Deep Dive Into AltLayer

Meanwhile, a relatively new narrative has popped up: Restaking. Pioneered by EigenLayer, restaking essentially allows locked ETH in liquid staking protocols (such as stETH, rETH, cbETH and LsETH) to be reused to secure other chains. Users get to earn additional yield on top of those earned from securing the mainnet. So far, over $3.2 billion in ETH has already been staked with EigenLayer.

Source: L2beat

What happens when you bring together the idea of restaking and layer-2s?

What Is AltLayer?

AltLayer facilitates native and restaked optimistic rollups and zk-rollups. Rollups are layer-two solutions batching transactions off-chain and submitting them in bulk to the main chain. This frees the main chain from congestion and reduces gas fees. AltLayer enables dApps to choose the best rollup option for their needs. This Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) proposition allows developers to create and deploy L2 solutions and dApps for Ethereum that are faster, more cost-effective, and more secure than ever before.

AltLayer also introduces Restaked Rollups, which are rollups with extra security, decentralization, interoperability and fast finality. Restaked rollups achieve that through restaking Ethereum, allowing staked ETH to be used for securing transactions.

AltLayer’s Vision

A rollup could be created using Arbitrum Orbit as the foundation, utilizing Arbitrum One for data availability and settlement. Another option could involve using ZK Stack with Celestia as the data availability layer and Ethereum as the settlement layer.

How Do Restaked Rollups Work?

Rollups are the best way to move transaction execution out of Ethereum and therefore help scale the base chain. Moreover, with the release of different rollups SDKs such as OP Stack, Arbirum Orbit, Polygon CDK, and ZKSync’s ZK Stack, custom rollups for dApps are now as simple as deploying a smart contract.

Restaked rollups add extra features to rollups using three connected services:

• VITAL: the service for verification, which checks and confirms that the rollup's data is correct and matches the main network's data
• MACH: the service for faster finality, which speeds up the confirmation time of the transactions and makes them final and irreversible
• SQUAD: the service for decentralized sequencing, which orders the transactions in a fair and random way and prevents manipulation or censorship

VITAL checks that new rollup states are valid. A network of operators verifies the states submitted by SQUAD. If they find invalid data, they can challenge SQUAD operators. VITAL can also check optimistic zero knowledge (ZK) proofs instead of direct data checks. This verifies validity without needing the Ethereum main chain. MACH uses VITAL for faster finality.

MACH gives rollups faster finality for their transactions. To guarantee finality, MACH checks that rollup operators correctly update states. MACH has three ways to check state updates:

• Pessimistic: MACH replays all transactions
• Optimistic: Operators submit state claims. MACH can challenge claims.
• Proofs: Operators submit validity proofs. MACH nodes check the proofs.

If there are disputes, MACH runs automated checks using WebAssembly.

SQUAD is a decentralized network anyone can join to sequence rollup transactions after registering with VITAL. Nodes stake tokens to ensure they follow rules. Operators can allow token holders to stake through them. Staking happens natively in the VITAL service contract.

With scalability as one of the most important challenges for blockchains today, AltLayer provides a vital service to help ease the burden on the Ethereum main chain and its existing layer-two solutions.

AltLayer's Ecosystem

AltLayer's ecosystem consists of various projects that have integrated with AltLayer's rollups to leverage their scalability, security and interoperability. These projects span across different use cases such as gaming, DeFi, NFT, metaverse, data availability and others.

Gaming

Gaming requires high throughput, low latency and low gas fees to provide a smooth and immersive gameplay experience. Cometh, a DeFi-powered space game where players can explore the galaxy and mine asteroids has integrated with AltLayer and uses RaaS to reduce the gas costs and increase the speed of its transactions, as well as to enable cross-chain interoperability with other blockchains and rollups. Cometh also leverages Altlayer's restaking mechanism to secure its game state and provide faster finality.

Metaverse

One of the metaverse projects that has integrated with Altlayer's rollups is Oasys, a decentralized platform that allows anyone to create and monetize their own metaverse. Oasys uses Altlayer's rollups to scale its platform and support millions of concurrent users, as well as to provide a seamless user experience across different metaverse domains. Oasys also utilizes Altlayer's interoperability features to connect with other blockchains and rollups and enable cross-chain asset transfers and composability.

Data Availability

Data availability refers to data storage and access in a secure, decentralized and efficient manner. EigenLayer, a protocol that introduces restaking, a new primitive in crypto economic security, has integrated with AltLayer to launch its own restaked rollups. EigenLayer provides a secure, high-throughput and decentralized data availability service for rollups, called EigenDA. EigenLayer combines the benefits of EigenDA with the advantages of AltLayer's rollup stacks to offer restaking services to other rollups that use AltLayer's protocol.

AltLayer Tokenomics

ALT, is the native token of the AltLayer protocol and ecosystem and serves as a utility and governance token. ALT has a fixed total supply of 10 billion tokens, with a circulating supply of 1.1 billion tokens allocated as follows:

ALT’s use cases are:

• Governance: ALT holders can participate in the governance of Altlayer's protocol and ecosystem, such as proposing and voting on protocol parameters, rollup features, ecosystem grants.
• Staking: ALT holders can stake their tokens on Altlayer's rollups, either natively or through restaking, to secure the rollup state and provide faster finality. Stakers can earn rewards in ALT and/or the native tokens of the rollups they stake on, as well as a share of the fees generated by the rollups.
• Fees: ALT holders can use their tokens to pay for the fees incurred by using Altlayer's rollups, such as transaction fees, rollup creation fees, rollup upgrade fees, and more. ALT holders can also enjoy discounts or subsidies on the fees depending on their stake or governance participation.
• Access: ALT holders can use their tokens to access the various services and features offered by Altlayer's rollups, such as data availability, decentralized sequencing, fast finality, interoperability.

ALT Token Airdrop

To reward early supporters and partners, AltLayer has launched an ALT token airdrop program called Airdrop Season One.

A total of 300 million ALT tokens have been reserved for this airdrop. This represents 3% of the total 10 billion ALT supply.

The airdrop categories and token allocations are:

NFT Holders

• AltLayer OG Badge holders: 389 circulating NFTs
• Oh Ottie! holders: 1,768 circulating NFTs
• NFTs held at snapshot time are eligible. Non-circulating NFTs don't qualify.

Altitude Campaign

4 campaigns held to test early AltLayer products and services. Over 1 million non-sybil addresses qualified across phases.

EigenLayer Community

• Restakers: Allocation based on Restaked Points tiers
• Core team & ecosystem partners
• Celestia Stakers

Airdrop will be enabled later through a portal supporting staked TIA tokens.

Unclaimed tokens will be returned to AltLayer's treasury after the claim period. This is Airdrop Season One, with more incentives planned later for partners adopting restaked rollups.

AltLayer Outlook and Roadmap

AltLayer is supported by infrastructure service providers such as EigenLayer, Celestia, EigenDA, Avail, OP Stack, ZKStack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, Blockscout, Dexguru, Parsec Finance, Connext, Celer, HyperLane, Transak, Halliday and many others.

Its roadmap includes:

• Launching more rollup stacks, such as ZK Stack, Polygon CDK, zkSync and others.
• Launching more restaked rollups, such as EigenLayer, Celestia, Avail, Near Beacon and others.
• Launching more ecosystem projects in the DeFi, gaming and metaverse space.

With these plans and goals, Altlayer aims to become the leading rollup platform and ecosystem in the blockchain industry, and to accelerate the scaling and adoption of Web3 applications.