30s Summary

During China’s strict COVID-19 lockdown, Daniel Wang co-founded Taiko Labs and developed an Ethereum layer 2 rollup named Taiko, envisioning a decentralized, uncensorable publishing network. Scaling such a platform posed challenges, specifically governmental control risks associated with signature checks. As a solution, Wang and co-founder Terence Lam designed Taiko as a ‘based rollup’ requiring no signature verifications, relying instead on validators from a primary layer like Ethereum. The ultimate goal is to establish a ‘ownerless’ rollup, outperforming central signature-based rollups. Wang openly shares his work, believing collaboration fosters growth and innovation.

Full Article

During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, China locked down Shanghai, their economic hub, for two months. This was an attempt to control the virus while also suppressing any disagreement with their zero-COVID measures. This led to an unexpected result.

Daniel Wang, who co-founded Taiko Labs and developed an Ethereum layer 2 rollup named Taiko, spent nearly three months in his small apartment in Shanghai without going outside. He felt he had things to say, but knew that wasn’t really allowed in China.

So, this real frustration got him thinking about creating a decentralized publishing network. This tool wouldn’t be censored, and anyone could post anything without having to reveal who they are. Plus, the government couldn’t do a thing about it.

But creating the network wasn’t as easy as coming up with the idea. Wang had to find a way to scale it, which was a challenge. Techniques at that time, like Optimism’s OP Stack and StarkWare, needed signature checks. This meant they could potentially be shut down by governments from around the world, and Wang wanted no chance of that.

In his words, “true freedom of speech” needs much stronger tech. So, he partnered up with fellow co-founder and operations head Terence Lam and they created Taiko.

What’s unique about Taiko is that it’s a based rollup. This means it’s a layer-2 chain that relies on validators from a primary layer, like Ethereum, to handle the processing. Unlike other rollups, Taiko doesn’t need signature verifications.

When designing their rollup, Wang and Lam had one goal in mind – to get rid of any central control or components from their rollup and make it “ownerless.”

The aim of Taiko is to demonstrate that based rollups are doable. This isn’t about being the most popular, but showing that these types of networks can outdo central signature-based rollups.

Wang believes in sharing his work and welcomes others to borrow from and build on it. If Taiko can help push Ethereum growth in a positive way or help develop other successful rollups, then Wang and Lam believe that’s a good thing. After all, they believe that working together makes us all stronger.