Fuse is on the move – to a new testnet for a Layer 2 forever home that is now tantalizingly close

First comes the Ember testnet. Second comes mainnet, where a world of unlimited scalability and lightning-fast transactions awaits.

Fuse is on the move - to a new testnet for a Layer 2 forever home that is now tantalizingly close. First comes the Ember testnet. Second comes mainnet, where a world of unlimited scalability and lightning-fast transactions awaits. But before all that can happen, there’s work to be done on testnet, as Fuse issues a rallying cry to EVM devs looking for fertile soil on which to deploy their next payments app or AI agent solution.

To get the ball rolling, 3.9M in FUSE has been allocated to developers in the form of a Builder Grant Program, and that’s just for starters. While at least three teams will share funding to bring their ideas to life, all projects building on Fuse can expect full support from its core team, which is confident that there are ample incentives for onboarding dapp developers to Ember.

Ember’s grand entrance

For the Fuse faithful, the testnet launch is the culmination of months of anticipation. Gone is the old Layer 1, replaced by a sleek, zkEVM-driven Layer 2 built with Polygon’s Chain Development Kit. This isn’t your average blockchain facelift: Fuse Ember promises giga-fast transactions, near-zero fees, and a privacy-first approach that’s tailor-made for real-world payments. From businesses settling B2B invoices to friends splitting a tab P2P, Ember aims to be the go-to Layer 2 for moving money onchain.

As web3 project teams know only too well, impressive tech alone does not a thriving ecosystem make. There’s also the small matter of users, partners, and developers to onboard - but here Fuse has a significant advantage in that it isn’t going from a cold start. The momentum it’s already built up running as Fuse V1 will port over to V2 on L2.

And the tech, it must be said, sounds like it justifies the upheaval associated with moving to a new L2. With a throughput of 9,000 transactions per second - rivaling traditional payment giants like Visa - and fees so low they’re practically a rounding error, Ember certainly scores highly in the scalability stakes. Stablecoins take center stage here, offering a bridge between crypto volatility and real-world utility.

But Ember’s ambitions go beyond speed and cost. It’s packing features that make developers’ eyes gleam: full EVM compatibility for seamless smart contract deployment, cross-rollup interoperability to play nice with other Layer 2s, and account abstraction to simplify user experiences. Oh, and let’s not forget support for AI agents, cos what’s a modern blockchain without a nod to the future?

Rolling with QuickNode

Fuse isn’t going it alone. They’ve teamed up with QuickNode to leverage its Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS). This should ensure turbo-fast RPCs, rock-solid uptime, and developer-friendly tooling. All of which should keep the Ember testnet ticking over smoothly as devs work out what to build first. They’re not the only ones going to be kicking the tires of Ember however - ordinary users are also invited to take a closer look.

Users can grab free tokens from the faucet and start experimenting: send a transaction, toy with AI agent workflows, or test out account abstraction. As developers roll out the first dapps, the testnet will evolve into a living preview of Ember’s mainnet potential. As for the sort of services that can be expected when Ember evolved into its final form on mainnet, the categories highlighted in the Builder Grant Program provide a clue.

Fuse is seeking projects creating solutions spanning payments, loyalty programs, and stablecoins obviously. But beyond that, it’s interested in yield and lending; gaming and NFTs; exchanges; AI and DePin; and web3 infrastructure and tooling. Whatever Fuse Ember becomes, it appears destined to be much more than just a payment network.