Key Updates

DISE Private Beta Launch

• DISE (DeFAI Interactive Search Engine) is now live in private beta

• Early users can access the AI-powered trading assistant with natural language commands

• How to join:

  1. Visit trade.mantis.app

  2. Execute a trade.

  3. Share trade in Discord (#Join-The-Beta channel)

  4. Receive beta access (#DISE-Beta channel)

• DISE is just getting started check out what’s in store in the recently released DISE-roadmap

https://x.com/mantis/status/1887281664105324628

BorchCrypto reviewing Mantis and testing DISE private beta:

$M Token Update

• Native token ($M) officially announced

• Airdrop checker live at airdrop.mantis.app

• Comprehensive use-cases detailed including governance, staking, and agent deployment

• Next steps:

  1. Check eligibility at airdrop.mantis.app

  2. Review token utility documentation

  3. Review Token use-cases

  4. Review the latest “Why $M matters thread”

  5. Stay tuned for TGE announcement

https://x.com/mantis/status/1887471400849707492

Trading Volume Milestone

• Surpassed $50M in trading volume during Season 3

• Demonstrates growing adoption of Mantis's cross-chain trading infrastructure

• Track volume, user, reward, and user statistics at trade.mantis.app

https://x.com/mantis/status/1882559342492160012

Strategic Advisors & Ecosystem Partnerships

• Arthur Hayes (BitMEX co-founder) and Rex St. John joined as strategic advisors

• Bringing expertise in scaling trading platforms and AI/blockchain integration

• New collaborations with Phala Network, Rome Protocol, LateCapDAO, Privy, and FomoFactory

• Expanding capabilities across secure AI computation, cross-chain scalability, and MemeFi

• Read recap of these announcements:

https://x.com/mantis/status/1886833546536653051

Community Buzz & Early Alpha 👀

• Roll the DISE announcement: https://x.com/mantis/status/1886501671444078644

  • Upcoming feature to transform trading through gamification

  • Introducing probabilistic rewards for swaps

  • Social sharing elements and $M staking mechanics planned

• Recent community call teased exciting updates:

  • "Mantis Mastery" program ❓

  • New community rewards and gamification structure incoming

  • Major app and DISE feature updates

• Growing community:

  • Featured deep-dive interviews with KOLs and CT Degens

  • Multiple X Spaces appearances discussing DeFAI future

  • We had Crypto Coin Show interview our Co-Founder 0xbrainjar

• Increased engagement:

  • Threads and recognition from crypto KOLs, partners, analyst, and users:

    • https://x.com/zeuuss_01/status/1887563299019235495

    • https://x.com/mantis/status/1887546683904454691

    • https://x.com/SammyP_romo/status/1887512843282751675

    • https://x.com/mantis/status/1885009473464361310

    • https://x.com/Adrian_cooked/status/1884644356671324526

    • https://x.com/theindexshow/status/1884515676473176453

    • https://x.com/0xAndrewMoh/status/1884595211483123982

    • https://x.com/Flowslikeosmo/status/1883923936779592062

    • https://x.com/CryptoCoinShow/status/1883620436338262129

    • https://x.com/CryptoGirlNova/status/1883246416480596363

    • https://x.com/mantis/status/1883268798679273519

    • https://x.com/eli5_defi/status/1882865988393394464

    • https://x.com/mantismoments/status/1882859735634137274

    • https://x.com/stacy_muur/status/1882774800390656162

    • https://x.com/cnvrweb3/status/1882739261138407673

    • https://x.com/mantis/status/1882492813583282486

    • https://x.com/mantis/status/1882488861894594855

    • https://x.com/SammyP_romo/status/1882106593690759516

    • https://x.com/MoonlandingV/status/1882074388872249549

    • https://x.com/mantis/status/1880818959290945792

    • https://x.com/DefiDaddy_/status/1880059070666993751

  Stay connected:

  • Join Discord for early alpha drops

  • Follow @mantis for real-time updates

  • Follow our Linkedin

  • Join our Reddit

  • Watch for more surprises coming soon 👀

Partnership Details

Soon, $fragSOL will be accepted for deposit into Mantis accounts. This will allow users to pre-fund their Mantis accounts leading up to the launch of swaps on Mantis.This provides new use cases for $fragSOL: $fragSOL can be swapped cross-chain along or between Ethereum and Solana via Mantis.

About Fragmetric & $fragSOL

Fragmetric is a liquid restaking protocol that contributes to the overall security of the Solana ecosystem. The project is currently developing secure standards for liquid restaking tokens (LRTs) and vault representation tokens (VRTs). Moreover, Fragmetric plans to quantitatively evaluate the profitability and security of node consensus networks (NCNs) once their staking goes live.

Fragmetric has partnered with Jito to introduce their first LRT, $fragSOL. This is Solana’s first native LRT that is based on the Jito Staking and Restaking VRTs.

$fragSOL was created to address issues in rewards distribution and liquid staking token (LST) slashing that are associated with other LRTs:

Solana’s Token Extension’s transfer hook feature is used to precisely manage rewards distribution based on the duration that users hold LRTs:

Fragmetric’s Normalized Token Program uses different LSTs for NCN validation simultaneously, defining clear slashing ratios for different LRTs based on LSTs’ quantity and value:

For more information on Fragmetric and $fragSOL, reference their Blog or X.

About the Partnership

Mantis will leverage the following products from Dialect:

Actions are a protocol for creating and delivering Solana transactions through URLs, making Solana sharable everywhere. More specifically, actions are APIs that deliver signable transactions, and soon signable messages.

Blinks, or Blockchain Links, are clients that detect Action URLs and unfurl them into full experiences. Essentially, blinks create the interfaces for Actions. Blinks are like Link Previews with interactive capabilities. Blinks can be added directly to web or mobile apps as well as to third party sites like X.

These products from Dialect will be implemented on Mantis in the following ways:

• Actions will be implemented on the Mantis rollup. This includes implementation on the Solana Mainnet for prefunding your account. This means that transactions on the Mantis rollup can be shareable by URL.

• Blinks will also be used for the prefunding your account phase on the Mantis rollup. This will make it easier for users to participate in prefunding their Mantis accounts, such as by clicking to prefund from directly within X.

More About Dialect

Actions and Blinks were created in collaboration with Solana, with the developer stack provided by Dialect. The Actions and Blinks protocol makes it possible to share Solana transactions everywhere.

Actions and Blinks are available directly in X, with native support in leading Solana wallets like Phantom. Blinks can also be implemented with Dialect's dedicated Blinks Chrome extension.

A number of leading projects are already using Actions. This includes:

• Backpack

• Helium

• Helius

• Jupiter

• Meteora

• Phantom

• Sanctum

• Solana

• Tensor

• And more…

For further information on Dialect’s Actions and Blinks, check out their documentation and blog.

Pre-funding your account is a process referring to depositing assets into your Mantis Account before the official launch of the Rollup on mainnet. By doing so, your assets start earning native yield right away, and you position yourself to receive additional rewards and bonuses that are available to early participants. These rewards are collected as Mantis Credits. Your Mantis Account will be used to access DeFi on from anywhere when we launch the full application.

2. What types of assets can I deposit?

Round 1 allows deposits of SOL, Solana-based liquid staking tokens, and native stablecoins. Round 2 will open up deposits for all other assets, including various altcoins, from 80+ other chains.

3. Why should I pre-fund my account?

Pre-funding your account during the Deposit Phase allows you to maximize your potential rewards by earning native yield on your assets from the start. Early depositors receive daily accruing bonuses, which means the sooner you participate, the greater your potential rewards.

4. What happens to my funds after I pre-fund my account?

Once you pre-fund your account, your assets are staked to the bridge contract and begin earning native yield immediately. Depending on the assets you’ve deposited, they may be staked to Solana network validators or lent out on MarginFi to generate returns. You’ll also start accumulating Mantis Credits, and you can earn additional rewards through multipliers by completing tasks on Mantis.app.

5. What rewards do I earn?

By pre-funding your Mantis account, your assets earn native yield. Throughout Mantis Season 2 you will earn native yield, accumulate Mantis Credits, and have opportunities to receive additional rewards via multipliers.

6. What does native yield mean?

Native yield refers to the rewards users earn on their assets on the Solana L1 whilst operating on the Mantis L2. All assets in Round 1 are routed to MarginFi, allowing users to earn yield on their tokens by lending them out. Sources of yield:

• SOL converted to jitoSOL which generates PoS yield. This jitoSOL amount is then deposited into MarginFi and thereafter the Picasso Restaking layer.

• Stablecoins and LSTs are deposited into MarginFi and a representation of this stake is restaked in the Picasso Restaking Layer for additional yield.

7. How do I view my yield earned on deposits?

If you’ve deposited a stablecoin or liquid staking token eligible for native yield, your token balance will automatically rebase after the launch of the rollup. For deposits of SOL or jitoSOL, you can access and view your yield earned at any time when you choose to withdraw your tokens.

8. What are the different ranks (Shrimp, Fish, Whale, GigaWhale)?

• GigaWhale: This rank is reserved for users who are in the top 5 of the leaderboard.  15,000,000 Mantis Credits will be distributed to the Giga Whales in order of the overall ranking.

• Whale: Users who have deposited $100,000 or more.

• Dolphin: Users who have deposited between $10,000 and $99,999.

• Fish: Users who have deposited between $5,000 and $9,999.

• Shrimp: Users who have deposited less than $5,000.

9. When can I Withdraw?

During Mantis Season 2, after you pre-fund your account, your funds can be withdrawn at any time; however, your rewards will be slashed proportionally. For example, if you have earned 100 Credits based on your deposit and decide to withdraw 50% of your deposit, 50 Credits will be slashed from your rewards. Further, you will not be able to claim any native yield until the launch of the rollup.

10. Do you have a Referral Program?

Yes, Mantis has a referral program specifically for referred liquidity which consists of the following structure:

• Direct Referrals: Earn a 14% bonus on points generated by your direct invites.

• Secondary Referrals: Earn a 7% bonus on points generated by the invites of your direct referrals.

• Referral Cap: Rewards are capped at two levels—primary (direct) and secondary referrals.

11. When will you launch?

The exact launch date of the Mantis Rollup will be announced as we get closer to completion. We’re working diligently to ensure that everything is in place for a smooth and successful launch. Stay tuned to our official channels for updates on the launch timeline.

Mantis: Breaking Free from Cross-Chain Limitations

The Mantis Protocol is a Solana L2 designed to deliver chain-agnostic, optimized intent settlement. It operates through a set of rules and processes that govern cross-domain intent execution, handling the complexities behind the scenes so users can focus on their goals. Now, let’s explore the [1] Mantis App and [2] Mantis Rollup that bring this vision to life.

Pre-Fund your Account NOW:

https://www.mantis.app/

[1] The Mantis App:

The Mantis App is your direct access point to the Mantis Protocol, offering a user-friendly interface for submitting intents. Whether for single-chain or cross-chain swaps, the app simplifies the process, with the protocol handling all the complex execution behind the scenes. When the v1 version launches, users will be able to submit intents for optimized execution, enabling precise and efficient asset swaps across different blockchains.

Later, upgrades of the application will introduce additional features, such as allowing users to submit their intents on X via Solana Blinks, intent sharing and copying trades, smart money feed, and more features that help users maximize the potential of their assets and token holdings.

[2] The Mantis Rollup:

The Mantis Rollup is the core infrastructure of the Mantis Protocol, functioning as a Layer 2 (L2) solution on the Solana network. The core infrastructure of the Mantis Protocol functions as a rollup on top of Solana. By utilizing an SVM rollup architecture, Mantis delivers enhanced scalability and privacy alongside Solana's core strengths of speed and finality.

The Mantis Rollup is meticulously designed to manage the intricate backend processes by implementing and utilizing features such as bridge contracts, IBC interoperability, L1 security, and light client finality. All these features allow the Rollup to provide users with a seamless yet reliable and secure experience for their transactions. In simpler terms, aping into the newest meme-coin or participating in the next hot-yield farming opportunity should not be such a complex headache. Mantis fixes this and allows any asset swap to become as simple as expressing your desire to do so.

For more in-depth information on Mantis we encourage you to check out our documentation at docs.mantis.app as well as the blog that breaks down the Mantis Protocol, App, and Rollup in more detail.

The Journey of Mantis: From Nymph to Apex

In the Mantis universe, every upgrade is a transformation—a metamorphosis aimed at bringing additional value and utility to our community. During the Waitlist Phase, over 22,000 participants joined the realm, bringing with them around $12,000,000 in assets.

In gratitude for the early support, all Waitlist Phase participants now have exclusive early access to pre-fund their accounts one week before the public. This headstart comes with a 1.5x boost to your Mantis credits for the first week of deposits. Additionally, the boost increases to a 2x multiplier for the top 100 users on the waitlist leaderboard, calculated by the $ value of their Waitlist assets. These boosts give all Waitlist Phase participants a powerful advantage as Mantis progresses into further exciting phases.

Welcome to the Pre-Funding Phase

The Pre-Funding Phase is your chance to join the foundational journey of Mantis and is currently exclusively available for the next 7 days to those who participated in the Waitlist Phase. After 1 week Pre Funding will be open to everyone.

Early Mantis realm explorers who have joined the Mantis Waitlist Phase are now eligible to receive Credits (post deposit), honoring the enthusiasm and support for the expansive vision of the Mantis realm and protocol.

🤫TOP SECRET 🤫 if you’re new to our community and missed the Waitlist Phase, there may still be a chance to get involved early! Read the ‘New to Mantis’ section of this blog to learn how you can be recruited to the Pre-Funding Phase!

How Pre-Funding Your Account Works

Those who participated in the Waitlist Phase are now able to connect their wallet and deposit assets to the rollup.

Pre-Funding Phase

In this phase, users are given the ability to fund their Mantis Account on the rollup prior to its mainnet launch. These assets will be used to earn native yield: SOL will be staked with Solana network validators, while Solana based liquid staked tokens and native stablecoins will be lent on Marginfi and a representation of this stake restaked on Picasso's Restaking Layer.

Deposit Round 1: Initially, pre-funding your account allows you to deposit SOL, Solana LSTs, Solana-native stablecoins, earning native yield and Mantis Credits.

Deposit Round 2: Mantis will soon open the gates to a wide range of assets from Solana, Ethereum, and Cosmos, further expanding your opportunities for yield and rewards.

Participation Benefits: Pre-Funding Phase participants will be eligible for MantisCredits:

Referral Program Overview:

• Direct Referrals: Users earn a 14% bonus on points generated by their direct invites.

• Secondary Referrals: Users earn a 7% bonus on points generated by the invites of their direct referrals.

• Referral Cap: Rewards are capped at primary (direct) and secondary referrals.

• Multipliers: Receive weekly multipliers on your points via deposit levels on the dApp. Multipliers start after the first week of launch.

  • $0 to $5k - 1x multiplier

  • $5k to $10k - 1.25x multiplier

  • $10k to $100k - 1.5x multiplier

  • $100k + - 1.75x multiplier

What are the different ranks (Shrimp, Fish, Whale, GigaWhale)?

• GigaWhale: This rank is reserved for users who are in the top 5 of the leaderboard.  15,000,000 Mantis Credits will be distributed to the Giga Whales in order of the overall ranking.

• Whale: Users who have deposited $100,000 or more.

• Dolphin: Users who have deposited between $10,000 and $99,999.

• Fish: Users who have deposited between $5,000 and $9,999.

• Shrimp: Users who have deposited less than $5,000.

Waitlist Leaderboard: Participants from the Mantis Waitlist Phase will have additional multipliers on their first week of deposits:

• Top 100 leaders: 2x multiplier

• All users: 1.5x multiplier

By participating now, you’ll be positioning yourself for the launch of the Mantis Rollup and the full Mantis Application. Your early involvement not only helps secure the future of cross-chain DeFi but also unlocks exclusive Credit rewards and bonuses.

How to Pre-Fund your account:

To help you navigate this exciting phase, we’ve created a detailed guide that walks you through the pre-funding process here.📚

New to Mantis? Here’s How to Join the Realm

If you missed the Waitlist Phase, don’t worry—it’s not too late to join the Pre-Funding Phase! You can still participate early by securing a referral code from someone who was part of the Waitlist Phase. It’s a win-win: you get access to the Pre-Funding Phase, and the person who refers you earns additional % from your Credit earnings—without taking anything away from you! Once you’re in, the journey begins and you also receive access to your very own referral code that you can distribute.

Check the referral program overview in the section above for more info. Every day, 500,000 Mantis Credits are distributed among participants, with calculations based on user deposits that happen every x minutes. The sooner you dive in, the greater your Mantis Credit rewards will be. So, find a referral code, pre-fund your account, and start earning Credits today!

During Mantis Season 2, after you pre-fund your account, your funds can be withdrawn at any time; however, your rewards will be slashed proportionally. For example, if you have earned 100 credits based on your deposit and decide to withdraw 50% of your deposit, 50 credits will be slashed from your rewards.

As of now, these deposits are made to our bridge contract. These assets will not appear in the rollup until the rollup has launched.

Your final balance at the final block of Solana before rollup genesis will be your amount of assets on the rollup.

What are ephemeral rollups?

To understand ephemeral rollups, one must first understand Layer 1s, Layer 2s, and rollups in general. We give a brief explainer of each of these technologies below:

• Layer 1 (L1) chains like Solana are the foundational blockchains validating and finalizing transactions, without reliance upon any other network.

• Layer 2 (L2) chains are secondary frameworks created atop these existing L1 chains, generally in order to resolve issues with scalability by acting as a secondary location for transaction processing. L2s rely upon L1s for security and finality.

• Rollups are a popular type of L2. Rollups are layer 2 blockchains that enable transaction processing off of the main layer 1 chain. Their name is derived from their ability to “roll up” a number of transactions into a single piece of data that is sent to the L1 chain. We have already discussed the benefits of rollups in detail in this blog. To summarize, benefits include scalability, security, decentralization, independent liveness and blockspace, customizability, and privacy.

Ephemeral Rollups are a specific type of rollup created by MagicBlock and detailed in their paper by Picco and Fortugno, 2024. ERs are a configurable dedicated runtime and auxiliary layer on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). Essentially, ERs function by leveraging the SVM’s parallelizability to break up an application’s state into clusters, temporarily transferring the state to the ER. Picco and Fortugno summarize the utility of ERs as follows: “these dedicated runtimes can be customized to provide higher operational speed, configurable ticking mechanisms, provable sessions and gasless transactions without composability-scalability tradeoffs”.

Because of their unique structure, ERs overcome limitations of L2 horizontal scaling and result in the following benefits:

• Base Layer Deployment: ER programs are deployed on the Solana L1 directly instead of a separate L2, avoiding the fragmentation created by other L2 solutions.

• Use of Solana’s Infrastructure: ERs inherit many benefits from Solana including the existing parallelization, speed, security, and developer tooling.

• Customization: Ephemeral rollups have a specialized, customizable runtime.

• Straightforward Developer Experience: Ephemeral rollups have a much lower developmental burden compared to other L2 scaling solutions.

How do ephemeral rollups support L3s on Mantis?

Layer 3 (L3) chains are an advanced scaling solution that are built on rollups and other L2. By implementing ephemeral rollups on Mantis, it becomes easy for developers to build their own layer 3s atop Mantis. They will be able to do this by using MagicBlock’s Engine. Developers can delegate any account from existing Solana smart contracts into the MagicBlock Engine to access faster performances, customizable runtimes and/or dedicated blockspace associated with ERs. This allows developers to easily create new L3s for their applications, while tapping into the simultaneous benefits of Mantis and ERs.

What types of protocols will benefit from Mantis L3s?

Any protocol seeking scalability, security, interoperability, and/or intent centricity can benefit from deploying on an L3 on Mantis. Specific examples are provided below:

Games: On-chain games building on Mantis using ERs will have many benefits:

• Persistence & Autonomy: L3s built using ERs do not rely on any centralized infrastructures, meaning they cannot be stopped.

• Permissionless Composability: With ERs, game data and logic is open. This means that players and developers are able to add onto games or even interoperate with other games.

• Interoperability & Chain Abstraction: Mantis uses the Picasso Network’s IBC connections to provide interoperability between Solana, Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot, Kusama, and even more chains in the future. Games built on Mantis L3s will be able to leverage this trust-minimized interoperability.

• Scalability: L3s are the ultimate scaling solution, handling the immense amounts of data processing often associated with games.

Orderflow Destinations: These are DeFi protocols that orderflow goes to. Examples include decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, derivatives platforms, or Telegram bots. Benefits these protocols will receive from building on Mantis via ERs include:

• Increased Order Flow/Liquidity: All of these protocols can receive orderflow via Mantis, acting as solutions to users’ intents.

• Interoperability & Chain Abstraction: Protocols built on Mantis are able to natively interoperate over the IBC to Solana, Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot, Kusama, and more chains in the future.

• Scalability: Protocols that need to manage large amounts of data such as trading bots, prediction markets, and popular exchanges are easily able to handle this significant throughput of information.

• Privacy/MEV Protections: Ephemeral L3s can provide an isolated transaction environment so that sensitive user data is confidential. This can protect against negative types of MEV such as frontrunning.

Overall, any sort of protocol can benefit from the advantages of the Mantis cross-chain intent settlement framework and ephemeral L3s. If you’re a developer interested in building on a Mantis ephemeral L3, we encourage you to reach out to our team. We can’t wait to see what sort of innovations the community comes up with!

As we discuss in this article, RFQ-based swaps and decentralized exchanges (DEXes) present a superior option to standard swaps and DEXes. Key benefits include clearer, customized prices as well as enhanced transaction privacy and security. Mantis delivers these benefits to Solana for the first time - along with the additional advantages of cross-chain interoperability and the ability for anyone to join as a user or solver.

Keep reading to find out more about why it is important to bring an RFQ system to Solana, and how Mantis achieves this.

About RFQs in DeFi

RFQ is a type of quote-driven trading where a buyer essentially invites sellers to bid on the transaction/sale. RFQ prioritizes the transaction initiator’s best interests via a competition of other actors trying to fulfill the other side of their trade. RFQs can be leveraged in swaps directly. Or, they can be incorporated into organized marketplaces (RFQ decentralized exchanges) in order to deliver these benefits more effectively.

On standard DEXes, automated market makers (AMM) and liquidity pools are key features. AMMs stand at the ready to meet trades using algorithms, and liquidity pools act as a source of funds for meeting these trades.

In contrast, RFQ systems use professional market makers who provide custom quotes to users upon request. Users can then accept or decline these quotes. If the user chooses to accept the quote, a non-custodial smart contract carries out the transaction between the market maker and user.

Here’s a summary of how standard and RFQ-based DEXes compare:

When compared standard decentralized exchanges (DEXes), RFQ-based swaps thus have a number of advantages:

• No third party custodian/intermediary holding users’ assets (which would increase risk)

• More dynamic, customizable prices

• Clear, more stable pricing (prices do not change after a quote is given, such as from gas or slippage)

• More private transactions

The Mantis Solver-Based RFQ System

The Mantis rollup is home to the Mantis solver-based request-for-quote system. This is the first of its kind: currently, there are no RFQ systems on Solana, so Mantis will bring swaps with RFQs to the network for the first time. This will further enable new or existing DEXes to implement RFQs and provide their users with the associated benefits.

On Mantis, the RFQ system is carried out by our network of solvers. These solvers compete to provide the best solution (according to a scoring system prioritizing users’ intent specifications). They are able to send out quotes to various parties such as automated market makers, seeking the best deals for users. This provides best execution.

Through this design, Mantis delivers additional benefits beyond those already offered by RFQs:

• Cross-chain Interoperability: The Mantis RFQ system is cross-chain, allowing for even greater functionality and opportunities for quotes to and from Solana, not just on Solana alone.

• Accessibility: Anyone can become a user or a solver on Mantis, enabling them to benefit from best execution or rewards, respectively.

Summary

RFQs clearly provide a number of unique advantages compared to standard swap mechanisms. However, there are currently no RFQ systems in the Solana ecosystem to support these RFQ-based swaps. Mantis brings this opportunity to Solana for the first time, allowing anyone to benefit from RFQs not only on Solana but also between Solana and other IBC-enabled chains.

The concept of optimizing order execution via liquidity aggregation is not new. In fact, Uniswap’s extremely popular product UniswapX does just this. However, UniswapX is only available on Ethereum mainnet. Mantis introduces optimized order execution to Solana with enhanced cross-chain capabilities and other benefits that will be implemented in the future. As a result, Mantis fulfills an unmet market need within the Solana ecosystem.

UniswapX and the Benefits of Cross-Chain, Optimized Intents Routing

UniswapX was introduced in July 2023. Uniswap describes this product as “a new permissionless, open source (GPL), Dutch auction-based protocol for trading across AMMs and other liquidity sources”. Effectively, UniswapX introduced cross-chain, optimized routing of intents to Ethereum and its Layer 2s.

In this protocol, users submit a new type of order called Exclusive Dutch Orders. These orders specify minimum and maximum outputs a user is willing to receive on a trade over a set timeframe. Key participants in the UniswapX framework are as follows:

• Swappers: these are users of Uniswap X who submit Exclusive Dutch Orders

• Fillers: these actors pick up signed orders and compete to execute them using any source of liquidity they have access to

• Reactors: these entities settle UniswapX orders

A more detailed description of the UniswapX protocol and how it works can be found in the UniswapX Whitepaper.

Through this architecture, UniswapX introduces a number of benefits, including:

• Better prices due to aggregated liquidity

• Most swaps are gasless (meaning users don’t need the chain’s native token)

• MEV protections

• No costs for failed transactions

• Cross-chain swaps (in the future)

Since its introduction a little over a year ago, UniswapX has proven to be quite popular. Here are a few key statistics at the time of writing:

• All-time volume: $10.9 billion1

• Weekly volume: $18.2 million1

• All-time transactions: 606,4552

• Weekly transactions: 7451

• Total number of unique swappers: 242,1502

*1Data from https://dune.com/flashbots/uniswap-x *

*2Data from https://dune.com/cryptokoryo/uniswapx *

Despite its significant usership (indicating a clear market demand for its services), UniswapX remains limited to the Ethereum mainnet. Moreover, there is no protocol similar to UniswapX available on other networks like Solana. Therefore, there is a large market opportunity for another project to provide optimized intent settlement on Solana. This is where Mantis comes in: providing the many benefits of UniswapX (deriving from optimized, intent-based execution) - with additional capability for orders on Solana and other IBC-enabled chains.

How Mantis Compares to UniswapX

Similarly to Mantis, UniswapX is an auction-driven routing protocol that leverages AMMs and other sources of liquidity. Yet, there are a number of key differences that enable Mantis to provide new utility to users:

Virtual Machine & Interoperability

It is built on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), making it compatible with Ethereum natively. In comparison, Mantis is built on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), making it compatible with Solana natively. There are many benefits to Mantis’s construction as a rollup on the SVM. This includes faster speeds, customizability, privacy control, enhanced scalability, and more. We describe our rationale for building Mantis as a rollup on Solana in detail here.

Interoperability & Bridging

Both Mantis and UniswapX focus on cross-chain swaps. Mantis accomplishes this by making use of the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol connections developed by the Picasso Network. These connections allow Mantis to have broader interoperability with Ethereum and its L2s, Cosmos, Polkadot, Kusama, and more chains in the future.

As a result, swaps on Mantis are trust-minimized, with no reliance upon a third party that may misbehave. UniswapX, however, is currently only able to operate on Ethereum, though it has plans for Ethereum L2s and cross-chain swaps in the future.

Network Actors:

The solver role on Mantis is similarly mirrored on UniswapX, though it is spread across two actors: Fillers and Reactors. Fillers solve intents, while Reactors execute these solutions. On Mantis, these two functionalities are both completed by solvers.

Order Types:

UniswapX processes orders called Exclusive Dutch Orders. These closely resemble Dutch auctions. Exclusive Dutch Orders are unique in that they execute at a price dependent upon time of block inclusion. The price starts out at a value that is estimated to be better for the user than market price, then slowly decays. The decaying nature of Exclusive Dutch Orders creates competition amongst fillers. These are similar to an intent on Mantis in that these orders leave some room for flexibility.  In our v1, we will accept intents for swaps, but eventually we will enable all sorts of order types.

Summary

Here’s a summary on how these two protocols compare:

Both Mantis and UniswapX serve similar functions: aggregating liquidity and creating a competition for user orders to be solved. As a result, these protocols provide best execution. However, UniswapX remains limited to Ethereum mainnet. With Mantis, the valuable benefits of optimized intent execution are delivered to the Solana ecosystem for the first time - with additional plans for expansion into cross-chain order optimization.

About MagicBlock & Ephemeral Rollups

MagicBlock is a high-performance engine for onchain games and applications. Their end-to-end, open-source stack allows developers to create fast, composable, and elastic products on any platform.

While MagicBlock offers a number of products, Mantis will specifically be leveraging their ephemeral rollups (ERs). ERs are a configurable dedicated runtime and auxiliary layer on the SVM. Users can lock accounts to temporarily transfer state to the ER. The system uses an assert/challenge construction where the ER node operator processes transactions optimistically. These transactions are then subject to validation through a fraud-proof mechanism. If the constraints are not satisfied, the state is reverted and unlocked on the L1.

The distinguishing advantage of ERs over other rollups is that programs and assets reside directly on the base layer (ie. Solana). Transactions sent through ERs are both accelerated and fully compatible with the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) down to the bytecode level.

Benefits of ephemeral rollups include:

• Base Layer Deployment: Unlike other rollups, ephemeral rollups enable program deployment on the L1 (Solana). From here, programs are able to interact with existing protocols and assets. Thus, fragmentation is avoided.

• Use of Solana’s Infrastructure: Developers building with ephemeral rollups can leverage the existing Solana infrastructure and tooling. There is no need to learn or create a new framework.

• Customization: Ephemeral rollups have a specialized runtime allowing for customizations.

• High Scalability: Ephemeral rollups enable the scalability of L2s without the typically intense development burden.

The steps involved in using ephemeral rollups are as follows:

1. A program defining the instructions and executable logic communicates with the delegation program. This initiates a transaction requesting an ER provision. The transaction also specifies any details about the ER’s configurations.

2. The provisioner monitors the delegation program and detects the provisioning request. The provisioner then launches the corresponding runtime based on the configuration.

3. The program delegates accounts to the delegation program, enabling it to update state and perform settlement. From here on, delegated accounts are only updated within the ER.

4. Clients executing transactions or retrieving data can send transactions to an RPC router. The router forwards transactions to the specified chain.

5. Upon ER termination, the sequencer updates the state on the base layer.

6. Once the ER concludes, account control reverts to the owner program and the provisioner terminates the ER.

This process is shown below:

As a result, state can be managed across multiple accounts. This facilitates scalability while programs are still directly deployed on an L1 instead of a separate L2.

For further details on ephemeral rollups, reference MagicBlock’s ephemeral rollups Whitepaper or documentation.

This article is a part of a series of articles discussing what Mantis believes a rollup on SVM requires. In this series, we explore the different components that we needed to architect for the Mantis rollup.

What is Finality?

Finality is an essential feature in blockchain systems: it is the assurance that a transaction will not be reverted after being added to a block. Without finality, blockchains would not be immutable—which is a major selling point of this technology.

Thus, in architecting an SVM rollup, finality was a critical concern.

IBC-Compliant Finality

Ensuring finality on our rollup is a bit more complicated than usual. This is because the Mantis rollup is IBC-enabled. The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol has a number of requirements such as those described in Interchain Standards 23 and 24.

One requirement is that chains must have light clients that support state proofs in order to interoperate with IBC. State proofs serve as a verifiable mechanism for summarizing the state of a blockchain. A more technical definition of state proofs is that they are a method for succinctly proving a specific key on the blockchain ledger has a specific value (a membership proof) or does not exist (a non-membership proof). Light clients on IBC use state commitments from a chain’s verified block to verify proofs. As a result, light clients can trust key-value mapping on counterparty chains without having to trust these chains itself.

Yet, a number of blockchains such as Solana and TRON lack state proofs. The Mantis rollup is built on the Solana Virtual Machine, and thus this is a critical problem for us to overcome. So far, we have been able to come up with two solutions to blockchains lacking these IBC requirements:

1. A guest blockchain

2. Alternative proofs

In this article, we detail these alternative mechanisms for facilitating finality in a manner compliant with IBC requirements.

1. The Guest Blockchain

We have already reported upon our guest blockchain design in detail here and here. The guest blockchain was developed in conjunction with our collaborators on the research team at INESC-ID Distributed Systems Group, associated with the University of Lisbon.

To summarize, this design includes the creation of a new blockchain (the guest blockchain) that functions atop a non-IBC-compatible chain (the host blockchain). The guest blockchain functions similarly to a layer 2 of the underlying host chain, but meets all IBC requirements by implementing state proofs. Thus, the host chain is able to interoperate with the IBC via the guest chain. Initially, we have implemented this approach for the Solana blockchain.

2. Alternative Proofs

The guest blockchain solution is quite developmentally intensive, and must be customized for each chain and whatever IBC requirements the chain is missing. Thus, we have sought a means to replicate state proofs on the SVM itself (including on the Mantis rollup).  We use the following main mechanisms to deliver IBC-compatible proofs on Solana:

The Accounts Delta Hash

This alternative proof system uses Solana’s accounts delta Merkle tree. The tree stores all accounts which have changed within a particular Solana slot. This enables proof generation of an account's value whenever it changes. The commitment of the accounts delta tree (an accounts delta hash) is encoded within Solana’s bankhash which allows light clients to verify such proofs.

However, this process alone is not enough.  If an account hasn’t changed, it’s not possible to prove the account’s value.  Moreover, it is inefficient to have to create a new Program Derived Address account (PDA) for each key-value pair an IBC module might need to store.

A Witnessed Trie

Therefore, we also introduce an on-chain, witnessed sealuable trie. This is the same trie we leverage in the guest blockchain solution. This trie offers state proofs. Therefore, the only remaining factor needed for finality is this trie’s state commitment. To address this, we introduce a witness account storing state commitment that stays in sync with the trie. As a result, the trie’s state commitment is provable via the account’s delta hash.

By combining these components, we have created an alternative proof that meets the state proof requirements of the IBC. Thus, the SVM rollup is able to have finality. For more technical details on this alternative proof mechanism, reference this research forum post by Michał Nazarewicz.

If you’re interested in the current research we’re developing in collaboration with our partners, you’re in the right place. Read this article to find out the answers to the following questions:

• What is the Request for Proposal (RFP) Program?

• What are the current RFPs and who is working on them?

• How can I hear more directly from these research partners?

• How do these RFPs align with the Picasso and Mantis architecture and vision?

What is the RFP Program?

Earlier this year, the Composable Foundation (the organization behind Mantis and the Picasso Network) announced the launch of the Research Request for Proposal (RFP) Program. This initiative is a part of our efforts to be working in the open, providing the community with clear insight into the research and development we are doing. Moreover, the RFP program has enabled us to provide more structure to our research endeavors, which have been a focus at Mantis and Picasso since the projects were established.

Specifically, each RFP represents a research question that Mantis and Picasso are investigating. Data collection and analysis and/or experiments for each RFP are targeted at providing answers to these research questions.

What are the current RFPs and who is working on them?

Through our RFP program, our team has joined forces with industry-leading researchers to look for answers to some of the most pressing questions in the DeFi space. We are incredibly pleased with the high level of interest we have had in our RFPs, with most of these projects now assigned to research collaborators.

A complete list of our current RFPs and who is working on them is provided below:

1. Designing Solvers to Provide Optimal Solutions for Cross-Domain Intents

   1. Researcher: Bruno Mazorra

2. An Options Protocol for Pre-Reserving Cross-Domain Blockspace

   1. Researchers: Matheus Ferreira, Bruno Mazorra

3. Making Previously Incompatible Chains IBC-Capable

   1. Researchers: Miguel Matos & team at INESC-ID/Universidade de Lisboa

4. A Scalable, Faster CosmWasm STM Product

   1. Researchers: Miguel Matos & team at INESC-ID/Universidade de Lisboa

5. A Fast Consensus for Cosmos SDK Chains

   1. Researchers: Miguel Matos & team at INESC-ID/Universidade de Lisboa

6. Valuing Cross-Chain Bundles and MEV

   1. Researchers: Zeshun Shi

7. Understanding & Minimizing Dead Weight Loss (Enabling Partial Blocks)

   1. Researchers: unassigned

8. Introducing Cross-Rollup Atomicity Execution and Mempool matching into Shared Sequencer Design

   1. Researchers: unassigned

9. Cost of Pre-Confirmations & Creating a Market for Sequencers Distributing Pre-Confirmations

   1. Researchers: Primev, mteam

10. Partial Block Auctions for Sequencers

    1. Researchers: unassigned

11. Pre-Confirmation Mechanisms

    1. Researchers: 20squares

12. Cross-Chain Governance Over IBC

    1. Researchers: unassigned

13. Bitcoin IBC

    1. Researchers: unassigned

14. Bitcoin MEV

    1. Researchers: 20squares

15. Integrating Uniswap V4 Hooks into MANTIS

    1. Researchers: unassigned

16. Cross-Domain MEV Auctions

    1. Researchers: unassigned

17.  Understanding Solana Fee Markets & Congestion

    1. Researchers: unassigned

18. Demystification of Cross-Domain Signal MEV

    1. Researchers: unassigned

19. Defensive Rebalancing for Automated Market Makers

    1. Researcher: Maurice Herlihy

A few other pending RFPs are also coming soon.

How can I hear more directly from these research partners?

We will be hosting ask me anything (AMA) talks on X with our research partners. Keep an eye out for upcoming announcements about these AMAs.

How do these RFPs align with the Picasso and Mantis architecture and vision?

At first glance, it may seem like our RFPs seem a bit disjointed from one another. However, these RFPs actually are all individual pieces of the puzzle of actualizing cross-chain bridging, intents, and more. All of our RFPs tie into different components of Mantis (our cross-chain intent settlement framework) and the Picasso Network (a cross-chain IBC-based bridging system).

To understand how all of these RFPs fit together, let’s first recap the Mantis v1 architecture:

1. intents (preferences for a cross-chain transaction) are submitted to the Mantis interface via the Mantis rollup directly or via another IBC-connected chain like Solana or Ethereum.

2. User funds are escrowed on the source chain or the rollup (where the intent is submitted).

3. All intents then flow to the Mantis rollup. From here, a smart contract on the Mantis rollup sends intents to an off-chain auctioneer.

4. Information on intents is sent to solvers.

5. Solvers submit solutions (e.g. the output amount of a swap) for user intents to the rollup.

6. Solutions are scored off-chain by the auctioneer.

7. Once the winning solution is determined, the solver that proposed it must execute the intent. The solver makes the necessary state transitions to the respective destination chains.

8. Once the intent solution is executed, proof of success is sent to the rollup and the source chain via IBC.

This architectural flow is summarized below:

The layers involved in this architecture are shown below:

To summarize, the intents layer sits at the top of the Mantis architecture. Here, intents are submitted and solvers compete to provide the best solution. The next layer is the blockspace marketplace, which we are developing to make blockspace allocation more efficient. This addresses the market between searchers who need blockspace and validators that have blockspace to offer. Below this is the commitments layer, which supports this marketplace between searchers and validators by ensuring that both parties uphold their end of the deal (such as through staking, bonding, or prepayment). This is a focus for us as it helps balance the dynamic between blockspace and orderflow; blockspace can be efficiently allocated for all orderflow on Mantis and beyond. Finally, this is all underpinned by the settlement layer, where orders are carried out for final settlement over the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol.

Now, let’s explore how all of the RFPs fit into this architecture:

As shown in the above diagram, our RFPs (the dark green boxes) can fit into general categories (the light green boxes), each relating to different components of our architecture. These categories are:

1. Rollups: Rollups are a great way to enhance scalability and speed. However, rollups are largely limited to the Ethereum ecosystem. Even in the Ethereum space, rollups are still relatively new. Thus, we aim to explore how to further improve rollups, such as our own Solana Virtual Machine rollup (the Mantis rollup).

2. Intents: Intents are being hailed as a solution for improving the user experience and user outcomes, allowing the user to put in a more general outline for a transaction, with the details being filled in by entities like solvers. This optimizes execution and simplifies the user experience, especially cross-chain. WIth Mantis and other intent-centric architectures emerging, it is important to explore how to best implement these architectures.

3. Solvers: In intent-centric architectures, solvers often compete to provide users with the best solutions. To provide users with best execution, it is important for these solvers and their solutions to be optimized. Thus, this is an area of research focus relevant to Mantis.

4. Maximal Extractable Value (MEV): Our goal is to maximize overall welfare of users and other actors within blockchain systems, and we predict MEV to be an externality arising from these efforts. Thus, our goal is neither to minimize nor to maximize MEV. Instead, we aim to not just describe MEV, but to consider who creates these opportunities and who benefits from them. Often, MEV provides various actors within the blockchain ecosystem with the opportunity to enhance their earnings. This can be used as an incentive for entities contributing positively to systems like Mantis. Moreover, MEV frequently helps improve the efficiency of the space, such as by improving price alignment across various exchanges. For these reasons, we are exploring MEV, especially in its understudied cross-chain context.

5. Preconfirmations & Blockspace allocation: Preconfrimations (preconfs) for rollup blocks offer an opportunity to speed up transactions for users and protocols. Yet, existing preconf mechanisms are largely in their early development stages. To address this, we are working to understand how preconfs can be best implemented for rollups like the Mantis rollup in a manner that is secure, efficient, and fast. Also relevant to block efficiency, is the topic of blockspace allocation. Blockspace is a highly desirable commodity on blockchains. However, blockspace allocation is often very inefficient. Thus, we are exploring pre-reservation of blocks cross-chain in order to improve the allocation of blockspace.

6. Block Creation: We are working to enable partial block creation in order to minimize dead weight loss and improve overall efficiency of the system.

7. Existing Chain Improvements: Though there are a number of incredibly successful and popular blockchains in the DeFi space, these chains still often have limitations (such as the congestion issues facing Solana). Cross-chain DeFi is not effective if the involved chains themselves are not effective. Therefore, we are exploring ways to improve existing IBC-enabled chains so that our solutions are effective end-to-end.

8. IBC Interoperability: IBC is the cross-chain communication protocol at the core of Picasso and Mantis’s infrastructures, enabling our own ecosystems to interoperate with other chains, serving as an IBC hub. The more chains that are IBC-enabled, the more chains that we can connect with our architecture. However, the IBC has a number of requirements that not all chains meet. As a result, we are developing ways to make more chains IBC-capable, in addition to expanding general use cases of IBC such as cross-chain governance.

Combined, these categories allow Mantis to research and subsequently improve all areas of our tech stack. Ultimately, this will enable us to deliver the best products to users and other DeFi participants, furthering our vision of chain-abstracted, intent-centric DeFi.

In this article, explore how this process of managing intents works on Mantis.

Background: Trustlessness and the IBC Protocol

Trustlessness is a term that often confuses people. Isn’t trust a good thing? If trust is good, then is trustlessness bad? The answers are not what someone new to these terms might think.

When we talk about trust or something being “trusted” in DeFi, we are referring to the fact that we need to trust a third party to behave as expected in order for a protocol or process to work properly. Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin defines trust as “the use of any assumptions about the behavior of other people”. Trust in the DeFi space essentially means that you have to trust a stranger to do something in order for you to get your desired result. This term ties in with the concept of “centralization” as well. If a specific entity has control over a particular part of a system, centralization increases.

Of course, the trusted third party can be incentivized to behave as expected with rewards, or disincentivized to misbehave with slashing or other punishments. But sometimes, there can be external incentives that may make a trusted entity misbehave - such as the opportunity to earn more than the rewards presented by behaving as expected.

Thus, we have turned to truslessness as a pillar of decentralized finance. Vitalik Buterin defines trustlessness as “the ability of the application to continue operating in an expected way without needing to rely on a specific actor to behave in a specific way even when their interests might change and push them to act in some different unexpected way in the future”. In other words, something is trustless when we do not need a third party to behave a certain way in order for a protocol or process to work properly.

The Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol was created as a trustless mechanism for cross-chain bridging. As the Picasso Network has previously described, in terms of trust assumptions, IBC-based bridging is superior to centralized, permissioned, and optimistic bridges. It is comparable to ZK bridges, which are a trustless mechanism for bridging but are not suitable for connecting all chains. This is the main reason why Mantis selected IBC as our bridging mechanism of choice.

IBC connections on Mantis are facilitated by the Picasso Network. Picasso has expanded the reach of IBC without introducing new trust assumptions. Now, IBC connects Cosmos/the Interchain, Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, and Kusama. Picasso has plans to further expand the IBC to other networks as well, such as by creating an IBC Bitcoin connection.

Trustlessly Settling Cross-Chain Intents with Mantis

Some people have made the argument that intents rely on off-chain, trusted bridging - and thus are incongruous with the ethos of decentralized finance. However, intents on Mantis do not use trusted bridging and instead implement trust-minimized bridging via the IBC. Here’s more details on how cross-chain intents are settled on Mantis v1:

1. Intents (preferences for a cross-chain transaction) are submitted to the Mantis interface via the Mantis rollup directly or via another IBC-connected chain like Solana or Ethereum.

2. User funds are escrowed on the source chain or the rollup (where the intent is submitted).

3. All intents then flow to the Mantis rollup. From here, a smart contract on the Mantis rollup sends intents to an off-chain auctioneer.

4. Information on intents is sent to solvers.

5. Solvers submit solutions (i.e. transaction routes) for user intents to the rollup.

6. Solutions are scored off-chain by the auctioneer.

7. Once the winning solution is determined, the solver that proposed it must execute the intent. This is done by sending out the transaction over the IBC protocol (via the Picasso Network) to any relevant chains.

8. Once the transaction is completed, proof of success is sent to the rollup.

This lifecycle is depicted in the diagram below:

As you can see, the IBC is used in all cross-chain operations on Mantis. In this model, there is minimal trust involved. The only trusted parties (and an explanation of how the trust in them is minimized) on Mantis are as follows:

The IBC Protocol:

This is used in the final step of sending funds from Mantis to the destination chain. IBC was selected as Mantis’s mechanism for cross-chain operations because it is trust-minimized. However, Mantis still places trust in the IBC protocol itself.

IBC trusts only the consensus of transferring and receiving chains, imposing no new trust requirements itself. It relies upon light clients to facilitate communication between connected chains. Light clients are lightweight representations of one blockchain that live in the state machine of another blockchain. Specifically, light clients keep track of a blockchain’s consensus algorithm by verifying block headers and Merkle proofs.

The Auctioneer:

On Mantis, trust is placed in the auctioneer (initially, an off-chain actor) to deposit escrowed user funds. However, the auctioneer's power is limited in scope. They can, at most, censor intents and solutions. In addition, Mantis has incentives and checks and balances in place to discourage any incorrect information sent to the solvers by auctioneers. They do not hold users' funds at any point in the process. Once a solver submits a solution, proof of this submission is made via IBC. This eliminates the need for trust in the auctioneer at this stage.

The interests of the auctioneer are generally aligned with those of solvers and users. Better solutions typically result in higher fees paid to the auctioneer. The result is an incentive for fair and efficient operation. While off-chain agreements between solvers and the auctioneer are theoretically possible, such collusion would likely be statistically observable by other solvers. This provides a form of checks and balances within the system.

This structure aims to create a trustless or trust-minimized environment where the auctioneer's role is important but constrained. Moreover, multiple parties have incentives to maintain the integrity of the system.

Key Takeaways

At Mantis, we think that it is incredibly important to prioritize trust-minimization. This is especially important in cross-chain bridges, as trusted or centralized bridges are more often the subjects of exploits. In contrast, trust-minimized bridges better secure user assets.

Thus, we have implemented IBC for cross-chain operations on the Mantis protocol. As IBC is trustless, Mantis is able to uphold the ideals of decentralization and deliver an optimally secure and fair user experience.

Mantis is working with Termina to add Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol compatibility into their existing tech stack. Termina is a Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) RaaS platform that enables Solana block deployment in minutes. Through the current partnership, Termina’s product will become IBC-compatible.

Thus, all projects built on Termina’s SVM Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform will have interoperability with not only Solana but also Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot, Kusama, and any other blockchains that integrate with IBC in the future. This means that developers on Termina will get all the benefits of building on the SVM, in addition to the benefits of trust-minimized interoperability over IBC.

About Termina

Built by Nitro Labs, Termina is the first Rollup-as-a-Service platform for the SVM. It acts as an execution platform for SVM blockspace.

Developers innovating on new use cases can use Termina as an abstraction layer for greater performance guarantees and customization than the base layer provides. For instance, developers can launch a new chain using leading Solana frameworks. They can also customize the stack with modular options.

Advantages of the SVM/Solana that developers can easily leverage through Termina include:

• Customizable SVM rollups optimized for high-performance use cases

• Local fee markets and low costs

• Deep liquidity and a rich DeFi ecosystem

Through Termina, benefits and infrastructure from the SVM can be leveraged into new rollups, batcher, or appchains. A custom stack is offered for each of these:

Termina is also focused on interoperability. To create an execution environment for the SVM with any L1, Termina serves as an abstraction layer. Moreover, Mantis will be working with Termina to integrate with the IBC. Thus, much like the Mantis rollup itself, rollups built on Termina will have the advantages of the Solana ecosystem while also being seamlessly connected with all other IBC-connected blockchains.

Termina’s waitlist is now open. If you’re interested in developing with Termina, register for the waitlist here.

For further details on Termina, reference their blog or documentation.

Mantis is happy to share that we are kicking off a partnership with Orca, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana. This collaboration will involve integrating swaps on Orca into the Mantis framework. Therefore, the Orca DEX will serve as a potential solution for user intents on Mantis.

How the Partnership Will Work

Mantis will leverage Orca’s exchange to facilitate Solana-based swaps. This means that asset swaps on Orca can be used as a part of solutions for settling user intents on Mantis.

Mantis is particularly excited about this partnership, as Orca has significant liquidity and swapping options that will soon be available within Mantis. With the intent solution space thus broadened on Mantis, users may get better execution: Orca may be a part of the best settlement route for a given intent.

More About Orca

Orca is Solana’s leading CLMM-based DEX providing users with the best DeFi experience:

• For Traders: A fast and reliable trading interface

• For Liquidity Providers (LPs): Low fees and a variety of liquidity pools

• For Builders: A robust set of tools (open-sourced smart contract, SDK) ensuring seamless development & integrations

Because of these strengths, Orca has become quite popular amongst users. Orca has significant presence within the Solana DeFi ecosystem with strong numbers since genesis: $140B+ in trading volume, $240M+ in LP fees, and $25M+ in protocol revenue.

On Orca, users are able to:

• Trade: Nearly any fungible token on Solana can be traded within seconds and with low fees. Competitive prices are ensured thanks to Orca’s Fair Price Indicator.

• Provide Liquidity: Users can earn fees from millions in daily trade volumes on Orca, optimizing their capital efficiency with Whirlpools (Orca’s concentrated liquidity product)

You can experience the key features at orca.so.

In addition, Orca also offers set of tools for developers, including:

• An open-source SDK for enabling integrations (which Mantis is using in the current partnership)

• Permissionless pools for listing assets at token launches, in pairs with any SPL token

To find out more about Orca and its benefits, check out its blog and documentation.

This article is a part of a series of articles discussing what Mantis believes an SVM rollup on Solana requires. In this series, we explore the different components that we needed to architect for the Mantis rollup.

Summary

True rollups are able to deliver the same security guarantees of their underlying L1. Without this characteristic, the Mantis rollup would simply be a sidechain and it would not inherit the security of Solana. This would have meant we would have needed to bootstrap our own security system. Instead, we implement all rollup requirements into the Mantis L2, including censorship resistance and forced withdrawals.

In this manner, the Mantis rollup is able to leverage the significant security of the Solana ecosystem immediately upon rollup launch.

Security on Solana

The Solana ecosystem offers many benefits. One key advantage of Solana is how well secured it is. This security is implemented via proof-of-stake (PoS): users stake assets to validators to provide crypto-economic security for the network.

Staking is massively popular on Solana. At the time of writing, 65% of SOL tokens (approximately 305 million SOL) are staked (source). This is around $43.7 billion worth of tokens - providing a significant amount of security for Solana. Accessing this security is one of the many reasons why Mantis chose to build a rollup on Solana.

Rollup Requirements

There are two main processes that must be upheld for an L2 to derive the same security as its L1 and be considered a rollup:

1. Censorship Resistance: Rollups implement censorship resistance by implementing rollback based on the L1. Rollup blocks are validated by their L1. If the L1 says the transaction is invalid and does not accept the transaction, the rollup rolls it back. This guarantees that nodes executing L2 transactions cannot prevent user transaction submissions - as blocks from L2 must match those on L1.

2. Forced Withdrawals: Rollups enable forced withdrawals from the L1 using the L2. This is critical in preserving users’ assets in the event that the L2 stops running. This is made possible because a rollup relies on the consensus of the underlying L1. Specifically, the state root can be used to make a forced withdrawal from the rollup to the L1 if the L2 goes down.

Meeting These Requirements on Mantis

Here’s how Mantis is able to meet the above two rollup requirements and leverage the security of the Solana L1:

1. Censorship Resistance

   Mantis L2 transactions will be submitted on the L1. Thus, transactions cannot be censored at the L2 level and the Mantis rollup inherits the censorship resistance of the Solana L1. To facilitate this, we need there to be a way Solana can force the Mantis rollup to execute a transaction. We will accomplish this by making the Mantis rollup finality contingent upon IBC light client updates. Specifically, the IBC light client we have created on Solana will be able to reject updates even if it is valid according to the L2’s protocol. If there are valid transactions sent through the Mantis rollup, Solana will accept client updates only if they have proof that these valid transactions have been executed.

2. Forced Withdrawals

   On Mantis, forced withdrawals will be facilitated by having Solana maintain the balances of accounts on the rollup. Solana will not have to replay the entire rollup history as it can use transaction and state proofs. This feature, in combination with the previously described light client update rejection mechanism, allows forced withdrawals: the light client on Solana can give assets to users without waiting for confirmation on the L2 that assets were burnt there. We address concerns of double spending here by introducing a long delay where Solana can confirm the Mantis rollup is nonfunctional.

Further Readings

Additional details on how and why Mantis implemented censorship resistance and forced withdrawals have been discussed by Michał Nazarewicz in the Composable Research Forum post here.

A good primer of sidechains and rollups (and how each uses the L1) is available by Infura here.

In short, orderflow involves all of the trades on any given market. The more orderflow there is, the more liquidity there is. This means that transactions happen more efficiently for users. More orderflow also means more earnings opportunities for other entities in a marketplace, such as solvers.

Keep reading to find out how we break down the definition of orderflow for both TradFi and DeFi. We also explain why cross-chain orderflow is especially important, and explain our steps to ensuring significant orderflow on Mantis.

Defining Orderflow in TradFi

In traditional finance (TradFi), orders are instructions to a broker or firm to buy or sell a security on behalf of an investor. Orders can contain information including:

• A specified price

• Timing of the trade

• Any conditions on the trade occurring or being canceled

There are many types of orders in TradFi. The three main types are:

• Market Orders: An order to buy or sell at the current market price.

• Limit Orders: An order to buy or sell at a specific price or better.

• Stop Orders: An order to buy or sell at a specific market price known as the “stop price”.

Orderflow can then be defined as all of these buy orders (bids) and sell orders (asks) combined.  This means that orderflow is the sum of supply and demand in a particular market.

Importantly, orderflow is valuable. In TradFi, brokers or firms derive value from orderflow by charging fees to investors.

Defining Orderflow in DeFi

Orderflow in DeFi is very similar to orderflow in TradFi: it is the sum of all orders or trades (that later become finalized transactions) within a particular market. For example, the orderflow on Uniswap v2 would be all orders on that exchange.

Like in TradFi, orderflow in DeFi is very valuable. When orderflow flows through a particular DeFi market, actors in that marketplace have the opportunity to earn rewards and fees for interacting with that orderflow. For example, on Mantis, users will pay a fee to have their intents settled into finalized transactions. All intents on Mantis comprise orderflow. Solvers on Mantis are able to earn rewards for optimally solving and executing user intents.

Orderflow in DeFi is also valuable as it brings liquidity into a particular market. For example, users of Osmosis bring liquidity to the platform in the form of assets they are looking to exchange. The liquidity from one order can then be used to form the other side of the trade on another order. Ample liquidity (thanks to ample orderflow) on a marketplace helps to ensure trades go through effectively and at a reasonable time and price.

The Importance of Cross-Chain Orderflow

As we have explained, orderflow is clearly very important in DeFi in general. We would argue that orderflow is even more important in cross-chain DeFi. That is because the cross-chain DeFi space opens up a plethora of new opportunities for users - some of which can be quite valuable.

Yet, users will not be able to capitalize on cross-chain opportunities without a number of prerequisites in place:

• Cross-chain bridging: Users need a secure mechanism to bring assets between different ecosystems, such as the IBC bridge delivered by the Picasso Network.

• Cross-chain applications: A cross-chain application like Mantis allows users to tap into the expanse of cross-chain DeFi from one location.

• Cross-chain liquidity: Cross-chain liquidity (resulting from cross-chain orderflow) is necessary to facilitate user trades between different ecosystems.

Because cross-chain liquidity is so essential for cross-chain trades to be executed, Mantis is working hard to bootstrap orderflow on its protocol. For example, we have partnered with bloXroute to process their orderflow between Ethereum and Solana. We also have a number of other collaborations in the works to ensure that there is ample cross-chain liquidity on Mantis. As a result, user intents on Mantis can be processed quickly and effectively. This will allow users to capitalize upon the best available cross-chain opportunities without interruption or delay.

Current State of AI in DeFi

Artificial intelligence is a massive sector of technology, and only growing. For example, the size of the AI market is currently around $184 billion, and its annual growth rate (CAGR) is predicted to be 28.46% between 2024 and 2030 (Statista). AI is certainly making its mark in blockchain and DeFi, delivering optimizations in areas like data management, transaction efficiency, and energy consumption. In fact, the market size of blockchain-powered AI is predicted to be over $980 million in 2030 (Spherical Insights). One incredibly popular example of AI in decentralized finance is crypto trading bots (such as those found on Telegram), which automate and optimize transactions. Other examples include AI-based protocols and applications.

Further Improving AI Transactions via Mantis

We are aiming to make Mantis’s cross-chain intent settlement capabilities leverageable by various types of AI agents. Partner protocols’ existing AI tech stacks can be used to generate these AI agents. AI agents can then be used to submit intents on behalf of their users at optimal times to the Mantis framework.

Making Recommendations to Users

There are near limitless possibilities for how AI agents can leverage the Mantis framework. Our suggestion is that these agents grab on-chain data in order to make recommendations to users for what intents they should submit through Mantis. The flow of this would look as follows:

1. A user submits their profile/wants to an AI agent.

Example: The user wants to get more involved in the Solana ecosystem. So, they are looking for opportunities to swap their Ethereum-based assets for Solana-based assets at the best price.

1. AI agents monitor on-chain data for opportunities that fit a user’s profile or wants.

2. When the AI agent identifies an opportunity fitting the user’s desires, they present it to the user. In fact, the AI agent can make a number of recommendations at once and present these simultaneously.

Example: The AI agent has found that it is a good time to trade ETH for either SOL or jupSOL, based on the current market conditions.

1. The user accepts the recommendation.

Example: The user opts to swap ETH for jupSOL.

1. The AI agent submits an intent to Mantis on behalf of this user reflecting the selected recommendation. This submission is done using the Mantis Intents SDK (described below).

2. The Mantis network of solvers competes to settle this intent with best execution, sending proposed solution routes to the Mantis auctioneer to be scored based on how well they fit the intent.

3. The winning solution route is determined, and the winning solver must execute this route in order to be rewarded. The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol is used for cross-chain settlement.

Example: The user’s ETH on Ethereum is sent to Solana over IBC and then swapped for jupSOL.

Conditional Intents

Using the above process, AI agents become capable of handling time-based conditional intents. For example, a user may want to make a particular swap at the best price within the next 48 hours. They provide this information to the AI agent, which makes a prediction about when the best price will be within this time constraint. Then, at this time, the AI agent submits an intent to carry out the swap to Mantis. . This abstracts conditionality away from solvers and puts it in the hands of AI agents who likely have more powerful algorithms to determine the best timing of swaps. Then, solvers are left to handle identification and execution of the best transaction route at that time. In this manner, the strengths and optimizations of the Mantis protocol and of AI agents are able to synergize, providing the best execution.

How it Works: The Mantis Intents SDK

Mantis can be accessed by any application via its intents software development kit (SDK). This SDK interacts with the expression layer of Mantis where users express their intents and these intents are received and interpreted by solvers. The intent SDK allows intent expression to be generalized, so Mantis can process and execute intents from many sources. These sources thus leverage the Mantis/Picasso architecture and become intent-centric themselves. In this manner, Mantis acts as back-end processing and chain abstraction for AI agents. This in turn enables support for AI agents to create intelligent transaction routes.

AI agents and protocols are able to tap into Mantis by pointing to the remote procedure call (RPC) of Mantis, as shown in the diagram below:

This will let AI agents submit user intents at strategic times to achieve best execution, with transactions enabled over all IBC-connected chains. This integration can even be directly integrated into the Mantis rollup on Solana.

Benefits for AI Agents

If an AI protocol integrates Mantis through the intents SDK, it will gain the following value adds:

• Revenue Share: Orderflow from a unique location will receive a  revenue share based on order flow origination. This implies that any AI agent directing unique order flow to Composable automatically receives that revenue share as part of the partnership, once Composable processes the given order.

• Cross-Chain Processing: Mantis serves as a processing back-end for all things cross-chain. Thus, AI agents partnering with Mantis can have all sorts of cross-chain operations processed for them.

Users of these AI protocols integrating with Mantis gain the following benefits:

• Intent-Centricity: These AI agents will be able to process intents, not just transactions. Unlike transactions (which explicitly specify exact steps to take), intents are flexible. They describe a general goal but need other direct or indirect operations in order to form a final balanced transition that satisfies all of the user’s constraints. Intents can be conceptualized as a means by which users express their preferences across various domains without specifying the methods to achieve desired outcomes. Thus, intents offer the possibility of optimized execution for users.

• Conditional Intents/Intelligent Transaction Routes: AI agents will be able to create intelligent transaction routes, which even further improves execution for users. For example, AI agents can submit user intents when prices are optimized (e.g. submitting a buy order when prices are low). This will provide best execution to intents submitted by/through these AI agents, even further optimizing their transactions.

Open Call for AI Partners

If you have an AI protocol and are interested in integrating Mantis, you can reach out to us on X or Discord.

So, what are the architectural features that actually facilitate chain-agnostic intent settlement on Mantis? The answer is:

• The Mantis Protocol is a set of rules and processes that governs how Mantis is able to facilitate optimal cross-domain intent execution.

• The Mantis Rollup is a layer 2 (L2) of the Solana network where the Mantis protocol is built.

• The Mantis App enables users to interact with the Mantis protocol through a streamlined interface.

Find out more about these architectural components powering Mantis below.

The Mantis Protocol

Like all blockchain protocols, the Mantis protocol is a set of rules governing transaction execution. The Mantis protocol is designed to facilitate optimal execution of cross-domain intent via a competition of solvers. In this protocol, users sign intents which are contained on a private rollup mempool. Solvers are staked agents that can a) observe the intents in the mempool and b) post solutions to intents in the auctioneer contract. The auctioneer contract scores the solutions based on how well they fit constraints the user has set. The winner of the auction is responsible for settling the intent along the execution path they have proposed.

In its version 1, the Mantis protocol will operate along the following steps:

1. Intents (preferences for a cross-chain transaction) are submitted to the Mantis interface via the Mantis rollup directly or via another IBC-connected chain like Solana or Ethereum.

2. User funds are escrowed on the source chain or the rollup (where the intent is submitted).

3. All intents then flow to the Mantis rollup. From here, a smart contract on the Mantis rollup sends intents to an off-chain auctioneer.

4. Information on intents is sent to solvers.

5. Solvers submit solutions (i.e. transaction routes) for user intents to the rollup.

6. Solutions are scored off-chain by the auctioneer.

7. Once the winning solution is determined, the solver that proposed it must execute the intent. This is done by sending out the transaction over the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol (via the Picasso Network) to any relevant chains.

8. Once the transaction is completed, proof of success is sent to the rollup.

This flow is summarized below:

The Mantis Rollup

All DeFi protocols must be built on some sort of blockchain ecosystem. We opted to use a rollup on Solana to build Mantis. This allows us to capitalize upon the unique benefits of both the Solana blockchain and rollups:

• Rollup Benefits:

  • Scalability

  • Security, decentralization, and interoperability of the underlying Layer 1 (L1)

  • Built-in proofs

  • Sovereign liveness and blockspace, separate from the L1

  • Customizability

  • Privacy

• Solana Benefits:

  • Fast transaction finalization

  • Privacy control

  • Customizability

  • Native IBC integration through Picasso’s IBC connections

However, rollups have been limited to the optimistic or ZK rollups in the Ethereum ecosystem. Thus, Composable created its own rollup design on Solana: the Mantis rollup, the first Solana Virtual Machine rollup.

The Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) is Solana’s execution environment, processing programs and data for the network. Compared to other VMs like the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the SVM offers enhanced scalability; Solana’s Sealevel enables parallel processing of thousands of smart contracts. This means Mantis’s SVM rollup provides an even more scalable solution than existing Ethereum rollups.

We have already described the primary components of our SVM rollup here. To summarize, these components are:

Bridge Contract:

The bridge contract interacts with the rollup to facilitate bridging. Any asset can be deposited into the bridge contract to be staked in proof-of-stake validation, providing the users with staking rewards. However, users depositing SOL, liquid staked tokens (LSTs) from SOL, or Solana-based stablecoins into this bridge contract are able to earn additional yield in the form of restaking, DeFi integrations, and native yield.

Interoperability via IBC:

The IBC is used to settle transactions from the Mantis rollup to the respective L1 (i.e. the destination chain, which can be any IBC-enabled chain). This interoperability is natively integrated into Mantis, as we’ve created state proofs on the Mantis rollup in the SVM. These state proofs will be generated in the validator client of the Mantis rollup.

Security from the L1:

To be considered a rollup, an L2 must inherit security from the L1. Mantis leverages Solana to facilitate both censorship resistance and forced withdrawals in the event that its rollup goes down. Thus, Mantis is able to inherit security from Solana.

Finality:

As Mantis leverages the IBC, finality comes in the form of light client updates. This involves L2 blocks being posted on the L1 and verified by the light client. This also includes posting state proofs to the L1.

The Mantis App

The Mantis application is how users are able to interact with the Mantis protocol. The Mantis app is available here.

Currently, you are able to join the Mantis waitlist on the app.

Waitlist participants become eligible for early protocol access and exclusive rewards:

Soon, the app will go live in its v1 iteration. Users will be able to submit intents for single-chain and cross-chain swaps. Then, the Mantis protocol will carry out optimized intent execution.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Mantis launch process and prepare yourselves to break free.

About the Partnership

Mantis is already optimized to provide users with best execution, thanks to our solver network leveraging optimization algorithms. Soon, via our partnership with PRISM, the intent generation and execution process on Mantis will be even further improved:

• Enhanced UX: PRISM enables users to type in a ChatGPT-like manner, where they are able to freely enter a command or question instead of being limited to selecting from preset options.

• Improved Execution: AI agents from PRISM can enable additional optimizations on user intents, such as submitting transactions at optimal times.

• Facilitating Interoperable AI Agents: AI Agents powered by Mantis will also be able to access the different chains connected to IBC, therefore increasing the reach and complexity of what is made possible for AI Agents.

• Native Yield: AI Agents deployed on Mantis, with capital deployed to the rollup will also be able to access the native yield offered by Mantis.

• Conditional Logic: Integrating Prism further expands the capabilities of what is possible for our intents, meaning we are able to then create features such as limit orders and DCA.

In addition to these benefits, we are especially thrilled to be working with PRISM as they are Solana-native and have direct, real-time access to the Solana blockchain. That means that their technology will already seamlessly integrate with our own Solana-based Mantis rollup.

Why is this so important?

The new AI Agent economy is starting to take off as a new vertical within the industry with an extremely high ceiling / TAM. AI agents in DeFi are poised to revolutionize what’s possible on-chain by bringing a new level of automation, intelligence, and efficiency to decentralized finance.

These autonomous agents can analyze vast amounts of data, execute complex trading strategies, optimize yield farming, and even manage entire portfolios, all without human intervention. They are also far more easy to deploy than programming a bot from scratch. By interacting directly with smart contracts, AI agents can react to market changes in real-time, executing trades and adjusting strategies faster and more accurately than any human could. This will not only enhance the performance of DeFi protocols but also make sophisticated financial strategies accessible to a broader audience - further decentralizing what is possible on-chain. As AI agents become more integrated into DeFi, we’ll see a transformation in the way users / AI Agents are able to interact with financial primitives and financial services, creating a more dynamic, responsive, and inclusive DeFi ecosystem on-chain.

About PRISM

PRISM (Predictive Reasoning/Inference on Solana Mainnet) was created by Trustless Engineering Corporation. Its main purpose is to empower developers with AI, ML, and predictive analytics tools and infrastructure.

Typically, incorporating enterprise-level AI/ML into an application is incredibly developmentally intensive. Unlike existing AI tooling options, PRISM does not have massive infrastructure or maintenance requirements. Instead, PRISM abstracts complexities away for developers and end users. This eases the developer upkeep efforts that would normally be needed to integrate AI into their protocols.

Key features of PRISM include:

• Generative AI: PRISM has advanced AI models enabling developers to generate AI agents with insights and predictions based on blockchain data, with minimal overhead.

• Predictive Analytics: PRISM incorporates custom machine learning models for analyzing various factors such as token risk or transaction patterns.

• Solana Integration: Projects incorporating PRISM can seamlessly interact with Solana for real-time data and complex operation execution, as PRISM is optimized for Solana.

Currently, the PRISM open beta is live for testing. If you want to participate yourself, you can go to the Prism app. In the future, PRISM hopes to see a thriving ecosystem of different projects leveraging their AI tooling.

For even more information on PRISM, reference their documentation, blog, and X. You can also check out their roadmap to see upcoming products and launches.

Now, with the Mantis rollup, we are pleased to be introducing the first rollup on Solana. We hope that this can set a new standard, where the benefits of rollups are merged with the benefits of the Solana ecosystem. Intents can be submitted from anywhere to the Mantis rollup, with Solana as the settlement layer. As a result, the Mantis ecosystem is more performant and scalable, and the user experience is improved through increased security and speed as well as reduced cost.

Why Solana?

At the time of writing, Solana is the 4th largest blockchain in terms of total market capitalization, which is around $74.5 billion. Solana is also home to a flourishing DeFi ecosystem. Solana is popular for good reason: it offers a number of unique advantages over other blockchains. Below, we have highlighted some of these benefits, which drove us to build Mantis with Solana as its settlement layer:

Fast Finalization:

TowerBFT is the consensus mechanism used on Solana. Helius provides a deep dive on the Solana consensus mechanisms here for those interested in the technical details. TowerBFT delivers a number of benefits to Solana. One notable benefit is fast finality. Because of TowerBFT, transactions on Solana are finalized much faster than transactions on other blockchain ecosystems. For Mantis, this fast finality helps ensure that rollup transactions being sent to Solana for settlement are finalized quickly and rendered immutable.

Privacy Control:

Solana’s consensus is leader-based. Specifically, there is only one lead validator (the “slot leader) at a time. Their role is to  build and propose blocks. Then, all other validators can attest to the validity of these blocks and are able to replay identical copies of these blocks themselves. This slot leader rotates every 4 blocks (around 1.6 seconds total) according to the leader schedule, which is randomized relative to validators’ stake amounts. This ensures that transactions on Solana are secure and private. Helius provides a deep dive on the Solana consensus mechanisms here for those interested in more information.

On the Mantis rollup, we use a validator client to make order flow private. Since Mantis will run the only validator on the Mantis rollup, we will be able to preserve the privacy of transactions. This protects against frontrunning and other malicious forms of MEV that can result from transactions not being private.

Custom VM Components:

The Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) is Solana’s execution environment. Developers can create custom SVM components. This was important for us on Mantis, as we wanted to build an ecosystem tailored to the functionality of our protocol. For example, we were able to build SVM components that provide us with modular control over orderflow. On Mantis, it is important for us that orderflow is properly managed as it is sent to and from various blockchains and apps.

Native IBC Integration:

Through developments from the Picasso Network, Solana has been integrated with the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol. Mantis is able to use Picasso’s Solana IBC connection to trustlessly interoperate with apps and protocols on all other IBC-enabled ecosystems (Ethereum, Cosmos/the Interchain, Polkadot, Kusama, and soon Bitcoin and more). Utilizing IBC to move assets between the Mantis layer 2 (L2) and various L1s ensures quick and easy transfers without the long withdrawal times typically seen in other rollups. Moreover, the IBC provides a highly secure, trust-minimized mechanism for cross-chain transfers. Read more about how the Mantis rollup uses IBC for interoperability here.

Why a Rollup

Rollups are layer 2 blockchains that enable transaction processing off of the main layer 1 chain. Their name is derived from their ability to “roll up” a number of transactions into a single piece of data that is sent to the L1 chain. Benefits of rollups are as follows:

Scalability:

Rollups were created as a scaling solution to address the computational overload on Ethereum that resulted in significant delays and skyrocketing transaction costs. Rollups and other L2 scaling solutions successfully lessened these issues on Ethereum, mitigating delays and lowering transaction costs.

Security, Decentralization, and Native Interoperability of the L1:

Rollups leverage the security and decentralization of the underlying L1. That is because the transactions from rollups are settled and recorded on the L1. Rollups are further natively interoperable with their L1 and any other ecosystems and applications built on that network.

Additional Security from Proofs:

Security on rollups is further enhanced by their use of proofs that ensure the state root is correct. For optimistic rollups, these are fraud proofs. For zero knowledge (ZK) rollups, they are ZK proofs. If these proofs find that the state root is incorrect, all batches dating back to the incorrect batch can be reverted.

Independent Liveness:

Importantly, rollups do not go down when the base L1 chain goes down. This is important to help us maintain liveness of the Mantis ecosystem.

Sovereign Blockspace:

Rollups also have sovereign blockspace from the underlying base chain. This means that Mantis can manage the blockspace of its own rollup. For example, Mantis blockspace could easily be sold in a blockspace marketplace. This would result in more efficient blockspace allocation.

Customizability:

Another major advantage of rollups is that they are extremely customizable. This feature was very important to Composable in its creation of Mantis: the Mantis rollup is a complex design that is carefully tailored and optimized for facilitating cross-chain user intent settlement.  For example, rollups can have their own fee structures independent from their underlying L1 blockchains. This was particularly important given that we are building Mantis within the Solana ecosystem. The existing Solana fee structure has been largely regarded as the cause for the network’s recent congestion issues. Therefore, we can implement our own fee structure to protect against these issues occurring on Mantis.

Privacy:

L2s act as an additional layer for processing. This allows for selective preprocessing auction rights to various searchers or other entities. As a result, intents and solutions on the Mantis rollup are able to remain private.

Why a Solana Rollup: The Best of Both Worlds

Creating a rollup on Solana allowed us to combine the strengths of rollups with those of the Solana ecosystem. A number of other projects such as Nitro and Eclipse have been working to launch SVM rollups, underscoring the exciting opportunity that rollups on Solana represent. Composable is pleased that it is the first to successfully deliver a rollup on Solana. We believe this is the optimal platform for our Mantis framework thanks to its many benefits including privacy, interoperability, customization, scalability, speed, security, and lowered costs.