Cardano is about to unveil its first permissionless Layer 2 (L2) solution, positioning itself ahead of other blockchains like Ethereum. The announcement was made during the Cardano Summit 2024 in Argentinawhere Philip DiSarro, CEO and founder of Anastasia Labs, outlined the upcoming launch of Midgard, an optimistic package designed to improve ADA scalability and functionality.
DiSarro marked Midgard’s unique advancement through Ultimately, the top ‘L2s’ in the blockchain space right now are all custodial multisigs.” He emphasized that existing L2 solutions rely primarily on custodial multisignature arrangements, which introduce centralized elements into the otherwise decentralized blockchain environment.
Cardano is ahead of Ethereum, Solana and Sui
Midgard stands out by inheriting the full security of Cardano’s Layer 1 (L1) through several innovative features. Unlike Ethereum’s L2-like DecisionOptimism and Basics, Midgard operates without a centralized sequencer, challenge response receipts, multisignatures, or custodians. Instead, it uses a permissionless operator set, reliable fraud proofs, and reliable deposits and withdrawals, ensuring that the inbox and outbox mechanisms remain completely censorship-resistant.
Through X, DiSarro highlighted Cardano’s unique local state Extended Unspent Transaction Output (EUTxO) architecture. “This is all made possible by Cardano’s unique local EUTxO architecture. UTxO conflicts, small block size, local state, transaction determinism – all these ‘issues’ may have made you wonder why these design choices were made. Midgard wants to show you that these are not actually problems at all.”
Founder Anastasia Labs further argued, “In fact, quite the opposite; they are extremely powerful properties that together provide a unique value that does not exist in any other ecosystem. These are essentially the core pillars that make Midgard possible in the first place,” DiSarro explains.
Midgard’s architecture reportedly takes advantage of the inherent strengths of ADA’s design, making it unfeasible to replicate on other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, Solana or Sui. DiSarro claimed: “You can’t build Midgard on Ethereum, Solana or Sui. It is a protocol that is only possible on Cardano.”
The upcoming launch of Midgard is expected in the next few months, with DiSarro confidently predicting its impact: “True rollups, L2 protocols that take over the entire security of the L1, will come in the coming months. Our optimistic rollup, Midgard, is the first of its kind, permissionless.”
The announcement attracted attention from within the ADA community and beyond. Danogo, which operates the first decentralized exchange (DEX) to trade Optim Bond tokens on Cardano, referred to DiSarro’s presentation at the Cardano Summit: “Only on Cardano can you have a new generation Rollup that is permissionless! There is no multi-sig controlling the Layer-2 like on Ethereum! Even Vitalik recognizes that now. (…) That inherits the full security of L1. And Cardano will have the first L2 that is completely permissionless in a few months!!!!”
In addition, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, responded to the discourse with a meme about
At the time of writing, ADA was trading at $0.343.
Featured image of X, chart from TradingView.com