The Matter Labs team announced the launch of a Level 2 test network based on ZK rollup (ZKR) technology with smart contract support. The Curve Finance DeFi project will be the first decentralized application to test the benefits of the new solution.
ZKR is one of two approaches to scaling Ethereum using so-called "rollups". The second one is called Optimistic Rollup (OR). According to Matter Labs, ZKRs have improved security and short transaction completion times, making them comparable or superior to the core network.
Previously, co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Butterin stated that rollups are "the only choice for scaling ETH". "Rollaps are here, but not quite," he wrote recently.
In general, there is an opinion among developers that the only correct or ideal solution for scaling does not exist, because each of them has its own shortcomings. The main advantage of OR is the simplified support for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). OR was supposed to be the only sensible approach to scaling smart contracts on the second level. Matter Labs hope to change this.
According to them, several important discoveries were made in 2020, which led to the emergence of the Zinc programming language and the associated Zinc VM. The combination of these and other solutions will be used to implement a new approach to smart contract scaling.
The developers also promise full smart-contract compatibility: "All contracts within the zkSync L2 network will be able to address each other atomically in the same way as it works in the main Ethereum network".
By now, the test network has already been put into operation. Users are encouraged to write smart contracts, test them and create zero-disclosure proofs that will serve as proof of execution. Subsequently, the test network will be suitable for transmitting real tokens. Not all features of a complete solution are available at the start up stage.