Zircuit’s trailblazing L2 research has led to the development of an EVM-compatible ZK-rollup that allows faster transactions, lower fees, and higher security. In this quick guide, you’ll learn about Zircuit’s core features, transaction flow, and key differentiators, including circuit decomposition and security at the sequencer level. Before diving into the specifics of Zircuit, here's a short refresher on and their pros and cons. ZK-rollups Quick Overview: What Are ZK-Rollups? Zero-knowledge rollups, or ZK-rollups, are designed to increase Ethereum’s transaction throughput by moving computation and state-storage off-chain. L2 scaling solutions They’re called “rollups” because they roll up (i.e., bundle) a set of transactions, process them off-chain, and only submit a summary representing all the batched transactions to the mainnet. In addition to this summary, ZK-rollup nodes submit a confirming the veracity of the off-chain transactions. The validity proof is verified by a smart contract deployed on the L1 chain. validity proof Simply put, ZK-rollups reduce the amount of data that needs to be processed and stored on the Ethereum network while maintaining security. Other benefits of this scaling solution include: by bundling multiple transactions into a single mainnet entry Faster transactions with lower fees since they rely on cryptographic mechanisms for security Trustlessness due to zero-knowledge cryptography keeping transaction data private Increased privacy , unlike with No delays when withdrawing funds optimistic rollups However, zero-knowledge rollups also have drawbacks, including: , requiring developers to learn other coding languages and frameworks Limited compatibility with EVM that may result in increased fees Substantial computational costs since validity proofs require specialized hardware that can handle their computational complexity, and some networks use a single node as the sequencer. Centralization concerns Zircuit’s pioneering research into rollup security tooling, roll-up compression, and scaling cryptography, among other topics, has allowed it to overcome these downsides. To understand how let’s explore Zircuit’s core features and transaction flow. Zircuit’s Core Features The Zircuit team combined optimistic infrastructure with zero-knowledge proofs to get the best of both worlds and improve performance and security. As mentioned, overcomes the drawbacks associated with zero-knowledge rollups. And, while it also uses optimistic infrastructure, it doesn’t require a challenge period for withdrawals. See? The best of both worlds! Zircuit Here are the key features that make it possible. 1. Hybrid Architecture Zircuit describes its hybrid approach as a combination of zero-knowledge proofs and battle-tested infrastructure. By “battle-tested infrastructure,” they mean , the leading rollup development framework they built Zircuit on. Optimism’s Bedrock This framework improved on its predecessor by optimizing batch compression, lowering fees, using Ethereum as a data availability layer, reducing deposit confirmation times from 10 to 3 minutes, and more. Most importantly, and Ethereum equivalence. Bedrock has improved proof modularity This framework allows developers to swap out different components and add new capabilities. For example, it abstracts the proof system, allowing you to choose between using a fault-proof or validity proof. The Zircuit team used , a validity-proving system. Halo 2 They further modified the architecture with innovations resulting from their Ethereum Foundation and Zcash foundation-funded L2 research — I’ll go over them in features #3, #4, and #5. Besides Optimism’s Bedrock and Halo 2, Zircuit’s tech stack includes . Geth 2. Full Ethereum Compatibility Bedrock uses battle-tested Ethereum architecture and infrastructure as much as possible. By building on this framework, and security. Zircuit has inherited its full EVM compatibility What does this mean for developers and users? Tools, dapps, and work the same as you’re used to. wallets To deploy an Ethereum dapp you don’t need to learn a new programming language or framework — simply change the deployment endpoints when you’re ready to launch. The same goes for smart contracts; you can deploy EVM-compatible smart contract code on Zircuit. In addition, Zircuit doesn’t have a governance token. All fees are paid in ETH. All in all, the developer experience is essentially the same, apart from some inherent differences between an L1 and a rollup, such as the block time and fee model. 3. Security at the Sequencer Level Besides inheriting Ethereum’s security, . Zircuit offers users additional protection in a unique way Typical security efforts strictly focus on the application and smart contract layers. Zircuit prevents attacks by monitoring the mempool for malicious transactions at the sequencer level — in addition to security efforts focused on the application and smart contract levels. If malicious transactions, exploit contracts or other issues are detected and verified, Zircuit prevents their inclusion into the next block. This results in a more secure chain for projects and users. 4. Secure Native Bridge Zircuit's secure native uses best-in-class security architecture and safety practices to ensure cross-chain transactions are safe and easy. bridge infrastructure When you deposit, you're moving assets from Ethereum to Zircuit, and when you withdraw, it's the other way around. The bridge ensures your assets stay safe during this process. 5. Cutting-Edge Performance Powered by Decomposed Circuits In traditional blockchains, transactions are processed linearly, which can lead to significant bottlenecks during high network usage times. Zircuit has revolutionized transaction processing with its groundbreaking approach — decomposing circuits. Instead of the traditional one-after-the-other processing, . (If you come from a traditional IT background, think of it as task parallelism.) Zircuit breaks down complex transactions into simpler components and processes them in parallel This innovation allows Zircuit to take on a much higher volume of transactions simultaneously, . reducing latency and scaling the network’s throughput Let’s explore how this fits into the Zircuit transaction flow. Zircuit Transaction Flow and Provers Once the sequencer tells the execution engine which transactions should be in a block and the execution engine processes those transactions into L2 blocks, those blocks are processed by Zircuit provers. “Zircuit provers” are decomposed SNARK circuits. Each part of the decomposed circuits (i.e., each Zircuit prover) has a specific role in proving different aspects of the transactions. For example, one may prove a transaction was performed correctly, while another proves that a relevant Keccak operation was executed properly. This . They’re later aggregated to form a single validity proof for a batch of L2 blocks that can be verified on Ethereum with a smart contract. produces several smaller proofs that are faster to generate The result? A zero-knowledge rollup that’s much more efficient, has lower operational costs, and allows for cheaper and faster transactions. Start Building on Zircuit Zircuit is a highly secure, fully EVM-compatible ZK-rollup with cutting-edge performance and a significant breakthrough in the world. Web3 It has recently completed the fourth and last stage of its roadmap — launching the mainnet — and is now open to everyone. Everything that works on Ethereum works on Zircuit — it takes minutes to get onboarded and deploy a contract. Check out the and to start building. developer docs connect to Zircuit Also published . here

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Zircuit: A Game-Changing EVM-Compatible ZK-Rollup for Faster, More Secure Transactions

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Ines S. Tavares

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Zircuit: A Game-Changing EVM-Compatible ZK-Rollup for Faster, More Secure Transactions

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Ines S. Tavares

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