The Beauty of Optimistic rollups and the mantle blockchain
Tags: blockchain, web3, webdev
Published: 2023-06-11 22:54:38

From the inception of blockchain technology, a common problem has characterized many of its infrastructure and networks, namely the so-called trilemma issue which occurs because a given blockchain can hardly achieve decentralization while being scalable and having a high security profile. 
This problem is common with early blockchains which were mostly referred to as L1 blockchains as all activities such as computations and storage were done on the main network which often resulted in higher gas fees and slower experience.

To combat this issue, many other blockchains have implemented varying solutions ranging from sidechain implementations to plasma chain implementations and varying consensus mechanisms.

One such solution is optimistic rollups which aim to speed up the blockchain experience by taking computation and state management tasks off chain, and then publishing results on chain thereby leveraging on the security of the main network such as ethereum.

This solutions are known as layer 2 networks as they build on top of the base (layer 1 ) networks and help reduce gas fees while improving transaction speeds

## The Mantle Network
Since optimistic rollups maintain efficiency by taking computations and state storage off-chain, it is vital that the transaction result returned which would then be published on chain be valid. To this effect, fraud proofs are put in place to checkmate the activities of bad actors by checking for invalid transactions. So network validators submit fraud proofs if malicious actions are suspected and the necessary punishment enacted to discourage such actions.

By reducing the load on the main chain which is the ethereum chain, making transactions and activities execute faster, optimistic rollups maintain faster transaction speed and favorable blockchain experience. Mantle network employs an optimistic rollup approach to providing a lesser gas and more favorable blockchain experience as compared to other Layer 2 networks

## Benefits

1. By building on top of ethereum, mantle maintains a high security profile by leveraging on the tested and trusted security of the ethereum blockchain, and having a large developer base that are already familiar with building ethereum smart contracts now easily porting to mantle due to been evm compatible and so same language works on both.

2. By utilizing eigenlayer mantle is able to access data faster and this means data gets processed faster in return giving it an edge over other traditional layer 2 networks

3. Mantle uses Multi party Computation(A secure cryptographic technique that allows parties to cooperate on a computation without revealing their individual data to each other) to improve the correctness of off-chain results which given this additional power and advantage helps to shorten the length of withdrawals, once more improving the blockchain experience

4. By Using sequencers(specialized node that connects an l2 network to its L1 using set of smart contracts) mantle aims to provide a greater decentralization experience by rotating through sequencer sets which in turn reduces the risk of a singular point of failure.

## Why Mantle matters for L2 Networks

1. Doesn’t use ethereum as data availability layer thereby improving transaction speeds

2. Being a modular blockchain means it delegates tasks such as settlement, data availability and consensus which on other layer 1 blockchains are usually done on the core network which is ethereum, to various specialized layers for processing thereby reducing the load and cost of running everything on one layer which would have been the ethereum network. This delegation helps increase speed and blockchain performance which can be viewed as a solution to the blockchain trilemma problem(A devious cycle of scalability, security and decentralization not being achievable all at once).

3. Fraud proofs reduces validation load on the main chain, thereby reducing congestion and increasing efficiency

## Technical Edge 
### EigenLayer
Instead of relying on ethereum for data availability, mantle goes about this by employing EigenLayer data availability solution which allows nodes to provide data availability services to the mantle network

### Improved and more compatible fraud proof system
Most fraud proof systems are usually implemented using low level languages and as such forces the EVM client to recompile their fraud proofs into lower level languages to be interpretable by the on-chain verifier which then adds the transaction into the ethereum chain.

But with mantles innovation, this proof is compiled and thus verified with EVM level instructions thereby allowing clients to work with a common proof system instead of recompiling and also increase the trustworthiness across verifiers, clients and compilers.

### Bridging
Mantle provides a bridge so other networks can transfer tokens into the mantle network

## How Mantle compares against popular blockchains
Using covalent's innovative web3 analysis platorm; increment, we can see a chart of average block times on mantle and how it compares with those from polygon and ethereum, in the charts below, it is clear mantle has a lower block time meaning it is capable of processing transactions faster 


![block time comparison between mantle and matic](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/y57fk3uskcz9ht26tbvu.png)


![block time comparison between mantle and ethereum](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b88eq1mcxcaeno0r15k2.png)

## Conclusion
As layer two blockchains come to maturity, it is important that while trying to solve the shortfalls of Layer 1 infrastructures, we don't compound the problems and make the experience worse. By leveraging on optimistic rollup architecture, innovative data availablility approach and improved fraud proving system, mantle network aims to deliver a blockchain experience that puts the users first by providing a lesser gas usage experience and faster transaction times all while delivering a top notch security design.