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Why did we choose to change our tech strategy from being an Ethereum L2 to a modular L1?
Let’s start at the beginning - when launching your own chain you’re usually looking at two factors - speed and security. You want to process user transactions as fast as possible and provide a great UX, but on the flip side you want user funds to be secure from bad actors.
We also decided we want to collaborate with the best in the industry on setting up our infrastructure, that’s why we picked @gelatonetwork as our partners, who, among others, are building @inkonchain - @krakenfx L2 chain. This allowed us to apply our collective knowledge to setting up DegenLayer to be the global leader in chain performance.
Initially we decided to use the Optimism Layer 2 framework, which would settle on Ethereum. We weren’t very happy with the performance aspects of it - 2 second block times make transactions lengthy compared to Solana, and 2,000 maximum TPS is also not an impressive value. This would not result in a seamless experience.
Although this solution would produce a competent chain, we decided we want to strive for greatness, we want to be the true Solana killer. And we want to provide the best UX in the industry with transactions being confirmed in the blink of an eye.
Luckily our friends at @gelatonetwork have devised an alternative solution with their @celestia backed @abundance_xyz blockchain architecture. And here things got very interesting. This stack can deliver 200ms block times, which gives you nearly instant transaction confirmation times. As a result our users will have a better experience than on Solana. On top of that we’re implementing a seamless gas sponsorship mechanism which will allow our users to transact without the need to worry if they have some of our gas token or not - things will “magically just work”. Imagine a world where you bridge 100 USDT to a new chain and immediately use it to buy a memecoin, without worrying if you have some SOL, ETH or DELAY on your wallet to cover the gas fees.
This tech stack gives us the capability to deliver the best user experience in web3, so after careful consideration of all the factors we decided to utilize it for DegenLayer.
So why is it called a modular L1?
In blockchains there are 4 major layers which need to be implemented:
* Execution Layer: Handles the execution of transactions and ensures that only valid transactions are processed.
* Settlement Layer: Provides an environment for execution layers to verify proofs, resolve fraud disputes, and bridge between other execution layers.
* Consensus Layer: Responsible for achieving consensus on the order of transactions.
* Data Availability Layer: Ensures that transaction data is available and can be accessed by network participants.
Ethereum was designed to be a monolithic blockchain, handling all these layers on their chain. A modular blockchain is one that delegates one or more layers to a different app or solution.
In our case we’re leveraging Celestia for Consensus & Data Availability and Settlement & Execution is handled by @abundance_xyz. That’s why DegenLayer will be a modular blockchain. And since we’re not outsourcing our settlement layer to any blockchain, but handling it on our stack, we’re a Layer 1.
Oh, but do you lose access to all the Ethereum liquidity?
Comes out that 80% of assets on L2s such as Blast come from bridges, so we don’t lose anything since any asset can be easily bridged to our chain.
What about security?
Are we trading off security when moving from Ethereum to Celestia? Not that much.
There are two aspects to blockchain security - immutability and verifiability. Immutability refers to how difficult it is to reorganize a blockchain, and verifiability means how easy it is to verify that a block in the chain is valid. Ethereum is ahead on immutability, but Celestia is ahead on verifiability, since you can verify the blockchain using far less resources than are needed for Ethereum, so we improve here.
In the end our main goal is the perfect web3 UX, while providing asset security, and our platform is ready to deliver both.
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