Detailed explanation of zkSync: Why is ZK technology the endgame of Layer 2?

php editor Xiaoxin will take you to have an in-depth understanding of zkSync and discuss why ZK technology is regarded as the ultimate solution for Layer 2. As the scale of cryptocurrency transactions grows, traditional Layer 1 solutions face many challenges, and the emergence of ZK technology brings new possibilities to Layer 2. This article will explain in detail the operating principle, advantages and characteristics of zkSync and its future development prospects to help readers better understand the significance of this cutting-edge technology.

Recently, after the Starknet super airdrop came to an end, almost the entire world’s attention fell on @zksync. As half of ZK-Rollup, zkSync still dominates all data indicators, and it is reasonable for the market to have high expectations for zkSync.

However, zkSync did not express its airdrop plan, but mentioned ZK is the Endgame many times. Is ZK technology really the endgame for layer 2? Next, let me talk about my opinion:

In the past year or two, the technical dispute between OP-Rollup and ZK-Rollup has attracted much attention. It is generally believed that the advantage of ZK-Rollup is that it does not require 7 days of challenge. This is because ZK technology can quickly convert transaction status between layer2 and the main network and ensure the validity of each transaction, while OP-Rollup can only be based on optimistic assumptions about layer2 submitted transactions while leaving a 7-day challenge This is to ensure that layer 2 transactions will not be maliciously attacked.

In fact, layer2 users are more sensitive to the instant conversion feature of transaction status only in Withdraw withdrawal scenarios. Most common interactions such as Swap and Transfer are often completed within layer2, and only part of the transaction data is combined with The status update is submitted to the mainnet for final recording and finalization, and user perception of the 7-day challenge period is bound to be weak.

Over time, the OP-Rollup camp has become lax on key safety mechanisms during the 7-day challenge period, and there are few Battle-Tested 7-day challenge cases.

Perhaps for some OP project parties, as long as they can effectively operate market and ecological data, they may temporarily ignore issues related to "decentralization" and "7-day challenge". In contrast, ZK's advantages in security mechanisms are inherent.

In my opinion, I think OP-Rollup has no problem in promoting strategies such as OP Stack, but it must be ensured to be synchronized with the implementation of the 7-day speed-up challenge plan. Otherwise, under the incentive of OP-Stack's one-click link posting, the more Sequencer nodes in layer 2 submit subjects, the more likely it is to use the 7-day challenge to challenge potential security issues for malicious behavior. Therefore, we need to strengthen security measures while promoting innovative development to ensure the stability and security of the system.

2) The technical performance of zkSync has been very good after the boojum upgrade. The upgrade from SNARK to STARK proof form is one aspect. The key is that the gas fee is indeed as expected. The larger the number of users, the cheaper the gas. ZK vision.

According to Growthpie data, zkSync’s Gas has remained at a lower level among the four kings of layer2 in the past two months. The average gas consumption per transaction has been controlled at around $0.12, which is already better than Arbitrum and Optimism. At that time, during the Inscription stress test phase, when the gas fees of other platforms increased to varying degrees with the influx of huge amounts of transaction traffic, only zkSync TPS set a new high, and the gas fees also declined.

In addition, after the Cancun upgrade Blob block is put into use, the advantage of zkSync’s low gas fee will be further locked in. The reason is simple:

1. The cost structure of OP-Rollup is almost entirely based on the cost of data storage and verification submitted to the main network. Although Blob blocks will increase the amount of data storage and thereby reduce Gas costs, Blob The use of plug-in data packages is also market-oriented. It is foreseeable that many layer2 project parties will increase the total gas price in order to seize the priority right to use Blobs, thereby reducing the expectation of evenly sharing gas fees;

2, ZK- Rollup will also increase the total Gas consumption by snatching Blob blocks. However, ZK does not need to store all Raw Data on the main network. The newly released storage space will store a larger amount of compressed SNARK proofs, which will further increase the cost. ZK layer 2 delivers TPS to the main network, thus making the evenly amortized Gas fee lower than OP.

Although the ZK off-chain Prover system also has certain cost factors, with the continuous algorithm optimization and hardware acceleration of general-purpose lightweight solutions such as @RiscZero @ProjectZKM, this cost is also continuing to decrease.

Obviously, whether it is the possibility of data compression and ZK hardware acceleration, ZK series projects have more initiative in cost control, while OP series projects rely more on the DA data characteristics of the main network, making It is not as imaginative as ZK in terms of gas fee reduction expectations.

3) zkSync official continues to work closely with NFT communities such as @pudgypenguins @apecoin @moonbirds. In the official push and Space live broadcast room, you can hear a lot about Account Abstraction, Paymaster paying Gas, Onboard New Users incremental market, Gaming games, user experience UX and other keywords.

It can be seen that zkSync officials are actually intentionally guiding the market to view ZK from a long-term perspective, which also reflects zkSync’s values ​​in building a layer2 comprehensive chain: continuing to bring incremental markets and users to the main network .

Recently, many friends have discussed the potential impact of PayMaster. In my opinion, Account Abstraction has always been the key technology underlying zkSync. Based on Paymaster Function, the project side can directly subsidize gas to users, which means that it is possible in the future. A large number of ZK ecological projects will start a Gas subsidy war based on Paymaster, which will stimulate and attract more high-quality ecological projects. It will also bring a spurt of development opportunities to projects in the zkSync ecosystem during the involution.

The slow development of the ZK system ecosystem has been criticized. This is due to the high technical threshold of ZK circuit circuits, the cognitive gap existing in ZK data structure and algorithm optimization, etc., which has led to a relatively poor ZK-related application experience. Starknet’s big move to move out of Tokenomics is to accelerate the solution of this problem through market-based incentive mechanisms.

According to L2beat data, after the STRK airdrop, Starknet’s TVL quickly sprinted from more than 10 ranks to fourth place, and the total TVL increased 6 times to 1.3 billion US dollars. The value and significance of Tokenomics is immediate. The fundamentals are similar to Starknet. If zkSync also comes up with the trump card of Tokenomics, and the project parties that are officially encouraged to engage in a round of gas subsidy war based on Paymaster, the prosperity of the ZK ecosystem can be imagined.

4) The layer3 Hyperchain launched by zkSync and the Superchain strongly supported by Optimism are both a long-term strategy used by the layer2 project team to enhance their own brand structure through the Stack strategy.

Currently SuperChain is focusing on the layer2 strategic alliance, with the goal of building many new layer2 projects based on the open source framework of OP Stack technology, and ultimately realizing the superchain architecture by sharing the Sequencer component.

In comparison, Hyperchain is more flexible and can advance layer 2 and layer 3 at the same time. It uses the layer 2 strategy to expand allies that have a large demand for the Prover system, and then uses the upper layer 3 application chain to seize high-frequency applications such as games. market.

The application chain market is very important to ZK technology. The high TPS, low gas fee and interactive experience of ZK series layer 2 are all determined by the native characteristics of the technology. ZK may not be dominant in pure financial DeFi applications, but If you look at a broader market that is highly scalable, has the ultimate UX experience, and is oriented to game applications, ZK-Rollup has a lot of room for imagination.

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