The Celo blockchain has officially completed its migration to the Ethereum Layer-2 network, marking the end of a nearly two-year transition process.
Celo Completes Transition to Ethereum Layer-2, Starting a New Era
Powered by Optimism’s OP Stack, this transition aims to increase scalability, reduce transaction costs, and improve interoperability within the Ethereum ecosystem.
The transition began in July 2023, with a community vote in July 2024 and intense competition among Tier-2 solutions, with Optimism ultimately securing the deal.
Celo now joins the growing ecosystem of Layer-2 blockchains that leverage Ethereum's infrastructure to enable faster and more cost-effective transactions.
According to Celo Foundation CEO Rene Reinsberg, this transition represents a first-of-its-kind shift in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Rather than launching a new Layer-2 chain, Celo has opted to maintain its existing history and user base, making it a potential blueprint for other EVM-compatible Layer-1 chains considering similar moves.
“This transition has piqued the interest of other Layer-1 founders who have reached out to understand the process. As market sentiment shifts, we may see more Layer-1s follow this path,” Reinsberg said.
Seamless Migration for Users, Major Protocol Upgrades
The transition is expected to be seamless for Celo users, with core features like SocialConnect, which links phone numbers and X addresses to wallet addresses, expected to remain fully functional. However, behind the scenes, the protocol has undergone significant changes:
- Validators will no longer operate the consensus protocol, but will instead temporarily run community RPC nodes.
- Validator rewards will now be distributed via smart contracts instead of epoch blocks.
- Transaction sorting, previously managed by validators, will initially rely on a centralized sorter, with plans to transition to a decentralized model in the future.
*This is not investment advice.
