Read the major Ethereum scalability solutions in one article: the future of Ethereum expansion is modular

Edit: Southwind

Edit: Southwind

The current Ethereum is aOverall Monolithic Blockchain(monolithic blockchain)：It provides its own security, executes its own transactions, and maintains its own data availability.

However, this traditional type of blockchain, the one that provides itself with layers of security, execution, and data availability, exists because of its "doing it all"inherent limitations。

These limitations will bring high transaction costs to users.

This is because the Ethereum execution layerscarce block space, plusThe ever-increasing demand for network usage has led to network congestion and pushed up transaction costs.

In other words, a monolithic blockchain can only handle so many transactions at a time.

To address these limitations, developers and researchers in the Ethereum ecosystem have created a series of differentScalability Solutions. These schemes come in different forms and scales, but most are presented asEthereum-centric execution layer, providing cheap and fast Crypto transactions.

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01. Off-chain scaling vs. On-chain scaling

Currently, the Ethereum community is simultaneously usingOff-chain expansion strategy and on-chain expansion strategy。

• Off-chain expansion(off-chain scaling) refers to the underlying chain such as EthereumProvide external executionany kind of innovation. These innovations are referred to as "Layer 2"(L2 for short), that is, the execution of the transaction is placed on the second layer network outside the Ethereum, so as to optimize the performance of the Ethereum L1.

• Chain expansion(on-chain scaling) refers to increasing the throughput of the blockchain (that is, the amount of transactions that can be processed per second)any direct modification to. Although such asOff-chain scaling solutions such as Rollups and ValidiumsFragmentationFragmentationfirst level title

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1. Rollups

Rollup is a scalability solution throughExecutes transactions on its own optimized execution layer and publishes transaction data to Ethereum(There may be other L1s public chains in the future). In this way,The Rollups chain directly inherits the security guarantees of Ethereum L1.

Zooming in, there are currently two types of Rollups:ZK-Rollups and Optimistic Rollups.

1)ZK-RollupsBy using a method calledzk-SNARKThe cryptographic proof of many pensoff-chain transactions"rolled up" to form a verifiabletransaction batch. Then,Simply put,

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Loopring is one of the most popular zk-Rollup projects in the DeFi field

Currently we can useThe Rollups network based on the ZK-Rollup scheme includes:

• Loopring：

https://loopring.io/#/

• Polygon Hermez：

https://hermez.io/

• zkSync：

https://zksync.io/faq/intro.html#introduction

2)Optimistic RollupsIt is also to "roll up" many transactions and submit them to the Ethereum L1 chain in batches, but this scheme does not use zero-knowledge proof to prove the validity of the transaction:Optimistic Rollups"optimistically" assumes the validity of the transaction,proof of fraudproof of fraudSimply put,

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Arbitrum is a L2 network based on the Optimistic Rollup scheme

Currently we can useThe Rollups network based on the Optimistic Rollup scheme includes:

• Arbitrum One：

https://arbitrum.io/bridge-tutorial/

• Optimism：

https://gateway.optimism.io/welcome

For the detailed rules and precautions for using the Arbitrum One network and Optimism network, please refer to the previously published article 👉《"and""and"image description》

2. Validiums

DeversiFi is currently the largest L2 project based on the Validium solution

Another scalability solution similar to Rollups isValidiums。 

Validiums work similarly to ZK-Rollups because the schemeAlso relies on zero-knowledge proofs to batch and execute transactions.But compared with ZK-Rollups,Validiums keep their data availability off-chain(i.e. transaction data is stored off-chain),The data availability of ZK-Rollups is stored on the Ethereum L1 chain.

This dynamic feature makes the expansion scheme of Validiums havehigh performance(Validiums can provide higher throughput than ZK-Rollups), but it also makes this scheme to a certain extenthas the nature of hostingimage description

Sorare is a fantasy soccer game powered by Validium

in other words,Off-chain execution + zero-knowledge proofs + off-chain data = Validiums.

The projects based on the Validium scheme that we can currently use include:

• DeversiFi (Decentralized Exchange):

https://l2beat.com/projects/deversifi/

• Immutable X (an L2 network centered around NFTs):

https://www.immutable.com/

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https://l2beat.com/projects/sorare/

3. Volitions

 VolitionsIt is a hybrid expansion solution,Allow users to choose between "ZK-Rollup Mode" and "Validium Mode".

In practice, this means that users of Volitions are able toat the same timeat the same timeYou can choose on-chain data availability or off-chain data availability,secondary title

4. Sidechains

In the case of Ethereum,Sidechains are Ethereum-compatible blockchains.

Sidechains can be independent blockchains such asBSC(Binance Smart Chain), or more generally, custom blockchains to explicitly cater to Ethereum users, such asPolygon's sidechain. The compatibility of sidechains with Ethereum stems from theirSupport EVM(Ethereum Virtual Machine).

Therefore, the side chain can be used as the Ethereum L1external execution layer,even ifSidechains do not directly inherit the security guarantees of Ethereum L1.But some sidechain projects, such as Polygon's sidechain, blur this distinction by submitting checkpoints to Ethereum.

The sidechains currently available to us include:

• Polygon：

https://wallet.polygon.technology/

• xDai：

https://bridge.xdaichain.com/

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https://bridge.roninchain.com/

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Connext is one of the most well-known state channel projects in the Ethereum ecosystem

State Channels is a multi-signature smart contract supportedOff-chain expansion plan.In a state channel network, encrypted assets such as ETH can be locked in these contracts and used to createTwo-way payment channel。

In other words, state channels are like "bookkeeping" where users can transact hundreds of times off-chain with each other and then stop the bookkeeping by sending the last transaction to Ethereum L1. In this way, many transactions are simplified through the state channel.

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• Connext：

https://connext.network/

6. Plasma

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The Ethereum developer community expects sharding to be rolled out in the next few years.

The update will extend ethereum's long-standing single protocol to 64 new "shard chains." In this way, the load of the Ethereum network is distributed to these shard chains,Ethereum L1 has achieved horizontal expansion, greatly improving transaction latency and throughput capabilities.

Notably, as Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin previously emphasized,first level title

04. The future of Ethereum scaling is modular

Until recently, Ethereum has been a monolithic blockchain that provides security, execution, and data availability on its own.

What we are starting to see now, and will increasingly see in the future, is that Ethereum is becoming a modular blockchain. That said, we will see Ethereum increasingly rely on external execution layers and external data availability layers to advance its underlying performance.

From Rollups to sidechains, we have discussed what these early external execution layers look like. It’s also worth noting that bespoke data availability blockchains like Polygon Avail will also play an important role in expanding the possibilities of a modular blockchain future.