Exploring the Superchain
Want to build an L2 or launch a niche protocol these days? There’s one L2 ecosystem you can’t ignore…
Yes,’ it’s the Superchain. With the recent announcement that Kraken is building its L2 using the Optimism Stack and Uniswap is launching its chain in the same ecosystem, the sentiment spread that Optimism has won this L2 ecosystem game.
Or at least, they are very good at attracting new builders and projects to their chain stack. To find out more about how they did that and why people go build on the Superchain, SQD invited three speakers identifying as Superchain guys:
- Mesky, Growth Lead at Superseed, a unique CDP lending platform
- Mac, Co-Founder of Kiwi News, a hacker news for all things EVM
- Federico, DevRel at Mode Network, a chain for AI x DeFi = AiFi
While the space was cut off short courtesy of X (Elon is helping us manage screen time responsibly these days), there were plenty of insights shared in the 50 minutes we were online.
You can listen to the recording here or read on for the most interesting takes.
What is the Superchain?
The most obvious question to start with. Surprisingly, unlike when people shill you their new L1, there was very little tech talk in any of the answers. All the speakers agree that the Superchain is about much more than technological features.
As Mesky puts it, what sets the Superchain apart is the collective spirit.
“We’re expanding Ethereum together.”
And the tech, in that regard, is just a tool to enable that vision. Already now, the OP stack enables shared security, whereas shared liquidity is yet to follow. The Superchain, then is the whole of tech, blockchains built in it, and people.
Federico added that the vision of the Superchain is still a concept since interoperability isn’t there right now. However, it’s more about how people interact, collaborate, and build products for him.
While both Mesky and Federico are building custom chains on OP, Kiwi News has a different focus and chose OP mainly due to its OG status and retroactive funding activity.
“Ultimately, we were looking for a place where we could get support as we were bootstrapping the project. All chains have grants to a degree, but retroPGF made sense to us and seemed very sincere.”
On Superchain Culture
With an abundance of cheap blockspace and the assumption that tech will, for most people, be in the back-end and trend toward some homogeneity anyway, the differentiating factor becomes culture.
The Superchain seems to have fostered a culture that speaks to members and has managed to attract large numbers of projects, including Base, Unichain, Worldcoin, Soneium…
Culture is complex to capture in data; maybe that’s why we don’t talk about it sufficiently in crypto, even when it’s becoming clear that culture can create a unique selling point. (Or Schelling point 😏)
SQD CEO Dmitry also highlights that culture might matter more than technical subtleties for developers. He points out that the Superchain isn’t the first one to attempt shared security - remember Polkadot & Cosmos? - still, it might be the most successful attempt.
“There are many synergies in the Superchain; it’s open source and enjoys support from Paradigm and other big projects. The brand offers peace of mind, a builder culture… “
Federico adds that he 100% identifies as a Superchain guy and welcomes the fact that the OP foundation is planning to cease more of its control and hand it to the community.
In contrast with Arbtirum, an ecosystem where many of the Superseed builders originate, OP has better vibes, is more responsive to creators and artists, and manages to speak to all of web3.
“There’s a sense of we’re all in this together.” - Mesky
On a more human level, Mac explained that they met the team, and they went to great lengths to support and help them out. He compared it to visiting a family-run restaurant where the warmth and hospitality of the owners know no bounds.
On RPGF
“You mean airdrops, right?” - Dmitry.
Short for retroactive public goods funding, unlike airdrops, the idea is not to give funds to mercenaries but to people who’ve probably already built useful tools for an ecosystem. Public goods are necessary for any ecosystem, yet often not VC-investable (since there is no revenue model) and, therefore, wouldn’t be built unless there’s someone with too much time and resources on their hands.
In the superchain, receiving funding is also tied to voting, which can be a good way to build in a community-aligned way, but it’s not perfect. As Dmitry points out using Polkadot as an example, there’s a tendency toward Oligopaly, and often stupid stuff gets funded.
At the same time, to paraphrase a renowned Nouns member: “We funded a bunch of stupid shit but also some cool stuff.”
Kiwi News has participated in retroactive funding rounds; the process was fairly straightforward. However, it’s stressful because you had to promote yourself to ensure you got enough votes.
“A problem of grants is that people allocate based on their understanding of the product and its value. A challenge specific to Kiwi, even when the process becomes more data-driven, is that, while generating a lot of value, we have our own protocol. This means there’s no meaningful gas fees.” - Mac
It’s worth mentioning that with every new round of grant distribution, the OP team aims to optimize the process and iterate. After all, it’s a lot of money. Last time, they distributed around $100 million.
Federico also has some first-hand experience advising builders on applying for funding. To him, RPGF is one way to activate builders. And even though there’s a tendency for people to complain about not getting enough funds, he believes we should be more nuanced about it and also consider money going to one project can’t fund another.
In the end, it’s still free money. And it should grow the superchain as a whole.
“RPGF isn’t a way to fund your company. It’s better thought of as a stepping stone toward achieving the growth state necessary to become sustainable.”
Asked how they feel about projects like inkchain receiving large amounts of money from the OP foundation, the speakers think that while the grant amount might not match the contribution these chains will make back to OP via sequencer fee sharing, they’re still worth it.
After all, people are out here talking about the superchain winning it market share and community. Base has been a stellar example of that. None of the speakers were worried about chains eating each other’s lunch. The superchain, a beacon of collaborative spirit where people build in their own niche.
“Once the interop vision is achieved, the more stronger chains we have in the ecosystem, the better.” - Mesky
Go check out what the speakers are building on the Superchain:
SQD is already supporting countless Superchain protocols with permissionless, fast onchain data access. If you’re building on the Superchain and need onchain data, get in touch!