The development company of the card game Gods Unchained is considering using StarkWare’s ZK Rollup technology to launch an NFT trading platform called “Immutable X”.
Written by: Leo Young
StarkWare, famous for its zero-knowledge proof technology research and development, just introduced its upcoming STARK proof production platform Cairo at the “zkSummit 6” conference. People are full of expectations for this ZK Rollup expansion technology.
According to StarkWare’s introduction, DeversiFi, Immutable and dYdX will all adopt the Cairo-based framework using the ZK Rollup expansion technology developed by StarkWar. As we all know, DeversiFi and dYdX are well-known decentralized trading platforms, and another project called “Immutable” is obviously a new player worthy of attention.
In fact, Immutable is the development company of Gods Unchained, a famous card battle game product on Ethereum. This company is considering using the ZK Rollup expansion technology developed by StarkWar to launch an NFT trading platform called “Immutable X”.
In May of this year, Immutable and StarkWare reached a cooperation to find a solution to achieve efficient and low-cost NFT transactions, which led to the brand-new project Immutable X. Immutable X uses the StarkExchange trading engine to build the Ethereum Layer 2 asset trading platform. According to both parties, Immutable X will greatly increase the transaction scale, and the handling fee can be reduced to negligible. It aims to carry NFT large-scale transactions in the future and avoid the embarrassment of network congestion and transaction costs.
The NFT trading platform will also implement low-cost transactions on the second layer of the Ethereum network. Immutable X is the most noteworthy attempt in this direction.
May adopt
It is the first production-level platform used to generate STARK certificates for general calculations, with Turing completeness and high efficiency. Everything we develop is written in Cairo,
Cairo is the first production-level certification system that implements Turing’s complete von Neumann structure. Each Cairo program P and the data D it processes are stored in the memory of the virtual machine. Cairo’s single AIR can verify any Cairo program, so the verifier is also single, which can be in the form of smart contracts or WebAssembly programs. In other words, Cairo’s AIR can verify the calculation integrity of the program P running with the data D and the correctness of the system state after execution.
With Cairo, new business logic no longer requires a new smart contract, but only another Cairo program. As a result, the boundary between business logic and certification system is clearly defined.
The game developers behind Immutable X have a lot of background
Immutable X’s development company and Australian blockchain game company Immutable actually have a lot of background. In 2019, Immutable received US$15 million in Series A investment from funds such as Naspers, Galaxy Digital, Apex Capital, etc., specializing in the development of video game blockchain infrastructure.
The well-known Ethereum game Gods Unchained is an online card battle game product produced by Immutable. Gods Unchained is to Immutable what Hearthstone is to Blizzard, or Magic is to Wizards of the Coast.
According to nonfungible.com data, since the beginning of 2019, Gods Unchained’s total transaction volume exceeded US$4 million. This is a very proud achievement in the world of blockchain games.
Currently, there are 239 Gods Unchained NFT collections in the social token $Whale vault. WhaleShark owns more than 13,000 pieces.
Immutable X advantages
According to Immutable’s plan, the NFT trading platform Immutable X is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021. At present, Immutable X has released a version for developers and is open to all developers worldwide.
According to the official statement, the Immutable X platform has these characteristics:
- Increased scalability. Immutable X needs to support more than 200 million transactions per day, and the total daily transaction volume in Ethereum accounts for less than 30%. The transaction volume per second (tps) can reach 9000. The current Bitcoin TPS is 7, and the Ethereum TPS is 15. Immutable X is a qualitative leap in this respect.
- high speed. Ensure that the network is stable and reliable, and achieve real-time transactions. There is no delay in casting, trading, and trading.
- Transaction fees are reduced. Significantly reduce the gas fee generated when casting or trading assets, and there is no gas fee fluctuation.
- Self-hosted platform. Assets are completely owned by users. The asset no longer has trust risk.
- Free of worries about transaction fees. The transaction fee is open and transparent, and ordinary users can also bear it.
- Decentralization. No centralized control, no single point of failure, no native tokens.
- Trust-free transaction mode. Any property NFT is free to buy and sell.
- Support ERC-721 and ERC-20 tokens.
Why choose
Immutable X’s Layer 2 solution uses the popular ZK Rollup as the solution. With so many Layer 2 solutions, why choose ZK Rollup? Let’s make a detailed comparison below.
The side chain is independent of the Ethereum main chain and runs in parallel with the Ethereum main chain. The side chain has its own verifier and consensus calculation, and communicates and trades with the main chain through bridges. The side chain greatly reduces the computational pressure of the main network, and has advantages such as low cost and short development time. However, due to the independent operation of the side chain, security is completely separated from the Ethereum main chain. Most sidechains have few validators and weak consensus mechanism, which is prone to asset security issues. Matic, Axie Infinity’s Ronin and xDai use side chains as a two-layer solution.
Related reading: Rollup has become the main force of Ethereum expansion, what is the use of sidechain?
Plasma is another side chain that uses smart contracts and Merkel trees to attach to the main chain to establish numerous sub-chains. Under the premise of ensuring that the sub-chain has the same security as the Ethereum main chain, increase the interaction and communication between the sub-chains. Solve the Plasma security problem, while reducing the main chain congestion. Since Plasma uses “fraud poof”, in order to ensure asset security, the side chain withdrawing assets to the Ethereum main chain has a lock-up period, which is generally seven to fourteen days, which is not friendly to users of high-frequency trading of small assets. Plasma currently has four versions: Plasma Cash, Plasma Debit, Plasma Prime and Plasma MVP.
Related reading: Graphic and text explain the operation principle of Plasma Cash, the Ethereum payment solution
The state channel is a general expansion scheme for locking assets to smart contracts, with good privacy and immediacy. However, transactions require smart contract multi-signature participants to simultaneously verify online, and transactions require participants to update verification multiple times. For NFT transactions, frequent transaction verification means high transaction fees. In addition, there is a risk of multi-signature participant agent attack. Enjin’s Efinity and Raiden currently use state channels.
Optimistic Rollups (ORs) are another Layer 2 solution based on the underlying Ethereum network. Similar to Plasma, but instead of using unlimited sub-chain scalability, it uses OVM (Optimistic Virtual Machine) compatible with EVM. The reason why it is called “Optimistic”, there is no proof of the transaction submitted in advance, and the default is “reasonable”. Anyone can submit a “proof of fraud.” OR general operation is flexible, storage on the data link, good user experience. But like Plasma, NFT transactions have a long waiting time, network throughput is limited compared to other solutions, and there are security concerns. Optimism of Synthetix, a synthetic asset platform, chose Optimistic Rollup as an expansion plan.
Related Reading: A Stone from Other Hills丨Optimistic Rollup Expansion Dilemma: Capital Efficiency and Security Difficulties
ZK Rollup is a two-layer network solution that aggregates multiple transactions into a single transaction. It uses SNARK or STARK zero-knowledge proof algorithm to prove the validity of the block. ZK Rollups can process thousands of transactions per second, and performance can continue to improve in the future. ZK Rollup has low transaction fees, is faster than Optimistic Rollup and Plasma, is decentralized, has better throughput and scalability, and requires no fraud proof.
The challenge of Rollup is to directly import the logic of the smart contract, so currently there are only simple functions such as transactions and transfers. The CAIRO framework currently developed by the StarkWare team will help ZK Rollup achieve general computing. DeversiFi and dYdX are also developed based on CAIRO.
In summary, ZK Rollup is the best choice for Immutable X as the NFT Layer 2 network solution. Curve and the Matter Labs team also recently launched the ZK Rollup Layer 2 network solution.
Related reading: Ethereum expansion track has a new solution Zkopru: How will the combination of zk-SNARK and Optimistic Rollup achieve privacy expansion?
The future of NFT
NFT is limited by the low performance and high cost of the blockchain network, and it is difficult to carry the high-frequency large-scale market, let alone becoming popular, and is accepted by ordinary users. The Ethereum ecosystem is also constantly seeking solutions to such problems.
Immutable X adopts the most concise and effective technical solution to build the infrastructure for the future.
The trading liquidity of built-in props in PC and mobile games is low, exchange and transaction channels are limited, and users are highly dependent on the platform. On-chain games are more conducive to safe and convenient transactions. All game assets are open and transparent. Assets are completely personal assets of the user. With the development of the NFT on the chain and the game ecology, the underlying technology continues to improve, the transaction model is convenient, the ownership is personal, the issuance is open and transparent, and the development of communityization, all of which will change the mode of the game industry. NFT also has good reasons for explosive growth. Immutable X is preparing for the future.
According to Statista data, the total global revenue of PC games in 2020 will be 37 billion US dollars, and the total revenue of mobile games will be 77 billion US dollars. At present, the total NFT sales of Ethereum to date are only 135 million US dollars. The technological development of Immutable X is brewing to meet the potential of the NFT game asset market.
