Opside: Layer 2 Leveraging PoW and PoS Consensus

Opside is a novel Layer 2 (L2) chain that adopts both Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to facilitate a zk-rollup as a service (ZK-RaaS) protocol. The PoS aspect is derived from its native token, IDE, which L2 validators stake in order to propose and sign valid blocks. The PoW aspect is where provers generate validity proofs to validate the transactions in a block. As such, the provers are technically not part of Opside’s consensus, though they play an integral role in the final state that gains consensus. 

Given the advent of rollups and RaaS, Opside’s goal of providing ZK-RaaS appears to be highly relevant. Not only that, Opside attempts to solve the challenge of data availability as well as decentralizing provers. While it remains to be seen if Opside’s proposed solutions will work, it is still a relevant step forward in scaling Ethereum and will certainly be a valuable lesson for many other existing rollups.