Taiko Community Update — Q1/2023

May 19th, 2023

Below is a summary of Taiko’s Q1 2023. We know it’s mid-May and do apologize for the delay! We’ll try to release this closer to each quarter’s end going forward. Of course, you don’t have to wait for these to stay abreast of Taiko happenings—we try to share all the meaningful updates right as they happen: in bi-weekly GitHub changelogs, Taiko Tuesday weekly recaps, timely announcements, and for that matter, build right out in the open to begin with. But we do hope this format is helpful for those that prefer the broad strokes every once in a while. Consider this Q1.5 as we’ll include updates that happened post-Q1 but before this update. Let’s get to it.

Research & Development

ZK-EVM

Basic zkEVM circuits integration into protocol
Updated the public input circuit to match the latest Taiko protocol
MPT circuit refactor/optimizations
Improve invalid transction support
Halo2 API improvements
Creation of a collection of circuit tools
KZG circuit implementation progress
Blake2 circuit implementation/optimization progress
Basic compression circuit

Client & Testnet

Fixed the client driver software L1 reorg handling issue
Added more metrics and improved the monitoring system
Updated client softwares / go-ethereum based on new protocol design
Migrated to a new cloud platform
Launched an internal devnet

Bridge

We have made significant enhancements to the Bridge, such as the integration of partial Merkle proof for signal/message verification. This enhancement has drastically reduced the gas required for cross-chain transactions, leading to increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Currently, we are in the process of an extensive redesign of the Bridge's user interface (UI). The goal is not only to enhance the user experience but also to accommodate the integration of multiple Layer 2s and Layer 3s, fostering greater scalability and adaptability.

Protocol

Over this quarter, we have carried out a comprehensive overhaul of the Taiko protocol. This redesign significantly reduced the need for on-chain verifications, and many of the verification logics previously on-chain are now transitioning into our circuits. The result is a new protocol that offers greatly reduced on-chain costs, particularly in proposing, proving, and verifying blocks. The upcoming Alpha-3 testnet will operate using this new, more efficient protocol.
In our pursuit of transparency and understanding, we have produced a detailed document explaining the process of block proving in Taiko. This includes an outline of how data is cross-verified within the circuits, alongside the PSE’s ZK-EVM specification. The constraints outlined in this document are being incorporated into several Taiko-specific circuits. Originally an internal document, we are now integrating it into our GitHub repository for public access and collaboration.
We piloted our initial tokenomics design in Q1, and while there were some bugs and feature limitations, we have learned valuable lessons. We have now designed and implemented a new tokenomics model, which has been thoroughly unit-tested and will be integrated into the Alpha-3 testnet. Furthermore, we're experimenting with an auction-based tokenomics model, aimed at incentivizing cost-effective proof generation over speed. We anticipate the proof auction feature will be ready for deployment in Q3.

All of the above is contained within our open source repos. To learn more or contribute, please visit our GitHub.

Operations & Community

We launched our Alpha-2 public testnet, Askja. Launch was in late March, and the main additions to the network were permissionless proving and protocol economics being implemented. These were big features and provided valuable learnings. See stats and learnings here, and the final stats and deprecation notice here. Once more, thanks to all testers across all modes of participation. We now approach Alpha-3.

Expanded education and documentation

We continued to focus on education, both on Taiko-specific topics, as well as broader Ethereum and ZK topics.

Our docs got some major improvements, including covering important concepts like cross-chain messaging within Taiko.

We published a Taiko roadmap, sharing the milestones up until planned mainnet launch in early 2024. We explained the Taiko protocol and its various recent improvements. We initiated a new bi-weekly series, ZK-Roller-Coaster, covering the most interesting news from across the ZK and adjacent spaces. We went deeper into ZK education with our more advanced piece, What are ZK-SNARKs and how they work. We published a Rollup Glossary, inviting the entire rollup community to contribute and help solidify concepts and terminology.

We went further with some explanatory threads on crucial concepts like “total anarchy” rollups, “inception layers”, and cross-layer communication and bridging.

Continued focus on community, contributors, and openness

Across the community, from ambassadors and moderators to testnet transactors and node runners—the Taiko community is stepping up in a way that motivates us. Empowering contributors to take Taiko further is a foundational goal for us. To that end, we’ve improved our contributing guide, made it easier than ever to start taking some good first issues, and provided some workshops on the topic.

We’ve continued to add ways to engage with our community. Formats like “Office Hours”, “Tea with Taiko”, “Community Calls”, and more. These typically take place in our Discord stage, and you can find some of the recordings from these sessions on our YouTube channel here. We’ve also created a Taiko community forum, to house more persistent community discussions, questions, and research.

In our quest for Ethereum-equivalence, we’ve made things as open and transparent as possible. Our GitHub project board has been opened, allowing anyone to see what we are working on (and to easily jump in). We also provide changelog releases every two weeks, so you can see exactly what’s been done.

Taiko ambassador, Umede, launched Taiko Tuesday, a weekly recap of everything going on at Taiko. Already proven to be an indispensable information outlet, you can check all issues and sign up here.

Community grew to 1.7k followers on GitHub, 57k+ on Twitter, and 60k+ on Discord.

In and around the Ethereum ecosystem

We participated in ETHDenver, Scaling Ethereum, ETHGlobal Tokyo, and more incredible Ethereum ecosystem events. Meeting fellow builders had us feeling extra energized throughout the quarter. You can catch some video presentations & workshops from these events and more on this YouTube playlist. You can also see some recap threads of the hackathon builders on Taiko here and here.

Taiko also appeared in some of our favourite Ethereum news & educational outlets, like The Daily Gwei, Bankless, and Week in Ethereum, amongst others.

Team and extended team grew

Taiko core team grew by 6 people and now totals 25, across more than a dozen countries. New teammates were mostly on the ZK engineering side, but also include design, dev ops, and more. The extended team grew as well, welcoming ambassador Umede and moderator Kachinsky to our world-class community contributors. If you’re looking to join full time, check out our careers page for openings, or just jump right in contributing. We also had our first team offsite, where 20 of us met in Tokyo! See some of the fun recapped here.

Thank You

It was a great few months for Taiko and had a little bit of everything: development milestones, testnets, community and contributor growth, and even some IRL education, building, and team bonding. Taiko’s progress is increasingly becoming a community-wide effort—exactly as it should be for an environment that seeks to extend Ethereum. So a heartfelt thank you to all who help push us forward. There remains lots to be done to scale Ethereum securely, and we appreciate you being here with us.