About

Manta Network is an ecosystem of networks offering scalable execution environments for decentralized applications with a core focus on zero-knowledge (ZK) applications. The project consists of two distinct networks: Manta Pacific and Manta Atlantic, offering ZK tooling to simplify ZK application deployment.

History

Victor Ji and Kenny Li founded Manta Network in 2020 with the intention of improving onchain privacy. The founding team, operating under p0x Labs, began work with a Web3 Foundation grant in the same year. Manta Network has since evolved into a generalized ZK ecosystem for deploying and scaling ZK applications.

By September 2021, Manta Network had secured a parachain slot on Kusama for Calamari, its ZK-enabled Canary network. The parachain slot was secured through a KSM crowd loan, allocating 30.00 billion KMA (30.00% of the total token supply) to over 16,000 contributors. Throughout 2022, the project team focused on deploying its ZK tooling infrastructure on Calamari for pre-production testing.

March 2023 marked the release of Manta Network's zkSBT, Manta NPO, and a wallet extension for zkSBTs. Following a successful testnet release in July 2023, Manta Pacific’s alpha mainnet went live in September 2023. The Layer-2 network initially employed Caldera's OP Stack Rollup for transaction execution and Ethereum for data availability (DA). However, in December 2023, it replaced Ethereum with Celestia for DA, saving over $1.50 million in gas fees from integration to date.

On Dec. 14, 2023, Manta Pacific launched the New Paradigm bridge, introducing new ways for users to earn additional yield on native ETH and stablecoins. Deposits via the New Paradigm bridge have been discontinued, but users can still bridge ETH via third-party bridges like Orbiter, Owito, and Mini Bridge to the Layer-2 network. A commercially reasonable search found no disclosure(s) from the project team regarding the resumption of New Paradigm bridge deposits.

On Jan. 18, 2024, MANTA’s token generation event (TGE) launched, signaling the official mainnet release of Manta Atlantic as a Polkadot parachain. Unlike Calamari’s parachain slot, which was initially acquired via a crowd loan, Manta Atlantic runs on a self-funded parachain slot solely acquired by the project team.

As of Feb. 5, 2024, Manta Pacific has processed ~12.26 million transactions, while Manta Atlantic has processed over 30,000 transfers. On Manta Pacific, over ~1.16 million zkSBTs have been issued on the Layer-2 via the Manta NPO platform. As of the above date, both networks feature Manta Network’s Universal Circuits, simplifying ZK application development.

In the future, Manta Pacific plans to transition from an OP Stack rollup to a zkEVM validium using the Polygon CDK. According to the project’s documentation, the transition will occur in four phases:

• Phase One (Manta Pacific Alpha) - In this phase, Manta Pacific is an optimistic rollup that employs Ethereum for data availability.
• Phase Two (Manta Pacific Alpha II) - In this phase, Manta adopts Celestia for data availability.
• Phase Three (Manta Pacific Beta) - In this phase, Manta transitions from an OP Stack rollup to a zkEVM rollup. The network may leverage a multi-prover framework combining both proofs before fully transitioning to Polygon’s ZK prover.
• Phase Four (Manta Pacific Mainnet Production I) - Universal Circuits will feature an upgrade introducing ZK-proof aggregation. This will further reduce gas costs, improve user experience, and support more ZK-enabled use cases.

Manta Pacific has completed the second phase of its transition, operating as an OP Stack rollup leveraging Celestia for data availability. The full transition to a zkEVM validium remains a core priority for the project team in 2024. Based on a commercially reasonable search, a definite completion date has yet to be announced.