Layer 3

Ethereum-scaling protocol zkSync’s layer-3 prototype set for testing in 2023

Matter Labs chief product officer Steve Newcomb emphasized to Cointelegraph that the launch of its L3 prototype will significantly improve the performance of its L2 solution.

A new layer-3 prototype aimed at further solving Ethereum’s scalability issues is set to be deployed for testing as soon as Q1 2023.

zkSync, a provider of zero-knowledge blockchain solutions, on Oct. 10, announced it is aiming to deploy a new EVM-compatible layer-3 prototype called “Pathfinder” on testnet early next year.

zkSync is an L2 Ethereum scaling protocol designed to bring down network usage costs. It launched a 1.0 version back in June 2020 and is now gearing up for the launch of zkSync 2.0 later this month.

In its most recent blog post, the team explained that the L3 Pathfinder will be a “prototype demonstrating a ZK rollup as a fractal Hyperchain in Layer 3.” It will use recursive scaling.

“It will serve as a foundation for public experimentation, research, and development of Layer 3,” the post read.

They stated that while layer 2 will see a 10X–100X performance increase, ”in Layer 3 performance is limitless.”

The zkSync team has outlined that it is aiming to build an L3 “ecosystem of customizable and trustlessly linked blockchains powered by zkEVM that we refer to as ‘HyperChains.’”

The team is touting that its L3 prototype will provide a series of opportunities to significantly improve different areas of blockchain performance such as scaling, customization and security.

It also adds to zkSync’s upcoming Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible L2 network (version 2.0), which is slated to launch on Oct. 28.

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Steve Newcomb, the chief product officer of Matter Labs — the engineering team behind zkSync — said that the team is eyeing some serious scalability with its L3 solution:

“[Our] L2 solution is going to be 10x to 100x at the max at L2, but it’s L3 where we have like a star cluster of 10x moments where we make it faster, cheaper and more usable.”

“That’s where the game is going to be had [L3] and you know, the reason why people should see us differently than Polygon really is all about by the time they get around to getting that L2 solution, which is much less performant than us,” he added.

Newcomb noted that after zkSyncs L2 mainnet launches later this month, there will be a testing period of roughly a month before the decentralized applications (DApps) launch. The team expects there to be around 150 projects ready at launch.

Related: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shares vision for layer-3 protocols

In terms of the L3 solution adding to the L2, zkSync has noted that the team is looking to “aggressively experiment” with it to ascertain its supposed performance-enhancing potential.

The five key areas the project is looking at is performance, cost, ease of use and composability.

“Developers will be able to choose from 3 data availability options all using the same proving infrastructure for their project. Developers can choose their own trade-offs between price, performance, and security,” the post reads.

L3 ecosystem: zkSync

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shares vision for layer-3 protocols

While layer-2 protocols have been focused on “scalability,” layer-3 protocols would serve a much different purpose, says Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

While Ethereum-based layer-2 solutions have been focused on hyperscaling the network, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes layer 3s will serve a far different purpose — providing “customized functionality.” 

Buterin shared his thoughts in a Saturday post, providing three “visions” of what layer 3s will be used for in the future.

The Ethereum co-founder said a third layer on the blockchain makes sense only if it provides a different function to layer 2s, which have been used mainly to enhance scaling via zero-knowledge (zk) Rollup technology:

“A three-layer scaling architecture that consists of stacking the same scaling scheme on top of itself generally does not work well. Rollups on top of rollups, where the two layers of rollups use the same technology, certainly do not.”

But, “a three-layer architecture where the second layer and third layer have different purposes, however, can work,” said Buterin.

One of layer 3’s use cases would be what Buterin describes as “customized functionality” — referencing privacy-based applications which would utilize zk proofs to submit privacy-preserving transactions to layer 2.

Another use case would be “customized scaling” for specialized applications that don’t want to use the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to do computation.

Buterin also said that layer 3 could be used for “weakly-trusted” scaling through Validiums, a zk-proof technology. Buterin said this may be beneficial for “enterprise blockchain” applications by using “a centralized server that runs a validium prover and regularly commits hashes to chain.”

But, Buterin added that it’s still unclear whether layer-3 structures will be more efficient than the current layer-2 model when it comes to building customized applications on Ethereum.

Layer-2 Vs Layer-3 Network Architecture. Source: StarkWare.

Related: A beginner’s guide to understanding the layers of blockchain technology

“One possible argument for the three-layer model over the two-layer model is: a three-layer model allows an entire sub-ecosystem to exist within a single rollup, which allows cross-domain operations within that ecosystem to happen very cheaply, without needing to go through the expensive layer 1,” Buterin said.

But, Buterin said that because cross-chain transactions can be executed easily and cheaply between two layer 2s that have committed to the same chain, building layer 3s may not necessarily improve the efficiency of the network.

Buterin’s comments on possible layer 3 use cases come as StarkWare’s newly produced recursive validity proofs appear to have possibly put an end to Ethereum’s scalability concerns.

Declan Fox, the product manager at Ethereum software firm ConsenSys, recently told Cointelegraph that “with recursive rollups and proofs, we theoretically can infinitely scale.”

These recursive proofs have been well tested in production, with StarkWare co-founder Eli-Ben Sasson recently telling Cointelegraph that its recursive proofs have rolled up as many as 600,000 nonfungible token mints in a single transaction on Immutable X and that 60 million transactions could soon be on the cards “with more engineering and tweaking.”