Rollups have become the core solution for Ethereum's scalability. Over the past two years, projects like Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, and Starknet have continuously pushed the blockchain towards high performance and low cost. However, behind this prosperity, a new contradiction is emerging: the more Rollups there are, the more fragmented the ecosystem becomes. Users rely on complex bridging to transfer assets between different Rollups, which is both time-consuming and costly, and presents security risks; while projects deployed on a specific L2 may gain performance advantages, they must share resources and rules with other applications, lacking true sovereignty; and liquidity is scattered across various Rollups, failing to form network effects. These issues significantly diminish the benefits of scalability.
The idea of Caldera (ERA) is to evolve Rollup from a single-point performance enhancement into an interconnected collaborative network. It is not about 'creating a faster chain,' but rather providing independent Rollups for each project through a modular design while establishing an underlying architecture that allows different Rollups to communicate natively. The Caldera system is built on three main pillars: first, 'Dedicated Rollup Deployment,' which allows developers to launch their own chain in just a few days, customizing performance parameters, fee models, and economic models; second, 'Metalayer Coordination Layer,' which acts like a bus connecting different Rollups together to achieve seamless transfer of data, assets, and state without relying on external bridging; finally, 'EVM Compatibility,' which enables projects to leverage Ethereum's security guarantees and development tools, lowering the migration barrier.
In this architecture, the $ERA token is the core of the entire system's operation. It serves not only as the settlement and transaction asset for cross-Rollup activities but also as the cornerstone for node staking and security incentives, as well as the certificate for governance voting and protocol upgrades. In other words, $ERA is not just a single-function token but the 'economic and governance hub' of the Caldera network. As the ecosystem expands, the role of $ERA will continue to strengthen.
Caldera's application scenarios are extremely broad. For DeFi, it can solve the problem of liquidity fragmentation, enabling liquidity pools to natively interoperate across Rollups, thereby enhancing scale and efficiency. For GameFi, it can provide dedicated high-performance environments for gaming projects, while connecting external ecosystems through the Metalayer to ensure interaction of virtual assets with other chains. RWA projects can utilize Caldera to deploy customized economic models that meet compliance and asset on-chain requirements; while DePIN networks require large-scale device interaction and data sharing, Caldera's cross-Rollup coordination layer can provide this capability.
Currently, over 50 Rollups have been deployed on Caldera, covering multiple tracks such as DeFi, GameFi, RWA, and DePIN, and have gained support from top-tier capital. Its strategic significance lies not in becoming the next popular L2, but in transforming Rollups from isolated local networks into an interconnected network like the internet. If the first phase of Rollups addressed 'how to scale,' then Caldera is driving the arrival of the second phase—'how to collaborate.'
Ultimately, Caldera may become the 'operating system' of modular blockchains, providing a unified interoperability standard and economic system for the entire ecosystem. The explosion of the internet was not due to more local networks, but because they were connected through the TCP/IP protocol. Today's Rollup world is also waiting for such a turning point, and Caldera is that key player.
