Ethereum Gets An Upgraded Scaling Testnet Years Ahead Of Schedule

By Kevin • February 27, 2022 3:25 pm • Comments

zkSync is a protocol that enables the implementation of Ethereum scaling platforms and could be one of things that could help assist the scaling issues that Ethereum currently faces.

The protocol recently announced that it was ready to do a test network release of an Ethereum Virtual Machine which surprised many investors because this was something that was supposedly expected in a few years.

The test network will be the first implementation of the zK Rollup that will actually run in a full Ethereum environment and will allow us to see exactly how good the protocol will be at scaling a blockchain like Ethereum.

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It has not been confirmed yet what the results are, but a success in this area could alleviate the fears of some investors of Ethereum such as the fact that Ethereum may not be able to address its issues fast enough to prevent losing market share to other competitor blockchains.

CoinDesk reports:

Until now, trade-offs tended to favor Arbitrum and Optimism; now zkSync has the opportunity to level the playing field. Optimistic Rollups are currently able to offer a single, composable environment in which users can use applications ranging from NFT marketplaces like OpenSea to lending protocols like Aave on mainnet.

zkEVM would create a similar end experience for users, with cheaper transaction fees and nearly immediate finality, removing the need for the two-week withdrawal periods associated with Optimistic rollups.

ZK rollups are more computationally extensive and put a burden on nodes looking to solve zero-knowledge validity proofs, but they are able to post network state to Ethereum for a fraction of the cost of even Optimistic Rollups.

zkSync and Loopring currently offer transaction fees 1/200th of the price on mainnet, according to L2Fees.Info.

At the time of writing, a trade on a decentralized exchange would cost users on Ethereum’s base layer just over $90, while Loopring and zkSync users would pay between $0.45-$0.68.

The important thing to verify here is if this type of protocol will be able to reduce transaction costs specifically on Ethereum as it has done in the past for other blockchains.

Ethereum-based applications would also benefit from this as they often rely on many transactions being done on the blockchain network.

Lower transaction fees is only one particular issue that is at hand for Ethereum, but a resolution in this area could at least help users of Ethereum dApps continue to stay in the Ethereum environment for the time being.

Yahoo reports:

If zkEVM is capable of offering fees similar to other ZK rollups, Ethereum’s scaling issues may be mitigated earlier than expected.

Ethereum native applications will be able to manageably port over Solidity-based contracts and offer a full range of products in a cheap fee environment backed by Ethereum’s security.

While lower transaction fees are an essential piece of scaling blockchains, it only matters if the chain can play host to applications that drive user demand. zkEVM will theoretically be able to host the industry’s favorite applications without sacrificing liquidity, decentralization or product offering.

At the time of writing, the price of Ethereum has not been affected at all by the recent announcement and continues a slow decline which has persisted since the start of the year.

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