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Rollup & Appchain Development

In short

Modern rollup frameworks give you a chain that boots; rollup development is the work of making it usable. We customize the stack (OP Stack, Orbit, CDK, zkSync), wire the DA layer and bridges, and build the full infrastructure and application layer, explorer, oracles, indexing, RPC, Safe, and the first DEX, so builders and liquidity arrive to a working network.

60+
networks we have deployed infrastructure on
$2B+
secured across our Safe deployments
Top-3
indexer in The Graph
Core
Chainlink contributor
Trusted by teams building on-chain

Launching a rollup or appchain is no longer about writing an execution client from scratch. Rollup frameworks, OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, and the zkSync stack, give you the sequencer, the settlement and bridging contracts, and a proving or fraud-proof system out of the box, and rollup-as-a-service providers will host the base node for you.

The hard part has moved: a chain that produces blocks still lacks everything builders and users need to do anything on it. Rollup development is the work of turning a fresh stack into a network where builders and users can actually do something, which means customizing the stack to your needs and building the whole infrastructure and application layer around it.

Protofire is the team that brings up that layer. We deploy and customize the rollup stack, choose and wire the data-availability layer (Ethereum, Celestia, or EigenDA), and connect the bridges, then we stand up everything a chain needs to attract developers and liquidity: a block explorer, an oracle layer, data indexing, RPC endpoints, Safe smart-account infrastructure, and often the first DEX.

We have done this across a long list of new networks and rollups, deploying Safe, Blockscout explorers, and oracle stacks chain by chain, so a network launches to working infrastructure rather than an empty execution environment.

A usable rollup is a stack plus everything around it

The framework gives you a chain; we build the layer that makes it usable.

01

Rollup stack

Deploy and customize OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, or the zkSync stack to your requirements.
02

Data availability

Choose and wire Ethereum, Celestia, or EigenDA for the cost and security profile you need.
03

Core infrastructure

Block explorer, RPC endpoints, node operations, and monitoring, operated under SLA.
04

Data & oracles

Subgraph and custom indexing plus an oracle layer (price feeds, VRF) so financial apps can launch.
05

Apps & accounts

Safe smart-account infrastructure, a first DEX, and bridges so builders and liquidity have somewhere to land.
01

What is rollup development?

The first decisions shape everything after them: which framework (OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, or zkSync), whether you want a general-purpose rollup or an app-specific chain, and which data-availability layer to post to. DA is the biggest cost and security lever, posting to Ethereum is the most secure and the most expensive, while Celestia or EigenDA cut costs at a different trust profile, so the choice depends on what your chain is for.

We help make these decisions against your actual requirements rather than by default, then deploy and customize the stack: gas token, block parameters, precompiles, bridge configuration, and any custom execution behavior your chain needs.

02

What we deliver

OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, or zkSync stack deployment, configured to your gas token, DA layer, bridge setup, and any custom execution behavior, on testnet and mainnet, with the upgrade and operations plan to run it.

03

Who is rollup development for?

Teams launching a general-purpose L2 or L3 who have chosen a framework but need the surrounding infrastructure and application layer built and operated, rather than assembling a dozen vendors themselves. App-specific chain (appchain) projects that want a chain tuned to one product, custom gas token, execution behavior, and DA profile, with only the infrastructure that product needs. Established protocols moving to their own chain who need the migration and the full stack to be handled by a team that has done it before. Rollup-as-a-service users who have the base node hosted but still need the explorer, oracles, indexing, Safe, and apps that a RaaS does not provide. The common requirement is that you want a chain that is usable at launch, not just one that produces blocks, and you would rather have the surrounding layer built by a team that has shipped it many times than assemble and operate a dozen integrations yourself.

04

We have brought up the layer that makes chains usable

Protofire is a blockchain development company with 250+ shipped projects across 60+ networks and 95+ protocols since 2016. Standing up new chains is core ground for us: we deploy and customize Blockscout explorers across EVM chains and rollups, we deploy Safe smart-account infrastructure across networks (Protofire-deployed networks secure $2B+ across 120+ EVM networks), we are a core contributor to the Chainlink ecosystem and have deployed full oracle stacks for new chains such as Somnia (a complete oracle layer in 92 days), Kadena, and Midnight, and we run a top-3 indexer in The Graph.

We also maintain Solhint, the Solidity linter used by 1M+ developers. When a new rollup needs the explorer, oracles, indexing, accounts, and first apps that make it usable, those are the exact integrations we have already shipped, network after network.

“A rollup framework gives you a sequencer and bridge contracts. It does not give you the explorer, oracles, indexing, and first apps a builder needs before they will ship on your chain. That layer is what we build.”

FAQ

What does rollup development involve beyond deploying a stack?
Deploying the stack is the beginning, not the end. A framework like OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, or zkSync gives you a chain that produces blocks, but a usable network also needs a block explorer, RPC endpoints and node operations, data indexing so applications can query activity, an oracle layer for price feeds and randomness, Safe smart-account infrastructure, cross-chain bridges so assets can arrive, and often a first DEX so there is somewhere to trade. Each of those is a separate integration that has to be configured for your chain and working at launch. Rollup development is the work of customizing the stack and building that whole surrounding layer, so builders evaluating your chain find the tools they expect already running rather than a bare execution environment.
Which rollup framework should I use, OP Stack, Arbitrum Orbit, Polygon CDK, or zkSync?
It depends on what your chain is for, and we recommend the fit rather than defaulting to one. OP Stack has a large, well-supported ecosystem and the Superchain interoperability roadmap. Arbitrum Orbit builds on the most battle-tested fraud-proof stack and its Nitro technology. Polygon CDK targets ZK rollups with shared liquidity through the AggLayer. The zkSync stack (ZK Stack) is built around native account abstraction and ZK proofs. The choice turns on whether you want optimistic or ZK proofs, how important a specific ecosystem's interoperability and shared liquidity are to you, whether you need an app-specific chain or a general-purpose one, and your data-availability cost and security targets. We assess those against your product and pick the framework, and the DA layer, that actually fit, then deploy and customize it.
Can you build an app-specific chain (appchain)?
Yes. An appchain is a rollup tuned to a single application rather than a general-purpose network: a custom gas token, execution behavior specific to the product, a chosen DA layer for the right cost profile, and only the infrastructure that product actually needs. We deploy and customize the stack for that shape, then build the focused infrastructure and application layer around it. Appchains make sense when a product needs control over its own block space, fee model, or execution that a shared chain cannot give, and when the team is prepared to own a chain rather than just deploy a contract. We help judge whether an appchain is the right call before building one, since for many products a rollup or even an existing L2 is the simpler answer.
What is a data-availability layer and how do I choose one?
Data availability is where a rollup publishes its transaction data so anyone can reconstruct and verify the chain's state. It is the single biggest lever on a rollup's cost and security. Posting data to Ethereum is the most secure option because the data inherits Ethereum's guarantees, but it is also the most expensive. Alternative DA layers such as Celestia and EigenDA publish the data more cheaply at a different trust profile, which can cut a rollup's operating cost substantially at the price of a weaker data-availability guarantee than Ethereum. The right choice depends on what your chain secures: a high-value financial chain may want Ethereum DA, while a high-throughput consumer chain may accept an alternative to keep fees low. We wire whichever DA layer fits and design the trade-off deliberately.
Do you operate the chain after launch?
Yes. We run the infrastructure layer, explorer, RPC, node operations, indexing, and oracle feeds, under SLA after launch, so the chain stays healthy without your team standing up an operations function from scratch. That includes monitoring, upgrades as the underlying stack releases new versions, and incident response for the services we operate. Because the same team that deployed the stack and built the surrounding layer also runs it, there is no handoff gap where something breaks and no one owns it. You can also take operations in-house over time, in which case we build the tooling and documentation to hand it over cleanly rather than keeping you dependent.

Reviewed by Luis Medeiros, Field CTO at Protofire. Last reviewed: July 2026.

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