Optimism, Arbitrum and Metis Andromeda projects’ teams are focused on giving a totally different approach to how the upscaling, we discussed in the L1 and L2 themed article, can be done.
So, the Optimism solution is the oldest one and is layered above the Ethereum chain. It increases the transaction speed without affecting security and decentralisation, which questions the trueness of the Vitalik Buteryn’s trilemma. To achieve that, system uses the so called fraud proof.
Fraud who?
Fraud proof is an innovative system, that assumes that all the net’s data is true, unless there is evidence of fraud.
Optimism divides it’s nodes into two categories:
- Sequencers sign all the transaction’s rules and conditions to let the verificator check if there are any signs of cheating. The users, making transactions have to lock some crypto as a deposit for further use in the sequencer.
- Verificators expertise if the transaction was done according to all the data, the sequencers give and approves or disapproves it. Disapproval means a reexamination of the transaction by rollup algorithms.
If the reexamination shows that there were any attempts of faking the transaction, verificator, that noticed a scam, gets rewarded, while the sequencers get punished with slashing.
Slashing is where we come back to the deposit, locked in sequencer. The punishment is the money, you lock, getting taken from you and being used for paying the transaction fees.
So, the users lose money when try fooling others and earn money when find signs of fraud.
Now we’re all good with what fraud proof is and can move on to Arbitrum and Metis.
Arbitrum is Optimism’s twin brother with only a difference in the fraud proof logic. It’s algorithm doesn’t inspect the full transaction, instead it focuses on certain steps of the operation. Arbitrum is also supported by a much bigger number of Dapps and has a 17X transaction number difference when compared to Optimist.
However, Metis Andromeda introduces us the DACs. Decentralised Autonomous Companies are multiple sequencers combining into on-chain structures, giving the users an opportunity to interact with each other and execute certain actions such as starting a sequencer pool or launching a new Dapp. The Metis’ verificators are called rangers and share the algorithm with Optimist’s expertise nodes.
All those systems are called modular and experts claim they will take over the blockchain in the near future, finally solving the upscaling thrilemma. Monolith systems execute all the operations in one single net, slowing it down and causing crashes such as the recent Solana 48 hour shut off. That’s why we need layering and hope to see an increase in nets’ speeds quite soon.
