QuarkChain Pivots to Ethereum Layer 2 With ‘Super World Computer’ AI Focus

QuarkChain (QKC) is repositioning itself as an Ethereum (ETH) Layer 2 focused on what it calls a ‘Super World Computer’—a full-stack infrastructure designed to support AI and data-intensive decentralized applications, rather than chasing raw transaction speed alone.

The pivot reflects a broader shift in blockchain scaling debates. While each market cycle tends to revive the same slogans—more TPS, cheaper fees, faster blocks—QuarkChain argues that real-world adoption is constrained by a wider set of bottlenecks spanning user onboarding, computation, storage, access, and verification.

In an interview conducted as part of TokenPost’s ongoing coverage of locally listed projects in South Korea, the QuarkChain team said the industry’s core problem is not a single performance choke point, but an end-to-end systems gap that prevents decentralized apps from operating at production scale.

Five bottlenecks, one architecture

QuarkChain’s roadmap targets five constraints it believes must be addressed simultaneously for mainstream-quality applications to function on-chain.

First is adoption: users often need to acquire gas tokens before they can even interact with an app. QuarkChain says its ‘Soul Gas Tokens’ are intended to reduce that friction, aiming to make onboarding feel less like opening a trading account and more like launching a product.

Second is computation: the Ethereum Virtual Machine remains the dominant execution environment, but its largely sequential execution model can create throughput limits. QuarkChain is pursuing parallel execution alongside ‘Block-Level Access Lists’ (BAL), a mechanism it says can help identify which parts of state can be processed concurrently without conflict.

Third is storage: AI and data-heavy applications require far more persistent data than typical token transfers or NFT minting. QuarkChain is promoting EthStorage—positioned as a Layer 3 storage solution—designed for large-scale, low-cost, ‘programmable’ storage that applications can query and use natively.

Fourth is access: many dApps keep their smart contracts on-chain but still rely on centralized infrastructure for their front ends—DNS, cloud hosting, and standard web servers—introducing censorship and availability risks. To address this, QuarkChain is building around the ‘web3://’ access model, aiming to reduce dependence on centralized gateways.

Fifth is verification and security: performance improvements only matter if results can be proven efficiently. QuarkChain says it is developing advanced fault-proof systems and faster verification using zkVM-based approaches to reduce the cost of validating high-throughput execution.

Industry observers often describe Layer 2 competition as a race to compress fees and increase throughput. QuarkChain is attempting to differentiate by treating scaling as a ‘whole-stack’ problem—an approach that is arguably more aligned with how mainstream applications fail in practice, where a single weak link can cap the overall system.

From a 2018 sharding L1 to an Ethereum-aligned L2

QuarkChain began in 2018 as a sharding-based scalability project—an era when many teams positioned themselves as potential alternatives to Ethereum. Over time, the team said, it concluded that higher throughput alone did not translate into adoption. Even as base performance improved, user onboarding complexity, execution constraints, storage costs, access fragility, and verification overhead remained barriers.

That reassessment led QuarkChain to move away from competing as a standalone Layer 1 and instead align with Ethereum as a Layer 2—prioritizing Ethereum’s security model and liquidity network effects over the prestige of operating an independent base chain.

Performance claims: 10+ GigaGas/s EVM execution

Among its notable technical milestones from the past year, QuarkChain highlighted EVM execution performance. The team said it demonstrated 10+ GigaGas per second (GGas/s) throughput using BAL and parallel execution, reaching peak results of roughly 14 GGas/s on general-purpose hardware.

QuarkChain also described follow-up work to reduce BAL overhead while preserving performance, claiming it could use about 33% of the original BAL size while retaining around 78% of the throughput. The research was presented at EthCC 2026 in Cannes, where QuarkChain’s Qi Zhou appeared as a main-stage speaker, according to the team.

The emphasis on EVM optimization is strategic. New virtual machines can deliver performance gains, but the EVM has deep moat advantages: developer tooling, auditor familiarity, battle-tested patterns, and existing liquidity. QuarkChain’s bet is that ‘EVM compatibility’ remains a practical requirement for adoption, making parallelization a more market-friendly path than a clean-slate VM.

EthStorage and the economics of data-heavy applications

QuarkChain’s storage thesis is rooted in a long-standing constraint: on-chain storage is typically more expensive and harder to scale than computation. For AI workloads, data availability, integrity, and retrieval performance can matter as much as execution speed.

Beyond EthStorage itself, the team pointed to research on key-value (KV) storage behavior in blockchain systems. It said real-world storage systems can behave closer to O(1) disk I/O rather than the commonly assumed O(log N), potentially changing how developers model performance at scale. The team referenced an EthResearch post titled Demystifying Blockchain KV Lookups: From O(log N) to O(1) Disk I/O.

For the market, the subtext is clear: if AI and data-centric apps are to be credibly on-chain, storage must become cheaper and more accessible. High-speed execution without scalable data infrastructure risks producing blockchains that are fast but impractical for next-generation workloads.

‘web3://’ and reducing front-end centralization

QuarkChain is also pushing the idea that decentralization is incomplete if users still rely on centralized websites to reach on-chain functions. If DNS is blocked, a server goes down, or a front end is censored, the smart contract may remain operational while the application becomes effectively unreachable.

The team described ‘web3://’ as a protocol intended to enable on-chain front ends without reliance on traditional DNS and centralized hosting. It said it was a co-proposer of ERC-4804, also known as the Web3 Access Protocol, and noted ecosystem support that has included platforms such as OpenSea.

Ethereum standards contributions as a positioning signal

QuarkChain framed part of its work as ecosystem-level contribution rather than isolated product building. The team said it has contributed to several Ethereum Improvement Proposals, including EIP-7907, EIP-7923, EIP-7928, EIP-4804, and EIP-7650—covering areas such as contract size flexibility, EVM memory optimization, BAL-related concepts, web3 access standards, and programmable access lists.

In practice, EIP participation can be a meaningful credibility marker. Standards work is slow and often unglamorous, but it can embed a project’s ideas into the broader Ethereum roadmap—an influence that can outlast marketing cycles.

Mainnet is live, but rollout remains staged

QuarkChain said it has already deployed its Ethereum Layer 2 mainnet, but emphasized that the network is still in ‘staged testing.’ According to the team, it progressed through multiple testnet phases—such as Beta, Gamma, and Delta—before moving toward a production-oriented architecture on Ethereum mainnet.

Notably, QuarkChain did not claim major user adoption metrics yet, arguing that early numbers are not meaningful while the rollout remains phased. That restraint stands out in a sector where testnet wallet counts are often used as proxies for real demand.

Target users: developers building AI, finance, and data applications

The team described two core audiences: developers who need high scalability and large-scale storage, and end users who will eventually consume those applications—ideally without needing to understand the underlying infrastructure. In that model, ‘Soul Gas Tokens,’ ‘web3://’ access, and verification systems operate in the background as invisible plumbing.

QuarkChain expects early traction—if it comes—to be concentrated in AI-driven systems, financial infrastructure, and data-intensive applications where throughput, data integrity, and verifiability matter simultaneously.

Full-stack scope is a differentiator—and a risk

QuarkChain’s central claim is differentiation through breadth: rather than optimizing a single feature like block time or fees, it aims to improve adoption, computation, storage, access, and verification as a single integrated product.

That approach can produce a stronger end-to-end experience if the pieces work together seamlessly. But it also expands execution risk. Infrastructure projects that try to solve everything at once can end up delivering partial solutions across many domains without achieving clear product-market fit in any of them. For QuarkChain, the market test will be whether developers can ship real applications that feel materially better on its stack than on competing networks.

South Korea: focus on ecosystem participation, not trading volumes

QuarkChain identified South Korea as a priority market, describing it as one of the world’s most demanding and forward-looking Web3 ecosystems—one that evaluates infrastructure projects on technical merit and community validation, not just token liquidity.

The team said it has expanded local engagement through events such as Korea Blockchain Week, smaller meetups, panel sessions, and developer-focused programming, while strengthening communication channels for Korean users and builders.

QuarkChain (QKC) is already listed on major Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb with KRW trading pairs, the team noted. With exchange access established, it said the focus is shifting toward long-term value creation through infrastructure buildout and ecosystem growth rather than short-term market activity.

Second-half 2026 roadmap: phased expansion and Ethereum-aligned upgrades

Looking ahead, QuarkChain said its key milestone for the second half of 2026 is a broader phased rollout of its ‘Super World Computer’ Layer 2. Plans include expanding developer onboarding and ecosystem integrations while incorporating newer Ethereum-oriented upgrades. The team pointed to parallel execution using BAL, faster zkVM-based verification, and PeerDAS among the technologies it is tracking.

The hardest problem: adoption, not performance

Despite the emphasis on throughput and infrastructure design, QuarkChain said its biggest challenge is not raw performance but real adoption. In the team’s view, the crypto market already has no shortage of high-performance chains; what it lacks are applications compelling enough to justify those capabilities and retain users over time.

QuarkChain’s bet is that the next wave of demand will come from AI and data-heavy applications moving on-chain—and that the winning platforms will be those that can deliver not just speed, but practical usability, scalable storage, resilient access, and affordable verification as one coherent system.

Whether QuarkChain can translate its research, standards work, and modular innovations into an ecosystem of live applications remains the key question. The market, as ever, is likely to judge the project less by the ‘Super World Computer’ label and more by the developers who build on it, the users who stay, and the real workloads that accumulate over time.