Celo, Shopping for Blockchain Partner, Turns to the Delicate Issue of Money

The
time
has
come
to
put
the
cards
on
the
table.

For
the
past
couple
months,
developers
behind
the
Celo
blockchain
have
been

evaluating
technical
proposals
from
teams
who
might
provide
technology
as
the
project
migrates
to
become
a
new
layer-2
network
atop
Ethereum.

Vying
for
the
mandate
are
some
of
the
biggest
players
in
the
blockchain
industry,
standing
behind
the
most
prominent
layer-2
networks
in
existence:
Optimism,
Polygon,
zkSync,
Arbitrum,
all
of
them
eager
to
share
technological
blueprints
with
new
chain
builders
in
hopes
of
attracting
more
critical
mass
to
their
mini-ecosystems
and

software
offerings
known
as
“stacks.”

In
a

blog
post
on
Thursday,
Tim
Moreton,
CEO
of
cLabs,
the
leading
developer
behind
Celo,
wrote
that
“as
we
wrap
up
the
technical
evaluations,
we’re
moving
to
evaluating
the
non-technical
dimensions
described
in
the
framework.”
Translation?
Let’s
talk
terms.

“This
is
different
to
evaluating
published
software,”
Moreton
wrote.
“It’s
harder
to
predict
exactly
how
quickly
we’ll
be
able
to
conclude
this,
especially
as
the
candidate
stacks
are
actively
assembling
their
economic
terms
and
incentive
programs.”

The
details
of
terms
like
revenue
sharing
can
be
key
factors
for
builders
of
new
layer-2
networks.
Arbitrum,
the
biggest
layer-2
network
in
terms
of

TVL,
disclosed
last
week
that
users
of
its
“Expansion
Program”
must
“promptly
transfer
10%
of
the
protocol
net
revenue”
to
the
Arbitrum
Foundation,
under
the

terms
of
use.

Moreton
didn’t
provide
a
specific
timeline
for
when
a
final
recommendation
might
come
about,
writing,
“We’re
working
as
fast
as
we
can
to
get
a
comprehensive
proposal
that
we
feel
confident
proposing.”

Celo
is
a
lesser
blockchain,

ranked
26th
based
on
the
crucial
metric
of
total
value
locked,
or
TVL,
at
$116
million;
for
comparison,
No.
1
Ethereum
has
$30.6
billion.
But
with
the
big
Ethereum
layer-2
networks
racing
to
establish
themselves
as
early
leaders
in
the
fast-moving
space,
their
pursuit
of
Celo
has
taken
on
an
outsize
marketing
significance
–
a
beauty
pageant
of
sorts,
the
blockchain
industry’s
version
of

The
Bachelorette.

“Each
of
the
candidate
projects
are
awesome
achievements
with
strong
roadmaps
backed
by
strong
teams
and
communities,
and
are
each
moving
fast,”
Moreton
wrote.
“We’re
trying
to
find

the
best
stack
for
Celo’s
needs,
not
the
best
stack.”

One
thing
that
stands
out
from
Moreton’s
post
is
just
how
hard
the
various
teams
appear
to
be
working
to
land
Celo,
supplying
test
networks,
hands-on
technical
assistance
and
access
to
top
executives.

Optimism
developers
provided
the
cLabs
team
with
an
“internal
OP
Stack-based
testnet,
which
has
helped
the
team
become
very
familiar
with
the
codebase,”
Moreton
said.

Polygon
executives
have
provided
“deep
technical
expertise”
along
with
two
testnets.

Alex
Gluchowski,
co-founder
of
Matter
Labs,
a
developer
behind
the
zkSync
project,
joined
a
Celo
community
call
and
wrote
an
“insightful

post,
providing
his
take
on
the
exercise
of
applying
the
suggested
framework
to
the
zkSync
Stack
&
zkSync,”
according
to
Moreton.

“The
zkSync
team
have
been
a
pleasure
to
collaborate
with,”
he
wrote.
“They
demonstrated
remarkable
proactivity,
organizing
meetings,
sharing
their
2024
roadmap
and
engaging
in
detailed
technical
discussions
with
our
engineers.”

Regarding
Arbitrum,
“we
were
able
to
gather
a
lot
of
info
from
public
sources,
documentation
and
running
the
stack
locally,”
Moreton
wrote,
but
“we
also
had
the
opportunity
to
pose
questions
to
the
Arbitrum
team
in
our
shared
chats
and
calls.”