Original author: Blue Fox Notes
Seeing that ZKM has also entered the BTC L2 track, this track will become more and more crowded, just like Ethereum L2. The final market structure still needs to wait for the results of technological and market evolution.
The underlying technology of ZKM is zkVM. Its ultimate goal is to try to make its zkVM technology adopted by more projects and ecosystems, so that it can become the underlying infrastructure. For example, it can connect assets from different ecological networks (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Comos, etc.) to form better liquidity. In this big framework, we can better understand why ZKM wants to enter the BTC L2 track.
Back to the technical solution, ZKM core technology mainly consists of two aspects: Entangled Rollup architecture + zkVM. These two aspects mainly solve two major concerns in the market: one is how to ensure the security of assets; the other is how to achieve the sustainability of its own network.
At present, the market is very concerned about the security issues of cross-chain. ZKM launched the Entangled Rollup Network mechanism, trying to synchronize the status between blockchains through recursive zero-knowledge proof technology, without relying on the traditional bridge mechanism to achieve cross-chain assets. This framework was previously implemented on Ethereum, that is, Metiss Optimistic Rollup mechanism. Currently, ZKM is trying to apply this idea and framework, and at the same time, transform it according to the characteristics of Bitcoin L1 itself, so as to launch its BTC L2. Of course, BTC does not support smart contracts, and it is much more challenging to implement L2. ZKM attempts to aggregate the status to the ZKM network through Entangled Rollup, and then pass the verified status to other ecosystems. BTCs asset security adopts a locally controllable model. For example, BTC is controlled by a multi-signature script. As long as there is at least one honest party, the malicious actor cannot take away the pledged BTC. On the L2 side, a decentralized sequencer is used. The inclusion and finality of transactions are completed in a decentralized manner. The execution of L2 transaction batches is also planned to be verified through BTC scripts.
ZKM introduces the OCP mechanism (Optimistic Challenge Process), which is partly similar to the BTC L2 version of Ethereum L2 optimistic proof. The general mechanism is that when a user deposits an asset into L2 (ZKM), the asset is locked into a pre-signed n-of-n multi-signature script, and the signer is generally an independent third party/auditor. The multi-signature redemption script is activated after the specified challenge period, and the signer sends the asset to the target user in advance to start the challenge phase. During the challenge phase, the signer pre-signs a transaction containing the challenge script and the asset script. To initiate a challenge script, the challenge can be initiated by paying the input UTXO, requiring the operator to try to open its commitment by providing an intermediate calculation trace to the asset script. If the commitment cannot be successfully opened, the verifier will receive all assets after the challenge period ends, or give the challenge asset to the signer. The execution trace is submitted through a Tap Tree, where each leaf of the Tree represents an intermediate value. Each intermediate value is calculated using a one-time signature with the previous value as its input. Using this method, the BTC script directly performs this calculation and completes the on-chain asset verification. That is, ZKM attempts to provide security for off-chain computations through the OCP mechanism, ensuring that L2 transactions are included in the decentralized sorter network.
zkVM has always been one of the important basic explorations in the field of encryption, and ZKMs zkVM is one of them. One of the differences from RSIC and SP 1 is that ZKM provides native support for Golang. (RSIC and SP 1 support Rust) ZKM allows Golang developers to use the Vanilla Golang compiler to compile their code into MIPS instructions, and then use ZKMs proof network to prove its execution. At the same time, ZKM also plans to support Rust in the future.
In addition to the security of BTC on-chain assets, the market is also concerned about how ZKM L2 itself can achieve sustainability. To achieve sustainability, all participants in the network need to have the opportunity to obtain continuous income. In ZKMs BTC L2, the concept of decentralized sorters is introduced, and these sorter nodes receive reward income based on their contributions. ZKM plans to reward 40% of its tokens to mining participants (including participation in sorter nodes, liquidity staking, and proof network mining). In other words, in addition to receiving gas fees from L2 transactions, sorter nodes can also earn income from mining.
According to the current trend, the exploration of BTC L2 will continue, both in terms of native L2 and EVM compatible L2. Native L2 is about exploring the internal ecological tension, because its nativeness has a large number of loyal fans; and EVM compatible L2 is not only about expanding the BTC ecosystem, but also about providing an exploration direction for the integration of more ecosystems.
