Today, we are announcing the formation of the Espresso Foundation to steward the long-term success and sustainability of the Espresso Network.

In pursuit of its mission, the Espresso Foundation will oversee upgrades to the Espresso Network, administer grants to developers and teams contributing to the betterment of the Espresso community, and help organize other initiatives that foster a diverse community of contributors. It will also oversee the upcoming launch of the Espresso token ($ESP).

The Evolution of Espresso

Espresso Systems, a US-based company, has spent the last two years developing the Espresso Network, a global confirmation layer purpose-built to support fast, secure cross-chain transactions.

The Espresso Network provides confirmations for any integrated chain, regardless of their stack, VM, or settlement layer. These confirmations are secure enough for anyone to trust and fast enough for everyone to use. Existing bridge protocols and message-passing services can leverage these confirmations to inherit speed and security, replacing the need to depend on a chain’s single centralized sequencer.

The first release, Mainnet 0, went live in November 2024 and is run by 23 institutional and community node operators across 100 globally distributed nodes, with plans to upgrade to fully permissionless proof-of-stake consensus soon.

Espresso Systems will continue as a core contributor to the Espresso Network, but it intends to transfer stewardship of its core technology, creative identity, and community platforms to the Foundation.

Open, composable, and permissionless developer platforms are the best tools for innovation that humanity has. Composability is a property of blockchains that offers builders the ability to create applications that can seamlessly interact with those that already exist. This property is sometimes called “money legos” or “unstoppable apps” or “free, open APIs for all.” In order to support scale, developers and users now live in a world with many chains—breaking their composability.

The Espresso Foundation’s mission is to ensure that all chains can compose as one—and it aims to steward this mission with neutral, decentralized governance and participation from a wide range of contributors.

Major Milestones Ahead

Migration to Proof-of-Stake & Token Launch

The Espresso Foundation will oversee the Espresso Network’s upgrade to proof-of-stake, a long-awaited milestone that will see the network become fully permissionless with network participation determined by token staking.

A primary goal of the Espresso Foundation is to maximize the decentralization of the Espresso Network, eventually scaling to thousands of participating nodes.

Proof-of-stake will go live on Espresso’s long-running testnet, Decaf, on or around April 15, 2025. Once this release has demonstrated sufficient stability, the upgrade will go live on Espresso Mainnet. This upgrade will coincide with the launch of the token ($ESP) native to the Espresso Network, which will play a critical role in securing the network.

Please note there is currently no token associated with Espresso and any further communications about this will come through official Foundation channels. Please be aware of potential scams.

$100K Espresso Hackathon

To kickstart developer engagement, we’re launching the first Espresso hackathon: Build & Brew. Registrations are open today, and the hackathon is scheduled to begin March 10, 2025.

We envision a world of thousands of chains that can all compose with each other as if they are one. Each chain will have its own customized stack, its own set of applications, its own culture and personality—and they will be united by the strength and speed of Espresso’s confirmations. The bridges and interop protocols you already use will be fueled by Espresso and a new world of “caffeinated” cross-chain applications will emerge.

We have taken the first steps on this journey, welcoming RARI Chain—a creator platform centered around NFTs—as the initial chain fuelled by Espresso. We are excited to support deployments of more chains including Apechain, Henez, and Plume over the coming weeks.

The Foundation has a goal of supercharging this process by going direct to developers. We are proud to share that we have revamped our user guides and developer documentation and we are launching the first of a series of hackathons to get chains and cross-chain apps live on Espresso.

Whether you are already building a chain or application, tinkering with cross-chain experiences, or if you are brand new to crypto, we invite you to get your chain and application powered by Espresso confirmations.

Eligible submissions will share $100K in prize money from the Foundation.

Register today, start exploring our documentation, and follow along for updates on X at @espressoFNDN.

Global Builder Initiative

The Espresso Foundation will also spearhead a regional builder program to provide on-the-ground support and resources to builders in the broader Espresso community, starting in key focus regions like Southeast Asia and Latin America.

These regions have long been leaders in crypto in terms of entrepreneurship, development, research, and adoption and we are thrilled to become active participants in these thriving environments. Composability is about anyone from anywhere being able to build off of the contributions others have made before.

A key goal of the Espresso Foundation is to make the Espresso Network a truly global standard. If we are to achieve this among all chains, then we must do this among all regions.

The Espresso Foundation plans to host local initiatives in these regions to support builders with technical, strategic, marketing, and financial resources. Each region will have a dedicated lead, and the Foundation will commit resources to promising projects in these regions.

Network Expansion

Espresso has always been a collaborative project, with major contributions not just from Espresso Systems, but a wider community of players building in Ethereum and beyond. The Espresso Foundation will be continuing the growth and diversification of actors building Espresso.

Several teams have already contributed to Espresso’s core technology, including:

• Cartesi, a Linux-based altVM that has built its own custom Espresso integration for appchains in its community

• Caldera, a rollup-as-a-service provider that deployed several test rollups on Espresso testnets beginning in 2023 and was integral in RARI Chain’s recent integration with the Espresso Network

• AltLayer, a rollup-as-a-service provider that deployed several test rollups on Espresso testnets since February 2024

• Offchain Labs, core contributors to the Arbitrum and Ethereum technologies and key collaborators in supporting Espresso’s Arbitrum Orbit integration

• Automata, which developed the open-source code running in the TEEs used in Espresso’s Nitro integration

• We3, the team of designers who developed the Espresso Network’s distinctive brand

23 node operators have also been critical to the Espresso Network’s progressive decentralization, running consensus and providing fast, secure confirmations to chains and apps, while being geographically distributed across 6 continents: 01node, Blockdaemon, BlockPI, Chorus One, deNodes, Figment, Finoa Consensus Services (FCS), Imperator.co, Informal Systems, Kiln, KudasaiJP, LinkPool, Luganodes, Nethermind, Node Guardians, P2P.org, Pier Two, Staked (Kraken), Sub7 Security, Treasure, Unit 410, Validation Cloud, and ZKValidator.

As part of our effort to further decentralize development, the Foundation welcomes Distributed Lab as a contributor working on enablement of an Espresso-Arbitrum Nitro integration within an AWS Nitro enclave. When complete, this work will be released as an open-source contribution.

As we get off the ground, the Foundation looks forward to running more open processes for people and projects to become contributors to Espresso.

Espresso Incubator Fund

The Foundation also plans to launch the Espresso Incubator, an early-stage fund that will make seed investments starting at $10,000–$100,000 in promising projects that leverage Espresso’s fast, reliable confirmations to enable greater levels of cross-chain composability, starting with the highest quality participants in our Build & Brew Hackathon.

Our goal is to accelerate innovation and support builders as they scale their ideas into production-ready solutions.

Get Involved

Developers have several options to stay connected and learn more:

• Discord – The primary hub for technical discussions

• Community calls – Regular sessions to engage with the Espresso team and community of contributors

• Newsletter – Sign up for key updates on grants, governance, and development

• Register for the Build & Brew Hackathon

• Follow the Espresso Foundation on X

This is just the beginning. The Espresso Foundation is committed to building a sustainable, decentralized future — and we’re excited to take this next step together.

More details coming soon.

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References to the Foundation in this announcement shall be deemed to be references to the Foundation acting directly or indirectly through one or more of its affiliates.