Leading shared sequencing project, Espresso Systems, announced today that it has completed a $28 million Series B funding round led by a16z crypto. The company also revealed plans to evolve from a single decentralized shared sequencer into a “shared sequencing market,” allowing Rollups integrated with it to auction off their block rights.
In the emerging field of blockchain, Espresso Systems is a well-known project in the area of shared sequencing. On February 22, the company announced the completion of a $28 million Series B funding round led by a16z crypto, a Web3 venture capital giant. Espresso Systems is a blockchain scalability and privacy infrastructure company and the main developer of the decentralized shared sequencer, Espresso. The funds raised will be used to continue product development, invest in a broader Rollup ecosystem, and expand the Espresso team.
The official list of angel investors, contributors, and strategic investors includes renowned project teams from over 30 tracks such as Rollups, Layer2, and modular blockchains. Some notable names on the list are Polygon, StarkWare, Offchain Labs (developer of Arbitrum), Taiko, and EigenLayer.
According to Coindesk, the latest funding round brings Espresso’s total funding to over $60 million. The company did not disclose its latest valuation.
What is Espresso? Espresso is well-known for its shared sequencer solution, which addresses the two biggest obstacles for Ethereum Rollups: fragmentation and centralization. It allows applications scattered across numerous Layer 2s to gain the composability they are accustomed to on Ethereum Layer 1. With a decentralized shared sequencer, multiple different Rollups can use the same shared sequencing network. Transactions from multiple Rollups are aggregated in a memory pool before being sorted, ensuring that there is no single entity responsible for sorting all transactions. This helps combat network censorship and single point of failure issues.
Evolution into a “shared sequencing market” Espresso is currently building a “shared sequencing market” that allows Rollups integrated with it to auction off their block rights. According to Espresso, this setup promotes interoperability between Rollups, allowing them to maintain sovereignty while benefiting from shared sequencing or pricing. Espresso Systems CEO Ben Fisch told Coindesk and The Block:
In addition, Espresso has integrated a finality tool called HotShot, which serves as the consensus protocol for the Espresso shared sequencing ecosystem. It ensures faster transaction confirmations for all integrated Rollups, significantly reducing the risk for cross-chain liquidity providers and enabling faster bridging between Rollups.
As of now, Espresso’s technology has been integrated with popular Layer 2s, including Optimism, Polygon zkEVM, and Arbitrum, through the Gibraltar testnet. The company plans to release its fifth testnet, Cappuccino, in April this year, further enhancing decentralization and laying the foundation for the launch of the Espresso market. The goal is to release the mainnet by 2024.
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