Hello, from the end of Q3!
It’s been a full-on quarter, with transformative upgrades, key integrations and community growth for Taiko. Here's what defined the quarter:
Based Preconfirmations Live on Mainnet – Phase 1 upgrade cut confirmation times to ~2s, making Taiko 20–30× faster.
Hoodi Testnet Launched – New testnet with preconfirmation support, replacing Hekla.
Chainlink Oracles Integrated – Chainlink Data Streams now power Taiko dApps with sub-second market data.
DAO Governance Activated – Binding on-chain governance framework live; token holders can veto upgrades.
Board of Directors Appointed – Added Joy Lam, Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Professor Wen Yonggang and an Advisor, CPA Ren Jang
Trailblazers Season 6 – New quests and reward pool engaging thousands of users.
Preconfirmations on Mainnet
Q3 saw Pacaya hardfork deliver on its promise with
Initially, Phase 1 preconfirmations are running with select whitelisted partners to ensure stability. As the system proves out, it will open up permissionlessly in Phase 2, allowing anyone to run a preconfirmation node just like anyone can be an L1 validator.
Hoodi Testnet & Hekla Deprecation
We also launched Hoodi, a brand-new public testnet, which now serves as the main playground for Taiko development, allowing developers to test ultra-fast tx finality and other upcoming features in conditions that closely mirror mainnet.
Protocol Upgrades & Performance
Beyond headline features, Q3 included continuous improvements to Taiko’s protocol and performance.
The team implemented various post-Pacaya optimizations to further stabilize preconfirmations and reduce overhead:
Taiko maintained 100% ZK proof coverage for all its own proposed blocks (as achieved in Q2), and community provers continued handling a growing share of network proofs.
Almost 1 billion transactions have now been processed on Taiko since launch (cumulative), with activity remaining high throughout Q3.
The network consistently processed hundreds of thousands of daily transactions, reflecting sustained user demand despite low fees.
All these advancements reinforce Taiko’s position as a cutting-edge, high-throughput rollup that doesn’t compromise on Ethereum-equivalence or security.
Q3 was marked by strategic moves to broaden Taiko’s ecosystem and deepen its technical partnerships:
We partnered with Nethermind to accelerate production-ready based rollup infrastructure. This collaboration focused on advancing preconfirmation systems, implementing EIP-7917 for trust-minimized sequencing, and developing permissionless mainnet-ready infrastructure. Together we are turning cutting-edge research into resilient systems with zero compromise on decentralization.
Taiko data went live on Dune , giving the entire community access to real-time on-chain insights through customizable dashboards, enabling everyone to track ecosystem growth, wallet activity, governance participation, and dApp adoption across 100+ live protocols. Featured dashboards launched for Taiko Overview, World of Dypians, Intraverse, and Brigade, making it easier than ever to explore what's happening on-chain.
Chainlink Data Streams Integration
Taiko officially integrated Chainlink’s Data Streams oracle into the L2, establishing it as the default oracle infrastructure for Taiko Alethia.
After a “soft launch” in Q2 with the Security Council, Q3 focused on empowering the community with real governance rights. In early October when Taiko activated binding on-chain governance on mainnet, officially handing critical decision powers to token holders.
Under this model, any protocol upgrade or parameter change is subject to an on-chain governance proposal. During a set review period, the global community of $TAIKO holders can veto the proposal if they disagree.
To support the transition to full decentralization, we welcomed three distinguished Board of Directors. They are:
Joy Lam, former Head of Global Regulatory at Binance (expert in legal/regulatory matters);
Felix Oberholzer-Gee, a Harvard Business School professor and authority on strategy and digital innovation;
Prof. Wen Yonggang, an IEEE Fellow and blockchain researcher from NTU Singapore.
Additionally, Ren Jang (Head of Strategy at Flipster) joined as an advisor.
This heavyweight board brings a wealth of experience in compliance, business strategy, and technology to ensure Taiko’s governance is decentralized as well as effective and resilient.
Taiko’s community remained one of the most vibrant in Web3 during Q3 2025. Our focus has been on keeping this community engaged, educated and rewarded for their contributions. Here are some key community updates from Q3:
Trailblazers Season 5 Conclusion
Trailblazers, our flagship gamified community program, successfully wrapped up Season 5 on September 15 with a reward pool of 3,000,000 TAIKO to the top Trailblazers.
Trailblazers Evolves in Season 6: Just as one season ended, another began. On Sept 15, we launched Trailblazers Season 6, introducing some of the biggest changes to the program since its inception. This season splits the competition into two parallel tracks: The Arena and The Undercity.
Education & Content
Education remains a top priority. In Q3 we published multiple blog posts and videos to help users and developers understand Taiko’s tech:
Our blog posts explained in plain language how based preconfirmations work and why they matter – those articles saw thousands of reads and helped drive home Taiko’s unique value prop.
We also shared developer guides on using the new preconfirmation APIs and updated our docs with Hoodi testnet details.
Additionally, our team members appeared on community calls, Twitter Spaces, and podcasts (like ZK House and Layer2 Roundup) to discuss Taiko’s developments.
These efforts ensure that our community stays informed and new members have plenty of resources for onboarding.
An informed community is an empowered community and we love to see it!
Galxe Quests & Campaigns
To broaden our reach, we continued the series of monthly Galxe campaigns highlighting notable projects in the Taiko ecosystem.
In Q3, we ran campaigns featuring projects like GemsTown, Symbiosis, CoNFT, and others. Each campaign drew thousands of participants, many of whom were new to Taiko. By completing simple tasks (e.g. making a swap on Taiko, try a game demo, follow project socials), users discovered the richness of Taiko’s ecosystem.
Taiko’s global presence hit new highs in Q3 2025 as the team actively engaged with the Ethereum community at major industry events and also organized our own gatherings:
Moon Party with K11 Art Foundation (Seoul): In early September, we proudly powered the Moon Party as its blockchain partner, a dazzling celebration hosted by the K11 Art Foundation in Seoul. The event brought together world-class brands like Maserati, Hypebeast, and many others, blending art, culture, and innovation under one unforgettable moonlit night.
Korea Blockchain Week (Seoul): In early September, Taiko had a strong showing at KBW 2025 and the surrounding events in Seoul. Our founders and team members spent the week connecting with developers, users, and fellow builders. We also organized the official Taiko Seoulmates Party, a packed side event that brought together the community for music and networking.
TOKEN2049 Singapore & Builders Day: Later in the month, Taiko turned its attention to Singapore for TOKEN2049 (one of Asia’s premier Web3 conferences).On Sept 30 we partnered with ForkOff and IoNet to host the “AI, DePIN & RWA Builders” forum, a side-event forum exploring the intersection of emerging Web3 sectors.
The message was clear: Taiko's Q3 breakthroughs have landed. Based preconfirmations and binding governance aren't just technical wins. They've established Taiko as a protocol to watch in Ethereum's next chapter.
As we move into the final quarter of 2025, Taiko is gearing up for some major milestones that will propel our network to new heights:
Shasta Hard Fork – 100% ZK & Lower Fees: Our next mainnet upgrade, code-named Shasta, is on the horizon for Q4.
Gwyneth Testnet & Beyond: Work continues on Taiko Gwyneth, our experimental “booster rollup” that offers synchronous composability with Ethereum L1. In Q3, our research team finished the design and internal demos of cross-chain atomic transactions using Gwyneth.
Permissionless Preconfirmations (Phase 2): With Phase 1 preconfs stable on the mainnet, the next step is to open preconfirmations to all. This will truly decentralize the block-building process on Taiko, fulfilling the vision of proposer-prover separation.
Community Growth. We plan new community programs to grow our developer and user base. Trailblazers Season 6 will run through year-end, now with new “Undercity” challenges. Educational campaigns and community grants will ensure more people can easily start building on Taiko.
Ecosystem & Events. Looking to Q4, we will attend major blockchain conferences (e.g. Devconnect) to demo Taiko’s tech. We’re also exploring collaborations with RWA and AI to expand Taiko’s utility.
Q3 2025 was a quarter of execution and acceleration. We didn't just talk about preconfirmations; we shipped them. We didn't just promise decentralized governance, we activated it. And we didn't just hope for ecosystem growth, we built the partnerships and infrastructure to make it inevitable.
With nearly 1 billion transactions processed, a thriving community of developers and users, world-class partners like Nethermind, Chainlink, and Dune, and a clear roadmap ahead, Taiko is well-positioned to become the leading Ethereum-equivalent rollup.
The future is based. The future is fast. The future is Taiko.
Explore open positions on our job board.
Get the latest from Taiko:
Website: https://taiko.xyz.
Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.
GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.
Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.
Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.
Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.
No comments yet