It's been an incredible 90 days since we announced the mainnet launch of Taiko, the very first based rollup! In this short time, we've not only achieved remarkable milestones but also reshaped the Ethereum community's understanding of rollups. Taiko has proven that a rollup can be fully compatible with Ethereum, both technically and philosophically. This journey wouldn't have been possible without our incredible community – thank you for your unwavering support and enthusiasm!

Let's dive into the extraordinary progress we've made in just three months. 🥁🚀

Milestone Achievements

Explosive Growth in Network Activity

Our mainnet engagement has skyrocketed exceeding 110 million transactions – a phenomenal record in the current crypto environment.

Profitable Decentralization

Decentralized, permissionless and profitable? It’s not a joke. Based rollups can be profitable. This is a huge milestone that can change the current understanding of Ethereum, challenging the status quo and opening up new possibilities for Ethereum scaling solutions through based rollups.

Transaction Volume Surge

We've hit an astounding 2,200,000 daily transactions showcasing the network's robust capacity and growing adoption.

Expanding User Base

Taiko has attracted over 1,200,000 unique wallet addresses, a testament to the strong user interest and engagement in our ecosystem.

Ecosystem Growth

Since our mainnet launch, we have successfully onboarded over 100 dapps into the Taiko ecosystem. This diverse range of applications have provided users with multiple reasons to use the network, driving increased activity and value locked. Let's take a closer look at the key areas of growth within our ecosystem:

DeFi

The DeFi ecosystem on Taiko has shown robust growth, with numerous partnerships estalished and a diverse range of applications joining our network. This rapid expansion has created a rich, interconnected financial landscape for our users. Here are some highlights of our thriving DeFi ecosystem:

1. DEXs & DEX Aggregators: We've onboarded several decentralized exchanges and aggregators, including Oku Trade, iZiswap, Ritsu, Kodo, Henjin, IceCreamSwap, 1Delta, DZap, Tanuki, and Bebop.

2. Lending & Borrowing Platforms: Meridian Lending has joined our ecosystem, with more expected to launch soon.

3. Derivatives: DTX, KiloEx, LogX, and Deri Protocol are now available on Taiko, enabling sophisticated trading strategies.

4. Cross-Chain & Bridges: We've integrated solutions like Symbiosis, XY Finance, Meson Finance, MagpieFi, Stargate, RhinoFi, RetroBridge, Rubic, and Swing to enhance interoperability.

5. Asset Management & Social Trading: Gamma and RAI Finance have joined Taiko, offering advanced investment strategies and social trading features.

Gaming

Despite the current 12-second block times inherited from Ethereum L1 (as a based rollup), Taiko's gaming ecosystem has been growing rapidly:

1. Crack&Stack: This top-down multiplayer game has seen over 2.6 million games played by 70,000 unique players.

2. LooperLands: An innovative MMO game integrating NFTs, LooperLands has attracted 32,000 active players and features diverse creator-crafted worlds.

3. Considering the ever-growing number of games on Taiko, we mention Zephyr Network, EVM Warfare, World of Dypians, Taco Studios, etc. as our most notable ones.

We eagerly await to see the results when based preconfirmations moves beyond its current testing phase, and we aim to be the first based rollup to offer this feature.

Others

As a versatile Layer 2 solution, Taiko supports a diverse range of applications beyond DeFi and gaming:

1. Developer Infrastructure: High-quality RPCs (ANKR, BlockPi), indexers (Covalent, Goldsky), oracles (Pyth, API3), and simulation environments (Tenderly).

2. User-Facing Tools: Advanced explorers (Etherscan, SocialScan) and data platforms (Growthepie).

3. NFTs: Marketplaces and building tools for the growing NFT ecosystem.

4. SocialFi: Applications for domain names, memes, and voting systems.

5. Emerging Technologies: Early-stage AI applications are beginning to appear.

This diverse ecosystem showcases our potential as a general-purpose L2 solution. For the most current information, please refer to Taiko’s ecosystem page.

Technical Advancements

Optimizations

We’ve achieved a significant 30% reduction in TaikoL1 contract’s gas costs. This was a crucial step in enhancing proposer profitability.

Reduction of the Bonds

We have reduced the liveness bond and SGX proofs’ validity and contestation bond by 50%, allowing more participants in Taiko’s permissionless transaction sequencing with lower capital costs.

How Did We Get Here?

Being a based rollup means that, unlike other rollups, it has to sacrifice sequencer revenue. Now that our proposer is profitable, it will radically change the way people think about Ethereum and rollups. The reason why we have achieved this profitability and high metrics in such a short time is mainly because of our eternal belief in Ethereum and the attention of our community.

Our success can be attributed to a combination of strategic initiatives and community-driven growth. We’ve expanded our ecosystem partnerships, which has significantly boosted awareness and adoption. Simultaneously, we've built the largest crypto community on Discord, fostering engagement and driving development. To ensure long-term user and developer retention, we implemented a strategic token allocation, with 10% of the total supply dedicated to incentives over several years. This approach has reinforced our strong community engagement and supported our ongoing growth.

Moreover, our unwavering focus on decentralization and permissionless approach, allowing anyone to participate without central approval, have fostered a more inclusive and resilient ecosystem. These factors, combined with our alignment with Ethereum's core values, have positioned us strongly in the competitive L2 landscape.

Looking Ahead: The Ontake Fork and Beyond

As we build on our success, we're excited to share our roadmap for the coming year, including the much-anticipated Ontake fork. Here's a glimpse of what's to come:

Protocol Improvements

In our previous blog post, we outlined the scope of the Ontake fork coming at the end of the year. To briefly summarise;

DAO Governance📚

• We're piloting DAO governance on our testnet, paving the way for community-driven decision-making.👀

BCR🥊

• We’re implementing preconfirmations on Taiko. Light-speed transaction on based rollups is no longer a meme.🚄

  • Raiko⚡

    • RiscZero is on the Hekla testnet. SP1 will be activated soon.

    • ZK proofs will be integrated into the mainnet step by step.

    • Nitro will be activated as a new TEE proof. Also TDX will be integrated next.

    • Jolt zkVM will be added to the system.

Are You Boosted Enough?

We've previously introduced the concept of "Based Booster Rollups" (BBRs). Taiko's strategic plan envisions an improved ecosystem where based rollups have built-in awareness of one another and can pool liquidity. This approach aims to address fragmentation challenges by enabling seamless, atomic transactions across all Layer 2 solutions within the booster network.

Ongoing Initiatives

To further strengthen the growth of the Taiko ecosystem, we are driving several initiatives:

1. Grants Program: Our grants program has grown tremendously since its July 2023 launch. The second cycle, announced in December 2023 with a $30 million commitment, saw applications surge to 330, supporting 54 projects. We maintained a 16% acceptance rate across both cycles, reflecting the quality of projects and our commitment to fostering innovation.

2. Trailblazers Program: A key driver for user adoption and dapp exploration across DeFi, Bridging, Gaming, and more. Rewards both users and developers, Cultivating sustained participation in Taiko's ecosystem for years to come.

3. Hackathons and Events: Taiko Labs and its community are attending numerous developer-focused events and organizing hackathons to grow our developer community. Keep a lookout for our announcement about our upcoming online hackathon starting soon.

4. Education: We're focusing on educating both the existing community and potential users about Taiko, its growing ecosystem, and its differentiating points through educational content, workshops, and community engagement initiatives.

5. User Experience: We're enabling builders to create applications that are user-friendly and intuitive, fostering a positive user experience to encourage more users to join the Taiko ecosystem.

Join Us in Shaping the Future of Ethereum Scaling

The past 90 days have been nothing short of extraordinary, but this is just the beginning. As we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in Ethereum scaling, we invite you – our community, developers, and partners – to join us in this exciting journey.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.