Walnut Receives Grant from Optimism Foundation to Improve Debugging on the Superchain

We're excited to announce that Walnut has received a grant from the Optimism Foundation to develop Walnut Lite, a fully open-source solution for transaction simulations and debugging on the OP Stack and the Superchain. Walnut Lite is designed to give Solidty developers a local, lightweight and customisable debugging experience for their Smart Contract Applications.

The Problem

Building smart contract applications requires tools that help developers debug and simulate transactions. Currently, all available solutions are commercial, creating high costs and barriers for developers.

This challenge is even greater for developers working on smaller or niche appchains, as these often aren’t supported by commercial tools at all. This leaves developers on unsupported appchains without any options for testing and debugging.

Walnut Lite will solve this by offering a free, open-source tool that works with all appchains on the Superchain. Since it doesn’t rely on any centralized server and runs fully locally, developers can simply connect Walnut Lite to a custom RPC and start simulating and debugging their transactions. This lowers the barrier to development on the Superchain, making essential tools available to both new and experienced developers.

The Opportunity

Walnut Lite is designed to support Solidity developers building in the emerging Ethereum appchain ecosystem, starting with the Superchain.

As a fully open-source application, Walnut Lite is customizable and can run locally in any environment. By connecting Walnut Lite to a custom RPC node (initially supporting Superchain nodes), developers can simulate and debug transactions without relying on centralized services.

Walnut Lite offers:

• Free, Local Simulation and Debugging: Walnut Lite operates entirely locally, with no subscription fees, making it free to use.
• Customizability and Extensibility: As an open-source tool, Walnut Lite allows developers to fork and customize it for their specific needs. They can also build additional tools on top of Walnut’s debugging engine or integrate it into existing applications, like blockchain explorers or IDE extensions.
• Compatibility with Any Rollup or Appchain: Developers can connect Walnut Lite to any RPC (starting with Superchain nodes), enabling it to work with any appchain, including local nodes. This is a game-changer for developers working on smaller appchains, who previously had no dedicated debugging or simulation solutions.

Walnut Lite is set to become an essential asset for developers seeking a more efficient development experience on the Superchain. It aligns with our mission to make blockchain development faster and more secure.

Looking Ahead

We’re excited to bring Walnut Lite to the Superchain community and look forward to expanding its impact across the broader Ethereum ecosystem in the future. Join us as we reshape the landscape of smart contract development with tools designed by developers, for developers.