Scroll prover outsourcing: permissionless rollers and staking
Thread630 words
Market since$SCR−98%since listingHow it played out ↓Describes Scroll's proposed proof outsourcing mechanism: rollers stake SCR, are picked by the sequencer by reputation, are fined for invalid proofs and rewarded for timely valid ones. Argues it decentralizes the prover and could be adopted beyond Scroll.
Key claims
Rollers stake SCR and get an initial reputation ratio proportional to the deposit
Invalid proofs are fined and late proofs lower reputation
Prover outsourcing could enable larger circuits and zkKYC-style apps
0/ similar to the sequencer, a centralized prover in #zk-rollup systems can introduce centralization & single-point-of-failure risks ⚠️
a 🧵 on a prover outsourcing mechanism proposed by @Scroll_ZKP (0/18) ✨👇
1/ #zk-rollups demand an off-chain #prover to generate a succinct proof for a batch of transactions. However, proof generation for complex smart contract transactions can be expensive, leading to several limitations in functionality
2/ firstly, let's dive into the typical rollup tx flow ⬇️
⚙️ Users send transactions to a centralized #sequencer on #L2
⚙️ The sequencer executes transactions, packs (& orders) them into a #rollup block
⚙️ Centralized #prover generates a succinct proof of the sequencer's batch
3/
⚙️ The sequencer submits proof to #L1
⚙️ L1 smart contract verifies proof & updates the state
4/ but this centralized prover set-up comes with certain centralization issues ⬇️
🚧 Limited computational power
🚧 Limited community participation
🚧 Potential MEV attacks and transaction denial
5/ to mitigate these problems, @Scroll_ZKP (a bytecode-level a.k.a. type 2 #zkEVM rollup) proposed a #L2 proof outsourcing mechanism in order to decentralize the prover function
6/ @Scroll_ZKP suggests engaging "miners" (referred to as rollers) to generate proofs in a permissionless network & reward them based on their proving work. This encourages rollers to contribute computational power in the form of "volunteer computation"
7/ to become a roller, one will have to stake $SCR tokens in a smart contract to become a legitimate roller & generate proofs. An initial reputation ratio is granted, proportional to the deposit.
8/ consequently, the (centralized) sequencer selects multiple rollers for each block based on their reputation ratio
9/ once the proofs are generated, the sequencer will verify the proofs after receiving them from rollers:
⚙️ If roller sends an invalid proof, she will be fined.
⚙️ If roller sends a proof later than time T, her reputation ratio will be decreased
10/
⚙️ If roller sends a valid proof within time T, the roller has a chance be rewarded
⚙️ The sequencer will aggregate proofs and upload the proofs to L1 for verification
11/ in this scheme, we use reputation ratio to balance a roller’s stake and computational power. The stake determines the upper bound of a roller’s probability to be chosen and the reputation ratio is a proxy for the roller’s real computation power
12/ this mechanism ensures fairness and encourages rollers to generate proofs for different blocks in parallel
13/ overall, decentralizing the prover like this comes with a number of benefits
✅ Larger circuit support & shorter confirmation time:
miners & mining pools will be incentivized to improve the efficiency of hardware accelerators...
14/ ... we can leverage this huge computational power to support larger circuits and enjoy a shorter confirmation time at the same time.
15/
✅ Fair distribution for users and easier support other features
L2 outsourcing is a good way to distribute the tokens to the community, as the network becomes more decentralized...
16/ ...and a permissionless roller network also allows for additional features in the future. For example, the rollers could store some transaction data off-chain, also turning into an in-protocol #DA layer
17/
✅ Enable new business models & off-chain applications
It allows for a lager range of complicated #zk apps on-chain (e.g. #zkKYC) as general off-chain computation can outsource the costly proof generation to a powerful roller network, while enjoying public verifiability
18/ definitely an innovative approach to address a core issue rollup architecture is facing today that will likely be adopted by #rollups beyond @Scroll_ZKP
a few #L2 folks that might be interested in this thread 🫶
@Swagtimus
@apolynya
@pseudotheos
@daddysether
@kunalgoel
@redvelvetzip
@hmalviya9
@georgethms1
@thesaint_
@AlphaInsiders
@0xDinoEggs
@ChainLinkGod
@dankrad
@antiprosynth
@0xbilly
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@crypto_condom
@Crypto_McKenna
@Subli_Defi
@ShivanshuMadan
@AltcoinPsycho
@DAdvisoor
@Slappjakke
@RyanSAdanns
@TrustlessState
@3house_io
@Layer2NewsDAO
@0xgoku_
@toghrulmaharram
@bitsplaining
@Layer2_Master
@bkiepuszewski
@CryptoMaestro
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