After the growth and market focus brought by the Starknet airdrop, zkSync, another zero-knowledge proof (ZK) framework, has started to gain attention from the community. Cryptocurrency researcher Haotian has written an article explaining its future advantages and opportunities.
Why is zkSync worth looking forward to? zk-Rollups are more secure and faster. The fuel cost of zkSync decreases as the transaction volume increases. zkSync focuses on user experience. Hyperchain aims to occupy the high-frequency trading scene. Token narrative technology innovation.
Recently, the massive airdrop by Starknet has brought attention back to the development of ZK Layer2, and most of the focus has fallen on zkSync. However, what is the current status of its development? Is there anything worth looking forward to besides token issuance, such as narrative or technological innovation?
OP-Rollups and ZK-Rollups have been the focus of technical debates in the past one or two years. Although the advantage of ZK-Rollups is the absence of a seven-day challenge period, users only feel the settlement of transactions when withdrawing funds from Layer2. For most on-chain transactions, there is not much difference in user experience between OP-Rollups and ZK-Rollups.
Haotian believes that the OP-Rollups camp has been somewhat lax in terms of the key security mechanism of the seven-day challenge, and there have been few cases of challenging fraud proofs. Many tasks are still incomplete. In contrast, the advantage of ZK-Rollups in terms of security mechanisms is inherent, and asset security has become zkSync’s technical advantage.
After the boojum upgrade, zkSync implemented the STARK proof form and realized the vision of lower fuel costs with larger transaction volumes. It has the lowest transaction fees among the four major Layer2 solutions (Arbitrum, Optimism, Starknet).
When zkSync’s network announcement was released, while the fuel costs of other platforms increased with the influx of traffic, zkSync’s TPS reached a new high at that time, and even the fuel costs decreased.
In addition, after the Cancun upgrade, when the Blob block is put into application, it will further enhance the advantage of low fuel costs in zkSync. Because ZK Layer2 does not need to store all the original data on the mainnet, the released storage space can be used to store a larger amount of compressed SNARK proof. This will further improve the TPS of ZK Layer2 transmitted to the mainnet, resulting in lower fuel costs compared to OP Layer2.
Although the Prover system also has certain cost factors, with the continuous algorithm optimization and hardware acceleration of lightweight solutions such as RiscZero and ProjectZKM, these costs will continue to decrease.
In conclusion, both data compression possibilities and ZK hardware acceleration give ZK-Rollups more control over costs, while OP-Rollups, on the other hand, rely more on DA design, making it less competitive than ZK-Rollups in terms of fuel cost reduction expectations.
Don’t think that zkSync is just a team that focuses solely on technology. You can often hear key terms such as account abstraction, Paymaster fuel payment, and user experience on their official Twitter and Space broadcasts.
Account abstraction has always been a key development technology for zkSync. Based on the Paymaster function, project parties can directly subsidize users’ fuel costs. In the future, many projects may launch subsidy battles based on this, coupled with other account abstraction technologies, which may stimulate ecosystem development.
The Layer3 Hyperchain launched by zkSync and the Superchain strongly supported by Optimism are both part of the Stack strategy, which is a strategy used to enhance their brand image.
However, the current focus of SuperChain is on the Layer2 strategic alliance, aiming to build new Layer2 projects based on the open-source framework of OP Stack technology and ultimately achieve a super chain structure through shared sequencers.
In contrast, the Hyperchain architecture is more flexible and can simultaneously promote Layer2 and Layer3. By expanding the allies with a high demand for Prover systems using the Layer2 strategy, and then seizing the application market for high-frequency transactions such as games with higher-level Layer3 application chains.
The application market is crucial for zero-knowledge proof technology because it may not have an advantage in low-frequency scenarios such as finance, but when the usage scenario becomes high-interaction applications such as games and communities, its advantages of low fuel costs and high efficiency can be highlighted.
The slow development of zero-knowledge proof ecology has always been criticized, stemming from the high technical barriers of ZK circuit technology and the cognitive gap in data structures and algorithm optimization, resulting in relatively backward application development and user experience.
Starknet’s move to introduce tokens is accelerating the solution to this problem, and if zkSync, which has similar fundamentals, also issues its own tokens in the future, it can leverage these advantages and showcase the value of technological innovation behind the slow development of the market.
Although the team has not committed to issuing tokens at present, we can expect how zkSync will use its cards to play the strongest growth strategy and challenge the market landscape.