L3s for Base and the OP Stack

Forrest Norwood

February 21, 2024

Today Conduit is launching L3s for Base and the OP Stack.

You can deploy L3 testnets in the Conduit app by choosing L2 networks like Base, Mode, and Zora as a settlement layer. L3s deployed on Conduit use Celestia for data availability to minimize costs even further.

What is an L3?

Base and OP Mainnet are examples of general-purpose L2 networks. They’re cheap, fast, and power hundreds of different applications.

But some applications need even cheaper compute and dedicated blockspace. L3s allow apps to stop competing with others for blockspace and scale into their demand. They also unlock new UX patterns. With low transaction fees, teams can recycle fee revenues and subsidize onboarding users at scale ♻️

L3s also enable developers to align themselves with an L2 ecosystem and utilize their distribution channels.

Base L3s can bootstrap with Base’s existing liquidity and the users of Coinbase products and services. L3s on Zora can build on their vibrant creator ecosystem, while Mode L3s can utilize their unique incentive mechanisms.

“Conduit powered L3s give devs the opportunity to build scaleable appchains supported by the Mode ecosystem.” - James Ross, Founder of Mode Network

Building with Base

A few weeks ago, Jesse Pollak from Base put out a call to action for L3s. The demand was there, multiple teams wanted to deploy L3s on top of Base and other OP chains. However, L3 support in the OP Stack was not yet production-ready.

Conduit reached out and coordinated with the Base team to take L3s from an idea to live testnets in a few days. It was a pleasure collaborating with their team, but there’s still plenty of work to do to make L3s first-class citizens in the OP Stack.