How will the privacy-focused Layer2 project Manta Pacific differentiate itself as a newcomer in the competition against zk Rollups?

The privacy zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) project, Manta Network, has recently been very active and has seen significant growth in on-chain data. What is Manta Pacific, the Layer2 network launched by the team this year? Why are they conducting a large-scale reward program at this time? And why are they migrating to Polygon CDK? This article will provide a detailed explanation.

This article does not constitute investment advice.

Manta Pacific: New Developments

Active Team Initiatives

In July this year, the Manta team announced the launch of the Layer2 network, began internal testing of the Manta Pacific mainnet in September, integrated LayerZero cross-chain services in November, and announced the integration of Celestia as the network's data availability layer DA this month, preparing to transition from the OP ecosystem to the Polygon CDK ecosystem.

In terms of marketing, the team has recently launched several promotional activities. In addition to the recent rewards program to promote Manta Pacific's native ETH and USDC earnings similar to the Blast model, there have also been multiple rounds of raffles to encourage user participation in their Layer2 ecosystem.

In July of this year, the team announced a $25 million Series A investment, which is a relatively large cryptocurrency financing case for 2023.

Growth in On-chain Data

Recently, there has been significant growth in on-chain data for Manta Pacific. According to Etherscan, their cross-chain bridge fuel consumption has been among the top ten protocols on Ethereum in recent times.

On the other hand, Manta Pacific's on-chain TVL has soared from $30 million to approximately $150 million in the past ten days, an increase of nearly five times, currently ranking eleventh among all L2 networks.

Introduction to the Manta Ecosystem

To understand the recent on-chain data changes for Manta Pacific, it is necessary to clarify the roles within its ecosystem and then examine how the team positions itself to better assess the fundamental reasons for the changes in on-chain data.

The Manta ecosystem currently has two main products:

• Manta Atlantic based on the Polkadot ecosystem
• Manta Pacific based on the OP Stack ecosystem

Originating from the Polkadot Ecosystem: Manta Atlantic

Manta Atlantic utilizes zero-knowledge proof technology zkSNARKs to provide privacy protection for transfers and any on-chain transaction activities at Layer1, and is built on the Polkadot ecosystem, having participated in crowdfunding.

Manta Atlantic provides a privacy-protected underlying network. Unlike the application-level approach of Tornado, Manta Atlantic incorporates zero-knowledge proof functionality at the network consensus level, providing developers with easy access to privacy transaction features, without the need to handle any cryptographic work, thereby accelerating the application development of network privacy.

For example, Manta Atlantic provides the zkAddress standard, offering developers a simple way to use privacy DID standards and libraries in their services or protocols.

Later Entrant with ZK Rollups: Manta Pacific

Considering the stagnation in the Polkadot ecosystem's development and the gradual improvement of Layer2 development tools, the Manta team announced in July this year that they would build a Layer2 network based on the OP Stack—Manta Pacific—and refer to the original parallel chain network in the Polkadot ecosystem as Manta Atlantic.

Manta Pacific encapsulates ZK technology, providing developers with an alternative zero-knowledge proof solution. At the current stage, Manta Pacific modularizes the zero-knowledge proof technology from the original Manta Atlantic and applies existing OP Stack and Celestia to rapidly build a competitive network, bringing existing zero-knowledge proof privacy encryption technology to Ethereum developers for use on the Manta Pacific network, enabling developers to easily develop zero-knowledge proof-related applications using Solidity, without having to wait for the development process of zkEVM.

For developers, this represents an alternative zero-knowledge proof solution distinct from ZK Stack or Starknet Stack.

Manta Pacific Roadmap

Manta Pacific's roadmap consists of four stages, aiming to build a privacy network based on zero-knowledge proof and create new potential application scenarios for smart contracts:

Phase One: Mainnet Launch Completed

Using OP Stack to establish an Ethereum-compatible network, providing developers with a Solidity development environment and Universal Circuits module, calling ZK application libraries and APIs, allowing developers without a background in zero-knowledge proof technology to easily test and deploy DAPPs with zero-knowledge proof functionality, with the goal of establishing an ecosystem based on Manta zkSBT and zkShuffle Universal Circuits.

The Manta Pacific network will have a significant development advantage over Starkware and Aztec in this regard. The latter has redesigned domain-specific languages DSL such as Cario and Noir for zero-knowledge proof applications, which is not conducive to attracting developers, while Manta Pacific uses OP Stack Bedrock's library to achieve EVM equivalence, allowing for the development of zero-knowledge proof applications using Solidity.

Phase Two: Integration of External DA Completed

Manta Pacific will integrate Celestia's modular data availability layer to achieve more efficient network performance.

Phase Three: Transition to Polygon CDKCompleted

The goal of the third phase is to transition the Manta Pacific architecture from OP Stack to Polygon CDK. Manta Pacific will be able to leverage the stable and secure zero-knowledge proof technology of CDK, enhancing network finality speed and security, and will also be able to use its existing ZK cross-chain bridge.

By using the Polygon CDK modular architecture, Manta Pacific can maintain its core advantages—Universal Circuits modules—while strengthening other aspects of the network foundation.

Phase Four: Universal Circuits 2.0

Manta Pacific will further optimize Universal Circuits to reduce the gas fees required for functions and support more use cases. It will also support account abstraction technology, providing a better user experience for the network.

Specifically, the plan is to integrate ZK proofs to significantly reduce the cost of generating zero-knowledge proofs and uploading them to the mainnet, while increasing transaction processing throughput. Additionally, it will natively integrate more smart contract use cases, providing a more powerful and comprehensive codebase for the network.

Manta's Goal is to Enable Non-existent Applications

Although Manta may seem like just another project launching its own Layer2 network to seize the recent hot spot, its strategy is clear:

Manta Pacific retains its flagship Universal Circuits module and utilizes modular facilities including OP Stack, Polygon CDK, and Celestia to construct a competitive and secure network. Before the development of zkEVM technology is complete, it is seizing the market, providing an alternative privacy encryption development tool, and currently has a certain degree of advantage.

However, even though Manta Pacific's virtual machine is EVM-compatible, there are still significant challenges to overcome in attracting existing Web3 ecosystem users and developers to transition to its network. Whether its recent ecosystem rewards and potential future airdrop rewards can continue to attract users remains to be seen and verified by the market.

This article does not constitute investment advice.