The Rollup

The convergence of AI and crypto is particularly interesting to us. We've been doing research and are really coming around to the idea that AI might be the major unlock for crypto, especially for onchain usage. If you're completely new to the convergence of AI and crypto, this is for you. In today's discussion, we discuss the "AI War" of compute and GPUs. The majority of the current GPU usage is being held in the hands of large big tech companies, we're not fans of this model and its not the ideal path for scaling AI going forward. We also discuss how blockchain will decentralize AI, promoting an open marketplace where resources such as computing power, data, and models are accessible to everyone. Then, we go onto discuss how smart agents are being built to execute operations onchain autonomously. Finally, we explore how Mike and Ben, the founders of Talus, are working to integrate AI into the current blockchain landscape. The future is in our hands. The Rollup Talus Network Socials: https://twitter.com/TalusNetwork 𝗪𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝗻-𝗯𝗶𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱, 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀: Website: https://therollup.co/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1P6ZeYd... Podcast: https://therollup.co/category/podcast Follow us on X: https://www.x.com/therollupco Follow Rob on X: https://www.x.com/robbie_rollup Follow Andy on X: https://www.x.com/ayyyeandy Join our TG group: https://t.me/+8ARkR_YZixE5YjBh The Rollup Disclosures: https://therollup.co/the-rollup-discl 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗥: 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘍𝘪 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬, 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. 𝘈𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭, 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮, 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴. #DeFi #TalusNetwork #Modularblockchains #Modularity #Ethereum

The spotlight on modularity continues. After Modular March, its been obvious to us to stay heads down building with a strong focus on modular blockchains and the projects leading the way for this sector. Today, we do a technical deep dive into the architecture of Lava Network's RPC network. Basically the issue at hand is its tough to scale RPCs in a secure manner, across dozens of chains. We spoke to Lava Network's CTO, Gil Binder, about their chain-agnostic framework and tried to figure out where the real edge lies. Can Lava really scale to thousands of chains? Is the incentive system robust? By introducing economic incentives for RPC providers and using decentralized enforcement mechanisms like slashing and "jailing" Gil explained that Lava ensures that data remains both accessible and reliable. We dug deep into the technicals to understand what makes up an RPC and why its very important for you to understand what is happening 'underneath' all your onchain transactions. We learned, and we enjoyed. Hope you do as well! 00:00 Introduction 07:30 The Crucial Role of RPC in Blockchain Access 26:26 Key Features of Lava Network 35:41 Decentralized Access to Providers 45:13 Looking Ahead Lava Network Website: https://www.lavanet.xyz/ Lava Network Socials: / lavanetxyz 𝗪𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝗻-𝗯𝗶𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱, 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘂𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀: Website: https://therollup.co/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1P6ZeYd. Podcast: https://therollup.co/category/podcast Follow us on X: https://www.x.com/therollupco Follow Rob on X: https://www.x.com/robbie_rollup Follow Andy on X: https://www.x.com/ayyyeandy Join our TG group: https://t.me/+8ARkR_YZixE5YjBh The Rollup Disclosures: https://therollup.co/the-rollup-discl 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗥: 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘍𝘪 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬, 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳, 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. 𝘈𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭, 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮, 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴. #DeFi #LavaNetwork #Modularblockchains #Modularity #Ethereum

The future of AI is a divergent path. On one hand, we have the use of AI for the benefit of all and advancement of our society. On the other, there’s a world where the power dynamic between humans and computers becomes imbalanced and we are as a race are put in an dystopian situation. We believe that the intersection of crypto and AI will be pivotal in not only the decentralization of AI, but also the advancement of crypto adoption. We believe that AI is the unique use case needed to expedite blockchain usage via machine-to-machine economies. AI agents are envisioned to execute trades, manage assets, and facilitate all kinds of economic functions without human intervention. The ethical and practical challenges of AI in crypto was something we discussed in depth. This is crucial for maintaining alignment between AI actions and human intentions, mitigating the risk of AI agents acting with ulterior motives. The blockchain's immutable record-keeping plays a pivotal role in ensuring that every action taken by an AI agent can be audited and verified, providing a layer of security and trust that is indispensable in today’s digital age. Lastly, we discussed the philosophical implications of AI advancement and the future role of humans in an economy increasingly driven by intelligent agents. As AI becomes more capable, its integration with crypto could significantly alter how economic activities are managed and who controls these processes. This conversation was really intriguing. Hope you enjoy.

As we wrap up Modular March, we had one of the early believers in modularity and early angel investor in prominent projects (EigenDA, Avail, and others) to discuss the state of the crypto markets. We discussed the nuanced interplay between technology, ethics, and market dynamics that are at play in crypto now. We discussed the desire for real world applications and why tokens play an interesting part in the way builders create products in crypto. Ajit is a particularly funny personality in crypto, known for his realism and ability to make harsh truths into satirical tweets. We enjoyed this episode as a step out of the technical weeds and into the philosophical and realistic end of the crypto incentive systems. You will too!

Another episode with an Ethereum scaling OG, Nick Dodson, who pioneered the original idea of optimistic rollups before they were the norm. Nick is actually also working on an innovative concept called fast finality optimistic rollups, which we are going to line up another episode for. The team behind Fuel has been working tirelessly for several years to bring their vision to life, and we getting very close to mainnet. In this presentation, we explore the “Rollup OS” of Fuel, powered by the Fuel Virtual Machine (FuelVM), which is notable for its integration of the UTXO model extended for sophisticated transactions including smart contracts. We discussed this in-depth, seeing as the UTXO model has gotten a bit of a bad rap (shoutout Cardano). The Fuel VM also utilizes a hybrid proving model, combining the strengths of optimistic rollups and zk proofs to ensure the integrity and efficiency of transactions. We went onto discuss the "rollup trilemma" and the ways in which Nick is striving to achieve optimal performance, sustainability, and interoperability without compromising on any single front. We pushed back on some of the design choices around Fuel’s customized programming language, Sway, and why this is the choice they made. Nick gave us a quick demo of a very cool compiler tool as well, some sweet alpha there. Get ready for the modular expansion, its happening quickly.

The core innovation of data availability in the modular landscape revolves around minimalism. Due to the minimal smart contract execution capabilities of altDA chains, they can focus solely on providing a specialized service of data verification & publishing. In addition to the design of minimal blocks, these chains are able to perform a unique task of Data Availability Sampling (DAS) which is a revolutionary innovation for blockchain scaling. In today’s presentation, we sit down with John Adler, an Ethereum OG and creator of optimistic rollups. We take a deep, technical dive through the various node types (full, light, and partial) in Celestia’s architecture. After that, we took a second to digest and summarize and then dove right into Blobstream, another cornerstone of Celestia's approach. Blobstream acts as a one-way relay for data attestations between Celestia and other blockchains and recently has been deployed in testnet on Base and Arbitrum Orbit. We also touched on the development of Succint’s Blobstream X, and their zk version of Blobstream. Finally, we asked some rapid fire questions about Celestia’s design and John’s perspectives on the modular space at large. Enjoy!

Not sure we need to write too much about this one! We mostly laughed and had a good time while understanding the definitions of some key terms in the space. Togruhl, one of the early Ethereum contributors and Scroll co-founders, gave us a presentation on his mental models for modular and monolithic design structures. What was particularly interesting was the idea which Togruhl posed about the convergence of these two ideologies into nearly the same place. Monolithic chains will modularize. Modular chains will enshrine more functionality. We also asked if he thinks Celestia is more of a competitor for Ethereum than Solana. Togruhl then posed the question “Is Celestia really modular?” which was kind of mindblowing. Big definitions guy over here. We think you’ll really enjoy this one and we had a bunch of great takeaways which were driven by out of the box thinking.

Finally! Wormhole $W token is here. After a three year journey of shipping filled of ups and downs, Wormhole has announced they are taking the path to decentralizing their community. If you've been navigating the onchain world, you've probably heard the buzz about Wormhole's token, $W (and hopefully qualified for the airdrop). Wormhole has long stood as a critical infrastructure in the blockchain world, offering a bridge that seamlessly connects over 30 chains across five different runtimes. At its core, $W aims to fortify the bridge between diverse blockchain ecosystems, rewarding those who've journeyed with Wormhole over the years. We discussed the reward distribution mechanism of the historic users of Wormhole and specific NFT communities like MadLads. We also talked about the emphasis on cross-chain governance and the general tokenomics of $W. From exploring incentives for governance participants to contemplating novel uses within the Wormhole ecosystem, Robinson and the Wormhole team have their sights set on targets for this year. Congrats to everyone who qualified, and hope you enjoy this!

Typically, you wouldn’t think of Solana having a strong footing in the modular thesis. After all, the design choices they have elegantly pioneered (credit where credit is due) revolve around scaling a single state machine. This simply won’t scale to billions of users, and they will need to modularize. However, the extremely performant and extensible Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) is an effective tool to build an extremely fast rollup atop Ethereum. We can all be friends here, right? Welcome to today's Modular March presentation, where we take our first dive as a team into the fascinating world of Eclipse and its modular approach to blockchain scalability and security. For those who've been around the block(chain), you know the drill: scalability often comes at the cost of complexity or security. Yet, Eclipse offers high throughput without the mess of state fragmentation via their flexible architecture. They're mixing the best of both worlds - Solana's speed and Ethereum's security, with a splash of Celestia for that decentralized data layer cherry on top. We enjoyed this presentation with Sydney while also trying to understand where the tradeoffs or weaknesses in this design lie. We found some edge-cases but what was most interesting was the application possibilities as a result of using the SVM. We had some solid takeaways, you’ll enjoy this.

We really enjoyed this presentation. While we’ve had multiple shared sequencers talks on Modular March, each one has been far different. Today’s deep dive is around the game theory and incentive designs behind creating a rollup ecosystem which feels completely seamless and interoperable. At its core, Espresso leverages a two part system to enforce how transactions are ordered and finalized across rollups via its sequencer. This system mirrors Ethereum's, but with a twist, aiming to streamline interactions between different rollups and thereby improve user experience significantly. We discussed the based sequencing approach, their auction & lottery mechanism, and where Espresso fits in the broader modular thesis. While we are bullish on Espresso (and Ellie is amazing), we didn’t let their vision go untouched so to speak. There were areas where we pushed back around the incentive designs and whether or not this would actually work in practice. We also tried to understand why potentially making things more complex is really the solution for scaling the modular L2 landscape. Also, if Espresso is another chain with trust assumptions, what tradeoffs does that bring for rollup operators? Finally the big question…Will rollup operators really want to use Espresso if it could cause a big revenue reduction? Ellie flipped that narrative on its head, ever so graciously. She helped us understand how Espresso works under the hood and answered our questions. We were impressed and left feeling extremely optimistic on shared sequencing. Happy April Fools Day (no jokes here, yet!) & let’s have a great week!