Summary of key points
- Caldera is a RaaS (Roll-up as a Service) platform focused on Layer 2 infrastructure, known for its enterprise-grade reliability and 99.99% uptime. The platform currently supports more than $1 billion in total locked value (TVL) and serves 8 million users.
- Caldera supports all mainstream Roll-up frameworks, including Arbitrum Nitro, Optimism Bedrock, zkSync, and Polygon CDK, and provides optimized solutions for each project. Caldera provides comprehensive blockchain infrastructure solutions, including block browsers, Alt-DA (Alternative Data Availability), bridge stablecoins, cross-chain bridges, and guardian nodes.
- Through its Metalayer technology, Caldera is integrating the fragmented Layer 2 ecosystem. This innovation enables direct connections between Roll-ups, efficient fund transfers, and multi-Roll-up application development, establishing a new paradigm for the blockchain ecosystem.
1. The great era of RaaS
As Web3 develops, more and more teams are developing their own blockchain solutions. While some teams choose to develop Layer 1, most choose to build Layer 2 solutions on existing Layer 1 platforms. This approach enables teams to leverage the mature security, user base, assets, and consensus mechanisms of Layer 1 platforms (such as Ethereum) while customizing the execution layer according to project needs.
The main advantage of Layer 1 is access to Ethereum's large user base, liquidity, and developer infrastructure without having to build an independent validator network. Initially, the blockchain industry was skeptical of Layer 2 chains. The complex Roll-up mechanism required for Layer 2 and its reliance on Ethereum security raised centralization concerns. As an emerging technology, Layer 2 also faces the challenge of building trust.
As Layer 2 technology matures, new solutions emerge. Early teams either build infrastructure from scratch or fork existing code. After multiple Layer 2 platforms have achieved success, the industry has begun to view them as standard technologies. The introduction of RaaS (Roll-up as a Service) has further accelerated the development of Layer 2 platforms.
Source: Tiger Research
The RaaS platform manages the complex roll-up mechanism and infrastructure maintenance, allowing project teams to focus on service development. This innovation reduces development time from months to weeks, sometimes even hours, allowing teams to focus on core projects and user growth. This marks the arrival of the "Great Age of RaaS", similar to the "Age of Exploration" in history.
This trend is accelerating as major NFT projects embrace Layer 2. BAYC's "Apechain" and RWA project "Plume" are typical representatives of this trend. With the increase in Layer 2 chains, reliability has become a key focus for RaaS providers to manage infrastructure deployment.
Caldera stands out by guaranteeing 99.99% uptime through its service level agreement (SLA). The platform supports all major Roll-up frameworks - Arbitrum Nitro, Optimism Bedrock, zkSync ZK Stack and Polygon CDK, and has attracted more than $1 billion in TVL and more than 8 million wallets. This report explores how Caldera built its RaaS infrastructure and its key advantages.
2. Caldera’s enterprise-grade reliability
Reliability is critical to RaaS solutions, as chain errors and system failures can lead to significant losses and erode trust. In today’s technological environment, even a basic map API outage can paralyze delivery systems and cause serious impacts on e-commerce companies. Since blockchain services connect all transactions through the chain, they need to match or even exceed the stability of traditional cloud services to maintain user confidence.
The reliability of blockchain services can be measured by two key indicators: indirect “references” and direct “service coverage.” Caldera has obtained more than 75 reference cases, including Manta Network and ApeChain, while its 8 million active wallets indirectly prove the reliability of the service.
Source: Caldera
Caldera's direct service coverage meets enterprise standards through its 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee. The platform uses Betterstack monitoring tools for system health checks, which can monitor in real time and send abnormal alerts to the technical team immediately. With 24/7 support and systematic incident response protocols, Caldera provides the stability that enterprises need.
Caldera operates AWS data centers in multiple global regions, ensuring that if one region fails, others can immediately take over - similar to the redundant design of the power grid. The platform uses proxy load balancing to disperse RPC providers, similar to how a cell phone switches carriers when the signal is interrupted. By running multiple RPC providers simultaneously, Caldera ensures that the service can continue to operate even if a specific provider fails.
In order for Layer 2 to grow beyond its current scope, enterprises need a secure foundation to build services on. Caldera’s multi-layer reliability strategy is expected to accelerate enterprise adoption of Layer 2 solutions.
3. Customized Roll-up framework: providing optimized solutions for each project
Different blockchain projects have different technical requirements. DeFi and RWA projects prioritize security and reliability, games require low-cost processing of high transaction volumes, and NFT markets rely on efficient metadata processing. The choice of Roll-up framework and chain directly affects cost and efficiency, and is therefore a critical decision.
Arbitrum Nitro leads in Ethereum compatibility and security, zkSync excels in processing speed and low fees, Optimism stands out in ecosystem growth through SuperChain, and Polygon CDK provides enhanced scalability and cost efficiency through zkValidium.
Source: Caldera
Caldera's multi-framework RaaS addresses these challenges by providing projects with access to all major Roll-up frameworks, enabling them to choose the framework that best suits their business goals. For teams that lack deep technical expertise, Caldera also provides guidance on choosing the best approach.
4. One-stop blockchain infrastructure solution
Building a Roll-up chain is just the first step in a blockchain project. A fully functional blockchain ecosystem requires additional infrastructure - components that would take a lot of time and resources to build from scratch. Caldera enables projects to start faster by providing ready-to-use solutions for key infrastructure.
4.1. Block Explorer
Block explorers are critical to the blockchain ecosystem. Users rely on them to verify transactions, while developers need them to check smart contract status and interactions. Although building a custom explorer typically takes 1-2 months, Caldera provides a customizable solution to meet user needs through the Blockscout integration.
4.2. Alt-DA (Alternative Data Availability)
Caldera's Alt-DA introduces innovation in blockchain data storage. Traditional Ethereum Roll-up requires all transaction records to be stored on the Ethereum mainnet, and data storage consumes more than 95% of the total transaction costs.
Alt-DA was initially launched with Celestia, taking advantage of its efficient data storage while only sending transaction proofs to Ethereum, avoiding Ethereum's high storage costs. This reduces monthly data storage costs by 75% from $50,000. If there is a problem with the Celestia network, the system automatically switches to Ethereum storage to maintain service. The addition of options such as EigenLayer will further reduce the cost of entry and accelerate blockchain adoption.
4.3. Bridging Stablecoins
Caldera’s bridged USDC provides significant advantages to projects using OP Bedrock and Arbitrum Nitro, enabling them to use USDC immediately from the day of launch.
The system is particularly outstanding in terms of native USDC conversion efficiency. Traditional bridge tokens require high user education and incentive costs during the native conversion process, while bridging USDC eliminates the need for complex liquidity migration.
For developers, smart contracts using bridged USDC retain their contract addresses after upgrading to native USDC without changing the code, thus ensuring project stability.
Users can continue various financial activities without having to swap tokens, which helps new blockchain networks develop their ecosystems faster.
4.4. Cross-chain bridge
Caldera automatically deploys a web-based cross-chain bridge UI for each chain to facilitate asset transfers. The cross-chain bridge acts as a portal for users to provide liquidity to Layer 2 chains.
The interface matches the brand identity of each Roll-up, with adjustable colors, text, and brand elements. It makes the flow of assets between the Caldera chain and major networks such as Ethereum and Polygon smoother, while making cross-chain bridges more friendly to new users.
4.5. Guardian Node
Caldera's guardian node system is built on Arbitrum's "Nitro" stack and is specifically designed to verify transaction batches for Arbitrum Roll-up. Its innovative "lightweight validator" can verify transactions without running a full Arbitrum node.
Guardian Node is the first operating system that provides rewards to validators. HYCHAIN has demonstrated its success, selling 16,000 node keys and generating 2,000 ETH in revenue within two weeks of implementation.
This system provides value on multiple fronts: it creates new revenue streams, strengthens network security through broader validator participation, drives natural demand for project tokens, and elevates community members from investors to network operators — thereby fostering deeper project engagement and loyalty.
5. Metalayer: A new paradigm for blockchain ecosystem
Source: Caldera
Caldera’s innovation journey has reached a new milestone with a $15 million Series A round led by Founders Fund. This investment is more than just financing – it marks a turning point in defining the future of the Layer 2 ecosystem.
The Layer 1 ecosystem faces a fragmentation problem. Layer 1 requires intermediary transfers between Roll-ups, resulting in high costs and delays. Each chain requires separate infrastructure components such as cross-chain bridges and oracles, while network operators and validators face strict restrictions on cross-chain operations.
Caldera introduces the meta-layer to address these challenges. The meta-layer represents a new paradigm for unifying the fragmented Layer 2 ecosystem, driving the evolution of blockchain infrastructure by combining Caldera’s core strengths: enterprise-grade stability, multi-framework support, and one-stop infrastructure solutions.
The meta-layer enables efficient fund transfer through direct Roll-up connections, simplifies the development environment, and supports multi-Roll-up application development. Its unified ecosystem covers ZK and Optimistic Roll-up stacks, which is expected to change the usability of Web3.
Caldera is moving beyond RaaS to shape the next era of blockchain innovation. Just as a sailor opens up new routes, Caldera is opening up new frontiers in Layer 2 through its meta-layer. The company is leading the evolution of blockchain towards a more scalable and interconnected future. These advances will help institutions and projects more easily build their own chains, far beyond the capabilities of traditional RaaS.
