L2Geth Revamp

What is an Mad Science Project Idea?

A Mad Science Project Idea is an idea for a project within the Optimism ecosystem that may not have clear value but is generally cool as heck. Mad Science Project Ideas make great hackathon projects and tend to be a great way to explore Optimism, OP Mainnet, and the OP Stack.

Summary

L2Geth was deprecated in favor of Bedrock last month. L2Geth, our legacy system, has two main parts: the Data Transport Layer (DTL) responsible for indexing data from Ethereum, and L2Geth itself, built on an older version of Geth. It would be interesting to have a new version of L2Geth that is based on the latest stable version of Geth. This might make syncing legacy OP Mainnet nodes faster and more reliable. You can continue to use the DTL or build your own consensus/execution client split—similar to how the OP Stack operates post-Bedrock.

Possible Features

• Use of the latest stable release of Geth.
• Option to use the current DTL or develop a custom consensus client.
• Focus on L1 syncing, no need for Sequencer logic.
• No need for p2p logic.
• Rapid and efficient syncing of the legacy system, optimizing storage space.
• Should be able to correctly sync the legacy system, can compare to old legacy nodes.

Impact

• Speeding up the sync process for anyone needing to access legacy data.
• Increasing the reliability of legacy nodes for those who keep them for archival purposes.