The ZKsync team, an Ethereum second layer (L2) network, introduced Atlas, an update to the ZK Stack that represents an important step toward its vision of building a network of sovereign, cryptographically secured chains geared toward the global economy.
The ZK Stack is ZKsync’s open source toolset that enables developers and companies to create custom cryptocurrency networkspublic or private, with control over privacy, economics and access, integrated into an interoperable network anchored in Ethereum.
If the promises that Atlas brings come true, for end users it would imply almost instant and much cheaper transactionsreducing current delays and costs when interacting with decentralized applications (dApps).
For developers, it represents a leap in scalability and efficiency, allowing thousands of transactions per second to be processed with fast and secure cryptographic proofs.
The three pillars of ZKsync’s Atlas upgrade on Ethereum
In principle, with Atlas, ZKsync incorporates support for multiple virtual machine configurations (including full compatibility with the Ethereum EVM).
Second, the ZK Stack update adds a new transaction sequencerwhich was designed from the ground up with three main goals:
- Increase performance, even during times of high congestion.
- Reduce latency so that operations are included quickly.
- Simplify the system, a key aspect to facilitate the maintenance and scalability of the protocol.
As detailed, the performance of the sequencer would be as follows, reaching different levels of processing depending on the type of operation:
- 15,000 transactions per second (TPS) in stablecoin transferswith an approximate consumption of 0.5 gigabytes per second (a unit that estimates the computational load of an operation in Ethereum) and an inclusion time of 500 milliseconds.
- 23,000 TPS for high frequency price updatesusing 0.66 gigabytes/s and with a latency of 250 ms.
- 43,000 TPS on ETH transferswith 0.9 gigabytes/s and an inclusion time of 450 ms.
Third, the Atlas update includes Airbender, its new zero-knowledge proof system (ZK proofs) based on RISC-V.
This system promises optimize the cryptographic validation process and reduce the cost of operations at “$0.0001” per token transfer proof of the ERC-20 standard (used on Ethereum).
Airbender, they explain in the releasewill allow “reaching finality in one second for each block”, reducing confirmation times without compromising security.
Among its main features are:
- Rapid proofs and accelerated completion: Each block can generate its cryptographic proof in one second, with complete confirmation on Ethereum in a few minutes.
- Airbender can validate any program compiled on RISC-V architecture, which expands development possibilities.
- Hardware efficiency: Requires fewer resources than other testing solutions, reducing operating costs and improving scalability.
From the Ethereum Foundation (EF) they highlighted that innovations such as Atlas mark a key step towards a more scalable and efficient ecosystem.
By enabling near-instant, low-cost transactions, these improvements would not only optimize the user experience, but bring the possibility of «millions of operations are verified by lightweight devices“, without sacrificing security or neutrality,” they said.