“L2s Are a Fundamental Part of the Ethereum Scaling Architecture" - Enya Labs' Alan Chiu

Finance Magnates spoke with the CEO of Enya Labs, Alan Chiu on Boba’s plan to scale the future of web3.

Post the ETH merge, is there still a need for L2s?

The ETH Merge simply changed the consensus mechanism of Ethereum, but didn't increase its computational capacity. Even looking beyond the Merge, L2s are a fundamental part of the Ethereum scaling architecture by taking execution off L1.

There are a bunch of L2 scaling solutions out there, what separates Boba from the rest?

Boba is the only smart contract platform (not just among L2s) that enables calls from smart contracts to off chain APIs. This means developers can create dApps that query enterprise datastores, interact with gaming engines and web2 services, and take advantage of computationally intensive capabilities such as machine learning.

Boba is the first multi-chain L2, currently integrated with ETH, Avalanche, Moonbeam, & BNB. Do you plan on integrating other chains?

There are definitely additional L1s on the horizon that will be supported by Boba.

They say that Bear Markets are a time for building. What is Boba currently building that you are most excited about?

The list is long! Let me start with account abstraction, which will enable developers to deliver a much smoother UX by letting them pay for gas on the users’ behalf. Then there’s Anchorage, which is the next version of the Boba execution engine, built in Erigon. It’s going to help diversify the L2 client space (and therefore improve the overall robustness of L2s), and allow more flexible fault proving mechanisms since it will adhere to the Bedrock yellowpaper.

What is EIP-4844 and why is it important?

EIP-4844, or Proto-Danksharding, introduces a new Ethereum transaction type that accepts blobs of data to be stored on a beacon node for about 2 weeks (unlike CALLDATA, which is stored forever). This means the data that’s only useful for validating L2 transactions can be stored much more cheaply in blobs, reducing gas fees by orders of magnitude.

What is your take on the whole FTX/Alameda situation? What lessons should be learned?

The situation serves as a stark reminder of the core benefits delivered by blockchains but we often forget: Transparency, immutability, and decentralization, which eliminate the possibility of singular actors performing fraudulent transactions in the dark.

As infrastructure builders, we need to continually make it easier for developers to adopt platforms where these core tenets are the default.