Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Ethereum
Ink ticker ETH
Summary
Optimistic rollup on Ethereum built from the OP Stack. One sequencer orders transactions into 1-second blocks, and a batcher posts the transaction data to Ethereum as blobs or calldata so anyone can rebuild the chain from Ethereum. The state claims that the Ethereum bridge relies on go through permissionless fault-proof dispute games: anyone who posts a bond can propose or challenge a claim, and a dispute is narrowed by bisection to a single instruction of the Rust-based Kona proof program, which is executed on Ethereum. L2BEAT rates Ink Stage 1. If the sequencer ignores a user, the user can force a transaction in through Ethereum, with up to a 12-hour delay. Block production uses no stake or work of its own. 111121315161719
Design
- System
- Layer 2 blockchainInk Mainnet (chain ID 57073) is an OP Stack optimistic rollup launched by Kraken that posts all transaction data to Ethereum and is part of Optimism's Superchain. ETH pays gas. Kraken announced in July 2025 that an INK token would be issued by a subsidiary of the Ink Foundation, but no issued INK token was found at review time, so the display name uses ETH. The package hint is kept.
- Settles to
- EthereumAll transaction data is posted to Ethereum. OP Stack blocks become final once the Ethereum block holding their data is finalized, typically 15 to 30 minutes after submission per Optimism docs. Bridge withdrawals are proven on Ethereum against a state claim and then wait out a 7-day delay before they can be claimed; L2BEAT describes a 3.5-day dispute clock. A 2-of-2 multisig of the Optimism Foundation and the Optimism Security Council can upgrade the bridge contracts with no delay, and a guardian role can pause withdrawals.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- One sequencer. Gelato operated it until July 2026; an Optimism governance proposal of 22 July 2026, submitted by OP Labs, says sequencer operations moved from Gelato to the Optimism Foundation as chain servicer through OP Enterprise, a service OP Labs operates, with cutover targeted for 28 July 2026, and L2BEAT records the batcher and block-signing keys rotating on 30 July 2026. State claims can be proposed by anyone who posts the 0.08 ETH bond. Ink's status page records a block-production problem on 2 June 2026; a fix was reported 16 minutes after the first notice.
- Fork choice
- No open L2 fork choice: the sequencer's blocks are canonical, and the sequencer can still reorganize them until their data lands on Ethereum; after that the chain is derived from Ethereum data and follows Ethereum's finality. Fault-proof challenges do not reorganize the chain; they only decide which state claims the bridge accepts.
Qualifications
- Scarce resource · Not applicable. Ink block production uses no stake or work of its own; the sequencer is assigned by the chain's configuration, and security comes from Ethereum data availability plus the fault-proof system.
- Finality · Partial. OP Stack chains have three stages: unsafe (in a sequencer block 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 · Applies. Permissionless fault proofs are in use: anyone with a bond can propose or challenge. Since the July 2026 Karst upgrade disputes use the Kona proof program. Upgrade 20, targeted for mainnet execution on 24 September 2026, moves Ink to super-root dispute games as groundwork for cross-chain interop without switching interop on; a read-only check of Ink's Ethereum portal contract on 27 September 2026 returned the new permissionless super-root game type, but no dated execution notice was found.
- Upgrade authority · Applies. Ink's Ethereum contracts are owned by the shared Superchain 2-of-2 multisig of the Optimism Foundation upgrade safe (5 of 7) and the Optimism Security Council (10 of 13), which can upgrade them with no delay, per L2BEAT.
- Network status · Applies. Ink Mainnet was producing blocks at review time and its status page reported all systems operational. No sunset notice was found; the notable change in 2026 was the move of sequencer operations from Gelato to the Optimism Foundation as chain servicer, through the OP Enterprise service that OP Labs operates.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Security
- Gives up
- Decentralized sequencing and upgrade safety: one operator-run sequencer orders all transactions, a 2-of-2 multisig made up of the Optimism Foundation and the Optimism Security Council can upgrade the Ethereum contracts instantly with no exit window, and bridge withdrawals to Ethereum wait at least 7 days.The security emphasis rests on posting all data to Ethereum, permissionless fault proofs and the 12-hour forced-inclusion path, which is what L2BEAT's Stage 1 rating reflects; L2BEAT itself says stages do not measure overall project security. The single sequencer had a block-production incident in June 2026 that Ink's status page lists as resolved.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 10171836Ink's node repository recommends at least 16 GB RAM, a 2 TB SSD (NVMe recommended) and 100 Mbps or faster download for mainnet, plus Ethereum execution RPC and beacon API endpoints. The repository still ships op-geth, which Optimism stopped supporting on 31 May 2026 and which, per Optimism's notices, cannot follow the July 2026 Karst upgrade (the repository's own warning names a later Ethereum upgrade instead), and it has no op-reth setup yet, so a current node must be assembled from Optimism's op-reth guidance.
- 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 Ink 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; Ink ships the Ethereum Attestation Service contracts as system contracts, which record signed attestations in chain state, and data held only in chain state does not count. The rollup data Ink posts to Ethereum is Ethereum's feature, not Ink's. Absence of a qualifying feature on Ink was not verified, so the earlier none becomes unknown under the rule that absence needs a source. 7 |
| Light clients | Unknown | No Ink light client was reviewed. State claims on Ethereum are open to challenge through permissionless fault proofs, which could anchor light verification, but no tool doing so was checked. |
| 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 Ink was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Ink runs unmodified Ethereum smart contracts, has ERC-4337 account-abstraction contracts preinstalled and documents an EIP-7702 paymaster, so spend conditions are written as contracts. 179 |
| 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 Ink were not reviewed. Ink 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 | Established in the ecosystemVelodrome, Uniswap v4, Uniswap v3 | Velodrome lists an Ink deployment of its Superchain contracts and Uniswap lists v4 contracts on Ink. DefiLlama's DEX tracker showed Velodrome's pools recording the largest share of Ink DEX volume in the 30 days before review. Nado, a Kraken-backed exchange on Ink, is an order book, not an AMM. Liquidity depth was not measured. 22232425 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle), USDG (Paxos) | Circle lists natively issued USDC on Ink (0x2D270e6886d130D724215A266106e6832161EAEd), and Paxos lists a USDG token on Ink Mainnet that reaches Ink through LayerZero's omnichain token standard. Ink's token list also shows USDC.e, a bridged USDC, and USDT0, which is minted on Ink against USDT locked on Ethereum through LayerZero; Tether's supported-protocols page does not list Ink, so USDT0 is not counted as issuer-native here. 82627282935 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Ink's token list includes crvUSD and frxUSD; their designs, backing and use on Ink were not reviewed, so no algorithmic or hybrid stablecoin is classified here. 8 |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolOP Stack standard bridge (Ethereum and Ink), Superbridge, Brid.gg, Across, Rhino.fi, Gelato bridge, Bungee, USDT0 (LayerZero) | Deposits and withdrawals between Ethereum and Ink run through OP Stack bridge contracts on Ethereum that Ink's docs list. Ink's FAQ says it does not host its own mainnet bridge app and points users to partner bridges; its bridge page lists front-ends such as Superbridge and Brid.gg, and Across, which it says avoids the 7-day wait by using a network of solvers. Ink's cross-chain page lists LayerZero and Wormhole as supporting Ink Mainnet. Risk: Canonical withdrawals wait at least 7 days and depend on the fault-proof system; the 2-of-2 Optimism Foundation and Security Council multisig can upgrade the bridge contracts instantly, and a guardian can pause withdrawals. Third-party bridges add their own operator or messaging trust; L2BEAT reports that most value it tracks on Ink carries trust assumptions beyond the canonical bridge. 34571215 |
| Block explorers | ThinBlockscout (explorer.inkonchain.com) | Ink's docs name Blockscout as the network explorer, and it was serving Ink Mainnet data at review time. The docs also list OKX Explorer, Routescan and Tenderly; Routescan's API reported the Ink chain as not supported and the OKX page did not load for this review, so only Blockscout is counted. Explorer indexes are not canonical consensus. 2621 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinTrezor Safe 3, 5 and 7 (through MetaMask or Rabby) | See custody rows: Trezor's Ethereum page lists Ink among its supported networks, but Trezor Suite's own network list does not include it, so use goes through MetaMask or Rabby; Ledger support was not found. 303134 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | UnknownSame as native: Unknown | Ledger coin pages tried for Ink returned 404, Ledger's supported crypto assets page as served to this review did not name Ink, and the currency definitions in Ledger Live's public source code contain no Ink entry, although they do define other OP Stack networks. Whether a Ledger can sign Ink transactions through a third-party wallet was not checked, so support was not verified either way. 313233 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby (third-party wallet apps named by Trezor)Same as native: Unknown | Can: Use ETH on the Ink network with a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 through MetaMask or Rabby; Trezor's Ethereum page lists Ink among its supported networks Cannot: Manage Ink accounts in Trezor Suite itself: Suite's current network list does not include InkInk appears only in the network list of Trezor's Ethereum page, which names Trezor Suite, MetaMask and Rabby without tying them to networks; Trezor's Ink coin page returned 404. Because Trezor Suite's current network code has no Ink entry, the working path is a third-party wallet. Older Trezor models and contract signing were not reviewed. 3034 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Ink 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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Upgrade 20 moves Ink's fault proofs to super-root dispute games
An OP Labs proposal to Optimism governance bundled Ink with OP Mainnet, Soneium and Unichain for Upgrade 20, an Ethereum-side contract upgrade that replaces Ink's output-root dispute games with super-root games that can later cover several chains at once. It does not switch on cross-chain interop. Optimism's notice set a 24 September 2026 target for mainnet execution.
- Proposal:protocol upgrade proposal posted 2026-09-09; governance vote scheduled to close 2026-09-16
- Implementation:OP Contracts Manager v8.0.0 contracts named in the proposal; Sepolia execution was targeted for 2026-09-17, a week before mainnet
- Release:L1 contract upgrade with no L2 hard fork or activation timestamp
- Activation:targeted for 2026-09-24; Ink's Ethereum portal returned the new game type when read on 2026-09-27, but no dated execution notice was reviewed
Sources: Optimism Collective governance forum — Upgrade 20 - Super Root Dispute Games & OPCM v8.0.0 (external site) · Optimism Docs — Upgrade 20 (external site)
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Kraken launched kHYPE, a HYPE-backed token, on Ink
Kraken introduced kHYPE, a token backed one-to-one by HYPE held in Kraken's custody, and made it available first on Ink so HYPE holders can use it in Ink applications. Kraken says it plans to extend kHYPE to other networks.
- Implementation:token contract deployed on Ink, per Kraken's post
- Release:announced as available at launch on Ink
- Activation:live from 2026-09-08, per Kraken
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Ink's sequencer operations moved from Gelato to the Optimism Foundation
An OP Labs proposal on Optimism's governance forum said Ink was moving its sequencer operations from Gelato to the Optimism Foundation as chain servicer through OP Enterprise, a service OP Labs operates, with cutover targeted for 28 July 2026, and asked approval for two follow-up changes: rotating a fallback proposer key and redirecting two fee vaults. L2BEAT's change log shows the batcher and block-signing keys rotating on 30 July and the proposer key on 10 August 2026.
- Proposal:maintenance upgrade proposal posted 2026-07-22 under the standard veto period
- Implementation:operator keys rotated, per L2BEAT
- Release:not a software release
- Activation:cutover targeted for 2026-07-28; batcher and block-signing keys rotated 2026-07-30 and proposer key 2026-08-10, per L2BEAT
Sources: Optimism Collective governance forum — Maintenance Upgrade Proposal: Ink Mainnet Fee Vault Config Update and Proposer Rotation (external site) · L2BEAT — Ink (external site)
-
Karst hard fork activated on Ink
The Karst upgrade activated on Ink Mainnet on 8 July 2026. It made the Rust-based Kona program the main fault-proof program for withdrawals, added a mechanism for upgrading Ink's built-in contracts through network upgrades, brought several Ethereum Osaka changes to the chain including a per-transaction gas cap, and required node operators to run op-reth instead of op-geth.
- Proposal:approved through Optimism governance
- Implementation:shipped in op-reth and kona-client releases
- Release:Released
- Activation:active on Ink Mainnet since 2026-07-08
Sources: Optimism Docs — Upgrade 19: Karst hard fork (external site) · Optimism (ethereum-optimism/superchain-registry) — Superchain Registry: mainnet/ink.toml (external site) · Ink on GitHub — inkonchain/node (external site) · Optimism Docs — End of Support for op-geth and op-program (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Ink through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- No issued INK token was found. Kraken said in July 2025 that a subsidiary of the Ink Foundation would issue INK, Kraken's April 2026 Ink Points programme describes points as non-tokenized, and Ink's FAQ still says there is no token information; the display name should be revisited if INK launches.
- Ink's own docs do not describe the July 2026 move of sequencer operations from Gelato to the Optimism Foundation, through the OP Enterprise service that OP Labs operates, and still list as primary the RPC endpoint that their RPC page attributes to Gelato; the change is sourced to an Optimism governance proposal and L2BEAT's change log.
- Upgrade 20 was targeted for mainnet execution on 24 September 2026. A read-only check of Ink's Ethereum portal contract on 27 September 2026 returned the new super-root game type, but no published confirmation of the execution date was found, and L2BEAT's page, which warned that parts of its data might be outdated, did not yet mention super-root games.
- Who acts as Ink's chain governor and receives sequencer revenue after the migration, and the identities of the Optimism Foundation safe signers and Security Council members, were not sourced.
- Current node requirements are uncertain: Ink's node repository still runs op-geth, which is no longer supported, and no op-reth hardware guidance or current chain size for Ink Mainnet was found.
- Ledger support for the Ink network was not verified: Ledger coin pages returned not found, the supported-assets page as served did not name Ink, Ledger Live's public currency list has no Ink entry, and third-party wallet routes with a Ledger were not checked.
- The Trezor rating rests on Trezor Suite's current network code, which has no Ink entry; Trezor's pages do not tie wallet apps to networks.
- Only the Blockscout explorer was confirmed serving Ink data; Routescan's API reported Ink as unsupported, the OKX explorer page did not load, and Tenderly was not checked.
- Third-party bridges listed in Ink's docs were not checked for current Ink support or security, including the Gelato bridge app after Gelato stopped operating the sequencer; USDT0's cross-chain security settings were not reviewed.
- Ink's docs describe Superchain-wide token movement, but Optimism's Upgrade 20 proposal says that upgrade does not switch on cross-chain interop; what native messaging between Superchain chains works on Ink today was not verified.
- Atomic-swap, reversible-transfer and recovery, light-client, channel, algorithmic-stablecoin and chains-settling-to-Ink surfaces were not reviewed; no throughput claims were recorded.
- Ink's blog on inkonchain.com renders only in a browser and could not be read, so official Ink announcements were reviewed only through Kraken's blog, Optimism's governance forum and Ink's docs.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- About Ink (external site)
- Network Information (external site)
- Frequently Asked Questions (external site)
- Bridges (external site)
- Crosschain Infrastructure (external site)
- Block Explorers (external site)
- Ink Contract Addresses (external site)
- Ink Contracts (token list) (external site)
- Paymaster Integration: Overview (external site)
- inkonchain/node (external site)
- Superchain Registry: mainnet/ink.toml (external site)
- Ink (external site)
- Maintenance Upgrade Proposal: Ink Mainnet Fee Vault Config Update and Proposer Rotation (external site)
- Upgrade 20 - Super Root Dispute Games & OPCM v8.0.0 (external site)
- Transaction finality (external site)
- Forced transactions (external site)
- Upgrade 19: Karst hard fork (external site)
- End of Support for op-geth and op-program (external site)
- INK Blockchain degraded performance (incident report) (external site)
- Coming soon: Integrating $INK Token and Ink Layer 2 protocols into our core products (external site)
- Ink Mainnet explorer (external site)
- velodrome-finance/superchain-contracts (external site)
- v4 Deployments (external site)
- Overview (external site)
- DEX overview for Ink (API) (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- Supported Protocols (external site)
- USDT0 Docs (external site)
- Contract Deployments (external site)
- Ethereum wallet (external site)
- Supported crypto assets (external site)
- ledger-live: crypto currency definitions (develop branch) (external site)
- ledger-live: coin-module loaders (list of networks Ledger Wallet can add) (external site)
- trezor-suite: Ethereum-style network configuration (develop branch) (external site)
- USDG mainnet addresses (external site)
- Spin up your own Ethereum node (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