This partnership closes that gap by pairing Taiko's Ethereum-equivalent execution with The Interfold's confidential coordination layer, which lets applications take private inputs from users and agents while still settling verifiable outcomes onchain without handing execution authority to a single operator.

Initial use cases

The first is agentic proxies for Taiko’s Aragon DAO instance. These are programmable agents that can act on behalf of participants without forcing users to expose the strategy or decision logic behind each action. Instead of manually interacting with governance or coordination processes, users can delegate actions to agents that operate privately while still producing verifiable outcomes on Taiko. 

The second is secret ballots, also via Taiko’s Aragon DAO. Today, most onchain voting is fully public, which can introduce social pressure, bribery and strategic behavior. With The Interfold, votes get submitted privately and tallied in a way that preserves both confidentiality and correctness. The final result is verifiable onchain, but individual votes remain hidden. This enables governance that is both verifiable and genuinely private.

The third is sealed-bid auctions on Taiko Swap. In traditional onchain trading, intent is visible before execution, which is exactly what MEV and front-running feed on. Sealed-bid auctions flip that dynamic by allowing users to submit bids privately. Prices are determined without exposing individual bids upfront, and the final outcome is still settled transparently onchain. This leads to fairer execution and more efficient price discovery.

What this unlocks

For the Taiko ecosystem, this opens up a broader design space for coordination onchain. DAOs can move beyond fully transparent governance. DeFi protocols can build market mechanisms that collapse when all intent is visible before execution. Builders can design applications that rely on shared outcomes without forcing users to reveal everything upfront.

Instead of treating transparency as the default for every layer of coordination, developers on Taiko get to be more precise about what needs to be public and what should stay confidential.

Where The Interfold fits

The Interfold provides the confidential coordination layer that sits alongside Taiko’s execution environment. While Taiko ensures that outcomes are verified and settled onchain, The Interfold enables confidential execution so sensitive inputs remain protected throughout the entire coordination process while results can still be verified onchain.

Rather than replacing transparency, The Interfold refines it, separating what needs to be public (results, correctness, settlement) from what should remain confidential (intent, input, strategy).

This is the starting point. As we continue working together, we expect to expand these primitives across more applications in the Taiko ecosystem and explore new forms of private, verifiable coordination.

Explore Taiko at https://taiko.xyz/ and learn more about The Interfold athttps://theinterfold.com/.

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Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Proving Ground: https://provinggroundxyz.substack.com

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

Taiko's upcoming upgrade, Shasta, is a complete redesign of the core protocol with two objectives:

1. Simplicity

2. Efficiency

After this upgrade, Taiko (and based rollups by design) will be simpler and cheaper than most alternative rollup models. Preliminary benchmarks have shown more than a 20x reduction in gas fees when proposing and an 8x reduction in proving compared to the previous version (Pacaya).

Shasta is also 5x-15x more efficient for proposers than other popular zk rollups.

This upgrade advances Taiko toward Stage 1 and establishes the foundation for permissionless preconfirmations.

The state of based rollups

Based rollups were proposed with one main purpose in mind: to scale Ethereum while staying true to its values. This means not only inheriting the L1 security, but also its other properties: liveness, censorship resistance, decentralization and credible neutrality. At Taiko, we've adhered to this ethos from the beginning, even when taking shortcuts would have been easier.

The excitement around based sequencing, built at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, has vanished, leaving two common criticisms: 

1. Speed: Without preconfirmations, waiting for (at least) an entire L1 slot is too slow for most use cases and user expectations.
   Preconfirmations have already proved to solve this issue. What remains is fully decentralizing them, onboarding L1 validators and reducing block times. But after EIP-7917 went live in Fusaka, this is an implementation problem and a matter of months.

2. Economic feasibility (i.e., they are too expensive): Preconfirmations partially solved the cost issue by reducing the frequency at which proposers need to post to the L1, but the changes introduced in Shasta are the real game-changer. With this new protocol design, based rollups can be cheaper than most zk rollups, and once sharing is achieved, they can be significantly cheaper than most other L2s (under similar levels of activity).

This is why we are excited about the upcoming Shasta upgrade, and we expect it to be one of the turning points that moves our industry from the place it is today, where Taiko is still the only based rollup in production, to a world where abundant adoption comes in, and tens of rollups join the ecosystem.

Shasta upgrade

Shasta is a complete redesign of Taiko's protocol, designed from first principles and informed by the experience of running a rollup in production, as well as our collaboration on the minimal-rollup. We've designed Shasta with three principles in mind:

1. Simplicity: simple protocols are key to innovation. When something is simple to understand, it is also simpler to extend and audit. Shasta removes most of the complexity found in earlier protocol design.

2. Efficiency: Ethereum-grade security and properties do not have to come at a higher cost for users. As it turns out, simplifying the protocol also significantly reduces costs. Shasta achieves a 20x reduction in proposing costs and a 5x reduction in proving and finalization costs.

3. Move complexity off-chain: Advances in zk proving have made proving costs and latency drop dramatically. This has allowed us to move a lot of the protocol checks and complexity to derivation and proving.

How does Shasta work?

The protocol is designed around three main contracts, but we've removed all wrappers, unnecessary abstractions and more:

• Inbox: The inbox is the main rollup contract, representing and enforcing the rollup rules on L1 with two main functions:

  • Propose: Accepts blobs, processes forced inclusions (if they’re due), updates the CoreState and emits an event for provers. That's it, no complex accounting or on-chain checks for protocol-wide rules (e.g. gas limits, timestamps, etc.). All that is derived off-chain and enforced by the prover.
    

  • Prove: Process bonds (if the proof is late), calls the zk verifier, and finalizes the chain by syncing the state of L1 to enable withdrawals and L2->L1 messages. The move to sequential proofs was a key change that unlocked significant simplification and efficiency. This means that proposals are proven (and thus finalized) in order.
    
    This removes the need to have on-chain proof conflict detection and to have a different mechanism to aggregate proofs and finalize the chain.
    

• Anchor: It runs as the first transaction of every L2 block, and its main purpose is to inject the state of the L1 into the L2. This allows deposits and L1->L2 messages, and it will also serve as a commitment store for preconfirmation slashing.
  
  We've removed most other complexities and responsibilities from the anchor.
  

• SignalService: the core mechanism for exchanging messages and bringing tokens between the L1 and Taiko. We've simplified by removing complex structures such as HopProofs, while still keeping it backwards compatible (meaning bridges and intent providers don't need to upgrade).

Words are nice, show me the benches

All of the above sounds great, but what are the actual results?

• Proposing new blocks: Before Shasta, proposing new blocks on Taiko could cost up to 1M gas, and the cost scales with the amount of L2 blocks in that batch (because we were posting metadata about each). This increases the cost of proposer operations, which in turn results in higher fees for users.  Shasta reducesproposals cost ~ 45k gas (once the initial warm-up period has passed, and the proposal ring buffer is full). This means a 22x reduction in proposing fees on mainnet.
  

• Proving new batches: Before Shasta, proving a batch cost ~ 500k gas. With zk proof verification accounting for roughly 250,000 gas, execution alone consumed the remaining 250,000. 

Under Shasta, execution costs drop to around 30,000 gas and remain nearly constant regardless of how many batches are being proven. This strongly favors aggregation, allowing more batches to be verified for roughly the same cost.

This is an 8x reduction in gas costs.

But how do these numbers compare to other rollups?

Each rollup has a slightly different way to run validations, proof systems, and L1 to L2 messaging, which makes direct comparisons difficult. But a good starting point is looking at other zk rollups, which all share a similar flow. Data is posted to L1 (a.k.a propose), you prove the transition (a.k.a prove), and then finalize the chain, posting a checkpoint from L2 to L1, against which messages can be verified. This is the result of querying the 7-day average in Dune and projecting the costs after Shasta.

Simplicity is king

We've removed a lot of code. And when we say a lot, we mean A LOT.

Removing code sounds easy; you just delete it, right? But true simplicity is not easy. We think people will find the Shasta codebase the simplest rollup contract to read, audit and understand. And that's very powerful.

We're proud to say that Taiko is now one of the easiest rollup protocols to understand, even if you're just getting started.

Going Live

Security has always been Taiko’s top priority. Shasta has been in development for several months, with careful review and testing of every part of the code. The protocol is already running on internal devnets, where preconfers are testing their software to ensure everything works as expected.

Hoodi will be updated in the coming weeks, giving users early access to the latest improvements. Following final testing on Hoodi, the team plans to submit Shasta as a proposal to the Taiko DAO. Activation on mainnet will depend on successful verification and community approval.

Join us 💗

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Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

Season 6 featured two tracks: The Arena and The Undercity. Trailblazers competed across both, and now it’s time to reap the rewards.  Claims are officially open.

https://trailblazers.taiko.xyz/claim

The Process

This season followed our established framework. We completed Sybil checks and internal reviews to finalize the rankings. Trailblazers also had the opportunity to distinguish themselves through the Trailblazer role on Guild.

However, because Guild significantly changed how its system works this season, we decided that even those who earned only the social component of the Guild role would still receive 75% of the rewards.

As previously communicated, Undercity participants were not subject to these checks, and rewards were distributed accordingly.

To refresh your memory on this season’s reward structure, you can revisit our earlier blog post:
https://paragraph.com/@taiko-labs/trailblazers-evolves-the-arena-and-the-undercity-await

Moving Forward

Season 6 marks the final incentivized Trailblazers season  but that does not mean rewards are going away. On the contrary, we’re shifting toward new, more creative ways to reward and engage our community.

Whether you’re into NFTs, trading, gaming, or off-chain participation, exciting new initiatives will be launching soon, so stay tuned.

Thank You

We want to give a huge thank-you to every Trailblazer who stayed with us through 18 months of grinding. Together, we reached incredible heights and distributed nearly 40 million TAIKO tokens along the way. We believe that a committed, participatory community deserves meaningful rewards  and we did our best to live up to that.

Now, an even more exciting and dynamic chapter for our community begins.

Stay with us. Stay based. 🥁



Join us💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

Q4 marked a shift for Taiko. After proving that based rollups work in production, we spent this quarter consolidating our technical achievements, deepening strategic partnerships, and positioning for sustainable growth.

Here's what defined the quarter:

• 100% ZK Coverage Achieved: Every block proven with zero-knowledge proofs

• ENS Chose Taiko Stack for Namechain: Ethereum's naming infrastructure launching as a based rollup

• Chainlink ACE Integration: Institutional compliance infrastructure partnership

• Avalon Labs Partnership: RWA and stablecoin infrastructure deployment

• TaikoSwap Launches: Native DeFi infrastructure

Protocol & Technical Milestones

100% ZK Coverage

On December 4, Taiko achieved 100% zero-knowledge proof coverage. Every single block on mainnet is now cryptographically verified through our multi-prover system using SP1 (Succinct) and Boundless (RISC Zero). This marks a clear step toward Stage 2 rollup maturity.

Read more: Taiko Achieves 100% ZK Coverage

Updated Alethia Whitepaper

We released the updated Taiko Alethia Whitepaper, providing a comprehensive technical blueprint of our based rollup architecture. The document details Ontake, Pacaya, and the upcoming Shasta upgrade, explaining how we achieve sub-second preconfirmations and multiprover verification without centralized sequencing.

Read more: The Updated Taiko Alethia Whitepaper

ULTRA TX & Gwyneth

Our work on Gwyneth advanced with the publication of a detailed technical writeup on ULTRA TX. This design enables atomic cross-chain transactions between L1 and multiple L2s without bridges or asynchronous message passing. Testnet deployment planned for 2026.

Read more: ULTRA TX & Gwyneth

Major Partnerships

ENS Chooses Taiko Stack for Namechain

ENS, Ethereum's most widely used naming protocol, selected Taiko's technology as the foundation for Namechain. Built through Nethermind's Surge framework, Namechain will launch as a fully based rollup, skipping progressive decentralization entirely.

When Ethereum's most critical infrastructure chooses your architecture, it's proof that the based thesis is production-ready.

Read more: Taiko Stack Selected by ENS for Namechain

Chainlink ACE Integration

Taiko integrated with Chainlink's Automated Compliance Engine (ACE), joining Ethereum and Linea as one of three blockchain partners in the launch ecosystem. This brings modular compliance infrastructure to Taiko, enabling institutional-grade tokenization while preserving the credible neutrality of based sequencing.

Read more: Taiko Integrates Chainlink ACE

Avalon Labs Partnership

Avalon Labs, the leading Bitcoin-focused capital markets platform, is deploying its complete stablecoin and Real-World Asset infrastructure on Taiko. This brings sustainable liquidity, institutional-grade yield products, and compliance-ready operations to the network.

Avalon chose Taiko for its Ethereum-native security, sub-2-second preconfirmations, and fully decentralized sequencing.

Read more: Taiko × Avalon Labs Partnership

Ecosystem Growth

TaikoSwap launched as Taiko's native decentralized exchange, built on Uniswap architecture with ETH/USDC, TAIKO/USDC, and TAIKO/ETH trading pairs.

Read more

Trailblazers Season 6 wrapped up in early December, continuing to engage thousands of users through The Arena and The Undercity dual-track system.

DevCon Argentina saw Taiko connecting with developers and ecosystem builders on Ethereum's scaling roadmap.

What's Next

Shasta Hardfork Our next mainnet upgrade will enforce 100% ZK requirements for all proposers, activate permissionless preconfirmations, and deliver significant cost reductions through protocol optimizations.

Gwyneth Testnet Following the ULTRA TX technical specification, we're preparing Gwyneth's public testnet launch. Developers will be able to test synchronous composability and atomic cross-chain transactions.

Strategic Growth: Beyond technical milestones, we're refining our approach to ecosystem development, developer onboarding, and market positioning. The infrastructure works. Now we're focused on sustainable growth.

Closing Thoughts

Q4 was about consolidation. We proved the technology works at scale, secured validation from institutions like ENS and Chainlink, and established foundational infrastructure.

2025 was the year we proved based rollups aren't just possible. They're production-ready. 2026 will be about demonstrating why they matter.

The future is based.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

Sub-2-second preconfirmations on a fully decentralized, based rollup. No trusted operators. No centralized sequencing. Just Ethereum validators doing what they do best.

The journey:

• Q1: Pacaya upgrade deployed on Hekla testnet, laying the foundation for preconfirmations

• Q1: Partnered with OpenZeppelin to develop next-generation based rollup architecture with Proposer-Prover Separation (PPS)

• Q2: Pacaya hardfork went live on Alethia mainnet, introducing batch-based proofs and multiproving

• Q2: Preconfirmations launched on Hekla testnet, achieving ~2-second finality

• Q2: Strategic partnerships with Fabric, Commit-Boost, and Nethermind to develop validator tooling and preconfirmation standards

• Q3: Preconfirmations activated on mainnet, slashing confirmation times from ~45 seconds to ~2 seconds

• Q3: Phase 1 whitelisted partners validated stability across real production workloads

• Q3: Hoodi testnet launched with full preconfirmation support, replacing Hekla

Users experienced 20-30× faster confirmation times. The future doesn't choose between speed and decentralization. It has both.

Read more:

• Q1 2025 Community Update

• Q2 2025 Community Update

• Q3 2025 Community Update

We proved security can be immediate, not eventual

100% ZK coverage achieved in December 2025. Every single block on Taiko mainnet is now proven with zero-knowledge proofs via SP1 and Boundless. Not someday. Today.

The journey:

• Q1: Started at 5% ZK coverage in February

• Q1: Gradually increased to over 30% by end of March

• Q1: Achieved 100% ZK coverage for Taiko-proposed blocks

• Q2: Maintained 100% ZK for Taiko-proposed blocks while community provers handled growing share

• Q2: Processed over 847 million cumulative transactions by end of Q2

• Q3: Community provers continued scaling network proof generation

• Q4: Achieved 100% ZK coverage for ALL blocks on mainnet (December 4)

• Multi-prover system (SP1 + Boundless) ensures redundancy and reliability

Stage 2 rollup maturity in sight, not theory. Decentralization roadmaps are easy. Actual decentralization is rare. We chose the harder path.

Read more: Taiko Achieves 100% ZK Coverage

We proved institutions care about decentralization

When it matters most, the best teams choose based rollups.

The partnerships:

• Q1: OpenZeppelin collaboration on minimal, modular based rollup protocol with improved governance, neutral sequencing, and optimized fee mechanisms

• Q2: Fabric & Commit-Boost partnership to develop validator tooling and preconfirmation standards for the entire based rollup ecosystem

• Q2: Nethermind strategic partnership to enhance protocol performance, sequencing, and execution layers

• Q3: Chainlink Data Streams integration established Chainlink as official oracle infrastructure, providing sub-second market data for Taiko dApps

• Q3: Real-time data integration with Dune Analytics, giving the community access to on-chain insights through customizable dashboards

• Q4: ENS chose Taiko's stack for Namechain - Ethereum's most critical naming infrastructure launching as a based rollup via Nethermind's Surge

• Q4: Chainlink ACE integration - Taiko joined Ethereum and Linea as one of three launch partners for institutional compliance infrastructure

• Q4: Updated Alethia Whitepaper - Technical blueprint showing production-ready based rollup architecture with Ontake, Pacaya, and Shasta specifications

The infrastructure that will last decades can't depend on trusting a single operator. ENS understood this. Others will follow.

Read more:

• Taiko Stack Selected by ENS for Namechain

• Chainlink ACE Integration

• The Updated Taiko Alethia Whitepaper

We proved community can govern

Real power, real accountability, real decentralization.

The journey:

• Q1: Taiko DAO launched on Hekla testnet in January, designed with Aragon featuring multi-threshold multisig, optimistic governance, and community veto power

• Q1: Security Council announced in April with eight distinguished members from research organizations, security firms, and public goods initiatives

• Q2: DAO soft launch on May 1 with Security Council operational and proposal infrastructure in place

• Q3: Binding on-chain governance activated on mainnet in October - token holders can now veto protocol upgrades

• Q3: Security Council appointed heavyweight Board Directors:

  • Joy Lam (former Head of Global Regulatory at Binance)

  • Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee (Harvard Business School)

  • Professor Wen Yonggang (IEEE Fellow, NTU Singapore)

  • Advisor: CPA Ren Jang (Head of Strategy at Flipster)

Not governance in name only. The community has actual decision-making power over protocol upgrades and parameters.

Read more: Taiko DAO Appoints Board Directors

We proved synchronous composability is possible

ULTRA TX and Gwyneth enable atomic cross-chain transactions between L1 and multiple L2s. No bridges. No message passing delays. True synchronous composability.

The journey:

• Q1: Taiko mainnet renamed to Taiko Alethia in February, reaffirming commitment to truth and transparency

• Q1: Gwyneth development progressed with successful Uniswap L1-L2 liquidity sharing demos

• Q1: ULTRA TX implementation demonstrated synchronous composability potential

• Q4: Comprehensive technical writeup published November 2025, explaining how Gwyneth achieves synchronous L1-L2 composability

Testnet coming 2026. Ethereum doesn't have to feel like islands. It can feel like one chain.

Read more: ULTRA TX & Gwyneth — Synchronous composability across L1 & L2

We proved our ecosystem thesis

Infrastructure and applications grow together. We're building both.

Community engagement:

• Q1: Taiko Takeoff launched to support projects with marketing, funding, networking, and technical assistance - Avalon Labs featured first with 134% APY TAIKO pool

• Q1: Taiko Status introduced with five levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Based) rewarding token holders with enhanced access and allocation opportunities

• Q1: Trailblazers Season 4 launched with 4.5M TAIKO reward pool, split Liquidity Royale tracks, and Status integration

• Q1: DoraHacks Grant Factory Hackathon concluded with largest MACI-powered vote, $20K+ in prizes

• Q1: $25M Grant Fund announced for 2025 to support DeFi, AI, RWA, SocialFi, Gaming, and more

• Q1: Based Rollup Summit in San Francisco featuring Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin

• Q2: Trailblazers Season 5 launched with 3M TAIKO rewards including 700K for Liquidity Royale

• Q2: Based Rollup Summit Cannes Edition with 500+ participants including Justin Drake, Tomasz Stańczak, and ecosystem leaders

• Q3: Trailblazers Season 5 concluded with 3M TAIKO distributed

• Q3: Trailblazers Season 6 launched with The Arena and The Undercity dual-track system

• Q3: Moon Party with K11 Art Foundation in Seoul alongside Maserati, Hypebeast, and luxury brands

• Q3: Korea Blockchain Week presence with official Taiko Seoulmates Party

• Q3: TOKEN2049 Singapore - partnered with ForkOff and IoNet to host "AI, DePIN & RWA Builders" forum

• Q3: Monthly Galxe campaigns featuring ecosystem projects like GemsTown, Symbiosis, CoNFT, engaging thousands of new users

Ecosystem growth:

• Q1: TAIKO listed on Revolut, opening access to 45 million users across 50 countries

• Q2: TAIKO listed on Binance Futures with 1.495M TAIKO rewards distribution

• Q4: Avalon Labs partnership - Leading Bitcoin-focused capital markets platform deploying complete RWA and stablecoin infrastructure on Taiko, bringing institutional-grade yield products and sustainable liquidity

• Q4: TaikoSwap - Native DEX launched with battle-tested Uniswap architecture (ETH/USDC, TAIKO/USDC, TAIKO/ETH pairs)

By the numbers:

• 909.3M transactions processed since mainnet launch

• 2.3M active addresses engaging with the network

• $12.6M in rent paid to L1 - real value settled on Ethereum

• Over 1 million combined followers across Discord and X

• Multiple Trailblazers seasons engaging hundreds of thousands of users

Read more:

• Taiko × Avalon Labs Partnership

• TaikoSwap Launch

What 2025 taught us

The most difficult technical problems aren't impossible. They're just hard.

Based rollups work. Decentralized sequencing works. Full ZK coverage works. Sub-second finality works. All without compromise.

We didn't wait for permission. We didn't accept "good enough." We built what Ethereum scaling should be.

From launching our DAO in January to achieving 100% ZK coverage in December, 2025 was about execution. We proved that you can build infrastructure that's fast, secure, and fully decentralized; not eventually, but today.

What we're proving in 2026

• Shasta hardfork: Enhanced ZK requirements, permissionless preconfirmations, protocol optimizations

• Gwyneth testnet and production rollout

• Continued ecosystem growth and strategic partnerships

The future is based. The future is fast. The future is proven.

The future is Taiko.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

Broadening Security Beyond the Protocol Layer

As Taiko scales and institutional adoption accelerates, the Council's mandate extends beyond base protocol security. Gattaca, a research-driven crypto technology company focused on building trading and MEV-related infrastructure, brings expertise that positions the Council to address security considerations at every layer, from the base protocol to the economic mechanisms that govern transaction ordering and execution.

The expanded Council maintains its core responsibilities: managing proposal flows, coordinating emergency responses for critical vulnerabilities, and ensuring Taiko's security standards align with Ethereum's infrastructure. With the addition of a ninth member, the approval thresholds adjust to 7 of 9 for emergency proposals and 6 of 9 for standard proposals.

Updated Council Composition

• Aragon

• Chainbound

• Drew Van der Werff

• Gattaca

• Halborn

• L2Beat

• Nethermind

• Taiko Labs Limited

• Toni (Ethereum Foundation)

As Taiko's DAO continues to develop, the Security Council's composition will evolve to meet the protocol's needs. This addition reflects the growing complexity of securing decentralized infrastructure, where transaction ordering, MEV mitigation, and economic security are increasingly critical to institutional deployment.

About Gattaca:
Gattaca is a research-driven crypto technology company based in London. We have deep experience across the transaction supply chain; primarily focused on building trading and MEV related infrastructure and services.

About Taiko:
Taiko, the first based rollup on Ethereum, is designed to address the scalability challenges of the Ethereum network. Using based rollup technology, Taiko significantly reduces transaction costs and enhances security, providing a seamless and efficient user experience without compromising decentralization. Taiko's preconfirmations technology further enhances this experience by delivering near-instant transaction confirmation, eliminating the uncertainty and waiting times that have traditionally made blockchain applications impractical for real-world use cases requiring immediate feedback.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

• Sustainable stablecoin liquidity

• Institutional-grade RWA yield products

• Permissionless, censorship-resistant rails

The Roadmap: Bringing RWA Yields to Taiko

This partnership with Avalon Labs is centered on one core objective: injecting meaningful liquidity into the Taiko ecosystem to power real-world asset acquisition and yield generation. By combining essential technical components, compliance-ready operations, and a real-world yield framework. This work positions Taiko as a credible environment for institutional finance on a decentralized, Ethereum-aligned Layer 2.

1. Technical Infrastructure for Institutional Finance

Taiko is set to become the home for Avalon’s institutional-grade infrastructure, with audited lending contracts, major oracle integrations, omnichain token standards, and native stablecoin minting and bridging all being deployed directly on the network. These components not only power Avalon’s products but also elevate Taiko’s technical foundation for developers building advanced financial applications.

2.Compliance and Institutional Operations Layer

To support regulated institutions, Taiko will integrate Avalon’s compliance-ready operational layer, including onboarding workflows and institutional dashboards. This framework allows traditional financial entities to operate confidently on Taiko while benefiting from the neutrality and permissionless nature of a fully decentralized Layer 2.

3.RWA Yield and On-Chain Capital Flow Architecture

Avalon’s yield and capital-flow design will being executed entirely on Taiko, linking collateral deposits, stablecoin minting, and real-world yield sources. All liquidity and movements are transparently recorded on-chain, with users interacting natively on Taiko and the ecosystem benefiting from sustained, visible economic activity.

Why Avalon Labs Chose to Build on Taiko

In a crowded Layer 2 landscape, Avalon Labs selected Taiko for one core reason: it offers the strongest long-term foundation for institutional-grade tokenized finance. Taiko’s based rollup architecture delivers the decentralization of Ethereum without sacrificing performance, enabling secure, scalable RWA, stablecoin, and on-chain capital market applications while avoiding the centralized risks seen in traditional sequencer models.

Taiko also provides the settlement guarantees institutions need. With ~2-second preconfirmations, transactions receive enterprise-level finality that supports real-time payments, high-volume trading, and large-scale asset operations. This level of predictability is critical for institutions moving meaningful value on-chain.

Ultimately, Taiko’s combination of Ethereum-native security, seamless composability, and a fully decentralized sequencer makes it one of the most trusted environments for tokenizing and trading real-world assets at scale. For builders focused on longevity, regulatory confidence, and transparent on-chain liquidity flows, Taiko stands out as the network purpose-built for institutional adoption.

A New Standard for Institutional Finance

This partnership positions Taiko as a core foundation for institutions moving into on-chain finance. It demonstrates that decentralization, compliance, and high performance can coexist without relying on centralized sequencers.

The combined infrastructure provides a regulation-aware path for tokenizing assets, issuing stablecoins, and enabling instant settlement through Taiko’s preconfirmations. It shows that institutional activity can run securely and transparently on decentralized rails.

As Avalon expands on Taiko, we expect more RWA issuers, payment providers, and stablecoin projects to follow, reinforcing that decentralized infrastructure is ready for institutional-scale adoption.

Taiko is where institutional finance meets fully decentralized infrastructure.

About Avalon Labs:
Avalon Labs is the leading on-chain, Bitcoin-focused capital markets platform and the issuer of USDa, the Bitcoin-collateralized stablecoin. To date, Avalon has facilitated more than $3.1 billion in loan volume and serviced over 20,000 BTC, earning the trust of institutions and individual users alike.

The protocol provides a full suite of financial products, including fixed-rate Bitcoin borrowing, institutional-grade yield strategies, decentralized lending, AI-powered RWA yield vaults, and high-yield staking. By bridging traditional finance with decentralized infrastructure, Avalon Labs is building the financial center for Bitcoin, offering secure, scalable, and transparent solutions for the digital asset economy.

About Taiko:
Taiko, the first based rollup on Ethereum, is designed to address the scalability challenges of the Ethereum network. Using based rollup technology, Taiko significantly reduces transaction costs and enhances security, providing a seamless and efficient user experience without compromising decentralization. Taiko's preconfirmations technology further enhances this experience by delivering near-instant transaction confirmation, eliminating the uncertainty and waiting times that have traditionally made blockchain applications impractical for real-world use cases requiring immediate feedback.

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• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

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In Season 6, we introduced The Arena and The Undercity as two new paths for Trailblazers. Season 6 will officially end on December 15, 2025 and with it, the Trailblazers program incentives will stop. Before that though, let’s wrap up Season 6 and explain how rewards will work.

Season 6 Rewards and the Trailblazer Role

As many of you know, we have been using Guild to verify the Trailblazer role through Human (FKA Gitcoin) Passport scores. However, Guild no longer supports Gitcoin and has introduced a different passport system. Since we don’t want to make our Trailblazers deal with a new passport, we’re changing how the Trailblazer role works by splitting it into two requirements:

Here’s what you must do:

• Get your Trailblazer role on Guild by completing two simple social tasks. https://guild.xyz/taiko/home

• Keep your Human Passport Score (FKA Gitcoin Score) score above 17.
  https://app.passport.xyz/#/

You will not verify your Human Passport on Guild, we will handle verification on the backend. However, your Guild connected wallet must have a Passport score of 17 or higher. This change also closes a loophole where some users linked multiple wallets through a single Guild identity.

Important: Make sure the wallet you’ve used for Trailblazers is your primary wallet on Guild, and is also the wallet that has 17 or higher Passport score. 

You have until December 20, 2025 to secure your Trailblazer role and Human Passport score. 

Reward breakdown for The Arena:

• No Trailblazer role + No Passport score → 50% of rewards

• Trailblazer role + No Passport score → 75% of rewards

• Trailblazer role + Passport score ≥ 17 → 100% of rewards

These rules apply only to The Arena. The Undercity remains unrestricted.

What is Changing? 

We are simply transitioning away from fixed rewards and pausing the prize pool for now. The core experience remains and we will continue running Trailblazers as we explore new formats, events and opportunities.

Trailblazers has been a daily ritual for many of you, and we’re grateful for the incredible dedication shown over the past 18+ months. We’ve distributed more than 30 million TAIKO tokens, created unforgettable moments and built one of the most active programs in blockchain ecosystem.

Through thick and thin, you showed up, competed, contributed, and shaped this journey with us. We hope Trailblazers gave you not only rewards, but also experiences, friendships, and memories worth keeping. To every Trailblazer who stood the test of time, thank you.

The Arena is Moving Forward

The Arena will stay open and active. Games, tournaments and special events will continue and participating titles may still offer rewards at their discretion. Our goal is to keep The Arena growing into a vibrant hub for Web3 gaming, a place where new games launch, players compete and communities form. 

This is not the end, just the beginning of a more flexible and evolving chapter. Whether you are a competitor, a builder or a supporter, we are excited to keep growing with you as Trailblazers continues into its next phase.

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Starting this week, every block on Taiko mainnet is proven with zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. Not someday but TODAY!

This achievement marks a step toward Stage 2 rollup maturity, the highest standard of decentralization defined by Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum community. While implemented as a soft requirement today, every mainnet batch is already being proven with ZK in production.

In an industry where "decentralization roadmaps" often replace actual decentralization, Taiko is demonstrating that you can build infrastructure that's secure today, not eventually.

ZK and Taiko: Powered by SP1 & RISC Zero

Our progress is driven by partnerships with two leading zkVM (zero knowledge Virtual Machine) providers: Succinct's SP1 and Boundless, by RISC Zero. Together, they unlock the breakthroughs needed for 100% ZK on Taiko:

• Flexible economics with Succinct, shifting from fixed-rate to usage-based pricing

• 100% ZK on-chain proving for all transactions using both SP1 and RISC Zero

SP1 provides centralized performance with seamless developer experience. Succinct’s managed service delivers 4–28x speedups over previous versions, reducing workloads from hours to minutes. This streamlined integration gives developers enterprise-grade proving without having to manage any infrastructure.

RISC Zero brings scalable decentralized proving. Its marketplace includes thousands of open provers equipped with GPUs, enabling verifiable computation over arbitrary code. This distributed design ensures resilience, cost efficiency, and strong cryptographic guarantees.

By combining a performance-optimized system with a decentralized one, Taiko ensures 24/7 reliability and rapid adoption of ZK innovations. With ZK-proven blocks and Taiko’s based rollup architecture, security becomes compounding and trust-minimized

How ZK Proving Works on Taiko

From Transaction to Proof: The Complete Pipeline

1. Block Execution
Transactions submitted to Taiko are executed and organized into blocks, then grouped into batches for efficient proving.

2. zkVM Processing
Each batch is executed inside zkVM. Think of it as a transparent computer: it processes your transactions while simultaneously generating mathematical proof that every computation was performed correctly according to protocol rules.

The zkVM doesn't just verify, it creates unforgeable cryptographic receipts for every state transition.

3. Multiple Proving Options
Taiko maintains redundancy through multiple proving systems:

• SP1 (Succinct) - primary proving system

• RISC Zero - backup system for resilience

This multi-vendor approach ensures 24/7 reliability while enabling us to quickly adopt improvements from the broader ZK ecosystem.

4. L1 Verification
Generated proofs are submitted to Ethereum L1, where verifier contracts check their validity. The beauty of ZK proofs: generating them takes minutes, but verifying takes milliseconds and saving gas considerably by using proof aggregation . This asymmetry makes ZK proofs perfect for rollup security，expensive to fake, cheap to verify.

Why This Matters: The Path to Stage 2

The Ethereum community defines rollup maturity across three stages: Stage 0 rollups are controlled by a small team, Stage 1 systems introduce partial decentralization with safety guardrails, and Stage 2 represents full trust minimization where the protocol is secured entirely by code. Most rollups remain at Stage 0, and only a few have reached Stage 1. Stage 2 is the real endgame, and achieving it requires full-chain ZK proofs.

Reaching 100% ZK coverage is a long-term commitment. By achieving full ZK coverage now, Taiko ensures its security model will remain robust not only today, but as the ecosystem grows over the coming decade.

The ZK Road Ahead

We're expanding Taiko’s proving ecosystem beyond SP1 and RISC Zero to include others like Brevis, Zisk, and OpenVM, etc. This multi-provider design ensures redundancy, optionality, and fast access to proving innovations as the ZK landscape evolves.

With full-chain ZK already live, we're now optimizing the protocol, client, and node architecture to make proving native at every layer, reducing overhead, improving parallelism, and smoothing proving workflows so the system can scale as zkVM performance increases.

Our long-term direction is to turn ZK into invisible infrastructure: proofs generated continuously at the node layer, verification embedded at the protocol layer, and developers never needing to reason about circuits or proving systems, only that every transaction and state transition is secured by ZK by default.

Conclusion: A New Standard

Achieving 100% ZK coverage isn't just a Taiko milestone; it's a statement about what rollups should be.

In an industry where "decentralization" often means "eventual decentralization" and "trust-minimized" means "trust us for now," Taiko is taking a different approach:

• Secure today, not eventually

• Decentralized in practice, not just theory

• Proven through mathematics, not marketing

The future of Ethereum scaling is zero-knowledge.
And that future is being built on Taiko, one mathematically verified block at a time.

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We are proud to introduce TaikoSwap, a platform built to embody these principles. It is a place designed to evolve alongside our ecosystem.

What Is TaikoSwap?

TaikoSwap is the native decentralized exchange (DEX) of the Taiko network.

As a based rollup, Taiko offers Ethereum-level security and decentralization. Being a Type 1 rollup, Taiko is the rollup most closely aligned with Ethereum both technically and philosophically.

TaikoSwap is built on the open-source Uniswap architecture, one of the most battle-tested DEX and widely used frameworks. By leveraging proven infrastructure, we can deliver a trustworthy trading experience while expanding upon it with Taiko-specific improvements over time.

TaikoSwap reflects this closeness by providing an Ethereum-like experience that is faster and cheaper. If you want to trade and participate in DeFi within an ecosystem that feels just like Ethereum, only better, TaikoSwap is for you.

Experience TaikoSwap, now: https://swap.taiko.xyz/

Trading Pairs at Launch

At launch, TaikoSwap will support trading across three key pairs to ensure a smooth and liquid trading experience:

• ETH / USDC

• TAIKO / USDC

• TAIKO / ETH

TaikoSwap is modular by design, with new features and pairs to be added over time. Join early and be part of its growth.

Looking Ahead

TaikoSwap represents an important step in our decentralized vision. It enhances the user experience within the Taiko ecosystem while expanding DeFi possibilities for everyone.

Security, scalability, and innovation remain at the core of what we build. TaikoSwap is just the beginning.

Be a part of the movement.

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Namechain will deploy as a based rollup using Surge, Nethermind's framework built on Taiko's technology. One of Ethereum's most critical infrastructure protocols is launching with the architecture Taiko pioneered and brought to production.

Why This Matters

When ENS (responsible for human-readable addresses across the entire Ethereum ecosystem) commits to a based architecture from launch, it validates everything Taiko has been building. Based rollups are production-ready, and they're the future of Ethereum-aligned scaling.

Taiko's technology made it possible for ENS to skip progressive decentralization entirely and launch Namechain as a fully based rollup.

Proof, Not Promises

Taiko didn't just theorize about based sequencing. We shipped it. Since mainnet launch in May 2024:

• 50M+ transactions processed with zero downtime

• Sub-second preconfirmations in production, not whitepapers

• Ethereum validators sequencing L2 blocks efficiently and reliably

• Performance without centralization at scale

As ENS Labs wrote in their decision to move Namechain to Surge: "We were presented with the rare opportunity to skip several steps in the 'progressive decentralization' pathway." By realizing they could build based rollups using Surge and launch with maximal decentralization from day one, ENS chose not just infrastructure in production, but the infrastructure aligned with their core mission.

What the Taiko Stack Delivers

Building on Taiko's technology through Nethermind's Surge, Namechain inherits:

Infrastructure

• Ethereum-native sequencing with no centralized operators

• Stage 1 rollup from launch with a credible path to Stage 2

• Battle-tested stack: the same infrastructure running Taiko mainnet

• Open-source and credibly neutral with no corporate capture

The Technical Breakthrough

ENS needs near-instant name resolution across chains with cryptographic security guarantees. Traditional L2s force a choice between decentralization and performance. Based rollups eliminate that tradeoff.

Namechain leverages preconfirmation technology (which Taiko brought to production on mainnet) to deliver state updates in seconds, not hours. This solves a critical CCIP-Read bottleneck that has plagued ENS for years. Combined with TEE-backed proofs and based sequencing, Namechain achieves institutional-grade performance with full decentralization from launch.

Only possible because Taiko shipped preconfirmations first.

What This Opens Up

If ENS (with its stringent reliability requirements and deep Ethereum alignment) can build on this stack, any application can. Namechain sets a new standard for what's possible when you refuse to compromise on decentralization.

This deployment shows based rollups aren't just theoretically superior. They're the practical choice for teams building critical Ethereum infrastructure.

For teams evaluating rollup frameworks, Namechain is the reference implementation. For the ecosystem, it demonstrates that the based rollup thesis isn't aspirational. It's here, and it's working.

What's Next

As Namechain moves through internal testing toward public testnet (Q2 2026) and mainnet launch, it will demonstrate at scale what Taiko has already established: you don't need to centralize to scale Ethereum.

Nethermind provides infrastructure operations and the Surge framework. Taiko provides the based sequencing technology and preconfirmations protocol. ENS brings product vision and naming protocol expertise. This collaboration shows how open-source infrastructure enables mission-critical applications without vendor lock-in.

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Written by Arixon and reviewed by Brecht.

0) TL;DR (mental model)

• One fat L1 transaction (“ULTRA TX”) sits at the top of each L1 block (mostly, not enforced yet). Read more about ULTRA TX here.

• Inside it, a master builder bundles: L1 account‑abstracted txs, multiple L2 blocks, proofs/witnesses, and the outputs of any cross‑chain calls.

• Gwyneth is the execution stack that makes this possible: a modified REVM + block builder based on Reth + proposer + execution extension (ExEx) that can simulate L1 and L2 together and later replay the same effects onchain.

• Result: synchronous composability between L1 and many L2s with atomicity and single‑proof verification, without changing L1 rules.

1) Why this exists (the problem)

Cross‑chain UX today is split across async messages and “hope it lands” flows:

• You can’t easily enforce invariants across transactions.

• L1→L2 calls that need a return value are clunky.

• L2s want to settle together (share blobs, aggregate proofs) every L1 block if possible.

Goal: Make a block feel like a programmable container where L1 and L2 work can run, talk to each other, and then be committed atomically.

2) The moving parts (roles)

• Custom REVM (“Gwyneth REVM”) — runs transactions across many chains in one process; records a detailed journal (reads/writes, call trees, modes).

• ULTRA Block Builder — picks/executes txs across L1+L2, enforces size/fee limits, collects witnesses, and prepares the ULTRA payload.

• Stateless Validator — turns execution traces into compact proofs/witness data so verifiers can re‑execute without full state.

• Block Proposer — packages everything into an EIP‑4844 blob and submits the ULTRA transaction to L1.

• Custom Execution Extension (ExEx) — watches L1, decodes ULTRA payloads, rebuilds L2 blocks via Engine API, updates forkchoice, and handles reorgs.

• SimpleMultiChainDB & Global Nodes Map — lightweight layer that gives the REVM read/write access to state across many chains within the same process.

3) The core idea (how it works, step by step)

3.1 Build time (offchain)

1. Gather inputs. Pending L1 AA txs and many L2 txs sit in a shared pool. (Note: Non AA txs can still be executed after ULTRA TX in the L1 block)

2. Execute locally. The builder runs them through the Gwyneth REVM with a multi‑chain DB.

   • When a contract wants to “call another chain”, it tags the next call using a tiny precompile. REVM then either:

     • Simulates that cross‑chain segment (for build/prove), or

     • Marks it as L1‑Direct work that must actually run on L1 during proposal.

3. Record everything. The REVM keeps a journal: storage diffs, balances, code reads, and a full call tree (including cross‑chain hops). These become your witness.

4. Package. The builder stops once gas/blob/byte caps are met and constructs the ULTRA payload:

   • Per‑L2 transactions/state roots

   • L1 AA tx batch (if any)

   • Extension outputs (return data for off‑L1 functionality) to be provided to a simple onchain ExtensionOracle

   • Proof inputs / sidecars for stateless verification

5. Propose. The proposer sends an EIP‑4844 transaction carrying the ULTRA payload to the L1 rollup contract.

3.2 Inclusion time (onchain)

1. Top of block. Ideally the ULTRA TX is placed first, so the latest L1 state is known to everything inside it. Although this is the preferred functionality, non top of block inclusion is also supported.

2. Replay & verify. The contract:

   • Checks the recorded pre-state (block hash, beacon root, timestamp, prevrandao, parent ULTRA hash) and blob commitments,

   • Verifies proofs (or performs the configured checks) up front,

   • Replays the recorded L1 work in order—prestate assertions, ExtensionOracle.setTap, smart-account calls, and applyStateDelta writes—reverting the whole ULTRA TX on any mismatch.

3.3 Distribution time (to L2s)

1. ExEx picks it up. ExEx watches L1, decodes the ULTRA payload, and for each L2:

   • Rebuilds the L2 block via Engine API using the included data/witnesses,

   • Advances the L2 head and pins finality to the finalized L1 block window,

   • Updates a global map from “which L1 block → which L2 heads”.

Result: every L2 gets a canonical block that is causally tied to that specific L1 block.

4) A concrete example

Scenario: Alice on L2‑A swaps token X for Y on L2‑B, but only if a small L1 rebalance also succeeds.

1. Alice submits one tx to L2‑A.

2. In execution, her contract calls xcalloptions(to=L2‑B) then DEX_B.swap(...).

3. On L2‑B the swap succeeds and returns amountOut.

4. Back on L2‑A, logic says: if amountOut ≥ threshold, perform an L1 direct top‑up (e.g., move ETH in a treasury). It marks that step L1‑Direct.

5. The builder records: (a) L2‑A & L2‑B state diffs, (b) the expected return data for the L1‑Direct call, and ( c) orders the L1 AA call.

6. The ULTRA TX is proposed. Onchain, Gwyneth verifies the pre-state and proof first, primes the ExtensionOracle with the recorded return data, then replays the L1 AA call and diffs exactly as recorded—any mismatch reverts everything.

7. ExEx rebuilds both L2 blocks and finalizes them relative to that L1 block. Alice sees her swap and the L1 top‑up as a single atomic outcome.

5) Developer surface (L2‑A → L2‑B ERC‑20 xTransfer)

Below is a concrete, example that moves an ERC‑20 balance from L2‑A to L2‑B. Users call this on L2‑A; Gwyneth routes the mint on L2‑B during build and enforces it during replay.

// On L2-A, user/script calls:
function moveTokensL2AToL2B(
    XERC20 token,      // deployed on both L2-A and L2-B (same code)
    uint256 chainIdL2B,    // destination chain ID
    address recipientL2B,  // recipient on L2-B
    uint256 amount
) external {
    // Debits sender on L2-A and requests a mint on L2-B.
    // Under the hood, token.on(chainIdL2B)._mint(...) is invoked cross-chain.
    token.xTransfer(chainIdL2B, recipientL2B, amount);
}

What Gwyneth/ULTRA does with this call

• During build, Gwyneth REVM interprets token.on(chainIdL2B) as a cross‑chain frame and simulates _mint(to, amount) on L2‑B. It journals the L2‑A debit and the L2‑B mint diff.

• The builder adds both diffs to the ULTRA payload and records witnesses.

• On replay, the ULTRA contract enforces that the L2‑A debit and the L2‑B mint match the recorded witnesses; if anything differs, the whole ULTRA TX reverts (atomicity).

6) What makes it safe (atomicity & validation)

• One container, one proof: The whole bundle shares inputs, so you can prove/verify once. If any piece disagrees with the recorded witnesses/outputs, everything reverts.

• Top‑of‑block placement: Ensures the builder’s view of “latest L1 state” matches what the block will actually use.

• Reorg handling: If L1 reorgs, ExEx rewinds each L2 to the heads that were tied to the now‑canonical L1 block at that height.

• Stateless replay: Witnesses let independent verifiers reconstruct the execution without full state, making fraud/imprecision detectable.

7) What it doesn’t change

• No L1 hard fork required. ULTRA TX is “just” a big AA transaction with rules enforced by contracts + proofs.

• Builder sophistication increases. To be competitive you need fast execution, witness generation, and (eventually) fast proving.

• Real‑time proving. Full L1↔L2 synchronicity with proofs under 12s is still an active engineering goal; interim designs can use TEEs/AVSs or limit what’s proven per block.

Note: Proving is still under development, SGX and TDX coming soon.

8) Example flows (for the visual learners like myself)

These diagrams showcase multiple different scenarios for synchronus operations across chains, it should help you see how different origin/destination txs travel through the ULTRA TX pipeline.

8.1 L1 → L2 WETH xTransfer

Key takeaways: L1 account-abstraction frames can synchronously lock WETH on L1 while crediting L2-B. The ExtensionOracle feeds the recorded credit receipt so replayed AA logic observes the same xTransfer outcome the builder saw.

8.2 L2 → L1 WETH xTransfer

Key takeaways: L2-origin WETH withdrawals hit the actual L1 vault inside the same ULTRA container. The builder records the release diff, and replay enforces that the live vault movement matches the simulated xTransfer exactly.

8.3 L2 → L2 WETH xTransfer

Key takeaways: Cross-L2 WETH transfers reuse the same builder journal. With no L1Direct frame, the ExtensionOracle stays idle while both L2 ledgers atomically debit/credit once the ULTRA transaction finalizes on L1.

9) Frequently asked

Q: Why must ULTRA be first in the block? A: So all transactions inside can reason about the latest L1 state without awkward workarounds. (If you drop strict synchronicity with L1 you can loosen this.)

Q: Can I still include ordinary L1 transactions? A: Yes—inside the ULTRA container as AA txs, in any order the builder chooses.

Q: How do L1→L2 calls with return values work? A: The builder simulates them, records outputs, and the ExtensionOracle returns those outputs during onchain replay.

Q: What happens on an L1 reorg? A: ExEx rewinds each L2 to the head associated with the new canonical L1 block at the same height.

10) Quick glossary

• ULTRA TX — a single powerful L1 transaction that carries many txs/blocks/proofs.

• Account abstraction (AA) — L1 transactions from smart accounts, enabling flexible packaging and ordering.

• ExtensionOracle — simple contract that returns pre‑recorded outputs for calls not natively available on L1 during replay.

• ExEx — execution extension that reconstructs L2 blocks from an ULTRA payload.

• Journal — the detailed execution trace REVM writes (reads/writes/calls) used for

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The Compliance Bottleneck

Tokenization has clear institutional use cases: real-world assets, securities and regulated financial instruments. The bottleneck isn't technical capability. Blockchains can represent ownership and transfer value. The bottleneck is regulatory infrastructure.

Issuers need to enforce KYC/AML rules, jurisdiction restrictions, investor accreditation requirements, and transaction limits. They need monitoring systems that flag non-compliant activity. They need reporting that satisfies regulators across different jurisdictions.

Most solutions build compliance on top of centralized sequencers. The sequencer controls transaction ordering, which lets it enforce rules. This works for compliance but creates a trust problem. A centralized operator can reorder transactions for profit, censor addresses under regulatory pressure, or fail as a single point of vulnerability.

What ACE Solves

ACE is modular compliance infrastructure that works across blockchains and jurisdictions.

Cross-Chain Identity (CCID) manages verifiable credentials across multiple blockchains. Instead of separate KYC for each chain, CCID stores cryptographic proofs of verified credentials (KYC, AML, accredited investor status) that work anywhere. It integrates with institutional identity standards like GLEIF's vLEIs.

Policy Manager is a programmable rules engine. Issuers define compliance policies in smart contracts: jurisdiction restrictions, volume limits, role-based access control and investor eligibility. Rules execute automatically and anyone can audit them.

Monitoring and Reporting provides real-time alerts for non-compliance and generates reports for regulatory disclosure.

The launch ecosystem includes over 20 partners: identity providers (GLEIF, World), risk scoring platforms (Chainalysis, TRM Labs), monitoring services (Bluprynt, Hacken), and tokenization infrastructure (Apex Group, Chintai). This establishes ACE as the standard for institutional digital assets.

Why Based Rollups Matter

Taiko's architecture solves the centralized sequencer problem. Transaction ordering happens on Ethereum L1, not through a centralized operator. No single entity controls sequencing. No one can reorder transactions for profit. No one can selectively censor addresses.

ACE on Taiko means issuers enforce compliance rules while maintaining Ethereum-equivalent security and credible neutrality. The compliance layer lives in smart contracts. The sequencing layer stays decentralized through Ethereum's proposer mechanism.

This is a structural difference that matters under pressure. When regulators demand censorship, a centralized sequencer must comply or shut down. A based rollup has no central operator to compel. Transaction ordering runs through Ethereum validators, distributed globally and resistant to coercion.

Compliance does not require centralization. ACE proves this by providing complete compliance infrastructure without requiring a trusted intermediary to control transaction flow.

What Builders Can Do

Developers can now use ACE's compliance framework on Taiko without rebuilding infrastructure from scratch. The system provides policy templates, SDKs, and a compliance sandbox for testing.

Use cases include tokenized securities that enforce investor accreditation and jurisdiction restrictions, stablecoins with programmable compliance for different regulatory environments, real-world asset tokens with automated KYC/AML checks, and financial instruments requiring verifiable identity and policy enforcement.

The modular design means deploy only what you need. Identity verification without complex policy enforcement. Monitoring without cross-chain functionality. This reduces complexity and cost while maintaining flexibility.

Taiko's Institutional Stack

ACE integrates with Taiko's broader institutional infrastructure. Chainlink Data Streams provides reliable pricing data. ACE provides compliance frameworks. Based sequencing provides credible neutrality. This is an institutional stack that does not require trusting a single operator.

Institutional adoption requires infrastructure that satisfies regulatory requirements while remaining credibly neutral over long time horizons. Centralized systems cannot provide this. Operator incentives change. Regulatory pressure forces policy changes. Operators fail.

Based rollups with modular compliance infrastructure solve this. The compliance layer satisfies regulatory requirements. The sequencing layer stays neutral because Ethereum's decentralized validator set controls it.

What This Means

ACE launching with Taiko as one of three blockchain partners shows where serious institutional infrastructure is being built. This is operational infrastructure for regulated financial assets, not speculation.

Real institutional adoption comes from solving hard regulatory problems while maintaining the decentralization properties that make blockchain infrastructure valuable. Compliance infrastructure. Verifiable identity systems. Programmable policy enforcement across jurisdictions.

Taiko's integration with ACE demonstrates that compliance and decentralization are complementary, not opposing. Both are required for infrastructure that institutions can actually use.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

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• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

Why based matters

Most rollups today run on centralized sequencers. One company controls transaction ordering. One point of failure. One entity that can censor you, extract MEV, or simply go offline and take the whole network with it.

We didn't want to scale Ethereum by introducing new trust assumptions. So Taiko hands the sequencing back to Ethereum's own validators. Same censorship resistance, same liveness guarantees. If Ethereum is live, Taiko is live. If Ethereum won't censor you, neither will we.

What we built

Sub-second preconfirmations without a centralized operator. Our two-phase system starts with whitelisted operators and evolves to permissionless participation, where any L1 validator can opt in.

Batch-based proving that slashes costs while keeping blocks small and responsive. Multiple blocks are proved together with aggregated proofs.

A multiproving system where every batch gets verified through ZK-SNARKs and SGX. If one proof system breaks, you're still covered.

The whitepaper has the formulas, the protocol specs and the technical architecture. It walks through Ontake, Pacaya, and what's coming with Shasta (10x cost reductions, anyone?).

The point

Based rollups work. They're not theoretical. They're live, handling real transactions, proving that you can scale Ethereum without compromising on decentralization.Read it here.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

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Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

The moment you’ve been waiting for has arrived. Eligible participants from Season 5 can now claim their TAIKO tokens directly through their Trailblazers profile. Congratulations to everyone who qualified.

🏆 TAIKO Token Rewards for Trailblazers S5 🏆

Level 14 (Legend): 3,037.50

Level 13 (Densetsu): 1,948.58

Level 12 (Kodai): 1,378.72

Level 11 (Hashira): 749.87

Level 10 (Shogun): 465.72

Level 9 (Taichou II): 241.69

Level 8 (Taichou I): 197.67

Level 7 (Sensei II): 138.11

Level 6 (Sensei I): 69.92

Level 5 (Samurai II): 41.42

Level 4 (Samurai I): 10.93

Level 3 (Senshi II): 3.68

Level 2 (Senshi I): 1.84

Level 1 (Initiate): 1.21

Please claim your rewards by November 22.

Ensuring Fair Play and the Trailblazer Role

As always, we conducted a careful review of participation data to identify and remove bad-faith actors or anyone attempting to exploit the system. Once these accounts were filtered out, levels were recalculated based on the remaining player pool, which may have caused some shifts in rank. We also took community findings very seriously to ensure fair-play. Rest assured, even if your level went down, since the remaining pool of participants became smaller, your rewards actually increased.

This season, we listened closely to community feedback and kept the review process thorough, including during the claims phase. We also kept the Trailblazer role effect intact. At the same time, those who did not receive the role were still rewarded at fifty percent of the standard rate. This season, the vast majority of participants obtained the role, and for that, we would like to thank our community.

Looking Ahead

Trailblazers has continued to grow with the introduction of The Arena and The Undercity, two new ways to engage with the Taiko ecosystem.

The Arena is where you play, earn XP, and collect rewards with every victory. The more you win, the higher you climb, and the greater your final prize at the end of the season.

The Undercity follows a different path. There are no restrictions, only the chance to accumulate XP through transactions and rise in rank. No sybil checks will be performed there, allowing you to farm freely and show your true power.

Trailblazers continues to move forward with strength, and we invite you to stay on this journey with us.

Let’s keep building and advancing together.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

Hello, from the end of Q3!

It’s been a full-on quarter, with  transformative upgrades, key integrations and community growth for Taiko. Here's what defined the quarter:

• Based Preconfirmations Live on Mainnet – Phase 1 upgrade cut confirmation times to ~2s, making Taiko 20–30× faster.

• Hoodi Testnet Launched – New testnet with preconfirmation support, replacing Hekla.

• Chainlink Oracles Integrated – Chainlink Data Streams now power Taiko dApps with sub-second market data.

• DAO Governance Activated – Binding on-chain governance framework live; token holders can veto upgrades.

• Board of Directors Appointed – Added Joy Lam, Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Professor Wen Yonggang and an Advisor, CPA Ren Jang

• Trailblazers Season 6 – New quests and reward pool engaging thousands of users.

Protocol & Technical Milestones

Preconfirmations on Mainnet

Q3 saw Pacaya hardfork deliver on its promise with preconfirmations going live on Alethia mainnet, slashing Taiko’s effective confirmation time from ~45 seconds to ~2 seconds.

Initially, Phase 1 preconfirmations are running with select whitelisted partners to ensure stability. As the system proves out, it will open up permissionlessly in Phase 2, allowing anyone to run a preconfirmation node just like anyone can be an L1 validator.

Hoodi Testnet & Hekla Deprecation

We also launched Hoodi, a brand-new public testnet, which now serves as the main playground for Taiko development, allowing developers to test ultra-fast tx finality and other upcoming features in conditions that closely mirror mainnet.

Protocol Upgrades & Performance

Beyond headline features, Q3 included continuous improvements to Taiko’s protocol and performance.

The team implemented various post-Pacaya optimizations to further stabilize preconfirmations and reduce overhead:

• Taiko maintained 100% ZK proof coverage for all its own proposed blocks (as achieved in Q2), and community provers continued handling a growing share of network proofs.

• Almost 1 billion transactions have now been processed on Taiko since launch (cumulative), with activity remaining high throughout Q3.

The network consistently processed hundreds of thousands of daily transactions, reflecting sustained user demand despite low fees.

All these advancements reinforce Taiko’s position as a cutting-edge, high-throughput rollup that doesn’t compromise on Ethereum-equivalence or security.

Ecosystem & Partnerships

Q3 was marked by strategic moves to broaden Taiko’s ecosystem and deepen its technical partnerships:

Strategic Partnership with Nethermind

We partnered  with Nethermind to accelerate production-ready based rollup infrastructure. This collaboration focused on advancing preconfirmation systems, implementing EIP-7917 for trust-minimized sequencing, and developing permissionless mainnet-ready infrastructure. Together we are turning cutting-edge research into resilient systems with zero compromise on decentralization.

Real-Time Data with Dune Analytics

Taiko data went live on Dune , giving the entire community access to real-time on-chain insights through customizable dashboards, enabling everyone to track ecosystem growth, wallet activity, governance participation, and dApp adoption across 100+ live protocols. Featured dashboards launched for Taiko Overview, World of Dypians, Intraverse, and Brigade, making it easier than ever to explore what's happening on-chain.

Chainlink Data Streams Integration

Taiko officially integrated Chainlink’s Data Streams oracle into the L2, establishing it as the default oracle infrastructure for Taiko Alethia.

DAO & Governance

After a “soft launch” in Q2 with the Security Council, Q3 focused on empowering the community with real governance rights. In early October when Taiko activated binding on-chain governance on mainnet, officially handing critical decision powers to token holders.

Under this model, any protocol upgrade or parameter change is subject to an on-chain governance proposal. During a set review period, the global community of $TAIKO holders can veto the proposal if they disagree.

To support the transition to full decentralization, we welcomed  three distinguished Board of Directors. They are:

• Joy Lam, former Head of Global Regulatory at Binance (expert in legal/regulatory matters);

• Felix Oberholzer-Gee, a Harvard Business School professor and authority on strategy and digital innovation;

• Prof. Wen Yonggang, an IEEE Fellow and blockchain researcher from NTU Singapore.

• Additionally, Ren Jang (Head of Strategy at Flipster) joined as an advisor.

This heavyweight board brings a wealth of experience in compliance, business strategy, and technology to ensure Taiko’s governance is  decentralized as well as effective and resilient.

Learn more: https://taiko.mirror.xyz/IL5RRPbR86dXJV5mjIHnPiXMFgArX6XeZDg0dVdDN5U

Community Programs & Engagement

Taiko’s community remained one of the most vibrant in Web3 during Q3 2025. Our focus has been on keeping this community engaged, educated and rewarded for their contributions. Here are some key community updates from Q3:

Trailblazers Season 5 Conclusion

Trailblazers, our flagship gamified community program, successfully wrapped up Season 5 on September 15 with a reward pool of 3,000,000 TAIKO to the top Trailblazers.

Trailblazers Evolves in Season 6: Just as one season ended, another began. On Sept 15, we launched Trailblazers Season 6, introducing some of the biggest changes to the program since its inception. This season splits the competition into two parallel tracks: The Arena and The Undercity.

Education & Content

Education remains a top priority. In Q3 we published multiple blog posts and videos to help users and developers understand Taiko’s tech:

• Our blog posts explained in plain language how based preconfirmations work and why they matter – those articles saw thousands of reads and helped drive home Taiko’s unique value prop.

• We also shared developer guides on using the new preconfirmation APIs and updated our docs with Hoodi testnet details.

• Additionally, our team members appeared on community calls, Twitter Spaces, and podcasts (like ZK House and Layer2 Roundup) to discuss Taiko’s developments.

These efforts ensure that our community stays informed and new members have plenty of resources for onboarding.

An informed community is an empowered community and we love to see it!

Galxe Quests & Campaigns

To broaden our reach, we continued the series of monthly Galxe campaigns highlighting notable projects in the Taiko ecosystem.

In Q3, we ran campaigns featuring projects like GemsTown, Symbiosis, CoNFT, and others. Each campaign drew thousands of participants, many of whom were new to Taiko. By completing simple tasks (e.g. making a swap on Taiko, try a game demo, follow project socials), users discovered the richness of Taiko’s ecosystem.

Events & Outreach

Taiko’s global presence hit new highs in Q3 2025 as the team actively engaged with the Ethereum community at major industry events and also organized our own gatherings:

• Moon Party with K11 Art Foundation (Seoul): In early September, we proudly powered the Moon Party as its blockchain partner, a dazzling celebration hosted by the K11 Art Foundation in Seoul. The event brought together world-class brands like Maserati, Hypebeast, and many others, blending art, culture, and innovation under one unforgettable moonlit night.

• Korea Blockchain Week (Seoul): In early September, Taiko had a strong showing at KBW 2025  and the surrounding events in Seoul. Our founders and team members spent the week connecting with developers, users, and fellow builders. We also organized the official Taiko Seoulmates Party, a packed side event that brought together the community for music and networking.

• TOKEN2049 Singapore & Builders Day: Later in the month, Taiko turned its attention to Singapore for TOKEN2049 (one of Asia’s premier Web3 conferences).On Sept 30 we partnered with ForkOff and IoNet to host the “AI, DePIN & RWA Builders” forum, a side-event forum exploring the intersection of emerging Web3 sectors.

The message was clear: Taiko's Q3 breakthroughs have landed. Based preconfirmations and binding governance aren't just technical wins. They've established Taiko as a protocol to watch in Ethereum's next chapter.

Looking Ahead

As we move into the final quarter of 2025, Taiko is gearing up for some major milestones that will propel our network to new heights:

• Shasta Hard Fork – 100% ZK & Lower Fees: Our next mainnet upgrade, code-named Shasta, is on the horizon for Q4.

• Gwyneth Testnet & Beyond: Work continues on Taiko Gwyneth, our experimental “booster rollup” that offers synchronous composability with Ethereum L1. In Q3, our research team finished the design and internal demos of cross-chain atomic transactions using Gwyneth.

• Permissionless Preconfirmations (Phase 2): With Phase 1 preconfs stable on the mainnet, the next step is to open preconfirmations to all. This will truly decentralize the block-building process on Taiko, fulfilling the vision of proposer-prover separation.

• Community Growth. We plan new community programs to grow our developer and user base. Trailblazers Season 6 will run through year-end, now with new “Undercity” challenges. Educational campaigns and community grants will ensure more people can easily start building on Taiko.

• Ecosystem & Events. Looking to Q4, we will attend major blockchain conferences (e.g. Devconnect) to demo Taiko’s tech. We’re also exploring collaborations with RWA and AI to expand Taiko’s utility.

Closing Thoughts

Q3 2025 was a quarter of execution and acceleration. We didn't just talk about preconfirmations; we shipped them. We didn't just promise decentralized governance, we activated it. And we didn't just hope for ecosystem growth, we built the partnerships and infrastructure to make it inevitable.

With nearly 1 billion transactions processed, a thriving community of developers and users, world-class partners like Nethermind, Chainlink, and Dune, and a clear roadmap ahead, Taiko is well-positioned to become the leading Ethereum-equivalent rollup.

The future is based. The future is fast. The future is Taiko.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

These directors serve the DAO specifically, not Taiko Labs or any centralized entity. Their role is to guide the security council and decentralized community as they are granted certain controls over the governance of the protocol through dao.taiko.xyz. Their backgrounds in regulation, competitive strategy, and research represent the caliber of judgment needed as Taiko scales to meet growing institutional demand.

Why This Matters

As real-world assets (RWA) tokenization accelerates and institutional adoption of blockchain infrastructure grows, Taiko's governance requires sophisticated oversight. The convergence of traditional finance with decentralized systems demands expertise spanning regulatory compliance, competitive positioning, and cutting-edge research. These appointments position Taiko's DAO to navigate complex institutional requirements while maintaining the protocol's decentralized ethos, critical as tokenized assets from real estate to securities increasingly rely on scalable, secure Layer 2 solutions.

Taiko as a network strives to be ownerless. From the very beginning, our aim has been for Taiko to be fully owned by its users once we reach our vision. This north star guides us in building a neutral DAO, the way a truly decentralized network should operate. With this goal in mind, we are excited to introduce these experts in their fields as DAO Board Directors:

Joy Lam: Legal Leadership

Joy Lam brings extensive experience navigating complex legal and regulatory matters. As former Head of Global Regulatory at Binance, she guided the company through challenging regulatory landscapes worldwide.

Lam pioneered Asia's first tokenized funds and led the first tokenization of prime London real estate. She currently serves as a non-official member of Hong Kong's Web3 Development Task Force, contributing to policy development for the region's digital assets strategy.

Through her firm Clarient Advisory, Joy bridges traditional finance and Web3, focusing on digital assets, tokenization, and regulatory strategy. Her 15 years spanning both sectors provide crucial insight as Taiko builds for institutional adoption.

Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee: Strategic Expertise

Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Andreas Andresen Professor at Harvard Business School, brings world-class strategic thinking to Taiko's governance. His research on competitive strategy and digital technology's impact on corporate performance is regularly featured in Financial Times, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.

Professor Oberholzer-Gee teaches competitive strategy in Harvard's MBA program and chairs multiple executive education programs, including the Senior Executive Leadership Program for China and the Driving Digital Strategy program. He also co-hosts the popular TED podcast After Hours.

His expertise in how organizations scale in digital markets provides valuable perspective as Taiko expands its ecosystem and user base.

Professor Wen Yonggang: Research Excellence

Professor Wen Yonggang is an IEEE Fellow and President's Chair in Computer Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University. He founded and directs NTU's Centre of Computational Technologies in Finance, leading blockchain research, education, and community development across the university.

With over 300 published papers and recognition, including NTU's Nanyang Research Award and Nanyang Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Professor Wen brings deep technical expertise to Taiko's development roadmap.

His ability to translate cutting-edge research into practical applications aligns with Taiko's commitment to innovation grounded in solid engineering principles.

Advisor CPA Ren Jang: Exchange-side Market Experience

Ren Jang is currently the Head of Strategy at Flipster, a high-performance Centralized Exchange engineered by traders, optimized for trading.

Ren is a licensed CPA in Korea, initially worked as a corporate valuation expert at Ernst&Young before joining the Crypto industry, driven by a belief in blockchain’s potential to transform finance. He holds a degree in philosophy from Seoul National University.

After his blockchain related work at an academic organization, DeFi protocol, web3 venture capital he became the Head of Research at a South Korea based Centralized Exchange Upbit.

He is also dedicated to the Korean web3 ecosystem by operating Localhost:web3 which is a not-for-profit community that is based in the Gangnam area.

Strengthening DAO Governance

These appointments represent the DAO's commitment to institutional-grade governance. Unlike traditional corporate boards, these directors serve the decentralized community directly, providing expertise as token holders make binding protocol decisions.

The distinction matters: while Taiko Labs handles engineering and development, the DAO Board Directors focus on governance strategy, ensuring the community has access to world-class judgment when making protocol-level decisions.

The governance portal at dao.taiko.xyz enables community participation in Taiko's evolution. With heavyweight expertise now supporting community decision-making, Taiko is positioned to demonstrate how decentralized governance can operate effectively at scale.

Token holders can delegate voting power or participate directly in shaping Taiko's future through transparent, on-chain governance.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new testnet, Taiko Hoodi, which will now serve as the primary test environment for the Taiko ecosystem. At the same time, we will be sunsetting our long-standing Taiko Hekla testnet. Taiko Hekla was based on Ethereum’s Holesky testnet, which will also be deprecated at the end of September.

Hekla has been with us since before mainnet and has been instrumental in enabling developers across the ecosystem to test, refine, and ship products on Ethereum’s first based rollup, Taiko Alethia. We are grateful for the role Hekla has played and for the contributions of every developer who relied on it as a foundation for innovation.

As Taiko moves into a new era, with preconfirmations active and many more developments on the horizon, it has become clear that a new testnet is needed to support the protocol’s growth. That testnet is Taiko Hoodi, and it will now carry the network forward.

Key dates

• September 25, 2025: Taiko Hoodi goes live

• September 30, 2025: Taiko Hekla testnet deprecation and sunset

If you are currently building on Taiko Hekla, please migrate your work to Taiko Hoodi before September 30. If you hold testnet assets on Hekla, be sure to withdraw them ahead of the sunset.

Developer Resources

Latest Protocol Deployments (L1 and L2 contracts):
Available here

Taiko Hoodi Bootnode Addresses:
Available here

Taiko Hoodi

Chain ID: 167013

RPC: https://rpc.hoodi.taiko.xyz

Symbol: ETH

Block Explorer: https://hoodi.taikoscan.io/

Taiko Hoodi represents the next stage of the network’s evolution. We look forward to seeing what you will build.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

This strategic integration reinforces our vision for maximum reliability and security while delivering tangible performance benefits. By bringing high-quality, tamper-proof market data to Taiko’s based rollup architecture, developers can build advanced DeFi applications such as lending protocols, derivatives platforms, and other decentralized applications. As a based rollup, Taiko utilizes Ethereum validators for transaction sequencing, ensuring maximum decentralization and resistance to censorship.

“Adopting Chainlink Data Streams as our official oracle solution ensures the Taiko ecosystem has access to secure, high-fidelity market data. As the most Ethereum-aligned L2, this integration positions us to accelerate institutional adoption and attract smart capital beyond traditional DeFi use cases. Chainlink’s industry-standard infrastructure supports our vision of bringing real-world applications on-chain while maintaining our commitment to decentralization,” said Joaquin Mendes, COO at Taiko.

Beyond DeFi applications, this strategic integration positions Taiko to capitalize on the next wave of institutional blockchain adoption. As enterprises and traditional finance seek secure, decentralized infrastructure for tokenized assets and smart contracts, Taiko’s based rollup architecture—combined with Chainlink’s battle-tested oracle platform—creates a compelling foundation for institutional-grade applications.

This integration will also enable macroeconomic data from the US Department of Commerce to be posted on Taiko through Chainlink’s infrastructure.

Chainlink Data Streams delivers key technical features for DeFi protocols on Taiko, including liquidity-weighted bid-ask spreads for enhanced risk management, flexible report schemas that capture deeper market data, and proven infrastructure that has enabled $25+ trillion in onchain transaction volume across leading DeFi applications.

“We’re thrilled that Taiko has chosen Chainlink Data Streams as its official oracle solution to accelerate the growth of its DeFi ecosystem. Via sub-second, highly secure market data delivered through Chainlink’s proven infrastructure that’s already securing over $100 billion across DeFi, Taiko is now positioned to unlock significant DeFi innovation and support institutional-grade applications with the reliability they demand,” said Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs.

We’re excited to embark on this partnership with Chainlink and can’t wait to see how developers, institutions, and the broader Ethereum community leverage this integration to build the next generation of onchain applications on Taiko.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.

Trailblazers has been a cornerstone of daily activity for many Taiko network participants over the past year. It is one of our most beloved programs, distributing more than 30 million TAIKO tokens so far. We are excited to announce the next step in the evolution of Trailblazers. The new version introduces two unique tracks you can join: The Arena and The Undercity.

We've designed these two distinct tracks to serve different purposes:

• The Arena creates a protected environment where genuine users can compete fairly without having their progress overshadowed by automated activity.

• The Undercity provides a space for sophisticated farming actors (inevitable in any ecosystem) to operate, turning their activity into a way to stress-test our rollup technology while shielding the real community.

This separation ensures fair rewards for real users while harnessing the network activity that helps us optimize performance.

⚔️ The Arena: Play Games and Earn Rewards

Recently, preconfirmations went live on our mainnet, making transactions blazing fast. Users are now experiencing at least a 20 to 30 times increase in transaction speed. This makes gaming on Taiko an incredible experience, and we are inviting you to earn rewards while playing. Your Legacy Lives On-Chain.

For the first time in Trailblazers' history, your profile lives entirely on-chain as an NFT that grows with you. Every victory, every streak, every milestone becomes a permanent part of your gaming identity. Your profile isn't just a number, it's your legend written in immutable code.

What Makes Your Profile Special:

• Persistent Identity: Your stats, level, and reputation follow you across all games

• Visual Evolution: Profile NFTs evolve as you level up (coming soon)

• Achievement System (coming soon): Unlock rare badges or titles

• Cross-Season Progress: Your achievements and base stats persist between seasons

• Social Proof: Show off your profile NFT with integrated stats on social media (coming soon)

• Exclusive Access: Top-tier players may unlock access to premium tournaments and special competitions

Your on-chain profile enables the possibility to participate in unique competitions amongst other players of your level, allowing you to battle against your closest competitors

How to Participate in The Arena

To join The Arena, simply play selected games, such as Gemstown, Intraverse’s Crash or Cash and other partners coming soon. Your performance will determine your position on the leaderboard.

The Experience Point (XP) System:

• Win Rewards: Earn fixed XP for each victory (amount varies by game based on complexity and skill required)

• Loss Penalties: You can lose XP for losses, but you'll never drop below your current level - similar to MMORPG mechanics, where reaching a new level protects your progress

• Streak Bonuses: Build win streaks for bonus XP

• Competition Multipliers: Special tournaments offer boosted XP rates. Stay tuned for more information later this season

• Level Progression: Each level requires more XP but may unlock exclusive perks in the future

Different games reward different XP amounts: shorter, simpler games provide less XP, while longer, skill-based games offer more substantial rewards. This prevents farming of low-effort games, though you're free to play them at the cost of time and gas.

Your Journey in The Arena:

• Create your on-chain profile NFT (one-time mint)

• Play selected games on our GameHub infrastructure

• Watch your stats update in real-time after every match

• Win games to earn XP and climb the leaderboard

• Unlock achievements that showcase your mastery

• Top 10,000 players earn rewards at season's endArena Initial Prize Pool & Stretch Goals

The initial prize pool for The Arena unlocks 100,000 TAIKO tokens of the total 600,000 allocated to this season. However, the community has the power to unlock significantly more! We've set up a series of stretch goals that, once achieved, will increase the total TAIKO distributed. This means your collective effort directly impacts the rewards for all participants.

Here’s how it works: as the community hits specific milestones in total games played, new tiers of the prize pool will be unlocked, eventually reaching the full 600,000 TAIKO.

Community Unlocks:

• Tier 1: 100,000 TAIKO (Initial Pool)

• Tier 2: Unlock upon reaching 500 total games played across all Arena titles

• Tier 3: Unlock upon reaching 5,000 total games played across all Arena titles

• Tier 4: Unlock upon reaching 15,000 total games played across all Arena titles

• … to be revealed later

• Final Tier: Full 600,000 TAIKO unlocked upon achieving the ultimate community goal!

Specific details on the gameplay requirements for each tier will be announced shortly. Rally your fellow Trailblazers and let's unlock that full prize pool!

Arena Rewards (based on the fully unlocked 600,000 TAIKO goal):

TAIKO per Player

Top 10 - 4,500 TAIKO

11-50 - 1,275 TAIKO

51-350 - 300 TAIKO

351-1,150 - 150 TAIKO

1,151-2,650 - 67.5 TAIKO

2,651-5,400 - 45 TAIKO

5,401-10,000 - 15 TAIKO

🌃 The Undercity: Unlimited Activity

This is Trailblazers without the guardrails; the same points system for transactions and volume as the original, but with no daily limits, no multipliers, and no badges.

We recognize that in every major crypto initiative, from airdrops to reward programs, automated activity, and sophisticated farming operations are inevitable. Rather than fight this reality, we've created The Undercity as a dedicated space where these actors can operate freely while generating the high transaction volumes that help us stress-test our based rollup technology. This approach allows us to harness this activity productively while protecting genuine users in The Arena.

Those who make the most transactions win. Each transaction will give you points based on volume & gas spent, similar to the OG Trailblazers XP calculation, and the XP you gain determines your spot on the leaderboard.

There are no daily limits, no sybil checks, and no disqualifications. Advanced users are free to deploy whatever strategies they choose to maximize their transaction activity and climb the leaderboard.

Just do whatever it takes to rank in the top 1,000 of The Undercity leaderboard and claim your rewards.

Undercity Rewards (200,000 TAIKO):

TAIKO per Player

Top 10 - 4,000 TAIKO

11-50 - 1,400 TAIKO

51-300 - 192 TAIKO

301-1,000 - 80 TAIKO

📅 Prize Pool and Season Information

Season begins - September 15 at 12:00:01 UTC

Season ends - December 15 at 12:00:00 UTC

Total Prize Pool - 800,000 TAIKO tokens

Arena Prize Pool - 600,000 TAIKO

Undercity Prize Pool - 200,000 TAIKO

• Prizes will be delivered at the end of the season

• New games may be added during the season

• The Arena participants are subject to checks

Taiko reserves the right to adjust reward structures based on adoption levels, identified cheating dynamics, or other factors deemed necessary for program integrity.

🚀 Moving Forward with Trailblazers

Trailblazers has always been about rewarding effort and participation. With this new stage, we are carrying that spirit forward. At the same time, the new era brought by preconfirmations opens the door to opportunities beyond Trailblazers.

The sustainability of Trailblazers matters to us, and we will keep improving it to reach its best form. Stay with us and be ready for many opportunities ahead. The improved user experience delivered by preconfirmations is already making possible things that were not viable before, and this is only the beginning.

Let's keep pushing forward, Trailblazers.

Join us 💗

Explore open positions on our job board.

Follow us 🥁

Get the latest from Taiko:

• Website: https://taiko.xyz.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/taikoxyz.

• GitHub: https://github.com/taikoxyz.

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taikoxyz.

• Community forum: https://community.taiko.xyz.

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@taikoxyz.

• Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/taikoxyz.

Contribute 🤓

Contribute to Taiko on GitHub and earn a GitPOAP! You will also be featured as a contributor on our README. Get started with the contributing manual.