the Boba Network x DoraHacks hackathon.
Twitter space: Boba x DoraHacks Hackathon winners announcement.
The makings of a legendary Bobarian; The new Bobarian of the Month came down to a tight race but ultimately, one had to be chosen. Read up on the latest Bobarian of the Month for the month of July.
Crypto.com app lists Boba Network (BOBA).
This week’s Boba Network news.
What are NFTs and how to participate in an NFT mint.
Inside ETHCC #3: Scaling Ethereum and DeFi to Billions with Boba.

Twitter space: Harvest Moonbeam Festival with Lido, Moonwell, Boba & StellaSwap.
Boba Network is sponsoring Web3athon’s Hackathon.

🚀Live on Boba Network:

Boba partnered with Arab Network. Arab Network is a community, focused on educating and empowering the Arab community in blockchain for a better future
Bridge network partners with Boba. Bridge Network is a suite of cross-chain tools, oriented toward seamless transactions between blockchain ecosystems.

Zero-knowledge rollups

Aztec

Back in 2019, Aztec founder Zac Williamson built the Huff programming language to support hyper-optimized smart contracts directly in EVM machine code. Today the Huff language team released Huff to the world, making it accessible to all. Here’s the history of Huff.
Congratulations to 0x87…, the winner of the first privacy set raffle.
Aztec Network-The Privacy Layer for Web3

Loopring

ICYMI GameStop NFT is live on Loopring L2: GameStop NFT comes straight out of the box on top of Ethereum’s second layer, enabling minting and trading at approximately 100x lower cost relative to Layer 1. The GameStop marketplace scales NFTs without compromising on UX or security. This is because zkRollups are well suited to support NFTs. On Loopring, users don’t need to wait for a challenge period to withdraw their NFTs, or have to rely on any new validator sets as zkRollups inherit Ethereum security guarantees.
Loopring HQ 2 in Decentraland is finally almost here.
As Loopring L2 continues to get a big influx of new users each week, please be sure to check out their knowledge base for all things Loopring L2.

Polygon

Polygon zkEVM, the first EVM-equivalent ZK L2, has been announced.
Polygon is bringing Web3 to smartphones. Tech startup, Nothing, will use the Polygon network to offer NFTs on its new Android-based Nothing phone.
Polygon is one of six companies, and the only blockchain-based firm, to be selected for Disney Accelerator, a business and development program designed to spur the growth of innovative companies around the world.
Reddit launched a Polygon-based NFT avatar marketplace. The avatars can be stored on Reddit’s own blockchain wallet, Vault, which is currently used to earn community points and spend them on in-app features, such as badges.
Polygon partners with Kaleido to bring the power of custom blockchains to enterprises
PolygonInsights For Q2 2022: Bungee, Aavegotchi, The Sandbox
Green Blockchain Summit: Recap & Path Forward
An update on the distribution of staking token rewards
#PolygonConnect, Co-Hosted with Hashed, Is Coming to Korea Blockchain Week
How to buy Polygon NFTs on OpenSea

🚀Live on Polygon:

Check out the latest Polygon integrations here.
Acentrik, a decentralized data marketplace now in enterprise release, is on Polygon Mainnet.
Clearpool brings institutional-grade DeFi to the Polygon ecosystem.

Scroll

Announcing the Scroll pre-alpha testnet: After over a year of building the zkEVM-based zkRollup in close collaboration with the PSE (Privacy and Scaling Explorations) group at the Ethereum Foundation, the Scroll team is releasing the pre-alpha version of Scroll for external testers. If you’d like to be an early tester, sign up at signup.scroll.io for access.

StarkWare

Starknet.js v4 is released with RPC support.
A new version of starknet.py (v.0.4.3-alpha) has been released.
Orbiter has been integrated into StarkGate of StarkWare.
StarkNet Community Call #19. The next StarkNet community call August 8th: Presentation of Burner Wallet, roadmap updates.

Haven’t had the chance to attend StarkNetCC in person? The team has got you covered! Here are some of the main highlights of the knowledge-packed event.
Starkware isn’t leaving Ethereum” Eli Ben Sasson & Uri kolodny of StarkWare. There’s been growing concerns around Starkware — Will they ever do their own L1? — What about using it on a non-Ethereum chain? Video here.
Starknet House Week 8 seminar with: Video here.
ZK-rollups and Starkware — with Henri Lieutaud. Video here.
StarkNet Buildoors: a Twitter space series by the builders for the builders. 45min weekly discussions of all things StarkNet with talented members of the ecosystem. Mega thread of all the episodes so far.
Here’s 20 hours of high signal StarkNet/Cairo starknetcc content from StarknetCC true Library of Alexandria. Stage 1 video; buidlers tech talk stream.
StarkNet Roundup #27.
A new developer partnership with Empiric Network.

🚀Powered by StarkWare:

A continually updated list of projects building on StarkNet.
Aspect MainNet, the first NFT marketplace on StarkNet MainNet, launched.

zkSync

Days to Mainnet: zkSync 2.0 will be launching to Mainnet in about 75 days (at the time of writing), and unveil the public roadmap.
Twitter space: zkEVM: The Road to Mainnet.
A testnet migration for zkSync v1.0 took place.
Argent is hosting a Twitter space this week to discuss zkSync 2.0.
Twitter space: L2sday: zkSync.

🚀Live on zkSync

Fox Wallet to integrate zkSync in all the version updates as they come as well as provide continuous support for its users.
MES protocol is now integrated with zksync.
RSS3 now supports the zksync ecosystem.

ZKSpace

ZKSpace Monthly Dev & Operation Report — — July 2022: During the month of July, the team has made some exciting progress regarding $ZKS, Mobile APP downloads, and James Rodríguez NFT Collection.
Learn with ZKSpace Academy.
Perks, Utilities & James’s latest photos: Inside Legendary Colombian Footballer James Rodríguez’s NFT Launch on ZKSea.

Projects build using StarkEx

dYdX

Free Trading: dYdX to be the first crypto exchange to offer truly free trading for up to $100k in volume per month to all users, across all markets.
dYdX v4 AMA with Antonio: Antonio touches on v4 product features, company plans, Android app, governance, and much more.
Temporary Downtime on August 3rd: On Wednesday, August 3rd at 10AM EST, dYdX was migrating servers.

Validium

Projects build using StarkEx

rhino.fi (previously DeversiFi)

DeversiFi becomes rhino.fi: the first multi-chain platform to bring you all the best DeFi opportunities in one place.
Daniel Yanev — Ethereum L2 + multi-chain = the next step in DeFi UX at EthCC

Immutable X

Immutable X enables gasless, carbon-neutral NFTs and transactions for ‘Deviants’ Factions’ trading card game: Cyberpunk-themed TCG grounded in real-world events enters Immutable X ecosystem for web3 capabilities, scalability and growth.
Early access: Immutable X on the GameStop wallet.
Trade to Earn with Immutable X: 40,000 IMX tokens available daily.
Immutable Hires Polygon Exec to Level Up Layer 2 Marketing Strategy
Between 2 Layers | Official Show Trailer

🚀Powered by Immutable X:

Immutable to be powering up Deviants NFT P2E TCG on Ethereum.
Decentralized Investment Group / XYYZY partners with Immutable X to build next-gen NFT games that are fast, secure, and cost-efficient.

MISC

EIP4844 (proto-danksharding) call video and notes. EIP-4844 will drastically decrease rollup fees, enabling Ethereum to scale without sacrificing decentralization. Researchers and devs from Optimism, Coinbase, ConsenSys, Prysmatic labs, and the EF recently joined the second community call coordinating these efforts.
Prioritize proto-danksharding (EIP4844) over withdrawals for low-cost roll-up transactions.
Draft proposal for BLS transaction type.
Layer 2 fixed and variable actual gas costs.
Mental models for L1 and L2 by Patrick McCorry.
a16z Danny Ryan Q&A on the Merge and beyond.
The zkWars on ‘Bankless’