Metis (METIS)

Metis is an Optimistic Rollup Layer 2 forked from Optimism.

Basics

• Based in:
• Started in / Announced on:
• Testnet release:
• Mainnet release: set to launch its mainnet the week of Nov. 15 (9-11-2021).

Audits & Exploits

• Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].
• From L2beat (13-10-2022):

"Funds can be stolen if…

1. an invalid state root is submitted to the system (CRITICAL),
2. sequencer withholds data for more than seven days while at the same time submits fraudulent state root (CRITICAL),
3. 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

• From a commissioned Messari report (25-4-2024):

"Has a 'decentralized sequencer'. This system employs dual sequencers operated by the Metis Foundation and select partners. Metis initiated Phase 2 of the Decentralized Sequencer upgrade on April 8. This phase introduces enhancements such as multi-transaction blocks and a robust transaction pool, designed to improve network liveness and censorship resistance, and Sequencer Rewards. The roadmap includes integrating strategic partnerships, with upcoming features such as a 20% Mining Reward program."

• From L2beat (13-10-2022):

"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. 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."

Admin Keys

• From L2beat (13-10-2022):

"The system uses the following set of permissioned addresses:

1. Metis manager 0xDD6F…d377 (EOA) This address is the owner of the following contracts: MVM_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 0xcDf0…0019 (EOA) Central actor allowed to commit L2 transactions to L1.
3. State Root Proposer 0x9cB0…689D (EOA) Central actor to post new L2 state roots to L1.
4. Data Availability Verifiers 0x48fe…cf21 (EOA) Those addresses can try to force the sequencer to post data on chain.
5. Execution Verifiers 0x48fe…cf21 (EOA) Those addresses can challenge the state roots submitted by the state root proposer."

Treasury

• Launched 6 initiatives with ranging amounts of money committed to build more on Metis (10-2024). But the Ecosystem Development Fund is connected to each.
• From a commissioned Messari report (25-4-2024):

"The Metis Ecosystem Development Fund was established with 4.6 million METIS ($450 million) to support the development and expansion of the Metis ecosystem."

Token

Token Allocation

Inflation

• From a commissioned Messari report (25-4-2024):

"The circulating supply of METIS expanded to 5.4 million, representing a 14% QoQ inflation increase (55% annualized). This expansion is responsible for the delta between the circulating and fully diluted market caps. Metis has a maximum total supply of 10 million METIS; therefore, 54% of the supply is now in circulation."

Utility

It is used for paying transaction fees, staking, and participating in governance processes.

Technology

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

Implementations

• Built on: Ethereum
• Consensus mechanism:
• Algorithm:
• Virtual Machine: EVM-equivalent "Metis uses the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM) 2.0 to execute transactions. This is similar to the EVM, but is independent from it and allows fraud proofs to be executed." (13-10-2022).
• Development language:

Transaction Details

• Capacity (TPS):
• Latency:

How it works

• A hard fork of Optimism (9-11-2021).
• From a commissioned Messari report (25-4-2024):

"Metis offers a plethora of products to blockchain developers including the Metis NFT Bridge, Oracles, Nodes, Data Indexers, and a SubGraph."

• From L2beat (13-10-2022):

"It provides support for multiple, interconnected L2 chains with main focus on supporting easy creation of DACs (Decentralized Autonomous Companies). Transaction data is not stored on-chain, rather it is recorded in off-chain decentralized storage MEMO from MemoLabs. Since April 2022 Andromeda [the current default Metis chain] uses "optimistic data availability" scheme in which transaction data is kept off-chain in MEMO while Validators can request tx data from Sequencer via L1 challenge mechanism if it does not make it available for validation off-chain.

No automatic on-chain fraud proof system. For additional security, any staked Validator can challenge invalid state root submitted by the Sequencer. Other Validators will then act as referees in an interactive challenge game. Dishonest Validator majority can push invalid state root on-chain, and potentially slash honest Sequencer."

Staking

• From X (5-10-2023):

"Rollup Decentralization, by facilitating the upcoming implementation of the PoS Sequencer Pool"

Interoperability

Has integrations with multiple interop protocols including Chainlink CCIP, OMNI, Connext, and renewed incentives with Synapse (4-2024).

Oracle Method

• Chainlink went live on it (3-8-2022).
• DIA (12-2022).

Roadmap

• Can be found here (2024).

Revenue

• From a commissioned Messari report (25-4-2024):

Grew from $0.08M in 2023 to ~$2M in Q1 2024. Fees grew from $0.06 to 0.23c.

Usage

TVL grew from ~$40M to ~$100M from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024.

Projects that use or built on it

• Dopex

Competition

• Arbitrum, ZkSync, Optimism and other optimistic rollup L2s for Ethereum.
• From The Defiant (9-11-2021):

"Metis’ $100M venture stands out among L2 solutions using Optimistic rollups — Arbitrum and Optimism, the two leaders in the category, have yet to deploy funds in order to bootstrap activity on their solutions.

While actually a hard fork of Optimism, Metis differentiates itself from its “parent” by using multiple sequencers, the software which stores and submit transactions, as opposed to one, as Optimism does. The company believes this offers higher degrees of decentralization than Optimism."

Team, Funding and Partners

Team

• Full team can be found [here].

• From The Defiant (9-11-2021):

"Metis is led by co-founders Elena Sinelnikova, Kevin Liu, and Yuan Su and also has Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin’s mother, Natalia Ameline on staff as a technology researcher."

Funding

• Is launching a $100M fund, which Metis describes as a “decentralized autonomous company” (DAC), called Genesi, to support projects which join its ecosystem (9-11-2021).

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