Timothy Morano
February 26th, 2025 05:26
Tezos’ Etherlink has announced its third protocol upgrade proposal, Calypso, pledging significant performance improvements and seamless governance integration.
Tezos plans to significantly upgrade to the Etherlink Layer 2 blockchain, which aims to enhance performance and streamline operations. The proposed upgrade, named Calypso, marks the third protocol upgrade for Etherlink, and according to Tezos Commons, promises to seamlessly integrate with Tezos’ existing governance framework.
Improved performance and efficient storage
Calypso is designed to significantly improve network performance, offering up to 30 times more smart contract storage. This improvement is similar to the upgrade from a traditional hard drive to a high speed SSD, facilitating faster data loading and smoothing application performance. Upgrades utilize virtual machine (VM) caching to optimize operations and increase the speed and efficiency of distributed applications (DAPPs) that rely on high-speed storage access.
Additionally, Calypso offers smarter storage management by reducing the storage needs of full rollup nodes. This is achieved by keeping only the most recent blocks, allowing the full block history to be accessed via the Octes EVM node. The result is a more lean and more efficient system without sacrificing data accessibility.
Strengthened Bridges and Governance Alignment
The upgrade also promises a faster bridge between Etherlink and Tezos Layer 1 (L1). Currently, bringing TEZ back to L1 is a hassle, but Calypso has introduced a new pre-reduced contract entry point to facilitate this process. This enhancement is expected to reduce congestion, improve transaction flow, and adjust to suit the expansion of the FA token bridge.
Calypso also includes a governance update to maintain consistency with the recent Quebec upgrade of the Tezos L1, reducing block time to 8 seconds. By renewing your governance agreement, EtherLink ensures that your voting, security, and decision-making processes are efficient and remain synced with TEZOS L1.
Reliability and future prospects
Improved reliability is the basis for Calypso upgrades. This proposal includes an extension to the Etherlink kernel. This now uses events to notify the sequencer of delayed transaction flashes, thereby reducing the risk of downtime. These upgrades contribute to a more resilient and reliable system, ensuring better uptime and a smoother user experience.
Etherlink’s continuous infrastructure upgrades over the last few months have also enhanced its performance and stability. Calypso is already live on EtherLink TestNet, so implementation on the mainnet relies on approval from Tezos L1 Bakers, who play a key role in governance and decision-making processes.
Seamless upgrades and community engagement
The Calypso upgrade illustrates a smooth and disruptive approach to blockchain evolution, avoiding the usual chaos associated with hard forks. It highlights Tezos’s strength in governance and ensures steady progress without downtime.
For those who wish to participate in the technical details and governance process, Tezos Bakers recommends vote on February 24, 2025. Communities can stay up to date with development through Etherlink’s Discord Channel or social media platforms.
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