Frequently Asked Questions
We've compiled a list of the most commonly asked questions about integrating with Eclipse. If you can't find what you're looking for here, please don't hesitate to reach out via Discord.
What is the timeline for Eclipse Mainnet?
Eclipse Mainnet is expected to launch some time around Q2 2024.
Does Eclipse Mainnet have its own token?
No. ETH is the native token for Eclipse Mainnet. ETH is used to pay for gas.
How expensive will transaction fees be on Eclipse Mainnet?
It's impossible for any blockchain to guarantee cheap fees, but we expect transaction fees on Eclipse Mainnet to be in line with the cheapest blockchains such as Solana.
Why not just use Solana?
We think Solana is great! At the same time, the Solana blockchain optimizes for different goals than the Eclipse L2. In short, Solana is all about performance, whereas Eclipse aims to preserve as much of that performance as possible while maximizing verifiability.
The Eclipse ecosystem denominates in ETH, the native currency for the chain which comes via the canonical bridge.
What's a virtual machine (VM)?
A virtual machine is a piece of software that can run programs. Specifically, the virtual machine executes smart contracts for a blockchain.
What is a rollup? Is Eclipse an optimistic or zero-knowledge rollup?
For comparison, a Layer 1 blockchain is a blockchain that does not depend on any other chain for security. Layer 1 blockchains require that the majority of voting power is honest. A rollup is a type of scaling solution that executes transactions outside of any Layer 1 and later posts the data to a Layer 1 retroactively. For an optimistic rollup, a "sequencer" orders transactions and the resulting state root is posted to a Layer 1 along with a bounty. A "verifier" can re-execute the transactions, and if it disagrees on the result, the verifier can challenge the state root via "settlement." If the verifier is correct, the bounty is awarded to the verifier. For a zero-knowledge rollup, sequencers order transactions, and the resulting state root is posted along with a "validity proof" (evidence) that the transactions were executed correctly. This validity proof must be posted to the settlement layer for a result to be accepted. The validity proof is typically expensive to generate. Eclipse Mainnet is deploying as an optimistic rollup, but we are working on a zero-knowledge rollup in parallel.
What is a data availability layer?
This question requires some additional context. A full node in a blockchain network downloads all blocks (transactions) and executes them. A light node doesn't do that, but a data availability layer enables the light node to efficiently verify that blocks are available to all full nodes on the network. Data availability is important because storing huge amounts of data limits how decentralized and scalable a blockchain can get. It would not be possible to build a decentralized Solana VM rollup without this critical feature. Most chains today don't provide data availability because they aren't designed for rollups. Celestia, Avail, and EigenLayer are all data availability layers, and danksharding will bring data availability sampling to Ethereum in the future.
What is a settlement layer?
Full nodes re-execute every transaction and determine the current state of the blockchain. What happens when these full nodes disagree? In general, the blockchain will fork. For a blockchain where the majority of nodes are honest, the "fork choice rule" will dictate that the correct chain is whatever the honest nodes decide. For a rollup that does not make the assumption that the majority of nodes are honest, the majority of actors might be lying. As a blockchain user (light node), how do we determine which is the correct fork? A settlement layer is a hub to verify proofs and resolve fraud disputes to determine the "correct" chain. The settlement layer also lets you move tokens between the execution chains (a bridge).
Why does Eclipse use the Solana VM?
The Solana (Sealevel) virtual machine is a highly parallelized runtime that is constantly improving. For EVM blockchains such as Ethereum or Optimism, at any given point there is only a single program running. (This is called "single-threaded.") For the Solana VM, if you have multiple cores, you can run several programs at the exact same time, substantially increasing throughput. Moreover, the execution layer continues to improve:
Seahorse Lang lets you write Solana VM programs in Python.
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