Is the Ethereum L2 team very anxious? Let's break down the cross-network high-speed channel solutions

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Chain News ChainNews (ID: chainnewscom)

Chain News ChainNews (ID: chainnewscom)

Layer 2 expansion technology can help Ethereum achieve a leap in performance. In the long run, there is no problem in improving throughput by at least two orders of magnitude. However, in addition to the uncertain factor of security, the user experience during the exit period and the liquidity split between different second-tier networks may become the most noteworthy topics at present.

Of course, users can use Ethereum Layer 1 to conduct cross-Layer 2 transactions. For example, users can withdraw Optimism assets to Layer 1, and then recharge to zkSync. However, this is very unfriendly to most users (Gas is high), and the settlement speed may also be affected.

Anxious about the Ethereum L2 team? Let's break down the cross-network high-speed channel solutions

• The most painful thing is the time window for Layer 2 assets to exit to Layer 1, especially for the early Optimism network, the exit period was designed for 7 days to ensure the security of the network. This means that if the user's second-tier assets need to exit to the first-tier, they need to wait for 7 days. During this period, the funds are frozen and cannot be used.

• Fortunately, some teams have long been aware of this problem and provided a set of solutions that can solve the slow exit period or help assets transfer quickly between different Layer 2 networks, which will greatly improve user experience and the popularity of Layer 2 .

• In the Layer 2 ecosystem led by Rollup expansion solutions, at least 6 teams are already trying to solve this problem. In the future, they may also get involved in expansion solutions such as Plasma or side chains to provide more comprehensive and comprehensive asset transfer tools. The main ones are:

• Connext and Celer's cBridge uses state channel technology to open high-speed payment channels in different networks, the principle is similar to the Bitcoin Lightning Network;

• Maker will open a special asset bridge for the US dollar stablecoin DAI issued by the agreement. When Maker's oracle machine can read the data on Layer 2, it can safely and quickly provide an instant transfer channel from L2 to L1;

Hop Protocol sets up bridges for different assets in different L2 networks, introduces special verification nodes and AMM components, and finally realizes asset transfer between multiple networks;

The main direction of StarkWare is to achieve asset interoperability between different networks through the "Conditional Txs" technology;

DeGate will initially provide cross-network transactions through centralized asset custody, and will then turn to decentralized solutions.

MakerDAO (Proprietary Asset Bridge)

The main reason why this scheme can be realized is that the Optimism scheme will release all transaction data to Layer 1. In the Optimism network design, there is a monotonically increasing transaction list called "Canonical Transaction Chain (CTC), which is published in Transactions in this list can be considered unchangeable (unless Layer 1 blocks are also reorganized).

Therefore, the core of Maker's solution is to design a new set of "oracle machine" and relay components to read the data in CTC, and use this as a basis to release the liquidity of Layer 1 for Layer 2 users in advance.

Anxious about the Ethereum L2 team? Let's break down the cross-network high-speed channel solutions

The user first submits the withdrawal request from Layer 2 to Layer 1. After the oracle machine reads the CTC transaction, it can cast a liquidity certificate named fDAI on Layer 1 for the user 7 days in advance. Then users can mortgage fDAI and swap out DAI through the "fDAI Vault".

In addition, although the withdrawal cycle is 7 days, any withdrawal transaction is 7 days, so a withdrawal 7 days ago has just returned to Layer 1, and this continuous DAI withdrawal fund flow can be used as The source of funding for the DAI in the vault.

《Announcing the Optimism Dai Bridge with Fast Withdrawals》

However, for this "oracle machine" component, whether it may bring some centralization risks, the plan has not yet been explained in detail. Their explanation for the "trustless" advantage of the scheme is as follows: "Except for Oracle, there is no need to introduce trust assumptions into the system."

At present, Maker has not mentioned plans for other Layer 2 networks, so it is currently only focusing on Optimism and focusing on launching an official two-layer DAI solution for this network as soon as possible.

Detailed program introduction:

cBridge is implemented by extending the Celer state channel, enhancing the existing protocol so that it can run on multiple chains simultaneously. The Celer state channel network has added the function of state channel cross-chain payment. To test this function, you need to deploy the CelerPay contract on each EVM test chain, or deploy the corresponding contract or plug-in on the non-EVM compatible chain ( Such as the Celer Substrate module on Polkadot).

Detailed introduction:

《Anxious about the Ethereum L2 team? Let's break down the cross-network high-speed channel solutions》

To put it simply, state channel is a special type of two-layer network expansion solution. Bitcoin lightning network technology can also be summarized as state channel technology, which can usually be used to solve small payment scenarios and move high-frequency transactions to the chain. It can be processed down to reduce the pressure on the chain.

Detailed introduction:

Celer cBridge: A High-Speed, Low-Cost Value Transfer Network for a Layer-1 and Layer-2 Connected Future

Connext (state channel)

Recently they released a new version to achieve interoperability between Polygon (Matic) and side chain xDai, and launched a beta version of xDai-Polygon Bridge, which allows users to use state channels to transfer xDai to Dai on Polygon, and to transfer to Dai on Polygon Dai to xDai.

Anxious about the Ethereum L2 team? Let's break down the cross-network high-speed channel solutions

refer to:

《Later, Connext started to get involved in a new product direction in 2020. Although they still use their most familiar state channel technology, the entry point has changed. In August last year, Connext participated in the expansion challenge initiated by Reddit and launched the Spacefold solution, trying to solve the high-frequency needs of social network scenarios, which also laid the foundation for the follow-up Vector.》

At present, Vector launched the Ethereum mainnet in January this year, but the version number is 0.1.0, so it can be considered that it is still in the early stage, and a more complete version will be launched in stages in the first and second quarters.

refer to:

Avoiding the Rollup battlefield, Connext chooses to use state channels to open up Layer 2 "islands"

Zero-knowledge proof research and development organization StarkWare officially launched the expansion network StarkNet based on the concept of ZK Rollup in January this year, but this is not the subject of this article, but a complete solution they provide for Layer 2 interoperability, based on "conditional transfer" (Conditional Transactions) or "Conditional Payment" (Conditional Payment) is realized.

• Conditional transfers are a cryptography-based component that can be used to enable permissionless interoperability in blockchains. Simply put, a conditional transfer is a transaction that is conditional on the occurrence of certain "events" (such as payment, state change). After defining a conditional transaction in a certain network, once its conditions are met in another network, The conditional transaction takes effect.

• Anxious about the Ethereum L2 team? Let's break down the cross-network high-speed channel solutions

• This series of functions will be implemented in stages,

Phase 2: Two StarkEx-based Layer 2 networks can quickly transfer funds to each other

refer to:

《The Road to L2 Interoperability》

Phase 3: Fast transfer between any two Layer 2 networks

Regarding whether the scheme is "trustless", the team said that ordinary users do not need to trust at all, but for liquidity providers (LP), it may be necessary to trust nodes to package and publish their conditional transactions (because they can choose not to Packaging), but this layer of trust can also be removed in some ways, such as bypassing these nodes through smart contracts on the chain.

refer to:

Hop (generic asset bridge)

When using Hop's solution, assets need to be transferred to the Layer 2 network through Hop. For example, the ETH that enters the second layer through Hop's asset bridge is called Hop ETH (or hETH). hETH and ETH are completely equivalent, at least they can be exchanged through Hop.

However, there is also an "official" version of ETH in the Layer 2 network, which is the version of ETH commonly used by more people. The official version of ETH and hETH should also be completely equivalent in theory, but due to liquidity reasons, there may be Some spreads.

Bonder can advance the official version of ETH for the network by observing the transaction data between different Layer 2 networks, and the arbitrageurs between different Layer 2 networks will continue to rebalance (to obtain benefits), and maintain the price of AMM at a comparative within a reasonable range.white paper。

Anxious about the Ethereum L2 team? Let's break down the cross-network high-speed channel solutions

There are still many details in this solution, as well as parts that need to be improved, such as the decentralized mechanism of multi-Bonder, etc. Others can refer to the project

white paper

DeGate (hosted)