Ethereum Will Soon See 2,000 TPS with This Zero-Knowledge Layer-2 Application

A new layer-2 application running on Ethereum promises to bring scalability to the network, even touting “VISA level” transactional volume once deployed. 

Addressing Ethereum Scalability

Developed by Matter Labs, zkSync launched its beta product on the Ethereum mainnet on June 18, as announced via an official blog.

The layer-2 application is a trustless, highly-secure, and hyper-scalable deployment on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing users to send tokens while eliminating the high GAS fees the network is infamous for. 

If successful, the network’s throughput will be vastly increased, while the transaction speed increases multifold. Matter Labs, in its announcement, said the scaling solution was “non-application” specific. 

Overall, zkSync addresses Ethereum’s long-standing scalability problem – one that has been tested on multiple occasions and led to network congestion and slow block times each time.

The blog explained the tech behind the transactions:

“zkSync uses a novel application of zero knowledge rollups that only requires a one-time trusted setup that allows updates and new features to be applied without losing the security benefits provided by the technology.”

Currently, zkSync can process over 200 transactions per second – or about the speed of PayPal. The Ethereum network only processes about 12 transactions each second, so that’s a 10x increase already.

Scaling to VISA level

PayPal’s not the final frontier, zkSync’s developers want to gradually scale up to 2,000 tps – a rate compared to VISA and Mastercard and other legacy banking solutions. The speed will be achieved by Matter Labs’ proprietary zkRollup technology, which utilizes zero knowledge proof inputs by third-party validators that have “no access to the underlying transaction data within the rollup.”

In terms of fees, the blog noted fees wouldn’t cross $0.01 per transaction for the foreseeable future and will be payable fully with the transferred token. Before zkSync, token transfers were payable only in ETH and crosses $2 million in fees each month.

Matter Labs joins Loopring and others working on scaling the Ethereum network to millions of users each month. The project received a grant by the Ethereum foundation and was founded after a $2 million seed funding round led by Placeholder VC in November 2019.

In future updates, zkSync will introduce smart contract compatibility and additional security and censorship resistance features.