What's Mantle (MNT)？

Mantle is a Layer-2 scaling solution built on the Ethereum blockchain. It leverages Optimistic Rollup technology to record transactions securely off-chain and settle them on-chain, enabling high throughput and low transaction costs. Mantle adopts a modular architecture, combining Optimistic Rollup technology with an innovative data availability solution. This unique combination not only inherits the security features of Ethereum but also introduces improvements in cost-effectiveness and data availability.

The primary goals of Mantle include addressing scalability challenges and maintaining compatibility with the established Ethereum infrastructure. By doing so, Mantle aims to contribute to a broader blockchain ecosystem.

History of Mantle (MNT)

Team

Mantle is a project incubated and supported by the renowned DAO organization BitDAO. The initial conceptual prototype was proposed by Ben Zhou, the CEO of Bybit, along with other prominent members of the crypto community, including Sreeram from EigenLayer, Dow Jones, and Cooper Midroni. The project's team comprises over 50 professionals from diverse fields and backgrounds, working collaboratively in a flat management structure.

Evolution of Mantle

In May 2023, Mantle Network and BitDAO underwent a merger, unifying their brand and tokens under the name Mantle. This established a larger ecosystem, and the Mantle ecosystem inherited BitDAO's vision, along with its financial and community support for the operation and development of the Mantle Network. BitDAO's token BIT was also converted at a 1:1 ratio to MNT. The merger of Mantle Network and BitDAO positioned the new Mantle ecosystem as the largest treasury in the crypto industry, with a value exceeding 3 billion USD.

History

• December 2022: Project initiation.
• January 2023: The project was renamed Mantle Network, and the white paper and testnet were released.
• February 2023:The project announced a partnership with EigenLayer, using EigenDAas the data availability layer.
• May 19, 2023: BitDAO announced a merger with Mantle Network, the Ethereum Layer2 solution it funded.
• June 15, 2023: Mantle Network initiated the migration from BlT to MNT on the testnet.
• July 17, 2023: Mantle Network launched its mainnet alpha version and started airdropping MNT tokens to BlT token holders.
• August 16, 2023: After one month of operation, Mantle Network's Total Value Locked(TVL) exceeded $40 million, ranking seventh in Layer 2.
• August 21, 2023: Mantle Network staked 40,000 ETH in LDO. Reportedly, these fundscome from the Mantle DAO treasury.
• August 29, 2023: Mantle Network plans to allocate $238 million to promote ecosystem development.

How does Mantle (MNT) Work?

Mantle Network's core principle is to utilize Optimistic Rollup technology to achieve Layer-2 scaling solutions. Optimistic Rollup is a technique that employs fraud proofs to ensure the security and synchronization between L2 and L1 networks.

The basic principles of Optimistic Rollup technology are as follows:

1. Deploy a fraud proof contract on the L1 network to receive block hashes from the L2 network and provide mechanisms for challenges and proofs.
2. Run an execution layer on the L2 network, executing transaction requests initiated by users on the L2 network and updating the state on the L2 network based on state transition rules.
3. Choose a sequencer on the L2 network responsible for collecting user transaction requests, packing them into blocks in a certain order, and submitting the block hash to the fraud proof contract.
4. Run multiple validators on the L2 network to monitor the block hash on the fraud proof contract, replay transactions in the block based on state transition rules, and verify their correctness.
5. If validators discover errors or fraudulent transactions in the block submitted by the sequencer, they can challenge by providing evidence to the fraud proof contract. If the challenge is successful, the sequencer will be penalized, and the erroneous or fraudulent transactions will be rolled back. If no challenge is made or the challenge fails within a certain time frame, the block will be considered valid, and the transactions within it will be finalized.

The operational flow of Mantle Network's architecture is as follows:

1. Users initiate transactions or execute contracts on the L2 network, and transaction requests are sent to the sequencer, sorted according to rules, and packed into blocks.
2. Each block has a unique identifier called the state root, representing the L2 network's state after block execution. The latest state root is verified by Multi-Party Computation (MPC) nodes, which use a Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) algorithm to sign and confirm the correctness of the state root. After obtaining MPC signatures, the state root is submitted to the Fraud Proof Contract (SCC) on Ethereum L1 for storage, for future state verification and withdrawal operations.
3. When users want to withdraw assets from the L2 network to the L1 network, they need to wait for the fraud proof window to prevent cheating or submitting incorrect transactions. If someone discovers an incorrect transaction, they can challenge the SCC contract within the window and provide evidence. If the challenge is successful, the cheater will be penalized, and the incorrect transaction will be revoked.
4. In addition to the state root, each block also contains specific transaction data called CallData. CallData is compressed and submitted to the Mantle DA data layer on the L1 network, used to store transaction data from the L2 network. Mantle DA data availability nodes sign the transaction data and submit signature certificates to the chain.
5. Other nodes can verify and confirm transaction data by retrieving it from Mantle DA through the DTL service, enhancing the security and reliability of the L2 network.
6. Users wanting to transfer assets from L1 to L2 complete the process through the enqueue method of the CTC (Deposit Contract), which puts the user's assets in a queue for the sequencer to transfer to the L2 network.
7. When users want to transfer funds from L2 to L1, it needs to be verified and executed by L1 through a message mechanism.

The Mantle system also includes other contracts and roles for different functionalities, such as verifying states, managing permissions, upgrading the system, etc. Key operational roles are controlled by a multisignature wallet to prevent single points of failure or malicious operations.

Tokenomics

Token Utility

The $MNT token plays a dual role in the Mantle ecosystem, serving as both a governance and utility token, providing users with voting rights and practical application functionalities. Token holders can actively participate in DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) voting to ensure a decentralized impact on the direction of the Mantle ecosystem. As a utility token, $MNT is used to pay for Gas fees on the Mantle network and can be staked as collateral for network nodes, promoting participation, ensuring network security, and enhancing network stability. Operating as an ERC-20 token, $MNT's advanced features reside on L1, while its L2 version serves as a standard bridge to ERC-20. The allocation of $MNT in the Mantle Treasury adheres to strict Mantle governance protocols, and funds in the Mantle Core budget are dedicated to ongoing development and adoption phases. This dual-role design aims to maintain the healthy development of the ecosystem and encourages community members to actively participate in governance and network activities.

Token Distribution

The total supply of Mantle tokens is 62,193,316,794.

• Circulating: 51.00% of the total token supply
• Mantle Treasury: 49.00% of the total token supply

Why is Mantle (MNT) Valuable?

Technical Architecture

Rollup technology solutions typically use two types of proofs, OP (Fraud Proof) and ZK (Zero-Knowledge Proof), each having its own advantages and challenges. OP has a higher storage cost for CallData, while ZK has a higher computational cost. Additionally, the use of centralized sequencers in current mainstream solutions introduces a certain risk of a single point of failure. Mantle, as a protocol based on Optimistic Rollup, differs from other Rollups in its modular architecture, allowing for improved performance in computation and execution. The transaction execution, data availability, and transaction confirmation on the Mantle network are handled by independent modules, optimizing data availability without compromising network security, enhancing Mantle network performance. Meanwhile, developers can deploy contracts in a relatively low-cost and efficient ecosystem.

Modular data availability layer

In the current blockchain architecture, Optimistic Rollup requires costly Calldata fees to submit a large amount of transaction data to Ethereum's data availability layer. As transaction volume increases, this cost can account for 80-95% of the total fees, severely limiting the cost efficiency of Rollup. As an emerging L2 solution, Mantle successfully reduces operational costs by introducing the modular EigenLayer as an independent data availability layer. EigenLayer is a low-cost, efficient off-chain data availability network that allows Mantle to submit only necessary state roots to the Ethereum mainnet, while storing a large amount of transaction data in EigenLayer. As the first data availability module, EigenLayer is seamlessly integrated with Ethereum, enabling Mantle to achieve ultra-low transaction fees while ensuring security. This innovation addresses the technical challenges of "high security and low scalability" in current L2 solutions. EigenLayer also provides security for billions of dollars through the mechanism of "repeatedly staking ETH," exporting Ethereum's collateral assets to external protocols, significantly lowering the threshold and cost for Mantle and other L2 networks to initiate their security models. Overall, EigenLayer's modular data availability layer can detach the high costs of storage and data submission from the Ethereum mainnet. With assured security, Mantle's transaction costs are expected to decrease by several orders of magnitude, achieving hundreds of times higher throughput.

Furthermore, EigenLayer supports dual staking, allowing $MNT and $ETH to serve as collateral tokens simultaneously. Through dual staking, $MNT not only provides collateral for validators to ensure network security and data availability but also functions as Gas.

TSS Nodes

Fraud proofs are optimistic, assuming that transactions submitted by sequencers are valid by default, which necessitates a longer challenge period to ensure security. Withdrawing from L2 to the mainnet requires 7 days. To shorten the challenge period, Mantle introduces Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) verification nodes. TSS generates a public key through distributed key generation, with each node holding a portion of the private key to produce a valid signature. Multiple TSS nodes verify and sign the block data submitted by the sequencer to ensure its correctness.

Mantle TSS node operators need to stake a certain amount of MNT on Ethereum, and if malicious behavior or failure is detected, this stake will be slashed to ensure network security. The Slashing module explicitly defines two types of malicious behavior for nodes: node verification absence and malicious signatures. These behaviors are recorded and submitted to the TSS administrator. In most cases, with agreement from other nodes (based on stake proportion), the staked amount of the offending node will be slashed. This approach effectively enhances Mantle's fraud-proof security and reduces the challenge period.