GM! This is the first of a series of introductory blog posts on the why, how and what of AltLayer. In this first part of the series, we focus on the “why”. To be precise, we answer two key questions: “why do we need an AltLayer-like solution?” and “why now?”. In the follow ups, we will dig into the “what” and “how” of AltLayer that will present the technical details of the platform and its features.
GM！这是关于 AltLayer 的起因、方法和内容的一系列介绍性文章中的第一篇。在本系列的第1部分，我们关注“为什么”。准确地说，我们回答了两个关键问题：“为什么我们需要类似 AltLayer 的解决方案？”和“为什么是现在？”。在后续内容中，我们将深入探讨 AltLayer 的“内容”和“方法”，这将展示平台的技术细节和功能。
For those new to AltLayer, let us remind our readers that AltLayer is a platform designed to allow application developers to launch highly scalable and disposable optimistic rollup-ups like execution layers. It can be seen as a system of many individual optimistic rollups, where each rollup is tailored to a specific application.
对于那些刚接触 AltLayer 的人，让我们提醒读者，AltLayer 是一个旨在使应用开发人员启动高度可扩展和一次性乐观汇总(optimistic rollup-ups)的执行层的平台。它可以看作是一个包含许多单独乐观汇总的系统，其中每个汇总都是针对特定应用量身定制的。
The system is designed for a multi-chain and a multi-VM world and therefore will have default support for EVM as well as WASM. As a result, AltLayer will not be tied to a single Layer 1 or Layer 2 but can operate as a modular and pluggable scaling solution for all EVM and WASM compatible chains.
该系统专为多链和多虚拟机世界而设计，因此默认支持 EVM 和 WASM。所以，AltLayer 不会绑定到单个layer1或layer2，而是可以作为所有 EVM 和 WASM 兼容链的模块化和可插拔扩展解决方案来运行。
With that settled, let’s dig in!
明白了这些，那就让我们一起深入了解吧！
为什么我们要构建新基础设施? (Why build a new infrastructure?)
Seven years post the launch of Ethereum and several other chains, it is quite apparent today that the vision of building a general purpose and universal Layer 1 that could host and execute transactions to all the dApps of the world is difficult if not impossible to achieve without substantially sacrificing decentralisation or security of the network.
在以太坊和其他几条链推出七年后，今天很明显，不极大地牺牲网络的去中心化或安全性，构建一个通用的Layer 1 可以托管和执行世界上所有 dApp 的交易的愿景是很难实现的。
In light of this, several Layer 2 designs (that derive security from a Layer 1 chain) have been proposed such as Optimism, Arbitrum, StarkNet and zkSync among others. Layer 2s, particularly, the design followed by Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync provide a new execution layer while the associated Layer 1 chain, i.e., Ethereum acts as a consensus layer. By separating execution and consensus (i.e., by following a modular design philosophy), Layer 2s can scale the Layer 1 chain by several orders of magnitude. But, as these Layer 2s are designed to be general purpose, they still suffer from similar issues as Layer 1s, i.e., the more used dApps have to compete for the same blockspace with a large number of not-so-used dApps.
鉴于此，已经提出了几种layer2设计(从layer1获得安全性)，例如 Optimism、Arbitrum、StarkNet 和 zkSync 等。Layer2，特别是 Arbitrum、Optimism 和 zkSync 遵循的设计提供了一个新的执行层，而相关的layer1，即以太坊充当共识层。通过分离执行和共识（即遵循模块化设计理念），Layer 2 可以将 Layer 1 链扩展几个数量级。但是，由于这些layer 2 被设计为通用目的，它们仍然面临与第 1 层类似的问题，即使用较多的 dApp 必须与大量不常用的 dApp 竞争相同的区块空间。
Monolithic Layer 2 designs such as Polygon PoS (and BSC which is a sidechain to Ethereum) have already faced congestion issues in the past because of the shared blockspace across all dApps. We argue that even modular and execution-only layers such as Arbitrum will have similar issues in the future as they have the same shared blockspace design as monolithic Layer 2s however the ceiling might be a bit higher up. We saw a glimpse of such issues with the recent Odyssey campaign.
单片Layer 2设计，例如 Polygon PoS（以及作为以太坊侧链的 BSC）已经面临过去的拥堵问题，因为所有 dApp 共享区块空间。我们认为，即使是像 Arbitrum 这样的模块化和单一执行层在未来也会遇到类似的问题，因为它们具有与单片layer2相同的共享区块空间设计，只不过是上限可能会更高一些。我们在最近的 Odyssey 活动中看到了这些问题。
The inherent limitation of general purpose Layer 1s and Layer 2s on hosting and executing all types of transactions has also paved the idea of having application-specific chains such as Cosmos and Polkadot or subnets in case of Avalanche, where a popular dApp does not need to compete with other dApps for blockspace on the same network. Each dApp owns its dedicated blockspace.
通用layer1和layer2，在托管和执行所有类型的交易方面的固有限制，也为以下想法铺平了道路：拥有特定应用链（如 Cosmos 和 Polkadot）或在 Avalanche 的情况下拥有子网。流行的 dApp 不需要与其他 dApp 竞争同一网络上的块空间。每个 dApp 都拥有其专用的区块空间。
An application-specific chain however becomes a wastage of resource (physical or economic) if the dApp does not command enough user base. For example, in case of Avalanche, a dApp chain takes the form of a subnet that requires staking of the sovereign chain token (i.e., AVAX) for economic security and therefore a dApp that can barely consume its blockspace will end up hogging a scarce economic resource that could instead be utilised to secure a more used subnet.
但是，如果 dApp 没有获得足够的用户群，则特定应用的链会浪费资源（物理或经济）。例如，在 Avalanche 的情况下，dApp 链采用子网的形式，需要抵押主权链代币（即 AVAX）来确保经济安全，因此几乎无法消耗其区块空间的 dApp 最终将占用稀缺的经济可以用来保护更多使用的子网的资源。
On the one hand, in case of general purpose chains, more used dApps compete for blockspace with a large number of unused dApps. While on the other hand, each dApp having its own chain becomes a wastage of resources. Therefore, there is a need to design an architecture that offers the best of both worlds as existing approaches and solutions present two opposite extremes.
一方面，在通用链的情况下，频繁使用的 dApp 与大量未使用的 dApp 竞争区块空间。而另一方面，每个拥有自己链的 dApp 都会浪费资源。因此，由于现有方法和解决方案呈现出两个相反的极端，因此需要设计一种能够提供两全其美的架构。
为什么是现在? (Why now?)
At AltLayer, we firmly believe that it is hard if not impossible to build a general purpose world computer (the initial vision of Ethereum) that can host any and every dApp without substantially sacrificing decentralisation and/or security. Blockspace is a scarce resource and monolithic chain designs (e.g., existing Layer 1s) do not optimise the usage of blockspace, thereby allowing a single popular application to cripple the entire network.
在 AltLayer，我们坚信，即使并非毫无希望，也是极难构建一个通用的世界计算机（以太坊的最初愿景），即可以托管任意 dApp，且不会大幅牺牲去中心化和/或安全性。区块空间是一种稀缺资源，单片链设计（例如，现有的layer1）并没有优化区块空间的使用，使得单个流行的应用瘫痪整个网络。
While, we have seen the failures of monolithic universal chains, on a positive note, we have started to see:
虽然，我们已经看到了单片通用链的失败，但从积极的方面来说，我们已经开始看到：
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The successful deployment and adoption of modular execution-only layers such as StarkNet, Arbitrum and Optimism among others that use rollups.
成功部署和采用模块化单一执行层，例如 StarkNet、Arbitrum 和 Optimism 以及其他使用汇总(roll-up)的层。 -
Application-specific chains are picking up in demand. Several Cosmos and Polkadot-based projects and others such as Ronin have proven that chains that serve a certain application need can thrive in isolation.
特定应用链的需求正在回升。几个基于 Cosmos 和 Polkadot 的项目以及 Ronin 等其他项目已经证明，服务于特定应用需求的链可以独立发展。
All these phenomena and events combined have increased the demand to build customizable modular execution layers that are application-specific. In other words, the space now has the appetite and the need for a Cosmos/Polkadot style network of execution-only layers.
所有这些现象和事件相结合，增加了构建特定应用的，可定制模块化单一执行层的需求。换句话说，市场空间目前对 Cosmos/Polkadot 风格的单一执行层网络有胃口和需求。
一些现实世界的动机 (Some Real-World Motivation)
A dApp developer today would like to have access to SDKs that allow him to spin up a rollup secured by a Layer 1 of his choice and then potentially dispose of it if needed. Several recent events are great motivating examples of the need to build such an infrastructure. We highlight three such events across three popular chains, namely, Solana, Ethereum and Polygon PoS.
今天的 dApp 开发人员希望能够访问 SDK，使他能够启动由他选择的layer1提供安全性/保护的汇总，然后在需要时可能将其处理/丢弃掉。最近发生的几起事件是构建此类基础设施的重要激励。我们重点介绍了三个流行链中的三个此类事件，即 Solana、以太坊和 Polygon PoS。
Solana Outage on May 2, 2022: The Solana network was down on May 2, 2022 for 7 hours due to a large number of transactions created by NFT minting bots.
Solana 于 2022 年 5 月 2 日中断： 由于 NFT 铸造机器人创建的大量交易，Solana 网络于 2022 年 5 月 2 日中断了 7 个小时。
One of the Solana validators even proposed to censor transactions destined to the Metaplex contract to mitigate the issue resulting in other NFT issuers requesting validators not to block their contracts.
一位 Solana 验证人甚至提议审查以 Metaplex 合约为目标的交易，以缓解导致其他 NFT 发行人要求验证人不要阻止其合约的问题。
Yuga Labs Minting Issue on Ethereum on May 1, 2022: Yuga Labs had planned to do an NFT sale event on May 1, 2022 on Ethereum. However, the demand for the NFTs was so high that despite implementing an on-chain KYC process and a maximum allowed minting of 2 NFTs per KYC’d wallet, the Ethereum network was not able to handle the sudden surge in demand. As a result, Yuga Labs is now planning to migrate the project on its own chain. This was recently put to vote and about 47% of users voted in favor of an APEChain.
Yuga Labs 于 2022 年 5 月 1 日在以太坊上发行铸币问题： Yuga Labs 计划于 2022 年 5 月 1 日在以太坊上进行 NFT 销售活动。然而，对 NFT 的需求如此之高，以至于尽管实施了链上 KYC 流程并且每个 KYC 钱包最多允许铸造 2 个 NFT，但以太坊网络无法应对突然激增的需求。因此，Yuga Labs 现在正计划将项目迁移到自己的链上。最近对此进行了投票，大约 47% 的用户投票支持 APEChain。
If we pause for a moment and analyse these two particular events, then one key and common characteristic shows up — that NFT minting is a short-lived event. An NFT mint event is often over in a few days (sometimes in hours or even minutes) and it’s only during those few days that the user activity is extremely high. As soon as the mint event is over, the user activity slows down quite quickly to a point where the generated volume from secondary trading or other activities can be easily handled by any monolithic chain.
如果我们暂停片刻并分析这两个特定事件，那么就会出现一个关键的共同点——NFT 铸币是一个短暂的事件。 NFT 铸币活动通常会在几天内结束（有时是几小时甚至几分钟），而且只有在这几天内，用户活动才会非常活跃。铸币事件一结束，用户活动就会很快减慢到任何单片链可以轻松处理的二级交易或其他活动产生的交易量。
With this common characteristic about NFT mint events in mind, it would be quite wasteful to build a dedicated custom monolithic chain that won’t see much activity as soon as the mint event is over. Moreover, by setting up a monolithic chain, the project would also get isolated from other NFT projects such as third-party marketplaces, lending products backed by NFTs, games, etc., thereby breaking composability.
考虑到 NFT 铸币事件的这一共同特征，构建一个专用的定制单片链，一旦铸币事件结束就不会看到太多活动，这是非常浪费的。此外，通过建立单片链，该项目还将与第三方市场、NFT 支持的借贷产品、游戏等其他 NFT 项目隔离，从而破坏可组合性。
The ideal solution to address the above two scenarios would be some sort of a transient rollup that developers could spin up prior to the mint event, launch the mint event on the rollup (i.e., all NFT sale and minting happens on the rollup) and once minting is over, the assets get settled on the underlying Layer 1 and the rollup gets disposed of.
解决上述两种情况的理想解决方案是某种临时汇总，开发人员可以在铸币事件之前启动，在汇总上启动铸币事件（即，所有 NFT 销售和铸币都发生在汇总上)，一旦铸币结束，资产将在底层layer1结算，并且汇总处理。
These transient rollups do not have to be all short-lived as other applications such as gaming which require standalone execution layers need to be long-lived and in most-cases require a fully persistent dedicated infrastructure. We discuss the last application that concerns gaming which would greatly benefit from a dedicated application-specific rollup.
这些临时汇总不一定都是短暂的，因为其他应用程序（例如需要独立执行层的游戏）需要长期存在，并且在大多数情况下需要完全持久的专用基础架构。我们讨论了最后一个涉及游戏的应用，它将极大地受益于特定应用的汇总。
Polygon PoS Network Congestion in January, 2022: A play-to-earn game Sunflower was contributing over 40% of gas fees on Polygon PoS in early January. Given its contribution to the network, it would benefit from its own dedicated rollup that would also alleviate the load on Polygon. We have already seen game-dedicated monolithic chains such as Ronin (for Axie Infinity) and more recently DFK chain on Avalanche (for DeFi Kingdom).
Polygon PoS 网络在 2022 年 1 月拥塞： 一个赚钱游戏向日葵贡献了超过 40% 的gas。鉴于它对网络的贡献，它将受益于自己的专用汇总，这也将减轻 Polygon 的负载。我们已经看到了游戏专用的单体链，例如 Ronin（用于 Axie Infinity）和最近在 Avalanche 上的 DFK 链（用于 DeFi Kingdom）。
While a non-popular game could still survive on a legacy monolithic chain, we argue that popular games would be better off having a dedicated rollup for its sub-second latency. A dedicated modular rollup can be hooked to any chain and therefore will enjoy the benefits of modularity compared to a non-modular subnet-style monolithic application chain.
虽然不流行的游戏仍然可以在传统的单片链上生存，但我们认为流行的游戏最好为其亚秒级延迟提供专门的汇总。专用的模块化汇总可以连接到任何链，因此与非模块化的子网模式的单片应用链相比，还是会享受模块化的好处。
结论 (Conclusion)
The blockchain space is at an important juncture to witness the cross between Cosmos/Polkadot style application chains and rollups that come with modularity built-in. This blog post introduces the raison d’être of AltLayer — a unique solution that builds an application-tailored scaling and execution layer similar to optimistic rollups for any EVM and WASM chain.
区块链空间正处于见证 Cosmos/Polkadot 风格的应用链和内置模块化的汇总之间的重要时刻。这篇博文介绍了 AltLayer 的 原由——一种独特的解决方案，它为任何 EVM 和 WASM 链构建类似于乐观汇总的定制应用扩展和单一执行层。
Stay tuned for the next posts of the series that will present the different features of AltLayer and how it works under the hood.
请继续关注该系列的下一篇文章，这些文章将介绍 AltLayer 的不同功能以及它在后台的工作原理。
Bye till then and become a part of our growing community!
再见，也欢迎成为我们不断发展的社区的一员！
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