RaaS opens a new era? An article explains Caldera's technical architecture and core use cases

Point summary

• Caldera is a RaaS (Roll-up as a Service) platform focused on Layer 2 infrastructure, known for its enterprise-level reliability and 99.99% of its runtime. The platform currently supports over $1 billion in total locked value (TVL) and serves 8 million users.
• Caldera supports all mainstream Roll-up frameworks, including Arbitrum Nitro, Optimism Bedrock, zkSync, and Polygon CDK, and provides optimization solutions for each project. Caldera provides a comprehensive blockchain infrastructure solution including block browsers, Alt-DA (alternative data availability), bridged stablecoins, cross-chain bridges and guard nodes.
• Through its Metalayer technology, Caldera is integrating the fragmented Layer 2 ecosystem. This innovation has realized direct connection between Roll-ups, efficient capital transfer, and multi-roll-up application development, establishing a new paradigm for the blockchain ecosystem.

1. The Great Era of RaaS

With the development of Web3, more and more teams are starting to develop their own blockchain solutions. While some teams choose to develop Layer 1, most teams choose to build Layer 2 solutions on the existing Layer 1 platform. This approach allows teams to leverage the mature security, user base, assets and consensus mechanisms of Layer 1 platforms (such as Ethereum) while customizing the execution layer according to project requirements.

The main advantage of Layer 1 is that it can access Ethereum’s vast user base, liquidity and developer infrastructure without building a standalone validator network. Initially, the blockchain industry was skeptical about the Layer 2 chain. The complex Roll-up mechanism required by Layer 2 and its dependence on Ethereum security have raised centralized concerns. As an emerging technology, Layer 2 also faces the challenge of building trust.

With the maturity of Layer 2 technology, new solutions are emerging one after another. Early teams either built the infrastructure from scratch or forked existing code. After the success of multiple Layer 2 platforms, the industry began to see it as a standard technology. The introduction of RaaS (Roll-up as a Service) further accelerates the development of the Layer 2 platform.

 Source: Tiger Research

The RaaS platform is responsible for managing complex Roll-up mechanisms and infrastructure maintenance, enabling project teams to focus on service development. This innovation cuts development time from months to weeks, sometimes hours, allowing the team to focus on core projects and user growth. This marks the arrival of the "Great Era of RaaS", similar to the "Great Era of Discovery" in history.

This trend is accelerating as major NFT projects embrace Layer 2. BAYC's "Apechain" and RWA project "Plume" are typical examples of this trend. With the increase in Layer 2 chains, reliability has become a key focus for RaaS providers to manage infrastructure deployment.

Caldera stands out by ensuring 99.99% of the runtime through its Service Level Agreement (SLA). The platform supports all mainstream Roll-up frameworks—Arbitrum Nitro, Optimism Bedrock, zkSync ZK Stack and Polygon CDK, and has attracted more than $1 billion in TVL and more than 8 million wallets. This report explores how Caldera builds its RaaS infrastructure and its key benefits.

2. Caldera's enterprise-level reliability

Reliability is critical to RaaS solutions, as chain errors and system failures can lead to significant losses and weaken trust. In today's technology environment, even basic map API disruptions can paralyze the delivery system and have a serious impact on e-commerce companies. Since blockchain services connect all transactions through a chain, they need to match or even higher stability with traditional cloud services to maintain user confidence.

The reliability of blockchain services can be measured by two key metrics: indirect “reference” and direct “service coverage”. Caldera has obtained more than 75 reference cases, including Manta Network and ApeChain, while its 8 million active wallets indirectly demonstrate the reliability of the service.

 Source: Caldera

Caldera's direct service coverage ensures enterprise standards through its 99.9% runtime SLA. The platform uses Betterstack monitoring tools to perform system health checks, which can monitor in real time and send abnormal alerts to the technical team in real time. With 24/7 support and systematic incident response protocols, Caldera provides the stability businesses need.

Caldera operates AWS data centers across multiple global regions, ensuring that if one region fails, others can take over immediately—a redundant design similar to the grid. The platform uses proxy load balancing to distribute RPC providers, similar to the phone switching operators when a signal is interrupted. By running multiple RPC providers simultaneously, Caldera ensures that the service can continue to run even if a particular provider fails.

In order for Layer 2 to grow beyond its current scope, enterprises need a secure foundation to build services. Caldera's multi-layer reliability strategy is expected to accelerate enterprise adoption of Layer 2 solutions.

3. Customized Roll-up framework: Provide optimization solutions for each

project

Different blockchain projects have different technical needs. DeFi and RWA projects prioritize security and reliability, games require low cost processing of high transaction volumes, while the NFT market relies on efficient metadata processing. Roll-up framework and chain selection directly affects cost and efficiency and is therefore a key decision.

Arbitrum Nitro leads in Ethereum compatibility and security, zkSync excels in processing speed and low fees, Optimism stands out in ecosystem growth through SuperChain, and Polygon CDK provides enhanced scalability and cost efficiency through zkValidium.

 Source: Caldera

Caldera's multi-framework RaaS solves these challenges by providing projects with access to all mainstream Roll-up frameworks, enabling projects to choose the framework that best suits their business goals. For teams lacking deep technical expertise, Caldera also provides guidance on choosing the best approach.

4. One-stop blockchain infrastructure solution

Building a Roll-up chain is only the first step in a blockchain project. A fully functional blockchain ecosystem requires additional infrastructure—these components that can take a lot of time and resources if built from scratch. Caldera enables projects to start faster by providing ready-to-use solutions for critical infrastructure.

4.1. Block Browser

Block browsers are crucial to the blockchain ecosystem. Users rely on them to verify transactions, while developers need them to check smart contract status and interaction. Although it usually takes 1-2 months to build a custom browser, Caldera offers customizable solutions through Blockscout integration to meet user needs.

4.2. Alt-DA (Alternative Data Availability)

Caldera's Alt-DA introduces innovations in blockchain data storage. Traditional Ethereum Roll-up requires all transaction records to be stored on the Ethereum main network, and data storage consumes more than 95% of the total transaction cost.

Originally launched with Celestia, Alt-DA leverages its efficient storage data while only sending proof of transactions to Ethereum, avoiding the high storage costs of Ethereum. This reduces monthly data storage costs by 75% from $50,000. If there is a problem with the Celestia network, the system will automatically switch to Ethereum storage to maintain the service. The addition of options such as EigenLayer will further reduce entry costs and accelerate blockchain adoption.

4.3. Bridge stablecoin

Caldera's bridging USDC provides a significant advantage for projects using OP Bedrock and Arbitrum Nitro, enabling it to use USDC immediately from the date of launch.

This system is particularly outstanding in native USDC conversion efficiency. Traditional bridging tokens require high user education and incentive costs during native conversion, while bridging USDC eliminates complex liquidity migration needs.

For developers, smart contracts that use bridged USDC retain their contract address after upgrading to native USDC without changing the code, ensuring project stability.

Users can continue various financial activities without having to exchange tokens, which helps the new blockchain network develop its ecosystem faster.

4.4. Cross-chain bridge

Caldera automatically deploys a web-based cross-chain bridge UI for each chain to facilitate asset transfer. Cross-chain bridge serves as a portal for users to provide liquidity for Layer 2 chains.

The interface matches the brand identity of each Roll-up, with adjustable colors, text and brand elements. It makes asset flows between Caldera chains and major networks such as Ethereum and Polygon smoother, while making cross-chain bridges more user-friendly.

4.5. Guarding nodes

Caldera's guard node system is built on Arbitrum's "Nitro" stack and is specifically used to verify transaction batches of Arbitrum Roll-up. Its innovative "lightweight validator" can verify transactions without running a full Arbitrum node.

The guard node is the first operating system to provide rewards for verification participants. HYCHAIN ​​demonstrated its success, selling 16,000 node keys and generating 2,000 ETH revenue within two weeks of implementation.

The system provides value in multiple ways: it creates new revenue streams, enhances cybersecurity through wider validator engagement, drives the natural demand for project tokens, and promotes community members from investors to network Operators – thus promoting deeper project engagement and loyalty.

5. Metalayer: a new paradigm for blockchain ecosystems

Source: Caldera

Caldera's journey to innovation hits a new milestone in a $15 million Series A round led by Founders Fund. This investment is more than just financing – it marks a turning point that defines the future of the Layer 2 ecosystem.

Layer 1 ecosystem faces fragmentation. Layer 1 requires intermediary transfers between Roll-ups, resulting in high costs and delays. Each chain requires separate infrastructure components such as cross-chain bridges and oracles, while network operators and validators face strict restrictions on cross-chain operations.

Caldera introduces meta-layers to solve these challenges. The meta-layer represents a new paradigm for a unified fragmented Layer 2 ecosystem, driving blockchain infrastructure by combining Caldera’s core strengths—enterprise-level stability, multi-framework support and one-stop infrastructure solutions— evolution.

The meta-layer realizes efficient capital transfer through direct Roll-up connections, simplifies the development environment, and supports multi-roll-up application development. Its unified ecosystem covers ZK and Optimistic Roll-up stacks, which promises to change the availability of Web3.

Caldera is moving beyond RaaS to shape the next era of blockchain innovation. Just as the Navigator opened up new routes, Caldera opened up new territory in Layer 2 through its meta-layer. The company leads blockchain toward a more scalable and interconnected future. These advancements will help organizations and projects build their own chains more easily, far beyond the capabilities of traditional RaaS.

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