Exploring zkSync Era: 4 Narrative Highlights from the Official Interpretation

Written by: zkSync

Compiled by: Moni, Odaily Planet Daily

On March 24, zkSync announced that the mainnet "zkSync Era" will be fully open in a permissionless manner for everyone to use. Developers, project teams, and users can now establish and bridge funds to experience the powerful capabilities of zkEVM, marking an important milestone in the relationship between zkSync Era and Ethereum.

Background Introduction

zkSync Era is essentially the 2.0 version of zkSync, aimed at leveraging zero-knowledge cryptography, decentralization, and community ownership to enhance the security and value of Ethereum, accelerating the mass adoption of cryptocurrency to achieve personal sovereignty. By upgrading from externally owned accounts (EOA) to smart contract accounts (CA), users can build abstract mnemonic phrases, schedule and automate payments, and pay gas fees with any token—even on behalf of other users. Moreover, due to thoughtful design choices, zkSync Era will enable builders to achieve low-cost privacy, unrestricted growth, and complex use cases for user experience.

Undoubtedly, the user experience will be greatly enhanced when developers, project teams, and users can autonomously establish and bridge funds. The data does not lie—compared to Arbitrum, Optimism, and StarkNet, zkSync currently has the highest number of bridging users among Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions. According to the latest data from Dune Analytics, the number of zkSync bridging users has surpassed 700,000, reaching 708,089 at the time of writing, while Arbitrum, Optimism, and StarkNet have 615,877, 313,426, and 206,404 users, respectively.

So, what unique features does zkSync Era have that allow it to stand out among many competitors? After the mainnet launch, the zkSync development team highlighted four key points of zkSync Era's unique architecture:

Highlight 1: Native Account Abstraction

Frankly speaking, user experience is a necessary condition for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency, but achieving this goal would be very difficult without native account abstraction. While EIP-4337 has made significant strides towards account abstraction for Ethereum, it is still far from sufficient because:

(1) EIP-4337 introduces a reliance on third-party intermediaries;

(2) It does not work for most Ethereum accounts, as the majority are externally owned accounts.

zkSync Era addresses these pain points effectively, as it has utilized native account abstraction since day one. Unlike other EVM-compatible Zk-Rollups, zkSync's account abstraction turns each account into a smart contract with its own logic, meaning everyone can have an account tailored to their needs. This seamless compatibility enhances the security and usability of cryptocurrency for everyone.

1. No mnemonic phrases: Mnemonic phrases can be easily lost or hacked. zkSync Era's account abstraction allows for biometric verification and social recovery through family, friends, or selected third parties. Users can access Ethereum using their Web2 login information and set custom permissions at the application level.

2. Pay fees with any token: On zkSync Era, accounts that subsidize gas for other accounts are called Paymasters. These accounts can convert selected tokens to ETH on the backend, allowing accounts on zkSync Era to pay fees with any token, and even transact at zero cost on protocols willing to subsidize usage.

3. Batch processing: Previously, users had to manually execute each contract approval and transaction, making the process complex and increasing costs. With only one state change on L1, zkSync Era's account abstraction can batch multiple operations and sign all actions at once, making DApp interactions cheaper and faster.

4. Single-signature time presets and transaction value thresholds: Any number of interactions can be performed within parameter ranges.

5. Automatic payments: zkSync Era allows for automatic cryptocurrency payments without relying on exchanges or third-party non-custodial accounts. Users can create automatic transfers and scheduled transfers, as well as regular subscription payments under self-custody conditions.

Highlight 2: Powerful LLVM Compiler

You can simulate an 8-bit video game console on a MacBook Pro—but can you run MacOS on an 8-bit console? Therefore, to unleash the full potential of the compiler, it must be designed for performance. zkSync Era optimizes its internal virtual machine for the highest ZK prover performance rather than EVM equivalence.

On zkSync Era, developers do not need to rewrite code in a new programming language or use different tools. To achieve this, zkSync has built an LLVM-based compiler for EVM languages (Solidity, Vyper, Yul). LLVM is the most mature compiler stack in the world, bringing significant performance and developer experience improvements to the ecosystem.

Highlight 3: Data Compression

Data availability is the scarcest resource among all Rollups and is the most critical part of transaction costs. Among the current zkEVM projects in the market, zkSync Era addresses this issue by publishing state differences rather than transaction inputs. This solution is unique (at least for now) and brings many advantages to Layer 2, including: 1) data compression, 2) more frequent oracle updates, 3) lower-cost privacy protection, and 4) seamless off-chain storage expansion, such as zkPorter.

Highlight 4: Hyper Scalability

The decentralized development roadmap of zkSync Era and all the features mentioned above are actually key components in ultimately achieving hyperscalability. zkSync's long-term vision is to build an infinite internet through ZK-supported superchains on Ethereum, ultimately accelerating the mass adoption of cryptographic technology.

Conclusion

Although the full opening of zkSync Era has attracted considerable attention in the crypto community, market competition remains fierce, with major competitors including ConsenSys, Polygon, and Scroll actively building zkEVM ecosystems. The architecture of zkSync Era indeed has a certain forward-looking design, but whether it will ultimately be "accepted" by the market remains to be seen.