EigenDA

Versatus x EigenDA: The First Stateless Rollup

EigenDA

Dec 11, 2023 • 4 min read

EigenDA launched on testnet a few weeks ago, alongside the EigenDA Launch Partner Program featuring eight rollup infrastructure providers: AltLayer, Caldera, Celo, Layer N, Mantle, Movement, Polymer Labs, and Versatus.

We kicked off a series of case studies on these launch partners starting with Layer N x EigenDA: A Case Study in Hyperscale DA for Finance. Today, we continue the series by examining Versatus, which is partnering with EigenDA to bring the world's first stateless rollup to Ethereum.

To learn more about EigenDA, read documentation here, follow @eigen_da on X, and contact the EigenDA team at [email protected] and [email protected].

Introduction to Versatus

Versatus is a P2P services provider building LASR, a decentralized execution environment that enables language-agnostic smart contracts, cross-chain native asset transfers, and cross-chain contract integrations. Versatus plans to deploy LASR to Ethereum within the next few months.

Understanding LASR

The LASR rollup consists of three layers:

P2P Compute Network
Decentralized Compute Stack
Executable Oracle Contract

The Versatus P2P Compute Network is a distributed system for executing compute payloads on machines owned and operated by independent node operators. These operators can freely participate in the network without needing permission or whitelisting. This network supports various web services, including serverless backends, decentralized service hosting, and on-demand computing.

The Versatus Decentralized Compute Stack is a layered application with nano-runtime enabling creation, execution, and destruction. It consists of a Compute Agent, a Container Runtime, a Unikernel Virtual Machine, and a Language Runtime. These layers enable secure, lightweight, architecture and platform-agnostic applications. The stack can also integrate with runtimes such as ZK (Zero Knowledge) and FHE (Homomorphic Encryption) runtimes for enhanced security.

The Executable Oracle Contract plays a pivotal role in freezing state data at a specific point in time. It sends signals to the compute network to execute operations using programs built on the compute stack. The contract incorporates six Versatus modules, each serving essential roles. Let’s break them down:

The Event Emitter is responsible for transmitting data to the Versatus Network.
The Escrow feature ensures that relevant data is frozen at a specific point in time. This guarantees the availability of funds, preventing race conditions on the base chain.
The MetaFactory aggregates Factory Contracts generating base chain contracts as needed. It primarily focuses on creating tokens and assets. For example: If a token is created on Versatus, it will only exist on the base chain once initiated by the Versatus Executable Oracle.
The instruction ingestor, which operates under ‘OwnerOnly’ permissions, receives data from the Oracle account and processes it within the contract. It converts this information into data, determining how and where escrowed assets should be dispersed.
The Disperser also operates exclusively under ‘OwnerOnly’ permissions and serves as the mechanism for releasing assets from escrow.
Finally, we have the Oracle Account owned by the Executable Oracle, which functions as an MPC Wallet that verifies the threshold signatures of Versatus network compute quorums. This account passes data to the Instruction Ingestor for activation of operations when required.

SWOT Analysis

Below is an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from the project's perspective:

This analysis reveals two key trade-offs in the project:

Versatus enables cheaper complex and longer running compute, in exchange for slightly more expensive same chain asset transfers and swaps.
Versatus enables a vastly better developer experience and seamless onboarding due to the language-agnostic smart contracts, in exchange for ex-post settlement network-wide proofs.

The Versatus Mission

Versatus is building scalable infrastructure that ensures censorship resistance, and protects user data and privacy, while enabling seamless interoperability between current web-based systems to meet growing user demand.

By aiming to revolutionize decentralized computing, Versatus will improve accessibility and versatility with language-agnostic smart contracts, and pioneer bridgeless interoperability, to simplify the process of asset and data transfers between blockchains. Integrating EigenDA will reinforce this mission, by supporting enhanced network reliability and security.

EigenDA - Hyperscale DA for Rollups

EigenDA is a secure, high throughput, and decentralized data availability (DA) service built on top of Ethereum, utilizing the EigenLayer restaking primitive. Developed by EigenLabs, EigenDA is the first actively validated service (AVS) to launch on EigenLayer.

Why does DA matter?

DA solutions are pivotal in the Ethereum scaling roadmap. EigenDA builds upon core ideas and libraries underlying Danksharding, and sets a new standard for high throughput and low cost, enabling the growth of new on-chain applications with use cases across multiplayer gaming, social networks, and video streaming.

EigenDA Testnet Launch

With the launch of the EigenLayer testnet Stage 2, EigenDA is now live for rollup developers to experience its high throughput and low-cost features firsthand, marking a significant milestone in its development and integration into the EigenLayer ecosystem.

Versatus & EigenDA - Technical Value Props

LASR’s statelessness requires validators to reconstruct transactions with relevant data at each transaction’s timestamp. EigenDA enables this process, which is impractical with alternative base chain data availability solutions. Using EigenDA, Versatus stores “snapshots” of relevant data to each transaction, enabling a network of stateless watcher nodes to sample from EigenDA, fully recreate transactions, and prove the validity of the transactions.

EigenDA benefits from its collaboration with Versatus given LASR's focus on bringing in new developers to Web3. Versatus expects that its developer community will create innovative new on-chain use cases, especially ones that require high throughput and demand for data availability. EigenDA, with its cost efficiency, scalability, and flexibility, is ideally positioned to meet this increased demand effectively.

Conclusion

With the combination of the LASR rollup and data availability via EigenDA, Versatus and EigenDA hope to contribute to solving Web3 challenges such as censorship-resistance, data privacy, and interoperability.

The collaboration between our teams will require deep research and design around trade-offs such as the costs associated with various transaction types on LASR, and the need for ex-post settlement proofs. Despite these problems to be solved, the teamwork between Versatus and EigenDA holds enormous potential for advancing decentralized technology and contributing to significant growth within the Ethereum ecosystem.