AltLayer is an open and decentralized protocol that pioneers the concept of Restaked Rollups. This innovative framework enhances rollups created from popular stacks like OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, and ZK Stack. By leveraging a restaking mechanism, it provides these rollups with superior security, decentralization, interoperability, and crypto-economic fast finality.
What Is the ALT Token?
ALT is the native utility token that powers the AltLayer ecosystem. It is integral to the protocol's core operations and economic model, serving several key functions.
- Economic Bond: ALT tokens are used alongside other restaked assets to create an economic stake within the network. This stake acts as a security deposit, which can be slashed if malicious or faulty behavior is detected, thereby incentivizing honest participation.
- Governance: ALT token holders are granted voting rights, allowing them to participate in the governance of the protocol and influence future development decisions.
- Protocol Incentivization: Operators and service providers within the AltLayer network earn ALT tokens as rewards for their contributions, ensuring the ecosystem remains robust and actively maintained.
- Protocol Fees: ALT is used as the medium of exchange for paying various intra-network services, creating a circular economy within the protocol.
Core Products: The Restaked Rollup Suite
AltLayer’s core offering is built around three distinct products that form its Restaked Rollups vision.
VITAL (Actively Validated Service)
VITAL is an Actively Validated Service (AVS) where operators are tasked with verifying the correctness of blocks and their corresponding states committed by a rollup's sequencer. These operators can raise fraud proof challenges if they detect any discrepancies, adding a crucial layer of security and verification.
MACH (For Faster Finality)
The MACH protocol is designed to provide faster finality to rollups. Operators restake Ethereum-based assets to back claims made about the state of a rollup. This process offers users stronger guarantees about the irreversibility of their transactions much more quickly.
SQUAD (Decentralized Sequencing)
SQUAD offers a solution for decentralized sequencing with economic backing. By moving away from a single sequencer model, it addresses critical issues like short-term liveness concerns, bad MEV (Maximal Extractable Value), and rent extraction, leading to a fairer and more robust network. 👉 Explore more strategies for decentralized security
AltLayer's Funding and Investors
AltLayer has successfully secured significant backing from major players in the crypto venture space. The project raised a total of $22.8 million across two private token sale rounds. In these sales, 18.50% of the total ALT token supply was sold at prices of $0.008 and $0.018 per ALT, respectively.
Its impressive list of investors includes Polychain Capital, Binance Labs, Jump Crypto, Breyer Capital, and DAO5. The project also boasts backing from renowned industry angels such as Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase), Gavin Wood (Co-Founder of Ethereum), Sean Neville (Circle Co-Founder), and Ryan Selkis (Founder of Messari).
ALT Tokenomics
The total supply of ALT tokens is fixed at 10,000,000,000 (10 billion). Upon its initial listing, the circulating supply was 1,100,000,000 ALT tokens, representing 11% of the total supply. This initial distribution is designed to support healthy market dynamics and long-term ecosystem growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Restaked Rollup?
A Restaked Rollup is a novel concept introduced by AltLayer. It involves taking an existing rollup and "restaking" assets on Ethereum to provide it with additional security properties, decentralized verification, and faster economic finality, creating a more robust layer-2 solution.
How can I acquire ALT tokens?
ALT is a utility token that can be acquired on various major cryptocurrency exchanges. It is used for governance, staking, and paying fees within the AltLayer ecosystem. Always ensure you are using a reputable platform for any transaction.
What is the purpose of the SQUAD product?
SQUAD focuses on decentralizing the sequencing process of rollups. By eliminating a single point of control (a centralized sequencer), it prevents issues like transaction censorship, bad MEV extraction, and improves the overall liveness and resilience of the network.
Who are the founders of AltLayer?
AltLayer was founded by Dr. Yaoqi Jia, who has a strong background in the blockchain space, previously serving as the former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Zilliqa and a co-founder of Parity Asia.
What makes AltLayer different from other scaling solutions?
While many projects focus on building a single rollup, AltLayer acts as a protocol for launching and enhancing multiple rollups. Its unique restaking mechanism, which leverages Ethereum's security, provides a customizable and secure framework for developers that is not limited to one technology stack.
What is the role of an operator in the VITAL system?
Operators in the VITAL AVS are independent entities that actively monitor and validate the state transitions of rollups. They are responsible for checking the work of sequencers and can submit fraud proofs if they detect invalid state commitments, thus safeguarding the network. 👉 Get advanced methods for network validation