The Great Era of RaaS: Caldera Opens a New Age of Exploration
I Left Everything I Own in One Place
This report was written by Tiger Research, examining Caldera's RaaS (Roll-up as a Service) platform and its approach to Layer 2 infrastructure, featuring enterprise-grade reliability and innovative metalayer technology.
TL;DR
Caldera is a RaaS (Roll-up as a Service) platform for Layer 2 infrastructure. It is distinguished by its enterprise-grade reliability and 99.99% uptime. The platform currently supports over $1 billion in TVL (Total Value Locked) and serves 8 million users.
The platform supports all major roll-up frameworks, including Arbitrum Nitro, Optimism Bedrock, zkSync, and Polygon CDK, and provides optimized solutions for each project. Caldera offers a comprehensive blockchain infrastructure solution with block explorers, Alt-DA, bridged stablecoins, bridges, and guardian nodes.
Through its Metalayer implementation, Caldera is unifying the fragmented Layer 2 ecosystem. This innovation enables direct roll-up-to-roll-up connections, efficient fund transfers, and multi-roll-up application development, establishing a new paradigm in the blockchain ecosystem.
1. The Great Era of RaaS
As Web3 evolves, many teams are increasingly developing their own blockchain solutions. While some opt for Layer 1 development, most choose to build Layer 2 solutions atop existing Layer 1 platforms. This approach lets teams benefit from the established security, user base, assets, and proven consensus mechanisms of Layer 1 platforms like Ethereum, while tailoring their execution layer to specific project requirements.
Layer 1's main advantage is access to Ethereum's vast user base, liquidity, and developer infrastructure without needing to build a separate validator network. Initially, the blockchain industry viewed Layer 2 chains with skepticism. The complex roll-up mechanisms required by Layer 2, combined with its reliance on Ethereum's security, raised centralization concerns. As an emerging technology, it also faced the challenge of building trust.
As Layer 2 technology matured, new solutions proliferated. Early teams either built infrastructure from scratch or forked existing code. After several Layer 2 platforms proved successful, the industry began treating it as a standard technology. The introduction of RaaS (Roll-up as a Service) then accelerated the growth of Layer 2 platforms.
RaaS platforms manage the complex roll-up mechanisms and infrastructure maintenance, freeing project teams to focus on service development. This innovation cut development time from months to weeks—sometimes even hours—allowing teams to concentrate on their core projects and user growth. This ushered in the "Great Era of RaaS," reminiscent of the "Great Era of Exploration."
The shift is gaining momentum as major NFT projects embrace Layer 2. BAYC's 'Apechain' and the RWA project 'Plume' exemplify this trend. As Layer 2 chains multiply, reliability has become the key focus for RaaS providers managing infrastructure deployment.
Caldera sets itself apart with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees 99.99% uptime. The platform supports all major roll-up frameworks—Arbitrum Nitro, Optimism Bedrock, zkSync ZK Stack, and Polygon CDK—and has attracted over $1 billion in TVL and more than 8 million wallets. This report explores how Caldera built its RaaS infrastructure and its key advantages.
2. Caldera's Enterprise-Grade Reliability
Reliability is vital for RaaS solutions, as chain errors and system failures can result in major losses and erode trust. In today's technology landscape, even a basic map API outage can cripple delivery systems and severely impact e-commerce companies. Since blockchain services link all transactions through chains, they need stability that matches or exceeds traditional cloud services to maintain user confidence.
Blockchain service reliability can be measured through two key metrics: indirect 'references' and direct 'service coverage.' Caldera has earned over 75 references, including Manta Network and ApeChain, while its 8 million active wallets serve as indirect proof of service reliability.
Caldera's direct service coverage meets enterprise standards with its 99.9% uptime SLA guarantee. The platform uses Betterstack monitoring tools as its system health check, enabling real-time monitoring and instant anomaly alerts to the technical team. With round-the-clock support and systematic incident response protocols, Caldera delivers the stability that enterprises demand.
Caldera operates AWS data centers across multiple global regions, ensuring that if one region fails, others instantly take over—much like a network of power plants. The platform employs proxy load balancing to diversify RPC providers, similar to how phones switch carriers during outages. By operating multiple RPC providers simultaneously, Caldera ensures service continuity even if specific providers experience failures.
For Layer 2 to grow beyond its current scope, enterprises need a secure foundation for building services. Caldera's multi-layered reliability strategy promises to accelerate enterprise adoption of Layer 2 solutions.
3. Customized Roll-up Frameworks: Optimized Solutions for Each Project
Different blockchain projects have distinct technical needs. DeFi and RWA projects prioritize security and reliability, gaming requires low-cost processing for high transaction volumes, and NFT marketplaces depend on efficient metadata handling. The choice of roll-up framework and chain shapes both costs and efficiency, making it a crucial decision.
Arbitrum Nitro leads in Ethereum compatibility and security, zkSync excels at processing speed and lower fees, and Optimism distinguishes itself through ecosystem growth via SuperChain. Polygon CDK offers enhanced scalability and cost efficiency through zkValidium.
Caldera's multi-framework RaaS addresses these challenges by giving projects access to all major roll-up frameworks, allowing them to choose the one that best fits their business goals. For teams without deep technical expertise, Caldera provides guidance in selecting the optimal approach.
4. One-Stop Blockchain Infrastructure Solution
Building a roll-up chain is only the first step for blockchain projects. A functioning blockchain ecosystem needs additional infrastructure—components that would take significant time and resources to build from scratch. Caldera solves this by offering essential infrastructure as turnkey solutions, letting projects launch faster.
4.1. Block Explorer
Block explorers are vital to blockchain ecosystems. Users rely on them to verify transactions, while developers need them to check smart contract states and interactions. Though building a custom explorer usually takes 1-2 months, Caldera offers customizable solutions through Blockscout integration that adapt to user needs.
4.2. Alt-DA(Alternative Data Availability)
Caldera's Alt-DA introduces innovation in blockchain data storage. Traditional Ethereum roll-ups required storing all transaction records on the mainnet, consuming over 95% of total transaction costs in data storage.
Alt-DA first launched with Celestia, using its efficient storage for data while sending only transaction proofs to Ethereum, avoiding Ethereum's premium storage costs. This has cut monthly data storage costs by 75% from $50,000. If Celestia's network encounters issues, the system automatically switches to Ethereum storage to maintain service. The addition of options like EigenLayer should further reduce entry costs and speed up blockchain adoption.
4.3. Bridged Stablecoin
Caldera's bridged USDC offers significant advantages for projects using OP Bedrock and Arbitrum Nitro, enabling immediate USDC utilization from launch.
The system particularly shines in native USDC conversion efficiency. While traditional bridged tokens demanded high costs for user education and incentives during native conversion, bridged USDC removes the need for complex liquidity migration.
For developers, smart contracts using bridged USDC keep their contract addresses after upgrading to native USDC, removing the need for code changes and ensuring project stability.
Users can continue various financial activities without token swaps, helping new blockchain networks grow their ecosystems faster.
4.4. Bridge
Caldera automatically deploys web-based Bridge UI for each chain, facilitating asset transfers. The bridge serves as a gateway for users to provide liquidity to L2 chains.
The interface matches each roll-up's brand identity, with adjustable colors, text, and branding elements. It enables smooth asset movement between Caldera Chain and major networks like Ethereum and Polygon while making bridging more approachable for newcomers.
4.5. Guardian Node
Caldera's Guardian Node system, built on Arbitrum's 'Nitro' stack, specializes in validating transaction batches for Arbitrum roll-ups. Its innovative 'lightweight validator' verifies transactions without needing a full Arbitrum node.
Guardian Node is the first operational system offering rewards for validation participants. HYCHAIN demonstrates its success, selling 16,000 node keys and generating 2,000 ETH in revenue within two weeks of implementation.
The system delivers value on multiple fronts: it creates new revenue streams, strengthens network security through broader validator participation, drives natural demand for project tokens, and elevates community members from investors to network operators—fostering deeper project engagement and loyalty.
5. Metalayer: A New Paradigm for the Blockchain Ecosystem
Caldera's innovative journey reached a new milestone with a $15 million Series A funding round led by Founders Fund. This investment represents more than mere fundraising—it marks a turning point in defining the future of the Layer 2 ecosystem.
The Layer 1 ecosystem struggles with fragmentation. The need for Layer 1 to mediate inter-roll-up transfers creates high costs and delays. Each chain requires separate infrastructure components like bridges and oracles, while network operators and validators face strict limits on cross-chain operations.
Caldera introduces the metalayer to address these challenges. The metalayer represents a new paradigm unifying the fragmented Layer 2 ecosystem, evolving blockchain infrastructure by combining Caldera's core strengths: enterprise-grade stability, multi-framework support, and one-stop infrastructure solutions.
The metalayer enables efficient fund transfers through direct roll-up connections, streamlined development environments, and support for multi-roll-up application development. Its unified ecosystem, spanning both ZK and Optimistic roll-up stacks, promises to transform Web3 usability.
Caldera is evolving beyond RaaS to shape the next era of blockchain innovation. Like maritime explorers charting new routes, Caldera maps fresh territory in Layer 2 through its metalayer. The company leads blockchain's evolution toward a more scalable and interconnected future. These advances will help institutions and projects establish their chains more easily, expanding far beyond traditional RaaS capabilities.
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Disclaimer
This report was partially funded by Caldera. It was independently produced by our researchers using credible sources. The findings, recommendations, and opinions are based on information available at publication time and may change without notice. We disclaim liability for any losses from using this report or its contents and do not warrant its accuracy or completeness. The information may differ from others' views. This report is for informational purposes only and is not legal, business, investment, or tax advice. References to securities or digital assets are for illustration only, not investment advice or offers. This material is not intended for investors.
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