Fuel v1 Live on Mainnet
Fuel Labs kicked off Ethereum’s 2021 with a bang, announcing Fuel V1 live on mainnet.
Fuel is a layer-2 scaling solution using optimistic rollups. It allows up to 500 transactions per second on-chain, allowing ETH and ERC-20 transfers as well as non-custodial token swaps.
Optimistic rollups work with a separate layer on top of the main Ethereum chain. Transaction data can be batched, or ‘rolled up’, to transfer back to the main chain. This allows for a massive increase in transaction throughput.
Fuel focuses on being user-friendly, fully permissionless and censorship-resistant. Withdrawals back to main Ethereum chain take just ten minutes. Cross-chain atomic swaps are also supported, bridging the gap between networks.
Fuel v1
v1 reduces transaction size by around 50% by optimising transaction formats. It also saves on gas with contract refactoring.
The next scheduled release is v1.5 which will bring TPS to 1500-2000.
One of the most interesting features are multi-user swaps, which will likely have a huge impact on the decentralised exchange ecosystem.
Right now it is just available through CLI, with a graphical interface coming for users in the future.
Conclusion
This has been a year of huge successes for Ethereum, and demand for the network has been consistently maxing out for the last few months. A downside of this demand has been high gas prices, with smaller users priced out of many DeFi protocols. Layer 2 is the clear path forwards for scalability, and if you didn’t check it out you should watch Vitalik’s EthGlobal presentation on the topic. His Ethereum Magicians’ post is also highly worth reading.
Optimistic rollups are a highly promising layer 2 solution and I’m thrilled to see progress ramping up as we head into 2021.
Happy New Year to all Decentralise readers and I wish the best for everyone in the coming year. Ethereum and DeFi have made incredible progress this year, and I’m happy to be on this journey with every one of you.
Join the Fuel Labs Discord community.
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