Gas fees skyrocket, can zkSync solve Ethereum’s expansion dilemma?

, Author: Alex Gluchowski, Translation: Edward, reproduced by Odaily with authorization.

What is zkSync?

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expansion

Looking at zkSync from the perspective of competition

3,zkSync v1.1 is a type of zkRollup, which can achieve a peak capacity of up to 3000TPS on the current Ethereum mainnet. While it is unrealistic to expect zkRollup to run at 100% full speed (since rollups share Eth block space with other transactions), even 25% block space utilization is enough to support token distribution and subscriptions for all 500,000,000 Reddit users.

Safety

000 TPS is a start, but we expect the growth of Ethereum users to make Moore's Law work again. To get Ethereum ready for billions of users, Matter Labs proposes an extension to zkSync we call zkPorter. zkPorter will allow the protocol to promote itself as a shard, and its transaction throughput will even exceed 10-100 times that of zkSync.

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Safety

Compared with existing Layer 2 scaling solutions, zkRollup provides unparalleled security. A simple litmus test: Does a protocol X require participants to actively work to keep their assets safe? If the answer is yes, security measures will always fail and funds will be lost.

As far as we know, zkRollup is the only protocol that offers passive security: the availability of data is isolated from user activity, ensuring funds are as secure as the underlying Layer1.

To provide a source of entropy for our zkSync production beta, Matter Labs participated in a trusted setup ceremony for the AZTEC Ignition community. More than 200 people participated, including representatives from the Ethereum Foundation, Consensys, Vitalik, etc. Trusted setup means to our users that if at least one actor honestly participates in the setup procedure (by providing entropy in a common reference string), then the entire network is permanently cryptographically secure. Reddit can be added as a participant to the Ignition setup used by zkSync, providing further security for the Reddit community.

Perfection is fleeting. zkSync will evolve to a setup that does not require trust. That's why researchers at Matter Labs designed and implemented RedShift: a transparent SNARK. Future versions of zkSync will use RedShift, as we expect RedShift performance to match or exceed what is possible on PLONK.

zkSync's protocol, cryptography, and smart contracts have been audited by one of the most reputable security firms in the space. ABDK Consulting (founded by co-author of the Poseidon hash function).

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decentralized

The Layer1 part of zkSync is 100% censorship-resistant: Because data availability is guaranteed at Layer1, no validator can prevent users from withdrawing their funds. Because of this, and because Layer 2 is just getting started, we found it acceptable to follow the path of progressive decentralization when initially rolling out zkSync, with permissioned validators. The right to validate blocks is granted by the zkSync governance smart contract.

availability

Ultimately, the health of the ecosystem depends on a truly decentralized Layer 2 (accept no substitutes!). Since most transactions will end up on Layer 2, failing to decentralize authority to Layer 2 is failing to decentralize Ethereum. Matter Labs is committed to making zkSync highly censorship-resistant on Layer 2. To achieve this, we are building a scalable multi-validator consensus with an independent audit-prevention mechanism.

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availability"zkSync "Usability is where zkSync excels."Using zkSync with an existing wallet couldn't be easier. A zkSync transaction requires a single zkSync private key to sign. For wallet providers, integration with zkSync requires only a few lines of code."The finality of zkSync is closely integrated with the finality of Ethereum - users can wait up to a few minutes to see their transaction settlement (including exit).

Does not rely on liquidity providers to speed up user exits, and users do not have to log in regularly

zkSync natively supports meta transactions: fees can be paid in the same block as they are transferred. In our zkSync v1.1 update, we added the option for third parties to pay transaction fees in any fee. For example, Reddit can pay its users in ETH, DAI, or any ERC20.

Interoperability

zkSync has an intuitive web client and a comprehensive block explorer.

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Interoperability

zkSync works with any web3 enabled wallet such as MetaMask or WalletConnect.

zkSync is interoperable with smart contracts on Layer1.

A great example of how smart contracts can unleash the sheer power of recursive zero-knowledge proofs is voting. A decision involving the votes of millions of community members - voting rights tokenized on zkSync - can be verified by a Layer1 smart contract at a cost of 510,000 Gas!

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New features in zkSync v1.1

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Recursion: up to 3,000TPS;"zkSync v1.0 is powered by PLONK and requires a one-time trust setup. For the trust setting, we adopted the results of an MPC meeting with more than 200 participants. The volume of the setup must be kept relatively small to make participation practical. Unfortunately, this limits the maximum size of a zk proof for a block, so the maximum throughput of zkSync is limited to ~300 TPS."To lift this limitation, we implement and fully integrate recursive PLONK verification into zkSync! Now, an aggregated block can verify up to 20 good blocks, and only this last proof needs to be committed on-chain. The previous block implementation needs no modification: it still contains the same audit code.

Reddit version

In the load test, only recursive proofs were submitted to the smart contract, reducing the cost of zero-knowledge proofs to 40 Gas per transfer (in EVM, a PLONK proof verification requires 510,000 Gas). Now, adding a metablock that validates other aggregated blocks is trivial, allowing zkSync to aggregate any number of blocks into a proof, reducing proof overhead to only 1 gas per transaction.

The pure data availability cost in zkSync is now 320 Gas per transfer. With further small changes to our validator nodes and smart contracts to batch commits together - these changes were not included in this month's sprint as it was already very compact - the capacity of zkSync will be scaled up Maximum limit imposed by Ethereum: 3000 TPS (assuming 13 seconds Eth block interval and 12,5M block gas limit).

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transaction batch