Victoria d’Este
Printed: October 09, 2025 at 7:21 pm Up to date: October 09, 2025 at 7:21 pm
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October 09, 2025 at 7:21 pm
In Transient
When Taiko launched its Mainnet in Might 2024, it redefined Layer 2 design by prioritizing decentralization and safety over uncooked efficiency—a daring stance that, as COO Joaquin Mendes reveals, displays the staff’s long-term imaginative and prescient to construct Ethereum’s first totally based mostly rollup with uncompromising ideas and a user-first ecosystem.
When Taiko launched its Mainnet in Might 2024, it instantly set itself aside by prioritizing decentralization and safety over sheer efficiency, a daring transfer in an area dominated by rollups which might be centralized. On this interview, Joaquin Mendes, COO of Taiko, Ethereum’s first based mostly rollup, shares his journey from conventional finance to Web3. He discusses Taiko’s design decisions that problem business norms, and the way the staff is constructing a Layer 2 ecosystem that balances cutting-edge know-how with a user-focused expertise.
Are you able to begin by introducing your self and your journey into Web3?
I primarily oversee enterprise operations and technique at Taiko. My journey into Web3 started round ten years in the past, and I made it my profession 4 years in the past, after I joined Polygon Labs as a Enterprise Developer. Earlier than that, I labored in conventional and company roles.
In constructing Taiko, what was the most important design determination you made that went towards the prevailing business path, and why did you decide to it?
When Taiko was based three years in the past, current Layer 2s and rollups had been taking a centralized strategy. Within the trade-off between efficiency, decentralization, and safety, they selected efficiency. At this time, all rollups are centralized and operated by a single sequencer.
Taiko took a distinct strategy, selecting based mostly sequencing (a time period derived from Ethereum’s base layer, to not be confused with Coinbase’s Base L2) regardless of its technical complexity and the UX trade-offs that include prioritizing decentralization over uncooked efficiency. It was a significant design determination that went towards the business pattern, however one rooted in long-term ideas moderately than short-term optimization..
How does Taiko’s ZK EVM deal with edge-case compatibility with Ethereum L1 sensible contracts? Are there every other opcodes or behaviors that deviate or are tough to implement?
Taiko is a Sort 1 ZK EVM, which suggests it reuses all Ethereum code and infrastructure right down to the opcode degree. This ensures that no code adjustments or additional audits are required for functions migrating from Ethereum to Taiko. Different rollups differ, various between Sort 2, Sort 3, and Sort 4 approaches.
How does Taiko guarantee a constant developer expertise and tooling between Alethia and future Gwyneth L2s?
Alethia, Taiko’s mainnet, was born as a Sort 1 ZK EVM and Gwyneth developed to carefully resemble Sort 1. This makes the developer expertise straightforward as a result of being Sort 1 means utilizing the identical developer tooling and code as Ethereum.
Nonetheless, Gwyneth is a booster rollup, which is totally different from Alethia. Customers and builders will have the ability to entry Layer 1 code and execute it immediately on Layer 2. This implies for some functions it’s even simpler. There is no such thing as a want to repeat and paste code or alter RPC configurations.
Alethia already gives a seamless developer expertise, and Gwyneth will make it much more accessible.
Which failure, whether or not a product launch or technical, stretched your staff essentially the most, and what systematic change resulted from it?
Wanting again, our greatest problem was overemphasizing ecosystem adoption when the know-how wasn’t prepared.
In our first 12 months after launching mainnet, our person expertise was gradual, a trade-off for our design ideas. Regardless of this, we pushed aggressively for ecosystem adoption and succeeded, reaching a peak of 5 million every day transactions for a few months. However it got here at a price: intensive incentive campaigns that diluted our token. The lesson? We had been too aggressive too early. Sustainable development requires the know-how to be prepared earlier than you scale adoption.
Transferring ahead, we’ll focus extra on our present holders, controlling inflation, and inspiring natural adoption. An necessary step towards this got here two months in the past once we launched Preconfirmations, an improve that introduced quicker finality and a greater person expertise.
What are the present throughput and transactions per second figures underneath practical load, and what are your bottlenecks?
Proper now, we course of about 200,000 transactions per day. This positions us as one of many rollups with the best exercise, although it’s lower than our peak final 12 months. Given our present design, Taiko is theoretically in a position to course of greater than 1,000 transactions per second. That’s the benchmark we’re working towards.
If a significant regulation relating to blockchain, crypto, or information adjustments in your major markets, which product element can be most impacted, and the way prepared are you?
Any main regulation mustn’t change our structure as a result of public blockchains are permissionless infrastructure. Regulatory adjustments would have an effect on the functions builders construct on high, not the blockchain itself. This is applicable to Ethereum, Taiko, or any public blockchain.
In case you might redesign your onboarding course of from scratch, what would you do otherwise? What have you ever discovered about what your customers really want versus what you assumed they wanted?
I’d concentrate on onboarding the proper customers. We initially constructed for broad retail adoption with incentives, however discovered that retail customers prioritize yield and efficiency over decentralization. If I might redo it, I’d design onboarding particularly for the customers who want what based mostly rollups really provide. We’re seeing that shift now, companies and establishments are becoming a member of as a result of they care about decentralization, credible neutrality, and censorship resistance. That is the perfect marketplace for based mostly rollups, and the timing is lastly proper. I consider this pattern will solely speed up over the subsequent three years.
Might you please share Taiko’s roadmap? Are there any new options coming?
We are going to launch the Shasta improve by the top of 2025. This can make the protocol cheaper and assist full ZK protection on our rollup, transferring to Stage 1 and later Stage 2 in L2Beat. ZK proving is dear, however full protection can be potential by year-end. In 2026, we plan to launch Taiko Gwyneth, our synchronous, composable based mostly rollup.
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About The Writer
Victoria is a author on quite a lot of know-how matters together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to put in writing insightful articles for the broader viewers.
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Victoria d’Este
Victoria is a author on quite a lot of know-how matters together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to put in writing insightful articles for the broader viewers.
