Redstone is designed as the first plasma implementation for the OP Stack. At its core, Redstone serves as a highly cost-effective chain tailored for on-chain games, virtual worlds, and other ambitious applications. Unlike traditional optimistic rollups, Redstone introduces a novel approach by posting a data commitment hash to Ethereum's Layer 1 (L1), eliminating the need to post the entire input state. Instead, the input state corresponding to the commitment is securely stored off-chain by a Data Availability Provider. To ensure the availability of this off-chain data, Redstone implements a permissionless Data Availability Challenge contract on L1, allowing any user to challenge the commitment if the provider misbehaves.

The primary motivation behind the development of Redstone is to address the security and scalability challenges associated with on-chain worlds. Recognizing the need for a secure chain without relying on non-Ethereum data availability, Redstone leverages Plasma-like data availability. The designers, the Lattice team in collaboration with Optimism, aimed to create a permissionless system that utilizes Ethereum itself to enforce data availability, sidestepping the need for a permissioned set of data validators or alternative consensus mechanisms outside of Ethereum. By significantly reducing the L1 security cost, Redstone achieves over a 90% cost reduction compared to regular optimistic rollups, making it an efficient and secure solution for developers.

Technologically, Redstone utilizes innovative approaches such as hashing each batch to reduce the data posted to Ethereum's mainnet to a mere 32 bytes, a substantial improvement from the typical 120 kilobytes per batch. This reduction in data size not only enhances efficiency but also contributes to a considerable reduction in L1 security costs. Furthermore, the architecture of Redstone positions it for future upgrades through merklelized commitments, allowing the hashing of multiple batches into 32 bytes. The commitment to open-source principles and collaboration with the OP Stack reflects a shared vision of fostering modular integrations and common standards for the broader blockchain community, enabling developers to build ambitious applications and worlds within a secure, scalable, and interconnected environment.

Gas Token: ETH