L2: current situation, prospects and pain points of ZK Rollup

L2：ZK-Rollup The status quo of , Prospects and pain points

background

lately , image Solana and BNB Chain Such a popular first 1 layer (L1), Because they run simultaneously on their respective networks DeFi agreement 、NFT Market and Web3 The game caused network interruption . A similar , Ethereum is also due to network congestion and expensive gas The cost is constantly criticized . Make the industry gradually realize L2 The importance of scalable solutions .

The Ethereum Foundation says ,Rollup It is the first choice to solve scalability problems L2 Solution . except Rollup, There's more L2 Solution , Such as side chains and subnets , They all try to solve the three dilemmas of scalability .

especially , With earlier this year DeFi Kingdoms and Crabada Deployment of subnet ,Avalanche Of L2 Scalability solutions Subnets Recently, it has gained quite high popularity . In some cases , The subnet is essentially a side chain , But the subnet can choose to use the verifier from the main network . at present , Subnets and side chains seem to be Web3 The first choice of the game L2 Expand the solution .

In this paper , We will discuss in depth Rollup The latest development and pain points of . We will also analyze and customize the chain ( Subnet or side chain ) dependent Rollup, And look at these different L2 How solutions stack with each other , Especially in GameFi field .

ZK-Rollup Prospects 、 Recent development and pain points

Rollup Bundle the compressed off chain transactions to L1 In a single order on the network , This can reduce gas cost , And expand any given L1 Trading ability .L2 Perform calculations , and L1 Just verify them . thus ,gas The cost is shared by a large number of transactions , Thousands of transactions will be completed collectively .

Rollup There are two different variants ：Optimistic Rollup And zero knowledge Rollup (“ZK-Rollup”). The verification methods of the two are different .

Optimistic Rollup Assume that all transactions are valid , And publish them to the foundation layer without verification . Then the controversial transaction will be revised within the seven day inquiry period .

On the other hand ,ZK-Rollup Create a proof , And publish it to the main network as a form of validity proof . at present , Use ZK-Rollup The transaction can be in about 10 Done in minutes .

​ source ：preethikasireddy.com;ethereum.org

As can be seen from the above figure , And Optimistic Rollup comparison ,ZK-Rollup It seems that it will give Ethereum a faster 、 A more scalable ecosystem .

However , It is worth noting that ,ZK-Rollup It is still a new form of Technology , lack EVM Compatibility . Even though zkSync Earlier this year, they released a compatible EVM Of zkEVM, But to achieve ZK-Rollup Of EVM Compatibility , There is still a long way to go . If you don't do that ,ZK-Rollup Will be limited to token transfers and exchanges .

​ source ：l2beat.com（ Data up to 2022 year 6 month 7 Japan ）

As can be seen from the above figure , at present Optimistic Rollup stay TVL Aspects occupy 72% Market share . The lack mentioned above EVM Compatibility seems to make ZK-Rollup In a secondary position , on this account , quite a lot DeFi Players are expanding to Rollup Choose exit ZK-Rollup.

With Optimistic Rollup Maturity , Most large DeFi The project has adopted this solution according to its own needs . However , A week's waiting time often disappoints new users . But when considering GameFi Extensibility 、NFT Market and Web3 When applied ,ZK-Rollup It may become an optional solution for networks that require higher throughput and lower transaction costs .

ZK-Rollup A panoramic view of

​ source ：l2beat.com And agreement website （ By 2022 year 6 month 7 The data of ）

As of this writing , This field has exceeded 12 One of the ZK-Rollup Solution , The underlying technology consists of StarkWare、Loopring、Matter Labs and Polygon Hermez Development .

ZK-Rollup There are two main encryption proof methods in .Loopring and zkSync The adopted technology creates a zero knowledge 、 concise 、 Non interactive knowledge demonstration (ZK-SNARK) prove , To verify a large number of transactions in the main network .ZK-SNARK On 2012 In, it became the focus of public attention , And be ZK-Rollup Pioneers of widely adopted .

On the other hand , Zero knowledge 、 Scalable 、 Transparent knowledge demonstration (ZK-STARK) The technology is relatively new , On 2018 Year by year StarkWare Release .ZK-STARK Considered to be more than ZK-SNARK More transparent and scalable . This promising technology has recently promoted StarkWare The valuation of 80 Billion dollars , This round of financing is funded by Tiger Global Lead investment .

StarkWare

StarkWare There are two main ZK-STARK Solution ：StarkEx and StarkNet.

StarkEx For specific applications ZK-Rollup The design of the Validium Solution , By derivatives trading platform dYdX、Web3 Games and NFT market Immutable X use .

Validium Is a scalable solution , It adopts and universal ZK-Rollup Same proof of validity , But do not store data on the main network . Offline data storage bypasses the transaction processing on the main network , And general ZK-Rollup comparison , It significantly improves scalability . however , use Validium The risk is , Data availability managers may control users' assets , Thus causing safety problems .

​ source ：l2beat.com（ By 2022 year 6 month 8 Japan ）

StarkNet By StarkWare Launched a general Rollup, This year 2 The release was completed in August . It is worth mentioning that ,Immutable X A Volition Model , Allow users to Validium Model or general ZK-Rollup Choose between . With TVL Gradually improve ,StarkWare Always committed to StarkNet Of TPS Improve to the optimization level .

Cairo yes StarkNet Programming language .StarkNet Does not support EVM, At the time of writing ,Nethermind Of Warp The team is developing a Solidity-to-Cairo The translator of .

StarkEx Of Web3 Game footprint

With the help of ZK-Rollup Power ,Web3 Games can significantly reduce users' transaction costs , And avoid congestion . therefore , image Sorare, Immutation X And other ecosystems have adopted StarkWare Scalability solutions to support Web3 game .

Sorare Is a famous football card game , It is very popular on Ethereum main network , They just adopt StarkEx To move to L2 Of .Sorare choice ZK-Rollup To expand the scale , At the same time, it ensures security and decentralization .

Immutable X It's based on Ethereum NFT In the market L2 platform . It provides zero by transferring the calculation down the chain gas Fees and instant transactions . according to DappRadar, There are 4 Active Web3 In the game Immutable X With the help of NFT transaction ,Gods Unchained Is one of the most prominent , It has about 5000 Users and 150 A daily trading volume of $million .

Illuvium It is the latest addition Immutable X Platform Web3 game , Before the release of its official game, its sales value exceeded 7200 Million dollars of digital land has made headlines .

All in all , stay ZK-Rollup There are two ways to build games in . The first is through Immutable X Such a solution , The second method is to build an independent ZK-Rollup, It's like Sorare. Compare the two methods ,Immutable X Our solution has proven to be more cost-effective . However , What we need to pay attention to ,Immutable X There is still a lack of adoption , and ZK-Rollup So far, it has not been in Web3 The game field is attractive .

Loopring

Loopring It was developed internally ZK-Rollup Solution . As of this writing , The agreement is TVL The largest general ZK-Rollup chain . Their strategic focus is trading and payment , And it supports Web3 Game efforts are only reflected in Gamestop Cooperative establishment Gamestop NFT On the market . At present, the platform is not running Web3 game .

Matter Labs (zkSync Team behind )

Matter Labs yes zkSync Expand the team behind the solution . It USES ZK-SNARK, And provide offline Validium Solution zkPorter And common on the chain Rollup zkSync.

ZKSpace It's from zkSync Forked out , Using the same ZK-SNARK Technology to solve scalability problems . just as zkSync Pointed out ,ZKSpace It has been closed since the bifurcation , Therefore, there may be security risks . As of this writing ,ZKSpace( Formerly known as ZKSwap) Have an agreement ZKSpace、ZKSwap and ZKSea( It's not online yet ).

Matter Labs On 2022 year 2 It was launched on the public testing website in August zkEVM, This is the first with EVM Compatible ZK-Rollup.zkEVM Still under development , It is designed to run 99% Of Solidity contract . It means ZK-Rollup It will run in parallel with Ethereum main network , And with Optimistic Rollup Compete , This is an important milestone .

Matter Labs At present, we are also designing a Validium Solution —zkPorter. If Matter Labs Intend to Web3 The game is attracted to its own platform ,zkPorter Maybe just what it needs . However ,Matter Labs Seems still focused on building generic ZK-Rollup.

Polygon

Polygon Have been actively creating their own L2 Scalability solutions . Its ZK-Rollup Products include Polygon Hermez (ZK-SNARK)、Polygon Zero (ZK-SNARK) and Polygon Miden (ZK-STARK).Polygon stay 2021 Years acquired ZK-Rollup Large scale projects Hermez And start-ups Mir, And obtained its ZK-Rollup Professional knowledge of .

As of this writing , Only Polygon Hermez Is active . It can be used as DeFi General of the project ZK-Rollup,TVL Only for 366,000 dollar .Polygon Hermez Has not attracted many projects , May be due to lack of EVM Compatibility . However ,Polygon May have passed its PoS Side chain or super network strategy is aimed at Web3 Game developer , And has not shifted its focus to ZK-Rollup On .

Pain points and brief summary

For ge ZK-Rollup Come on , A recurring problem is their EVM Compatibility . We noticed that , Most of Ethereum DeFi Players have chosen Optimistic Rollup or Polygon PoS As their L2 Expand the solution . for example ,Curve I chose Optimism;Aave V3 Of Polygon,Optimism and Arbitrum;Uniswap It has been extended to Optimism and Polygon.zkEVM Is being Matter Labs test ,Nethermind Is for StarkNet Develop a translator .EVM Any breakthrough in compatibility may eventually help DeFi The project attracts ZK-Rollup in .

Another problem is ZK-Rollup Lack of communication in . This will lead to liquidity fracture and centralized sequencing process that may cause safety problems . However ,Immutable X The latest cross Rollup Liquidity solutions may herald a more liquid Rollup The ecological system .

ZK-Rollup Not yet NFT and Web3 The game field is attractive , There's a reason .Gods Unchained Losing users constantly , Since it adopted Immutable X After the solution , Its trading volume has fallen sharply .Sorare Transfer in Rollup It is impossible to repeat its success in Ethereum main network . Even though ZK-Rollup There was no success in the above example , But by comparison ,Avalanche The subnet of is NFT and Web3 A more solid foundation has been found in the game .

Avalanche Subnets and Polygon

Avalanche Introduction to subnet

Avalanche Our main network consists of three blockchains ——X、P and C chain . Each chain is being maintained Avalanche The integrity of and the creation of new assets or blockchains have different uses .

• Exchange chain (X-chain) yes Avalanche The default asset blockchain , Support the creation of new assets 、 Exchange and cross subnet transfer .
• Platform chain (P-chain) Metadata blockchain , Used to coordinate verifiers , Track active subnets and create new subnets .
• Contract chain (C-chain) Smart contract blockchain . It supports creation and EVM Compatible smart contracts .

Avalanche Use the expansion method to create a subnet for horizontal expansion . A subnet is different from a single blockchain , The relationship between them is as follows ：

• The subnet is a group of verifiers on the blockchain .
• Each blockchain has only one subnet ( A group of verifiers ), Each subnet can maintain multiple blockchains at the same time .

Each subnet can have 5 A verifier , But for the sake of network health and safety , It is suggested that 10 individual . stay Avalanche You only need one to create a subnet on AVAX. However , Each verifier of the subnet also needs to verify the primary network —— need 2000 individual AVAX Tokens, , By 2022 year 6 month 9 Japan , Its value is about 5 Thousands of dollars .

Subnet creation is designed to require no license , And flexible enough , In this way, different use cases can be satisfied . for example , Private blockchains may require that transactions be viewed only by subnetwork validators ; Or the verifier must go through KYC/AML verification , Then you can enter the subnet .

On the subnet Web3 game

The subnet has always been L2 The Holy Grail of scalability , Especially in Web3 The game field .Avalanche Has been supporting and developing its GameFi The ecological system , And find a destination for them in the subnet .Crabada and DeFi Kingdoms Are their two pioneers ,Castle Crush At present, its test network is being developed .

​ source ：https /cryptodaily.io/how-crabada-is-paving-the-way-for-p2e-games-on-avalanche/

As can be seen from the table above ,Crabada stay Avalanche company C The chain gas The highest share of expenses , by 38.93%. However , And many Web3 Games are similar ,Crabada It also faces the problem of network congestion in the main network , This forces them to turn to their chains , Such as subnet . lately ,Crabada from Avalanche C The chain is transferred to their own subnet Swimmer Network. Go with Swimmer Network Migration ,Crabada Player's gas The cost is reduced 85%, Trading time is also greatly shortened .

Except for the lower gas Costs and higher TPS, There are other benefits to attract web3 The game adopts subnet . By having your own subnet ,Web3 The game can basically better control the predetermined parameters of the blockchain . They can pay with tokens of their choice gas cost . Now? ,Crabada Use $TUSandNoyes$AVAX As gas Tokens, , Burn up to... In the process of network expansion 80% Of gas. Destroying tokens suppresses token inflation , Improved token effectiveness .

It should be noted that , Game studios have been building subnets for the entire game ecosystem , instead of Crabada or DeFi Kingdoms The typical model of one game per subnet .

Avalanche It also supports the creation of Web3 game . In the initial plan 1.9 $ Avalanche Rush Launched the DeFi After ecosystem , Next 2.9 $ Multiverse The plan aims to accelerate the growth of ecosystems .

Polygon Super network and side chain

​ source ： Polygon blog / HYPERNET

Avalanche The competitor of the subnet is Polygon supernet, This is a kind of Polygon Edge and Polygon PoS An extended solution for . As mentioned earlier ,Polygon Have been very active in their expansion solutions , Trying to get ZK-Rollup Coexist with Supernet and side chain .

Polygon supernet stay Web3 The game field is still a new thing , And there are not many practical applications . However , Super network solutions are positioned as more functional Avalanche Alternatives to subnets .Polygon supernet Provide and adopt authoritative certificates (PoA) Or proof of interest (PoS) chain ; Choose from a group of professional verifiers , To enhance decentralization ; As well as Polygon The possibility of sharing security in the main network .

Polygon PoS yes Web3 The center of the game ,Aavegotchi and Crypto Raiders Wait for the game 2021 Great success was achieved in . Popular games will bring a lot of trading volume and trading problems . And Avalanche Medium Crabada similar ,Sunflower Land It also caused serious network congestion , Consumed at peak Polygon 42% Of gas.

In short ,Polygon Various expansion solutions (Rollup and supernets) It's too early . Hosting countless Web3 The side chain of the game Polygon PoS Is one of the best choices . However ,Polygon PoS With the first 1 Layer general side chains have more similarities , It has its own set of verifiers , Also still plagued by network congestion . We think its super network is more similar to Avalanche Subnets of .

Link the custom chain to ZK-Rollup Compare

In essence ,L2 Of ZK-Rollup And custom chains (Avalanche Subnets and Polygon Supernet ) It's all their own L1 Solutions to scalability problems on blockchain . Both have very different technical specifications and benefits , We will try to decompose them to better understand these differences .

If we only focus on Web3 The technical aspect of the game is decided in L2 or Avalanche Subnet construction , Someone might say L2 Provides a better solution . However ,L2 The solution is still under development , It has not been tested in practice . Because of the need for their own chain , The subnet seems to be Web3 More and more popular in the game .

Generally speaking , And DeFi Project comparison ,Web3 The game does not need to interact much with the larger ecosystem . They usually have closed-loop ecosystems , Among them, their tokens and NFT Support each other .

​ source ：https /myria.com/games/

On the other hand , top Web3 Game studio Gala Games Or upcoming Myria I prefer to build my own blockchain . Many games of the two studios interact with each other to some extent ; therefore , They are more likely to create games on the same blockchain .

For all that , Considering that most games are currently produced by a single project team , There is little cooperation between games , So for small game studios , It may seem more reasonable to use subnets instead of building your own chain .

In addition to the technical specifications ,Avalanche Subnets and ZK-Rollup The core difference between them is ,Web3 The isolation of the game on each subnet or side chain . At this stage ,Immutable X It is still an ecosystem , among web3 Games and NFT Can interact and build on each other , and Avalanche The subnet is isolated separately into the modular blockchain .

How the project works in ZK-Rollup And subnet ?

Due to the lack of composability with the main network , Subnets and supernets are not for DeFi Project design . And EVM Compatible ZK-Rollup Projects that are suitable for deploying smart contracts and require high-level security . However , because ZK-Rollup Of EVM Compatibility is still in its infancy , about DeFi For projects ,Optimistic Rollup Seems to be the only available option .

obviously , stay Web3 In the game , Subnets have become more than ZK-Rollup Better choice . just as Avalanche The popularity of subnets indicates that , Single game / Individual custom chains for single chain models have been developed .

ZK-Rollup and Validium There may be better technical specifications than custom chains , But they are still under development .ZK-Rollup The extensibility solution does not provide a separate custom chain . Besides , Create a separate Rollup( Such as Sorare) Need high cost and experience the pain of transition .

On the other hand ,Immutable X Recently for Web3 The game released an innovative layer 3 solution . With this approach , The game studio will be able to enjoy the game without sacrificing security and composability 3 Super large scale solution in layer . The first 2 Tier and tier 3 The integration of layers consolidates cross Rollup Liquidity of solutions , And strengthened DeFi and Web3 Interaction between games . Although it seems to be still in the early stages of development , But we are looking forward to seeing Immutable X Other features provided .

in summary ,StarkWare and Immutable X The high valuation in venture capital has made institutional investors invest a lot of money in them . This in turn enhances people's understanding of ZK-Rollup Confidence to play a role in Ethereum ecosystem . Besides ,Polygon Still in ZK-Rollup Very positive . therefore , We can see clearly ZK-Rollup The potential of has not been fully released —— We will pay close attention to ZK-Rollup How to flourish in the future .

Source：https://medium.com/ngc-ventures/layer-2-scalability-explained-how-zk-rollups-measure-up-to-subnets-2c4eec6953c1

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