15 posts tagged with "Ethereum"

The Web3 Scaling Problem​

The blockchain industry faces a persistent challenge: how do we scale to support millions of users without sacrificing security or decentralization?

Ethereum, the leading smart contract platform, processes roughly 15 transactions per second on its base layer. During periods of high demand, this limitation has led to exorbitant gas fees—sometimes exceeding $100 per transaction during NFT mints or DeFi farming frenzies.

This scaling bottleneck presents an existential threat to Web3 adoption. Users accustomed to the instant responsiveness of Web2 applications won't tolerate paying $50 and waiting 3 minutes just to swap tokens or mint an NFT.

Enter the solution that's rapidly reshaping blockchain architecture: Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS).

Understanding Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS)​

RaaS platforms enable developers to deploy their own custom blockchain rollups without the complexity of building everything from scratch. These services transform what would normally require a specialized engineering team and months of development into a streamlined, sometimes one-click deployment process.

Why does this matter? Because rollups are the key to blockchain scaling.

Rollups work by:

• Processing transactions off the main chain (Layer 1)
• Batching these transactions together
• Submitting compressed proofs of these transactions back to the main chain

The result? Drastically increased throughput and significantly reduced costs while inheriting security from the underlying Layer 1 blockchain (like Ethereum).

"Rollups don't compete with Ethereum—they extend it. They're like specialized Express lanes built on top of Ethereum's highway."

This approach to scaling is so promising that Ethereum officially adopted a "rollup-centric roadmap" in 2020, acknowledging that the future isn't a single monolithic chain, but rather an ecosystem of interconnected, purpose-built rollups.

Caldera: Leading the RaaS Revolution​

Among the emerging RaaS providers, Caldera stands out as a frontrunner. Founded in 2023 and having raised $25M from prominent investors including Dragonfly, Sequoia Capital, and Lattice, Caldera has quickly positioned itself as a leading infrastructure provider in the rollup space.

What Makes Caldera Different?​

Caldera distinguishes itself in several key ways:

1. Multi-Framework Support: Unlike competitors who focus on a single rollup framework, Caldera supports major frameworks like Optimism's OP Stack and Arbitrum's Orbit/Nitro technology, giving developers flexibility in their technical approach.

2. End-to-End Infrastructure: When you deploy with Caldera, you get a complete suite of components: reliable RPC nodes, block explorers, indexing services, and bridge interfaces.

3. Rich Integration Ecosystem: Caldera comes pre-integrated with 40+ Web3 tools and services, including oracles, faucets, wallets, and cross-chain bridges (LayerZero, Axelar, Wormhole, Connext, and more).

4. The Metalayer Network: Perhaps Caldera's most ambitious innovation is its Metalayer—a network that connects all Caldera-powered rollups into a unified ecosystem, allowing them to share liquidity and messages seamlessly.

5. Multi-VM Support: In late 2024, Caldera became the first RaaS to support the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) on Ethereum, enabling Solana-like high-performance chains that still settle to Ethereum's secure base layer.

Caldera's approach is creating what they call an "everything layer" for rollups—a cohesive network where different rollups can interoperate rather than exist as isolated islands.

Real-World Adoption: Who's Using Caldera?​

Caldera has gained significant traction, with over 75 rollups in production as of late 2024. Some notable projects include:

• Manta Pacific: A highly scalable network for deploying zero-knowledge applications that uses Caldera's OP Stack combined with Celestia for data availability.

• RARI Chain: Rarible's NFT-focused rollup that processes transactions in under a second and enforces NFT royalties at the protocol level.

• Kinto: A regulatory-compliant DeFi platform with on-chain KYC/AML and account abstraction capabilities.

• Injective's inEVM: An EVM-compatible rollup that extends Injective's interoperability, connecting the Cosmos ecosystem with Ethereum-based dApps.

These projects highlight how application-specific rollups enable customization not possible on general-purpose Layer 1s. By late 2024, Caldera's collective rollups had reportedly processed over 300 million transactions for 6+ million unique wallets, with nearly $1 billion in total value locked (TVL).

How RaaS Compares: Caldera vs. Competitors​

The RaaS landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, with several notable players:

Conduit​

• Focuses exclusively on Optimism and Arbitrum ecosystems
• Emphasizes a fully self-serve, no-code experience
• Powers approximately 20% of Ethereum's mainnet rollups, including Zora

AltLayer​

• Offers "Flashlayers"—disposable, on-demand rollups for temporary needs
• Focuses on elastic scaling for specific events or high-traffic periods
• Demonstrated impressive throughput during gaming events (180,000+ daily transactions)

Sovereign Labs​

• Building a Rollup SDK focused on zero-knowledge technologies
• Aims to enable ZK-rollups on any base blockchain, not just Ethereum
• Still in development, positioning for the next wave of multi-chain ZK deployment

While these competitors excel in specific niches, Caldera's comprehensive approach—combining a unified rollup network, multi-VM support, and a focus on developer experience—has helped establish it as a market leader.

The Future of RaaS and Blockchain Scaling​

RaaS is poised to reshape the blockchain landscape in profound ways:

1. The Proliferation of App-Specific Chains​

Industry research suggests we're moving toward a future with potentially millions of rollups, each serving specific applications or communities. With RaaS lowering deployment barriers, every significant dApp could have its own optimized chain.

2. Interoperability as the Critical Challenge​

As rollups multiply, the ability to communicate and share value between them becomes crucial. Caldera's Metalayer represents an early attempt to solve this challenge—creating a unified experience across a web of rollups.

3. From Isolated Chains to Networked Ecosystems​

The end goal is a seamless multi-chain experience where users hardly need to know which chain they're on. Value and data would flow freely through an interconnected web of specialized rollups, all secured by robust Layer 1 networks.

4. Cloud-Like Blockchain Infrastructure​

RaaS is effectively turning blockchain infrastructure into a cloud-like service. Caldera's "Rollup Engine" allows dynamic upgrades and modular components, treating rollups like configurable cloud services that can scale on demand.

What This Means for Developers and BlockEden.xyz​

At BlockEden.xyz, we see enormous potential in the RaaS revolution. As an infrastructure provider connecting developers to blockchain nodes securely, we're positioned to play a crucial role in this evolving landscape.

The proliferation of rollups means developers need reliable node infrastructure more than ever. A future with thousands of application-specific chains demands robust RPC services with high availability—precisely what BlockEden.xyz specializes in providing.

We're particularly excited about the opportunities in:

1. Specialized RPC Services for Rollups: As rollups adopt unique features and optimizations, specialized infrastructure becomes crucial.

2. Cross-Chain Data Indexing: With value flowing between multiple rollups, developers need tools to track and analyze cross-chain activities.

3. Enhanced Developer Tools: As rollup deployment becomes simpler, the need for sophisticated monitoring, debugging, and analytics tools grows.

4. Unified API Access: Developers working across multiple rollups need simplified, unified access to diverse blockchain networks.

Conclusion: The Modular Blockchain Future​

The rise of Rollups-as-a-Service represents a fundamental shift in how we think about blockchain scaling. Rather than forcing all applications onto a single chain, we're moving toward a modular future with specialized chains for specific use cases, all interconnected and secured by robust Layer 1 networks.

Caldera's approach—creating a unified network of rollups with shared liquidity and seamless messaging—offers a glimpse of this future. By making rollup deployment as simple as spinning up a cloud server, RaaS providers are democratizing access to blockchain infrastructure.

At BlockEden.xyz, we're committed to supporting this evolution by providing the reliable node infrastructure and developer tools needed to build in this multi-chain future. As we often say, the future of Web3 isn't a single chain—it's thousands of specialized chains working together.

Looking to build on a rollup or need reliable node infrastructure for your blockchain project? Contact Email: info@BlockEden.xyz to learn how we can support your development with our 99.9% uptime guarantee and specialized RPC services across 27+ blockchains.

In 2024, something remarkable is happening: Big Tech is not just exploring blockchain; it's deploying critical workloads on Ethereum's mainnet. Microsoft processes over 100,000 supply chain verifications daily through their Ethereum-based system, JP Morgan's pilot has settled $2.3 billion in securities transactions, and Ernst & Young's blockchain division has grown 300% year-over-year building on Ethereum.

But the most compelling story isn't just that these giants are embracing public blockchains—it's why they're doing it now and what their $4.2 billion in combined Web3 investments tells us about the future of enterprise technology.

The Decline of Private Blockchains Was Inevitable (But Not for the Reasons You Think)​

The fall of private blockchains like Hyperledger and Quorum has been widely documented, but their failure wasn't just about network effects or being "expensive databases." It was about timing and ROI.

Consider the numbers: The average enterprise private blockchain project in 2020-2022 cost $3.7 million to implement and yielded just $850,000 in cost savings over three years (according to Gartner). In contrast, early data from Microsoft's public Ethereum implementation shows a 68% reduction in implementation costs and 4x greater cost savings.

Private blockchains were a technological anachronism, created to solve problems enterprises didn't yet fully understand. They aimed to de-risk blockchain adoption but instead created isolated systems that couldn't deliver value.

The Three Hidden Forces Accelerating Enterprise Adoption (And One Major Risk)​

While Layer 2 scalability and regulatory clarity are often cited as drivers, three deeper forces are actually reshaping the landscape:

1. The "AWSification" of Web3​

Just as AWS abstracted infrastructure complexity (reducing average deployment times from 89 days to 3 days), Ethereum's Layer 2s have transformed blockchain into consumable infrastructure. Microsoft's supply chain verification system went from concept to production in 45 days on Arbitrum—a timeline that would have been impossible two years ago.

The data tells the story: Enterprise deployments on Layer 2s have grown 780% since January 2024, with average deployment times falling from 6 months to 6 weeks.

2. The Zero-Knowledge Revolution​

Zero-knowledge proofs haven't just solved privacy—they've reinvented the trust model. The technological breakthrough can be measured in concrete terms: EY's Nightfall protocol can now process private transactions at 1/10th the cost of previous privacy solutions while maintaining complete data confidentiality.

Current enterprise ZK implementations include:

• Microsoft: Supply chain verification (100k tx/day)
• JP Morgan: Securities settlement ($2.3B processed)
• EY: Tax reporting systems (250k entities)

3. Public Chains as a Strategic Hedge​

The strategic value proposition is quantifiable. Enterprises spending on cloud infrastructure face average vendor lock-in costs of 22% of their total IT budget. Building on public Ethereum reduces this to 3.5% while maintaining the benefits of network effects.

The Counter Argument: The Centralization Risk​

However, this trend faces one significant challenge: the risk of centralization. Current data shows that 73% of enterprise Layer 2 transactions are processed by just three sequencers. This concentration could recreate the same vendor lock-in problems enterprises are trying to escape.

The New Enterprise Technical Stack: A Detailed Breakdown​

The emerging enterprise stack reveals a sophisticated architecture:

Settlement Layer (Ethereum Mainnet):

• Finality: 12 second block times
• Security: $2B in economic security
• Cost: $15-30 per settlement

Execution Layer (Purpose-built L2s):

• Performance: 3,000-5,000 TPS
• Latency: 2-3 second finality
• Cost: $0.05-0.15 per transaction

Privacy Layer (ZK Infrastructure):

• Proof Generation: 50ms-200ms
• Verification Cost: ~$0.50 per proof
• Data Privacy: Complete

Data Availability:

• Ethereum: $0.15 per kB
• Alternative DA: $0.001-0.01 per kB
• Hybrid Solutions: Growing 400% QoQ

What's Next: Three Predictions for 2025​

1. Enterprise Layer 2 Consolidation The current fragmentation (27 enterprise-focused L2s) will consolidate to 3-5 dominant platforms, driven by security requirements and standardization needs.

2. Privacy Toolkit Explosion Following EY's success, expect 50+ new enterprise privacy solutions by Q4 2024. Early indicators show 127 privacy-focused repositories under development by major enterprises.

3. Cross-Chain Standards Emergence Watch for the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance to release standardized cross-chain communication protocols by Q3 2024, addressing the current fragmentation risks.

Why This Matters Now​

The mainstreaming of Web3 marks the evolution from "permissionless innovation" to "permissionless infrastructure." For enterprises, this represents a $47 billion opportunity to rebuild critical systems on open, interoperable foundations.

Success metrics to watch:

• Enterprise TVL Growth: Currently $6.2B, growing 40% monthly
• Development Activity: 4,200+ active enterprise developers
• Cross-chain Transaction Volume: 15M monthly, up 900% YTD
• ZK Proof Generation Costs: Falling 12% monthly

For Web3 builders, this isn't just about adoption—it's about co-creating the next generation of enterprise infrastructure. The winners will be those who can bridge the gap between crypto innovation and enterprise requirements while maintaining the core values of decentralization.

Ethereum, the world's most adopted blockchain platform for smart contracts, is known for its regular upgrades, each bringing forth new features, parameter adjustments, or enhanced security. These upgrades, driven by both proactive innovation and the need to mitigate potential security threats, have punctuated Ethereum's evolution over the years.

Before the Ethereum merge last September, the platform had seen 14 upgrades. Notably, a reactive upgrade occurred in 2016 after the DAO Fork incident when Ethereum Classic (ETC) emerged following a cyber-attack that jeopardized the DAO project's ETH funding.

Over the past few years, significant upgrades have taken place. The London upgrade in August 2020 introduced EIP-1599, introducing ETH burning and dynamic adjustment of the Base Fee for every transaction. In September 2022, the Paris upgrade transitioned Ethereum's consensus mechanism from Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS), signaling the end of the machine mining era.

After the Shanghai upgrade, Ethereum's core development team announced that the most important update this year would be the Cancun upgrade, expected to occur later this year.

Cancun Upgrade: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?​

Named after the city that hosted the Ethereum Developer Conference (Devcon), the upcoming Cancun upgrade will implement crucial improvements to the Ethereum network.

The star of the upgrade, EIP-4844, aims to allow Ethereum nodes to temporarily store and retrieve off-chain data, fulfilling the data and storage needs of blockchain applications. If successfully implemented, EIP-4844 is expected to reduce the costs of Layer 2 (L2) rollup solutions. Reportedly, EIP-4844 has already been tested on four development networks, with a fifth testing network about to launch.

Originally intended for completion during the Shanghai upgrade, EIP-4844 was postponed to the Cancun upgrade. Developers have also agreed to include EIP-6780 (preparing for future application of Verkle Trees), EIP-6475 (providing improved readability and compact serialization), and EIP-1153 (introducing transient storage opcode) in the upgrade.

The Principle Behind the Upgrade​

The essence of Ethereum's scalability efforts lies in increasing data processing volume and speed. Two directions are pursued concurrently – Layer 2 rollups and sharding on the mainnet. The implementation of EIP-4844 is the first step towards complete sharding.

Prior to the Cancun upgrade, L2 information was stored in the Calldata of L1 information. This method was costly and limited due to Calldata's limited space.

With the Cancun upgrade, L1 will be stored in a new location called "Blob". Blob storage is more affordable and offers more space, allowing Ethereum to host more data, increase its transactions per second (TPS), and reduce costs. As Blob is a temporary data package cleaned up every 30 days, nodes only need to download a fixed amount of data per month, decreasing node burden.

In essence, the Cancun upgrade will make L2 cheaper and faster. This will not only benefit L2 protocols but will also foster rapid development for ecosystems built on L2.

In conclusion, the upcoming Ethereum Cancun upgrade promises to be an important milestone, heralding a new era of efficient, affordable, and scalable blockchain applications. Stay tuned for further updates as the Ethereum community continues its pioneering work in advancing decentralized technologies.

Hello and welcome back to our blockchain blog! Today, we will be diving into an exciting new proposal called ERC-4337, which introduces account abstraction to Ethereum without requiring any consensus-layer protocol changes. Instead, this proposal relies on higher-layer infrastructure to achieve its goals. Let's explore what ERC-4337 has to offer and how it addresses the limitations of the current Ethereum ecosystem.

What is ERC-4337?​

ERC-4337 is a proposal that introduces account abstraction to Ethereum through the use of a separate mempool and a new type of pseudo-transaction object called a UserOperation. Users send UserOperation objects into the alternative mempool, where a special class of actors called bundlers package them into a transaction making a handleOps call to a dedicated contract. These transactions are then included in a block.

The proposal aims to achieve several goals:

1. Enable users to use smart contract wallets with arbitrary verification logic as their primary accounts.
2. Completely remove the need for users to have externally owned accounts (EOAs).
3. Ensure decentralization by allowing any bundler to participate in the process of including account-abstracted user operations.
4. Enable all activity to happen over a public mempool, eliminating the need for users to know direct communication addresses of specific actors.
5. Avoid trust assumptions on bundlers.
6. Avoid requiring any Ethereum consensus changes for faster adoption.
7. Support other use cases such as privacy-preserving applications, atomic multi-operations, paying transaction fees with ERC-20 tokens, and developer-sponsored transactions.

Backwards Compatibility​

Since ERC-4337 does not change the consensus layer, there are no direct backwards compatibility issues for Ethereum. However, pre-ERC-4337 accounts are not easily compatible with the new system because they lack the necessary validateUserOp function. This can be addressed by creating an ERC-4337 compatible account that re-implements the verification logic as a wrapper and setting it as the original account’s trusted op submitter.

Reference Implementation​

For those interested in diving deeper into the technical details of ERC-4337, a reference implementation is available at https://github.com/eth-infinitism/account-abstraction/tree/main/contracts.

Security Considerations​

The entry point contract for ERC-4337 must be heavily audited and formally verified, as it serves as a central trust point for the entire system. While this approach reduces the auditing and formal verification load for individual accounts, it does concentrate security risk in the entry point contract, which must be robustly verified.

Verification should cover two primary claims:

1. Safety against arbitrary hijacking: The entry point only calls an account generically if validateUserOp to that specific account has passed.
2. Safety against fee draining: If the entry point calls validateUserOp and passes, it must also make the generic call with calldata equal to op.calldata.

Conclusion​

ERC-4337 is an exciting proposal that aims to introduce account abstraction to Ethereum without requiring consensus-layer protocol changes. By using higher-layer infrastructure, it opens up new possibilities for decentralization, flexibility, and various use cases. While there are security considerations to address, this proposal has the potential to greatly improve the Ethereum ecosystem and user experience.

We are on a mission to build and accelerate the web3 industry of tomorrow. We obsess about developer experience and strive towards constant innovation. And that's why now we are offering a decentralized file store, powered by EthStorage. dStore is a managed storage solution for creators and developers from any blockchain. It's user-friendly, EVM-compatible, low-cost, and petabyte-level scale, all powered by EthStorage.

What is EthStorage?​

EthStorage is a layer 2 solution that provides programmable dynamic storage based on Ethereum's data availability. It will greatly reduce the storage cost of storing a large amount of data on Ethereum, saving the cost from 1% to 0.1%. The low cost of storing large data by EthStorage can better enable a fully decentralized network in the future. EthStorage is highly integrated with EVM and is compatible with Solidity, Remix, Hardhat, and MetaMask. The team received a research grant from the Ethereum Foundation for data availability research.

EthStorage is invented by Dr. Qi Zhou, the founder of QuarkChain and author of EIP-4804/4972/5018/5027/5478. You can track EthStorage's statuses from the following sources:

• Website: http://ethstorage.io/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EthStorage
• Medium: https://ethstorage.medium.com/
• Telegram: https://t.me/ethstorage
• Discord: https://discord.gg/mZqqUZxjed

Why does decentralized storage matter?​

Decentralized storage is important because it allows for data to be stored in a distributed manner rather than being stored in a single location. This has several advantages, such as increased security and reliability, as well as improved accessibility. For example, because decentralized storage systems are distributed, they are less vulnerable to attacks, censorship, or failure and can continue to function even if some of the individual components fail. Additionally, because the data is stored on multiple devices, it can be accessed from multiple locations, making it more convenient for users.

What is BlockEden. xyz's dStore offering?​

We strongly believe Dr. Zhou's vision to bring more cost-effective storage to the decentralized web and would like to collaborate with his team to democratize this innovation to every web3 developer on the planet.

More specifically, we will apply EthStorage as the underlying vendor of our blob store. Our developers can develop upon it to build their DApps faster and scale instantly.

Web portal for file management

Developers and creators can drag and drop their static assets to this file store and easily manage them. We free them from the hassles of managing private keys, paying transaction fees, and maintaining files with blockchains.

To ensure the decentralization of the storage, developers could eject the managed store to their own address anytime. Furthermore, we will open source the backend of the file store so that developers or other developer-facing providers can easily host file management services.

Unlocking new business possibilities through strategic partnerships​

There are also future integration opportunities between EthStorage and BlockEden.xyz, in addition to the dStore launched today.

CDN to speed up the read

Most Internet services are read-intensive and take time to serve a large number of resources from a decentralized store. With our CDN service, developers can enjoy both the decentralization of the source files and the blazing-fast speed that we can achieve with a CDN.

Node service and API gateway to EthStorage

We will provide API access to EthStorage testnet and mainnet blockchain nodes after EthStorage mainnet launch for developers and businesses. Here are a few reasons why developers should choose us instead of their own or the official nodes:

1. Easy Access to blockchain Nodes: BlockEden.xyz ChainPlus API provides easy access to EthStorage nodes, which can be used to interact with these blockchain networks. Starts to build in 10s, instead of spending 20 hours to start, countless hours to maintain!

2. Scalability: BlockEden.xyz provides highly scalable nodes that can handle high levels of traffic and transactions. This can be important for businesses and projects requiring large amounts of data or user activity.

3. Reliability: BlockEden.xyz nodes are highly reliable, with an uptime of 99.9%. This can be important for businesses and projects that need to ensure that their applications or services are always available to users.

How to use dStore with EthStorage?​

Step 1. Go to https://BlockEden.xyz/dash/dstore and then drag and drop your files to the window.

Step 2. After the file is uploaded to the EthStorage successfully, you will see the item in the table, then right-click the row and select "Copy URL" to get the link. You can also delete a file by selecting "Delete".

Admittedly, the current version of dStore has some limitations. We don't support uploading directories and large files (size > 2MB). It may take tens of seconds to upload mid-sized images. However, this is just an initial version, and we will keep improving the product in the long run.

Dr. Qi Zhou, founder of EthStorage, share his praise on twitter -

Introducing dStore @BlockEdenHQ!

dStore makes it super easy for devs and creators to manage files on @EthStorage with web3:// protocol without their own keys. We expect to see more integrations from it and more early teams like the capable @BlockEdenHQ to build our ecosystem.

— Qi Zhou (@qc_qizhou) February 20, 2023

Mike Thrift, BD at BlockEden.xyz, commented, "dStore enriched our bundled offering to the creators and developers and laid a solid foundation for our aggregated function API services to blockchains. It made us an active contributor to the Ethereum ecosystem and gave our Aptos and Sui developers a more cost-effective and flexible choice than IPFS or Arweave."

BlockEden.xyz is committed to providing the best developer experiences to web3 developers, which does not limit to Blockchain RPCs. The decentralized storage opens new doors for developers to manage their NFT assets and files in our one-stop shop. Get started today for free at https://blockeden.xyz/dstore

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlockEdenHQ
• Discord: https://discord.gg/eWZvE4RSBw
• Source Link: https://blockeden.xyz/blog/2023/03/15/boost-your-web3-development-with-blockeden-xyz-chat/

Back to a month ago, we made a public incognito Ethereum mainnet RPC endpoint available to Metamask users (blog post), which attracted and was used by a few users. Now we decided to expand the benefit to our developer customers too!

How to get started?​

Step 1. Go to https://blockeden.xyz/dash/. Please sign up if you haven’t done so.

Step 2. Input your name for the API key, select ETH Mainnet, and then click + Create key.

Step 3. Grab your access URL by clicking it and copying it to the clipboard.

Step 4. Use the access URL in your project like the following. Remember to replace <access_key> with your own key.

To test it, using curl to connect ETH mainnet

curl --location --request POST 'https://eth-mainnet.blockeden.xyz/<access_key>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
        "jsonrpc":"2.0",
        "method":"eth_blockNumber",
        "params":[],
        "id":73
}'

Why Ethereum Network?​

Ethereum network has the biggest developer ecosystem, and there are so many great innovations accumulated over years. Supporting it is going to create significant synergy with Move ecosystem. Many of our customers are not exclusive Move developers. Building a single stop for all needed services makes their life easier.

Enjoy our new service and happy holidays!