How ZK Makes Crypto Faster
What Are ZK Rollups?
ZK (Zero Knowledge) is an emerging technology that is gaining popularity in blockchain, cryptography, cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, and more.
Zero Knowledge enables a verifier to confirm that a statement from a prover is true without the prover having to provide any information other than a proof that the statement is true.
Within decentralized blockchain environments, scalability has always been a concern. That is, how can the blockchain better process more transactions without increasing gas prices or decreasing the amount of data processed per transaction?
ZK has been brought in by system design experts to help solve that problem by providing proofs for rollups (Layer 2 Blockchains) so that they can quickly be resolved on the L1 blockchain, this implementation is called a ZK Rollup.
What Is A Rollup?
A rollup is a layer 2 or layer 3 blockchain that “rolls up” multiple transactions which have been processed on its blockchain and “posts” them to a lower layer (layer 1, layer 2) blockchain.
How Do Rollups Make Crypto Faster?
Rollups increase the number of transactions a blockchain can process by moving those transactions offchain, where they can be computed more quickly/efficiently, and then moving those transactions back onchain in batches.
Types of Rollup
There are two popular styles of rollups that make up the overwhelming majority of layer 2 transactions that are posted to layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum.
- Optimistic Rollup
- Zero Knowledge Rollup
Optimistic Rollup
Optimistic Rollups operate on an ‘optimistic’ approach to executing off-chain transactions. This means they assume all Layer 2 transactions are valid unless challenged and proven wrong by an honest network validator.
Optimistic rollups leave all transaction details plainly visible on the rollup chain.
Zero Knowledge Rollup
Zero Knowledge Rollups are rollups enable validators to prove a transaction’s authenticity without revealing any transaction details.
Unlike optimistic rollups, ZK-Rollups assume all transactions are false until proven valid through Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs).
This enhances security and provides a higher degree of privacy for users by default.
How Does ZK Make Rollups Faster?
Optimistic rollup transaction verification can take a week because of how fraud-proof works. This means that users’ funds take up to a week to be reversed during the challenge period if the transaction’s validity is questioned.
Because ZK rollups assume every transaction is false until it is proven true, ZK rollups eliminate the need for a challenge period.
How Else Does ZK Make Crypto Faster?
Past rollups, zero knowledge technology can be utilized by bridges to connect two or more blockchains together, so those blockchains can communicate.
By utilizing ZK the bridge is able to process transactions (or batches of transactions) in parallel in a trustless manner. Anyone can post any transaction to the bridge, even a false transaction, but unless a transaction is proven true, it will not be able to cross the bridge.
