Surge: A Based Rollup Designed for Ethereum’s Future

Intro

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Surge is a based rollup template built on the Taiko stack, designed to showcase decentralization from the ground up. Surge adopts the Stage 2 security framework and ensures that Ethereum’s validators, not a centralized sequencer, handle transaction ordering. The Surge template demonstrates trustless scaling while staying true to Ethereum’s core principles.

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What Are Based Rollups, and Why Do They Matter?

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Traditional rollups function in a straightforward way: a single, centralized sequencer collects, orders, and batches transactions before submitting them to Ethereum’s mainnet. This setup offers speed advantages, including lower latency, but it introduces risks related to centralization. Transactions can be delayed, censored, or reordered unfairly if the sequencer fails or behaves maliciously.

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Based rollups solve this problem by removing the centralized sequencer altogether. Instead of a single entity controlling transaction ordering, Ethereum’s own L1 block-building process takes on this responsibility. 

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Ethereum’s decentralized validators, builders, and searchers handle L2 transactions within the proposer-builder separation (PBS) pipeline, ensuring decentralization at both layers. This ensures that if Ethereum remains censorship-resistant, based rollups automatically inherit that same property.

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Surge fully takes advantage of this model, offering a highly decentralized rollup that is inherently aligned with Ethereum’s economic and security principles.

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Based Rollups: L2 transactions enter the same permissionless block-building pipeline as L1.

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Conventional Non-Based Rollups: A centralized sequencer decides transaction ordering before submitting them to L1.

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By using this based rollup model, Surge makes L2 as decentralized as Ethereum itself. No single entity can reorder transactions, censor users, or halt network activity.

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Surge: Stage 2 from Day 1

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One of the ongoing challenges in today’s rollups is governance. Many projects start with multi-sigs, security councils, or admin keys that can push emergency upgrades before users can withdraw funds, a potential vulnerability if governance is compromised. While this is often framed as a temporary solution, in practice, such centralized elements have tended to persist well beyond initial launch phases. That said, several rollups are actively making progress toward more decentralized models, with an eye on achieving Stage 1 and beyond.

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Surge addresses this vulnerability through the following governance-free, Stage 2 design decisions:

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• Multi-Sig for Upgrades only: Nethermind-controlled multi-sig for queueing upgrades. If the multi-sig holders stop functioning, chain progression is unaffected.
• No Security Council: No entity can push upgrades with immediate effect.
• 45-Day Exit Window: Users always have 30 days, plus a buffer, to exit before any upgrade takes effect.
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With these decisions, Surge takes a "Trust Code, Not Governance" approach to rollup design, embracing Ethereum’s core principles of immutability and self-executing code. If the protocol changes, users have ample time to exit safely with no need to trust an opaque decision-making process.

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The Role of Nethermind in Surge’s Performance

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One of the key enablers of Surge’s speed and efficiency is the Nethermind Client. Designed for high-performance Ethereum execution, it is ideal for rollups that demand fast processing speeds and minimal overhead.

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By integrating the Nethermind Client, Surge benefits from:

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• Faster Block Execution: Transactions are processed more efficiently, reducing confirmation times.
• Optimized Resource Utilization: The rollup can handle higher transaction loads without increasing execution costs.
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This ensures that Surge is decentralized and highly efficient, making it an attractive option for developers and end users.

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Surge Doesn’t Need a Token (And Why That’s a Good Thing)

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Many rollups introduce governance tokens, often framing them as a tool for decentralization. In practice, these tokens can create misaligned incentives, concentrating power among large holders and incentivizing speculation and short-term profits over long-term network sustainability.

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Given these challenges, Surge takes a token-free approach. 

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Surge follows Ethereum’s economic model, using ETH for gas payments. This burns ETH through transaction based fees. There are no DAOs, no added governance complexity, just a streamlined, decentralized rollup designed for Ethereum’s long-term sustainability.
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Surge: A Rollup Template for the Future

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Surge isn’t another rollup; it fundamentally rethinks how L2 solutions should operate. Surge provides a template for removing centralized sequencer risks, eliminating the need for L2 governance, enhancing L1 composability, and contributing to the long-term sustainability of Ethereum and ETH. As all of the infrastructure and code used in Surge is open source and replicable, if the operator of a rollup based on Surge stops operating, other entities or community members can come forward to continue its operation.
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• For developers, this means a more reliable and censorship-resistant testing ground to build on.
• For builders, it offers an optimized execution environment for faster L2 block building.

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How to Get Involved

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If you’re interested in learning more, here’s how you can engage with Surge today:

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• Check out Surge’s Github and Documentation to explore its architecture and codebase.
• Take part in Surge testnet to experience based rollups.