Sovereign Rollup
A rollup that posts its transaction data to a base layer for availability, but handles its own settlement and dispute resolution independently.
A sovereign rollup posts its transaction data to an underlying base layer specifically for data availability (see Kaavon's "Data Availability" glossary definition), but handles its own settlement, execution rules, and dispute resolution independently, rather than relying on the base layer's own smart contracts to enforce them.
This is a structurally different design from a traditional rollup (see Kaavon's "Rollup" glossary definition), which generally relies on base-layer smart contracts for settlement and verification — a sovereign rollup instead behaves more like its own independent blockchain that simply borrows the base layer's data availability guarantees.
Examples
- A sovereign rollup borrows a base layer's data availability guarantees while handling its own settlement rules independently, unlike a traditional rollup's reliance on base-layer contracts.
- A sovereign rollup behaves more like its own independent blockchain than a traditional rollup does, despite still posting data to a shared base layer.