An article reviewing the latest developments of eight major Layer 2 projects

After the merger with Ethereum, the Layer2 ecosystem has developed rapidly. L2 TVL increased by 97.1% in the third quarter. In addition, Layer2 ecosystem projects have also made a lot of progress. This article will review the key Layer2 projects and sort out their latest developments.

zkSync

zkRollups is considered one of the most promising solutions for L2, and zkSync is the leading project in the field of zkRollups. zkRollups have an interesting design feature, which is that the more transactions they process, the cheaper they are. It subverts the blockchain trilemma.

Latest News: zkSync 2.0 mainnet will be launched on October 28, but only Matter Labs team members will have access for the first month. After that, developers will fully deploy their projects and test them while ensuring security. The final release date has not yet been determined, but the testing phase may last for several months before the zkSync 2.0 mainnet is considered completely safe for the general public. zkSync announced that it will launch zkEVM on a testnet or mainnet by the end of 2022.

Arbitrum

Arbitrum is an L2 scaling solution for Ethereum that offers a unique set of advantages: Trustless Security: Based on the security of Ethereum, any party can ensure the correct Layer 2 outcome; Compatibility with Ethereum: Ability to run unmodified EVM contracts and Ethereum transactions; Scalability: Achieved by separating contract processing and storage from the mainnet, allowing for significant increases in throughput; Lowest Cost: Developed and built to reduce the system's L1 Gas, reducing the cost of each transaction.

Latest developments: Arbitrum has deployed their second-generation Optimistic Rollup: Arbitrum Nitro. Compared to traditional Optimistic Rollup, Nitro provides the network with higher throughput, faster finality, and more efficient dispute resolution. Arbitrum tokens are expected to be announced after Arbitrum Odyssey, and the tokens may be used in part for incentive programs for various protocols, which should help promote a large influx of funds into the Arbitrum ecosystem. The decentralized indexing protocol The Graph released a 2023 roadmap and will migrate to Ethereum's second-layer solution Arbitrum.

Optimism

Optimism is a fast, stable, and scalable L2 blockchain built by Ethereum developers for Ethereum developers. As a minimal extension to the existing Ethereum software, Optimism's EVM-equivalent architecture can scale Ethereum applications. Those applications can run on both Ethereum and Optimism at a fraction of the cost.

Latest news: According to Dune Analytics data, the total value of TVB stored by Ethereum Layer2 expansion solution Optimism cross-chain bridge has exceeded 400,000 ETH. Ethereum Layer 2 solution Optimism said that when the OP token was launched, the total supply was announced to expand at a rate of 2% per year, but when the contract was deployed, the ratio was mistakenly set to 20%. Since OP's inflation will not begin until next year, no new tokens have been minted or moved, and any future changes to the ratio must be made through governance.

Immutable X

According to the official website of Immutable X, Immutable X can process more than 9,000 transactions per second, and transactions are confirmed in a very short time, and users do not need to pay gas fees for transactions. This design solves the pain points of long confirmation time and high gas fees when trading NFTs on the Ethereum network. In addition, Immutable X has unique designs such as Volition model, metadata transactions and carbon-neutral NFT transactions.

Latest developments: ImmutableX co-founder said that for the upcoming large-scale unlocking of IMX tokens, the team's portion will be locked for at least one year, and a large portion of the unlocked shares are major shareholders who have made strategic investments in it and will not choose to sell the unlocked tokens. Robbie Ferguson also said that he is currently looking for new "strategic long-term holders" to directly purchase the remaining unlocked tokens.

StarkNet

StarkNet is a zkVM ZKR. Since a new Cairo language is designed for the virtual machine, it has a certain development threshold for Ethereum native developers. Rust-VM has been recently implemented, which greatly reduces the threshold for developers familiar with the Rust language to develop applications on StarkNet. It is reported that there are currently 120+ projects on StarkNet, most of which are deployed on the test network. It is possible that in the fourth quarter of this year or the first half of next year, a large number of applications will be deployed on the StarkNet main network.

StarkNet latest news: In order to promote the decentralization of the protocol, the StarkWare team will release STARK Token in the next few months, aiming to integrate utility and governance asset quality, such as gas fees, protocol referendums, pledge mechanisms and other data availability solutions. StarkNet co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson revealed in an interview that the ecosystem processes up to 6 million transactions per week, which has exceeded the Bitcoin network.

Scroll

Scroll claims to be the most EVM-compatible zk-Rollup. Currently, there are two common problems in the zk-Rollup track: first, zk-Rollup currently only supports relatively simple functions such as payment and transfer, and has not yet supported general functions; second, a decentralized verification network has not yet been established. Scroll's solution focuses on these two aspects.

Latest news: Scroll, a zkEVM-based Layer 2 solution, released an upgraded version of its Pre-Alpha testnet. It is reported that the new version supports developers to deploy smart contracts using tools such as Hardhat and Foundry, and supports users to bridge NFTs and user-defined ERC-20 Tokens between their Layer 1 and Layer 2 testnets on the upgraded cross-chain bridge contract.

Polygon Hermez

Hermez, also known as Polygon zkEVM in the Polygon family, is the first open source zk-Rollup that provides full EVM opcode equivalence for a frictionless user experience and the security of Ethereum.

Latest developments: Polygon launched zkEVM on July 21, providing developers and users with an “EVM-equivalent” solution, high-performance zk-proofs, and Ethereum mainnet-level security.

Loopring

Loopring is a zk-Rollup protocol for Ethereum Layer2 for scalable and secure DeFi and NFT applications. Loopring has built non-custodial, high-performance products on Layer2, including the mobile Ethereum smart wallet Loopring Wallet, and the L2 order book and AMM DEX of the Loopring L2 network application.

Latest developments: Loopring said it will readjust the Loopring DAO to manage various on-chain protocol parameters, including the allocation of protocol fees, the allocation of DAO funds, etc. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Loopring will use 16% of the protocol funds accumulated in the past few months to sponsor liquidity mining activities; in addition, it has proposed a new LRC token economics proposal, which may reintroduce LRC staking and allocate a certain percentage of monthly protocol fees to users who choose to stake LRC on Loopring L2.