This report was written with Eddy and Daniel from Sooho. Also special thanks to Clara from M3TA Labs for building the amazing data dashboard.
There are many zkEVM projects (i.e. zkSync Era, Scroll, Polygon zkEVM, Starknet, Kroma, Linea) being built on Ethereum to scale the blockchain's largest ecosystem in a secure manner. This space has seen rapid advancements in the past year, both technically and from a business perspective, with the expansion of rollups leading to services like Roll-up-as-a-Service.
One of the players in this space is zkSync Era, which focuses on providing open-source code and has been transparent about their development. Also, Matterlabs’ next milestone is improving the codebase but also launching ZK-Stack to provide projects to launch their own rollups. This movement can be observed as companies like GRVT are preparing to launch a hybrid exchange using ZK-Stack. However, when trying to delve into the architecture of zkSync Era, it can be quite difficult to understand.
As I participated in Code4rena's zkSync Era audit and worked with Sooho to analyze its architecture, we have written this developer report to provide a high-level understanding of zkSync Era's architecture.
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zkRollup is emerging as a major pillar of layer 2 solutions, leveraging the technical advantages of zero-knowledge proofs. It is particularly impressive that Ethereum, which has the largest ecosystem, has officially chosen zkRollup as the direction for its layer 2 rollup. Additionally, Bitcoin is also seeking to achieve scalability by utilizing zkRollup. Following the emergence of Optimistic Rollup, zkRollup has been rapidly growing, offering advantages such as faster processing and lower operational costs. Let's take an in-depth look at zkRollup from its basics to the current market status and future prospects.
Initia’s future growth plans include the launch of its mainnet and the development of various DeFi, social, and NFT projects, potentially positioning it as a favorable option for launching rollups due to its user-centric and interconnected infrastructure.
Arbitrum and Optimism are striving to improve the technological aspects of fraud proof, while other projects are also implementing interesting approaches. Let's walk through their current activities and ongoing developments.
Currently, most of L2 projects rely on a single sequencer. Metis, as the first L2 chain to decentralize its sequencer structure, has been resolving structural issues stemming from dependency on such single-sequencer structure.
