Original Content:
ZKSync announced the launch of Elastic Chain, an infinitely scalable ZK rollup network. This concept was first proposed in 2022 as the “Bridgeless Superchain.” ZKsync stated that this solution achieves native, trustless, and low-cost interoperability between ZK chains. Elastic Chain is not a new L1/L2 chain, but rather a solution that connects various ZK networks. In this article, we will explore its functionality and features.
Background and Intentions
The Ethereum development roadmap centered around Rollup has successfully reduced transaction fees, increased transaction speed, and improved network processing capabilities. However, as Layer 2 continues to expand, liquidity is becoming fragmented. Additionally, the proliferation of “reinventing the wheel” on various chains has led to inconsistent product quality and poor user experience.
While official and third-party cross-chain bridges aim to address liquidity issues, they still face high operational costs. ZKsync pointed out that cross-chain bridges often require integrating liquidity from each chain, resulting in costs typically passed on to users, ranging from 1%-2% of the transaction value. Furthermore, this cost increases exponentially with the growing number of Layer 2 solutions. ZKsync further highlighted that three of the largest DeFi protocol hacks were related to cross-chain bridge issues, resulting in losses exceeding $20 billion.
Therefore, ZKsync aims to create a solution that allows users to interact with various chains without the need for cross-chain bridges, achieving seamless interoperability across multiple chains while focusing solely on the products themselves.
Elastic Chain Overview
According to the official definition, “ZKsync 3.0 (Elastic Chain) is an infinitely scalable ZK chain network (including rollup, validium, volitions, and other ZK solutions) protected by mathematics and seamlessly interoperable with unified and intuitive UX.” What are the characteristics of Elastic Chain, and how does it differ from unified solutions such as Optimism’s Superchain?
Firstly, the features of Elastic Chain include:
Seamless Cross-Chain Use: Users can use the same address across multiple chains and interact with any user or smart contract within the Elastic Chain ecosystem with a single signature, without the need for cross-chain bridges for fund transfers. It supports the use of any liquid token to pay gas fees and can be sponsored by DApps to enable free operations for users.
Elastic Scalability: In economic terms, elasticity refers to the ability to increase supply in proportion to demand growth. In this context, elastic architecture allows blockchain to infinitely scale by adding new instances to match usage demands without affecting performance, verifiability, or decentralization.
Mathematical Guarantee: All transactions are verified and executed by Ethereum with no honest majority assumption. ZKsync noted that in the long run, every user with a smartphone will verify all transactions.
Elastic Chain Architecture
Elastic Chain consists of three main components: the various ZK chains themselves, ZK gateways, and ZK routers. The ZK gateway is the most crucial part of Elastic Chain, acting as middleware between ZK chains and the Ethereum mainnet. It charges fees to ZK chains, processes data on behalf of Ethereum, and then publishes it to Layer 1.
ZKsync stated that by joining Elastic Chain, ZK chains can achieve faster finality, reduce verification costs on L1, and remain independent, with the ability to exit Elastic Chain at any time.
However, joining Elastic Chain is not free. ZK gateways are operated by a decentralized, trustless group of validators who need to contribute ERC-20 tokens (e.g., ZK tokens) to participate in validation. Validators then charge fees for the data sent to the gateway.
Competitive Comparison
ZKsync compared Elastic Chain with other integrated solutions like Superchain and AggLayer in four aspects and concluded that Elastic Chain outperformed them. The specific angles and data are as follows:
Verifiability: Users can verify the validity of all chains using consumer-grade hardware such as smartphones.
Shared Interoperability: Interoperability latency between chains is eliminated by using a shared finality mechanism instead of settlement processes (e.g., shared sequencers), allowing synchronous transactions, resulting in zero latency between chains. ZKsync noted that OP Stack has not yet released any designs for fast cross-chain asset transfers across Superchain.
(Elastic Chain does not have latency issues between chains because each chain calculates on its own and then submits the results to the ZK gateway. Therefore, there is no inter-chain latency issue.)
Native Interoperability: Independent chains can settle without mutual trust, eliminating the need for interoperability time.
Throughput: TPS testing was conducted using Uniswap.
Is ZKsync Trying to Replace Ethereum?
At first glance, Elastic Chain seems to be an effective solution to the current proliferation of L1 and L2. With the increasing ease of launching new chains, existing protocols aim to continuously add support for new networks, but based on Elastic Chain, they can directly connect to new chains and projects, saving development and promotional resources. For users, there is no need to transfer funds between various chains.
However, on a deeper level, Odaily believes that this reflects the stagnation of the crypto ecosystem. Without breakthroughs in hardware and underlying technology, some elements and principles are sacrificed for the sake of an improved user experience.
Firstly, the claim that the operational costs of cross-chain bridges will increase exponentially with the growing number of Layer 2 solutions is a fallacy. Users do not necessarily need to transfer between numerous chains. Currently, funds and users are mainly concentrated on a few chains. Many chains are deserted, and eliminating the need for cross-chain transfers will not necessarily attract more users to the applications on these deserted chains. Even with more Layer 2 solutions, as long as there are no compelling products, there is little demand for cross-chain interaction. This results in the unnecessary prolonging of ecosystems and networks that should have died out.
Another issue is why various Layer 2 solutions choose to use the Ethereum mainnet as a settlement layer. Aside from Ethereum’s legitimacy, decentralization is a key factor. While Ethereum can enhance its performance and reduce costs, there still needs to be a commitment to this fundamental principle. From Solana being dubbed the “data center chain” in 2021 to the latest MegaETH claiming to achieve 100,000 TPS (with extremely high hardware requirements and only one sequencer active at a time), centralization is becoming increasingly prevalent.
Finally, Ethereum’s position as the central tax collector for settlements, and the fragmented nature of various Layer 2 solutions, could be altered. Whether it is Elastic Chain or another future competitor that occupies a significant market share, small ecosystems will have to join the network and pay taxes to this middle layer to gain traffic and funding. Ethereum’s Layer 2 revenue will depend on this ultimate hegemon, creating a situation where the hegemon dictates to the vassals.
However, there is one positive aspect: if the requirement to use ZK tokens as the validator entry threshold is met, ZK may have a chance at redemption.
