Author: Liao Liao
Zircuit, the industry's first ZK Rollup network that has integrated the AI concept and has a total TVL of over $2 billion, has been very active recently.
On October 25, Catizen announced that Zircuit has become the first project to land on its Launchpool product.
On October 31, Zircuit and the Binance Web3 wallet jointly launched a Gas subsidy campaign, which will provide Gas refunds to all users who bridge and stake ETH through the Binance Web3 wallet client to Zircuit.
On November 1, Zircuit announced the launch of a Fairdrop airdrop activity, which will airdrop 2% of the ZRC tokens to over 200,000 eligible EIGEN holders and stakers, in order to incentivize early supporters of the reStaking vision.
In the following few days, Zircuit's governance token ZRC was successively listed on the pre-trading markets of top exchanges such as Bitget, Gate, and Bybit. Real-time data shows that the ZRC token is currently trading at $0.11 on the Bybit pre-trading market (Bitget at $0.1, Gate at $0.082), and with a total supply of 100 billion, the corresponding valuation is as high as $11 billion.
On November 22, the Zircuit official announced that the transfer restriction on ZRC will be lifted on November 25, at which time ZRC will officially enter circulation.
Three Unique Advantages to Help Zircuit Stand Out
In July this year, Zircuit just completed a new round of financing, with investments from Binance Labs, Mirana Ventures, Amber Group, Selini, Robot Ventures, Nomad Capital, Borderless Capital, as well as angel investors from projects such as Ren, Etherfi, Pendle, Parallel, LayerZero, Axelar, F2 Pool, Nonce, KelpDAO, ETHGlobal, and Maelstrom.
Zircuit's design cleverly blends multiple concepts such as ZK, AI, and reStaking, so some users may be a bit confused when positioning Zircuit. If we were to summarize the positioning of this project in one sentence, it might be - Zircuit is a Layer 2 network that combines the advantages of Optimistic Rollup and zk Rollup, uses AI to strengthen network security, and activates ecosystem liquidity through Staking and reStaking.
This positioning summary outlines Zircuit's three unique advantages, with the keywords being "OP + ZK", "AI", and "Liquidity".
Keyword One: OP + ZK
The "OP + ZK" refers to the fact that Zircuit has adopted a hybrid architecture of Optimistic Rollup and zk Rollup. The construction of a Rollup network involves various components such as sequencer data publication, smart contracts, cross-chain bridges, and execution layers. In order to develop more efficiently, Zircuit utilized the most mainstream and thoroughly tested Rollup development framework in the market, OP Stack. However, since OP Stack only supports the construction of Optimistic Rollup, in order to evolve into a more secure and efficient zk Rollup, Zircuit removed all components related to the Optimistic model in the framework and replaced them with zk components.
In this way, although Zircuit's underlying architecture is a hybrid, from the user's perspective it is completely a zk Rollup. The hybrid architecture design not only ensures that Zircuit can complete network construction in a safer and faster manner, but also ensures that Zircuit can break through the functional limitations of OP Stack and directly realize the utility of zk Rollup. In addition, Zircuit's compatibility with OP Stack also ensures that the network can more smoothly support future upgrades of Ethereum, helping Zircuit to keep up with the development of the Ethereum ecosystem in a timely manner.
Keyword Two: AI
Compared to all the current Layer 2 networks, Zircuit's biggest feature is that it is the only one that has effectively integrated an AI mechanism into the network operation layer. Specifically, Zircuit has added an SLS (Sequencer-Level Security) system at the sequencer level, and the SLS system has an embedded AI evaluation module. This module will use the transaction data of all EVM-compatible chains as training data to autonomously detect and identify transactions with malicious intent.
When a transaction is initiated on the Zircuit network, the AI evaluation module of the SLS system will automatically check whether the transaction is suspicious of malice, and all the check results will be fully transparent on-chain. Only after passing this check will the transaction be included in the block and added to the chain; if the transaction fails the AI check, it will be temporarily isolated, and Zircuit's security experts will further analyze it to eliminate potential protocol vulnerabilities.
In a world where security incidents are frequent on-chain, Zircuit's AI intervention mechanism effectively realizes the pre-prevention of security incidents, breaking the passive situation where the industry can only seek compensation after the fact when facing sudden security incidents, and can greatly improve the security guarantee of user assets.
Of course, due to the fully automated AI intervention mechanism, there is theoretically also the possibility of "mistaken killings" of transactions, and Zircuit has stated that based on the test data, the intervention accuracy of this module exceeds 99.5%, and ordinary transactions are generally not confused. As for the extreme "mistaken killing" scenarios, Zircuit has also preset a manual intervention mechanism to release the transactions temporarily isolated by AI.
Keyword Three: Liquidity
For Layer 1/Layer 2 projects that started relatively late, how to effectively accumulate early liquidity is a major challenge facing every project team.
The strategy chosen by Zircuit is to actively embrace the narrative of Staking and reStaking. Even before the mainnet launch, Zircuit had opened deposit contracts for ETH and multiple liquidity staking tokens (LST) and liquidity reStaking tokens (LRT) on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing users to earn regular staking and reStaking rewards while also receiving certain Zircuit credit rewards. This has attracted tens of billions of dollars in liquidity to Zircuit even before the mainnet launch, ranking it among the top in all Layer 2 networks.
This is also why Zircuit chose to airdrop 2% of the ZRC supply to the EigenLayer ecosystem users after the mainnet launch, to reward the EigenLayer ecosystem for its contribution to the development of the reStaking concept - it is worth mentioning that Zircuit is the first project in the reStaking ecosystem to choose to airdrop to non-direct users, which has also earned Zircuit a lot of community praise.
Token Unlocking Imminent, Reviewing Zircuit's Development History
Looking back on Zircuit's past development history, from opening staking in February this year to the official circulation of ZRC on November 25, Zircuit has completed the deployment of a Layer 2 network with a liquidity scale of over $2 billion at an extremely fast execution speed.
In February this year, Zircuit officially opened the staking window on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing users to obtain Zircuit credits by staking ETH, ezETH, rswETH, rsETH, LsEtH and stETH as well as participating in various tasks in the Zircuit ecosystem;
In August, Zircuit officially announced the launch of the first phase of the mainnet and released the first season airdrop plan. The first season airdrop will distribute 7% of the total ZRC supply, with 262,200 addresses eligible for the airdrop. In addition, Zircuit has reserved 14% of the tokens for future airdrops (a total of 21% for airdrops and community rewards), and the second season airdrop activity is still ongoing.
In October, Zircuit announced the launch of the Zircuit Liquidity Hub, where users can migrate liquidity from the Ethereum mainnet to Zircuit's Layer 2 network to accumulate Zircuit credits more efficiently, while also obtaining staking rewards, protocol tokens, and partner airdrops in a one-stop manner. It is worth mentioning that to reduce the friction for users in the migration process, Zircuit has proactively borne the gas fees for the migration from the Ethereum mainnet to Layer 2.
At the end of October, Zircuit announced the launch of the second phase of the mainnet and disclosed that the first $150 million in liquidity had been migrated.
In November, Zircuit further accelerated its development pace, in addition to the aforementioned Fairdrop airdrop, listing on the pre-trading markets of Bitget, Gate, and Bybit, the most important milestone is that the transfer restriction on ZRC will be officially lifted on November 25. It is worth mentioning that Zircuit has also previewed the release of an important product next week, which may bring new surprises to the market.
While delivering and reaching milestone after milestone, Zircuit is also continuously advancing its Build to Earn program to incentivize builders, founders, and community members who contribute to the Zircuit ecosystem, thereby driving the expansion of the Zircuit ecosystem.
A Brief Analysis of the ZRC Token Economic Model
According to the ZRC token economic model disclosed by Zircuit, the total supply of ZRC is 10 billion, with the specific allocation plan as follows:
21% is used for airdrops and community rewards, making it one of the projects with the highest airdrop proportion among all Layer 2s. 7.00% is for the first season airdrop, 3.00% is for the second season airdrop, and 2.45% is for activities (Fairdrop, Catizen, Binance Web3, etc.), all of which will be unlocked at TGE; in addition, 8.55% of ZRC will be reserved for future airdrops and rewards, with a 6-month and 12-month lock-up period, followed by a 24-month linear release;
13.08% is used for Community Provisions, with a 1-year lock-up period and then a 24-month linear release;
17.93% is for ecosystem development, with a 1-year lock-up period and then a 24-month linear release;
18.70% will be allocated to the foundation, with a 1-year lock-up period and then a 24-month linear release;
18.74% will be allocated to the team, with a 1-year lock-up period and then a 24-month linear release;
10.55% will be allocated to investors, with a 1-year lock-up period and then a 24-month linear release.
21% plus 13.08%, totaling 34.08% of ZRC, will be allocated to Zircuit community users, making it one of the projects with the highest community share among all Layer 2s. Starting from the first season airdrop, Zircuit has launched various token distribution activities. The completed first season airdrop and the ongoing second season airdrop are expected to be distributed to 342,000 addresses; the airdrop targeting EigenLayer holders and stakers covered about 203,000 addresses; the Catizen Launchpool activity had a total of 105,000 participants; and the activity in collaboration with Binance Web3 wallet also reached about 40,000 users.
With the Sector Picking Up, What is the Outlook for ZRC Circulation?
Looking back at the market performance in 2024, the Layer 2 sector has experienced a prolonged consolidation period since the Cancun upgrade, but with the sudden surge of ETH on the evening of November 21, multiple Layer 2 tokens such as OP, ARB, and STRK have also achieved over 20% gains, indicating that the Layer 2 sector may be starting to pick up.
Zircuit chose to lift the transfer restriction on ZRC on November 25, which, although not intentional (as can be seen from the pre-launch over-the-counter market), happens to coincide with the potential sector-level trend in the coming period. In addition, Zircuit itself is one of the few innovative projects in the somewhat monotonous Layer 2 sector, with unique highlights overlaid with "triple BUFF" such as AI, so the future performance of ZRC may be worth looking forward to.
