Ethereans argue that ZK Compression is little greater than a Layer 2.
Solana builders are engaged on zero-knowledge compression, a brand new scaling method that guarantees to considerably cut back on-chain computation prices. Nevertheless, some within the Ethereum neighborhood are calling out its builders for seemingly contradicting Solana’s anti-Layer 2 ethos.
On June 21, Gentle Protocol, a Solana-based privateness layer, introduced it had teamed up with the Solana improvement group, Helius Labs, to ship the testnet for his or her new “ZK Compression” scaling resolution.
Gentle Protocol stated that ZK Compression allows price financial savings or orders of magnitude through the use of zero-knowledge proofs and calldata — a coding method borrowed from Ethereum’s latest Dencun improve — to reduce the quantity of information saved on-chain and thus the computation demand positioned on Solana by transactions.
“Only the state roots (fingerprints of all compressed accounts) are stored on-chain,” Gentle stated. “The protocol uses small zero-knowledge proofs to ensure the validity of state that’s stored as calldata on the Solana ledger.”
Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of Helius Labs, estimated that ZK Compression reduces the price of airdropping tokens to at least one million customers on Solana from $260,000 to $50. “We’re introducing ZK compression to Solana, directly on the L1 — without requiring L2s,” he added.
“Developers and users can opt to compress their on-chain state, reducing state costs by orders of magnitude while preserving the security, performance, and composability of the Solana L1,” ZK Compression’s documentation stated.
The worth of SOL is down 4.77% over the previous 24 hours amid a broader market pullback, in line with The Defiant’s crypto worth feeds.
Solana supporters and Ethereans conflict
ZK Compression has garnered assist from distinguished members of the Solana neighborhood.
“Compression on Solana solves one of the key pain points faced by institutions and mass-consumer applications: the cost of on-chain account storage,” tweeted Austin Federa, head of technique on the Solana Basis.
“New technologies allow new entrants to leapfrog competition,” stated Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana. “If you are a Solana dev, jump on building protocols for compressed tokens… They need marketplaces, mint infra, anchor support, etc.”
Nevertheless, many distinguished voices from the Ethereum neighborhood, are accusing ZK Compression’s developer of hypocrisy concerning the Solana neighborhood’s anti-Layer 2 ethos, arguing that ZK Compression successfully includes an L2.
“No matter how loudly Mert shouts… compression is an L2,” tweeted Adam Cochran, vice chairman of operations at SBT Companions.“One day the Solana crowd will realize what they’ve built is a good L2 feature/validity-based rollup and not a monolith chain.”
“[ZK Compression] is actually an L2,” chimed in Ryan Berckmans, an investor and web3 influencer. “L2s are a winning model.”
Yakovenko replied, acknowledging the similarities and highlighting the differences between ZK Compression’s design and typical Ethereum-based Layer 2s.
“It’s like an L2 without all the things that people complain about L2s,” Yakovenko said. “It’s an L2 that doesn’t need a security council multisig, users don’t need to switch chain IDs, doesn’t need a governance token, doesn’t need an external sequencer, Solana validators still get all the transaction fees.”
However, Emmanuel Awosika, of 2077 Collective, a group of Ethereum builders, emphasized similarities between the architecture of ZK Compression and Facet, an “alternative” Ethereum rollup.
“Facet describes itself as an ‘L1+’, or ‘based sovereign rollup’,” Awosika said. “The underlying ideas of using cheap calldata for storage, persisting state off-chain, and using the L1 for sequencing applying to both ZK Compression and Facet… That many people haven’t heard of Facet and the similarities with ZK Compression (‘not an L1, not exactly an L2’) is an indictment of Ethereum’s marketing department.”
However, Raoul Pal, the CEO of Real Vision, took a step back and criticized the mud-flinging between Ethereans and Solana supporters.
“Read a lot of midcurve debates on the new Solana ZK Compression,” Pal stated. “MOAR Scale. MOAR Cheap… This is a BIG step change for SOL.”
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