Author: @Mint_Blockchain
Layer2 Development Background
In recent years, Ethereum has become the public chain with the most ecosystems, and more and more Dapps are deployed on Ethereum. With the explosive growth in transaction volume, the problems of slow transaction processing speed and high transaction fees have become increasingly prominent.
Based on the background that expansion is imperative and ETH2.0 cannot be implemented quickly, the Layer2 solution came into being. Layer2 is Ethereum's expansion solution. It is like an independent blockchain, sharing Ethereum's workload while inheriting its security.
Since 2022, Layer2 expansion solutions have developed rapidly. According to L2Beat data, there are currently more than 100 L2 and L3 projects online, and multiple L2 projects are planned to be launched.
At the same time, about 90% of Ethereum transactions now occur on the L2 network, highlighting the important position of L2 in the current market.
Problems facing Layer2
The large-scale adoption of Layer2 has solved the scalability problem of the Ethereum ecosystem to a certain extent, greatly increasing transaction speeds and significantly reducing transaction fees.
At the same time, more and more Layer2 projects are put into operation, which makes us face two problems:
(1) Infrastructure is highly homogeneous
The prevalence of business expansion strategies such as OP Stack, ZK Stack, Polygon CDK and Rollup as a Service has enabled L2 to be issued with one click at low cost, but it has also made Ethereum Layer2 infrastructure overly homogenized.
(2) Liquidity Split and Fragmentation
The excessive homogeneity of Layer2 has caused the division of liquidity and the fragmentation of on-chain assets, and is also unable to meet the differentiated configuration needs in some specific application scenarios.
Layer 2 Interoperability
L2's cross-chain interoperability is the main solution to the homogeneity and fragmentation of the L2 ecosystem. It allows L2 chains to interact securely, allowing users to efficiently transfer funds between Layer 2 systems. When interacting on different chains, they will not feel fragmented, but will feel like they are operating on a single chain.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that the solution to the cross-chain interoperability problem of Ethereum's second-layer network Layer 2 will be faster than expected, which will greatly improve the user experience. He also shared his vision for L2 cross-chain interoperability.
Taking the mainstream OP Stack's Superchain as an example, its member chains currently include OP Mainnet, Base, Zora, Mode, Mint, Unichain, worldcoin and other L2 public chains.
OP Superchain Interoperability
Before the introduction of interoperability, each L2 member chain of Superchain did not have an independent ecosystem. After the application of interoperability, all Superchain members formed an ecological community.
Native OP Stack interoperability provides the ability to read messages and transfer assets on Superchain (without going through L1) through low-latency, secure messaging. This brings several benefits:
1 block delay in asset movement, maximizing capital efficiency without causing fragmentation
Improve Superchain developer and user experience
Securely transfer ETH and ERC-20 between L2
Horizontally scalable applications
At the same time, a new cross-chain Token standard ERC-7802 is introduced and applied in Superchain as an interoperable asset: SuperchainERC20
SuperchainERC20
SuperchainERC20 is the implementation of ERC-7802 in Superchain for asset interoperability in Superchain. Asset interoperability allows tokens to move across chains securely without asset wrapping or liquidity pools to achieve maximum capital efficiency, unifying liquidity and simplifying user experience.
Features include:
Simple application
Token cross-chain does not require additional infrastructure, provides a unified token implementation for all Superchain-compatible networks, and provides a universal cross-chain interface for the entire EVM ecosystem.
No permission required for use
Easily deploy existing token contracts to new OP Stack chains using create2, without the need for the original owner’s assets to be transferred to the new chain. Permissionless propagation preserves the integrity of the contract’s original owner and maintains security, but extends the contract’s availability to the new chain.
Unified standards
Implemented based on ERC-7802, this is a unified interface that can be used throughout Ethereum, enabling crosschainMint and crosschainBurn functionality.
Summarize
We discussed the development of Layer 2 and the current fragmentation problem, and introduced the Layer 2 interoperability solution using OP Superchain as an example. Currently, Superchain Interoperability is still in the development stage, and the implementation of cross-chain interoperability can bring about liquidity unification and further ecological prosperity of Ethereum, which is worth looking forward to.
References:
https://l2beat.com/scaling/summary
https://x.com/rudolf6_/status/1846294858400780638
https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1820404774493110309
https://www.optimism.io/build
https://docs.optimism.io/stack/interop/explainer
https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/erc-7802-crosschain-token-interface/21508
