Alongside EthCC Cannes 2025, we, as the first based rollup scaling Ethereum, hosted the second Based Rollup Summit in Cannes, continuing the vital conversation around the future of Ethereum scalability.

Industry leaders, developers, and innovators came together to dive deep into the latest advancements in based rollup technology, preconfirmations, and the evolving ecosystem shaping Ethereum’s next chapter.

Here are 10 key takeaways from the summit’s thought leaders.

1 - Preconfirmations Are Universal - Even When Buying Coffee

Joaquin Mendes, Taiko's COO, opened the summit with an insightful perspective on preconfirmations, emphasizing their ubiquity in everyday life. "Preconfirmations have been around forever, even when you're buying coffee!" Mendes explained how preconfirmations work and their critical role in making the user experience on Taiko smoother and faster, setting the foundation for understanding why based preconfirmations are essential for Ethereum's scalability.

2 - The Future of ZK: Focus on User Utility Over Competition

Shiv Sankar, CEO of Boundless, shared his perspective on what truly matters in the zero-knowledge space, emphasizing utility over technological competition.

"Figuring out what people want — and unlocking that with ZK — is what really matters."

Sankar highlighted that the real competition isn't within Web3, but from traditional tech giants like Amazon. He stressed the importance of understanding user behavior and building for utility, stating that "people pay for utility" and that revenue is a crucial indicator of what users actually care about.

3 - SSV Network Simplifies Validator Onboarding with URC Integration

Alon Muroch, CEO of SSV Network, introduced the Universal Registry Contract (URC) and explained how SSV is making it easier for validators to participate in based rollup services.

"Most transactions happen on L2s, not on Ethereum... That really presents an amazing opportunity for validators and rollups as well."

SSV has programmatically integrated the Universal Registry Contract into their client, eliminating registration friction for validators regardless of scale.

4 - Why Ethereum Can't Simply Reduce Block Times & Why Based Preconfs are Huge

Daniel Wang, CEO of Taiko, addressed a fundamental question about Ethereum's architecture and why based preconfirmations are necessary rather than simply reducing Ethereum's block times.

"Taiko's objective is to shorten block times from 12 seconds to under 2. But someone might ask, why can't Ethereum itself have shorter block times?"

The discussion revealed that Ethereum's decentralized validator set makes sub-second consensus impractical without sacrificing decentralization. With over 1 million validators, maintaining consensus at faster speeds would require either fewer validators or more advanced hardware, both of which would compromise Ethereum's core values of decentralization and accessibility.

5 - Defining Success for Based Preconfirmations

Summit panelists outlined clear metrics for measuring success, focusing on practical adoption and economic viability. The consensus: seeing "a based rollup in production with preconfirmations using L1 proposers with at least 20% of the stake being opted in" as a key milestone, alongside reduced fees and improved user experience.

6 - Building for Enterprise Adoption and Privacy

Tomasz K. Stanczak, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, outlined the strategy for mainstream adoption.

"We're not building for users directly. The users will have web two wrappers from large institutions. But what's important is that underneath there's blockchain... the priority is to support enterprises to fight together the battle for the regulatory aspects."

7 - Simplifying the Ethereum Narrative for Broader Appeal

Marek Olszewski, CEO of Celo, raised important questions about how to make Ethereum more compelling to institutional investors and average users.

"Did we onboard the wrong crowd?"

The challenge: differentiating Ethereum from other smart contract platforms while emphasizing its unique value as a real yielding asset.

8 - Horizontal Scaling is Ethereum's Only Path Forward

Justin Drake, Ethereum Foundation researcher, emphasized that Ethereum has exhausted vertical scaling options and must pivot to horizontal solutions.

"We have to scale horizontally. There is no other choice... even one giga second is not enough."

Drake noted that Ethereum is emerging from its "awkward puberty period" with solutions like shared sequencing and cheaper SNARK verification, which will enable more frequent settlements and ultimately allow rollups to settle every slot.

9 - Introducing Booster Rollups: A New Scaling Paradigm

Brecht Devos, Taiko's Co-founder and CTO, introduced the concept of booster rollups, explaining how they differ from traditional scaling solutions.

"Most things are on L1... all the smart contracts are deployed there... but each rollup can directly hook into it."

This allows L1 smart contracts to be directly available on L2s, creating automatic scalability without losing composability.

10 - True Scalability Means Internet-Scale While Preserving Decentralization

The summit concluded with a discussion on what true blockchain scalability means, with perspectives from Kyle Rojas (Avail), Gustavo (OpenZeppelin), and Harry Gao (Luban).

"Are we scaling to the level of the internet? Are we scaling to the level of anything that normal people use?"

The consensus was that meaningful scalability means serving the entire world while maintaining core blockchain properties like decentralization, censorship resistance, and security. The goal isn't just higher TPS numbers, but creating systems that can handle internet-scale usage without compromising the fundamental values that make blockchain technology valuable.

Beyond technical discussions, the summit brought a refreshing interactive element as participants enjoyed hands-on gaming experiences powered by Taiko's technology, showcasing how blockchain innovation can be both serious and fun.

From preconfirmations to booster rollups, the innovations discussed point toward a future where Ethereum can truly scale to serve global demand while maintaining its decentralized ethos.

And that concludes the Based Rollup Summit in Cannes. See you next time!

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