Lagrange Protocol: Achieving Trustless Cross-Chain Interoperability through ZK
The Lagrange protocol facilitates cross-chain state verification by integrating major blockchains.Author: Maven 11
Compiled by: Shenchao TechFlow
Cross-chain interoperability and security have become a challenge in current blockchain technology. ZK startup Lagrange Labs has provided its solution. As an investing institution, Maven11 elaborates on the importance of Lagrange, detailing the core concepts of the Lagrange protocol, the verification process, and how to achieve trustless cross-chain operations using zero-knowledge proof technology.
Cross-chain state proofs are crucial for applications in a multi-chain world. They enable applications to use untrusted users to submit verifiable chain state claims. Use cases include multi-chain DEX pricing, yield aggregators, lending pricing, and more.
In simple terms, state (storage) proofs are a type of proof (zero-knowledge) that demonstrates the existence of a certain on-chain state on any chain. Through the magic of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), we can achieve this efficiently and trustlessly, without relying on oracle networks.
Traditional messaging protocols rely on nodes to relay information, but Lagrange takes a different approach. It allows anyone to submit encrypted verification information, similar to how IBC relies on light clients for cross-chain verification.
In Lagrange, any cross-chain transport layer or untrusted user can submit non-interactive proofs that are verified on-chain. These proofs do not rely on a set of validators or signatures, ensuring that data is obtained directly on-chain and aggregated efficiently across chains.
The verification of Lagrange state proofs involves several steps:
State Root Verification: Verifying the succinct zero-knowledge proof generated by the Lagrange state committee, demonstrating the authenticity of a given state root (block header).
Batch Storage Proofs: Verifying whether a set of claimed states exists within the state root of a specific chain.
Zero-Knowledge Distributed Computation: Verifying any distributed computation performed on-chain states.
Since Lagrange state proofs are modular, the protocol can choose to use partial proofs of state, storage, or computation to customize the proof system according to its applications. Existing cross-chain applications can easily enhance the security or expressiveness of their cross-chain tools.
The Lagrange zero-knowledge big data framework utilizes a dynamic data structure similar to Verkle trees, allowing applications to combine efficient storage inclusion proofs with any distributed computation (such as MapReduce or distributed SQL).
With the LagrangeJS SDK, developers can easily request state proofs from any chain and specify any computation to run on a subset of storage states. This enables developers to leverage secure cross-chain state and storage proofs within a user-friendly interface.
The Lagrange SDK also simplifies the process of simultaneously generating state proofs across multiple chains. These proofs allow DApps integrated with the Lagrange protocol to consolidate multiple state verifications into a single on-chain transaction.
The Lagrange protocol facilitates cross-chain state verification by integrating major blockchains. Initially, it is compatible with all EVM L1, L2, and rollups. In the future, it plans to support non-EVM chains such as Solana, Sui, Aptos, and chains based on the Cosmos SDK.
Additionally, Lagrange is committed to improving the security of existing cross-chain bridging and messaging protocols by leveraging economic bond statements to create robust economic single-slot guarantees for Optimistic Rollups. This can significantly enhance interoperability between isolated Rollups on Ethereum.
Its mechanism essentially generates ZK light client proofs for Optimistic Rollups, rather than the current "light client" implementation on Ethereum—namely, the Ethereum sync committee.
The current Ethereum sync committee consists of only 512 randomly selected validators, who receive higher rewards daily for providing light client functionality.
The security of the Lagrange cross-chain state committee derives from a growing, dynamically sized set of nodes that have economic bonds, which are either re-staked with EigenLayer or staked with liquid staking derivatives, such as Rocket Pool.
Nodes must sign each new block that reaches finality on the chain they are proving. In contrast to the 512-node limit of the Ethereum light client sync committee, the cross-chain state committee supports an unlimited number of nodes. Therefore, the collateral behind each proof can dynamically scale as needed, creating secure proofs for each given chain or Rollup.
State proofs have important use cases in protocols such as shared sorters, helping to improve cross-Rollup communication and addressing oracle issues in implementations like SUAVE.
