Boba Network (ENYA)

Boba is an L2 Ethereum scaling & augmenting solution built by the Enya team as core contributors to the OMG Foundation. Boba is an Optimistic Rollup forked from Optimism.

Basics

• Based in:
• Started in / Announced on: 19-8-2021
• Testnet release:
• Mainnet release: 9-2021
• From EthHub (28-8-2021):

"Boba Network is a layer 2 optimistic rollup that reduces gas fees, improves transaction throughput, and extends the capabilities of smart contracts."

History

• Fka OMGX Network or OmisegoX
• An optimistic rollup (OR) based on Optimism’s codebase (1-2023)

Audits & Exploits

• Bug bounty program can be found here and is worth $1M.
• From L2beat (2-10-2022):

"Funds can be stolen if…

1. an invalid state root is submitted to the system (CRITICAL),
2. a contract receives a malicious code upgrade. There is no delay on code upgrades (CRITICAL).

Funds can be lost if…

1. there are mistakes in the highly complex OVM implementation.

Funds can be frozen if…

1. the centralized validator goes down. Users cannot produce blocks themselves and exiting the system requires new block production (CRITICAL).

MEV can be extracted if…

1. the operator exploits their centralized position and frontruns user transactions."

Governance

Admin Keys

• Has a centralized validator (2-10-2022):

"The system has a centralized sequencer. While proposing blocks is open to anyone the system employs a privileged sequencer that has priority for submitting transaction batches and ordering transactions. All executed transactions are submitted to an on chain smart contract. The execution of the rollup is based entirely on the submitted transactions, so anyone monitoring the contract can know the correct state of the rollup chain. Because the state of the system is based on transactions submitted on-chain and anyone can submit their transactions there it allows the users to circumvent censorship by interacting with the smart contract directly.

The system uses the following set of permissioned addresses:

1. Owner 0x1f24…a840 (EOA) This address is the owner of the following contracts: OVM_L1CrossDomainMessenger, L1StandardBridge, LibAddressManager. This allows it to censor messages or pause message bridge altogether, upgrade bridge implementation potentially gaining access to all funds stored in a bridge and change the sequencer, state root proposer or any other system component (unlimited upgrade power).
2. Sequencer 0xfa46…c57F (EOA) Central actor allowed to commit L2 transactions to L1.
3. State Root Proposer 0x5558…bE80 (EOA) Central actor to post new L2 state roots to L1."

Treasury

• From a commissioned Messari report (17-1-2023):

"Circulating supply decreased by about 40,000 BOBA on December 2 because the unclaimed BOBA previously made available to OMG holders was returned to the treasury."

Technology

• Whitepaper or docs can be found here.
• Code can be viewed here.

Implementations

• Live on: Ethereum, Moonbeam (got deprecated in May 2023) and Fantom in June, 2022 and Avalanche (22-9-2022). BNB as well (Q4 2022). From a commissioned Messari report (17-1-2023):

"Bobabeam (Moonbeam) averages a new block almost every 10 seconds, while Boba Avax, Boba BNB, Boba Opera (Fantom), and Boba Ethereum all have block times between 3 and 10 minutes."

• Consensus mechanism:
• Algorithm:
• Virtual Machine: OVM "Boba Network uses the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM) to execute transactions. This is similar to the EVM, but is independent from it and allows fraud proofs to be executed." (2-10-2022)
• Development language:

Transaction Details

• Capacity (TPS):
• Latency:

How it works

• From L2beat (2-10-2022):

"Ultimately Boba Network will use fraud proofs to enforce state correctness. This feature is currently in development and the system permits invalid state roots. Users have the ability to run a validator software and compute valid state roots locally, but cannot act on them on chain.

All executed transactions are submitted to an on chain smart contract. The execution of the rollup is based entirely on the submitted transactions, so anyone monitoring the contract can know the correct state of the rollup chain."

• From Coindesk (5-4-2022):

“Layer 2s have single instance sequencers that act as block producers,” said Chiu. “So we set off to modify Geth in such a way that smart contracts on Boba can call any external API. Suddenly, you can do machine learning off-chain and have the results come back to your smart contract, atomically, meaning in the same transaction, in the same block. You can write smart contracts that call a Twitter API; if you want to, for example, reward users for performing certain actions on Twitter, and automate that whole verification and rewarding process,” Chiu said. “You can create on-chain assets that are synchronized with your gaming engine that runs off-chain, or with the metaverse that runs off-chain.”

Liquidity Mining

• From Bitcoin.com (7-1-2021):

"Boba has announced the launch of an incentives program using Wagmi options. With Wagmi option will depend on network parameters such as total value locked (TVL), or specific project developments."

Oracle Method

• Witnet deployed a decentralized oracle on Boba BNB (7-2023).
• UMA optimistic oracle went live (5-2-2022).
• Partnered with Band Protocol to bring oracles to their layer-2 optimistic rollup platform (11-9-2021).

Their Other Projects

Erigon

• From a commissioned Messari report (16-2-2024):

"Enya Labs, a core contributor to Boba Network, has made a significant contribution to Erigon, an L2 Bedrock OP Stack-compatible client. Boba Network is on pace (in devnet) to be the first optimistic rollup on OP Stack to use Erigon as its sequencer client."

Roadmap

• Can be found [Insert link here].
• Boba’s 2023 plans include (1-2023):

1. Parallel transactions: Executing transactions in parallel allows for a higher TPS.
2. Account abstraction: Abstracting child accounts from a single main account allows the main account to do things such as pay fees for its derived contract accounts.
3. Escape hatches to L1: Escape hatches offer greater security guarantees for users to remove funds from L2 without needing to rely on the Sequencer.

• From L2beat (2-10-2022):

"Fraud proofs are in development: Ultimately Boba Network will use fraud proofs to enforce state correctness. This feature is currently in development and the system permits invalid state roots. Users have the ability to run a validator software and compute valid state roots locally, but cannot act on them on chain."

Revenue

• Doubled to ~$30K (Q2 2023), but a year ago had been 132k.
• From a commissioned Messari report (9-4-2023):

"Increased activity on the network pushed quarterly revenue denominated in USD up 37.1% from $11,500 to $15,800. Revenue is calculated as total L2 fees minus L1 sequencer fees."

Usage

• From a commissioned Messari report (16-2-2024):

"ROVI Network accounted for 99.7% of Boba BNB transactions, with 9 million transactions in Q4. ROVI Network is a “super app” that facilitates messaging, payments, and gaming. Address activity spikes from earlier in the year were not sustained, leading Boba Ethereum to regain dominance in this metric. The most active platform on Boba BNB, ROVI Network, mainly relies on forwarder contracts. This setup skews active addresses downwards in the same way a rollup skews active address activity downwards for its base layer L1. DeFi TVL increased 107% QoQ, led by Teahouse and Uniswap. This was the first QoQ TVL increase in six quarters. Boba Ethereum continued to account for the vast majority of Boba Network TVL, with over 90% dominance."

• From a commissioned Messari report (7-2023):

"Boba BNB quickly found adoption with various types of dapps, leading Boba implementations in nearly all activity metrics. In Q2, Boba BNB had 65.9% active address dominance. In Q2, three ROVI contracts accounted for 99.9% of all Boba BNB transactions. Boba Ethereum still accounted for the vast majority of Boba Network TVL with over 90% dominance."

• From a commissioned Messari report (9-4-2023):

"Boba BNB leads activity across Boba implementations in Q1 with 225 average daily active addresses and 7,700 average daily transactions. New protocols such as ROVI Network are driving this activity. ROVI Network provides its gasless experience for users by executing transactions through a forwarder contract. Because this forwarder contract executes on the behalf of users, network address activity does not scale with increased ROVI user activity."

• From a commissioned Messari report (17-1-2023):

"Boba Network’s usage and financials have been on a mostly uninterrupted decline since launch in Q4 2021. Daily active addresses and transactions have also continued to decline since Q2. Boba Network’s TVL is down 97.3% YoY to ~$4 million. On alt-L1 implementations such as Boba Avax and Boba BNB, TVL is ~$41,000 and ~$14,000, respectively. Many new Boba games, such as EvoVerses, are still in beta stages and don’t yet have many users. SushiSwap overtook OolongSwap in Q4 as the most dominant source of TVL in Boba Network’s DeFi ecosystem."

• From Bitcoin.com (7-1-2021):

"Boba’s mainnet was launched in September last year, and it managed to rise as one of the leading L2 networks, reaching the second spot in TVL among these on November 28, only behind Arbitrum. However, since then, the network has lost some steam, falling to fourth place while being surpassed by Loopring and Dydx, according to the info at L2beat, an L2 statistics monitor."

Competition

• From a commissioned Messari report (7-2023):

"Most other L2s are general-purpose protocols, but Boba Network remains steadily focused on gaming and metaverse. With its own specific use-case for gaming, its real competition is chains built by L2 engines Paima and StarkEx. Notably, ImmutableX, built on StarkEx, has over 100 games being developed on it. Boba’s Hybrid Compute remains the key differentiating factor between other L2 gaming platforms."

• From a commissioned Messari report (17-1-2023):

"As an optimistic rollup (OR) based on Optimism’s codebase, Boba offers:

1. Reduced gas fees
2. Increased transaction throughput
3. L1 security guarantees
4. EVM compatibility for smart contracts, such as NFTs

This network also has unique features that set it apart from other ORs and Optimism forks:

1. Hybrid Compute — the ability to connect to off-chain APIs
2. Multichain focus
3. Fast exit bridging to L1
4. DAO governance

Boba’s combination of features — specifically Hybrid Compute — enables decentralized applications (dapps) to run at a fraction of the cost of L1 dapps, leverage off-chain computation via Web2 APIs, and provide the multichain solutions needed for blockchain gaming. DeFi and withdrawal speed are not Boba’s niche. Boba remains the only multichain L2 and the only L2 on Avax, BNB, and Fantom. More importantly, Boba’s Hybrid Compute still doesn’t face any direct competition."

• From L2beat (2-10-2022):

"Amongst other features it adds standard fast withdrawal facility that allows users to remove funds immediately without waiting for the end of the 7-day fraud proof window. This facility is using funds from liquidity providers."

Team, Funding and Partners

Team

• Full team can be found [here].
• Alan Chiu; founder
• Built by the Enya Labs team as core contributors to the OMG Foundation.

Funding

• StableNode says they invested (7-11-2022).
• From Coindesk (5-4-2022):

"Boba Network has raised $45 million from a wide range of investors that included cryptocurrency exchange giants Huobi, Crypto.com and BitMart."

Partners

• Enjinstarter announced a partnership with Enya Labs to bring a launchpad to the network (7-2023).

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