The Celo Foundation is pleased to announce the successful launch of the Dango Layer-2 testnet, marking a major milestone in cLabs’ efforts to integrate Celo’s blockchain with Ethereum. The launch invites developers to start testing the updated code on this new fork of the Alfajores testnet.
📣 Breaking #CEL2 News: The Dango Layer 2 testnet is now live! 🍡
Ahead of EthCC 2024, @cLabs successfully launched the fork of Alfajores testnet, inviting developers to test the updated code
🧵 Keep reading for the key benefits and details! ↓ pic.twitter.com/QJgg2RN33y
— Celo 🦇 🌳 (@Celo) July 7, 2024
Dango Layer-2: a new era for Celo
First presented at EthCC 2023, the Dango testnet will allow developers to port their projects to this updated blockchain iteration, designed for fast and cheap global payments. This launch will retain all historical data from the Alfajores testnet, including smart contracts, accounts and balances. Built on Optimism’s OP Stack, Dango retains the benefits of Celo’s Layer 1 while leveraging a highly scalable and interoperable blockchain framework.
Following strategic support from the Eigen Foundation and community support, Dango uses EigenDA as a data availability layer to keep transaction costs minimal. The Layer-2 architecture aims to maintain low transaction costs and improve throughput by 50%, reducing block time from 5 seconds to 2 seconds.
Dango Layer-2 provides several key features including bridging WETH and ERC-20 tokens for seamless transfers between Ethereum and Celo and maintains 1-block finality for fast and secure transactions. It supports CELO token duality, allowing interaction with CELO natively or through the ERC20 interface, and fee abstraction, allowing multiple ERC-20 tokens as gas currencies, including Celo-native $USDT and $USDC. SocialConnect enables sending money to phone numbers, email addresses or other social identifiers, while low gas fees ensure greater accessibility and adoption of crypto worldwide.
Infrastructure upgrades and next steps for Celo Layer-2 Mainnet launch
With the launch of Dango, infrastructure providers are now upgrading their Layer-2 node code. Once all major providers are updated to support the new design, Alfajores will be upgraded without creating a new fork, allowing developers to test their end-user dApps without impacting user-facing applications.
The successful completion of this milestone ahead of the Summer 2024 schedule sets the stage for the expected Celo Layer-2 mainnet launch in early Winter 2024. The Celo Foundation and cLabs remain committed to driving innovation and enhancing the blockchain ecosystem, ensuring seamless transition and robust growth for both developers and users.