Written by Andy, developer of The Rollup, translated by Golden Finance 0xjs
During the week of Devconnect Istanbul, I had the opportunity to have in-depth exchanges with hundreds of outstanding developers in various crypto tracks. I have some thoughts I would like to share.
Most of all, a big thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to share wonderful ideas with me and talk about the deep complexities of this exciting industry that we call “cryptocurrency.” It’s great to meet developers who are pushing boundaries and innovating in multiple areas, such as David Mirzadeh from the taiko team and their “based booster rollups”.
Whether it’s because it feels like we’re on the verge of a massive bull market or because people are really excited about the technology, everyone seems very optimistic.
Now, after a busy week full of alpha at Devconnect, I’m most interested in the substance to understand.
While there are a large number of verticals in the crypto space, the key part of being a really good investor and entrepreneur in the emerging ecosystem is identifying the “winners” and then placing the right bets based on the size. If you do, the benefits are enormous. If you don’t, then the high tide will lift all the boats, but ideally, you want to be in the top three.
Essentially, I made a little bet on modularity and rollup with the greatest conviction and I think I’m going to get a reward, and here’s why:
Modularity
The modularly expanded “a la carte” menu is very attractive to investors, builders and developers.
You can “plug and play” different parts of the stack, which is kind of like an experiment where the team is experimenting with the sum of the “parts” that is available and works best.
This is what I look forward to watching and investing in the most.
In addition, all the builders involved in the field of modularization and expansion are very talented at Devconnect. They are passionate about attracting new developers, users, and building a better user experience.
Let’s dive into the details:
DA
On the technical side, the new DA layer will allow for unprecedented cost reductions for rollups. If you think it’s cheap to trade right now, you’re in for a treat.
Personally, I would expect it to be 10 times cheaper. It is said that Celestia will be 10-15 times cheaper than the current cost.
Everyone is talking about Celestia and their airdrops, and for good reason.
Switching gears, on ETH infra day, Firat and Near co-founder Illia explained how Near DA will be 8000 times cheaper than ETH L1. Illia agrees that we haven’t seen any cases involving the cost of minicule gas for rollup transactions. What a fulcrum, well done. Further validate the modularity proposition.
Avail will most likely go live mainnet in Q1’24 and have a great performance in Istanbul. The Eigen Layer is also performing well and will be on the testnet soon.
I expect more DA layers to emerge, but these layers currently have huge advantages. In 2024 I will be closely monitoring the situation in the DA field.
altVM
On the technical side, altVM will play a key role in bringing in new developers, a better user experience, and “usability.”
Factors such as parallel execution, isolation of the noisy gas market, and improved security and performance will push altVM to the forefront of the modular scaling race.
Of the teams I’ve met here, Cartesi, Movement, Fluent, and Fuel are the most exciting.
Each team will lead new developers into the ecosystem through a variety of initiatives, which is exciting for the entire field. Maybe a team or two will go to a college blockchain club with a few boxes of pizza, some beer, and get developers straight into their ecosystem.
DVT
Another niche market that is definitely full of superbrains (and big money) is the DVT market. See the comments below for an explanatory article. Teams like Clay Stack, SSV Network, Diva, Puffer Finance, Tenderize, Obol, Chorus One, and others are truly impressive.
They are partnering with staking service providers to attract significant institutional capital while providing individual stakers with the opportunity to stake ETH with much less capital than the 32 ETH required for a full node.
ETH staking is democratized, more decentralized, more nodes, and stronger censorship resistance.
ZK is in full bloom
Next, the ZK space is definitely full of flowers. I’ve seen real-world use cases, live testnets, upcoming mainnets, and a ton of excitement around the proof marketplace, zk shards, zk light client bridges, zkEVM, and more. Even, zk oracles.
This field has been developed by some of the brightest minds in the world, as well as considerable funding. The first teams that came to mind were the Nil Foundation with their zkSharding and the interesting zkLLVM, Polygon Miden with their innovative “note” delivery system, the Kakarot ZkEVM bringing the Starknet<> EVM together, Lagrange with their proof build and Eigenlayer’s AVS, and of course the Scroll mainnet to go live and provide a seamless experience for users.
Manta Network is also transitioning from an OP stack-based rollup to a zkEVM using the Polygon CDK. In addition, big DA partners are coming.
zkLink is using zk technology to create a secure L3 that will receive more attention in the first quarter of 2014. I’m excited to learn more about zk technology, although most of it is beyond my comprehension.
Interoperability
One of my favorite keynotes came from Neon, how Neon integrates solana and EVM. Although there may still be technical issues and issues that need to be addressed, the integration of these communities will be a huge help in the development of the industry.
Another project that stood out to me was Union, which made IBC <> EVM transfers on the testnet.
Imagine any ERC20 token on Cosmos, Osmosis, Sommelier, or Neutron. It’s coming.
Li.Fi is going very well, they continue to integrate new bridges, and also bring Solana liquidity to the EVM through Allbridge. LiFi have a very unique position in the market because as the interoperability space grows, they grow as they become bridge aggregators.
Another cool interop project that focuses on using intents (solvers, repeaters, etc.) is Across Protocol. I almost always use Across for L2<>L1 bridging, and they’re using a third-party, intent-driven relay network to implement fascinating technology.
When we enter a world of hundreds of rollups, the interoperability requirements will increase by a factor of 100.
Rollup
Vitalik Buterin has participated in rollups, decentralization, and infrastructure.
Espresso shared sequencers are currently in high demand, and people want to work with them. A good omen for this space.
There is also Witness Chain that focuses on building watchtowers to monitor the current centralized sequencers for any malicious or fraudulent activity.
All of the DA layers mentioned above also play a role in this vertical… As well as altVM, to a certain extent.
Overall, I’ve never been so bullish on L2 as I am now. The field is moving at the speed of light, and some big names are actively working to drive innovation under the name of Ethereum.
