What are validiums, and how do they work?

June 8, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Ethereum’s rollups are ‘gold standard’ but Plasma needs a revisit: Buterin

November 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Vitalik Buterin called the early Ethereum scaling solution Plasma “underrated” and a “significant security upgrade” for chains that would otherwise be validiums.

Plasma, a once-prominent Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution, should be revisited by teams currently working on zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVMs), says Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Invented in 2017, Plasma diverts data and computation — except deposits, withdrawals and Merkle roots — to an off-chain environment.

It was superseded by optimistic and zero-knowledge (ZK)-rollups as the two solutions offered cheaper client-side data storage costs and security properties that “cannot be matched,” Buterin explained in a Nov. 14 X (Twitter) post.

Exit games for EVM validiums: the return of Plasmahttps://t.co/QgyzXAl0wv
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 14, 2023

Buterin said rollups remain the “gold standard,” but Plasma is an “underrated design space” that shouldn’t be forgotten.

“Plasma can be a significant security upgrade for chains that would otherwise be validiums.” Buterin added.

“The fact that ZK-EVMs are finally coming to fruition this year makes it an excellent opportunity to re-explore this design space, and come up with even more effective constructions to simplify the developer experience and protect users' funds.”

Like Plasma, validums move data and computation off-chain but implement ZK-proofs to validate transactions. Plasma, on the other hand, uses fraud proofs — which are much slower.

Buterin argued improvements in ZK-proofs, such as validity proofs, address the past limitations of Plasma, making it more viable as a scaling solution.

Adapting Plasma for applications beyond payments has also proven to be an Achilles heel for Plasma before ZK-proofs entered the mainstream, Buterin acknowledged.

Buterin expects the Ethereum layer 2 ecosystem to evolve with diverse technological approaches.

Babe wake up Vitalik just revived Plasma
— sassal.eth (@sassal0x) November 14, 2023

Minimal Viable Plasma, Plasma Cash and Plasma Cashflow are among the iterations that have stemmed from Plasma.

Ethereum layer 2 scaling-focused firm Polygon Labs implemented Plasma in 2019 but has implemented several other solutions since.

The movement away from Plasma was partially attributed to Plasma Group, a nonprofit research firm announcing that they would cease working on Ethereum-based scalability in January 2020.

OMG, the token of OMG Network — which uses Plasma — spiked 28.6% to $0.78 in a three-hour window following Buterin’s post, according to CoinGecko. However, it has since fallen 14.3% to $0.67.

Magazine: ZK-rollups are ‘the endgame’ for scaling blockchains: Polygon Miden founder

Polygon spinoff launches testnet bridge to allow for low-cost layer 2s

July 7, 2023 Coin Telegraph

avail

Avail launched a bridge to transmit data availability attestations to Ethereum, potentially allowing for lower fees on some layer 2s.

Blockchain network Avail has launched a testnet data availability bridge to Ethereum, according to a July 7 announcement. Once testing is completed, the bridge will allow developers to easily create “validiums” or low-cost layer 2s that do not store full transaction data on Ethereum, the announcement stated.

Avail was originally created by Polygon Labs, but was spun off as an independent project in March. Polygon’s co-founder, Anurag Arjun, is also the founder of Avail.

*Avail Block Explorer. Source: Avail.tools*

Layer-2 rollup networks like Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon zkEVM, and zkSync Era lower transaction fees by batching transactions into compressed “rollups” and periodically adding them to the base layer. However, because these networks must write all the transactions to the base layer, they often have higher transaction fees than layer-1 competitors.

To get around this problem, some networks have opted to write only the validation proofs of each transaction to the base layer, while storing the full transaction data off-chain. This produces a type of network called a “validium.” For example, StarkEx features a validium mode that stores data with a data availability committee (DAC) instead of on Ethereum. Polygon proof-of-stake may become a validium that stores its data on a proof-of-stake chain in 2024.

According to the announcement, the new bridge allows developers to create custom validiums quickly and easily by storing their transaction data on the Avail network, eliminating the need to create their own DAC or proof-of-stake data availability network. When a user tries to withdraw cryptocurrency from layer 2 back to the base layer of Ethereum, the Avail bridge will transmit an attestation that the data is available on Avail, allowing the withdrawal to occur.

“Today’s launch of the Data Availability attestation bridge marks a major advancement in our mission to optimize blockchain scalability and efficiency,” said Arjun. “By enabling rollup constructions to run in validium, optimistic chains, and volition modes, we are not only reducing costs but also paving the way for a more inclusive and efficient layer-2 and layer-3 ecosystem.”

Arjun previously told Cointelegraph that data availability solutions would become essential to the Web3 space as zero-knowledge proof rollups are more widely used.

validiums