Tezos’ L2 Etherlink deploys Calypso upgrade on mainnet

Etherlink has deployed its third protocol upgrade, Calypso, on mainnet to bring a massive performance boost to the Tezos layer 2 network.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible layer 2 solution built on Tezos (XTZ) announced the Calypso upgrade was live on the mainnet on March 12, coming a few weeks after the EVM-compatible L2 deployed on testnet.

The road to mainnet included a governance vote by Tezos bakers, key ecosystem components that work alongside Tezos nodes. 

Following approval for the mainnet launch, Calypso has successfully deployed to bring improvements such as enhanced network speed, resilience, and efficiency to developers of decentralized applications. Deployment also means faster XTZ withdrawals from Etherlink to Tezos.

Etherlink’s non-custodial platform, powered by the Tezos smart rollup technology, allows for frictionless integration of dApps and supports Ethereum ecosystem tools such as wallets and indexers. With its latest upgrade going live on mainnet, its performance could see up to a 30x boost — significant numbers in the world of decentralized finance and exchanges.

Calypso also means improved smart contract storage and governance updates. It lays the foundation for improvements to non-custodial and trustless token bridging.

As it stands, users can bridge the native Tezos token tez from the layer 1 chain to Etherlink and back. Bridging XTZ from Etherlink to Tezos L1 is called withdrawing, while bridging XTZ from the layer 1 chain to the Etherlink network is called depositing. In both cases, XTZ is the native token on both chains.

“Moving tez from Etherlink to Tezos L1 currently can feel like waiting in traffic. Calypso introduces a new precompiled contract entrypoint, which lays the groundwork for much faster withdrawals,” Tezos said in February ahead of this mainnet rollout.

Etherlink introduced its alpha testnet in 2023 and beta in early 2024, with key roadmap milestones including the integration of oracle price feeds, the LayerZero bridge, and a decentralized sequencer.

Meanwhile, Tezos recently deployed its 17th upgrade with the activation of Quebec, which introduced faster transactions, rolled out improved staking mechanics and bolstered token issuance.