Ethereum L2 Network Blast Launches Its Mainnet and Unlocks $2.3B in Locked Funds

Ethereum layer-2 (L2) network Blast has launched its mainnet, unlocking about $2.3 billion in staked crypto locked up on the network. The L2 launched its mainnet at 9:00 pm UTC on Thursday.

Road to Blast Mainnet Launch

In an official X post, Blast announced that Early Access users are now free to bridge to the mainnet and use decentralized apps (Dapp) that are exclusive to the Blast network. During the Early Access phase, which began last November, 181,888 community members bridged $2.3 billion to Blast. These members earned a total of $85 million per year via Blast Points and native yield. On Blast, ETH and stablecoin balances automatically bear yields, a feature aimed at increasing the network’s capital efficiency and expanding the possibilities via its Dapps. In November, Blast raised $20 million from venture capital firms Paradigm and Standard Crypto.

Blast is planning an airdrop for members of its community. While specific details are unknown, the plan is to share 50% of the airdrop to users via Blast Points and the other half via Blast Gold (Dapps). The Blast Gold airdrop will be distributed to Dapps on a biweekly basis. While some Dapps have already committed to sharing this with users, the decentralized apps are free to keep the airdrop proceeds for themselves.

According to information on its official website, Blast boasts a few exciting features, including auto-rebasing and staking. It also explains that Blast returns net gas revenue to Dapps programmatically, unlike other L2 networks that retain gas fees.

Blast Controversy

Despite just releasing its mainnet, Blast has already faced its share of controversy. Last November, Blast disclosed an error that caused a user to lose $100k following a misconfigured slippage parameter after converting the user’s deposit to DAI. Blast announced it would return the lost funds and add a 10% compensation.

The network explained, in response to a question, that the funds come from “Blast contributors”, referring to the $20 million raised. However, Blast and Paradigm have had their issues. In the same month, Paradigm’s Head of Research Dan Robinson publicly disagreed with Blast’s plan to launch the bridge before the L2. Robinson also said Paradigm did not like the plan to prevent withdrawals for three months, adding that its a bad precedent for other projects. Furthermore, Robinson said the company’s marketing “cheapens the work of a serious team”.

The Paradigm exec noted that the VC and Blast have been in discussions around these disagreements. Nevertheless, Robinson pointed out that Paradigm invests in “strong, independent founders who we don’t always agree with.”

Blast’s impressive yield led to rumors last year that the platform is a Ponzi. Founder Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre responded to the rumors, explaining the source of the yields. In an X thread, Pacman said the yield comes from Lido and MakerDAO. He explained that the Lido yield is from ETH staking yield, which comes from the Ethereum network itself. He then added that the MakerDAO yield comes from on-chain treasury bills. According to Pacman, “these yields are not unsustainable”.