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The L3 Summit is a zkLink-initiated event series that educates, amplifies, and shares research about the current status of Layer 3 development from the world’s leading Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain protocols.

Layer 3s are a third layer built on top of Ethereum Layer 2 Rollups that deliver higher scalability, lower gas costs, and greater app-specific customizability. Layer 3s are poised to lead the future of building interoperable DApp infrastructures and Ethereum scaling solutions.

The L3 Summit brings together the world’s best protocols such as zkSync, Starknet, Scroll, Linea, Polygon, Manta, Mantle, Kakarot, Taiko, Celestia, Eigen Layer, and more, to push forward the boundaries of Layer 3 innovation and break through the blockchain trilemma.

zkLink and QED will be hosting its second L3 Summit at ETHDenver on March 2nd, 2024 at the Le Meridien Hotel in Downtown Denver.

For those interested in registering to attend the Summit, please see our Luma event page for more details. We look forward to kicking off another great event on one of the industry’s hottest topics: Layer 3s.

Introducing The L3 Summit: How zkLink Conceptualized The Idea

The L3 Summit has become the leading technical forum for exploring innovative Layer 3 blockchain solutions – where Layer 3 developers, founders, and Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain scaling enthusiasts get together to advance a young, quickly developing segment. But how did we get here? And what’s the story behind launching this event series?

Let’s quickly rewind the tape and fast forward to today.

Firstly, it’s well-known that the blockchain’s evolution from Layer 1 to Layer 2 marked a significant step forward in the industry, highlighted by motivations to solve the inherent issues plaguing the blockchain such as the tradeoff between scalability, security, and decentralization – otherwise known as the blockchain trilemma. Layer 2s however, predominantly focused their development atop the Ethereum network, striving to truly realize Ethereum’s mission to serve as the world’s decentralized compute platform.

Spectacularly, Layer 2s became so prominent during the 2020 and 2021 bull runs that they amassed significant market share and a motto of being “Layer 1 Killers.” However, as the years passed – Layer 2 advancement slowed, and even created second-order issues that were previously unforeseen, exacerbating the blockchain’s original problems.

For example, the two dominant approaches to Ethereum Layer 2 scaling – Optimistic Rollups and Zero-Knowledge Rollups – have come under scrutiny for displaying various weaknesses such as sacrificing security in the case of Optimistic Rollups – and an immature, small market niche for ZK Rollups due to their complexity and technical overload.

As a result, a new debate has emerged around reigniting the mission of scaling Ethereum and providing for a more interoperable multi-chain ecosystem. In particular, this debate has led to discussions about developing Layer 3 solutions, infrastructures, and middlewares that connect the various ecosystems and provide developers with multi-VM, EVM-compatible frameworks to ease their development timelines for launching DApps that work across networks and that have access to fragmented liquidity.

This story has become zkLink’s Muse and mission i.e., to solve liquidity fragmentation and to construct a Layer 3 solution where developers can launch scalable, fast, cheap, user-friendly, developer-friendly, secure, ZK-powered, general-purpose, and application-specific DApps.

Consequently, to push this narrative forward, and advance Layer 3 development and application, zkLink conceived and commenced the world’s first in-real-life event to debate the topic – the L3 Summit.

The first rendition of zkLink’s L3 Summit was held at Devconnect Istanbul in November 2023 – and now zkLink is preparing for an epic sequel to continue the momentum at ETHDenver 2024.

What Partner Projects & Speakers Will Be Present At The L3 Summit?

Our L3 Summit has attracted the attention of many of the industry’s heavyweights and prominent protocols. These include leading Layer 2s such as Arbitrum, Linea, Mantle, Polygon zkEVM, Metis, Scroll, Starknet, and zkSync – Innovative modular blockchain solutions such as Celestia, Eigen Layer, and Manta – Rising zkEVM solutions such as Kakarot and Taiko – And finally, Layer 2 Ordinals such as L2O Consortium, ZKP systems such as Polyhedra, oracle providers such as Pyth Network, and zk-Native blockchain protocols such as QED.

The projects above will feature renowned speakers at our L3 Summit in Denver to discuss the different approaches and purposes for building Layer 3 solutions, Layer 3 DeFi, general-purpose versus application-specific rollups, interoperability, zero-knowledge technology, zkEVM-compatibility, developing DApps on Layer 3s, and other interesting topics.

*We will soon be announcing the final speaker lineup, panel agendas, and keynote topics for our L3 Summit at ETHDenver*

Our first L3 Summit in Istanbul featured 17 speakers from over 15 projects, discussing topics around the future of Layer 3s, scaling Ethereum with Layer 2s, modular solutions for Layer 2 and Layer 3 Rollups, hyperchains, writing the EVM on a zkEVM, and the different tech stacks for deploying Layer 3 solutions.

In summary, without great speakers, one cannot hold a successful event, and thankfully, we’ve put together a crypto and blockchain “Dream Team” that will share valuable alpha on their respective panels and keynotes at Denver. Events like the L3 Summit serve as “leading indicators” for what’s next. So come and join the fun!

L3 Summit Sponsors: How We Make It Happen

Sponsors play a much-needed helping role in hosting a successful event that runs smoothly, is well-attended, and is properly organized and funded to give the many projects an ideal atmosphere to make a change. The two sponsors for our upcoming L3 Summit in Denver are Arrington Capital and QED, with QED serving as our title sponsor this year (shoutout to QED).

Arrington Capital is a thesis-driven firm investing in digital assets and Web3 since 2017. Arrington Capital has three sub-segments: Arrington XRP Capital, which is a multi-strategy hedge fund specializing in early-stage ventures and public markets – Arrington Algorand, which is an ecosystem fund investing and incubating projects in the Algorand ecosystem – and Arrington Moonbeam, which is an ecosystem fund investing and incubating projects in the Moonbeam ecosystem.

QED, our title sponsor for L3 Summit Denver, “is the world’s first zk-Native blockchain protocol built to scale trustless computation and privacy for the next generation of the internet.” QED protocol is starting its own initiative and movement called L2O, which stands for Layer 2 Ordinals, a set of standards for building trustless applications on Bitcoin.

QED is Bitcoin’s native execution layer, and unlike other Bitcoin Layer 2s that require a trusted multisig, on QED, assets can be bridged in a trustless way because they’re secured by ZKPs. Therefore, with its cutting-edge state model, QED is capable of supporting millions of concurrent users transacting in parallel and with low gas fees. For developers, QED’s BitIDE has custom opcodes, with which developers can use OP_MUL and more on the Bitcoin mainnet, thus allowing developers to easily deploy their dApps on Bitcoin.

The L2O Consortium

L2O Consortium is a comprehensive set of standards for trustless applications and Layer 2s to be built on Bitcoin for the first time. L2O’s mission is to bring BTC native security, internet scale, and interoperability to applications and Layer 2s on Bitcoin. L2O strives to unite the Bitcoin execution layer and is interested in collaborating with those who share their mission of bringing trustless compute to Bitcoin.

L2O will have a special panel at the zkLink L3 Summit discussing their solutions and analysis about the future of blockchain scaling technologies, approaches, and challenges. Despite having a focus on Bitcoin Layer 2s, L2O will bring valuable insights and perspectives towards the Ethereum and alternative ecosystem in scaling with zero-knowledge technology.

Grand Vision Of The L3 Summit Going Forward

Moving forward, we at zkLink plan to take the L3 Summit to more crypto and blockchain events worldwide, such as TOKEN2049 Dubai, ETHCC Bruxelles, and TOKEN2029 in Singapore. Layer 3s are still in its infancy, so we hope that through these events, the word and value proposition for Layer 3s will continue to gain more awareness in the public and attract more debate, thus leading to better products, solutions, and innovations that push the blockchain industry forward and initiate the next 10x wave of growth. Stay tuned!

Learn More About zkLink’s L3 Summit: Check Our Website & Twitter

To learn more about the upcoming L3 Summit: Denver edition, as well as our previously hosted L3 Summit: Istanbul Edition, please visit the L3 Summit website.

In addition, we have a separate distinguished Twitter account for the L3 Summit. So if you’re interested in getting daily updates and the latest news about our upcoming event, please follow and interact with our L3 Summit Twitter.

For those that have become irresistibly interested in what alpha we’re going to unleash at the L3 Summit, and want to attend the event in person, please go to our L3 Summit Luma page and register. You certainly won’t want to miss out!