Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Ethereum
Boba Network ticker BOBA
Summary
Optimistic rollup on Ethereum built from the OP Stack, which Boba adopted in its April 2024 Anchorage upgrade. One sequencer orders transactions into 2-second L2 blocks, and a batcher posts the transaction data to Ethereum as blobs or calldata so anyone can rebuild the chain from Ethereum. A single permissioned proposer posts state claims to Ethereum through a permissioned dispute game. L2BEAT reports that the fraud-proof program panics on Boba because Boba's chain ID is missing from the chain list built into that program, so no dispute can be settled by re-executing the chain, and withdrawals rely on the proposer and challenger acting honestly. Users can force a transaction in through Ethereum, with up to a 12-hour delay. Block production uses no stake or work of its own. 2622232425
Design
- System
- Layer 2 blockchainBoba Network's Ethereum mainnet (chain ID 288) is an optimistic rollup built on Optimism's OP Stack since its April 2024 Anchorage upgrade, and it posts its transaction data to Ethereum. ETH pays gas; BOBA is an 18-decimal token that Boba's site calls a governance token. L2BEAT groups Boba under 'Others' rather than rollups because, in its words, the proof system isn't fully functional. It keeps the Layer 2 class because its data, bridge and withdrawals are anchored to Ethereum. This profile covers the Ethereum rollup only.
- Settles to
- EthereumAll transaction data is posted to Ethereum, as blobs since April 2024. OP Stack blocks are final once the Ethereum block holding their data is finalized; Boba publishes no timing figure of its own. Boba's notice says standard-bridge withdrawals take 7 days to finalize; L2BEAT describes a 3.5-day state-root challenge period and about 7 days in total before a withdrawal can be completed. Withdrawals depend on one permissioned proposer and on a 2-of-3 Boba multisig that can upgrade the Ethereum contracts with no delay.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- One operator-run sequencer. L2BEAT says the operator is the only entity that can propose blocks and describes Boba as built by the Enya team as core contributors to the Boba Foundation. L2BEAT lists one whitelisted proposer and one challenger address, and a 2-of-3 Boba multisig that can upgrade the Ethereum contracts with no delay and acts as guardian with power to pause withdrawals.
- Fork choice
- No open L2 fork choice: the canonical chain is derived from batch data posted to Ethereum, and Ethereum's own fork choice and finality govern that data. Until a block's data lands on Ethereum, the sequencer can still reorganize it.
Qualifications
- Scarce resource · Not applicable. Boba block production uses no stake or work of its own; the sequencer is assigned by the operator, and security comes from Ethereum data availability plus the permissioned proposer and challenger.
- Finality · Partial. OP Stack chains have three stages: unsafe (in a sequencer block, which the sequencer can still reorganize), safe (data posted to Ethereum) and finalized (the Ethereum block holding the data is final). Only the last inherits Ethereum finality.
- Fraud proofs · Partial. Dispute-game contracts are deployed on Ethereum, and Boba's notice says proposals use a permissioned dispute game. The same notice describes fraud proofs as letting anyone submit or challenge a state root, which the permissioned game does not allow: L2BEAT says only approved proposer and challenger addresses can take part. L2BEAT also says the proof program panics because Boba's chain ID is missing from its built-in chain list, so no dispute can be resolved by execution, and rates Boba below Stage 0.
- Superchain membership · Contested. Boba's September 2024 blog post says it joined the Superchain ecosystem. The Superchain Registry entry marks Boba as not governed by Optimism and names Boba's own multisig as admin owner, and L2BEAT says Boba uses a local copy of the pause configuration held by that multisig.
- Fee token · Contested. Boba's homepage still says network fees can be paid in BOBA or the native currency. Boba's fee docs say that option ended with the Anchorage upgrade: fees are paid in ETH, and BOBA can cover gas only through account-abstraction paymasters.
- Network status · Applies. Boba Mainnet was producing blocks at review time, and no sunset or migration notice was found on Boba's site or docs. Isthmus and Jovian were scheduled on Boba Sepolia for August 2026 with mainnet dates not yet set, and Boba's blog has no posts after June 2025.
- Bnb chain deployment · Unknown. L2BEAT dates a Boba launch on BNB Chain to November 2022 and Trezor still lists a Boba BNB network, but Boba's current docs describe only the Ethereum rollup, plus a BOBA token bridge between Ethereum and BNB Chain and a Light Bridge route that moves BOBA between Boba and BNB Chain itself (chain 56). The status of the BNB-based network was not established.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability
- Gives up
- Decentralized operation and withdrawal security: one sequencer orders all transactions, one permissioned proposer posts state claims, the fraud-proof game cannot settle disputes by execution, and a 2-of-3 multisig can upgrade the Ethereum contracts instantly with no exit window, per L2BEAT.Posting all transaction data to Ethereum and the 12-hour forced-inclusion path are the Ethereum-derived protections that remain. Boba announced in September 2024 that it had joined the Superchain, but the Superchain Registry marks Boba as not governed by Optimism, and L2BEAT says Boba runs its own copy of the pause configuration, held by the Boba multisig.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 1213141516Boba publishes no CPU, memory or disk minimums. Its only supported execution client is op-reth, run beside op-node, and the May 2026 mainnet archive snapshot is 13.9 GB compressed (extraction needs about twice that space). Low chain activity keeps the chain small, but a node also needs an Ethereum L1 endpoint, self-hosted or from a provider. This rating is a reviewer judgement from the snapshot size, not a published requirement.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | A protocol-level trust-minimized swap mechanism on Boba was not reviewed; EVM contracts could implement hash-locked swaps, but none was verified. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; HybridCompute lets Boba contracts call off-chain APIs and use the results, which makes it an oracle service rather than data publication, and the rollup data Boba posts to Ethereum is Ethereum's feature, not Boba's. Absence of a qualifying feature on Boba was not verified, so the earlier none becomes unknown under the rule that absence needs a source. 1921 |
| Light clients | Unknown | No Boba light client was reviewed. State claims on Ethereum come from one permissioned proposer and cannot be disputed by execution, per L2BEAT, so checking Boba state against them would trust that proposer. |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to Boba was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Boba runs EVM smart contracts and supports Ethereum's Solidity tooling and RPC calls, so spend conditions are written as contracts. Boba also documents ERC-4337 account abstraction with paymasters that let users pay gas in ERC-20 tokens. 21718 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Rollups | Unknown | Chains that settle to Boba were not reviewed. Boba itself is a rollup on Ethereum; its settlement is described in the mechanism and Ethereum dependency notes. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | ThinUniswap V3 (as tracked by DefiLlama), OolongSwap | DefiLlama's DEX tracker lists Uniswap V3, OolongSwap and a few smaller venues on Boba, with low recorded trading volume in the 30 days before review. Uniswap's own v3 deployment list does not name Boba, so that deployment was not confirmed on a Uniswap page. OolongSwap's own site returned no readable content; DefiLlama's protocol entry describes it as a Boba-only exchange and links that site. Liquidity depth was not measured. 28293035 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | Circle's native USDC list and Tether's supported-protocol list do not name Boba. Boba's token list pairs USDC, USDT and DAI on Boba with their Ethereum contracts, so these are bridged copies backed by tokens locked on Ethereum, not issuer-native tokens. 43132 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Boba were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolBoba standard bridge (Ethereum deposits and withdrawals), Boba Light Bridge (backend-service payouts), BOBA token bridge (LayerZero, Ethereum and BNB Chain) | The standard bridge locks tokens on Ethereum and mints them on Boba, and burns them to release them on the way out. The Light Bridge, used through Boba Hub, is faster: a backend service watches deposits and pays out on the other network, with per-transaction and daily caps. It moves ETH and BOBA between Ethereum and Boba, moves BOBA between Boba and BNB Chain, and accepts one-way transfers into Boba from Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet. A separate LayerZero bridge moves the BOBA token between Ethereum and BNB Chain. Risk: Standard-bridge withdrawals take about 7 days and rely on one permissioned proposer; L2BEAT says disputes cannot be settled by execution and a 2-of-3 multisig can upgrade the bridge contracts instantly with no exit window. The Light Bridge relies on a backend service, whose operator the docs do not name, to pay out, and the BOBA token bridge relies on LayerZero messaging. 689101124 |
| Block explorers | ThinBobascan (built by Routescan) | Boba's docs list Bobascan for mainnet and testnet; the site says it is built by Routescan and was serving Boba mainnet blocks at review time. No second explorer was verified. Explorer indexes are not canonical consensus. 327 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinTrezor Safe 3, 5 and 7 (through MetaMask or Rabby), Ledger (Boba behind a default-off switch) | See custody rows: Trezor's Boba Network and Ethereum pages list Boba Network, but Trezor Suite's own network list does not include it, so network use goes through MetaMask or Rabby; Ledger Wallet code includes Boba behind a feature switch that is off by default. 3334373840 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | PartialSame as native: Unknown | Cannot: Rely on Boba appearing in Ledger Wallet: its code gates the Boba network behind a feature switch that is off by default, and no Ledger page confirms the switch is on for usersLedger Wallet's source code includes a Boba network behind a feature switch that is off by default; the remote setting that could switch it on for users could not be read, Ledger's Boba Network coin page returned 404, and the first page of Ledger's supported crypto assets list did not show Boba. First-party support that sits behind a switch that is off by default counts only as partial support. 36373839 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby (third-party wallet apps named by Trezor)Same as native: Unknown | Can: Use ETH and BOBA on the Boba rollup with a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 through MetaMask or Rabby; Trezor's Boba Network and Ethereum pages list Boba Network among supported networks Can: Hold BOBA on Ethereum in Trezor Suite Cannot: Manage Boba network accounts in Trezor Suite itself: Suite's current network list does not include BobaTrezor's Boba Network page reads like a page for the BOBA token and also lists a BNB-based Boba network that Boba's current docs do not describe. Trezor's pages name Trezor Suite, MetaMask and Rabby without tying them to networks; because Trezor Suite's network code has no Boba entry, the rollup itself goes through a third-party wallet. Older Trezor models were not reviewed. 333440 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Boba Network yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Isthmus and Jovian scheduled on Boba Sepolia; mainnet not yet scheduled
Boba set the Isthmus upgrade, which also brings the Prague EVM changes, for Boba Sepolia on 20 August 2026 and Jovian for 25 August 2026. Boba Mainnet dates were not yet scheduled at review time.
- Implementation:op-reth v2.3.1 and op-node v1.19.0 required
- Release:released for testnet
- Activation:scheduled on Boba Sepolia for 2026-08-20 and 2026-08-25; mainnet not scheduled
Source: Boba Network Docs — Preparing for Isthmus and Jovian breaking changes (external site)
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op-reth became Boba's only supported execution client
Boba's docs say op-geth and op-erigon reached end-of-life on 31 May 2026 and that op-reth is the only supported execution client. Node operators must migrate using Boba's migration tools, and Boba published op-reth snapshots dated 26 May 2026.
- Implementation:op-reth v2.3.1 named as the required client
- Release:released; snapshots published 2026-05-26
- Activation:legacy clients unsupported from 2026-05-31
Sources: Boba Network Docs — Preparing for Isthmus and Jovian breaking changes (external site) · Boba Network Docs — Node Operators (external site) · Boba Network Docs — Node Snapshots (external site) · Boba Network Docs — Node Software Releases (external site)
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Boba released op-node v1.16.5 with an op-geth security fix
Boba published op-node v1.16.5 on 20 January 2026. Its release note says the version matches a security fix in op-geth, pairs with op-geth v1.101605.0 and is a recommended upgrade for all operators. The upstream OP Stack notes also add checks on EIP-1559 fee settings while the node reads the chain. At review time Boba's node software page listed v1.16.5 as the op-node version for both Boba Mainnet and Boba Sepolia.
- Implementation:op-node v1.16.5 paired with op-geth v1.101605.0
- Release:released on GitHub 2026-01-20; marked Latest at review time
- Activation:no network-wide activation; takes effect on each node when its operator installs it
Sources: Boba Network on GitHub — op-node/v1.16.5 (external site) · Optimism (ethereum-optimism/optimism) — op-node/v1.16.5 (external site) · Boba Network Docs — Node Software Releases (external site) · Boba Network Docs — Preparing for Isthmus and Jovian breaking changes (external site) · Boba Network on GitHub — Release notes from boba (Atom feed) (external site)
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Boba released op-node v1.16.3 to prevent derivation stalls
Boba published op-node v1.16.3 on 5 December 2025. Its release note says the version carries important fixes for avoiding chain derivation stalls and asks operators to upgrade promptly. The upstream OP Stack notes describe two fixes: blob fetching when a block holds several blobs with the same content, and an overlapping span batch case that could stall the pipeline instead of dropping the batch.
- Implementation:op-node v1.16.3, following upstream op-node v1.16.3
- Release:released on GitHub 2025-12-05; later superseded by v1.16.5
- Activation:no network-wide activation; takes effect on each node when its operator installs it
Sources: Boba Network on GitHub — op-node/v1.16.3 (external site) · Optimism (ethereum-optimism/optimism) — op-node/v1.16.3 (external site) · Boba Network on GitHub — Release notes from boba (Atom feed) (external site)
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Boba asked node operators to upgrade for Ethereum's Fusaka fork
Boba told node operators to move to newer op-node and execution-client versions before Ethereum's Fusaka upgrade, which went live on Ethereum on 3 December 2025, so their nodes would keep following Ethereum after the fork.
- Implementation:op-node v1.16.2 required by the notice
- Release:Released
- Activation:Fusaka active on Ethereum since 2025-12-03
Sources: Boba Network Docs — Preparing for Fusaka breaking changes (external site) · ethereum.org — Fusaka (external site) · Boba Network on GitHub — op-node/v1.16.2-boba (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Boba Network through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- Who legally operates the Boba sequencer, who holds the three keys of the 2-of-3 Boba multisig, and who runs the proposer address were not sourced.
- The claim that the fraud-proof program panics on Boba is sourced to L2BEAT only; Boba's own notice describes a permissioned dispute game but says nothing about this failure.
- L2BEAT lists a separate single key (not a multisig) that can change the batcher address and gas settings; who holds it was not sourced.
- The status of the BNB Chain-based Boba network that L2BEAT dates to 2022 was not established: Boba's current docs do not describe it and no sunset notice was found.
- Boba publishes no hardware minimums or uncompressed chain size, and its docs do not say whether a separate Ethereum beacon endpoint is required; the home-node rating rests on the snapshot size.
- Boba's GitHub README still describes an op-geth fork while its docs say op-reth is the only supported client; which software the sequencer runs was not confirmed.
- Mainnet dates for the Isthmus and Jovian upgrades are not scheduled, and whether Boba will keep following later OP Stack upgrades is not published.
- Ledger support is partial: Ledger Wallet code includes a Boba network behind a feature switch that is off by default, and Ledger's Boba coin page returned 404. The Trezor rating rests on Trezor Suite's network code, which has no Boba entry.
- Only one explorer (Bobascan) was verified; no second explorer was checked.
- The Uniswap V3 deployment on Boba is sourced to DefiLlama only, and OolongSwap's own site returned no readable content, so its description rests on DefiLlama's entry.
- HybridCompute's trust model (who runs the off-chain servers and how their responses are authenticated) is not described in the reviewed docs.
- Who operates Boba's account-abstraction paymasters and bundler on mainnet was not stated in the reviewed docs.
- Light Bridge fees and timing are not documented on the reviewed page, and the page does not say who runs the backend service that pays out.
- Boba's fraud-proof notice says anyone can submit or challenge a state root while also naming the permissioned dispute game; the notice has not been reconciled with L2BEAT's finding that only approved addresses can take part.
- Boba publishes no finality timing of its own, and how often Boba's batcher posts data to Ethereum was not sourced.
- BOBA token governance processes (DAO voting, treasury) were not reviewed beyond the homepage's description of BOBA as a governance token.
- Atomic-swap, reversible-transfer and recovery, light-client, channel, algorithmic-stablecoin surfaces and chains that settle to Boba were not reviewed; no throughput claims were recorded.
- Boba's Medium blog has no posts after June 2025; no official announcement channel for 2026 developments other than documentation notices was found.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Boba Docs: Introduction (external site)
- Boba Basics (external site)
- Boba Ethereum Network (contract addresses and endpoints) (external site)
- Token Addresses (external site)
- Fee scheme (external site)
- Fraud Proofs on Boba Network (external site)
- Preparing for Isthmus and Jovian breaking changes (external site)
- Token Bridging (external site)
- Using the Standard Token Bridge (external site)
- Using the Light Bridge (external site)
- BOBA Token Bridge (external site)
- Node Operators (external site)
- Running a Node with Docker (external site)
- Running a Node from Source (external site)
- Node Snapshots (external site)
- Node Software Releases (external site)
- Account Abstraction (external site)
- Account Abstraction Paymasters (external site)
- Hybrid Compute: Introduction (external site)
- Boba Network (external site)
- Boba Network blog (Medium feed) (external site)
- bobanetwork/boba (external site)
- Superchain Registry: mainnet/boba.toml (external site)
- Boba Network (external site)
- Transaction finality (external site)
- Transaction fees (external site)
- Bobascan (external site)
- DEX overview for Boba (API) (external site)
- Uniswap v3 deployment addresses (external site)
- OolongSwap (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- Supported Protocols (external site)
- Boba Network wallet (external site)
- Ethereum wallet (external site)
- OolongSwap protocol entry (API) (external site)
- Supported crypto assets (external site)
- ledger-live: coin-module loaders (list of networks Ledger Wallet can add) (external site)
- ledger-live: currencyBoba feature switch (external site)
- ledger-live: feature-flag defaults (a switch declared with no value is off) (external site)
- trezor-suite: Ethereum-style network configuration (develop branch) (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding