On March 24, zkSync announced that the Mainnet"zkSync Era" will be fully open in a permissionless manner for everyone to use. Developers, project parties and users can now establish and bridge funds to experience the powerful functions of zkEVM, which also marks With the zkSync Era and Ethereum reached a major milestone.
background introduction
zkSync Era is essentially version 2.0 of zkSync, designed to extend the security and value of Ethereum using zero-knowledge cryptography, decentralization, and community ownership, accelerating mass adoption of cryptocurrencies for personal sovereignty. By upgrading from an Externally Owned Account (EOA) to a Smart Contract Account (CA), users can build abstract Seed Phrase, schedule and automate payments, and pay gas in any token—even on behalf of other users. Not only that, but based on thoughtful design choices, zkSync Era will enable builders to achieve low-cost privacy, unlimited growth, complex use cases and other user experiences.
There is no doubt that when developers, project parties and users can independently establish and bridge funds, the user experience will undoubtedly be greatly improved. Data doesn’t lie—compared to Arbitrum, Optimism, and StarkNet, zkSync is currently the Ethereum Layer 2 expansion solution with the largest number of bridging users. The latest data from Dune Analytics shows that the number of zkSync bridging users has exceeded 700,000. It reaches 708,089, while Arbitrum, Optimism and StarkNet have 615,877, 313,426 and 206,404 indicators respectively.
So, what is unique about zkSync Era that makes it stand out from many competitors? After the Mainnet was opened, the zkSync development team gave four highlights of the unique architecture of zkSync Era:
Highlight 1: Abstraction of native accounts
Quite frankly, user experience is a must for mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, but without a native account abstraction, it would be very difficult to achieve. Although EIP-4337 has taken Ethereum a big step towards account abstraction, it is not enough because:
(1) EIP-4337 introduces a reliance on third-party intermediaries;
(2) Doesn't work for most Ethereum, because most Ethereum accounts are externally owned accounts.
zkSync Era can better solve the above pain points, because zkSync Era has used local account abstraction from the first day of creation. Unlike other EVM-compatible Zk-Roullups, zkSync account abstraction turns each account into an account with its own logic. Smart contracts, which means that everyone can have an account that suits their needs, this seamless compatibility for everyone enhances the security and ease of use of cryptocurrencies.
1. Seed Phrase: The Seed Phrase is easily lost or stolen by hackers. The zkSync Era account abstraction enables biometric verification and social recovery through family, friends, or selected third parties. Users can use their Web2 login information to access Ethereum workshop, and set custom permissions at the individual app level.
2. Pay with any token: On zkSync Era, accounts that subsidize gas for other accounts are called Paymasters. This account can exchange selected tokens for ETH at the back end, so that accounts on zkSync Era can use any Tokens pay fees and can even transact with zero fees on protocols willing to subsidize usage.
3. Batch processing: In the past, users had to manually execute each contract approval and transaction, which was not only complicated but also costly. Since there is only one state change on L1, the zkSync Era account abstraction can batch multiple operations and sign all operations at once, making Dapp interactions cheaper and faster.
4. Single signature time preset and transaction value threshold setting: any number of interactions can be performed within the parameter range.
5. Automatic payment: zkSync Era makes automatic cryptocurrency payment no longer dependent on exchanges or third-party Non-custodial accounts. Users can create automatic transfers and scheduled transfers, recurring payment subscriptions, etc. under self-custody conditions.
Highlight 2: Powerful LLVM compiler
You can emulate an 8-bit video game console on a MacBook Pro -- but can you run MacOS on an 8-bit console? Therefore, if you want to unlock the full potential of the compiler, you must design for performance, zkSync Era optimizes the internal virtual machine to obtain the highest ZK prover performance, rather than EVM equivalence.
On zkSync Era, developers do not need to rewrite code in new programming languages or use different tools. To achieve this, zkSync builds an LLVM-based compiler for EVM languages (Solidity, Vyper, Yul), LLVM is the most mature compiler stack in the world and will bring tremendous performance and developer experience to the ecosystem Improve.
Highlight 3: Data Compression
Data availability is the scarcest resource of all Rollups and the most important part of transaction costs. Among the zkEVM projects currently on the market, zkSync Era solves this problem by publishing state differences instead of transaction inputs. This solution is unique (at least for now) and brings many advantages to Layer 2, including: 1) data compression, 2) more frequent oracle updates, 3) lower cost privacy protection, 4) seamless off-chain storage scaling, such as zkPorter.
Highlight 4: Ultra-scalable
The zkSync Era decentralized development roadmap and all the functions introduced above will actually be the key components for the ultimate realization of Hyperscalability. The long-term vision of zkSync is to build a hyperchain supported by ZK on Ethereum. Unlimited Internet, ultimately accelerating the mass adoption of encryption technology.
Summarize
Although the full opening of zkSync Era has aroused a lot of attention in the encryption community, market competition is still stimulating, and major competitors including ConsenSys, Polygon , and Scroll are also actively building the zkEVM ecosystem. The zkSync Era architecture does have a unique design perspective , But whether it can be "paid" by the market in the end is worthy of attention.
