Weekly Rollup #20
Modular Media
0x061A
June 26th, 2023

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This week’s issue covers:

  • Polygon proposes zkEVM validium

  • Introducing the Zora Network

  • BNB Smart Chain Launches opBNB

  • More News & Announcements

  • What are validiums?

  • Are validiums L2s?

  • Avail x Sovereign: The Future of Rollups

  • More Discourse & Education

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📣 News & Announcements

Polygon Proposes Transition from PoS to zkEVM-Validium

As we mentioned in last week’s newsletter, the Polygon Labs team recently announced the start of a new roadmap, Polygon 2.0, which is focused on creating the “value layer of the internet”. Over the course of four weeks, Polygon would be announcing further details as to what 2.0 is all about:

Well, right on schedule, this past week Polygon announced its plan for its PoS chain, the Polygon side chain where most of the network’s activity lives. Polygon will be transitioning its PoS network, into a zkEVM validium (assuming the proposal goes through).

As a reminder, a validium is similar to a rollup in that they’re both off-chain scaling soutions. However, rollups publish their transaction data on its underlying base layer (Ethereum in most cases), whereas a validium posts its transaction data on an external network, rather than the one it’s deployed on.

PoS side chain vs zkEVM validium

The upside of this PoS chain is the increased throughput it provides, however, this comes at the cost of security, considering it does not post state changes or transaction data on the L1 (Ethereum).

If the proposal passes and the PoS chain becomes a zkEVM validium, then the network will begin producing validity proofs and posting these proofs on Ethereum to be verified by the network’s validators. Rather than having the transaction data also be posted on Ethereum (which would make this a rollup), the data will live elsewhere. I have not heard a mention of where this data will live, but I would imagine either continuing with the Polygon validators, on Avail, or some sort of committee (similar to Starknet’s approach).

zkEVM validium vs zkEVM rollup

As you may already know, Polygon just launched its first zkEVM rollup a couple of months ago. The two networks are expected to live alongside one another, and it’ll be up to the developers to choose their preferred network to deploy on.

One of the main advantages of a validium over a rollup is lower fees. As you may already know, these off-chain scaling solutions (validiums & rollups), must publish their data on chain somewhere. Your traditional zkEVM rollup posts this data on Ethereum, and as you may know, posting this data accounts for most of the gas fees you pay when using the Ethereum network (this includes your favorite L2s like Arbitrum, Era, etc.). So, not having to post this data on Ethereum lowers fees for everyone.

However, as crypto has already taught us, nothing comes without a cost. The tradeoff a validium makes for these lower fees is lower security. Yes, technically proofs will be posted on Ethereum, but we’ll still be trusting a separate party to store our data, rather than trusting Ethereum validators.

I would imagine high-value defi applications launching on the zkEVM rollup because of the stronger security guarantees, however, I can see gaming or social apps launch on zkEVM validium for the increased scalability.

What’s next

Polygon pulling this off would be an incredible feat, as it’ll finally make Polygon’s most active chain, an actual L2.

According to the Polygon team, this transition can be comparable to Ethereum’s recent “merge”, meaning end-users will not even notice the change - it’ll all be done on the backend without even realizing it. This means that the network’s current users, liquidity, and dapps will have a seamless migration to a more secure chain.

We’re excited to hear about the rest of the Polygon 2.0 plan throughout the following weeks. To learn more about Polygon’s zk-validium, you can check out the original post, here.

Introducing the Zora Network: An OP Stack Rollup Dedicated to the Platform’s NFT Ecosystem

Last week, the Zora team announced the launch of the Zora network, the ecosystem’s own L2 rollup that was built using the OP Stack. Specifically, this rollup was built using Conduit, a rollup as a service solution that developers can leverage to launch their own custom dedicated OP Stack rollup “in one click” (we spoke about Conduit in one of our previous issues).

Zora is an NFT marketplace that was originally deployed on Ethereum, however, according to Zora founder, Ethereum’s low throughput, and high network fees have caused the team to expand Zora to its own execution environment. That being said, Zora will continue running on Ethereum, alongside the Zora network and any other chain Zora expands to in the near future, such as Optimism mainnet (which was already announced as happening).

“Zora offers a toolkit to have your artwork, songs, videos, podcasts, animations, or memes turned into NFT collections”. As a creator, you’ll be able to leverage these tools on your preferred network, whether on the Ethereum L1 or the Zora L2 network to take advantage of the lower gas fees.

To celebrate the launch of Zora network, the team launched a commemorative NFT that anyone can mint over the next 11 days. Sounds like Zora will have its own token in the future, so minting this NFT may or may not help with getting on that airdrop list. To do so, simply:

Congrats to the Zora team for their launch!

Introducing opBNB

Last Monday, the Build n’ Build (BNB) team introduced opBNB, an L2 rollup built with the OP Stack.

This new L2 will serve as a new execution environment for the BNB Smart Chain.

As you may already know, rollups are off-chain scaling solutions. Similar to how OP mainnet and Arbitrum are rollups deployed on top of Ethereum, opBNB will live on top of BSC. So, end-users will interact with the opBNB network, and the corresponding transaction data will be sent to the underlying mainnet (the BNB L1). Fraud proofs, which will be used to secure opBNB, will also settle on the L1.

Considering opBNB is EVM compatible, developers will be able to port their existing applications from the BNB L1 chain, or from any other EVM network, to this new L2 with relative ease.

opBNB vs OP mainnet & BNB

According to the team, the upside of launching on opBNB as opposed to launching on OP mainet is the increased performance features. “The optimisation of data accessibility, the caching layer and adjusting the submission process algorithm to allow simultaneous operations“ help enable opBNB to “support over 4000 transfer transactions per second and an average transaction cost lower than 0.005 USD”.

What’s Next

Personally, I was never too involved with the Binance ecosystem, however, we are definitely looking forward to seeing the growth of this BNB ecosystem across its new L2. Its especially exciting to see the second biggest smart contract network (after Ethereum) also follow in the rollup vision.

opBNB officially launched its testnet on the 19th. You can read the official post to learn more about this launch, and if you’re a developer, feel free to start deploying your contracts on the new L2.

More News & Announcements

  • Catalyst launches testnet: Now, anyone is able to try out the cross-chain liquidity network for themselves, and get a first hand look at the slick UI the platform has to offer.

  • L2Beat [introduces Stages, “a maturity ranking for L2 projects”. This is based on Vitalik’s previous rollup “training wheels” post and is meant to allow users to see where in the decentralization stage (Stage 0,1, or 2) each L2 is.

  • “ArgusLabs and Celestia proudly present the Modular Hacker House in Paris for ambitious individuals interested in hacking on pressing challenges within the modular ecosystem”.

  • Radius raises $1.7M in a pre-seed round led by Hashed. The capital will be used to continue the development of its shared sequencing network, as they approach its Q1 2024 mainnet launch.

  • Omni Network (Ethereum interoperability protocol) launches its “Origin” testnet. Check out the linked thread to learn how can earn free testnet funds and start interacting with the Origins testnet.

  • Secret Network is now supported on the Babylon testnet: “This integration enhances Secret Network's security, utilizing Bitcoin's timestamping to safeguard transactions on the platform”. Babylon also integrates Persistence, a Cosmos-based liquid staking hub, into its tesnet.

  • Eclipse helps enable the first Solana <> EVM Hyperlane message on testnet. Soon, any Hyperlane-connected chain will be able to communicate with Solana.

  • zkHoldem will be launching its fully on-chain zk-enabled poker game as its own Caldera chain (app-specific rollup).

  • There is a new proposal to bring Rocket Pool to Polygon zkEVM

  • Continuing on Aztec Network’s decentralization roadmap, the team is now looking for community members to give their thoughts on how the network should approach future protocol upgrades.

  • Introducing Syndr chain, an app-specific Arbitrum L3 built to host its options & futures DEX. Syndr was built using Caldera’s RaaS solution. You can check out the linked thread to learn more about what Syndr is, what it offers, and how you can become an early beta tester.

  • New proposal is up for the Duality exchange to adopt Cosmos Hub interchain security (ICS) thereby becoming the third consumer chain.

  • “Starting on Jun 22, 2023, Bybit will support Mantle in facilitating the conversion of BIT to MNT tokens”.

  • There was a couple of Fuel (L2 rollup) updates this past week, including:

    1. The Fuel team announces Sway Summer, an online hackathon with $100K in prizes

    2. Fuel announces the next round of its grants program: “The next cohort of 10 projects will receive up to $50K each in funding for a 3-month opportunity to bring their ideas to life”

    3. Thunder launches the open beta of its Fuel NFT platform.

    4. The Fuel Wallet beta is now available for download on the chrome store

  • Arbitrum network updates from this past week include:

    1. Offchain Labs (Arbitrum) just published a quickstart guide and tools to help devs launch their own Arbitrum Orbit devnet chain (an L3 that settles on Arbitrum Goerli). Testnet & mainnet guides are next - will we see a lot more Arbitrum L3s this year?

    2. Stella deploys on Arbitrum, bringing its “pay as you earn” model to the network

    3. Venly, a web3 wallet provider, integrates the Arbitrum network

    4. Aura is live on Arbitrum, bringing its defi yield & governance boosting protocol to the network. It looks like a handful of recognizable defi protocols will be integrated within the Aura platform, including Balancer, Timeswap, Beefy Finance, and more.

  • Take a look at the new features Morphine Finance will be adding in the near future, including placing SL and TP orders on our defi positions, and the ability to leverage our defi positions. While v1 provided us access to info, v2 is about building the set of tools to work with this gathered data.

  • Two new dapps coming to Starknet:

    1. “Rules”, a new trading card game, is coming to Starknet on the 23rd.

    2. Pyramid, a new NFT marketplace

  • Introducing Bonsaiswap, a DEX that is exclusively native to Polygon zkEVM

  • zkSync becomes the 14th chain integrated within the KyberSwap

  • zkSync shares a first draft of a ZK-Credo, ****************“a declaration of the foundational principles for the emerging ZK-powered Internet of Value”. The Credo addresses principles (such as security, privacy, and more), as well as community ethos, or, “the understanding of a shared moral duty for collective action against oppression.” This is not intended to be exclusive to zkSync, so whether you’re a team or individual user, feel free to share your thoughts.

  • The Scroll team held an ETHPrague “hackathon recap call” about an hour-long video of the winning teams presenting their project to the community.

  • Optimism-related news from this past week includes:

    1. “The chain formerly known as Optimism is now OP Mainnet”

    2. The Optimism team announced Round 3 of its Public Goods Funding initiative, which includes 30M OP in funding across ecosystem builders and creators. This week’s OP Radio session featured a discussion about this Retro PGF Round 3.

    3. Velodrome releases v2 of its liquidity hub

    4. AirGap, a smartphone cold wallet solution, integrates OP mainnet

  • Avail (DA solution) gets a new brand look

📚 Discourse & Education

What are validiums?

As mentioned above, Polygon Labs is transitioning PoS chain into a validium. If you are familiar with rollups, you can consider validiums their close cousins. Ethereum.org has a good description of validiums, but the TLDR is: basically rollups, except transaction data is not posted on L1.

What are the implications of not posting transaction data on L1?

Ethereum.org explains this well:

“However, validium users can have their funds frozen and withdrawals restricted. This can happen if data availability managers on the validium chain withhold off-chain state data from users. Without access to transaction data, users cannot compute the Merkle proof required to prove ownership of funds and execute withdrawals.”

It is probably obvious why the above scenarios are bad. While validiums maintain the guaranteed correctness property of their cousin rollups (L1 and participants reading L1 cannot be fooled!), they do not maintain the same data availability assurances. Put another way, they offer the same safety guarantees as rollups, but not the same liveness guarantees. If there’s one entity responsible for data availability and they misbehave, the system is effectively stalled.

How can validium risks be mitigated?

Again, the main challenge for validiums is data availability. The good thing is there are many DA options, and projects can pick whatever best fits their needs. We used the example of “one entity responsible for DA”, but realistically most projects will pick a more decentralized solution.

Here are examples of slightly more decentralized DA options:

  • StarkWare DA committee. “StarkEx’s default Data Availability Committee members are ConsenSys, Infura, Nethermind, Cephalopod, Iqlusion, and StarkWare. Committee members can be easily removed or added, depending on the dApp’s choice.”

  • Arbitrum AnyTrust DA committee. “The Committee has N members, of which AnyTrust assumes at least two are honest. This means that if N-1 Committee members promise to provide access to some data, at least one of the promising parties must be honest, ensuring that the data will be available so that the rollup protocol can function correctly.”

Here are examples of (once live) much more decentralized DA options:

  • EigenDA

  • Celestia

  • Avail

Validiums will remain an interesting option, since historically developers have always pushed the boundaries of what’s possible (in this case, with throughput), but we expect them to be especially compelling for the near-medium term while Ethereum DA remains expensive. This is precisely the case with the Polygon’s validium - it would ideally be a rollup.

Ok, finally tying this back to the Polygon announcement. Here are a few of our favorite threads about validiums and how Polygon is using them:

Are validiums L2s?

Not again
Not again

Surprise! More on rollup definitions.

Eric Wall states that “validiums are not L2s”, clearly reacting to Polygon’s announcement. This sparked a bunch of discussion, so let’s speedrun through key takes:

You’ve probably noticed the above is more aligned with Ethereum-land perspectives. There are certainly other interesting angles to consider though! This dialogue between Toghrul from Scroll and Jon from DBA does a good job illustrates an opposing view. This branch is also worth reading.

What do you think? Dare to enter the battlefield, anon? Kidding we have fun on CT.

Avail x Sovereign: The Future of Rollups

We hosted our first Twitter Spaces last week 😆

Preston from Sovereign and Prabal from Avail joined us for a discussion about rollups. We covered topics including:

  • Avail / Sovereign collaboration

  • Data availability design space

  • Based sequencing and ideal use cases

  • Future user experience for sovereign rollups

We had fun and plan to do more of these. If you have ideas for projects or topics to cover, please shoot us a note!

More News & Education

That's all for this week! Thanks for reading 🧱🎬

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