Beneath the surface of blockchain
15 transactions per second. Every node validates every transaction. Security through redundancy, at the cost of throughput.
Gas fees spike during congestion. A simple transfer can cost more than the value transferred. The base layer was never designed for volume.
Thousands of validators. Years of battle-tested consensus. The bedrock is unbreakable -- but it cannot scale alone.
Thousands of transactions per second. Computation happens off-chain, where there is no global bottleneck. Speed is the native state.
Fractions of a cent per transaction. Batching amortizes the cost of Layer 1 finality across thousands of operations.
Layer 2 doesn't replace Layer 1 security -- it borrows it. Proofs and commitments anchor back to the base chain.
7-day challenge
Transactions assumed valid. Fraud proofs submitted only when disputes arise. Optimism as a design principle.
Validity proofs
Cryptographic proof of correctness. Every batch proven before acceptance. Mathematics replaces trust.
Instant finality
Two parties open a channel. Thousands of transactions pass between them. Only the final state touches the chain.
Child chains
Nested blockchains anchored to the root. Each child chain processes independently, committing Merkle roots upstream.
Off-chain data
ZK-proofs on-chain, data stored off-chain. Trading data availability for throughput. The boundary of trust.
User choice
Per-transaction choice: on-chain or off-chain data. Users decide their own security-cost tradeoff. Freedom of commitment.