Overview

What is AltLayer?

AltLayer is a Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform for decentralized application developers to launch highly scalable application-tailored execution layers (aka Layer 2s). The RaaS product comes in two forms: 1) an SDK for developers who wish to manage their rollups themselves, and 2) a no-code dashboard that allows not only developers but also those with little to no coding experience to spin up a customized execution layer within 2 mins through a few simple clicks.

AltLayer can save significant capital and years of development work for application teams while encouraging innovation and rapid experimentation.

Why AltLayer?

Application builders have two main choices for blockchain infrastructure today. They can either: 1) deploy their application on a general purpose Layer 1 (e.g., Ethereum) or Layer 2 (e.g., Arbitrum One) or, 2) they could build their own application-specific chain using SDKs such as Cosmos SDK. However, both solutions offer opposite extremes. On the one hand, while deploying on a general purpose Layer {1,2} is quite straightforward, the application developer is often restricted by the constraints that the chain imposes. Also, as a general purpose chain is designed to be application-agnostic, there is no room for an application to customize the chain to suit its needs. Moreover, the compute and bandwidth capacity of a general purpose chain is shared across all applications deployed atop. As a result, as soon as a certain application starts to consume a considerable portion of the shared capacity, negative externalities (such as surge in gas price and gas wars) start to become apparent making the entire chain unfriendly for all users across all dApps.

On the other hand, developing an application-specific chain using frameworks such as Cosmos SDK can be time consuming and therefore may not be ideal for most application developers with limited system expertise. Building and maintaining an application-specific chain is also costly as it requires bootstrapping hundreds of validators to operate and secure the chain. Moreover, an application-specific chain can become a waste of resources (physical or economic) if the application does not command enough usage. AltLayer offers a solution that gives developers the best of both worlds:

Fast Deployment

It offers a Rollup-as-Service platform that allows developers to launch an application-dedicated rollup in minutes and therefore makes it possible for the application developer to go live with their application on their own Layer 2, with an experience similar to deployment on a general purpose chain.

Secure and Decentralized

Unlike an application-specific chain (built using Cosmos SDK) that needs to be secured by hundreds of validators, rollups provisioned by AltLayer are secured by an underlying chain and therefore developers launching their rollups do not need to worry about bootstrapping their network. Moreover, AltLayer allows developers to choose multiple sequencers to execute transactions and thereby eliminates single point of failures associated with centralized sequencers common across most rollup implementations today.

No-code Framework

Unlike traditional application-specific SDKs that can still be complicated for many developers and average project/product managers, in addition to an SDK, AltLayer also offers a simple and intuitive dashboard for not only developers but also those with little to no coding experience to spin up a customized rollup.

Focus on Core Competency

By making it simple for application developers to launch rollups, the application team can now focus on their core competency and do not have to build any dedicated in-house expertise to build chains. For instance, a gaming studio could focus their human and capital resources on building fun and engaging games as opposed to worrying about chain development and maintenance.

Flexible

The Rollup-as-a-Service offering from AltLayer is extremely flexible and customizable making it possible for developers and customers to customize their rollup in all sorts of ways without writing a single line of code. These customizations could range from network-level parameters, such as number of sequencers, to chain-level parameters such as the maximum allowed smart contract-size to middleware tools such as a preferred RPC-providers etc. All these customizations could be done with simple clicks via a dashboard.

Elastic

AltLayer offers a unique elastic rollup called a Flash Layer. Flash Layers are regular execution layers except that they are disposable in nature. With a Flash Layer, a dApp developer expecting an increase in demand for his application could: 1) quickly spin up a fast and scalable rollup secured by a Layer 1, 2) use the rollup for as long as needed, and then 3) dispose of the rollup by doing an “end-of-life” settlement on the Layer 1. This makes the entire system highly resource-optimized and elastic. The execution layer and its resources are called upon only when the dApp expects a considerable demand and once the demand tapers off, the dApp can move back to Layer 1.

Multi-chain support

AltLayer rollup-as-a-service platform is designed for a multi-chain and a multi-VM world and hence will have factory support for EVM as well as WASM. Furthermore, each application-tailored execution layer will come with several application-specific tooling, products and applications in the form of add-ons to improve user and developer experience and therefore aims to provide a tailored product compared to the one-size-fits-all offering by existing appchains.

How does AltLayer work?

AltLayer uses optimistic rollup execution model under the hood but it is a completely independent implementation and not a fork of Optimism. It also comes with a dedicated sequencer network called Beacon Chain that provides sequencing services to the rollups instantiated by AltLayer. Core components of AltLayer are built from scratch using Substrate and can support both WASM and EVM runtimes making it possible to support Layer 1s beyond EVM chains.