What is zkSync? A detailed overview of zkSync in 5 minutes

zkSync has officially announced the mainnet (March 24, 2023). The crypto community is highly expecting zkSync to be the next major airdrop project after Arbitrum. Let's find out the details and outstanding features of zkSync Era with Bigcoin in the article below!

1. Ideas

1.1. What is ZK Rollup?

Before starting to learn what zkSync is, let's learn about ZK Rollup technology. Rollup is a Layer 2 solution highly appreciated by the community, with two main models: Optimistic Rollups and ZK Rollups.

ZK Rollup allows aggregating a large number of transactions into a Rollup block and generating a concise proof for that block off-chain. Then, the smart contract on Ethereum layer 1 only needs to verify that Proof without needing to re-execute transactions. This can help save on gas fees and speed up transaction processing because Proof verification is much cheaper than re-doing calculations.

ZK Rollup is rated higher than Optimistic Rollup because the completion time (process of confirming transaction validity) of ZK-rollup is faster. Optimistic Rollup's approach to fraud proof creates a challenge. If the transaction completion time is reduced, the user will have a better experience, but security will be reduced because the attack cost is not as large and easier.

Meanwhile, ZK-rollup ensures confidentiality through mathematics - proving that the user knows the answer without revealing it to a third party. ZK-rollup can reduce transaction costs up to 30 times and even more than direct transactions on Ethereum. For this reason, ZK-rollup is recognized as the leading scaling solution for Ethereum in both the medium and long term.

	Optimistic Rollups	ZK Rollups
Security level	High	High
Asset withdrawal time	1 week	1-10 minutes
Support Smart Contracts	Yes	Yes
EVM compatibility	Yes	Not available

Technology barriers Rollup currently does not support EVM, which will make it difficult to attract developers. Recognizing this problem, layer 2 zk Rollup solutions have their own ways to fix it, for example, Zk Sync in the Era version that was mainnet on March 24 has added zkEVM. We will cover the ZkSync Era in more depth in the section below.

1.2. What is ZkSync?

zkSync is a Layer-2 scaling solution developed by Matter Labs, aimed at reducing costs, speeding up the transaction process and leveraging security on Ethereum using ZK Rollups technology.

On zkSync, funds will be stored on smart contracts in the main network (on-chain) while calculation and data storage are performed off-chain. For Rollup blocks, a zero knowledge proof in the form of SNARK will be created to verify the validity of that Rollup block on the main chain.

Read more: What is zero knowledge proof?

2. zkSync operating mechanism

Simply put, zkSync is a zk-rollup solution, in which a zero knowledge proof in the form of a SNARK will be created to verify the validity of that Rollup block on the chain.

The operating stages of zkSync rollup are as follows:

2.1. Scroll the Transactions

User signs transactions and sends them to L2 Operators
The operator synthesizes the transations into batches and sends them to L1
The Operator is the only entity allowed to create L2 blocks and add rollup transactions to the ZK-rollup contract

2.2. Send Transactions data to Ethereum

Transactions data is sent to Eth as calldata to reduce gas costs

2.3. Verify evidence

The ZK-roolup operator sends to the L1 contract the latest status of the Rollup
The operator also creates a validity proof, a cryptographic commitment that verifies the accuracy of batch transactions
ZK-rollup uses validity proofs to confirm the accuracy of off-chain transitions without having to redo transitions on Ethereum

These proofs are in the form of ZK-SNARKs.

3. Matter Labs products

Matter Labs, the developers of zkSync, have created and developed several important products during their development, including:

zkSync Lite (ZkSync 1.0) - This product was launched in June 2020. Initially, zkSync 1.0 was simply a payment method without smart contract integration. However, in May 2021, zkSync upgraded to version v1.x with additional features such as NFTs and swaps.

zkSync Era (zkSync 2.0) - Initially called zkSync 2.0, this release brings many new features such as Account Abstraction and EVM support through Solidity and Vyper. zkSync 2.0 provides the ability to incorporate smart contracts and offers the Zinc programming language along with zkPorter. Details about zkSync Era will be discussed in detail below.

zkPorter - zkPorter is part of the zkSync 2.0 architecture, developed by Matter Labs. zkPorter's goal is to provide a new scaling solution for Ethereum that significantly increases transaction processing capacity compared to current solutions.

zkPorter is playing an important role in the future development of zkSync with its existing advantages. zkPorter allows off-chain transaction data storage to reduce transaction costs while ensuring safety through a PoS-based security system of zkSync token "stakers". Key features and advantages of zkPorter include:

Data availability layer : In zkPorter, transaction data does not need to be completely stored on the main blockchain (on-chain). Instead, zkPorter keeps part of the data off-chain and stores only the necessary information on the main chain to allow state reconstruction if needed.
Security model : By using zero-knowledge proofs, zkPorter ensures transaction integrity without revealing all transaction data. This creates a better security model where security is maintained but at a lower cost and higher speed.
Scalability : By reducing the amount of data that needs to be verified on-chain, zkPorter allows the network to handle a much larger number of transactions than other Layer 2 solutions, setting the goal reaching thousands or even tens of thousands of transactions per second.
User Experience : Improves user experience by significantly reducing transaction time and costs, while maintaining a high level of security.

zkSync is expected to launch zkPorter in Q4/2023 - Q1/2024. Based on technology documents, zkPorter can deliver processing capacity for zkSync Era (zkSync 2.0) up to 20,000 TPS.

Furthermore, the launch of zkPorter will also require tokens to participate in network security. This further reinforces the fact that zkSync's token will be available soon when zkPorter is launched.

4. What are the details about zkSync 2.0?

After changing the name to zkSync Era, the team more clearly emphasized the application of zkEVM technology to increase compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts. The Matter Labs team has been researching the application of zkEVM on testnet for more than a year and on mainnet since October 2022, and has also gone through many rounds of audits.

zkSync Era will solve 4 problems on Ethereum including:

Security (like mainnet, does not depend on 3rd parties)
Decentralization
Ability of extension
Programmability (Standard Web3 API application programming interface, EVM and Ethereum smart contract compatible)

On zkSync Era the transaction fee will be cheaper than on zkSync Lite, because on zkSync Era it will not require users to pay an activation fee.

Transaction fees are based on 3 main factors:

The amount of data that will be sent to the Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum gas price at the time of transaction.
Cost of calculating and creating valid proof for transactions.

Therefore, transaction fees on zkSync will fluctuate according to the Ethereum network. Recently, the Meme trend on the Ethereum network caused a transaction on zkSync to cost about $3-7.

ZkSync Era officially mainnet March 24, 2023, in just over 1 month of mainnet, zkSync has reached 1 million wallet addresses, TVL of zkSync Era has increased to 270M$, there are 56 projects live on ZkSync Era.

5. Highlights of zkSync Era

5.1. Differences from Optimistic Rollups

Projects using Optimistic Rollups such as Arbitrum, Optimism and projects using Zk Rollups such as zkSync , Starkware are all leading solutions for Ethereum. However, the zkSync team asserts that ZK Rollup has outstanding advantages compared to Optimistic Rollup, including:

Transaction verification time: ZK Rollups are faster than Optimistic Rollups because there is no need to wait 7 days to verify the accuracy of the transaction.
Capital efficiency: Asset deposit/withdrawal transactions on ZK Rollup also do not have a 7-day delay like Optimistic Rollup, helping to increase capital efficiency.

5.2. Account Abstraction (AA) feature

The Account Abstraction feature allows converting a private account into a smart contract with its own logic. This brings the following benefits to zkSync:

No need for Seed phrase: Avoid the risk of losing or having your wallet hacked. AA allows authentication through biometrics or through relatives or friends.
Pay fees with any token: Allow trading wallets to support or sponsor trading wallets for other wallets and automatically convert other tokens to ETH to pay fees. This type of account is called Paymasters.
Sign multiple transactions at once: Allows users to group transactions into one batch to sign them at the same time without having to process each transaction individually.
Automatic Payments: Users can use the AA feature to schedule automatic transfers, subscription fee renewals, and other decentralized operations.

5.3. Apply zkEVM

In terms of EVM compatibility, zkSync is highly appreciated thanks to using zkSync complier to convert Solidity to zkEVM. Meanwhile, zkSync 's competitor Starkware uses Warp to convert Solidity to Cairo (a completely new language).

5.4. zkStack - Hyperchain

Hyperchain is a network of interconnected blockchains that uses Zero Knowledge authentication on the zkSync Era platform. Matter Labs calls these networks "Hyperchains".

zkSync launched the zkStack toolkit at the end of June 2023. This toolkit allows developers to build appchains as a Layer 3 easily and at a reduced cost. zkSync's launch of zkStack and its move towards Hyperchain have officially joined the Layer 3 race along with Arbitrum Orbit and OP Stack

5.5. Zinc programming language

The Matter Labs team created the Zinc programming language that makes creating zero-knowledge proofs easy and fast.

The Zinc language is developed based on Rust, so programmers who are familiar with Rust, C++ or Solidity languages can learn Zinc easily and quickly. The special thing about Zinc that is different from other existing ZKP programming languages is that programmers do not need to understand cryptography too deeply to still be able to design ZKP easily and safely.

This has very important implications for the future development of the entire zkSync ecosystem . The friendly Zinc language will help programmers easily develop projects on zkSync , helping the zkSync ecosystem expand in the future.

6. Ecosystem

After zkSync Era mainnet, zkSync ecosystem expands every day. Everyone can see the entire ecosystem at https://zksync.dappradar.com/ . This is the official website designed by zkSync, so when you learn about projects in the system, please refer to above to avoid learning about scam projects.

7. Tokenomics

In June 2024, zkSync announced the airdrop check link for users and tokenomics.

In addition, let's see more details about zkSync's tokenomics through the sections below.

7.1. Basic information about tokens

Ticker: ZK
Total supply: 21,000,000,000 ZK
Circulation supply: Updating...

7.2. Token allocation

ZK tokens are allocated as follows:

Ecosystem development fund: 19.9%
Airdrop: 17.5%
Investors: 17.2%
Team: 16.1%
Token Assembly (Reserve Fund): 29.3%

It can be seen that tokens for the community are relatively high, accounting for 66.7% of the total supply, while the remaining tokens for the team and investors account for 33.3%.

7.3. Token payment schedule

Updating...

8. Development team

Matter Labs was founded by two members: Alexandr Vlasov and Alex Gluchowski.

Alex Gluchowski is a software engineer with 19 years of experience who worked as CTO for several technology companies, including one specializing in Ethereum R&D before starting to focus on zkSync.

9. Partners

zkSync is a layer 2 so their number of partners is very large and spans many areas such as:

CEX exchanges: Bybit, Huobi,...
Projects: Curve, 1inch, Hop Protocol, Aave...
Investment funds: Mirana Venture, a16z, Dragonfly...
Infrastructure: Chainlink, Arkn, Gitcoin, Unstoppable Domain…

10. Investors

Up to now, the project has raised $458M, with the participation of many large funds, specifically:

11. Conclusion

Zk-rollup is getting a lot of attention recently as zkSync announced its mainnet. This event may be the start of a wave of growth with projects related to this technology in the near future. However, zkSync 's ecosystem at the present time is still not highly appreciated in terms of diversity because there are not too many outstanding projects. This will also be an opportunity for people to choose and learn more deeply as well as exploit the ecosystem right from the early stages.

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