A comparison of the four major L2 protocols in the zk system: progress, differences and similarities, and ecology

Recently, with the launch of zkSync 2.0, the zk expansion plan has ushered in a new climax. In addition, after Devcon in Bogota last month, many "new" voices have emerged in the zkEVM field.

For example, zkSync has been touting itself as “the world’s first fully functional open-source zkEVM network.” Criticisms include Steven Goldfeder, co-founder and CEO of Arbitrum developer OffChain Labs, who said the zkEVM testnet does not have zk-proofs enabled and has not undergone a security audit. Such hype does no one any good and is a long way from being truly realized.

When Polygon zkEVM was officially launched during Devcon in Bogota, it was also claimed to be "the first and only decentralized zkEVM testnet", but it soon attracted criticism from the community: the source code of the Polygon zkEVM prover is available on Github, but there is no open source license; although it is said to be "completely equivalent", its Github code base shows that it has only tested 97% compatibility coverage for the time being. In response, the Polygon team responded that "there is no deliberate concealment, and some content is being written for better documentation."

In addition, Scroll also announced during Devcon in Bogota that it would upgrade the Pre-Alpha testnet and open the test to whitelisted users. According to the plan, StarkWare launched Cairo’s upgraded version Cairo 1.0 at the end of September and will be officially launched before the end of the year.

Stimulated by the Aptos airdrop, the recent strong narrative of the L2 zk system has indeed attracted a large number of users. However, compared with the relatively mature op system expansion plan, the zk system seems to be very lively on the surface, but it will take a long time to truly prosper. The current ecosystem is still relatively weak, and the development cycle of zk technology is longer, which has certain thresholds for developers and project parties. Therefore, instead of arguing about the "first zkEVM", it is better to continue building.

This article sorts out the development progress, ecological details, etc. of the four major zk protocols StarkWare, zkSync, Polygon zkEVM and Scroll, to give you a comprehensive understanding of the real situation of the currently hot zkEVM track.

1. Starkware

1. Introduction:

StarkWare is the project with the strongest team in the zk expansion plan. Co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson is a world-class cryptography scientist and co-inventor of zkSNARK and zkSTARK. Co-founder and CEO Uri Kolodny graduated from the Computer Science Department of the Hebrew University and is also a serial entrepreneur. StarkWare is currently valued at $8 billion.

StarkWare has currently developed two products: ToB StarkEx and ToC StarkNet. StarkEx is an independent licensed Validity-Rollup that sells customized technology engine services and directly charges service fees to customers with expansion needs. It has currently served customers such as dYdX, ImmutableX, Sorare, DeversiFi, rhino.fi, ApeX, Myria, etc. StarkNet is a decentralized zk-Rollup that is open to everyone and does not require permission. It uses the zkSTARK proof system and supports autonomous deployment of dApps.

The basic smart contract language used by StarkNet is not Solidity, but Cairo, a Turing-complete zero-knowledge proof system language, which is not compatible with EVM. The team has been seeking compatibility with zkEVM. At the end of October, StarkWare announced the launch of zkEVM (named "Kakarot") written based on Cairo, but the actual development is still in the early stages and has not yet been implemented.

In addition, Ethereum development team Nethermind is building a Solidity-Cairo "compiler" that allows projects written in Solidity to translate their code base into Cairo with one click. It is reported that the "compiler" is still under development, and once it comes into effect, it will enable StarkNet to achieve a similar level of EVM compatibility as zkSync 2.0. Nethermind has been working on code translation and has previously launched the Uniswap Warp version on the StarkNet network.

2. Progress:

As one of the earliest developers in the zk-Rollup field, StarkNet's Alpha version was launched on the mainnet in November 2021.

StarkWare launched Cairo 1.0, an upgraded version of Cairo, at the end of September. It is expected to be officially launched before the end of 2022. The new version of the language improves the network's DoS attack protection capabilities and reduces gas fees, supports StarkNet's permissionless network requirements, and will simplify and protect the protocol. At that time, the team will also restart StarkNet on the Ethereum mainnet called "Regensis".

Currently, StarkNet is launching its second testnet on Goerli and is soliciting proposals for naming in the community. The new testnet is mainly for developers to test applications and is not in the public beta stage.

In addition, StarkWare announced its token economics in July. The native token was previously scheduled to be issued in September, but the team postponed the issuance due to technical reasons. The initial issuance of StarkNet tokens is 10 billion, 17% of which are allocated to StarkWare investors, 32.9% to core contributors, and 51% to the foundation (of which 12% is used to fund research and work on the development, testing, deployment and maintenance of the StarkNet protocol). However, the official said that no free tokens will be provided to users in the initial stage, and all tokens will be locked immediately after release.

3. Ecology:

The StarkNet ecosystem is mainly based on DeFi, GameFi, and NFT. Currently, more than 100 projects have been deployed on StarkNet, but in fact, some projects are still in the planning and deployment stage, and there are not many projects that can really interact. According to L2beat data, the total locked amount of StarkNet is currently 3.1 million US dollars, the average daily TPS is 0.15, and the 30-day transaction count is about 279,000.

Wallets: Argent X, Braavos (recently completed a $10 million round led by Pantera Capital)

Cross-chain bridge: Orbiter Finance, the official Ethereum-Starknet cross-chain bridge StarkGate

DeFi:

• 10KSwap: StarkNet's native AMM DEX protocol, which has been launched on the mainnet. Currently, only ETH, USDC, DAI, WBTC, and USDT tokens can be traded.

• Alpha Road Finance: StarkNet native DEX and liquidity staking protocol, currently in testing.

• Brine Finance: Order book trading DEX, currently still on testnet.

• Fibrous Finance: AMM aggregator on StarkNet, still running on testnet.

• mySwap: The first AMM DEX on StarkNet.

• zkLend: A lending protocol on StarkNet, including two products: Artemis (for DeFI users) and Apollo (for institutions, SMEs, etc.).

• GameFi: Loot Realms, GoL2, and The Ninth are now on the mainnet.

2. zksync

1. Introduction:

zkSync was founded by Matter Labs in December 2019, later than StarkWare. It uses zk-Rollup technology based on SNARK proof and supports zkEVM at the IR level.

Matter Labs released zkSync v1.0 in June 2020, and it took a long time to go online. In February of this year, the zkSync 2.0 test network was launched. Compared with the previous version, zkSync 2.0 has greatly improved its functions. In zkSync 1.0, users can only experience basic functions such as transfer and minting NFT. While supporting EVM compatibility, zkSync 2.0 will also open up the deployment of ecological applications. It is a truly complete version of the zk-Rollup product.

2. Progress:

On October 28, zkSync 2.0 was officially launched and stated that it is currently in the Baby Alpha stage. During this stage, zkSync 2.0 will be launched on the mainnet without external projects, mainly for stress testing and multiple security work. Developers cannot access the mainnet, but can continue to develop on the testnet. The Baby Alpha stage will last about a month.

According to the official roadmap, the Fair Launch Alpha phase will be entered in the fourth quarter (after Baby Alpha), and the team will open project deployment permissions to developers. The team plans to achieve the goal of fully launching Alpha by the end of this year, but this phase may be extended to 2023 for security reasons. Then after a series of comprehensive tests, security audits, competitions, and bug bounties, zkSync 2.0 will be open to all users, which is also the closest time to the coin issuance. Currently, more than 150 projects have committed to launching on zkSync 2.0.

In terms of token issuance, Matter Labs’ Chief Product Officer Steve Newcomb said in a Twitter Spaces discussion that zkSync will release details of its token economic model in the first week of November. On November 3, zkSync co-founder Alex G hinted: “Some big news is coming.”

3. Ecology

According to the official website of zkSync ecosystem, more than 100 projects have been deployed on the network. According to L2beat data, the total locked amount is currently 6.27 million US dollars, the average daily TPS is 0.37, and the 30-day transaction count is 1.38 million.

Wallet: Argent X, zkSync Portal 2.0 (In zkSync 2.0, users can directly add the RPC node of zkSync 2.0 in MetaMask without downloading other wallets)

Cross-chain bridge:

• Orbiter Finance (currently only supports zkSync1.0, not yet supporting zkSync 2.0 testnet)

• zkSync2.0 testnet official cross-chain bridge address: https://portal.zksync.io/bridge (also supports wallet transfers and test coin collection and other functions)

DeFi:

• SyncSwap: A DEX based on zkSync, which has been launched on the zkSync 2.0 network.

• Increment: is a decentralized algorithmic perpetual contract protocol based on zkSync 2.0, which was recently released on the zkSync 2.0 testnet. However, it is currently only open to users who have previously applied for whitelist testing, and the registration deadline has now passed.

• SpaceFi: It is a cross-chain web3 platform on Evmos and zkSync, currently running on the zkSync 2.0 testnet.

• Zigzag: An order book DEX powered by zk Rollup, currently only supports zksync1.0 network

• Sprintcheckout: A crypto payment platform currently running on the zkSync 2.0 testnet.

NFT:

MintSquare is an NFT marketplace on Ethereum L2 ZK Rollups (StarkNet and zkSync), currently running on StarkNet, StarkNet testnet, and zkSync 2.0 testnet.

In addition, protocols such as Aave V3, Uniswap V3, and 1KX Protocol Beta are already planned to be deployed on the zkSync 2.0 testnet.

3. Polygon Hermez ( Polygon zkEVM )

1. Introduction:

In July 2021, the Hermez team announced the development of zkEVM (Hermez 2.0) that is fully compatible with Ethereum. After that, Polygon announced the acquisition of Hermez for US$250 million. Polygon zkEVM uses zk-Rollup technology based on SNARK proof.

Polygon zkEVM has opcode-level compatibility. In the article "Vitalik: The Future of Different Types of ZK-EVM", Vitalik ranked Polygon zkEVM and Scroll as the third level, and is at the forefront of the current ZK Rollup in terms of EVM compatibility.

In recent publicity, Polygon has been emphasizing that its zkEVM is "the only decentralized zk-rollup" because it was the first to realize the open source of zk Prover, including a complete, source code-available ZK proof system, and promised a fully open source, community-driven, permissionless coordinator network, and a decentralized auction model with verification reward tokens.

2. Progress:

Polygon zkEVM launched a permissionless public testnet on October 10. Aave, Uniswap, Web3 social platform Lens and game studio Midnight Society will be the first protocols deployed on the zkEVM testnet, which is currently open mainly to developers. Polygon zkEVM plans to launch the mainnet in the first half of 2023.

In addition, Polygon zkEVM clearly stated that there is no plan to issue coins for the time being, and ETH will be used to pay gas fees. MATIC will be used for staking and the governance of Polygon zkEVM.

Scroll

1. Introduction:

Scroll was founded in 2021 and completed a $30 million Series A financing at the end of last year. Similar to Polygon zkEVM, Scroll is also committed to creating an EVM-equivalent zk-Rollup, and is even more compatible. It is known as the most EVM-compatible zk-Rollup, allowing applications on Ethereum to be migrated to the second-layer network almost seamlessly. Bytecode-level compatibility can achieve compatibility with all languages ​​on Ethereum, and can also be compatible with Ethereum tools, greatly reducing the difficulty of development on the second-layer network.

It is worth mentioning that since Scroll co-founder Ye Zhang has extensive experience in ZKP hardware acceleration, Scroll plans to use hardware acceleration to further improve verification efficiency in ZKP, establish a decentralized verification network, distribute ZKP proofs to participants for calculation, and aggregate the results to form the final proof. The decentralized verification network will be open to everyone and will set up incentive and penalty mechanisms.

2. Progress:

On October 11, Scroll released an upgraded version of the Pre-Alpha test network. There are already some pre-deployed applications such as Uniswap v2, which allow users to perform some functions such as transfers between L1 and L2, but at this stage, users still need to register to apply to join the whitelist to participate in the test. However, due to the emergence of a large number of volume-brushing robots, the official has temporarily slowed down the review of test applications and tightened the list of access. Therefore, many users have reported in the community that they have not received email replies. The community recommends changing the wallet address and email address to reapply.

Scroll encountered severe cross-chain delays during the testnet, and was unable to access the testnet tokens in the faucet. The official response was that this was caused by severe congestion in Ethereum.

In addition, the official said that a permissionless testnet will be launched in a few weeks. The Alpha testnet allows anyone to interact on the testnet, and developers can also deploy contracts on the network without permission. The full testnet is expected to be launched by the end of this year.

In terms of ecology, projects such as the Web3 social protocol Lens Protocol and the oracle RedStone have recently been deployed to the pre-alpha testnet of the Ethereum expansion project Scroll.

summary:

In general, although StarkWare and zkSync claim to eventually implement zkEVM, they are not compatible at the bytecode level after all, and developers need to translate and migrate the code. Therefore, in comparison, Polygon zkEVM and Scroll will be closer to the Ethereum ecosystem.

However, EVM compatibility is not the only criterion for judging the quality of L2 expansion solutions, but only an objective indicator. In fact, although a completely equivalent EVM is safe, it may sacrifice efficiency. Starkware's Cario predicts that the virtual machine built and Zksync's virtual machine will be more flexible in building zk.

Therefore, there is no essential difference between these protocols, and they are still in the early stages of development. In addition to ensuring security, the later developer experience and user experience are more important.