Blockchain conferences are a wonderful way to see how the zero knowledge industry is thriving, and ETHDenver was no exception. Taiko hosted a special event co-hosted by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, which brought together a vibrant mix of builders, VCs, and partners. The evening was filled with lively conversations, exciting announcements like snippets from the upcoming new branding, and a palpable sense of innovation in the air.

Since 2022, Taiko has been a trailblazer in the world of blockchain innovation, with six successful testnets involving over 1,200,000+ unique wallets, 30,000+ proposers, and 14,000+ provers. The Taiko ecosystem has flourished, supporting over 100+ live apps and boasting a community of over 888,000+ members on Discord. At the heart of Taiko's mission is the development of a Layer 2 architecture for Ethereum that is decentralized, permissionless, and secure, supporting all EVM opcodes.

Taiko recently announced a successful fundraise, securing $37 million across three funding rounds ahead of its mainnet launch this year. Taiko’s latest $15 million Series A round was led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Presto Labs, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, GSR, WW Ventures, and more.

Taiko is building a Based Contestable Rollup (BCR), a configurable, multi-proof rollup architecture that features a contestation mechanism and based sequencing. BCR is currently being tested on the Katla testnet and is set to launch on Ethereum mainnet in the coming months.

Taiko will also support EIP-4844, or proto-danksharding, a core Ethereum upgrade that’s going to introduce a new transaction type called blobs and reduce transaction costs for L2s. EIP-4844 is set to be released on Ethereum mainnet in March and will be supported by Taiko on day 1.

After BCR, Taiko will develop Based Booster Rollup (BBR), a design that tackles the liquidity fragmentation issue by allowing developers to deploy on Ethereum and scale natively across all L2s.

In general, Taiko has been a strong proponent of based sequencing, the most decentralized and permissionless way of sequencing transactions on L2s. In based rollups, sequencing is done by Ethereum L1 block builders, instead of introducing a centralized sequencer. This way, based rollups inherit Ethereum’s security and liveness guarantees.

Quotes from investors

Kim Yongjin, the co-founder of Presto Labs, praised Taiko's approach, stating, “With Ethereum scaling continuing to be the key missing piece in realizing Ethereum's vision of becoming a global settlement layer, we believe that Taiko has taken the right approach in addressing this by developing a uniquely integrated based rollup architecture. This brings us one step closer to a progressively more secure and performant L2 ecosystem."

"We invested in Taiko because its Ethereum-equivalence represents a landmark development for the broader Ethereum ecosystem. Taiko emulates Ethereum both technologically and ideologically, which will drive frictionless scalability. As such, the team at Wintermute Ventures is excited to support Taiko,” said Wintermute Ventures.

“Scaling Ethereum is one of the most significant and impactful challenges within crypto. Built by an experienced and crypto-native team, Taiko's decentralized Type 1 zk-EVM will unlock new possibilities for innovation within the growing Ethereum ecosystem,” said GSR.

“We believe Taiko’s utilization of ZK-Rollups for Ethereum Layer 2 will accelerate the scalability and efficiency of the blockchain space. Their commitment to creating a more accessible and cost-effective blockchain and enabling users to transact without limitations is something we believe will advance the entire decentralized finance ecosystem,” said Michael Lie, Global Head of Digital Asset Trading at Flow Traders.

"The growth and development of Taiko has been nothing short of extraordinary. We've been impressed with Taiko's ability to activate their community to participate in testnets, attend community calls, and craft user generated content. Not only has the team delivered breakthrough advancements in sequencing design, they have also married technical expertise with a welcoming community - bridging the gap between industry veterans and newcomers alike,” said Adam Haklili, Managing Partner at WWVentures.

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