In this article, we will look at the functioning and technological nuances of the ZKsync Era blockchain and its token $ZK.
We will start off by looking at what exactly is ZKsync Era in the beginning section.
What Is ZKsync Era?
ZKsync Era is the world’s first zero-knowledge program that runs on the second layer of the blockchain protocol.
It is based on the cryptographic method known by the name of Zero Knowledge Proof abbreviated as ZKP or ZK proof.
The ZKsync Era is being led by a corporate entity named Matter Labs and as of February 2023, Matter Labs has announced that ZKsync Ero is going to become free and open sourced.
How Does The ZKsync Era Network Work?
The cryptography method by which the ZKsync Era was rolled up with functions some of which are given in the paragraph below.
The Zero Knowledge proof is essentially a way to confirm the validity or genuineness of a statement without revealing anything about the said statement
Zksync Era helps to provide more scalability to the otherwise congested Ethereum ecosystem.
The Zksync does this by computing the transactions off-chain and storing the values away from the network.
The validity results of the transactions are then stored in the Ethereum mainnet safely with provided accessibility whenever needed in the future.
ZKsync Era was launched as another Zero Knowledge rollup and differed from optimistic rollups like “Optimism”, “Base” and “Arbitrium” which assumed all statements to be true until proven otherwise.
The ZKsync Era was also not bound by the 7-day waiting period that the other similar rollups had to go through to withdraw tokens.
These are the details behind the basic functioning of the ZKsync Era and its basis for functioning.
Now let us look at what made the ZKsync Era stand out from the rest of the layer-2 rollup ecosystems.
What Makes The ZKsync Era Unique From The other Layer-2 Rollup Ecosystems?
The Zksync Era ecosystem is unique from the other ecosystems for the following features that it offers:
- Higher Scalability:
As briefly mentioned above in the introductory section the ZK rollup system allows for the system to onboard billions of users while simultaneously being able to deliver a great user experience with a greater number of transactions per second.
Other benefits offered along with it include the benefit of cross-hyperchain interoperability, a unified wallet management system, and other customization options.
- Self-sufficiency and self-reliance:
The ZkSync era has the authorization to inherit 100% of Ethereum’s security to offer its mainnet-featured security protocol.
It also has zero reliance on any 3rd party blockchain services.
- Preservation of Ethereum Virtual Machine:
ZKsync era is strict about preserving the key features of Ethereum such as its smart contract creatability.
This helps the project to experience greater compatibility with the ZKsync Era when migrated from the web3 ecosystem.
- Lower running fee and real-time response:
ZKsync provides instant and real-time transaction finality despite relying on its Layer-1 (Ethereum) protocol for finality.
The ZKsync era also offers a lower average gas fee amounting to only 0.00056ETH.
- Cross-compatibility through bridges:
ZKsync uses its native bridges to provide cross-compatibility between Layer-1 Layer-2 and Layer-3 networks.
These are some of the features that make ZKsync unique from other ecosystems.
In the next section, we will look at what $ZK is and what it does in the ZKsync ecosystem.
What Is $ZK?
$ZK is the native token used for governance in the Zksync Era network.
The token was launched by the group in June 2024.
The ZKsync Era ecosystem accepts the token to be used for the following purposes:
- The token can be used to pay the network fees within the ZKSync ecosystem
- It will give you the right to introduce governance protocols for the networks
- The coin also lets you vote regarding protocol updates in the network.
The company in charge of the $ZK token at one point distributed almost 17.5% of the total supply of the coin to wallets through airdrop.
The coin was distributed based on the fulfillment of any one of the 7 criteria that it laid out.
The 7 Criteria for receiving the coin were listed as follows:
- Interaction with at least 10 non-token smart contracts on ZKsync nework
- The individual must have been a user of Paymasters and must have used it for at least 5 transactions on ZKsync Era.
- Should have provided liquidity to the lending/Buying protocols on ZKsync Era by their contribution
- Been active for over the period of 3 months on ZKsync lite before the Launch of ZKsync Era mainnet.
- Trade with a minimum of 10 distinct ERC-20 tokens on the decentralized exchanges managed by ZKsync Era.
- The person must be the holder of at least one Libertas Omnibus non-fungible token(NFT) at the time of the event.
- Donated to Gitcoin via ZKsync Lite.
The users who had fulfilled at least one of the criteria listed above were delivered the $ZK token
The token allotment through airdrop was considered successful and the coin is now set to follow a positive trajectory based on the market predictions and price analysis from experts.
Final Thoughts
The ZKsync in comparison to the other optimistic rollups gives better security and real-time settlements. Its scaling solutions and cross-operational setup make it easier for website designers to adapt much faster without wastage of time or extra resources.
The ZKsync program is expected to benefit the most if Ethereum becomes the dominant chain in the crypto market due to its offered benefits over the other tools available in the sidelines of the Ethereum system.
