Blockchain
With the Arbitrum airdrop now a reality, the market is shifting its focus to zkSync and StarkNet, two Ethereum L2 extension options that have yet to release coins. According to 0xScope, the number of daily active addresses on zkSync and StarkNet jumped by nearly tenfold after Arbitrum announced the airdrop.
It has only been three days since the launch of @zksync Era, and over 100k people have used the Era bridge to deposit $ETH.
Meanwhile, the daily active users of @zksync Lite have rapidly declined since the Era’s appearance. pic.twitter.com/g2eMnglfC3
— 0xScope (🪬 . 🪬) (@ScopeProtocol) March 27, 2023
Furthermore, zkSync has announced the formal opening of the zkSync Era Alpha mainnet, which is available to all users.
According to Dune Analytics statistics, zkSync’s weekly transaction volume was around 1,953,830, and the 7-day average transaction volume reached a new high. The overall transaction volume has already surpassed 35 million. The FOMO effect is palpable.
Coincu will discuss the present situation of the zkSync Era mainnet and its ecological applications that have already been launched in this post.
What is zkSync Era?
zkSync is a Layer-2 scaling solution created by Matter Labs that uses ZK Rollups technology to reduce costs, speed up transactions, and provide security on Ethereum.
zkSync Era replaces zkSync 2.0. Account Abstraction and EVM support through Solidity and Vyper are among the new features included in the first version of zkSync 2.0. It may be used with smart contracts, as well as the Zinc native programming language and zkPorter.
The team highlighted the use of zkEVM technology to promote interoperability with EVM smart contracts after changing the name to zkSync Era. The Matter Labs team has been exploring the use of zkEVM on the pilot network for over a year and on the official network since October 2022 and has also gone through several audit rounds.
What unique features does zkSync Era have?
In comparison to the zkSync Lite (zkSync 1.0) network, zkSync Era includes four new features:
zkSync Era network directly employs local Account Abstraction, allowing any account on Era to pay fees with any token and even trade with $0 costs on protocols willing to subsidize use.
zkSync Era is also developing the first LLVM-based EVM compiler (Solidity, Vyper, Yul). LLVM is the most mature compiler stack in the world, and it will significantly enhance the ecosystem’s performance and developer experience.
It provides benefits to the system, like data compression, more frequent Oracle updates, low-cost privacy, and seamless off-chain storage growth by broadcasting state differences rather than transaction inputs.
The highly scalable super chain is another feature. zkEVM is a new ZK-Rollup technology that was created in early 2021 and is extremely compatible with EVM.
There are still several limitations to the ZK programming language. One of the most significant impediments is the variety of various programming languages, which makes it difficult for developers to program in many languages.
This makes it difficult to create dApps with consistent code or migrate dApps between layers 1 and 2. Overall, the standard zk-Rollup is quite complex to implement and has certain practical restrictions.
The unification of programming techniques in zkEVM improves layer 2 composability, making it easier for Ethereum dApps to transition to the zk-Rollup chain without updating numerous sources.
What projects does the zkSync Era ecosystem have?
According to the information from zkSync, there are currently over 200 projects based on or about to be deployed on the zkSync Era. Its applications include DeFi, GameFi, infrastructure, social, public goods, and other types. Here are some featured projects:
Mute Switch
Mute Switch is a zkRollup DeFi Platform powered by zkSync 2.0. The zkRollup technology is the endpoint for Ethereum scaling, allowing Ethereum to grow without losing security or decentralization. zkSync 2.0 is already live on the mainnet and is nearing completion.
Until it is officially released, zkSync will go through three significant alpha stages:
- Only zkSync devs use the baby alpha.
- Fair alpha launch – At this level, zkSync will be available to projects and other developers.
- Complete Alpha – Available to all users
As zkSync reaches Full Launch Alpha, all ecosystem projects will debut concurrently, resulting in the greatest Layer 2 launch in crypto history, ranging from the largest ecosystem projects in Web3 to over 150 creative initiatives. Mute Switch is one of those initiatives that will be launched, and it is expected to be a great winner in the long term. Mute Switch has processed about 40% of all DEX transactions in the zkSync testnet thus far.
ONTO Wallet
Decentralized identification and data management in a single step. Ontology Network-powered self-sovereign verifiable credentials. It is a remark that confirms one entity’s assertion about another. The claim is accompanied with a digital signature that may be used for authentication by other organizations.
ONT Score is a decentralized evaluation system for ONT ID user trust that may evaluate ONT ID users across several dimensions, like as identification information, verification information, digital assets, and behavioral characteristics.
ONTO assists customers in creating a decentralized digital identity based on the Ontology blockchain, which completely secures personal private data using an encryption algorithm to provide a safe and easy one-stop solution for users globally.
ONTO Wallet is built for smartphones, with the ONTO Web Wallet being accessible for PCs to provide a secure and easy one-stop solution for consumers globally.
Pyth Network
Pyth Network is an oracle solution that provides high fidelity market data from professional traders and exchanges to smart contracts.
Pyth Network’s goal is to make all assets (coins/token) available on blockchains to the world and empower data owners and users. Pyth currently specializes in valuation data for crypto, FX, stocks and commodities markets.
At the same time, the project provides data solutions for developers to use to build decentralized applications in the Web3 space.
Celer Network
Celer Network is a blockchain interoperability protocol that allows for one-click token access, DeFi, GameFi, NFT, governance, and other features across various chains.
Developers may use the Celer Cross-chain Notifications SDK to create cross-chain native dApps with efficient liquidity utilization, consistent application logic, and shared states. Celer-powered dApps will provide users with the advantages of a diversified multi-blockchain ecosystem while maintaining the simplicity of a single transaction Experience, all from a single chain.
Conclusion
The race between Ethereum scaling platforms to come out with the first zkEVM – seen as a key advance in speeding up blockchain transactions and reducing the cost – culminated as Matter Labs opened its zkSync Era to users.
When Polygon announced the date it would release the first zkEVM on the market, Matter Labs had not publicly shared when it intended to release the version – providing an extra jolt of drama in the competition.
Currently, zkSync does not have a native token. Therefore, for users who have recently played game airdrops, the FOMO sentiment at this time has caused their network gas to be relatively high and their product experience to decline, so there is no need to rush for a while.
zkSync currently does not have many popular native applications, and the main network has not extensive user testing. It is not in line with the timing or interests in the short term.
Judging from the ecological applications, most of them are the application migration of the Ethereum main network or other networks, and there are very few native applications. When users interact, they may focus on applications that have not yet issued tokens, or they may kill two birds with one stone.
Finally, zkSync Era is currently in the Alpha stage, and its risks are still unknown, so please control the number of funds when using the interaction.
DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.
