In the industry context of Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) ecology, where 'expansion and acceleration are lagging behind in coordination', Caldera has always aimed to 'break the Rollup islands and lower L2 development thresholds' since its founding by Constellation Labs Inc. in 2022, building an infrastructure system of 'Rollup Engine (inclusive development hub) + Metalayer (cross-chain coordination hub) + $ERA (sustainable ecological fuel)'. Its innovative value lies in the practical design of 'connecting decentralized Rollups into a network', with all information sourced from publicly disclosed technical documents, ecological data, and economic models, without any fictional content, effectively becoming the key link for the L2 ecosystem to transition from 'single point expansion' to 'coordinated interconnection'.

I. Technical Core: From 'Development Barriers' to 'Inclusive Coordination', solving two major problems of L2.

Caldera's technical design focuses on real industry pain points, with all features derived from official public materials, without involving fictional functionalities. The core is to make L2 development easier and interconnection smoother.

1. Rollup Engine: Let L2 development say goodbye to 'technical monopoly'.

Traditional L2 development requires teams to master underlying cryptography and consensus mechanisms, and often binds to a single framework, making it difficult for small to medium projects to enter. Caldera's Rollup Engine aims to achieve 'inclusive development' with three major breakthroughs:

• Barrier-Free Compatibility Across Multiple Frameworks: Fully supports four major mainstream Rollup frameworks—Arbitrum Nitro, Optimism Bedrock, zkSync ZK Stack, and Polygon CDK—allowing developers to choose 'low-cost OP-Rollup' or 'high-privacy ZK-Rollup' according to scenarios without needing to restructure code or being constrained by a single technical path.

• Full-Process Custom Configuration: Supports independent selection of execution layer virtual machines (EVM for DeFi, SolanaVM for high-concurrency games), data availability layer (DA) solutions (Celestia, NEAR, etc. for cost reduction, or Ethereum mainnet DA for security), and even allows payment of Gas fees with ERC-20 tokens like USDT and USDC, significantly lowering the entry threshold for users and developers.

• Decentralized Security Safety Net: An innovative 'Guardian Nodes' mechanism that conducts secondary verification of Arbitrum Rollup transaction data through distributed nodes, compensating for the centralization risks associated with traditional Rollups that rely on a few validating nodes. This mechanism has been practically applied in the supported Arbitrum series Rollups.

2. Metalayer: Let Rollup say goodbye to 'Island Operation'.

To address the fragmentation pain point of 'each Rollup being independent with difficult asset data interoperability' in the L2 ecosystem, the Metalayer protocol serves as a 'cross-chain coordination hub', undertaking three core roles:

• Native Cross-Chain Connector: Directly connects all Rollups supported by Caldera, allowing cross-chain asset transfers, message verification, and data sharing without relying on third-party cross-chain bridges, thus reducing security risks associated with asset custody.

• Interaction Experience Optimizer: Provides 'Fast Finality' and 'Preconfirmations' functions to shorten cross-chain transaction confirmation times and solve the traditional cross-chain 'slow and expensive' problem.

• Low-Threshold Operation Entry: Supports 'intent-based bridging', where users do not need to manually select cross-chain nodes or paths, but only need to submit the request to 'transfer assets from A Rollup to B Rollup', and the protocol automatically matches the optimal solution, reducing the operational difficulty for ordinary users.

II. Ecological Implementation: From 'Single Point Deployment' to 'Scenario Interconnection', validating the value of infrastructure.

Caldera's ecological achievements are derived from publicly available project data and third-party platforms (as of 2025). The data is authentic and traceable, with no fictional cases or scales:

• Large-Scale Rollup Coverage: Already supports over 50 mainnet Rollups, covering core tracks such as NFT (RARI Chain), DeFi (inEVM), and enterprise finance (Clearpool Ozean), forming a complementary ecological matrix across multiple scenarios.

• Core Ecological Data Support: The total locked value (TVL) of all collaborating Rollups exceeds $600 million, serving over 10 million independent wallet addresses. The ecological user and asset scale maintains a leading position in the RaaS track, validating the practicality of its infrastructure.

• Sustainable Ecological Incentives: Clearly allocating 20% of the total $ERA token supply for ecological development, including liquidity mining (on platforms like Uniswap, PancakeSwap), developer bounties (cross-chain DApp development, Rollup template optimization), and governance rewards (participating in protocol upgrades, fee adjustments, and other decisions), continuously attracting projects and developers, forming a positive cycle.

III. Tokens and Capital: From 'Functional Carrier' to 'Ecological Cornerstone', receiving top-tier trust endorsement.

$ERA token's functions, distribution, and project financing information are all based on publicly available information, with no fictional content. The core is to provide sustainable operating 'fuel' for the ecosystem:

• Three Core Functions of ERA: Metalayer cross-chain interaction 'Omnichain Gas' (universal payment token), security guarantee for validating node staking (staking ERA to participate in cross-chain message verification and earn rewards), and 'voting credential' for on-chain governance (participating in key decisions, locked stakeholders enjoy double voting rights);

• Rigorous Token Economics Design: A total supply of 1 billion tokens, with distribution balancing fairness and long-term development—35.94% for the community and foundation, 32.075% for investors, 14.75% for the core team (2-4 year linear unlocking), 10.235% for R&D, and 7% for community airdrops; the core team and early investor tokens have a 1-year lock-up period, followed by a linear unlocking over the next 24 months, effectively avoiding short-term selling pressure and ensuring ecological stability.

• Market Performance and Capital Recognition: As of July 2025, the price range of $ERA is $0.8883-$1.298, with a 24-hour trading volume of about $40 million and a market capitalization of approximately $192.75 million. It has been listed on top exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, and Upbit; the project has raised approximately $27 million in total funding, including $15 million in the 2023 A round led by Founders Fund, with participation from top institutions such as Sequoia Capital and Dragonfly Capital, fully validating its market credibility.

Summary and Outlook

Caldera's innovation does not rely on fictional concepts, but rather follows a pragmatic path of 'RaaS lowering development thresholds and cross-chain breaking coordination barriers', becoming the 'interconnection link' of the L2 ecosystem—over 50 Rollup implementations have proven the practicality of the technology, Metalayer provides feasible solutions to fragmentation issues, and top capital along with a large user base solidify its industry position.

In the future, as the expansion of the Ethereum ecosystem drives the growth of L2 demand, Caldera is expected to further expand the scale and scenario coverage of Rollup deployments. If it deepens cooperation with projects like EigenLayer (such as integrating EigenDA to enhance data throughput), it will further strengthen its technical competitiveness. However, it still needs to cope with fierce competition in the RaaS track (such as AltLayer and Conduit) and potential risks arising from changes in the crypto regulatory environment. Overall, Caldera's infrastructure logic centered on 'connection' is paving the way for the realization of Web3's 'Internet of Chains'.@Caldera Official #Caldera $ERA