Learn about the zkSync ecosystem

Among all the Layer 2 scaling solutions based on zk-Rollup architecture, zkSync is one of the most anticipated and promising projects. In August, zkSync 2.0, or zkEVM, was launched on the Ethereum mainnet, which means that zkSync has completed a historical move towards the mainnet and this move can be considered a milestone. The zkEVM mainnet will be launched in November and related codes will be open-sourced. The compatibility of zkSync with Ethereum will be greatly improved, which might boost the migration of a large number of applications from Ethereum to zkSync, given that zkSync has better performance than OPR.

In the following chapters, Bitget Wallet (Previously Bitget Wallet (Previously BitKeep)) will introduce zkSync's technical team, solutions, and key ecosystem projects for you.

In 2018, Alex Gluchowski and Alexandr Vlasov founded Matter Labs for Ethereum L2 scaling and received a reward from the Ethereum Foundation in March 2019. In March 2021, Matter Labs completed a $6 million Series A funding, with well-known investment institutions including Placeholder and Dragonfly. What is even more remarkable about this round of financing is the introduction of a large number of ecosystem partners, including some of the most well-known companies and founders in the crypto world.

In November 2021, Matter Labs completed a $ 50 million series B funding led by A16Z and zkSync 1.0 was launched on the Ethereum mainnet in June 2020.

zkSync 1.0

zkSync is an L2 scaling solution based on Ethereum and zkSync 1.0 adopts a special prototype that mainly focuses on payment.

zkSync 1.0 has the following advantages:

• Low transaction fees;
• Tokens can be used as transaction fees (don't necessarily use ETH as transaction fees);
• High transaction efficiency and only take a few minutes to confirm;
• No longer than 15 minutes for withdrawal to L1 ( it takes 7 days for L2 using fraud-proof like Optimism and Arbitrum)

zkSync 1.0 turns out to be stunning technical progress but its range of application is still limited given that it is not compatible with EVM. zkSync 1.0 is mainly used as a payment method, thanks to its low transaction fees and high efficiency to withdraw.

zkSync 2.0

Its biggest difference from zkSync 1.0 is that zkSync 2.0 is compatible with EVM, which is called zkEVM. If you've read the introductory articles on Optimism and Arbitrum in this column, it shouldn't be hard to understand zkSync 2.0, which also migrates applications on Ethereum from L1 to L2 and adopts zkr technology instead of optimistic rollups.

Optimistic rollups such as Arbitrum and Optimism were the first to be launched, and many DApps have already been deployed on these platforms. As the figure below demonstrates, Optimism is relatively successful in terms of the number of users (number of unique addresses), and the main reason may be that the OP token incentive plan allows more users to interact on the chain. But it is worth noting that the unique addresses of zkSync have increased significantly in the past 2 months, with a growth rate of up to 15%. Despite the limited functionality that zkSync 1.0 can offer, zkSync is trying to catch up with Arbitrum in the field of Layer2.

The architecture of zkSync 2.0 includes zk-rollup and validium. The combination of these two protocols is also called "volition" because it gives users the freedom to choose between zk-rollup and validium.

- zk EVM: The engine that powers the EVM-compatible zkRollup and is the only solution that supports L1 security and reliable smart contracts.

zkPorter: an off-chain data availability system that is far more scalable than Rollups.

Given that we have introduced zk-Rollup in the previous articles, detailed information about its technology won't be illustrated here. In the following chapters, we will provide a brief introduction about how to add zkSync mainnet and five popular projects on the zkSync ecosystem.

How to add zkSync mainnet

Tap [All Mainnets] and search for zkSync, tick it and enter the 6-digit password to complete.