What is zkSync?
zkSync is an Ethereum scaling and privacy engine. Its current capabilities include low gas transactions of ETH and ERC20 tokens within the Ethereum network, atomic swaps, limit orders, and native L2 NFT support. This document provides an overview of the zkSync development ecosystem.
zkSync is built on the ZK Rollup architecture. ZK Rollup is an L2 scaling solution where all funds are held by smart contracts on the main chain, while computation and storage are handled off-chain. For each Rollup block, a zero-knowledge proof of state transition (SNARK) is generated and verified by the main chain contract. This SNARK includes a validity proof for every transaction within the Rollup block. Additionally, public data updates for each block are published via the main chain network as inexpensive calldata.
zkSync Era History
zkSync 1.0 - zkSync Lite: Launched on the Ethereum mainnet on June 15, 2020, achieving a transaction throughput of approximately 300 TPS but lacking EVM compatibility.
zkSync 2.0 - zkSync Era: Launched on March 24, 2023, supporting arbitrary smart contract functionality through Solidity (via zkEVM) and Zinc (the Rollup's internal programming language). Furthermore, zkSync Era achieves exponential throughput growth, reaching over 20,000 TPS, through zkPorter—a protocol combining zk-rollup and sharding. The main selling point of zkSync Era over zkSync Lite is its EVM compatibility, allowing the execution of smart contracts written in Solidity or other high-level languages used in Ethereum development, attracting more developers and users to seamlessly integrate into the ecosystem. Additionally, transaction costs have been reduced by 50 times, and the 20,000 TPS speed significantly improves the user experience compared to both Ethereum and zkSync Lite.
Technical Features of ZK Rollups
Native Account Abstraction: As previously discussed in our research reports, account abstraction and smart contract wallets are crucial for blockchain mainstream adoption, eliminating the need for users to remember complex seed phrases and enabling functionalities such as gas fee payments in any token, automatic/batch transactions, and fee subsidies. While Ethereum has partially implemented ERC-4337 for account abstraction, zkSync Era supports account abstraction from the outset through its own virtual machine.
Powerful LLVM Compiler: zkSync Era does not seek EVM equivalence but optimizes its internal virtual machine to enhance ZK performance. However, this does not mean compromising the development environment. zkSync Era has heavily invested in building the first LLVM-based compiler to simplify developers' tasks as much as possible. The LLVM compiler is designed for EVM languages (Solidity, Vyper, Yul) and will eventually support other languages like C++ and Rust.
Superior Data Compression: Unlike other rollups that publish the entire transaction history on L2, zkSync Era only publishes state changes, reducing block space requirements and associated data availability costs. Additionally, while Optimistic Rollups face high gas fees during transaction surges (as they must publish all transactions on L1), zkSync avoids this issue by only publishing state changes instead of disclosing all transactions.
In addition to these key technical highlights, zkSync also offers unique solutions in data availability (via zkPorter) and scalability (via ZK Stack).
Differences Between ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups
Significantly Shortened Withdrawal Period: Due to the 7-day challenge period for fraud proofs, withdrawals from Optimistic Rollups (e.g., Arbitrum, Optimism) require a 7-day wait. In contrast, ZK Rollups can process withdrawals swiftly, as withdrawals are considered valid once a validity proof is computed and provided to L1.
Cost Efficiency: Optimistic Rollups require all L2 transactions to be compressed and submitted to L1 for subsequent verification, whereas ZK Rollups only need to publish transactions relevant to calculating L2 state, making ZK Rollups significantly more cost-efficient. In other words, more transactions on Optimistic Rollups lead to higher costs, but since the cost of proof generation and batch transaction publication for ZK Rollups is fixed, ZK Rollups become cheaper as network effects are achieved.
Hyper-scalability: Optimistic Rollups cannot exceed the current scalability ceiling. However, ZK Rollups can potentially improve their scalability to L3 or even L4 using ZK proofs.
Synchronization Between ZK Rollup and L1: Through zero-knowledge proofs, ZK Rollups can achieve instant finality, enabling synchronized calls between ZK Rollups and L1 Ethereum execution. This opens up possibilities for many exciting designs, such as shared L1/L2 liquidity (e.g., dAMM).
ZK Token Allocation Details
The total supply of ZK tokens is 21 billion, with the token contract deployed on zkSync Era. 66.6% of the total supply is allocated to the community: 17.5% (approximately 3.675 billion tokens) will be airdropped to the community in a single distribution; the remaining 49.1% will be allocated over time through ecosystem programs managed by the ZKsync Foundation and ZK Nation governance processes to support the growing ecosystem as new users join.
33.3% of the total supply is allocated to investors and the Matter Labs team: 17.2% to investors; 16.1% to the Matter Labs team. These ZK tokens are locked for one year and then released over three years, from June 2025 to June 2028.
Overview of ZK Airdrop
According to official information from Matter Labs, 17.5% of the total supply of ZK will be airdropped to the community in a single distribution, with no vesting or lock-up period for the airdropped tokens, which will be fully circulating on the first day. The crypto community can obtain this 17.5% (approximately 3.675 billion tokens) airdrop in two ways:
89% Airdropped to Users: zkSync users who conduct transactions and reach the activity threshold on zkSync.
11% Airdropped to Contributors: Individuals, developers, researchers, communities, and companies that contribute to the zkSync ecosystem and protocol through development, promotion, or
education—regardless of their activity on zkSync. Airdrop eligibility and distribution are based on a snapshot of zkSync Era and zkSync Lite activity taken at 0:00 UTC on March 24, 2024, marking the first anniversary of the zkSync Era mainnet launch. Official reports indicate that 695,232 wallets qualify for the airdrop.
ZK Airdrop Principles
The official zkSync blog outlines the principles of the ZK airdrop, emphasizing that the community is everything and that the airdrop should go to real users, not sybils. A well-designed airdrop rewards community members who actively participate in the network. With 6 million unique addresses on zkSync Era, it's easy to eliminate bots using strict sybil standards. However, sybil detection often removes real users through arbitrary filters, making it an incomplete method. The ZK airdrop focuses on identifying real users using a human-centric approach. The on-chain history of a wallet reveals much about its owner's habits. Real people often take risks, especially those who feel part of the community. They spend time on-chain, mimicking, trading, trying new protocols, and holding speculative assets. Bots and opportunists, on the other hand, do the opposite. Bots make minimal efforts to blend into the community and extract value with less risk.
Real human participants pool their assets together, ultimately flowing into dApps and DeFi protocols, becoming the lifeblood of a highly liquid ecosystem. Users should be rewarded according to their contributions to zkSync's success. However, there are limits. Whales can easily capture a large allocation without any restrictions and then flee. The ZK airdrop limits each address to a maximum of 100,000 tokens. By restricting whale allocations, the ZK token airdrop fairly rewards community members who contribute to zkSync.
zkSync Ecosystem
SyncSwap
SyncSwap is a decentralized exchange built on zkSync Era. It features low transaction fees while inheriting zkSync's full security. SyncSwap's features include support for pool gauges, custom fee structures, advanced routers, vote-escrowed token models, and governance. Recently, SyncSwap launched the cross-chain bridge Move, based on the zkSync Era official bridge, allowing transfers between Ethereum and zkSync Era, supporting various assets like USDC, ETH, USDT, WBTC, LUSD, LSD, and MUTE. Move can be understood as a third-party frontend for the zkSync Era official bridge, with the same gas costs and bridging native zkSync assets without third-party risks. When users approve or transfer with Move, they directly interact with official zkSync smart contracts.
Eralend
Formerly known as Nexon Finance, Eralend and ReactorFusion are both compound fork protocols with similar mechanisms. The project was mentioned in zkSync Era's official Twitter posts about ecosystem projects and has not yet issued a governance token, which may attract many airdrop hunters. Currently, Eralend and ReactorFusion both have a TVL of $5 million, making them leading lending markets on zkSync Era.
Overnight USD+
Overnight is a multi-chain project that originated on Polygon and now supports five blockchains, including Polygon, BSC, OP, ARB, and zkSync Era. It was one of the few protocols to quickly deploy cross-chain on zkSync Era at its launch. The project's main products are the USD+-pegged stablecoin and the delta-neutral yield-generating strategy vault ETS. The project has been active for about a year, with a relatively reliable team, making it suitable for DeFi farmers seeking high yields on stablecoins.
Kreatorland
Kreatorland is an OpenSea fork on zkSync Era, providing a one-stop NFT project service. It was mentioned in zkSync Era's official Twitter posts and offers users the ability to mint and issue NFTs. It also has a launchpad and marketplace, though currently, only one NFT, Poop Genesis, is listed.
This comprehensive analysis aims to provide insights into the zkSync ecosystem and its key components, helping users and developers understand its unique features and opportunities.
For more analysis, please follow Aibit's media account for real-time updates! This article is for reference only, does not represent any position, and is not intended as investment advice. Investment is risky, caution should be exercised.
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