Prysmatic is Being Acquired by Offchain Labs! Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
Our last post in the Prysmatic Labs medium page for a while! Future posts will be focused solely on Prysm client development updates as our team is now being acquired by Offchain Labs.
Our company, Prysmatic Labs, is getting acquired by Offchain Labs, the creators of the Arbitrum scaling solution for Ethereum. Arbitrum is the leading “Layer 2 rollup” for Ethereum, bringing incredibly fast speeds and cheap transactions. Arbitrum is truly scaling Ethereum, and is aligned with its long-term success as is Prysm.
No doubt this can come as a shocker to many, especially those wondering about the future of Prysm client which is used to secure over 40% of the Ethereum network today. This post covers questions we anticipate from this acquisition for users of Prysm and those that have been part of our loyal community for years.
1. What does this mean for the future of the Prysm client and all people that use it?
The Prysm client will continue to be a leader in Ethereum node software beyond the merger with Offchain Labs. We will continue to develop the Ethereum roadmap at the same pace as other consensus client teams and be present at the forefront of the challenges Ethereum L1 faces.
Aside from the organization name on Github, there are no major changes for Prysm users and validators and no action needs to be taken at this moment.
The Prysm repository on Github will continue under the same license and name, but will move to the “OffchainLabs” organization over time. This will not happen right away, as we understand this can break a lot of tooling and dependencies. If any of our public facing pages or domains change in the future, we will add necessary redirects to make sure our user experience is not affected.
2. Will the original Prysmatic Labs team members continue building the next tasks on the Ethereum roadmap?
Yes! Our work does not stop with the merge, as we have a lot more to do. However, many of the upcoming items are very focused on major improvements for L2s, which makes our work at Offchain Labs perfectly aligned. Ethereum is following a rollup-centric roadmap, and the bulk of upcoming work will be around enabling this as much as possible. On top of that, we have a lot of big ideas on the L2 front we are eager to explore at Offchain.
3. Where should users go for Prysm technical support and questions to the Prysmatic members?
The Prysmatic Labs discord will rebrand to focus entirely on the Prysm client’s user support and asking questions about the Ethereum protocol. We have built a strong community of at-home and professional stakers and will continue to support that community moving forward.
4. Was this company merger done as a way for Offchain Labs to gain power over Ethereum? What’s in it for Offchain Labs?
No. This deal emerged when both of our companies realized our missions were perfectly aligned, and discovered our teams have so much in common that it makes sense to work under the same roof. We both want to scale Ethereum and make it an impactful technology for the world. Both companies develop software extensively in Go, are fully incentive-aligned with the success of Ethereum, and are focused on shipping quality software. The goal of the merger is to bring together our people into a single team stronger than the sum of its parts. The reason behind the merger is the people and the complementary expertise of our teams rather than any financial benefit Offchain could derive from Prysm itself. Prysm is free, neutral, open source software that cannot be monetized without harming everything we have worked on for years.
5. Will Ethereum be more centralized now that the majority consensus client and the most popular L2 solution are the same team?
Given Prysm is the majority client that drives Ethereum’s consensus and Arbitrum is the L2 solution with the most activity on Ethereum, some have concerns of centralization. However, Ethereum’s development is not centralized. There is a diverse consortium of core developers spanning the globe from different teams that help keep the balances in check. If one software team does not act in the best interest of Ethereum, users can switch as needed. However, L2 solutions such as Arbitrum are fully aligned with Ethereum’s interest, as they rely on L1’s consensus and security guarantees to function.
6. Will the Prysm project be favoring Arbitrum at the expense of other L2s?
It’s clear we have soft power as developers of Ethereum node software. However, we have wielded that power with great responsibility over the years and believe in the concept of credible neutrality. If Prysm tries to disadvantage other teams with our software priorities deliberately, it will be obvious to the Ethereum community and to our users. Many would immediately switch and use some of the other, great options for node software. Prysm will remain neutral on all fronts, focusing on what the majority consensus of core developers, researchers, and the community believe are important tasks to implement for Ethereum. If we work to disadvantage other teams deliberately, we will face consequences. Prysm will remain neutral.
Contact Us
Prysmatic team members are always active on the Prysm Discord server. If you have any more questions we are always happy to chat. We are so grateful for your continued support and will continue shipping great software for validating on Ethereum.
You can also reach us via contact@prysmaticlabs.com or on twitter as https://twitter.com/prylabs
The Prysmatic Labs team
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