Original title: Investing in Espresso
Original author: Ali Yahya
Original source: a16zcrypto
Compiled by: Mars Finance, MK
Ethereum's scalability ultimately depends on rollups - there may be thousands or even millions of rollups, each a small ecosystem or application built on the security cornerstone of Ethereum. The initial idea for this concept was first proposed by Vitalik a few years ago in his famous rollup-centric roadmap post. Since then, ecosystem players such as zkSync, Optimism, and Polygon have advanced this vision through Hyperchains, Superchain, and Polygon’s AggLayer roadmap. For the first time, there is a clear path that enables Ethereum to scale to support millions of applications and billions of users.
However, this plan is not unlimited. The biggest challenge in the rollup-centric future is the fragmentation of the Ethereum ecosystem. On the current Ethereum main chain, every application (i.e. smart contract) can interact seamlessly with other applications. In a world with millions of rollups, the composability between applications will be even more complex. This is because each individual rollup is its own independent blockchain. Although they share Ethereum's security, the calculations are performed independently on each rollup. Each rollup is controlled by a so-called "sequencer", which is currently a centralized entity responsible for performing all calculations of the rollup on the server.
Today, if an application on one rollup wants to interact with an application on another rollup, it must go through the main Ethereum chain or a bridge. Both approaches are slow and present challenges for developers to synchronize state between rollups (which is an asynchronous solution). In an ideal world, sequencers from different rollups should have mechanisms to collaborate with each other to provide developers and end users with a smoother, faster, and more economical interoperability experience.
Espresso Team
Before I introduce Espresso Systems, let me talk about the people behind them. I met Ben Fisch and Benedikt Bünz before joining a16z. It was early 2017, and while I was working at Google Brain, Ben and Benedikt were Dan Boneh's PhD students at Stanford, and I had known Dan since my undergrad days. Thanks to Dan, we connected and started consulting for a new crypto company that later became Eco – which is now also part of the a16z crypto portfolio. I'm really impressed with Ben and Benedikt's technical talent. I was once tempted to pursue a PhD in cryptography under Dan's supervision, as they did.
In my opinion, Ben's most compelling attribute is his ability to think clearly at every level of abstraction - from the underlying cryptographic principles, through all business and product considerations, to the breadth of the new technology he is building. social influence. I should have foreseen that his transition from academia to the role of entrepreneur and CEO would be inevitable.
In fact, I did not pursue a PhD. Instead, I left Google and joined a16z to become a venture capitalist, which was a similar transition, right? Soon after, I met Jill Gunter through the crypto community, and we quickly became friends while she was working at Slow Ventures. What impressed me most about Jill was her incredible ability to think strategically. She has a keen eye for the way the world works and how people might navigate it. So when she joined Ben, Benedikt, and Charles Lu's Espresso team in 2021, it was impossible not to pay attention.
In the process, I also got to know Charles through his work at Espresso. He's technically as good as the rest of Espresso and also worked with Dan at Stanford. More importantly, with his excellent operational capabilities, he has become an ideal partner for Ben, Benedikt and Jill. Without Charles, Espresso would not be the organization it is today.
Last year, when some of the limitations facing Ethereum’s rollup-based roadmap became apparent, Ben and the team proposed one of the most compelling solutions to the problem of ecosystem fragmentation.
Espresso Systems
Espresso is building a decentralized network that acts as a coordination mechanism for rollup sequencers. This creates a market in which sequencers can both sell their block space and participate in a mechanism to unify transaction ordering across rollups. Through Espresso, rollups can sell the rights to build their blocks to proposers who bid on the network. These proposers can also bid on multiple rollup blocks and become shared proposers across multiple chains. This allows rollups to develop independently while achieving more seamless interoperability with other rollups.
At its core, crypto is a tool-building movement aimed at promoting human collaboration on a broader scale, especially when the parties involved don’t trust each other. Espresso and Ethereum represent the perfect implementation of this idea.
We are very excited to work with Ben, Benedikt, Jill, Charles, and the Espresso team to help them create a more seamless and interoperable future for Ethereum.
