Eclipse takes a ‘best of all worlds’ approach to solve scalability trilemma

Eclipse is a blend of a bunch of different blockchain ecosystems

article-image

BATKA/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

If you can’t beat them, join them. Like, all of them.

In the fierce battle for the scalability trilemma crown, Solana, Ethereum and their accompanying ecosystems are often pitted against each other as mutually exclusive solutions. 

Apparently, it doesn’t have to be this way. On the Bell Curve podcast (Spotify/Apple), Blockworks co-founder Michael Ippolito details the recently revealed architecture of Eclipse. The rollup tech harnesses Solana’s speedy execution, Ethereum’s secure settlement, Risc Zero proofs and Celestia data availability in a “best of all worlds” team approach to scaling.

Ippolito says the Solana Virtual Machine or SVM holds some key advantages over Ethereum — outside of network effects — particularly in its ability to perform parallel executions. “The EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) has a single thread processor, which just limits its scale,” he says.

“You have very fast execution, really cheap [data availability], and it still settles down to [Ethereum],” he says. “I think they’re going to use ETH as the gas token as well. So, it’s kind of a very interesting blend of a whole bunch of different ecosystems.”

Read more: Risc Zero introduces ‘Type 0’ zkEVM to make zero-knowledge tech more accessible

In addition, Neon — an EVM operating on Solana — will provide compatibility between Ethereum and Solana, Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz explains. “If you want to easily deploy EVM smart contracts on Eclipse, you can do it through Neon.”

Yanowitz says it’s the first time he has seen a fully modular setup that brings “all these different providers together.” 

Ippolito details some of the limitations of Ethereum’s main chain, noting its relatively low throughput and gas costs, in particular. Because of the base fee and computational resources that every transaction requires, “if there’s like a really hot NFT mint, it can multiply the base fee,” he says. 

“That base fee gets applied to transactions on Uniswap. So the resources are coupled in a way that doesn’t really make sense.”

One solution is to put every single application on its own blockchain as a rollup. “That’s the OP stack version of how to solve this problem,” he says. “The other way that you could solve it is to actually keep everything on one settlement layer and chain, but do what Solana did by creating local fee markets and parallel processing.”

The competition continues

Ippolito doubts that upcoming danksharding upgrades will reduce costs on Ethereum as significantly as some hope. “It’s not going to reduce costs that much, especially on the canonical rollups that still use Ethereum for data availability,” he says.

“You need one of these rollups to try something like the solution that Eclipse is pioneering here.”

Ippolito credits Eclipse founder Neel Somani with the “clever” modular design of Eclipse, adding, “it’s going to be down to his [business development] chops to actually go and recruit developers.”

Somani will likely be forced to compete with Solana for developers who are familiar with the Rust programming language, Ippolito suggests. “These are Rust [developers], I think, that he’s hoping to bring over and build applications.”

It looks like the competitive rivalry that is so prevalent in blockchain will live on, after all.


Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Hilton Metropole | 225 Edgware Rd, London

MON - WED, MARCH 18 - 20, 2024

Crypto’s premier institutional conference returns to London in March 2024. The DAS: London Experience:  Attend expert-led panel discussions and fireside chats  Hear the latest developments regarding the crypto and digital asset regulatory environment directly from policymakers and experts   Grow your network […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

Frax report cover.jpg

Research

Frax saw continued development in its frxETH liquid staking derivative and Fraxlend money market throughout 2023. Frax V3 introduces an RWA strategy to drive utility to the protocol's cornerstone product, the FRAX stablecoin.

article-image

MicroStrategy discloses the purchase of 16,000 bitcoin throughout November

article-image

Digital asset firms face potential new regulatory landscape under Treasury’s proposed authority expansion

article-image

Uniswap Labs will be providing trading APIs to Talos investors through Fireblocks

article-image

DYDX supply will climb by up to 80% after the Friday unlock, but a couple factors make a massive sell-off appear unlikely

article-image

Switzerland-based Pando Asset, which has crypto products trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange, now looks to the US

article-image

Binance does not hold the required licenses to advertise and serve customers in the Philippines, the country’s securities regulator said