Boba Network Becomes the First Layer 2 to Launch on Avalanche

Boba Network, a Layer 2 chain leveraging Optimistic rollups, is the first L2 to launch on Avalanche, a Layer 1 smart contract network.

Unlike other prominent L2s, Boba is establishing itself as a cross-chain Layer 2. The Avalanche deployment is Boba’s fourth, following its debut launch on Ethereum in September last year, and subsequent launches on Moonbeam and Fantom in June.

The launch allows Avalanche developers to access Boba’s Hybrid Compute feature set. Boba also offers a native NFT bridge, allowing users to transfer nonfungible tokens between L1 and L2.

“Hybrid Compute is our technology that allows smart contracts deployed Boba to call data resources or APIs located outside the web3 world. This is why we say that Hybrid Compute bridges web2 to web3,” the Boba team told The Defiant.

Access To Real-World Data

The launch “empowers Avalanche developers to build dApps that connect with off-chain APIs,” emphasized Alan Chiu, the founder of Enya Labs, Boba’s lead contributor. “We’re excited to become the first multi-chain L2 on Avalanche,” he added.

“We’re excited to see how this integration evolves and where the story of Avalanche L2s leads,” said Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, the head of DeFi at Ava Labs, the team behind the Avalanche blockchain.

Boba Network currently ranks as Ethereum’s eighth-largest Layer 2 with a total value locked (TVL) of $28.7M, according to L2beat.

Multichain Strategy

The network posted explosive growth late last year, briefly becoming the second-largest L2 with TVL spiking above $1B as dApps on the network offered eye-watering liquidity mining rewards to incentivize use. But Boba’s market share has steadily shrunk since, with its team turning to a multi-chain strategy in a bid to kick-start growth.

Avalanche has also experienced a rollercoaster-like growth trajectory, with its TVL rocketing from $200M in early August 2021 to a peak of $12.2B in December as users flocked to cheap Layer 1 smart contract networks amid skyrocketing transaction fees on Ethereum.

But Avalanche suffered brutal drawdowns in the bear market of 2022, and its TVL stands at just $1.6B today, according to DeFi Llama.

Sushi will be among the first projects to launch on Boba’s Avalanche deployment, announcing its legacy SushiSwap DEX will launch on the network. Sushi is the fifth-largest DEX by cross-chain TVL with $842M locked across 16 networks.

EvoVerses

The beta version of EvoVerses, a play-to-earn web3 strategy game, is also live on Boba after teaming up with the project for its Avalanche launch. EvoVerses is a turn-based strategy game powered by the popular Unreal 5 editing engine. Players breed characters called “Evos”, which they then assemble into teams to do battle against other users.

Alevo, the founder of EvoVerses, told The Defiant that the project leverages Boba’s hybrid compute features to generate random traits for its Evo characters.

“One of the biggest issues in web3 was creating random numbers. Hybrid Compute solves that with native random number generation,” the Boba team added.

Avalanche’s AVAX token is up nearly 3% in the past 24 hours.