What is zkEVM? A fashionable concept or a real star?
The term "zkEVM" has caused a lot of excitement in the web3 world and the blockchain ecosystem recently.
From the term zkEVM itself, we can draw the following conclusion; EVM uses zero-knowledge proofs to improve the privacy and scalability of compatible blockchains. By combining the power of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) with Ethereum's Virtual Machine (EVM), ZKEVMS provide the opportunity to revolutionize the blockchain environment. This article focuses on ZKEVMS and highlights their potential impact on privacy, security, and scalability in decentralized networks.
What are the zero knowledge proofs?
Zero-Knowledge Proofs are cryptographic protocols that allow one party (the verifier) to prove the accuracy of a statement to another party (theverifier) without disclosing any specific information about the statement itself.
What is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)?
Ethereum is one of the largest blockchain networks. At the heart of the Ethereum protocol and its functioning is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It is the part of Ethereum that manages the smart contract distribution and execution. When using Ethereum, each execution of the smart contract will then trigger a change in the state of the Ethereum virtual machine. For this reason, EVMs are also often described as “state machines”, as they are responsible for calculating state changes.
The EVM can be thought of as a distributed state machine that stores the state of all user addresses and smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.
How do ZKEVMS work?
ZKEVMS can be divided into three parts: an execution environment, a proving ground, and a verification contract. Each component contributes to ZKEVM's program execution, evidence creation and evidence verification.
Execution environment: The execution environment is where smart contracts are executed in ZKEVM. The execution environment of ZKEVM works in a similar way to that of EVM and produces the same or similar assembly output.
Proving circuit: The task of the proving circuit is to produce zero-knowledge proofs that confirm the validity of transactions in the execution environment.
Verifier contract: When transactions are executed in an off-chain zkEVM environment, and after the relevant zk proofs that ensure their validity have been created, a node collects this information and sends it to the verifier contract of the L1 chain for verification. The information submitted does not contain all the information about all transactions; it only contains the evidence needed to verify that the transactions are being executed correctly. The input and output are also submitted to the verification contract. Then the verifier runs the calculation on the provided proof and verifies that the submitted outputs are calculated correctly from the inputs.
the difference between zk-rollup and zkEVM Dec.
The process of sending off-chain transaction execution proofs to the main chain is called “zk-rollup”. By allowing a group of transactions to be published on the main chain with a single proof, it greatly reduces the amount of data that needs to be published on the blockchain. Scalability and increased TX efficiency are achieved in this way.
ZKEVMS work in a very similar way to aggregation solutions, which were originally created to increase the transaction throughput of the Ethereum blockchain. zkEVM is a new type of zk-rollup compatible with EVM.
The only difference between the previous regular “zk-rollups” and the current “ZKEVMS” was that previously it was not possible to Decipher any smart contract and collect it in the main chain. Special installations had to be created, and the functionality was limited.
Now, all kinds of smart contracts with ZKEVMS can be executed off-chain in an EVM-like environment, and then proof of this can be sent to the chain.
If a zkEVM environment works exactly like an EVM, this means that any smart contract currently running on the L1 blockchain can be executed in an off-chain way.
Why is zkEVM so important?
Enhanced Privacy: ZKEVMS offer a significant leap in privacy by enabling users to execute smart contracts and transactions with sensitive data, keeping this data completely private from the blockchain and other participants. This progress has important implications for sectors such as finance, healthcare and supply chain management, where data privacy is very important.
Increased Scalability: The integration of Zero-Knowledge Proofs with the Ethereum Virtual Machine brings exciting prospects for scalability. By transferring complex calculations to ZKEVMS, the load on the main blockchain is reduced, which allows faster transaction processing and improved network performance.
Smart Contract Security: ZKEVMS can strengthen smart contract security by hiding the inputs and outputs of these contracts, preventing potential exploits and vulnerabilities. This extra layer of privacy protects the ecosystem from potential attacks, creating a more robust and reliable blockchain infrastructure.
EVM compatibility
What many people don't know is that not all ZKEVMS are the same. There is a complete classification of EVM compatibility published by Vitalik Buterin, which highlights the differences between the types of zkEVM.Dec.
The general idea is that:
The more compatible you are with the EVM, the more types of smart contracts you can execute on your EVM. If you are the EVM equivalent, this means that everything that can work on Ethereum can also work on your ZKEVM.
zkEVM wars
The first two zkEVM models were released on the main network in March 2023 (Polygon and zkSync). And there are others that are currently being developed.
In March 2023, Polygon zkEVM, zkSync Era and Scroll publicly interacted on Twitter and made an effort to highlight the differences between their projects.Dec.
Although it is quite clear that zkEVM companies are competing for the largest Sunday share, I believe that there is a lot to be done in this area and that this fierce competition will only result in major improvements in this area. It is not yet known which of these companies will be the biggest player.
