Building ME Network 2.0: The Modular Blockchain Stack We Needed

After more than a year running our modular blockchain in a live mainnet testing environment, we’ve reached a major milestone: ME Network 2.0 is officially live.

This release isn’t just a performance patch — it’s a complete architectural overhaul. We restructured ME Network from the ground up to reflect how we believe modular blockchains should work in production. Here’s a breakdown of what changed, why it matters, and what we learned while building it.

🧱 Full Three-Layer Decoupling — Modularity Done Right
The core of ME Network 2.0 is its clean separation of Execution, Settlement, and Data Availability:

• Execution (RollApp): Sovereign rollups running in parallel, supporting both EVM and WASM — flexibility for any application type, from Solidity to Rust/CosmWasm.
• Settlement (ME-Hub): Based on Tendermint BFT, this is the canonical state engine and routing layer for cross-chain interactions.
• Data Availability (ME-DA): We integrated Data Availability Sampling (DAS) and 2D erasure coding, bringing ~98% reduction in full-node storage requirements and enabling ultra-lightweight clients.

Each layer is optimized for its task and communicates via standard protocols. It’s composable, scalable, and much easier to build on.

🪙 Unified MEC Token Layer
We killed token fragmentation across the stack.

• MEC is now the single native token for execution, settlement, and DA layers.
• Local RollApps use MEC-CI for gas and governance. ME-DA uses MEC-DA for validator staking and availability proofs.
• Legacy test tokens? Burned.
• Fee handling is abstracted — users just pay RollApp gas, cross-layer fees are automated and settled in MEC by Sequencers.

This simplifies development and UX. No more explaining multiple tokens or gas mechanisms to end users.

⚙️ System Upgrades: Where Modularity Meets Practicality

We rebuilt or heavily upgraded every key component.

• Sequencer v2.1: Now supports rotating block production, CometBFT consensus, zk-fraud proof compression (Groth16), and a Watch Relayer system for challenge triggers.
• Data Availability: Clients verify just 1–2% of data via DAS and erasure coding — ideal for mobile and low-resource nodes.
• Cross-Chain Protocol (MBC/eIBC): Instant withdrawals, validator incentives, and market-maker settlement help bypass the slow exit problem in optimistic rollups.
• VM Support: Based on Ethermint, compatible with Solidity 0.6–0.8.17, MetaMask, WASM, and Cosmos SDK. Developers can mix & match virtual machine architectures — EVM, WASM, and native Cosmos apps, all supported.
• ME ID: Our on-chain identity system now supports Verifiable Credentials, off-chain encrypted storage, and cross-chain sync — a foundation for future identity use cases.

🛡️ Security & Governance Enhancements

We didn’t just scale — we hardened.

• Decentralized Sequencer logic: 2/3 honest validator requirement with fraud challenge verification at the ME-Hub layer.
• Gas Fee Logic: Dynamic pricing adjusts based on congestion + transaction type. Exponential cost model reduces Sybil/spam exposure.
• Relayer Protocol: Trustless communication between modules with Merkle proof compatibility across NMT and Cosmos SDK.

🗳️ DAO-Based Validator Deployment (Live on Mainnet)

Our first DA validator nodes are live — with 552,900 MEC staked, allocated via DAO governance from regional treasuries (IND, CHN, ME_EARTH, USA). The process was fully on-chain and governed by these rules:

MEC is stake-only: no withdrawals or transfers allowed.

Nodes named after their treasury regions.

Future validator allocation is dynamic and governed by the community.

It’s not just a validator launch — it’s a working demo of DAO-led infrastructure coordination.

🔚 What’s Next?

ME Network 2.0 is our commitment to real-world modular blockchain deployment — not whitepapers or testnets, but live systems, real adoption paths, and infra-level flexibility.

We’re continuing to work with developers and teams across the ecosystem to expand RollApp use cases, identity systems, and DA tooling.

Thanks to the 1M+ ME ID users and everyone building with us. This is just the beginning.