The ERA coin is the native utility and governance token of the Caldera project, focusing on the modular blockchain infrastructure ecosystem, providing a core vehicle for value interaction among developers, users, and the community. Its design revolves around three main goals: 'lowering the scaling threshold, promoting cross-chain collaboration, and driving decentralized governance', serving as the underlying support for Caldera to become a key player in the Ethereum Rollup ecosystem.
Caldera was established in 2023, initially entering the market as a 'Rollup as a Service (RaaS)' platform aimed at solving the fragmentation problem in Ethereum Layer-2. Through 'one-click deployment' technology, developers can quickly launch customized Rollup chains without the need for node management, security audits, or cross-chain bridging, significantly lowering the technical barriers to scaling. With the expansion of the ecosystem, Caldera evolved into the 'Metalayer'—a unified abstraction layer for Ethereum Rollup, integrating multi-framework Rollup (EVM, SolanaVM, zkSync, etc.), cross-chain communication, and liquidity sharing features, becoming the 'super hub' connecting various Rollup ecosystems.
The core functions of the ERA token are reflected in the full-chain participation of the ecosystem, with main functions including: Transaction fee payment: Users can use ERA instead of ETH to pay gas fees for any Caldera Rollup chain, reducing transaction costs; Staking and network security: A staking module will be launched in the future, allowing holders to support the fraud proof system or data availability commitments through staking ERA, earning security rewards while ensuring network decentralization; Exercising governance rights: ERA holders can participate in on-chain voting for Metalayer protocol upgrades, fee parameter adjustments, ecological fund allocations, etc., directly influencing the direction of protocol development.
The ERA token economic model balances short-term incentives with long-term ecology. The total supply of ERA tokens is fixed at 1 billion tokens, with a distribution mechanism focusing on community and long-term value: Backtracking airdrop (≈30%): rewards early testnet users, developers, and active community contributors to enhance user stickiness; Foundation (≈35.94%): managed by the Caldera Foundation, used for protocol maintenance, ecological expansion, and community incentives, most of which are entrusted to the community through DAO governance; R&D (≈10.235%): supports core technology research and development (such as Metalayer optimization and multi-virtual machine support) to ensure technological leadership; Core team (≈14.75%): allocated to the Caldera founding team, unlocking over 2-4 years to ensure long-term commitment; Investors (≈32.075%): institutional investors from four rounds of financing (pre-seed, seed, strategic, Series A), unlocking in phases to ensure project funding stability.
The Caldera ecosystem has formed a virtuous cycle of 'infrastructure - applications - users', with ERA playing a key role: Ecological projects cover multiple tracks including NFT (RARI Chain, near-zero transaction fees), DeFi (inEVM, cross-chain aggregation and arbitrage), real assets (Clearpool Ozean, compliant credit pools), and gaming (zkXPLA, sub-second confirmation game Rollup), with a cumulative TVL exceeding $600 million and independent wallet numbers exceeding 10 million; ERA use cases: RARI Chain users use ERA to pay for NFT minting and trading fees; inEVM achieves cross-chain liquidity sharing through ERA; Clearpool Ozean incentivizes liquidity providers with ERA to promote real asset on-chain.
The future outlook presents both opportunities and challenges. Caldera's short-term goal is to promote the listing of the ERA token on more mainstream exchanges (such as Binance, Bitget, etc.) to enhance liquidity. The medium-term focus is to expand the Metalayer functionality, supporting more Rollup frameworks and cross-chain scenarios. The long-term vision is to become the 'cornerstone of infrastructure' in the Ethereum ecosystem, allowing developers to focus on application innovation and users to enjoy a seamless cross-chain experience. However, the development of ERA still faces challenges such as technical complexity (security risks from multi-framework integration), market competition (RaaS platforms like Conduit and AltLayer competing for market share), and regulatory uncertainty (compliance requirements for cross-chain bridges and customized Layer-2). If Caldera can continue to optimize technology and deepen ecological cooperation, ERA is expected to become a key governance asset in the Layer-2 field.