EQ Infra Bulletin #42: Explaining Justin Drake's Native Rollups, BitVM2 Explainer, and more...
Native Rollups fix rollup value accrual once and for all.
Equilibrium designs, builds, and invests in core infrastructure for the decentralized web. We are a global team of ~30 people who tackle challenges around security, privacy, and scaling.
🔍 Native rollups: Superpowers from L1 execution
⚡️ Topic Summary
Current State:
Rollups post their data on Ethereum and rely on an external method (fraud or validity proofs) to confirm correctness.
In Optimistic rollups, any suspicious transaction can be challenged via a fraud proof. In Validity rollups, each batch includes a succinct proof that it followed the rules.
Problem:
Both methods rely on a lot of off-chain logic, which can be complex and must track Ethereum’s constantly evolving rules.
Other issues are downstream from this: Rollups still need security councils (centralization). Rollups linkage to L1 is weak (value accrual). etc.
Solution: Native Rollups and the EXECUTE precompile.
Native rollups are L2 systems that rely on an L1 “EXECUTE” precompile to validate their state transitions directly within Ethereum’s consensus. Instead of replicating the EVM in a separate verifier contract, these rollups can use the L1’s own EVM logic to confirm that batches of transactions move the state from a known root to a new one.
For 🔴 Optimistic rollups, this is a way more elegant solution than custom dispute contracts. It saves rollup teams time from re-implementing the entire EVM in a contract which is not only complex, but also error prone and requires heavy security overhead.
For 📗Validity rollups, this does not directly change as much, but it allows for a standardised system to emerge around “what is a valid EVM state transition”. Instead of re-execution, additional off-chain logic (distribution of zk-proofs and on-chain verification) is ran (similarly to how it is today) to convince validators the transition was correct.
🤔 Our Thoughts
The EXECUTE precompile seem like a very elegant solution to many issues:
EVM-Equivalency was a big pain for developers of L2s - now its automatic.
Security has always been an issue, as swaths of custom code and complex off-chain systems increase odds of something going wrong.
These possible security issues have meant that Rollup contracts could not be made immutable! This blocked fully decentralised rollups from happening.
However, it does not seem to do much for validity rollups, and instead relies on some future work (Vitalik’s zkVM piece) to be done. This is OK.
A lot of the commentators on the forum post are pointing out that current rollups might not be able to function 1:1 using L1 EVM logic.
It’s worth it to consider if this means that they are simply just not Ethereum Native Rollups then.
One should also read Lev Soukhanov’s (EF Researcher) additional thoughts to the Native Rollup vision.
It seems to that we approaching a time where technical research is converging with the ideas of what the long term positioning and value accrual of Ethereum mainnet is meant to be. While this is a technical proposal, making an L1 precompile the only standard for EVM equivalence forces aligned rollups to utilize the L1 for additional parts of their core functions.
💡 Research, Articles & Other Things of Interest
🤓 Introducing Quick Merkle Database (QMDB) - Tweet
A high-performance verifiable database optimized for blockchains. Developed by LayerZero Labs, but completely open-source.
📚 Some Things Never Change, Even In 2025 - Tweet
Sometimes in technology industries we focus too much on predicting the future. Instead, the legendary Jeff Bezos quote urges you to build your business around basic pillars that never change - for Amazon it was cheaper products and faster delivery.
Multicoin applies this to their 2025 crypto outlook, establishing their evergreen views around the insatiable desire for speculation, drive for transparency in markets, money always looking for yield, and increasing capital efficiency while reducing friction.
🎧 Strata (BitVM2 style) bridge Whiteboard Session - Tweet
David Seroy from Alpen does an incredible well explained whiteboard session of how a lot of teams are building their Bitcoin L2s. If you are going to listen to one thing about BTC L2s - this is it.
🔥 News From Our Partners
🤌 Personal Recommendations From Our Team
📚 Reading: Darkome - Hannu Rajaniemi: A near future scifi tale in a world where a constant battle between pandemics and medical intervention has changed the fabric of society. To survive new viruses, corporations produce mRNA vaccines on the fly via a wearable device - however, not everyone wants to submit to this corporate rule. The story follows a fledgling bio-hacker Inara, looking to take matters into her own hands.
🎧 Listening: Go-To-Market Strategies in Crypto | Jim & Myles - Excellent podcast episode discussing real examples of L1 GTM strategies. Jim’s recommended reading from the episode: Book 1, Book 2 - Link 1 , Link 2, Link 3
💡 Other: Bed Bugs and Trust on the Internet - Broken incentives erode trust on online platforms year after year - can we fix this?