Abstract

Metal DAO announced its intention to enter the L2 space with Metal L2 and $MTL (Metal DAO) as governance. There have been a lot of new Ethereum L2 projects popping up, but none of them have the ecosystem and history that Metal DAO has. Metal Pay, launched in 2018, is a consumer crypto trading and payments app. The original "Venmo of crypto" Metal Pay went on to obtain financial licenses in the US, operating in 46 states with plans to expand internationally (Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, Oceania) In 2023 Metal Pay transitioned to execute all trades on the XPR network through the Metal X decentralized exchange. The WebAuth wallet was created to support Web Authentication and digital identity on the blockchain. The Metal Dollar stablecoin basket was created to connect all major stablecoins and participating financial institutions that could issue and redeem from a collateralized basket. This is currently in production today and powers all trading on the Metal Pay app and Metal X DEX. Metal ecosystem has been a consistent innovator in crypto, bringing a focus on Web Authentication, a stablecoin basket, digital identity, and more. Through embracing Ethereum Metal L2 can rapidly grow its existing ecosystem while supporting scaling Ethereum. It's time to take the next step with Metal DAO, creating an open-source version of Metal Pay that anyone could run on top of Metal X (whether on Metal L2, XPR, etc), and expand WebAuth to Ethereum and the Optimism stack. Together, let's realize the vision of fast easy payments in-the-browser while utilizing the secure enclave of all the most popular devices. The vision that was pioneered with Metal ecosystem, now on Ethereum via the Metal L2 and connected to the Optimism Superchain.

How can we make this change and begin the execution of a Metal Layer 2 on Optimism? To do this we will need to introduce the idea of some form of continuous emission that would cover the cost of gas on the base layer - Ethereum. The introduction of EIP-4844 aka "Proto-Danksharding" with the Dencun upgrade lowers the costs of operating the base layer, still, there needs to be some way of creating a continuous mechanism to ensure the initial cost of ETH is covered for the layer to operate. Additionally, core development and developer grants are essential to grow an autonomous organization. I propose, if the community wills, we can evolve MTL through a v2 smart contract upgrade. Metallicus, the core developer, has begun the core work of deploying Metal L2 in testnet, while preparing WebAuth, Metal Dollar and Metal X for Metal L2. We have created an audited v2 smart contract by Peckshield that would create the capability to do this. Metallicus has begun creating the components needed for an open-source plug-and-play Metal Pay that can operate on Metal L2 with Metal X, the next step is up to the community if we want to deploy this and take the leap! If the Metal DAO community wants to see it happen, we are ready today to turn on Metal L2 to mainnet. Update: Metallicus has turned on L2 mainnnet today (3/29/24)

Specification

Metal L2 will become part of the Optimism Superchain, an L2 focused on simple fiat ramping access with global availability and DeFi as part of a holistic ecosystem (Metal stack) with Metal Pay, Metal X, Metal Identity, and Metal Dollar. Metal Pay will become open source for anyone to connect to Metal X and create their own version of Metal Pay, while accessing a multitude of fiat ramps.

Token Changes

• MTL token to relaunch with a genesis of 66,588,888 MTL

• Adds a one time grant of 6m MTL for core development

• Adds a one time grant of 6m MTL for Metal DAO treasury

• Adds an additional yearly recurring inflation of 6m MTL to fund sequencer costs and core development

• Migrates MTL to Metal L2 to lower gas fees when making transfers and executing smart contract calls

• Bridge support for MTL to move between Metal L2 and Ethereum L1

Metal Ecosystem Supported Apps and APIs

• WebAuth wallet

• Metal X decentralized exchange

• Loan Protocol defi lending

• Metal Identity decentralized ID

• Metal Dollar decentralized stable basket

• Metal Pay, Metal Connect, Metal API

Metal V2 MTL token

If the proposal reaches quorum after seven days, an airdrop on Metal L2 mainnet will proceed with the V2 contract token (MTL). Centralized and decentralized exchanges, wallets and DeFi platforms will be notified. No change will be required from MTL holders who self custody their own keys, if you are using a custodial service you must ensure they are supporting Metal L2 to receive the airdrop on Metal L2 mainnet. If the proposal succeeds, an airdrop date will be set no later than seven days after the proposal has concluded.

Connecting the Metal L2 mainnet

You can access the Metal L2 network with the following credentials (or visit MetalL2.com for more information):

Network name: Metal L2
New RPC URL: https://rpc.metall2.com
Chain ID: 1750
Currency symbol: ETH
Block explorer: https://explorer.metall2.com

A short presentation

Please find a short presentation slide deck here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16ul-E9hM_0pV4Lrz6ACHeiV3zAvc7Qcf/view

Conclusion

We believe Metal DAO evolving to support an L2 ecosystem will further grow decentralization and bring more participants creating a robust network that will not only grow Ethereum, but the vision for decentralized payments as a whole.