Rickrolling the Blockchain: Cartesi, Espresso and Vienna OP Rollup

Hey all,

I wanted to share something quite funny that recently happened in the ethereum development community.

Espresso Systems recently had an incident where Cartesi transmitted a 17MB video through the Espresso Sequencer. This was supposed to be a straightforward process, isolated to the Cartesi rollup. However, things didn't go as planned.

Due to a specific design quirk, the large size of this transaction caused the Vienna OP rollup to stall. And here's the twist – the video was Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Yes, they essentially got rickrolled in a most unexpected way.

This incident, while funny, actually highlights some technical complexities. It wasn't a problem with HotShot consensus or Caldera's deployment but rather an issue with one part of the interface between the sequencer and the rollup. This is something they're already looking to upgrade.

It shows the challenges in managing shared sequencers like Espresso, which handle transactions for multiple rollups in the same block. In this case, the design involving rollup VMs processing transactions not relevant to them led to the stall – a design they're planning to change.

Both Cartesi and Caldera have been quite ambitious with their integrations on the Cortado testnet, and this incident has been a real test of their systems. Espresso Systems are very committed to stability and improvements as they move towards launching their mainnet.

I thought this was an interesting mix of blockchain technology meeting a bit of internet meme culture. And is also a great testament to the collaborative aspect of all these teams, which had great interactions.

Some interesting links to hear more about this integration/episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTp8SEYk6uw
https://twitter.com/EspressoSys/status/1712209434649239693

And if you want to connect and chat, I'm trying to be more active on twitter:
https://twitter.com/felipeargento