OPRR Flash Depth Data

Search Extension

Main Rollup schemes and Defi Layer 2 inventory

2021-03-01 12:24

Read this article in 37 Minutes

Layer 2 will issue coins, right?

Four Major Rollup Solutions and Popular Defi Layer 2 Advances

Original source: Blockchain Institute

Layer 2 is one of the clear trends in the crypto community in 2021, and which Layer 2 technologies the popular Defi chooses to expand is being closely watched by the industry. This article reviews the latest development of Layer 2 on Ethereum, as well as the expansion of popular Defi, to give readers a relatively accurate understanding of the current development of Layer 2.

While the recent rise in long-term interest rates on US Treasuries has raised concerns and cast a shadow over the cryptocurrency market, with the price of Ethereum pulling back from more than $2,000 to below $1,500, the cost of trading on Ethereum remains high.

As shown in the figure below, data from EtherScan shows that at current normal speeds, an ERC20 token transfer costs around $9, the equivalent of a KFC bucket. In & have spent Uniswap For about $27, you can buy four 10-inch Sultan's Durian pizzas.

Rollup is the focus of expansion

In a recent post, DefiPrime summarized the various options for Ethereum expansion.

While there are a number of alternatives to Rollup for Layer 2 solution expansion, such as Plasma, State Channel, Sidechain, and Commission-chain, the rollup-based expansion direction from last year's V-set looks like a more realistic option in the medium term.

The popular head Defi project and protocol, how to deal with user growth and Ethereum's existing limitations, how to choose Layer 2, and, if possible, how we as Defi users can use it at this stage, these are the next things to look at. The article is unavoidably missing, only for casting a brick to attract jade, but also ask readers to give more advice and supplement.

Four common Rollup schemes

Optimistic Rollup

Optimism I have realized the ORU (Optimistic Rollup) scheme, which has attracted the attention of Uniswap and Compound. Moreover, after the pre-start of the main network, I have got the deep participation of Synthetix, the synthetic asset trading platform. Optimism also recently announced that it will launch on Mainnet in March.

The optimal solution is to create OVM, which is equivalent to the EVM running environment on Ethereum. The developer team of the dApp can smoothly migrate the L1 contract to Layer 2. It is estimated that the optimal plan can raise the TPS to more than 20,000.

In addition to Synthetix, Uniswap also plans to use a Optimistic solution for capacity expansion. Currently, there is a game version Demo based on Optimistic network -- UniPig. Compound is also expected to adopt a Optimistic solution. According to the current progress, Optimism should be faster than ZK Sync in the main network.

For readers interested in the Optimistic architecture, see the following figure.

Source:https://community.optimism.io/docs

ZK Rollups

Several projects have implemented the architecture ideas of ZRU (ZK Rollups), including ZKSync, Loopring, etc.

One of the most notable is ZKSync from Matter Labs, which has a mainnet online but does not yet offer a generic solution. Last October 10th, Matter Labs and Defi, a stable exchange protocol, were working together. Curve And launched ZKSync L2, a smart contract testing network called Zinc Alef.The Demo address.

The test network supports the ZINC programming language and runs smart contracts with the ZINC VM. Smart contracts deployed on the network are interoperable. However, it would take a bit more work for the existing contract to be compiled into a Zinc VM support version, as the Zinc programming language was described at the time as not being Turing-complete and there were still some limitations. Matter Labs says it will continue to work on Zinc as a Turing complete language.

In addition to Curve, Stablepay and Gitcoin also plan to use Matter Labs' ZKSync solution as an expansion option, according to the statement. Sushiswap also mentioned the ZK Rollups as the final L2 expansion in its 2021 plan, which was released in January. The Balancer protocol also mentions that the only internal research extension for Layer 2 is ZK Rollups, but we have not yet seen more information about Balancer Layer 2.

Loopring has been on the mainnet for more than a year, mainly focusing on transaction areas (AMM, order book type DEX). In addition, the popular ZKSwap with airdrop tokens and other online marketing actions, also attracted a lot of attention.

Arbitrum

Another thing worth mentioning is Offchain Labs The Arbitrum solution created is implemented in a similar ORU implementation as Optimism and is still in testing. The project provides several demos that demonstrate how Defi, which runs on top of Arbitrum, works.

The teams that developed and participated in the Defi Demo on Arbitrum include Bancor, Bounce, BurgerSwap, Hop, McDex (the first project to migrate to Arbitrum), and SWAPR, according to the project owners. In addition, the team forked hot projects like Uniswap (called Arbiswap) and Balancer for demonstration. Part of the project Demo operation is described below.

StarkEx

Starkex works in a similar way to ZK Rollup, but the Validium-based system architecture, where data validation is done off-chain, has improved processing power, which sacrifices some security. In my opinion, it is also possible to list Starkex loosely under the ZK-Rollup type.

Decentralized contract trading platform of the week dYdX Announced private beta on the Starkex supported Layer 2 network, currently offering perpetual contract trading for BTC/USD, ETH/USD, and Link /USD trading pairs.

The DEFI community is positive about this. Defiant believes that DyDX's move is a positive sign that the Ethereum expansion is mature enough to support large DEFI protocols like DyDX, providing users with a faster and cheaper transaction experience.

In addition to the Starkex project, there are also Defi aggregators Paraswap, Deversifi and other applications.

Will Layer 2 solutions issue coins?

This is something that people are going to pay a lot of attention to. According to the information collected by "Deep Tide Techflow", we can see:

According to Matter Labs founder Alex Gluchowski, ZKSync will publish governance tokens.

Offchain Labs (the team that created the Arbitrum solution) will follow up with the coin issue & NBSP;

Starkware They will follow suit

This month, Optimism just announced that it has acquired A round A investment of US $25 million led by A16Z Crypto Venture Capital Fund, and it will be publicly launched on the mainnet in March. Although there is no specific information, in my opinion, it is only A matter of time before Optimism launches.

If an issue of a token has an airdrop plan to encourage users to migrate to Layer 2 networks, start paying attention now and use the associated Defi application to have a greater chance of getting airdrops. Of course, some projects have not been officially launched, and risk management is an indispensable lesson.

Popular Defi expansion options

As mentioned above, Optimism, ZK Sync, Arbitrum and Starkex are the most common Layer 2 solutions at present. Next, from a project perspective, we will review the Layer 2 solution used by several current DeFi applications, and list the corresponding examples if the project is Demo or live. Note that what follows represents the state of the Layer 2 schema only.

Uniswap: pending

It is not yet known when Uniswap V3 will be available. Based on the limited information available so far, it is possible to expect to see Layer 2 access in version 3, but this is still a guessing phase. More speculation about the expansion plan of Uniswap points to Optimistic Rollup. Hayden Adams, founder of Uniswap, said the V3 version "solves everything".

Unipig is an early Demo developed by the Uniswap + Optimism (or the former Plasma Group) team, which shows the implementation of Uniswap + Layer 2 (NBSP).The sample.

But as far as I'm concerned, Unipig has not continued to function, and its historical mission has been fulfilled, and Unipig's Twitter is stuck in October 2019.

What is the expansion plan for Uniswap? Which ZK Sync or Optimism wins? To be honest, the jury is still out. Given that the Optimistic Ethereum mainnet is coming online next month, hopefully we'll have an answer sooner.

Synthetix: Online, with a Optimistic solution

Currently, in the trial operation of the Optimistic Mainnet, it is planned to launch the Mainnet next month for public use by all people, while Synthetix is the earliest one to interact with the Optimistic Ethereum network at the current stage, and is almost the only entry point.

In Roadmap 2021, the Synthetix founders say:

The transition to Optimistic Ethereum (a two-story expansion solution) will alleviate many of the issues we are experiencing in 2020. This transition has two major advantages: lower gas costs and higher throughput. Lower gas costs are good for all users and make the system more efficient. The higher throughput will allow us to reduce the latency of the predictor while working with ChainLink, enabling leverage improved through synthetic futures and many other protocols.

In a previous article, I showed you how to use Synthetix Layer 2 version, so I'll repeat it a little bit here.

Synthetix provides an incentive for users to migrate to Layer 2. As you can see in the chart below, the current SNX mortgage has an annualized yield of 32.23%, with a total of 4 million SNXs in Layer 2.

Use MetaMask wallet to log in. If you have SNX in your wallet, you can click "2-Deposit SNX" in the upper right corner to transfer SNX from layer L1 to layer L2. This is required for subsequent operations, with a delay of about five minutes. If there are outstanding debts in L1 layer, you need to pay them first and then operate.

Then, head to Mintr L2

Once again, log in using the MetaMask wallet. Can be cast, destroy, apply for rewards, extraction of tokens and other operations.

Unlike layer L1, which consumes a lot of gas, layer L2 only needs to sign and confirm. Currently, there is no charge, which is borne by the project party.

DyDX: Online, using StarkWise solution

DyDX has chosen Starkwise's solution to deploy Layer 2 perpetual contract trading, which is now in private beta and is officially available on the mainnet. As shown above, this can be done via the project home page & NBSP;https://dydx.exchange/ Submit a private beta application.

The following is the screenshot of the test version of DYDX. It is consistent with the current interface. It supports three trading pairs: BTC/USD, ETH/USD and LINK/USD, and the oracle service uses ChainLink.

DyDX's announcement also demonstrates their determination to move their perpetual contract to Layer2 and plan to close their accounts at Layer L1:

After the public release of the new product, the existing perpetually-contracted products will run in parallel with Layer 2. After a few weeks, the L1 perpetual contract account will wind down, and the user will need to close his or her position at L1 and create a new position at Layer 2.

In the announcement, DyDX also stated their reasons for choosing StarkWise. Considering that the migration cost is low and it can provide the best trading experience for users, while the similar Optimistic Rollups scheme has not been tested and it takes too long to withdraw money from Layer 2 to Layer 1, DyDX turns to StarkWare.

According to the project side, with the help of ZK Rollup's Layer 2 solution, the improvements include no gas charges, significantly lower barriers to entry (0.001 BTC, 0.01 ETH, and 1 Link), cross-margin trading, higher leverage, lower clearing, faster prophesies, and instant settlement of trades.

Of course, different project parties have their own trade-offs, Dydx's opinions here, also for reference only, readers may wish to compare themselves.

Curve: ZKSync scheme was adopted in the test

Curve uses ZKSync as the expansion scheme of Layer 2. It is currently running on Rinkeby test network, so first switch the wallet network to Rinkeby &NBSP during interaction.Test network.

Clicking the green "Connect Wallet" button takes you to ZKSync's login page

Logging in with a wallet such as MetaMask will jump back to the Curve L2 application. Next, send Twitter to get some trial tokens! Button, send a Tweet), and you can participate in the test.

Arbitrum Rollup

Finally, we present several DEFI projects and Demos using the Arbitrum Rollup solution, which is similar to Optimistic Rollup in an EVM compliant, multi-round interaction approach to improve the overall experience and efficiency. Although Optimistic Rollup and ZK Rollup have received much more attention, the Layer 2 track is still in its early stages and Arbitrum Rollup can't be ignored.

According to the announcement of the project party, several project parties will adopt the solution of Arbitrum. The teams currently developing and participating on Arbitrum include Bancor, Bounce, BurgerSwap, Hop, McDex (the first project to migrate to Arbitrum), Augur and SWAPR. Arbitrum provides a The portal panel, lists these applications.

As the first project to migrate to Arbitrum, in an article published by McDex, they outlined their reasons for moving to Arbitrum, to recap for interested readers:

Functionally, the ZK Rollup is the more desirable technology solution. However, although ZK Rollup will support the common EVM smart contract in the future, the final product is still a long way off, and the technology maturity and progress is not sufficient; OptimisMoVM and Offchain Arbitrum are equally decentralized and both are good solutions. However, McDex V3 chose the Arbitrum solution in terms of upchain cost, technology maturity (documentation, code, test network for evaluation), developer friendliness, and sequencing model.

Next, let's take a look at how to try out the various applications on Arbitrum Rollup. Supported wallets are: MetaMask, MathWallet, Portis, Fortmatic, WalletConnect, Burner 6.

There are several things you need to do to get started on Arbitrum Rollup.

Set up the test network

Arbitrum Rollup has published its own test network. In MetaMask, select the custom network and fill in the following parameters (https://faucet.arbitrum.io/) :

The Network Name can be set by yourself.

The RPC URL is set to : https://kovan3.arbitrum.io/rpc

ChainID is set to 79377087078960

Get test tokens

In & have spentpage Click on the top tip to go to link.

After completing the test network configuration Settings, you will see your address.

Click on "Claim" and sign in MetaMask to Claim a number of test tokens.

Wait for a moment, you can see the test token to the account, you can go to the test.

Due to the limitation of space, the specific operation mode of the project will not be described. The application that can be tried in Arbitrum at present can be viewed by clicking the link List page.

Note that the mainnet is currently in beta and has not been officially released.

Some examples are as follows:

MCDEX:

Running:

Arbiswap:

summary

Layer2 is going to be a free-for-all this year, with multiple solutions emerging around the Ethereum expansion and DeFi apps competing for positions, and the triple factor of airdrop incentives + Layer2 + DeFi coming together to keep the heat going for a long time.

This article focuses on four types of solutions for Rollup, and summarizes several options for expansion of DEFI, such as Curve, Uniswap, Synthetix, DyDx, Bancor, and Angur. However, due to the complexity of information and the scope of my attention, it is still hard to avoid the lack of information. I would like to invite readers to comment and comment.

The competition for Layer 2 projects will last for a long time. As users and investors, it may be a safer choice for us to participate in multiple ways and make a statement later. Of course, Layer 2 expansion will come with a number of issues, such as security, interoperability, etc. We will need to be patient, and this may not be a short journey.