Manta Pacific's move to a Polygon CDK zkEVM: roadmap and rationale
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Explains Manta Pacific's four-chapter roadmap from an OP Stack rollup to a Polygon CDK zkEVM with Celestia DA, why validity proofs beat optimistic ones on finality and interop, and how CDK proof aggregation shares verification cost.
Key claims
Manta Pacific TVL grew up to 1150% in a week and ranked top 20 by L2Beat TVL
It was the third largest OP Stack L2 behind Optimism and Base
Polygon is a bit further from EVM equivalence than Scroll but closer than zkSync or Starknet
Manta Pacific is going full ZK!
About a month ago, @MantaNetwork launched Mainnet Alpha of Manta Pacific, an EVM L2 based on the OP Stack that supports zkApp development in Solidity. However, this is only the beginning!
Let me explain how Manta will change the game entirely! 馃く
Yesterday, alongside @CelestiaOrg and @0xPolygonLabs, Manta Network unveiled the next chapters of the Manta Pacific journey towards a fully modular zkEVM rollup using the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK) that will become the primary zero knowledge (ZK) application hub of Web3.
On Manta Pacific鈥檚 zkEVM, developers can build zkApps in Solidity using Universal Circuits, a versatile library of ZK circuits specifically designed for generalized use cases, while enjoying unparalleled scalability!
If you want to learn more about Manta's Universal ZK Circuits, have a look here 馃憞
twitter.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1691214925929078784
馃敱 But why does Manta transition to a zkEVM? 馃敱
Manta has always been a ZK project! Consequently using validity proofs as a state validation mechanism instead of taking the optimistic approach aligns Manta Pacific鈥檚 best-in-class ZK ecosystem with all the upsides of ZK infrastructure.
This also comes with important benefits:
馃敼 Finality: ZK proofs mean finality can happen in minutes or seconds, rather than days!
馃敼 Interoperability: Instant & verifiable finality means that users can withdraw instantly without having to use a third party service that enables fast withdrawals.
馃敼 Security: The cryptographic security guarantees that validity proofs provide are superior to the social-economic security model of optimistic rollups (if there even is a fraud proving mechanism).
馃敱 And why choose the Polygon CDK? 馃敱
The @0xPolygon CDK unlocks entirely new value propositions for blockchains:
馃敼 High modularity & customizability
馃敼 Seamless interoperability & shared liquidity
馃敼 Industry-leading ZK proof technology
馃敼 High degree of EVM equivalence
馃敱 Modularity and customizability:
Polygon CDK offers a modular environment for ZK-powered L2 chain design. Devs can tailor-make chains according to their requirements by choosing Polygon CDK components:
馃敼 Rollup or validium mode
馃敼 zkEVM or other ZK execution (e.g. MidenVM)
馃敼 Various data availability solutions
馃敼 Native token and gas token customization
馃敼 Centralized or decentralized sequencer mode
馃敼 Permissioned networks with granular allowlists
馃敼 Configurable time to post ZK proofs to Ethereum
馃敱 Seamless interoperability and shared liquidity:
Every chain developed using Polygon鈥檚 CDK is by design connected with every other Polygon chain. As a result, users & devs can seamlessly transact across chains, enabling native interoperability & shared liquidity!
The core technical component that makes this possible is Polygon 2.0鈥檚 Interoperability Layer. This is a novel protocol that accepts ZK proofs from Polygon chains, aggregates them, and posts the aggregated proof and updated chain states to Ethereum in one overall proof. It can be understood as a ZK-secured coordinator of chain states, guaranteeing composability and allowing unified liquidity at scale. The proof aggregation also amortizes the verification cost on L1 among a number of rollups, which makes the solution very competitive from a cost perspective.
馃敱 Industry-leading ZK proof technology:
Polygon leads the industry in fast, efficient ZK technology, from performant and production-ready proof systems to the EVM-equivalent zkEVM. Chains deployed using Polygon CDK benefit from core development work, which is constantly hardening the underlying codebase. Plonky2 is the most performant/efficient one currently out there and plonky3 will improve on that by another magnitude.
馃敱 High degree of EVM equivalence:
In terms of EVM equivalence, Polygon is also strong. It's not fully able to prove EVM bytecode (like Scroll), as it uses a new set of assembly codes to express each opcode (the human-readable translation of bytecode) as an intermediary step. This could theoretically allow the behaviour of the code to be different on the EVM. Hence, overall Polygon might be a little bit further from EVM equivalence than its main bytecode competitor Scroll but still comes very close and is much more EVM equivalent than zkSync or Starknet. This is very important for the developer experience.
馃敱 So where do we go from here? 馃敱
Manta Pacific has experienced explosive growth since its Mainnet Alpha launch less than one month ago. User traction continues to increase with TVL growth up to 1150% on a weekly basis! Manta Pacific is already one of the top 20 chains based on TVL according to L2Beat data and is the third largest OP Stack L2, just shy of Optimism and Base. Once fully transitioned to zkEVM, Manta Pacific becomes one of the largest Polygon zkEVM-based L2 networks with over 80 applications & partners, and new applications launching every day! The Manta Pacific roadmap can be divided in four main chapters:
Chapter 1锔忊儯: Manta Pacific Alpha (Ethereum L2):
This is the current state. Manta Pacific is an Optimistic Rollup on Ethereum using Ethereum for data availability (DA). It leverages the first generation of Manta Network鈥檚 Universal Circuits for Solidity-based zkApp development (e.g., card shuffling/dealing and private on-chain voting). This approach is significantly different from Starkware and Aztec which re-design domain-specific language (DSL) for ZK such as Cario and Noir.
If you want to learn more about the current stage, check my thread below 馃憞
twitter.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1678833185348816898
Chapter 2锔忊儯: Manta Pacific Alpha II (+Celestia DA):
In the next chapter, Manta Pacific will achieve unprecedented scalability coupled with super low fees by integrating Celestia鈥檚 modular DA solution. This will drastically reduce gas fees for users interacting with dApps within the Manta Pacific ecosystem. DA on Ethereum is very expensive because rollups have to pay for calldata, at a price of 16 gas / byte, competing for blockspace with general execution on Ethereum L1. Consequently spikes in L1 activity significantly impact the Manta Pacific UX. This will change once the Celestia integration is live!
Chapter 3锔忊儯: Manta Pacific Beta (+Transition to zkEVM):
In the third chapter the goal is to fully transition to a zkEVM by leveraging Polygon CDK. To enable a secure migration, Manta Pacific may explore a transitional period where a multi-prover framework is used for state validation. The multi-prover will integrate Polygon鈥檚 ZK prover along with the existing OP Stack rollup which means Manta Pacific will simultaneously leverage the Polygon ZK proving cluster and Manta鈥檚 existing cluster, significantly enhancing network robustness! However, Manta Pacific intends to transition fully over to zkEVM and finally only leverage Polygon鈥檚 ZK prover.
Chapter 4锔忊儯: Manta Pacific Mainnet Production (+Universal Circuits 2.0):
For the production stage, Manta will further upgrade the Universal Circuits to enable lower gas costs, support more use cases, and provide even better UX. Firstly this will mean the integration of ZK proof aggregation to drastically reduce the on-chain proof verification gas costs for ZK applications and improve the throughput for ZK processing. Subsequently, Manta Pacific will integrate additional ZK schemes and corresponding smart contracts to support more ZK-enabled utilities. UX will be further improved through close collaboration with teams working on account abstraction (AA).
If you need a recap on why AA is sick, check here 馃憞
twitter.com/zerokn0wledge_/status/1642889752839077888
馃敱 Conclusion 馃敱
The transition to a zkEVM built on Polygon鈥檚 CDK will make Manta Pacific a fully modular, highly decentralized and extensible ZK execution layer with super low gas costs and full EVM equivalence! Leveraging novel ZK technology to enable Solidity-based zkApp development, Manta is clearly setting itself apart from other L2s out there. The transition closely aligns the tech stack with the team鈥檚 vision and will provide a future-proof basis for novel use cases with a top-notch UX.
QUOTING @zerokn0wledge_
0/ a key issue hindering blockchain adoption is user experience. The primary interface to web3 for the user is the wallet, so improving wallet UI/UX is essential 馃弳 a GAME-CHANGER for wallet UX pioneered by @zksync & @StarkWareLtd is account abstraction WTF is it? 馃 馃У (0/27)
0/ a key issue hindering blockchain adoption is user experience. The primary interface to web3 for the user is the wallet, so improving wallet UI/UX is essential 馃弳 a GAME-CHANGER for wallet UX pioneered by @zksync & @StarkWareLtd is account abstraction WTF is it? 馃 馃У (0/27)
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