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If you think the Ethereum L2 space is overcrowded, perhaps you’re not thinking big enough.
Granted, there are now more than 100 different satellite blockchains orbiting Ethereum mainnet, per L2Beat.
Kraken is preparing to launch one more, Ink, which it aims to deploy on Optimism’s Superchain. It will be the Superchain’s 24th fully participating network.
L2s generally process transactions offchain — where it’s much cheaper — and periodically transmute them to Ethereum for proper settlement.
The low fees and speed free developers to build apps that are otherwise too unwieldy if run on Ethereum directly. Swapping tokens on Ethereum right now costs $5.48 in gas fees compared to only $0.18 for OP mainnet.
The Superchain is a meta-network intended to make the Ethereum ecosystem more cohesive. Optimism Labs offers a standardized tech stack which developers can use to customize their blockchains, either as general purpose networks or something more app-specific.
Superchain networks — operating alongside Optimism’s own layer-2 — agree to share the fees they generate, either 2.5% of chain revenue or 15% of onchain profit, whichever is higher.
Weekly fee spend on the Superchain has recently jumped to August levels
So, if Kraken were indeed to make a big splash with Ink, it would work to the benefit of the two dozen others on Superchain.
Users of those networks have in total forked out $180 million in ETH, valued daily, since OP mainnet launched in July 2021.
And while Ethereum’s blobs cut L2 fees significantly in March, almost 38% of Superchain’s lifetime total came after Dencun.
Base is largely to thank for that. Coinbase’s layer-2 — with which Kraken’s Ink will ultimately compete — is currently bringing over 80% of all OP Superchain fees right now, or between $620,000 and $1.23 million per week in October, with transaction counts and profitability at record highs.
Uniswap, memecoin launchers and trading bots like Banana Gun are contributing the bulk of Base gas spend right now, per Blockworks Research data.
Whether Kraken really intends to loosen Base’s grip on the memecoin corner of the Ethereum space is moot, even if it would come with bragging rights. Uniswap Labs is gearing up to launch its own Superchain network, Unichain, next month, which could throw an even bigger spanner in the works.
It does however say something about where we are headed: a blockchain for every company, app, game and community. Build the blockspace and they will come.
