With the rapid growth of Ethereum, the proliferation of on-chain businesses has also caused the blockchain network to be overloaded, and on-chain transactions to become slow and expensive. The Defi midsummer in 2020 and the NFT frenzy last year further exacerbated the congestion level of the Ethereum network and severely limited the large-scale development of the ecosystem on the Ethereum chain. Based on this, the expansion of Ethereum has always been concerned by the market, and Rollup expansion technology is the most popular two-layer expansion scheme in the market. However, even in Rollup, there is great competition. AR and OP are both the strongest competitors. So does Metis, which is also developed based on Optimistic Rollup, still have competitive opportunities? This article will introduce you to the up-and-comer Metis of Layer 2 circuit. Unique innovation of different implementation layer expansion scheme

Metis is a Layer 2 expansion and general infrastructure project co-founded by Elena Sinelnikova, Kevin Liu and Yuan Su in 2018. Metis has successively completed angel and seed round financing of $1 million. $3 million Series A financing, investment institutions include Oyi OKEx’s Block Dream Fund, Genblock Capital, Cryptomeria Capital, etc. The core of Metis layer 2 expansion protocol is built based on Optimistic Rollup idea. The Metis virtual machine (MVM) is redefined and constructed by hard forking Optimistic Rollup. The ComCo management architecture is deployed on layer 2 for data layer management and complex operations, aiming to provide a new set of high-scalability and low-cost layer 2 capacity expansion solution. Based on Optimistic Rollup’s technical logic, Metis has made the following innovations in its technical architecture: 1. Multiple MVMS running together improve scalability and decentralization. 2.IPFS data storage layer improves data security. 3. The Ranger verification mechanism further shortens the fraud proof cycle. 4. Microservice architecture connects the on-chain and off-chain ecology. 5.Polis middleware platform simplifies deployment of smart contracts for developers. These innovations make Metis a more capital efficient, decentralized, two-tier expansion solution. Flourishing ecological status quo

Metis’ main network, Andromeda, went live on November 19, 2021, and has since started a mad run that has seen Metis’ TVL reach $110 million as of today. Currently, ecological applications deployed on Layer 2 of Metis include NetSwap, Tethys Finance, and Standard Protocol. Netswap is the first native decentralized exchange (DEX) deployed on the second tier of Metis. Similar to NetSwap, Tethys Finance is also a native DEX application deployed on the second layer of Metis. It is the Defi application with the fastest growth of fund lock-in volume in this network. Standard Protocol is the first hybrid collateralized flexible supply stablecoin Protocol based on Poca ecosystem. It is the first Defi application to go online in Metis Layer 2 network. Users can trade tokens and mine liquidity through Standard Protocol. In terms of cross-chain, in addition to Metis Bridge, Metis supports Poly Network, Celer, BoringDao and Relay Chain. In addition to Ethereum, Also included are BSC, Avalanche, Gnosis, Fantom, Harmony, Arbitrum, and Modernism. Except for Metis Bridge, the cross-chain cost and cross-chain time of other cross-chain Bridges are significantly reduced, and the withdrawal of funds from the second layer to the main network achieves the speed of minute level. Metis solves the most intractable problem of long fraud proof cycle using Optimistic Rollup technology-related expansion scheme, and establishes a long-term moat in terms of capital efficiency. Competitive Layer 2 track

Rollup, as the most popular Ethereum two-layer expansion scheme, has been attracting market attention. A number of expansion projects using Rollup technology have also been launched and attracted large-scale ecological settlement. In fact, the Rollup technology can also be subdivided into Optimistic Rollup and ZK Rollup, both of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. Optimistic Rollup technology has EVM compatibility and can be compatible with applications on Ethereum. However, it takes about a week to withdraw funds from layer 2 to the Ethereum main network, which is not as safe as ZK Rollup. ZK Rollup adopts zero-knowledge proof technology with high security and no window challenge period for fund withdrawal, but it is not compatible with EVM. At present, the general class layer 2 expansion schemes using ZK Rollup technology include ZKsync, Starkex, etc., while the general class layer 2 expansion schemes using Optimistic Rollup technology include Arbitrum, Optimism, Metis, etc. Among the general projects that also adopt Optimistic Rollup technology, Arbitrum ranked the leading position of the whole Layer 2 subdivision track with TVL of 2.39 billion dollars, and realism ranked the second with fund lock volume of 1.35 billion dollars. Metis was third with $110 million in lock-ups, while Boba was last with $27 million in lock-ups. Generally speaking, the current fund lock volume of Metis is still very low, and the competitors Arbitrum and modernism have also completed the in-depth cooperation with the head Defi project, which laid a solid foundation for the subsequent development. With ZKsync, Startex and other zero-knowledge proof-of-knowledge projects accelerating the development of EVM-compatible virtual machines, Metis faces a fierce competitive landscape.

Conclusion The Layer2 circuit is on the rise. Based on ZK Rollup, Optimistic Rollup, Validium, Volition, Plasma and other schemes, Layer2 customized different expansion routes and defined the ecological direction. The Layer2 ecosystem has seen a significant increase, with some good projects emerging. Competition between Layer2 is becoming intense, with Dapps duplicating Layer2 layouts, but layer to layer mobility fragmentation and cross-chain infrastructure security remains a problem. Layer2 will be the theme for a long time to come.