The Celo blockchain’s long-awaited plan of turning into an Ethereum layer-2 chain has been accomplished, ending an nearly two-year course of, the primary organizations behind the community stated Wednesday.
The transition ends a protracted journey starting again in July 2023 for the layer-1 blockchain that included a neighborhood vote in July 2024 and a fierce competitors, received by Optimism, amongst layer-2 networks out to persuade the Celo ecosystem to construct with their know-how.
The improved community — like different layer 2s — presents sooner and cheaper transactions on high of Ethereum’s mainnet. The blockchain is powered by Optimism’s OP Stack, a customizable framework that lets builders construct layer-2 networks primarily based off of Optimism’s know-how.
“You realize, every time folks ask us, we all the time advocate the OP stack, as a result of the staff there was so useful and so supportive,” stated Marek Olszewski, the CEO at cLabs, the primary developer agency supporting the Celo blockchain.
A blueprint for different layer 1s
In line with Rene Reisberg, the CEO of the Celo Basis, the migration is the primary of its variety within the Ethereum ecosystem, and can in all probability be used as a blueprint for different EVM-compatible blockchains that want to develop into a layer-2 community.
“This path of not simply spinning up a brand new chain, however really sustaining that historical past, and having everybody be on the brand new chain, whereas it is much more work, is nice from a Celo perspective. It is turning into this type of nice case examine for Ethereum,” Rene Reinsberg, the president on the Celo Basis, stated in an interview.
“Even simply primarily based on outreach I have been getting from different L1 founders which might be like, ‘hey, so what does it really really feel like on the within of going via this transition, and the way a lot work is it, and the way you are fascinated about it?’ And so it positively seems like there’s elevated curiosity now,” Reinsberg added.
Regardless of Ethereum’s leaders experiencing backlash from the neighborhood due to the clunky expertise of working between the plethora of layer-2 blockchains, the lagging value of ether (ETH) relative to different cryptocurrencies and the blockchain dropping mindshare and new expertise to rivals like Solana, Reinsberg stated different layer 1s much like Celo are watching the transition and in addition contemplating shifting into the layer-2 ecosystem.
“As a few of these short-term storms come down and sentiment begins to shift, I feel you may begin seeing a collection of layer 1s that can seemingly be extra public about that,” Reisberg stated. “However we’re positively already seeing these early conversations occurring.”
Celo’s new residence
In line with the staff, Celo finish customers received’t discover a lot of a distinction of their setups, and can nonetheless be capable to entry key options like SocialConnect, a protocol that connects customers’ cellphone numbers or X handles to their Celo pockets addresses to make funds. However, there are protocol-level adjustments.
“Validator duties have developed from working the consensus protocol to quickly working neighborhood RPC nodes, with validator rewards now distributed by way of sensible contract execution reasonably than at epoch blocks,” the staff stated in a press launch. “Moreover, transaction sequencing — beforehand decided by validators working the consensus protocol — will initially be dealt with by a centralized sequencer, with a roadmap in place for transitioning to decentralized sequencing sooner or later.”
Learn extra: Celo Neighborhood Ratifies Plan to Use Optimism’s OP Stack for New Layer-2 Chain
