YAARON

The modular thesis is really starting to come together. However, next several months are crucial for developments leading to what I believe is the ultimate end goal of modularity: The consistent production of massively popular apps fueled by the rapid acceleration of innovation with blockchain technology. Here's a broad update from the ecosystem at large... We currently have the @initiaFDN ecosystem live on public testnet with mainnet shortly behind. They have their own "minitias" such as @blackwing_fi & @milky_way_zone gaining traction and picking up steam. All of the initia rollups will use @CelestiaOrg for data availability. Today, we witnessed the launch of @Formachain, the first sovereign rollup using @AstriaOrg as the sequencing layer, with Celestia underneath. Astria is the big sleeper here, set to be the sequencing network you'll practically *need* to connect to in order to get the network effects of the Celestia rollup ecosystem. Sovereign rollups are the next step for the Celestia ecosystem. They are more akin to L1s which settle to a DA layer (Celestia). The general trend towards using modular DA providers has also accelerated. Teams like @0xMantle are using @eigen_da, we will see @AvailProject start to gain serious traction when they go live as well. We expect this trend to continue and see more teams like @0G_labs come into the DA picture and gain marketshare in specific niche communities. For now, its mostly dominated by the big three. The @dymension ecosystem is pushing forward as well. @nim_network has gone live, @Rivalz_AI is coming and others are in the pipeline. Price has been a major sentiment detriment, but these projects are extremely new. They will have ups and downs. Furthermore, rollup frameworks are shipping like crazy right now. @Calderaxyz & @gelatonetwork have both shipped massive W's recently (@apechain & @reya_xyz respectively). We're seeing this trajectory of apps -> chains advancing aggressively, with Lens launching on the ZK stack & ENS moving towards launching an L2. Other frameworks like @cartesiproject and @sovereign_labs are quietly watching their ecosystems grow and flourish with builders and demand for appchains and rollups. Also, next-gen VM ecosystems like @fuel_network are coming alive with testnet imminent, and mainnet right around the corner. Apps are being funded and deployed there as well as an abundance of apps on @movementlabsxyz have been announced recently with their devnet coming online in a few weeks. The @lumioFDN has found its niche in modular VM abstraction by bringing apps from any VM to any chain. Solana apps on the Optimism Superchain, soon. Meanwhile, @fluentxyz just announced their breakthrough with blended execution environments. The @fraxfinance Fraxtal ecosystem is heating up too with a massive hackathon ongoing. They have a cohort of 21 chains/apps (what's the difference anymore, anyway?) gearing up to build L3s & L2s within Fraxtal's ecosystem. Innovative blockspace incentives and points are also being tested real time. The other incredibly hot topic recently is chain abstraction, which I think is the most important next step for the modular future. What good are all these chains if we can't make the UX equivalent to a monolithic L1? That is the big argument from that camp. I think chain abstraction protocols like @Connext, @ParticleNtwrk, @AcrossProtocol, @SocketProtocol and others are doing a great job at pushing this forward. The other part is interop, which I'll touch on in a second. My big question is: When will see this live? After speaking to the teams, I'm pretty sure in the next 3-6 months we see a major breakthrough in the adoption of chain abstraction based tech. In addition to chain abstraction, the biggest question mark so to speak of modularity is interoperability...but I have a similar confidence in this being solved. @OmniFDN, @union_build, @0xPolygon AggLayer, @AcrossProtocol, @jumperapp, @deBridgeFinance and @Hyperlane_xyz are leading the way here. Hyperlane, Jumper, deBridge and Across being the most-tested and used, the others being in production still. AggLayer shown below, as aligned with the thesis of "one proof to rule them all" which I know some of the teams above also share...still a ways to go on this. My question here is on the extensibility of these protocols: Who can be the interop provider for 1000s of chains? Many will claim they can, but we will see where we end up in 6 months with another 50-100 rollups and a need for easy access. This past week, @CatalystAMM launched mainnet as well, which could be a massive win for the modular space. They are able to have an implementation of their DEX on just about any chain, fairly quickly. They've started with three superchain deployments now, and will expand more quickly. I'm extremely excited about what I'm seeing in the space, yet the buzz around modularity appeared to take somewhat of a downturn the last few months (I guess its quite correlated to TIA price action, which in the future will seem silly). There is so much happening, but the past few months have validated several main theses of ours @therollupco... 1. The transition from apps -> chains will keep accelerating. 2. The "fragmentation" problem of modularity is a short-term bruise, not a long-term deterrent. 3. The modular stack is not just three parts, rather its closer to 8-9 now. The innovative apps from this decade will be built on modular rails. I'm certain of that. We must modularize to win together.