What technological innovations does zkSync have? Why does it have the potential to impact the existing Rollups ecosystem?

Following the growth and market hype brought by the Starknet airdrop event, zkSync, another zero-knowledge proof ZK architecture, has begun to attract attention from the community. Cryptocurrency researcher Haotian has written an article explaining its future advantages and opportunities.

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This article is not investment advice.

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Why zkSync is Worth Anticipating?

Recently, the massive airdrop by Starknet has once again drawn attention to the development of ZK Layer2, with most of the focus falling on zkSync. But what is the current status of its development? Is there anything beyond token issuance to look forward to in terms of narrative or technological innovation?

In conclusion, as the dominant force in ZK-Rollups, zkSync actually holds advantages in various data indicators, including security, community collaborations, user experience enhancements, and stack architecture, making it relatively strong.

However, the team has not yet expressed any plans to issue tokens.

zk-Rollups: More Secure and Faster

The technical debate between OP-Rollups and ZK-Rollups has been a focal point in the past year or two. Although ZK-Rollups have the advantage of no seven-day challenge period, in reality, users only feel the settlement of the transaction status when withdrawing funds from Layer2, and most on-chain transactions, whether OP-Rollups or ZK-Rollups, do not differ much in user experience.

Haotian believes that the OP-Rollups camp has somewhat relaxed on the critical security mechanism of the seven-day challenge, and there have been few actual cases challenging fraud proofs, with much work still unfinished. In contrast, ZK-Rollups' advantage in security mechanisms is inherent, making asset security a technical strength of zkSync.

zkSync: Fuel Costs Decrease with Transaction Volume

After the upgrade to the boojum version, zkSync implemented STARK proof forms and realized the vision that fuel costs decrease as transaction volume increases, boasting the lowest transaction fees among the four major Layer2 solutions, including Arbitrum, Optimism, and Starknet.

At the time of the zkSync network release, while the fuel costs on other platforms increased to varying degrees with the influx of traffic, zkSync's TPS soared, and there was even a decrease in fuel costs.

Did the network crash due to the release? Why did the core developers celebrate the technological breakthrough?

Furthermore, after the Cancun upgrade injects Blob blocks into applications, it will further enhance zkSync's advantage of low fuel costs. Because ZK Layer2 does not need to store all original data on the main network, the released storage space will store a larger amount of compressed SNARK proofs, which will further increase the TPS of ZK Layer2 to the main network, thereby reducing the fuel costs compared to OP Layer2.

Although the Prover system also has certain cost factors, with continued algorithm optimization and hardware acceleration of lightweight solutions like RiscZero and ProjectZKM, these costs will continue to decrease.

In summary, in terms of data compression possibilities and ZK hardware acceleration, ZK-Rollups have more dominance in cost control; OP-Rollups, on the other hand, rely more on DA design, making them less imaginative in expected fuel cost reductions compared to ZK-Rollups.

zkSync Focuses on User Experience

Do not think that zkSync is just a team focused solely on technology. You can often hear a lot about keywords such as Account Abstraction, Paymaster for fuel subsidies, and user experience on their official Twitter and Space live streams.

Account abstraction has always been a key development technology for zkSync. Based on the Paymaster Function, project parties can directly subsidize users for fuel costs, and in the future, many projects may start a subsidy war based on this, along with other account abstraction technologies, which may stimulate ecosystem development.

Hyperchain Seizes High-Frequency Trading Scenarios

The Layer3 Hyperchain launched by zkSync and the Superchain strongly supported by Optimism are both part of the Stack strategy and are strategies to enhance their brand presence.

However, SuperChain is currently focusing on the Layer2 strategic alliance, aiming to build many new Layer2 projects based on the OP Stack technology open-source framework, ultimately achieving a super chain structure through shared sequencers.

In contrast, the Hyperchain architecture is more flexible and can advance both Layer2 and Layer3 simultaneously. By expanding the ally demand for the Prover system with the Layer2 strategy, and then seizing the high-frequency trading application market in games and other applications with a higher-level Layer3 application chain.

The application chain market is crucial for zero-knowledge proof technology because it may not have an advantage in low-frequency scenarios like finance, but when the usage scenario shifts to high-interaction applications like games and communities, its advantages of low fuel costs and high efficiency can be highlighted.

Token Narratives Activate Technological Innovation

The slow development of the zero-knowledge proof ecosystem has long been criticized, stemming from high ZK circuit technology thresholds, cognitive gaps in data structures, and algorithm optimizations, leading to relatively lagging development in related applications and user experiences.

Starknet's move to introduce tokens is accelerating the resolution of this challenge, and if zkSync, with similar fundamentals, were to issue its own tokens in the future, it could leverage these advantages to showcase the technological innovation value behind the slow development in the market.

Although the team has not committed to issuing tokens at present, it can be anticipated how zkSync will use its cards in hand to play out the strongest growth strategy and challenge the market landscape.

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This article is not investment advice.