I learned about ZK technology when I first saw the token $ZKC on the Binance exchange, in order to understand what the project was.
The goal of the project issuing $ZKC is to become a universal zero-knowledge proof (ZK Proof) platform that can be used on every chain (its ambition is also quite large).
Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZK Proof) is what I first learned about at that moment, and after understanding it, I was amazed by such technology.
This time, in order to write the project Mantle, I initially felt a sense of familiarity when I saw the word ZK, but after looking at the community platform's post describing it as ZK Rollup, I searched for related introductions and found that it seems to be ZK Rollup as well, but it also seems to have some differences.
After searching various materials, one moment it's ZK Rollup, the next it's ZK Validity Rollup, and there's also ZK Validity. With so many types of ZK, which one is Mantle adopting? Are they all the same or are there any differences?
Thinking of the Marvel series (Loki), aside from the main universe Loki, there are countless variants in parallel universes such as young Loki, old suit Loki, turtle Loki, crocodile Loki, and president Loki, but there are still differences in form and ability.
So, first we need to confirm which kind of ZK Mantle is using. The terminology shown in Mantle's technical documents is 'ZK Validity Rollup'.
So Mantle has transitioned this year from the previous Optimistic Rollup to ZK Validity Rollup.
The industry often refers to ZK Validity Rollup as ZK Validium (hereafter referred to by this term), while social media uses the term ZK Rollup. However, both actually refer to what is written in the technical documents as ZK Validity Rollup.
In fact, the technology used by Mantle is not completely the same as the traditional ZK Rollup.
The traditional ZK Rollup (traditional ZK rollup) packs all transaction data onto the Ethereum main chain, which is very secure but has transaction fees of $0.01 to $0.1 per transaction. The well-known project Linea operates using this technology.
And the ZK Validity Rollup used by Mantle (which is ZK Validium) first sends transaction data to the off-chain EigenDA, providing only mathematical proofs for Ethereum to verify, reducing transaction fees directly by 30 to 50 times, costing around $0.002, and the speed is amazing, with final confirmation taking only 1 hour.
Additionally, there is a ZK Coprocessor (ZK co-processor) that specializes in complex calculations. It is not used for expanding transactions but for performing extremely difficult computations on-chain. Projects like Boundless ($ZKC), mentioned at the beginning of the article, are taking this path, and of course, its goals are quite different from Mantle.
The ZK Validium used by Mantle is a cost-saving version of the ZK variant family, with data stored off-chain in EigenDA, and proofs sent back to the Ethereum chain, making it indeed cheaper than the traditional ZK Rollup.
This choice also allows Mantle to attract large capital for fBTC and mETH, and after the transformation, it has indeed seen TVL increase directly by 189%, now exceeding $2.5 billion.
However, ZK Validium is a very new technology, and the entire system is quite complex. A small error can affect the operation of the entire chain, such as the system getting stuck and being unable to produce proofs, or excessive computational load. There may also be insufficient or unstable verification nodes, which would impact the security of the whole chain.
However, if Mantle can indeed operate stably under this system and continue to do so as the volume becomes larger, Mantle has the opportunity to secure its leading position in the competition of this L2.
@0xMantleCN @xhunt_ai
