Mantle Network: The Ethereum Layer-2 Solution for Next-Level Scalability

It is no surprise that the Ethereum network is one of the most popular blockchains among developers due to its versatility and robust security. Unfortunately, scalability remains an issue with Ethereum, and as a result, many projects aim to create a layer-2 (L2) solution that solves this problem. One of the latest projects to join the undertaking is Mantle Network. What sets it apart from other L2s is its modular architecture that promises not only hyperscalability, but also top-grade security. Read on as we cover everything you need to know about Mantle Network. 

Key Takeaways:

• Mantle Network is the first modular Ethereum L2 solution to truly rethink how various aspects of a blockchain can better work together.
• In May 2023, a proposal was passed for BitDAO and Mantle to rebrand under one brand, one token — Mantle ($MNT). 
• Mantle is currently in the midst of a rebrand, and this effort is a reflection of Mantle’s commitment to remaining at the forefront of product innovation while also creating a strong and recognizable brand presence. 
• Users who are interested in getting the brand new $MNT tokens can do so by participating in the upcoming Mantle ByStarter.

What Is Mantle Network?

Initially conceptualized and proposed in June 2022, Mantle Network is the first modular Ethereum L2 solution to truly rethink how various aspects of a blockchain can better work together — data availability, superior performance, security and more. 

Mantle Network is an L2 that is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which means developers are able to make use of the smart contracts and tools that work on Ethereum with minimal disruption. 

Mantle Network incorporates a modular architecture in which optimistic rollups are used alongside an improved data availability solution. With the optimistic rollups, computation and state storage are both taken off-chain. Transactions are also processed in batches. This ultimately allows a lower computation load to be sent and processed on the Ethereum Mainnet, which in turn boosts Mantle Network’s throughput at a lower cost.

Mantle’s Rebrand: One Brand, One Token

In May 2023, it was announced that Mantle had plans to rebrand and a proposal was raised for the BitDAO community to vote on. The proposal was later passed, with 235 million $BIT voting for and 988 $BIT voting against, as the community agreed with Mantle’s goal of consolidating the identities of BitDAO and Mantle under one brand, one token — Mantle ($MNT). The rollup component of the ecosystem will be known as the Mantle Network. BitDAO will be rebranded as Mantle Governance.

Through this rebrand, Mantle will be able to foster sustained expansion for those holding tokens and boost community agreement. This transformation also creates room for growth for key offerings like the Mantle Network, while ensuring the preservation of governance and economic privileges for token holders.

What Does Mantle Network Aim to Achieve?

Many of the scaling solutions that exist today have limitations. While they preach the ability to scale the Ethereum network efficiently, these scaling solutions often compromise on security. As a result, decentralized protocols that deal with large amounts of liquidity aren’t able to deploy on these chains for fear of their own security being compromised. 

Here’s where Mantle Network shines. Mantle Network was established to allow hyperscalability of the Ethereum network, leveraging roll-up technology and a decentralized data availability layer to increase efficiency and performance, all while reducing fees and latency. Building with an Ethereum roll-up technology also means that Mantle Network offers unparalleled security, all packaged in a familiar EVM environment for users and developers. 

Mantle Network vs. Other Ethereum Layer-2 Solutions

Mantle Network sets itself apart from other Ethereum L2 solutions not only with technical innovation, but also with a strong and extensive ecosystem of partners bound by $MNT, the Mantle token, to provide support to builders on Mantle Network. 

As Mantle Network works with established technology partners to deliver the best innovations in the L2 landscape to the masses, it is able to focus on strengthening an existing ecosystem of synergistic collaborators. All to accelerate new builders and dApps from the initial building stages with multiple insightful on-chain data analytics, advanced tooling and more, all the way to the go-to-market strategy, including potential on-ramps to well-known crypto exchanges. 

It is also accelerated by an existing large, cumulative web3 user base and community, allowing builders to find their power users in a more targeted manner. 

Finally, Mantle Network is governed by a DAO and any key decisions will have to undergo a voting process by $MNT token holders to be implemented.

How Does Mantle Network Work?

As a technology stack for scaling Ethereum, Mantle Network utilizes Modular Blockchain Rollups, Data Availability and Bridging to meet the needs of web3 without compromise. 

Modular Blockchain Rollups

Mantle Network’s execution, consensus, settlement and data availability functions are performed on specialized layers that can be run by network actors at different levels. As a result, Mantle Network is able to achieve a significant reduction in gas costs and an overall boost in performance. 

Mantle Network leverages a Modular Rollup model to optimize the core functions of blockchain operation. It is also the solution to a significant issue in the community: the Scalability, Security and Decentralization blockchain trilemma. 

Separating the resources increases network efficiency as each layer specializes in a particular task. Each and every user is operating on the same level of improved security, as opposed to only full node validators on layer-1 (L1). 

By operating on separate layers, the overall execution and validation load of technologies such as fraud proofs and ZK proofs are reduced on the nodes, as they do not need to execute all the transactions for validity checking. 

Data Availability

Mantle Network tackles the security issue that has been plaguing blockchains operating on a roll-up architecture. EigenLayer, a re-staking protocol, uses Ethereum’s existing trust network to allow layer-2 solutions to guarantee data availability. At the same time, security is maintained at the same level as the Ethereum Mainnet.  

Thus, Mantle Network utilizes EigenLayer’s data availability solution, known as EigenDA, allowing nodes to offer data availability services on Mantle Network. Validators are able to provide their services and take part in Mantle Network’s economic model through $MNT staking, opening up additional yield opportunities. These then contribute to block data completeness and accuracy on the execution layer of Mantle Network.

With EigenDA, the data availability layer is separated from the consensus layer. Further, it implements a unicast channel for data exchange between network participants to increase efficiency in data storage and transmission, and maintains an erasure rate so that complete block data can be reconstructed through block data pieces from both L2 and L1 sources.

Such a solution also increases the staking utility for $MNT on top of its governance capabilities, and provides the necessary high throughput for next-generation web3 applications. 

Fraud Proofs

In the optimistic model, rollups assume good behavior for their network participants. Thus, proper implementation of fraud proofs is needed to strengthen the integrity of the network. However, this is not without its challenges. 

In its current state, the on-chain verifier can only perform instructions in a lower-level virtual machine. This requires the EVM client to revise their fraud proof into the lower-level language for the on-chain verifier to interpret it. In other words, the fraud proof’s contents are often not obtained directly from a compliant EVM client. Even if it is, there is no way of proving this, especially since the on-chain verifier is essentially blind to the fraud proof’s producer. As such, this results in an interference with the trust minimization that is imbued into the Ethereum client. 

To solve this, Mantle Network takes on an approach that implements the compilation and verification of fraud proofs directly using EVM instructions, enabling all Ethereum clients to interact with a common proof system openly. This thus minimizes the trust assumptions across verifiers, compilers and clients. 

Transaction Lifecycle

A transaction first enters Mantle Network when a wallet user, dApp or script initiates a transfer of funds or performs a task. Mantle SDK integration and other tools at hand allow for a request to be created, signed with private keys, and sent to Mantle Network for Sequencer processing. The transaction is then verified and added to a pending block before being sent to Ethereum for finality. Since there are multiple transactions in a batch of pending blocks, Mantle Network is able to spread the fixed costs across them to achieve low transaction fees. 

Following this, Threshold Signature Scheme nodes further verify the block data before it is sent to the Ethereum network via Sequencer to be received by the different actors on Mantle Network and Ethereum. Rollup verifiers on Mantle Network will synchronize the data to make it accessible for other users and dApps, while on Ethereum the transmitted data is recorded on-chain after going through Ethereum’s consensus mechanism. 

In addition, Data Availability nodes on Mantle Network will synchronize the data and guarantee access to it. In doing so, these nodes will reap $MNT tokens as a reward.

Bridging

Since Mantle Network (L2) and Ethereum (L1) are both separate blockchains, bridging is needed to move ETH and other tokens across the chains. This ensures recognition and acceptance by the blockchain system in a verifiable and secure manner. 

Conversion of $BIT to $MNT

As part of the rebrand, the entire Mantle Ecosystem will no longer be using $BIT tokens, but rather, the new $MNT tokens. The ownership of tokens, rights associated with governance and the treasury will retain their current status. 

From Jun 22, 2023, Bybit will collaborate with Mantle to facilitate the conversion of $BIT to $MNT tokens. All of the $BIT held by your other accounts (Spot Account/Unified Trading Account/Inverse Derivatives Account, etc.) will be transferred to your Funding Account during this transition. Once deposits, withdrawals and transfers are suspended, a snapshot of the $BIT in your Funding Account will be taken on Jul 17, 2023 at 4AM UTC. You will then be airdropped new $MNT tokens to your Funding Account based on the snapshotted amount at a 1:1 rate. The airdrop will occur on Jul 17, 2023 at 8AM UTC. The manual conversion feature of $BIT to $MNT will be enabled on the same day from 10AM UTC.

$MNT Tokenomics

Mantle is likely to adopt a mainly off-chain governance model. Discussions begin within the core contributor team or by community members and are shared with the wider Mantle community through forum discussions. If discussions gain enough interest and positive feedback, they may evolve into formal proposals (MIPs), which are voted on by $MNT token holders. The vote's outcome doesn't automatically trigger updates or actions but is supported by core contributors for implementation.

Token holders need to delegate their voting rights to an address before they can vote or create proposals. This can be to their own address or another's. Delegation doesn't lock or transfer tokens, protecting holders if a delegated wallet is compromised. It also allows vote weight to be adjusted independently from token holdings, promoting decentralization and expertise-based voting.

The new $MNT tokens serve as both governance and utility tokens in Mantle Ecosystem. In governance, each $MNT token has an equal vote weight, enabling token holders to participate in DAO voting. As a utility token, $MNT is used for gas fees on Mantle Network and can be collateral for Mantle Network nodes. It's an ERC-20 token with similar functionality to other L2 blockchain tokens. DAOs are adaptable, so $MNT token governance and utility may change as Mantle evolves.

The distribution of $MNT tokens is governed by Mantle Governance’s process. There are no set targets or limits for token distribution, but key areas include User Incentives, Technology Partner Incentives, Core Contributor Team and Advisors and Other Opportunities, such as acquisitions and token swaps. Each opportunity is evaluated individually for its potential benefits to Mantle.

$MNT tokens are supposed to be distributed as follows:

• Mantle Treasury: 65.6%
• Circulating Supply: 34.4%

However, the Mantle community is considering a proposal to optimize the fully diluted supply of the $MNT token in preparation for its launch. The primary aspect of this proposal is not converting 3 billion $BIT tokens currently held in Mantle Treasury to $MNT. This would effectively decrease the fully diluted supply of $MNT at launch by 3 billion tokens compared to $BIT.

The proposed change would reduce Mantle Treasury’s $MNT holdings from approximately 6.05 billion to around 3.05 billion. The circulating supply of $MNT would remain the same at around 3.17 billion. As a result, the fully diluted supply would decrease from around 9.22 billion to roughly 6.22 billion. This changes the token distribution to:

• Mantle Treasury: 49%
• Circulating Supply: 51%

The goal of this optimization effort is to maintain a balance between minimizing the fully diluted supply of $MNT to increase predictability for token holders, and ensuring sufficient resources to facilitate ongoing and future product development and adoption activities.

The proposed changes are still subject to a vote by the Mantle community and the actual impacts will depend on the result of this vote.

Roadmap of Mantle Network

BitDAO first announced the official soft launch of Mantle Network on Nov 30, 2022. On Jan 10, 2023, the public testnet of Mantle Network went live. On May 5, 2023, a soft proposal was raised regarding the rebrand of Mantle, and following seven days of forum discussion and seven days of vote, the proposal was approved. 

In preparation for the launch of Mantle Network Mainnet, the $MNT token will first be released in July 2023. BIT token holders will soon be able to convert their existing BIT into $MNT tokens through official conversion channels. There will also be an upcoming Mantle ByStarter where users can win $MNT tokens for free to get some skin in the game early. Following the end of the ByStarter, Bybit will begin the delisting of BIT and the listing of the $MNT token for trading on the Bybit Spot trading platform.

How to Participate In Mantle ByStarter

Looking to get your hands on some $MNT tokens? Here’s a detailed guide on how you can participate in the upcoming Mantle ByStarter.

Step 1: Sign up for a Bybit account if you don’t already have one and complete Identity Verification Lv. 1.

Step 2: There will be two Genesis Offerings held — Whitelist Genesis Offering and Public Genesis Offering. Only $BIT token holders are eligible to participate in the Whitelist Genesis Offering. However, the Public Genesis Offering is free for all to join, including $BIT token holders.

If you’re participating in the Whitelist Genesis Offering, hold 100 $BIT in any of your Bybit accounts — Funding, Spot, Derivatives, UTA or Inverse Derivatives Account. A snapshot of your assets will be taken on Jul 5, 2023 at 12AM UTC. 

If you’re participating in the Public Genesis Offering, you may skip this step.

Step 3: Commit 100 USDT from your Funding Account during the following $MNT ByStarter Subscription Periods to earn free tokens:

• Whitelist Genesis Offering: Jul 6, 2023, 10AM UTC – Jul 11, 2023, 6AM UTC
• Public Genesis Offering: Jul 12, 2023, 10AM UTC – Jul 17, 2023, 3AM UTC 

Step 4: During the Allocation Period, winners will be randomly selected. Those who participated in the Whitelist Genesis Offering can win 200 $MNT, while those who participated in the Public Genesis Offering can win up to 2,200 $MNT tokens. 

All committed USDT will be returned to your Funding Account after the Allocation Period, regardless of whether you’ve won an allocation.

Tips for Mantle ByStarter

If you’re interested in winning double the normal allocation of $MNT tokens given out for the Public Genesis Offering, consider becoming a Bybit VIP! However, as every user can only subscribe once, be sure to upgrade to Bybit VIP before committing 100 USDT from your Funding Account. 

The number of tokens you can earn during the Public Genesis Offering are as follows:

• Non-VIP: 1,000 $MNT
• VIP 1 & 2: 2,000 $MNT
• VIP 3 & 4: 2,100 $MNT
• VIP 5 & Supreme & Pro: 2,200 $MNT 

Another way you can increase the number of $MNT tokens earned from the Mantle ByStarter is by holding $BIT, because $BIT holders can participate in both the Whitelist and Public Genesis Offerings. This way, you’ll be able to earn up to 2,400 $MNT tokens. 

Looking to earn even more $MNT tokens? Starting from Jun 30, 2023, at 10AM UTC and running until Jul 17, 2023, at 3AM UTC, Bybit will be holding a special Refer to Earn ByStarter event. During this period, you’ll receive 10 $MNT tokens for each eligible participant you refer, up to a maximum of 100 $MNT. Please note that the event has a limit: it’s only available to the first 1,000 qualifying referees, and it is on a first-come, first-served basis. To be considered eligible, a referee must successfully sign up for the $MNT ByStarter.

For more Referral rewards, you can check out the Bybit Referral Program.

Where to Trade or Stake $MNT

Bybit will be listing three $MNT Spot trading pairs (MNT/USDT, MNT/USDC and MNT/BTC) on the Bybit trading platform on Jul 17, 2023. After you’ve received your $MNT tokens from the ByStarter event, you can proceed to deposit more $MNT and trade them. If you didn’t manage to win an allocation from the Mantle ByStarter event, you can also choose to purchase and trade the $MNT Spot trading pairs after they get listed.

To celebrate these three Spot listings, Bybit will be holding two events from Jul 17, 2023, 10AM UTC to Jul 24, 2023, 10AM UTC where you can earn a share of the total 40,000 $MNT prize pool. 

The first is the Trade to Earn event where all you would have to do is buy and sell at least 400 $MNT tokens during the event period to win a share of the 10,000 $MNT prize pool.

The second is the Stake to Earn event where staking any amount between 100 and 2,000 $MNT will allow you to earn a share of the 30,000 $MNT prize pool. 

The Bottom Line

While there are many L2 solutions today, Mantle Network stands out through its dedication to improving on areas that other solutions have not been successful to account for. Its modular Data Availability, Multi-Party Computation and Decentralized Sequencer features are combining into a promising tech stack to revolutionize the web3 ecosystem and provide a more scalable and secure solution. If you would like to be a part of the Mantle family, do be sure to sign up for a Bybit account and participate in the upcoming Mantle ByStarter event to grab a share of the $MNT pie!

#Bybit #TheCryptoArk