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Ethereum’s proto-danksharding to make rollups 10x cheaper – Consensys zkEVM Linea head

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Consensys zkEVM Linea head Nicolas Liochon says speed and execution will continue to increase as it tweaks its Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution.

Zero-knowledge proof (ZK-proofs) solutions have proved critical in helping scale the Ethereum ecosystem, but proto-danksharding is expected to drastically reduce the cost of roll ups according to Consensys’ zkEVM Linea head Nicolas Liochon.

Speaking exclusively to Cointelegraph Magazine editor Andrew Fenton during Korea Blockchain Week, Liochon estimated that proto-danksharding could further reduce rollup costs by 10 times.

Proto-danksharding, also known by its improvement proposal identifier EIP-4844, is aimed at reducing the cost for rollups, which typically batch transactions and data off-chain and submit computational proof to the Ethereum blockchain.

The Ethereum Foundation is yet to nail down an expected launch data for proto-danksharding but development and testing is still ongoing.

As Liochon explained, Linea delivers 15 times cheaper transactions compared to those made on Ethereum’s layer one, but rollups are still limited by the fact that transactions are posted in calldata in Ethereum blocks.

According to Ethereum’s documentation, rollups are still expensive in terms of their potential because calldata is processed by all Ethereum nodes and the data is stored on chain indefinitely despite the fact that the data only needs to be available for short period.

EIP-4844 will introduce data blocks that can be sent and attached to blocks. The data stored in blobs is not accessible to the Ethereum Virtual Machine and will be deleted after a certain time period - which is touted to drastically reduce transaction costs.

“In reality, the cost of rollups is down to data availability. We are writing all the data to layer one which is why we have exactly the same security. But it’s expensive, it represents 95% of the cost.”

Liochon said that Linea’s prover, which essentially handles the off-chain computation that verifies, bundles and then creates a cryptographic proof of the combined transactions, only represents a fifth of the cost.

This highlights the major hurdle in making ZK-rollups the go-to scaling solution for the Ethereum ecosystem as opposed to other solutions like Optimistic rollups.

Liochon also said that Linea aims to be a general use ZK-rollup that will be used for a variety of decentralized applications and solutions within the Ethereum ecosystem.

"We are a generic rollup. We don't want to have a specific use case or specific domain. It's quite important to support all type of applications, including DeFi, gaming and social."

As Cointelegraph previously reported, Consensys has completed the launch of Linea in Aug. 2023, having onboarding over 150 partners and bridging more than $26 million in ETH.

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ConsenSys launches Linea zkEVM to further scale Ethereum

July 11, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

ConsenSys rolls scaling network Linea, which delivered faster throughput and 15 times lower transaction costs than Ethereum’s layer 1.

The Ethereum ecosystem welcomes another layer-2 scaling solution as ConsenSys begins onboarding partners to its Linea network, which has produced significant scaling milestones in testing.

Linea is an Ethereum layer-2 scaling network that allows developers to build or migrate decentralized applications for Ethereum. It operates using zero-knowledge proofs and is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) equivalent, meaning its applications can seamlessly interact with the Ethereum blockchain.

The network went through a lengthy testnet period which saw some 5.5 million unique wallets carry out over 46 million transactions. ConsenSys outlined improvements to Linea’s performance, transaction costs and user experience through its testing period.

The gradual alpha release began on July 11 with more than 100 partners and ConsenSys touts faster throughput and 15 times lower transaction fees than those executed on Ethereum’s mainnet.

Linea also integrates with ConsenSys’ Ethereum browser wallet MetaMask, giving Linea users access to its token bridge, swap and buy functionality.

ConsenSys founder and CEO Joseph Lubin highlighted the number of layer 2 Ethereum scaling protocols and solutions as a key component driving the development of Web3 applications and functionality:

“With the Merge to Proof of Stake and the broad traction of the rollup-centric roadmap, Ethereum L2s are set to play a crucial role in making great advances in scalability and usability.”

The announcement shared with Cointelegraph highlights decentralized finance (DeFi) applications migrating to Linea to tap into fast finality, capital efficient bridge and inherited security from Ethereum’s mainnet.

Meanwhile the network also offers lower gas fees, high throughput and low latency, which are key components needed to power nonfungible tokens, blockchain gaming and social applications.

ConsenSys also launched its Linea Ecosystem Investment Alliance (EIA), which will see more than 30 venture capital firms lend capital and advisory assistance to ecosystem builders.

The launch of Linea’s alpha mainnet will make use of safeguards to protect users, DApps and the network itself. This includes only allowing launch partners the execute calls to the network over the first week.

ConsenSys intends to open up the network during ETHCC in France from July 17, while some limits on withdrawals may be instituted over the first 90 days. The firm will carry out a bug bounty and monitor system performance before fully opening LIna to end users.

Ethereum layer 2's have been a major talking point in 2023. Layer 2 development firm Polygon also tooks its zkEVM network public in March 2023. Meanwhile Starknet, whose founder Eli Ben-Sasson pioneered zk-proofs, has focused on increasing throughput of its network this year.

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