a16z to Release ‘Magi’, A New Rollup Client for Optimism
In Brief
Web3-focused VC a16z is working on Magi, a rollup client for Optimism, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain.
Magi is being developed for OP Stack, the standardized, shared, and open-source development stack that powers Optimism, maintained by the Optimism Collective.
Magi aims to be an independently developed, drop-in replacement for op-node.
After tweeting a16z engineer Noah Citron tweeted an orange dot with the message “coming soon” on Wednesday, a16z crypto announced that it is building Magi, a new rollup client for the Optimism ecosystem.
Using optimistic rollups as a scaling technology, Optimism functions as a layer-two blockchain for Ethereum, enabling off-chain computation to securely record layer-2 transactions.
Developed for OP Stack, the standardized, shared, and open-source development stack that powers Optimism, maintained by the Optimism Collective, Magi is like the traffic control officer in the traditional execution/consensus split of Ethereum. It sends new blocks to the execution client to keep the chain going.
“Magi performs the same core functionality as the reference implementation (op-node) and works alongside an execution node (such as op-geth) to sync to any OP Stack chain, including Optimism and Base,” a16z crypto stated.
With Magi written in Rust, a16z hopes to bring diversity to rollup clients by building out an alternative to op-node, the only rollup client that is maintained by OP Labs and written in Go.
“Client diversity is needed on both the execution and consensus sides, but most of the development has so far been focused on execution clients,” the company added. “Any existing Ethereum execution client can be compatible with Optimism by implementing a modest set of changes, and several new projects are already adapting these clients to help achieve client diversity. OP Labs modified Geth to build op-geth; and other groups are currently building op-erigon and op-reth.”
a16z crypto said that Magi is months away from being a feasible replacement to op-node but plans to add new features, including new sync mechanisms to improve initial sync speed, alternative data availability layer support, and more.
Following the announcement, Optimism’s native token OP saw a small bump from $2.46 to $2.70 on Wednesday before pulling back to $2.60 as of this writing.
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About The Author
Cindy is a journalist at Metaverse Post, covering topics related to web3, NFT, metaverse and AI, with a focus on interviews with Web3 industry players. She has spoken to over 30 C-level execs and counting, bringing their valuable insights to readers. Originally from Singapore, Cindy is now based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications & Media Studies from the University of South Australia and has a decade of experience in journalism and writing. Get in touch with her via cindy@mpost.io with press pitches, announcements and interview opportunities.
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Cindy is a journalist at Metaverse Post, covering topics related to web3, NFT, metaverse and AI, with a focus on interviews with Web3 industry players. She has spoken to over 30 C-level execs and counting, bringing their valuable insights to readers. Originally from Singapore, Cindy is now based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications & Media Studies from the University of South Australia and has a decade of experience in journalism and writing. Get in touch with her via cindy@mpost.io with press pitches, announcements and interview opportunities.
