Ethereum scaling solutions often resort to tradeoffs, sacrificing security or decentralisation in favour of scalability. However, zk rollups hold the potential of increasing throughput, while also inheriting the layer 1’s security. This is achieved through zero knowledge validity proofs, which are published on Ethereum mainnet. The final hurdle remains the sequencer decentralisation. zkSync was designed around EVM-compatibility, offering custom scaling solutions through its hyperchain architecture.

We were joined by Alex Gluchowski, co-founder & CEO of Matter Labs, to discuss the zk rollup landscape, its bottlenecks, and what makes zkSync stand apart as the most popular rollup.

Topics covered in this episode:

• High-level overview of zero knowledge proofs
• ZK rollups
• zkSync Era
• ZK ecosystem taxonomy
• Rollup performance: bottlenecks & tradeoffs
• Bridging between zkSync hyperchains
• Data availability. Validium vs. Volition
• Governance & security layers
• Sequencer decentralisation

Episode links:

• Alex Gluchowski on Twitter
• zkSync on Twitter
• Matter Labs on Twitter

This episode is hosted by Meher Roy & Felix Lutsch. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/507