Introducing the L2BEAT Partnership Fund

Since its inception in 2021, L2BEAT has relied on various grants and individual donations to fund its operations and provide transparent and verifiable insights into emerging layer two (L2) technologies in a sustainable manner. We couldn’t be more grateful for every person and organisation that contributed and for everyone that continues to support us financially.

Given the difficulties of funding public goods in the crypto ecosystem however, we had to find a more stable source of funding without compromising our ethos and core beliefs. At the same time, the continuous expansion of the Ethereum rollup ecosystem necessitated that we grow our team to keep pace. With our operational costs rising, so did our need for long-term sustainability plan.

Today, we’re announcing the ‘Partnership Fund’ which finally addresses the question of how to keep the lights on.

What Is the Partnership Fund?

The Partnership Fund is a grant-based funding initiative where participating rollups contribute financially to L2BEAT’s operations. This setup will enable us to strengthen our bond with the very ecosystem we serve, while simultaneously setting the foundations for the long-term sustainability of L2BEAT. As for the projects that support us, they’ll receive some additional benefits.

Before we delve deeper, however, we are compelled to make a crucial clarification.

We have always been committed to remaining impartial and transparent in our assessment of rollups’ maturity. The establishment of the Partnership Fund does not and will not break this commitment.

We value our independence and our right to decide what we focus on in our risk frameworks and covered metrics. Being a partner of any tier does not give any project the right to influence our decision-making processes, set our roadmaps, or influence our assessments. We treat projects that support us as partners, not as supervisors.

What Partnership Fund Participants Get (and Don’t Get)

Apart from the rights to claim that they’re supporting one of the coolest projects in crypto 😎, ecosystem partners who contribute to the Partnership Fund will receive additional coverage from our team. Let’s look into what that coverage looks — and doesn’t look — like.

What they get:

There are three different tiers of partners available: Ecosystem, Innovator, and Supporter. As the name suggests, the Ecosystem Tier is intended for projects building their own ecosystem of chains on a common technology stack. The Innovator Tier is intended for projects that are not entire ecosystems but are developing unique technology and wish for us to allocate additional resources to gain a deep understanding of what’s happening under the hood. The Supporter Tier is intended for projects that simply want to show support for our team.

Depending on the tier each partner has selected to support us, the benefits they receive vary. However, on a high level, this is what participants in the Partnership Fund can expect:

1. L2BEAT’s continuous existence We strongly believe in the value that our project provides to the whole Ethereum ecosystem, and we seek to ensure its sustainability and longevity.
2. Recognition as a devoted L2BEAT supporter Prominent visibility across L2BEAT’s digital spaces. From badges, mentions on the donation page and branded themes on project pages to shoutouts during major presentations and mentions in broader ecosystem materials.
3. Coverage of important developments in the project Partners get guaranteed access to high-profile events and receive monthly customized summaries. They also benefit from timely updates via retweets and potentially broader ecosystem-wide communication mechanisms.
4. Enhanced Support and Communication Channels Access to a structured communication channels with priority response time, and in some cases, dedicated additional resources on our side to provide timely feedback. This ensures prompt, prioritized attention to technical and strategic needs.
5. Risk Assessment Prioritization Priority in scheduling security reviews, preemptive risk assessments for planned upgrades, and participation in proof system evaluations — including advanced areas like zk catalog verification. We always have a long list of projects that need assessment; partners get to skip the line.
6. Project highlights across our channels Featured highlights, including testnet coverage and prioritization in interviews. Chains and projects may also have more detailed descriptions and historical context across L2BEAT’s ecosystem.
7. Closer relationship and insight into our roadmap Higher-tier partners can gain a seat at the Advisory Board and preview upcoming features. They can also provide early feedback, ensuring their needs and concerns are accounted for in platform development.
8. Ecosystem coverage For partners in the Ecosystem Tier, we developed custom ecosystem dashboards, that allow them to better showcase their strengths and differences.

What they don’t get

We don’t treat partnerships as compensation for covering any particular project on our website. As such, we will never treat any supporting project differently and will not bend our assessment criteria for them. Here’s what Partnership Fund participants will receive.

• No preferential treatment regarding our assessment

We cannot stress this enough. We are committed to remaining credibly neutral, and supporting us doesn’t mean we’ll look the other way.

• No endorsements

While we’ll be including Partnership Fund projects in our ecosystem materials, presentations, and media, that should not be treated as an endorsement of those projects by our team.

• No ability to dictate our roadmap

Input and feedback are always welcome, both from partners as well as from the broader community that uses our platform. Members of the Partnership Fund will not, however, be able to dictate our roadmap and decide how we do things.

Who’s Participating So Far?

So far, we’re excited to announce the following partners that have committed to supporting L2BEAT:

Ecosystem Tier:

• **Arbitrum**
• **zkSync**
• **Optimism**
• **Polygon**

Innovator Tier:

• **EigenDA**

Supporter Tier:

• **Nethermind**

Sustainability and the Road Ahead

The Partnership Fund is the first step towards a sustainable future for L2BEAT. Not having to worry about our runway will empower us to double down on what we do best: reliably and transparently provide on-chain data for the thriving Ethereum rollup ecosystem.

We are excited to invite the community — that’s you — to provide your input and feedback, as our work is only relevant and valuable if it’s meaningful for our users and the projects that we cover.

We’re also eager to talk to any project that is considering joining the Partnership Fund. If that’s you, feel free to reach out at krzysztof.urbanski@l2beat.com.

Appendix / FAQs

• Will Partnership Fund participants receive preferential treatment in their assessment by L2BEAT? No.
• How are projects selected for the fund? There are no eligibility criteria to participate in the Partnership Fund. Any rollup that wants to participate can reach out to us at krzysztof.urbanski@l2beat.com.
• Is there a public ledger of grants received? You can find information about all the grants that L2BEAT has received on our donations page.
• What happens if a rollup stops contributing to the Partnership Fund?Any Partnership Fund contributor who stops contributing will lose access to further additional benefits, without that affecting any past benefits that have already been received.