In the world of blockchain, Rollups are one of the hottest technologies in recent years. They can help Ethereum solve scalability issues while retaining security. The problem is that for most teams, building a Layer 2 or Layer 3 Rollup from scratch not only requires a professional engineering team but also involves dealing with a multitude of tedious details related to deployment, maintenance, security, and more.

This is precisely the pain point that @Caldera Official ($ERA ) aims to address.

1. #caldera What is it?

Caldera was founded in 2022 and is an infrastructure company focused on 'Rollup-as-a-Service'. It utilizes existing mature technology stacks, such as:

  • Optimism Bedrock

  • Arbitrum Nitro

  • ZK Stack

  • Polygon CDK

Allowing any project team to easily launch their own L2 or L3 Rollup without having to build a large blockchain engineering team themselves. In simple terms:

👉 If Ethereum is a highway, Rollups are like expressways, and Caldera is the construction team that helps you build the expressway.

2. What have they done?

The services provided by Caldera cover:

  1. Deployment: Assisting with quick Rollup launch

  2. Customization: Adjusting token economics, Gas models, or verification mechanisms according to needs

  3. Maintenance: Continuous updates and technical support

  4. Security: Ensuring the reliability of chain operations

This allows developers to focus on their core products and innovations instead of spending energy on infrastructure construction.

Currently, Caldera has provided solutions for several well-known projects, including:

  • Ape Chain

  • Manta Pacific

  • Plume Network

  • Kinto

3. Team Background

#caldera is led by three core members:

  • Matthew Katz: Co-founder and CEO, with a background in computer science, graduated from Stanford University.

  • Parker Jou: Co-founder and CTO, also graduated from Stanford with a degree in computer science.

  • James Semmonella: Responsible for growth and business development, has extensive experience in several Web2 and Web3 companies, studied political economy at Bates College.

It can be seen that this is a team with both technical and business development capabilities.

4. Financing and Development

Although it was established not long ago, #caldera ($ERA ) has considerable financial strength:

  • 2023 Seed Round: Raised $9 million, with investors including Dragonfly Capital, Sequoia Capital, 1kx, Ethereal Ventures, Neo, and others.

  • 2024 Series A: Raised $15 million, supported by Founder’s Fund, Lattice, MH Ventures, ArkStream Capital, and others.

A total of over $24 million has been raised, mainly used to advance Metalayer, which is a unified Rollup ecosystem that allows different Rollups to collaborate, forming a more complete Layer 2/3 network.

The author observes

In my view, #Caldera is like the 'AWS for Rollups' of Web3. In the past, if you wanted to start a website, you needed to set up your own server, but AWS made this simple. Now, Caldera aims to bring the same model to the blockchain world:

Any team can quickly have its own dedicated Rollup

Lowering the technical threshold, focusing on the application itself

Building an ecosystem network, rather than just isolated chains

This is also why investors are so optimistic about them. Because in the future, Rollups are likely to become as ubiquitous as today's websites, and Caldera plays a key role in providing this infrastructure.

@Caldera Official #caldera $ERA