zkSync: Ethereum Scalability With Zero Security Compromises

What is zkSync: Ethereum Scalability With Zero Security Compromises

zkSync is one of several solutions launched to solve the problem of scalability and transaction fees on the Ethereum network.

Zksync Scaling and cost reduction on the Ethereum (ETH) network has become the focus of most solutions today. There are currently 4 typical solutions for scaling the Ethereum network including Sidechain, Plasma, Rollup or State channel. While Optimistic rollup hasn’t proved much since the mainnet and Sidechain as well as Plasma are still suffering from some security flaws, expectations are now placed on zk-Rollup solutions.

And it is a solution that attracts a lot of attention from big names in the market such as Binance, Ethereum Foundation, Coinbase… So what is so special about zkSync that makes it stand out and be rated as a A formidable competitor among the many current Layer 2 solutions? Let’s find out more through the article below.

OVERVIEW OF zkSync

What is zkSync?

zkSync is a trustless protocol from Matter Labs that’s powered by ZK-Rollup technology. As a Layer 2 scaling solution that’s already live on the Ethereum mainnet, protocol offers low gas fees and fast transactions while maintaining high security by making use of zero-knowledge proofs.

zkSync handles transactions at Layer 3

zkSync uses zk Rollup technology. It helps with problems on the Ethereum network by having all necessary computations done off-chain and most of the data also stored off-chain. Since all transactions are validated on the Ethereum main chain, users enjoy the same level of security as in Ethereum. Thus, with what is available, zkSync operates at Layer 3 (HyperChain) with unlimited scalability when mature.

What problem does zkSync solve?

As CryptoChill said, in addition to helping to optimize gas fees and transaction speeds on the Ethereum network, the zkSync protocol is designed to solve a number of other problems such as:

Stakeholder minimization: Top priority crypto wallets like Argent or Dharma are purpose-built to provide an alternative to banking for the entire society. And it is a tool that makes this task possible.

Diversify the experience on Ethereum: The rise of DeFi opens up more interesting use cases and zkSync will make a significant contribution to the user experience.

What is the transaction cost in zkSync?

In zkSync, the cost of each transaction consists of two components:

The off-chain part: Is the cost of storing state and generating SNARK (Zero Knowledge Proof). Since this part depends on hardware resource usage, it cannot be changed. In other words, every transaction pays the same amount for this part. According to zkSync estimates, it will cost about 0.001 USD per transfer.
On-chain part: For each zkSync block, validators must pay Ethereum gas to verify SNARK, plus approximately the amount of gas per transaction to publish ∆ status. Unlike the off-chain part, the on-chain part is a variable and it depends on the current gas price in the Ethereum network. However, as BeInCrypto said above, this gas fee is a lot cheaper than the usual ETH/ERC-20 transfer cost.

What’s special about zkSync?

The reason why the zkSync solution has received a lot of attention in the community can come from some of the following typical features:

Mainnet level security without 3rd party dependencies.
Transfer ETH and ERC-20 tokens to L1 with instant confirmation and a time limit of no more than 10 minutes.
Extremely low transaction fees (approximately 1/100 of the mainnet cost for ERC-20 and 1/130 for ETH).
No registration required to receive money.
Payment for existing Ethereum addresses (including smart contracts)
Fees are conveniently payable when tokens are transferred.
Withdraw to mainnet in just 10 minutes.
EVM permissionless compatible smart contract.
Multisig support.

What advantages does zkSync bring?

Affordable Transaction Fees

Since transactions are bundled up, users share the gas cost among themselves. If enough users band together, this allows gas fees to amount to just a few cents.

Secured and Decentralized

Despite being decentralized, zkSync maintains mainnet-level security, since the validity proof is stored on Layer 1 without any reliance on third parties. This allows increased scalability while maintaining decentralization.

Fast Withdrawals

ZK-Rollup technology allows for swift withdrawal times because they use validity proof to authenticate transaction data and don’t require a challenge period. With zkSync, users can expect withdrawals in about 10 minutes.

Trustless Transactions

Thanks to on-chain data and zkSync’s unique cryptography, it’s the only Layer 2 scaling solution that doesn’t require any operational activity to keep funds safe. Even if ZK-Rollup validators are gone, any user can go offline for an extended period and return to safely withdraw assets without any external help.

Team, investors, partners

Team: zkSync is a project of Matter Labs and went public in the summer of 2020. Matter Labs was founded in late 2019 by Alexandr Vlasov and Alex Gluchowski. In which, Alex Gluchowski is known as a software engineer with many years of industry experience. Before that, he worked as CTO for several technology companies, notably a company specializing in Ethereum R&D before starting to focus on zkSync.
Investors: project also receives a lot of attention from large investors as well as successfully raising capital in the market. Some prominent investors such as Binance, Coinbase Ventures, Balancer, Aave, Curve, a16z, Blockchain.com, Crypto.com, Bybit, Consensys, OKEx, Covalent… Most recently, in January 2022, zkSync received $200 million investment from BitDAO to build the zkSync ecosystem.

Partners: Because of its access to many parts of the blockchain market, zkSync is currently cooperating with many big names in this field. Some of them can be mentioned as Houbi Ventures, Chanlink, nansen, Rarible, CoinGecko…

Roadmap

Roadmap of zkSync is divided into 4 stages as follows:

Phase 1: the launch of zkSync 1.0 in June 2020. This phase is now complete
Phase 2: zkSync 2.0 with a host of new features designed and developed. This phase has now been launched by Matter Labs to mainnet 2.0 on October 28, 2022.
Phase 3 will be to focus on privacy and unlock some of the special features of zk Rollup.
Phase 4 is expected to focus on decentralization and anti-censorship. That is, zkSync will aim to be a decentralized and censorship-free project by completely removing the control of Matter Labs. Instead, these rights will be given to the community.

ZKSYNC ECOSYSTEM

At the time of writing this article, the zkSync ecosystem has also accumulated many projects in many different fields such as wallets (zkSync wallet, Numio, imToken), DeFi, games, DAO (OlympusDAO, Aragon… ), NFT (zkAnimals, Taker protocol…)… Readers can read more about projects in the zkSync ecosystem here.

Some projects in the zkSync ecosystem

The Future of zkSync

By significantly reducing gas costs without sacrificing security or user control, zkSync seems like the best choice when it comes to Layer 2 Ethereum scaling solutions. With zkSync 2.0 in the pipeline alongside other future upgrades, the sky’s certainly the limit when it comes to achieving Matter Labs’ mission of VISA-scale throughput of thousands of transactions per second. The team aims to attain this without compromising on the underlying security of Layer 1 accounts.

When it comes to decentralization goals, zkSync is currently fully noncustodial with zero trust assumptions. This means zkSync validators have no power to interact with users’ assets without explicit authorization. As the team is committed to developing zkSync into a fully decentralized protocol, current users are likely ahead of the curve, as Matter Labs has yet to introduce validators and guardians into the mix.

Closing thoughts

By focusing on becoming the de facto Layer 2 solution for Ethereum, zkSync certainly has plenty of potential to achieve its grand mission of successfully addressing scaling issues, while maintaining mainnet levels of security, the privacy of its users, and full decentralization as a platform.

zkSync seems to not only overcome the weaknesses of the zkRollup, but also create many breakthrough solutions to compete. CryptoChill hopefully in the future we will see the widespread application of zkSync in this area.

zkSync information channels:

Website: https://zksync.io

Twitter: https://twitter.com/zksync

Medium: https://medium.com/matter-labs

Discord: https://join.zksync.dev