Ethereum second-tier ecological update: zkSync launched a more efficient expansion plan, Celer and StarkWare cooperated, OKEx will support Arbitrum.
Written by: Pan Zhixiong
The Layer 2 ecosystem of Ethereum also maintained a good high-speed development in April this year. Polygon is the network that promotes the fastest cooperation implementation. Many large-scale DeFi protocols on Layer 1 have selected them as test sites.
Regarding whether users can use L2 smoothly, there is still a particularly noteworthy development. As a mainstream cryptocurrency exchange, OKEx has announced that it will support the recharge and withdrawal of the Arbitrum network , which cryptocurrency exchanges will follow up to support in the future, and the exchange will also support several Layer 2 networks, which will directly affect user experience.
If the user can go directly from the L2 network exchange, transfer funds L2 network, use DeFi business, eventually can return to achieve and currency exchange trading method, this will be more complete closed-loop experience, because there is no contact with price The high L1.
However, a contradictory place that have propped up the mainstream exchange their public ecological chain, if direct support Ethernet Square L2 network, whether it is possible to make the user’s assets returned to the Ethernet Square? After all, this will reduce the user’s cost of use by at least one to two orders of magnitude, and the security of the Ethereum network is more advantageous.
I believe it is not so easy decision, taking into account the currency Ann and fire a lot of money invested Square Layer2 Ethernet solutions, as well as Layer2 network (especially Rollup) throughput and costs paid by users may still not as good as BSC Like HECO , the exchange public chain still has a lot of traffic and competitive advantages.
However, from the perspective of user experience, I still hope that all cryptocurrency exchanges can learn OKEx as soon as possible and put the support of Ethereum L2 on the agenda. Next, let’s review the important progress of each team and ecology in the last month one by one.
Optimism: The network is created again, ENS demonstrates MVP
Optimism network in April were the main network for the testing phase of a comprehensive Genesis (Regenesis) again, because the team said, “to preserve the historical transaction may be at risk, or the best way to carry out Regenesis network.” And be affected that Synthetix, although the impact is negligible, “transaction records before Regenesis will no longer be retained, while the previous state of the data network will be fully deployed to the creation of a new block of Optimism.”
In addition, Uniswap has stated that it will launch the V3 version on Optimism around May 15, but when the L1 version of V3 was released this time, the official did not mention any progress on L2, so it is not clear whether the progress of Optimism is. Affected the L2 deployment plan of Uniswap V3.
Finally, as a domain name service ENS Square Ethernet network, they lead developer Nick Johnson presentation seminar in how to resolve the domain name on Optimism ENS minimize viable product (MVP), shows a layer of two different applications and A new system for trustless communication between layer solutions. The system is based on the idea of Vitalik Buterin, which enables users to store records on L2 and support updates to ENS data without having to pay for Ethereum Gas. Nick Johnson said that in the future, it will continue to develop and build a standard version that supports ENS and other projects.
Arbitrum (Offchain Labs): Supported by the integration of mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges, the mainnet will be open to developers on May 28
Ouyi OKEx announced that it is cooperating with Offchain Labs, the R&D team of the Ethereum expansion network Arbitrum , and will support its users to directly deposit and withdraw on the Arbitrum mainnet without interacting with Ethereum Layer 1, and without Ethereum Gas fees. European trade OKEx said the partnership will ease congestion Square Ethernet ecosystem and to promote Rollup focused development plans Ethernet Square.
In addition, when DEX aggregation platform ParaSwap completed the $3 million seed expansion round, it said that the team hopes to use the new funds to support other blockchains such as Avalanche, Arbitrum and Fantom, as well as Layer 2 networks such as ZkSync and Optimism.
Arbitrum finally announced the main network time, it will be open to developers May 28 the main network, test network will be open tomorrow. Sequencer has been added to both the Arbitrum mainnet and this testnet. Offchain Labs stated that this mainnet launch will not provide any rewards to first-comers and will only be open to developers in the early stage.
zkSync (Matter Labs): Will launch a lower cost expansion solution zkPorter, and open part of the token economics
Matter Labs made a lot of noise in April. It not only disclosed the technical details of zkPorter and part of the token economics for the first time, but also got in touch with Vitalik Buterin.
zkPorter is a more significant solution than zkSync. TPS can far exceed zkSync. It will be launched on the Ethereum mainnet at the same time as zkSync 2.0. The zkPorter account can be directly traded with the zkSync account, while zkPorter only needs to pay zkSync 1% Transaction fees.
The compromise made is also obvious. Rollup, which takes advantage of the data availability of the Ethereum main chain, is degraded to data availability that does not depend on Ethereum ‘s Validium , so it only needs to publish an update on Ethereum for thousands of transactions. can.
How to ensure data availability is left to the token holders of zkSync (they call them Guardians) to ensure that the data availability of the zkPorter account is confirmed by signing the block, so as to track the status on zkPorter, and the guardian uses zkSync token participates in the proof of PoS . From their perspective, they believe that zkPorter is a safer solution than Optimism.
But shortly after the opinion was published, Vitalik Buterin fought back. He said, “I don’t think zkPorter has stronger security guarantees than Optimistic Rollup. I would rather put assets in Optimistic Rollup instead of off-chain data availability system. chain .zkPorter availability data security level is lower than the foundation chain, and no tightly coupled (tight coupling). On the other hand, the availability of the data sub-layer will be protected throughout the sheet Square Ethernet network, and both tightly coupled. It is also possible for some applications to use off-chain data availability at the same time, but the premise is that off-chain data is clearly a temporary measure before shard-based data availability is available, but I don’t think this is necessary.”
Later, in a Layer 2 offline event (” Interview with V italik Buterin: A Brief Introduction to the Differences and Trade-offs of Ethereum Layer 2 Solutions such as Rollup “), Vitalik Buterin also expressed this view again, and in his opinion the zkSync 2.0 provides this after the kind of Turing-complete zero-knowledge proof system is still very early, there may be many unknown vulnerabilities and risks, it is recommended that developers can prefer Optimistic Rollup program, but he also believes ZK Rollup will be the future more perfect scenario, it may be a few years .
StarkNet (StarkWare): The trading volume exceeded US$1 billion, and the NFT exchange version has been launched
The total transaction volume of the three decentralized exchanges (dYdX, DeversiFi, Immutable) supported by StarkEx, the expanded version of StarkNet ’s exchange, has exceeded $1 billion, of which about 75% of the transaction volume is through the StarkEx Rollup method (dYdX), 25 % Through the StarkEx Validium method (DeversiFi and Immutable).
At the same time, the Immutable X trading market, which is driven by StarkEx and focuses on NFT transactions, has released an Alpha version. It first supports blockchain card game Gods Unchained players to trade “Trial of the Gods” cards, and will support other projects in the future.
Loopring: The iOS version of the smart wallet is online, and the bridge Ethport is launched
Loopring Agreement announced that it will launch Ethport , a bridge product that spans Layer 1, Layer 2 and CEX. Ethport will be available in the Loopring 3.7 version released in May. Specifically, using Ethport can enable Loopring ZK Rollup users to directly interact with Layer 1 DApp from Layer 2 at low cost through batch processing and zero-knowledge proof functions; support cross-Layer 2 transfers; CEX can directly use the standard Layer 1 interface Transfer to Loopring ZK Rollup , while still saving Layer 2 costs.
Also another way of printing product line smart wallet contract has finally launched the iOS version, providing social recovery, without having to worry about losing keys, daily limits and white list functions.
Polygon: Another batch of DeFi agreement support, launch of a $100 million DeFi fund
The sidechain network Polygon (formerly Matic Network) continues to promote cooperation with various projects, agreements, and tools, such as:
DeFi aggregation platform Instadapp
Decentralized prediction market protocol PlotX
Stablecoin aggregation protocol mStable
Wallet and data tool DeBank
Stablecoin Exchange Curve
On-chain derivatives protocol Opium
Ethereum Push Service EPNS
DeFi platform Stake DAO
And more.
In addition, Polygon also plans to launch a US$100 million DeFi fund ” DFIForAll Fund “, which will support DeFi projects in the next two to three years to improve DeFi’s adoption rate, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness.
Connext: Cooperating with The Graph to launch the micro-transaction solution Scalar
The state channel is very suitable for small payments, so Connext and the blockchain data index project The Graph Foundation announced the launch of a scalable microtransaction solution Scalar , which can quickly charge lower GRT query fees in the The Graph network. Scalar is constructed based on Connext’s real-time two-tier transfer application Vector, and uses state channels to aggregate and compress transactions before finalization on the chain. The Graph network will use Scalar to handle all query transactions between indexers and consumers.
Scalar is jointly developed by Connext, The Graph Foundation and Edge&Node. The Graph stated that the number of queries on its hosting services exceeded 14 billion in February and 19 billion in March, an increase of more than 100 times since January 2020.
Celer: In cooperation with StarkWare, the first version of Layer2.finance goes live on the mainnet
After the introduction of Layer2.Finance program, Celer announced that it would zero-knowledge proof and research institutions StarkWare reached cooperation, both sides will use StarkWare of Cairo programming language for Layer2.finance development based on zero knowledge proof ZK Rollup version.
In addition, the two sides are still exploring L2 consensus, StarkWare StarkNet will use its network of state and Celer Guardian Network (State Guardian Network) as Layer2.finance of decentralized operating layer ZK Rollup version of the plan the fastest this summer It will be launched later.
The first mainnet version (v0.1) of Layer2.Finance has also been launched. The first DeFi protocols supported are Compound, AAVE and Curve. Celer said that in the near future it plans to increase support for Cream, Liquity, yEarn, DODO, Mirror, Alpha Finance, SushiSwap, Uniswap, BarnBridge and 1Inch.
Aztec: Anonymous Rollup network adds support for DAI
Aztec announced that its privacy Rollup service zk.money has supported DAI transactions, allowing users to encrypt (shield) and transfer zkDAI.
Hermez: Airdrop in progress
Hermez launched the first drop plans for the ninth round Gitcoin donors dropped HEZ tokens, the total of more than 12,000 accounts each account award 10 HEZ, as long as Gitcoin ninth round donated more than $ 1 that is Yes, only MetaMask wallet is supported. Hermez said that other types of airdrops will be carried out in the future.
Alternative L2 solution: NEAR’s EVM compatible chain Aurora has been launched
In addition to the typical L2 scheme, there are some alternative side chains or L2 schemes worthy of attention.
For example, the open network NEAR Protocol announced the official launch of its EVM solution Aurora , which can provide a set of overall solutions for developers seeking to expand their Ethereum DApp applications to reach other markets.
Aurora runs on NEAR and utilizes many unique features of NEAR, such as sharding and developer gas fee rewards. It includes two core components: Aurora engine runtime , which developers can use to seamlessly deploy Solidity and Vyper smart contracts; Aurora bridge, Based on the Rainbow Bridge technology, it can provide license transfer and data transfer services between Ethereum and Aurora without permission.
NEAR team said, Aurora solve the ecological challenges of the current Ethernet Square and the future of computing and storage are facing, and can save developers to reuse and engineering contracts and in terms of intelligent front-end code and other inputs.
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