Opinion: Why did Aptos and Sui finally embrace zkEVM-based zkRollup

Original title: Why Aptos/Sui Will Finally Embrace zkEVM-based zkRollup

Source: Kang Shuiyue

The blockchain industry currently has countless Layer-1 projects, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana, Avalanche, Near, Fantom, Tron. Even in this era of fierce competition, new L1 public chains with different characteristics and advantages are also appearing one after another, and their technologies are constantly iterating. We expect that in the future almost all Layer1 including Aptos and Sui will eventually embrace zkEVM-based zkRollup and Omnichain zkRollup will emerge.

New public chain Aptos/Sui and Move smart contract language

By 2022, the most eye-catching among many new chains is the so-called Diem L1 public chain, including Aptos and Sui, which focus on Move smart contract language. Aptos/Su was initiated by engineers who worked at Meta (formerly Facebook) on Diem (formerly Libra), the name for Meta's proprietary blockchain and its stablecoins. Each of these projects inherits much of the functionality of Diem, while having characteristics that differ from the existing L1 public chain in terms of performance, programming language, and mechanism.

The unique feature of Move, the programming language adopted by Aptos/Sui, is that it completely redefines "module architecture", enabling tokens, NFTS, smart contracts, and other assets to be succinct and modular defined using a single data module. This is something Ethereum's EVM cannot match -- anyone who has developed using EVM will know how difficult it is to use a modular structure (and nested structure) in Solidity. Consider the classic Re-entrancy Attack. This has plagued EVM projects for a long time, often costing millions or tens of millions of dollars, and because the Move language uses a resource-based approach, reentrant attacks are unlikely.

Whether Aptos/Sui can stand out as a mainstream public chain in the future is not only related to the language adopted, but also depends on the imagination of the projects on the future chain. If ETH is a four-lane road, though the lane is not wide, there is a constant flow of people, occasionally with complaints about the congested road surface, then Aptos/Sui is like an eight-lane highway, with the best asphalt, the most advanced and safe signal lights, but there doesn't seem to be much flow. For the public chain, on the one hand, it is technological innovation, on the other hand, it is the project on the public chain to feed the flow of the public chain itself, no application of the public chain even if the technology is good, it is difficult to stand out.

In order to capture the massive traffic of the EVM system, Aptos and Sui will eventually embrace the EVM system as well as the Layer2 network, especially the most advanced zkEVM-Based zkRollup.

How to set up zkEVM-based zkRollup on Aptos/Sui

In the long term, zkRollup will be one of the most concise, secure and efficient capacity expansion solutions. In principle, a zkRollup can be deployed on any network (as long as the network can verify the proof sent by the zkRollup), so we can definitely set up a zkEVM zkRollup on Aptos/Sui. So what's the benefit? The first is to include developers and users from EVM. For developers, deploying a highly compatible Zkevim-based zkRollup on Aptos/Sui is similar to deploying a product on Ethereum or another EVM-compatible chain without much code or design change. This means that with zkRollup, developers in the EVM ecosystem can migrate their apps to the Aptos/Sui ecosystem at near zero cost. At this time, as long as there was a small incentive, a large number of successful projects in the EVM system could be attracted to migrate and deploy, bringing a large number of ecology and field environment for Aptos/Sui. On the other hand, for the user, zkRollup allows the user to further enjoy lower (or even non-sensationalized) fees and the opportunity to have a similar experience to traditional applications in terms of interaction speed and payment patterns. Such a vision is undoubtedly exciting, so how do we build a zkEVM-based zkRollup on Aptos/Sui? Let's take a look at the generic Zkevem-based zkRollup model designed by Fox Tech.

Figure 1: Generic zkEVM-based zkRollup

First of all, we need a Sequencer that takes the transactions on zkRollup and executes them through a node with EVM to ensure EVM compatibility. In this process, Sequencer also produces a Trace of the execution process that is easy to prove. And send it to the proof packer, zkProver. zkProver is a proof producer with zk-EVM. zk-EVM finally has a complete zero-knowledge proof circuit designed according to EVM, which can verify whether the process of execution record is correct (that is, whether it conforms to the execution rules of EVM), and finally uses a set of zero-knowledge proof algorithm to generate zero-knowledge proof. And send the proof to Aptos/Sui. Finally, we need to deploy several contracts on Aptos/Sui: We need a contract to host the zkRollup assets, which will manage the flow of assets between Aptos/Sui and zkRollup. We also need a validation contract to validate the certificates sent by zkProver and a governance contract to manage permission issues (such as logging the asset types in the Prover and registering the zkRollup).

The Web3 network will eventually have Omnichain zkRollup

In the future, the ecosystem of Web3 network will not be dominated by Ethereum, but by multiple public chains. Therefore, cross-chain and cross-chain interaction of assets have become important requirements. If you think about the traditional cross-chain bridge, if you leave security alone, then you only need three cross-chain Bridges if you have only three, but you need ten cross-chain Bridges if you have five, and you need nearly 200 cross-chain Bridges if you have 20 to have direct communication between the pairs of these chains.

Thus, an Omnichain zkRollup will eventually become the ultimate home for cross-chain or even full-chain applications. Based on the general-purpose zkEVM-based zkRollup mentioned above, another Ominichain Interoperation Protocol (a very important track for the next five years, Players have LayerZero, HyperLane, Way Network, etc.), thus forming what is called Omnichain zkRollup. It will gather asset liquidity from the whole chain and act as the executive level of the whole chain. It ensures the correct type of transaction through zero-knowledge proof and enjoys the security equivalent to the sum of the whole chain. We envision an Omnichain zkRollup that will implement fully programmable interactions between assets and information from across the chain. Users can initiate such interactions by sending transactions on the Omnichain Zkrollup that will change the state of accounts from across the chain. Omnichain zkRollup calculates and updates the status on each chain on a block basis, and submits proof of the status update.

Omnichain zkRollup's vision includes endless possibilities for deploying decentralized exchanges that bring together all chains; You can create GameFi and SocialFi with a full chain of users; Even more diverse, diverse and borderless applications will be possible.

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia