ZK-rollups become the latest trending solution for scalability on the Ethereum network as developers strive to increase throughput capabilities while decreases transaction costs.
Scalability on the Ethereum (ETH) network has been a point of contention within the cryptocurrency ecosystem for years, primarily due to high fees and network congestion during periods of peak demand.
The latest solution to emerge as the final fix to Ethereum’s scalability woes are Zero-knowledge rollups (ZK rollups), a form of scaling that runs computations off-chain and submits them on-chain via a validity proof.
Earlier in the year, protocols that opted to use optimistic rollups such as Optimism and Arbitrum dominated the headlines and were touted as the best solution to scaling on Ethereum, but aside from Arbitrum, the hype for those protocols has quieted down and traders have pointed out that even optimistic rollups have higher than desirable fees when the network is under peak demand.
Early successes in 2021
At the same time that optimistic rollup solutions were in the spotlight, protocols that adopted the ZK rollups model quietly demonstrated their capabilities.
dYdX, a decentralized perpetual and futures exchange, was one of the earliest adopters of ZK-rollup technology through its partnership with StarkWare, whose StarkNet network is a permissionless decentralized ZK-Rollup.
To date, the platform has seen a decent amount of success and at times managed to process a higher 24-hour trading volume than Coinbase.
Loopring (LRC) is another protocol that has utilized ZK-rollups to decrease transaction costs and speed up its throughput capabilities, which has helped drive the price of LRC to a new all-time high of $3.83 in early November.