VC Darling Eclipse Finally Debuts Its Solana-Ethereum Blockchain Hybrid

Eclipse launched its long-awaited mainnet blockchain on Thursday — introducing a first-of-its-kind layer-2 network that melds tech from the popular Ethereum and Solana blockchains into a single package.

Like other layer-2 Ethereum rollups, Eclipse lets people transact on Ethereum with faster speeds and lower fees. To accomplish this, it operates as its own network, written using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) — the fast and cheap execution architecture spearheaded by Ethereum's biggest competitor, Solana. Similar to other layer 2s, Eclipse bundles up transactions from its users and periodically passes them down to the base Ethereum chain, where they're cemented permanently to the chain's ledger.

“Eclipse is uniquely positioned to bridge Ethereum and Solana ecosystems,” Eclipse CEO Vijay Chetty said in a statement. “This platform empowers developers to scale their applications without forcing them to choose between two leading blockchain networks.”

The SVM architecture allows Solana-native developers to write (or port over) decentralized applications (dApps) that could run faster and cost less than Ethereum-native apps.

While Solana is prized for its speed and low cost of transactions, Ethereum is known for its security and deep liquidity. Users across Solana and Ethereum could benefit from this so-called modular setup: dApps on Eclipse can easily interoperate with native Solana apps, meaning the network can help connect liquidity from both ecosystems.

According to the Eclipse Foundation, the Eclipse mainnet has already onboarded a number of projects, including DeFi platform Orca and consumer-focused Save and Nucleus. Altogether, the network will host more than 60 decentralized applications in finance, gaming and digital services.

Eclipse's cross-ecosystem approach has made it one of the most-hyped blockchain projects of this past cycle, allowing it to raise more than $50 million from investors.

The project's long road to launch has not been without controversy.

Neel Somani, Eclipse Labs' co-founder and former CEO, was ousted from the company in May after sexual misconduct allegations against him surfaced on social media. No charges have been filed against Somani in connection to the allegations.

Further controversy followed in July when a CoinDesk investigation revealed that Somani had secretly allocated an outsize share of its forthcoming token supply to a partner at Polychain, its largest backer. Polychain told CoinDesk that the side deal between Eclipse and its partner was not properly disclosed and violated the fund's conflict of interest policies.

A spokesperson for Eclipse told CoinDesk on Thursday that "the token supply deal with a Polychain partner no longer exists."

UPDATE (11/7/24 22:47 UTC): Adds comment from an Eclipse spokesperson regarding token allocation.