ZKBase Mainnet is Live!

ZKBase launched its mainnet at 8:00 UTC on July 1st, 2024, officially marking its stride into the EVM era.

Mainnet Network Details:

• Network Name: ZKBase Mainnet
• RPC URL: https://mainnet-rpc.zkbase.app
• Chain ID: 1456
• Currency Symbol: ETH
• Contract Verification API: https://mainnet-contract-verification.zkbase.app/contract_verification
• Portal: https://portal.zkbase.app
• Block Explorer URL: https://explorer.zkbase.app
• Block Explorer API: https://block-explorer-api.zkbase.app
• WebSocket URL: wss://mainnet-rpc.zkbase.app/ws

Introduction

As an ETH Layer2 blockchain based on ZKEVM, ZKBase has launched its mainnet today on July 1st, 2024 marketing its

and initiated various testnet experience activities. Over the past few years, the Crypto field has undergone tremendous changes. Since 2020, the ZKBase team has been dedicated to the Layer2 scaling track. With the ZKBase mainnet launch imminent, I would like to discuss the past, present, and future development directions of ZKBase.

II. Background

The ZKBase team was formed four years ago during the Defi Summer of 2020. That summer witnessed a rapid emergence of ETH-based DeFi protocols, with decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap and lending protocols such as MakerDao spearheading the assault on traditional centralized finance (CeFi). Benefiting from Ethereum’s programmability, numerous developers built a plethora of applications on the Ethereum mainnet. As the crypto bull market arrived and user influx increased, on-chain gas fees skyrocketed. During peak times, a single transaction on the Ethereum mainnet could take minutes or even longer to confirm, and users had to pay exorbitantly high gas fees — often tens or even hundreds of dollars. This was particularly unacceptable for the vast majority of retail investors in crypto space.

To address this issue, numerous technical experts, including Vitalik Buterin, proposed various solutions to speed up and scale the Ethereum network, collectively known as Layer-2 solutions. Believing in the vast market potential and numerous opportunities within the Layer-2 space, a group of cryptography experts and seasoned blockchain developers came together to form the ZKSwap team, which later evolved into ZKBase.

Our team has been steadfastly focused on developing the technically challenging yet highly promising ZK-Rollups technology. Over the span from 2020 to 2024, we have launched four major versions, including:

• The first AMM DEX based on ZK-Rollups technology, ZKSwap V1: This pioneering platform introduced zero gas fees and Layer-2 liquidity mining and trading mining activities, offering a feast for all DeFi users. At its peak, the platform’s Total Value Locked (TVL) exceeded $2 billion, making it the largest Layer-2 protocol.
• The first user-driven unlimited token listing on ZKSwap V2: Users could freely list any ERC20 token on ZKSwap, enjoying a second-level transaction confirmation experience and choosing any token to pay platform fees.
• The first Layer-2 full-feature ecosystem, ZKSpace: This includes the DEX ZKSwap, a Layer-2 payment protocol ZKSquare with secure and speedy confirmations, an NFT platform ZKSea that supports user-driven issuance and trading, and a Layer-2 identity system ZNS.
• The fully programmable Layer-2 public chain supporting ZKEVM, ZKBas will launch more diverse scenario-rich Dapps. Stay tuned for further developments.

III. ZK Rollups

ZK-Rollups

The ZK-Rollups solution is based on zero-knowledge proof algorithms, ensuring that all transactions within a block are correctly processed and the world state is accurately updated. This process handles multiple transactions at once, achieving a significant improvement in system performance and offering a higher Transactions Per Second (TPS). However, due to the limitations of circuit size, the performance improvements brought by this solution have not met expectations and are still insufficient to support the current volume of Layer-2 transactions. Therefore, an additional technological protocol is needed to enhance overall performance, known as Aggregative Proof.

The logic behind Aggregative Proof is quite simple. In basic Layer-2 scaling solutions, each block corresponds to a single proof of validity, which is verified by the on-chain contract. With Ethereum’s average block time being 15 seconds, if the on-chain system could verify the validity of multiple blocks at once, the cost per transaction could be significantly reduced. The Aggregative Proof approach involves taking multiple proofs generated over a set period or a fixed number of blocks, and using zero-knowledge proofs to validate these block proofs as a single circuit. This allows the chain to perform a one-time verification for multiple block proofs.

According to data from L2fee.info, Layer-2 protocols based on ZK-Rollups technology can reduce gas costs several times more than Optimistic Rollups solutions, offering greater scalability and potential for future expansion.

In terms of security, Layer-2 solutions based on ZK-Rollups use a proactive proof approach, continuously submitting all transaction data to the Layer-1 mainnet for on-chain confirmation. Users do not have to wait for long fraud-proof challenge periods nor worry about security issues from centralized nodes. Withdrawals can be successfully completed in just 20–40 minutes, with security equivalent to that of the Ethereum mainnet.

In summary, ZK-Rollups and Aggregative Proof technology, with their substantial advantages in performance and security, have become one of the key solutions for Ethereum Layer-2 scaling.

IV. ZKEVM

Projects and research teams, including Zksync and Starkware, have been exploring various ZK-EVM solutions. At the end of 2023, we underwent a brand transformation, upgrading from ZKSpace to ZKBase, aiming to launch a ZKEVM public chain based on ZK technology to better meet the diverse needs of the Layer-2 ecosystem. ZKBase, with its compiler-based approach combined with Data Availability (DA) layers and ZK Rollups, significantly optimizes circuit efficiency to achieve higher performance, creating a secure and scalable ecosystem.

The ZKEVM circuit mainly consists of two parts:

The EVM Circuit and the State Circuit. The structure of the EVM Circuit is as illustrated below: from a column perspective, the EVM Circuit is divided into three parts:

1. Step selectors (including the current step, the first step, the last step, etc.)
2. Step circuit,
3. Fixed Table (a fixed lookup table).

The step circuit logic is the core component. The so-called “Step” refers to a single execution step from the circuit constraint perspective. This part is divided into two sections: a/ execution state (step state selector) and b/ various execution state constraint logics. The general constraint logic modules are outlined with dashed lines in the diagram. The general structure of the State Circuit is as follows: the State circuit implements checks for Stack, Memory, and Storage. Detailed constraint module implementations can be referred to in GitHub documentation, and the ZKBase team will also release more technical articles for detailed explanations in the future.

Overall, the EVM/State Circuit proves the correct logical execution of certain instructions and ensures that Memory/Stack read and write accesses are reasonable and correct. Like other ZK Rollups systems, the finality and security of ZKBase are closely related to the finality and security of the underlying Layer-1 ETH chain. The finality of ZKBase depends on the time taken to send transactions to the Layer-1 smart contract and update the Layer-2 state. This process includes several steps:

• Filling a batch with a group of transactions (usually takes a few minutes).
• Submitting the batch to Ethereum.
• Generating a proof for the entire batch (typically takes about an hour).
• Submitting the proof for verification by Ethereum smart contract.
• Confirming the batch on Ethereum (as an alpha phase security measure, there is a delay of about 21 hours).

The entire process takes about 24 hours, after which the transactions contained in the Layer-2 batch are finalized just like other transactions in the same ETH block. The confirmation process is expected to accelerate further as validity proof technology evolves.

V. To the Future

The launch of ZKBase marks another significant milestone in the field of ZK-Rollups expansion — an EVM-compatible Layer-2 scaling public blockchain. With this infrastructure in place, users and developers can freely innovate, building a variety of Dapps on ZKBase, such as DEXs, lending platforms, perpetual contracts, NFTs, and GameFi, among others.

As ZK blockchains and applications become more widespread, the demand for zero-knowledge proof computational power will inevitably increase. We aim to establish a decentralized computational power market on ZKBase, effectively matching idle computational resources with demand, achieving mutual benefits and building a more prosperous Layer-2 ecosystem. This is the concept behind ZKMarket that we proposed earlier. The launch of ZKBase opens up broader possibilities in the Layer-2 domain. Only after addressing key pain points such as security, convenience, and programmability can Ethereum’s scaling solutions truly mature. How ZKBase will unleash its inherent potential in the future remains to be seen.

ZKBase is currently in its final testing phase, with the mainnet launch imminent. Our team is committed to living up to expectations and will continue to strive forward, contributing our strength to the Layer-2 ecosystem.

ZKBase Team