Flipside report: Two-thirds of EVM smart contracts are deployed by Optimism

Author: Bessie Liu, Blockworks; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

A report from Flipside Crypto shows that, Since January 2022, more than 637 million Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) smart contracts have been deployed on seven Layer 2 blockchains.

As scaling solutions become more efficient and accessible, direct There are fewer and fewer EVM contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. This trend is likely to accelerate as the Dencun update approaches, which will introduce blob trading and other infrastructure upgrades.

“Since Layer 2 can only publish critical data to Ethereum Layer 1, the cost of interacting with Layer 2 should be significantly reduced. This makes protocol development more efficient creativity, providing users with an easier experience, abstracting complex transactions out of their hands, and ultimately reducing the cost of Layer 2 interoperability with each other,” noted Carlos Mercado, data scientist at Flipside Crypto.

TodayLeading this wave is Optimism, Layer 2 of Ethereum Optimism, which is currently the most popular Deploying blockchain accounts for more than two-thirds (approximately 70%) of the total EVM smart contract deployments so far this year. According to data from Flipside Crypto, the chain has deployed more than 28.8 million EVMs since January 1.

However, for non-EVM smart contracts, Polygon and BNB Smart Chain (BSC) are still the most popular deployment chains. On September 6 last year, BSC deployed 5.3 million contracts, the most contracts ever deployed on the chain, although this number dropped rapidly around September 13.

DeFi contracts are on the rise

This year, DeFi smart contracts are the most popular among developers of various chains, accounting for approximately 34.7% of all “classifiable” deployments. This figure is approximately 11.2% higher than in 2022 and 2023.

NFT smart contracts drove the bull market between 2021 and 2022, but over time, it has become less popular. Deployments fell from 18.6% to 8.2% during the same period.

Mercado points out that this can be interpreted both positively and negatively.

Mercado said: “The positive thesis is that this space is looking for product market fit, there are more tokens than ever before, and new primitives can provide lending, options on more assets than ever before. , perpetual contracts and oracles.”

He added, “Some of the negative arguments are that given that more money is flowing to more block space, the fragmentation of liquidity is forcing the creation of more of (arguably unproductive) activities: bridging and exchange arbitrage, rather than an individual’s specific desire to be on-chain or to have a token.”

Mercado acknowledges both sides of the argument, but points out that he is concerned about the space Prejudices that are growing faster than they are dividing.

"Other" smart contracts

Unclassified smart contracts, or smart contracts classified as “other” by Flipside Crypto, are by far the most commonly deployed smart contracts. They account for 93.8% of all smart contracts observed deployed on the chain.

This number is significantly higher than in 2022, when these smart contracts accounted for approximately 37% of deployed contracts. It is also slightly higher than in 2023, when these smart contracts accounted for approximately 86% of all deployments.

Flipside Crypto wrote: “While it is difficult to draw firm conclusions from this broad category, this number, coupled with the growing proportion of dapps across all chains, indicates that changes are being made at the protocol level. More experimentation and diversity."