The Celo Foundation has announced the launch of the Celo Layer-2 testnet, Dango, developed by core contributor cLabs. This new testnet, built on Optimism’s OP Stack, preserves all data from the Alfajores testnet, including smart contracts, accounts, and balances. Dango aims to enhance the Celo blockchain with faster transactions, lower costs, and improved interoperability with Ethereum. Key features include reduced block time, increased throughput, and the continuation of features like Fee Abstraction and SocialConnect. The launch marks a significant step in Celo's evolution, with a full migration expected by early winter 2024.

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<figure><img src='https://sosovalue.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/sosovalue/web3image/24/07/07/acw9t0p7jwvp.png'/></figure>The Celo Foundation is excited to announce the successful launch of Celo’s Layer-2 testnet, Dango, a pivotal step forward in core contributors <a href="https://clabs.co/" target="_blank">cLabs’</a> work bringing the EVM-compatible standalone blockchain home to Ethereum. First <a href="https://forum.celo.org/t/clabs-proposal-for-celo-to-transition-to-an-ethereum-l2/6109" target="_blank">proposed</a> during EthCC 2023, forking the Alfajores testnet to Dango allows ecosystem developers to begin transitioning their projects to the newest iteration of the blockchain built for the real world and designed for fast, low-cost payments worldwide.With today’s launch, all historical data including smart contracts, accounts, and balances from Alfajores are preserved and carried over. As recommended by cLabs and decided upon by the community across a series of forum posts and governance votes, the testnet is built upon Optimism’s OP Stack, the modular and open-source blueprint for highly scalable and interoperable blockchains that power Optimism’s Superchain. Following the Eigen Foundation’s <a href="https://medium.com/celoorg/eigen-foundation-allocates-first-strategic-grant-to-celo-foundation-core-contributor-clabs-1363226cdb37" target="_blank">strategic grant</a> to the Celo community and <a href="https://mondo.celo.org/governance/cgp-140" target="_blank">community suppor</a>t for cLabs’ subsequent governance proposal, the Celo Layer-2 testnet uses EigenDA as an alternative data availability layer to maintain sub-cent transaction fees.The Layer-2 architecture was developed with a core focus on maintaining the existing benefits of Celo’s L1 leveraged for real-world solutions in 150+ countries. In addition to low transaction fees, core elements maintained and improved through the migration include:<ul><li>Bridging of WETH and ERC-20 tokens between Ethereum and Celo</li><li>Decreasing block time to 2s from 5s, and increasing total throughput by 50%</li><li>Maintaining 1-block finality</li><li>CELO token duality (the ability to interact with CELO natively or via the ERC20 interface)</li><li>Continuation of <a href="https://docs.celo.org/developer/fee-currency" target="_blank">Fee Abstraction</a> (multiple ERC-20 tokens as gas currencies including Celo-native USDT and USDC)</li><li>The ability to send money to a phone number, email address, or other social identifier via SocialConnect</li><li>Maintaining low gas fees to ensure greater accessibility and adoption of crypto around the world</li><li>Higher security bridging to Ethereum for users who want to move assets</li><li>Continuing Celo’s commitment to <a href="https://www.ultragreen.money/" target="_blank">Ultragreen Money</a></li></ul>Dango’s successful launch allows infrastructure providers to start upgrading the latest Layer-2 node code. Once all key infrastructure providers have updated to support the L2 design, Alfajores will be upgraded (without creating a new fork) and developers will be able to test their end-user dApps. Since chain data and state will be preserved, there is no expected impact to most user-facing dApps. Having the first major milestone completed well within the anticipated summer 2024 timeframe, the cLabs team expects the continued migration work to end with a Celo Layer-2 mainnet launch early winter 2024.For more details about the testnet structure, features, and differentiators from the existing Celo Layer-1, read cLabs’ <a href="https://forum.celo.org/t/introducing-dango-l2-celo-testnet/8313" target="_blank">post</a> to the Celo Community forum. You can also visit the<a href="https://faucet.celo.org/dango" target="_blank"> Dango Faucet</a>, explore the <a href="https://celo-dango.blockscout.com/" target="_blank">Dango Block Explorer</a> by Blockscout, move assets between L1 and L2 using the <a href="https://testnets.superbridge.app/" target="_blank">Superchain bridge</a>, and check out the <a href="https://docs.celo.org/cel2/faq" target="_blank">How to Guide, Specs &amp; FAQ</a> for more information.About CeloCelo is an emerging Ethereum Layer-2 and mobile-first blockchain network built for the real world and designed for fast, low-cost payments worldwide. The Celo ecosystem consists of a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain technology stack (the Celo Platform), the CELO native token, USDC, and USDT (both enabled as gas currencies), several Mento stable assets (cUSD, cEUR, cREAL, eXOF), and popular, blue chip infrastructure including Uniswap V3, Curve, Chainlink, and Rarible, among others. Launched on Earth Day in 2020, the open-source Celo mainnet supports a rich ecosystem of projects (1,000+) contributing to Celo’s global mission of prosperity for all. For more about Celo, visit <a href="https://celo.org/." target="_blank">https://celo.org/.</a><img src=''/><hr /><a href="https://blog.celo.org/celo-core-contributor-clabs-launch-layer-2-testnet-dango-c2ba72a66dbf" target="_blank">Celo Core Contributor cLabs Launch Layer-2 Testnet, Dango</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.celo.org" target="_blank">The Celo Blog</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Celo Foundation Launches Layer-2 Testnet Dango Developed by cLabs