This issue of the Ethereum Layer 2 ecological report will focus on StarkWare’s launch of StarkNet, and Aztec’s launch of Rollup-specific software protocols and cross-Layer 2 liquidity solution Connext.
Written by: Pan Zhixiong
The original three-legged Ethereum Rollup ecosystem finally ushered in a fourth strong competitor. Although StarkWare has been developing expansion solutions related to ZK Rollup and zk-STARK technologies, the StarkNet launched this time is systematic Explained their ZK Rollup plan, advantages and path.
This means that the most powerful ecosystem in the Ethereum Rollup expansion plan will be divided into two major gangs: “ZK Gang” (Matter Labs and StarkWare) and “Optimism” (Optimism and Offchain Labs).
Although there are two teams working on the same gang, the specific technologies are still slightly different: in the ZK Rollup scheme, the core difference between Matter Labs (zkSync) and StarkWare (StarkNet) is that the zero-knowledge proof technology uses zk-SNARK and zk-STARK; In the Optimistic Rollup scheme, the core difference between Optimism (OVM) and Offchain Labs (Arbitrum Rollup) is that the scheme of the fraud proof mechanism is different (single-round interaction and multi-round interaction).
In addition, various Layer 2 solutions are also continuing to iterate and introduce new concepts, such as Aztec and Connext that have not spoken for a long time.
StarkWare (StarkNet)
At the end of January, the zero-knowledge proof research organization StarkWare stated that it will develop a Layer 2 expansion network based on the ZK Rollup concept for Ethereum, named StarkNet, and at the same time disclosed a detailed roadmap, and will gradually achieve decentralization in a four-step manner To optimize and improve the application ecology.
In fact, StarkWare has previously launched a complete Layer 2 solution Volition (Validium), and has cooperated with multiple institutions to launch StarkEx technology specifically for exchange scenarios. dYdX, DeversiFi and Immutable are its partners.
Therefore, it can also be understood that StarkEx is only a specific application scenario of StarkNet. It is used by StarkWare to test the water based on STARK’s Rollup technology, which can be used in complex transaction logic (spot, derivatives, NFT) and transfer scenarios.
Extended reading: “Challenge all Rollup expansion plans, what are the advantages of StarkNet? 》
In addition, StarkWare also released the concept of DeFi Pooling, which reduces the transaction cost of Layer 1 through aggregating transactions.
Extended reading: “Understanding DeFi Pooling in Three Minutes: Providing Scalability for Existing L1 Projects”
Offchain Labs (Arbitrum Rollup)
The Ethereum expansion program Arbitrum Rollup development team Offchain Labs has disclosed more projects in its ecology. The first batch of applications include the centralized trading protocol Bancor, the decentralized auction tool Bounce.finance, the automatic market maker Burgerswap, Hop Protocol, and decentralization. Perpetual contract exchange MCDEX and decentralized exchange Swapr.
In addition, the decentralized perpetual contract exchange MCDEX also wrote an article explaining why they chose Arbitrum Rollup. In their view, the Arbitrum solution has lower chain costs, higher technology maturity, and more developer friendly.
Extended reading: “The choice of MCDEX V3 expansion plan: Optimistic Rollup or ZKRollup? 》
Optimism (Optimistic Rollup)
Optimism’s Optimistic Rollup has been launched on the Ethereum main network. Although it has very limited functions and only launched a few functions in cooperation with Synthetix, there are still a lot of funds that are gradually migrated to the Layer 2 network. The current migration volume is about 1 Billion dollars, it only took 15 days.
Extended reading: How is the Synthetix experience of Optimism’s Layer 2 version? 》
Aztec (ZK² Rollup)
Although the Aztec team also adopted the ZK Rollup solution, their difference lies in their focus on privacy.
They announced their cooperation with StarkWare last month and launched a special software agreement (Software License) version 1.0 of Polaris for zero-knowledge proof applications (prover-verifier paradigm), similar to the concept of GPL, and specific scenarios are used in (ZK) Rollup related applications.
Extended reading: “Introducing Polaris”
Matter Labs (zkSync)
There are no new developments in the Matter Labs team and ecology for the time being.
Cross-Layer 2 bridge solution
In addition to the infrastructure of Layer 2, in fact, some surrounding protocols in the Layer 2 field are also more and more worthy of attention, in order to provide a more complete and user experience solution.
When the major Ethereum Layer 2 expansion networks are iterating and building ecosystems at a rapid rate, the problem of liquidity isolation between the various Layer 2 networks has gradually been exposed. How to easily transfer assets between different networks has become a very important special topic.
Connext
The Vector technology developed by the Connext team, which has been conquering state channel technology before, is currently the most important solution in this field. By building fast state channels between different Layer 2 networks, you can quickly migrate at very low cost. Assets, improve the efficiency of the network.
At present, their real-time Layer 2 transfer application Vector has released version 0.1.0 on the Ethereum mainnet, and will concentrate on promoting the adoption of Layer 2 network applications. Former developers can integrate Vector into their applications or protocols to realize micropayments. Connext said that this marks the beginning of the Ethereum multi-chain ecosystem, where users can seamlessly interact with wallets and applications running on a variety of different layer 2 networks and shards.
Extended reading: “Avoid the Rollup battlefield, Connext chooses to use the state channel to get through the Layer 2 “Island””
Celer
Similarly, Celer, a professional team researching state channels, also said that similar products will be launched. They stated in the 2021 roadmap that they will implement state channel technology that can increase liquidity between Layer 2.
Celer said that in the short and medium term, the Ethereum expansion solution Rollup is the best solution to increase the throughput on the chain before sharding. However, the interaction between each Layer 2 network and between the second and the first network usually has Very long delays and poor user experience, Celer plans to solve such challenges and realize real-time and instant transactions between Rollup and Rollup and the first-tier network.
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