Summary of Ethereum Layer2 Solutions
Now every day you hear the voice of Layer 2 ringing in your ears, as if the whole world is talking about it, since Ethereum L1 processes about 15 transactions per second in the current iteration, this has caused many problems: the network often becomes Congestion sometimes pushes gas costs to an extremely high level, and people can only seek better solutions. L2 (Layer 2) with high-efficiency processing levels is constantly replacing L1 (Layer 1).
Before the slow transaction speed and expensive Gas (handling fee) of Ethereum were complained about the above-mentioned problems of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin had proposed L2 solutions for these problems as early as 2017, which increased the transaction throughput of Ethereum. The protocol enables users to bundle other protocols and transact in Ethereum L2 to save fees and improve efficiency.
Therefore, the demand for L2 has risen rapidly, and four different solutions for L2 have been extended to explain their representative applications:
1) ZK Rollup camp
Aztecnetwork
Hermez Network
Loopringorg
StarkWareLtd
ZKSync
1/5. Loopringorg raised $36 million in crowdfunding in August 2017, and started the road of Layer 2 research and development. Loopringorg has experienced 4 years of technological development, continuous exploration, and continuous innovation. Loopringorg has finally developed the world's first The landing application of L2, and it is the L2 application with the longest history currently running.
In terms of security and transactions, Loopringorg adopts zero-knowledge proof technology to protect privacy and speed up transactions. Without sacrificing the security of Ethereum itself, the transaction speed can reach 2000~4000 transactions per second. After Ethereum 2.0 goes online, Loopringorg’s The transaction speed can reach 100,000+Tps, which is almost the same as that of centralized exchanges. The flash exchange function, order book transactions, liquidity mining, and various benefits (Gas fees are extremely low). When trading, funds do not need to be handed over to the first Three-party hosting, the security level surpasses the centralized exchange. Loopringorg is the best in terms of security. It adopts social wallet recovery. If the user's device (wallet) is lost, stolen, phished or hacked, it will use Loopring's social intelligence Wallet users, will have various safeguards to protect their funds. Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, once said: "To ensure the security of assets, hardware wallets are not enough... Mnemonic words are not enough... Multi-signatures are good... Loopringorg social wallet recovery is even better!"
Loopring is about to build a complete L2 ecosystem. In the future, the 1st layer ecology will be transferred to L2, continuing the most exciting chapter in the future. Loopring's upcoming major version (including EthPort + new web application + new mobile app + AMM / funds The upgrade of the pool, etc.) will enable Loopring to step into the future ahead of schedule, and the entire ecology of Loopring’s second layer can be regarded as a decentralized security-enhanced version of Binance or Coinbase.
2/5. The system currently designed by ZKSync can currently process 2000~4000 transactions per second. After Ethereum 2.0 goes online, it will have 100000+TPS. zkSync 2.0 will enter the mainnet within 6 months. It uses zero-knowledge proof, which is slightly less secure than Loopring. In terms of transaction speed, they can be said to have no rivals.
ZKSync announced on June 2 that it has launched the 2.0 testnet (https://zksync2-alpha.zkscan.io/)
The off-chain data availability system zkPorter was developed, but this version is not fully compatible with EVM. In terms of cryptography, zkEVM’s instruction set has been completed, and both implementations have been completed, both in the circuit and in the execution environment. In terms of compilers, smart contracts written in Solidity and Zinc can now be compiled into zkEVM, which will support ADDMOD, SMOD, MULMOD, EXP, and CREATE2 opcodes in the future. In terms of core infrastructure, the full node integration is completed, and the compiled smart contract can be successfully deployed and executed.
The zkEVM and core 2.0 infrastructure are ready to be exposed, but the compiler needs more work to properly cover all edge cases. In order to provide a more comprehensive developer experience, ZKSync decided to open the SDK (Program Development Kit) for zkEVM, compiler and core as soon as the compiler is 100% stable.
Version 2.0 of ZKSync will support Layer2 NFTs, and the next version will include our Web3 API implementation, which will be compatible with the Web3 standard defined by the Ethereum document. Events will work out of the box and all services can be easily integrated.
3/5. Hermez Network, the layer 2 scaling solution of Ethereum, was launched on March 24. Hermez's mission is to contribute to the scalability of Ethereum from the perspective of decentralization, efficiency and inclusiveness, so as to facilitate personal autonomy and freedom.
The main network of the development Hermez Network is launched, and users can now transfer money at a lower gas cost. Trading on the second layer saves about 90% of the gas cost, which is the premise that almost all L2 can do.
It is worth noting that Hermez Network is a decentralized zero-knowledge rollup (zk-rollup), Tether (USDT) runs on Hermez Network, and issued USDT in its L2, USDt is the first batch of Ethereum in Hermez One of the stablecoins launched with a Layer 2 scaling solution designed to increase the scalability of the protocol to ensure cheaper transactions and token transfers to millions of users around the world. A spike in user activity on the network in recent months has caused ethereum gas fees to skyrocket. zk-rollups provide a solution to subsequent transaction bottlenecks.
Hermez Network is a Gitcoin ninth crowdfunding Layer 2 project. Its development is still in the early stage. The main network was launched on March 24, and the operation time is only two months. The network initially supports USDT, ETH, WBTC, DAI and HEZ tokens For transfer, there are currently no scenarios such as transaction applications, we can look forward to their future route link: https://blog.hermez.io/hermez-network-roadmap-update/
4/5. StarkWare raised $75 million on March 24, with Paradigm leading the round, as it did with StarkWare's Series A round in 2018. Other returning investors include Pantera Capital, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, DCVC and Wing Capital, and StarkWare also attracted Three Arrows Capital and Alameda Research as investors for the first time. StarkWare Ltd has raised a total of 111 million US dollars, in addition to the blessing of many star institutions; StarkWare also cooperates with famous Ethereum projects, such as ConsenSys, Infura and Metamask.
StarkNet is a permissionless decentralized ZK-Rollup that operates as an L2 network on Ethereum, where any dApp can achieve infinite-scale computation without compromising Ethereum's composability and security.
Scalability and integrity
StarkNet achieves scale by generating STARK proofs off-chain and validating them on-chain while maintaining the security of L1 Ethereum.
Composability and a solid foundation
StarkNet will provide Ethereum-level composability, facilitating easy development and compound innovation.
The foundation of StarkNet has been tested in production.
Development language Cairo and commercial use
StarkNet Contracts and the StarkNet OS itself are written in Cairo, our general-purpose computing programming language. This makes developing, reviewing, and maintaining code easier and faster, enabling commercial use. On StarkNet, developers can easily deploy any business logic using StarkNet contracts, saving even more time. Cairo has been on Ethereum since July 2020 Fangzhu online production.
Prover and Verifier
Prover: STARK Prover powers the StarkEx scalability engine and has already demonstrated the ability to process 600,000 transactions in a single proof on mainnet. Validators: STARK validators have been deployed on the Ethereum mainnet since June 2019. Cairo validators, which can verify proofs of arbitrary business logic, have been deployed on mainnet since July 2020.
5/5. Aztecnetwork has been operating since October 2017. They were originally a blockchain loan platform. Their vision was to introduce the privacy function of Zcash (ZEC) into Ethereum. Fortunately, they did it today. Now Aztec Network does not issue any tokens.
More focused on privatizing transactions using zero-knowledge proofs, Aztec Network has now launched a new layer 2 platform that also uses the same cutting-edge cryptography to improve scalability, using a type of zk proof called zkSNARK that will Many transactions are bundled into a "summary" proof, which is then published to the main chain, increasing transaction throughput. According to Aztec, the network is "fully scalable" and can handle up to 300 transactions per second, sacrificing faster transaction speeds for enhanced privacy and personalization options.
Other groups are developing zk-rollup technology aimed at improving ethereum's scalability, and according to CEO Tom Walton-Pocock, the Aztecnetwork technology is unique in that it also adds "programmable privacy."
First, use zkSNARKs to make each transaction private—the sender, receiver, and amount are all hidden. These transactions are then bundled into an aggregation using additional zkSNARKs. The end result is "SNARKs within SNARKs," said Walton-Pocock, who calls the arrangement "zk-zk rollups."
According to the team at Aztecnetwork, PLONK allows for the development of “universal” zkSNARKs. This means that the Aztec network’s SNARKs can also be programmed to “really any Defi interaction where the resulting action is a token,” Walton-Pocock said. Older zkSNARK systems, such as the one originally used to enable private transactions in Zcash, were programmed to do the same thing multiple times.
Adding new use cases will require a new so-called trusted setup, the complex multi-party computation process required to establish the public security parameters of any zkSNARK (Simple Zero-Knowledge Argument) system. After the first trusted setup, the use cases for SNARKs developed with PLONK are theoretically unlimited. Aztec Network has developed a new scripting language called Noir that developers can use to write zkSNARK transactions compatible with Aztec 2.0.
2) Optimistic Rollup camp
Arbitrum
Cartesi
Optimism Rollup
OMG Network
Fuel Labs
1/5. Arbitrum is undoubtedly the most dazzling handsome boy in Layer2 during this period of time. Obama said that it has a great relationship with the team behind it. Ed Felten, the founder of Arbitrum, previously served as the A professor of computer science at Princeton, he entered the blockchain industry in 2013 and has been studying blockchain. In 2014, Ed Felten and his students made the first version of "Arbitrum", which was purely research at the time.
Back in 2015, President Obama invited Ed Felten to enter the White House as a senior adviser to President Obama. One of the jobs during his service to the U.S. government was the research on cryptocurrencies and blockchains. After Trump became President of the United States in 2017, Ed Felten returned to academia to continue his career as a professor and returned to school to teach. He happened to meet the current co-founders Steven and Harry, who are also students of Ed Felten. Steven is a Ph.D. student at Princeton University . Ed Felten then led his students, and then embarked on a journey of exploration of Ethereum L2, which has never stopped until now.
Ed Felten's goal is to become the default L2 Rollup for Ethereum users and developers. In order to avoid expensive transaction fees and transfers, OKEX recently announced that it will support Arbitrum deposits and withdrawals. In addition, Uniswap is under the call of the community , the community’s self-government vote to join Arbitrum’s second-tier network has passed. Once Arbitrum is open to everyone, Uniswap can run on its network without additional work. Chainlink has a deep partnership with Arbitrum, which means that nodes of the oracle network can run Arbitrum validator nodes. More than 150 partners have joined the queue of Arbitrum Rollup, and the number of partners is still increasing.
A large number of partners will join, and developers will weigh which provider has an advantage. First, Arbitrum uses multiple rounds of fraud proofs to detect fake transactions on layer 2. In contrast, Optimism relies on a single round of fraud proofs. Multi-round fraud proofs focus on exactly where the dispute is in the layer 2 rollup, and only execute that part on Ethereum's layer 1. A single round of fraud proof requires processing more transactions from layer 2 on Ethereum's layer 1.
On the top layer, Arbitrum's multi-round proofs of fraud take longer to resolve while using less gas on the main chain, while Optimism's single-round proofs, within a week, resolve faster, but after publishing to Ethereum Layer 1 uses more gas, which may violate the blockchain's gas limit per block.
According to a post by Ed Felten, co-founder of Offchain Labs, which developed the Arbitrum solution, “the choice between single-round and multi-round comes down to a trade-off between on-chain cost and time to resolve disputes.” Other tradeoffs include ease of deployment for projects to Alleviate high gas bills for its users.
One of the main advantages of Arbitrum is that it does not require developers to "change a single line of code." The decentralized derivatives exchange MCDEX also stated: "We deploy Arbitrum without changing it when deploying on a single code."
Mariano Conti, former head of smart contracts at the Maker Foundation, agrees, telling The Defiant, “Being able to deploy the same code to Arbitrum that I deploy on mainnet is a plus.” Optimism Rollups typically require developers to tweak their code , while Arbitrum's system allows developers to deploy the exact same code to their layer 2.
2/5. Optimism Rollup Since June 2019, Optimism has been building an Ethereum scaling solution based on Optimistic Rollup. Paradigm invested in the project. Paradigm CEO is the former co-founder of Coinbas and has invested in many successful projects in the industry, including Uniswap. The solution aims to increase Ethereum's throughput (~500 transactions per second) and reduce its gas costs.
Earlier this year, Optimism “soft-launched” its solution, the Optimism Virtual Machine (OVM), together with decentralized exchange Synthetix. This means Synthetix will integrate the solution in four phases to limit the risk to its platform. Synthetix users are already enjoying speed and cost savings, Optimism said. Optimism said it saved about $10 million in fees on more than 100,000 transactions.
Uniswap, another major decentralized exchange integrated with Optimism, said it aims to launch its version V3 of the L1 Ethereum mainnet, and will deploy L2 on Optimism shortly thereafter. Optimism, formerly known as Plasma Group, created Optimistic Rollups. Aggregation provides scaling by bundling or aggregating transactions into a single transaction. With aggregation, transactions are received on the main Ethereum blockchain, but executed on a layer 2 solution, which then sends execution data back to Ethereum. Since the calculations are done off-chain, it reduces the load on Ethereum but maintains its security.
The Optimistic Rollups system is currently not perfect, and the launch of the mainnet will be postponed after August. Many Uniswap community members panicked because of the rising transaction fees. They recently voted to connect the second layer of Arbitrum. The cooperation between Uniswap and Optimistic Rollups Let's stop for a while.
3/5. Cartesi is addressing the pressing issues of blockchain scalability and high fees by implementing a variant of optimistic rollup. Most notably, Cartesi revolutionized smart contract programming by allowing developers to code using mainstream software stacks. Noether is Cartesi's sidechain optimized for ephemeral data, providing dApps with low-cost data availability.
Cartesi's competitive advantage as a layer 2 and optimistic rollup solution is that it allows developers to write their smart contracts and dApps directly using mainstream software components and Linux operating system resources. With mainstream programmability, dApp developers have new expressive power to create more complex and powerful smart contracts. It also opens the door for adoption by regular developers who have never programmed for blockchain and enables them to create decentralized applications using familiar software stacks.
Descartes Rollups is an implementation of Cartesi Rollups that supports scalable smart contracts built using mainstream software stacks. Cartesian rollups are a variant of optimistic rollups with interactive dispute resolution.
Developers will be able to use a myriad of mainstream software components to write smart contracts that run on Linux VMs. With Descartes, developers solve Ethereum’s scalability limitations with a million-fold computational gain while retaining the strong security guarantees of the blockchain.
4/5. Fuel Labs is an optimistic rollup, a special sidechain architecture that is both trust-minimized and permissionless. Unlike traditional sidechains, where the security of user funds depends on an honest majority of some validators disconnected from the mainchain miners, Optimistic Rollup borrows security directly from the mainchain (Ethereum).
A simplified version of optimistic rollup is as follows. Anyone can build a summary block off-chain and submit it to Ethereum as call data (i.e. simple binary data attached to a transaction). Each block submitted in this way must build on the previous rollup block (the contract keeps track of the rollup chain's block header hash) and contain a parameterizable bond. If a block is invalid, anyone can submit and process a compact fraud proof on-chain, which rolls back the aggregated chain to the previous block, burns a portion of the security deposit, and rewards the fraud prover with the rest. After a parameterizable timeout, aggregated blocks are finalized and considered valid (i.e. can no longer be proven fraudulent) and their bonds are unlocked. Withdrawals are initiated by burning coins on a rollup, and then completed after that rollup block completes.
Fuel Labs hopes to use it for global payment settlements, application-specific tokens, virtual game tokens and rewards, user transfers of ERC-20 tokens, and other applications.
3) Plasma camp
GluonNetwork
OMG Network
Polygon（Matic）
1/3. Part of the previous Matic rebrand to Polygon will also see the project run on Ethereum or Polkadot-like systems and scale using a multi-chain architecture. Polygon has released its Software Development Kit (SDK), a new framework for deploying Ethereum-compatible blockchains on the network. The SDK is a set of pluggable modules for developers to quickly deploy Ethereum-compatible chain.
Polygon's transaction fees are also quite low, and it can process 1,000 to 9,000 transactions per second. It claims that after the launch of Ethereum 2.0, it can process up to 65,000 transactions per second.
A rapidly rising star in the scalability race is Polygon, a sidechain network that has developer tools out of the box so ethereum smart contracts can be ported seamlessly. This way, developers and users get the same functionality as Ethereum. To facilitate the onboarding of partners, many Ethereum dApps including Aave and Sushiswap have ported their contracts to Polygon’s Plasma-PoS chain in the past six months.
Polygon will also support other Ethereum scalability solutions, while being compatible with Optimistic Rollups, ZK-Rollups, StarkWare's Validium chain, these scaling solutions (such as Rollups) are still under development and will be implemented at a later date.
2/3. OMG Network is an Ethereum-based blockchain ecosystem that provides investors with multiple ways to earn profits. Specifically, the OMG Network is a decentralized exchange, a liquidity provider mechanism, a messaging network, and a blockchain gateway with digital assets. The platform has gained a reputation for its alternative financial and digital commerce tools. These systems work together to enable cross-chain asset transfers without the need for encrypted exchanges.
From the outset, it was clear that the OMG Network was going to be different. Both the Bank of Thailand and Thailand's Ministry of Finance have approved the project. The project also has support from the Ethereum camp, Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood. OMG has seen considerable growth and development since its launch. Today, the OMG network serves as a valuable second-layer scaling solution that increases Ethereum’s transaction throughput. Specifically, the protocol enables users to bundle their Ethereum transactions to save on fees and increase efficiency.
The lead developer of the project is none other than Joseph Poon. He is best known for developing the Lightning Network and Plasma. Both of these layer-two protocols have the potential to revolutionize the market moving forward. His expertise has helped make OMG Network a unique program on the market.
Impressively, the project has received support from numerous established investors at an early stage. These investors include Japan's Toyota Financial Services Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital Corporation and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Company. These developments help increase the confidence of individuals seeking to participate in the OMG network.
The OMG Network facilitates cross-platform payments on the blockchain. This open payment platform and decentralized exchange resides on the Ethereum blockchain, offering users a scalable and fully open alternative. OMG users enjoy low fees, fast transaction times, and cashout options. In June, OMG Network launched a new scaling solution that increases transaction speeds to levels comparable to global payment processors such as Visa.
3/3.GluonNetwork tends to provide support for decentralized high-frequency applications that require scalability. Gluon is a purpose-built sidechain designed to avoid the shortcomings of Ethereum, congestion and expensive transaction fees, and UTXO-based plasma The problem with sidechains. Gluon leverages rollups in a novel way and was originally designed for high-speed transactions without the risk of custody. Gluon creates efficient small rollups (using Merkel Root) to take advantage of the fundamental security advantages of the Ethereum main chain.
The development of Gluon Rollups Layer 2 stems directly from the foreseeable scalability issues of Plasma sidechains with the UTXO model, especially for exchanges. It is an alternative to some other Layer2 models such as ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups. ZK Rollups generate SNARK proofs, which cause problems as it requires additional computing resources and creates a larger footprint on-chain, creating scalability issues as the state grows linearly. Optimistic Rollups are subject to throughput limitations and a 7-day withdrawal delay. However, Gluon overcomes these problems while also having the key advantage of full knowledge transparency and explorers that can be fully sure of the correctness of Layer 2 state.
Gluon Rollups outperform UTXO-based Plasma sidechains, which have some drawbacks, especially for exchanges. Using the main chain for transactions such as deposits results in a witness limit. This is an over-reliance on main chain confirmations, large transactions can be created, large UTXOs can become overwhelmed if a large number of users want to exit the chain, and the Plasma sidechain may not be able to pass through due to unpredictable congestion and fees. For sanity checks, the output tends to be fragmented to the smallest possible size, leading to natural consequence problems of scalability and time prioritization.
The footprint, cost, and confirmation speed of unnecessary transactions. Gluon Status has a live browser to track any activity. In short, each participant has enough data to prove the correctness of any new entry and links to previous entries, thereby maintaining security. Validity can be proven by tracing back to the source like the UTXO system. Since such retrospectives are impractical, changes are validated in real time to maintain efficiency.
Contract upgrades can be made on Gluon without requiring individual users to interact with the deployed new contracts, and any user data can be migrated seamlessly. This could be a critical piece of code that is needed in time, or a suggested upgrade. This is also linked to the comprehensive Gluon Fraud Proof, which can inform any situation that needs to stop or take action.
4）Hybri
Celer Network
1/1. Founded in 2018, Celer Network is a layer 2 scaling platform that drives fast, secure and low-cost blockchain applications on Ethereum, Polkadot and other blockchains to mass adoption. Celer launched the world's first generalized state channel network and continues to push the frontier of layer2 scaling with advanced Rollup technology. Applications and middleware built on Celer, such as CelerX, cBridge, layer2.finance, etc., have attracted more than 1 million users in the fields of gaming, DeFi and blockchain interoperability.
Instant, low-cost value transfer between multiple different Layer 2 networks on Ethereum, including Optimistic Rollups such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Celer Rollups, and PoS sidechains such as Matic and SKALE, without going through the underlying Layer 1 blockchain. Instant entry from/to Ethereum layer 1 and existing layer 2 without long delays. A two-way bridge between a layer 2 on one blockchain and a completely different layer 1 blockchain, without going through the corresponding root layer 1 at all. Seamlessly connect to the Celer state channel network in any single chain with full cross-chain routing support.
You can understand Celer Network as a hybrid general-purpose 2-layer solution, which is compatible with all blockchains running on 2-layer and writing programs on its chain.
