OFR partner EthCC's remarks: VC and ZK are everywhere, and Ethereum has taken a big step forward

Original title: "One Giant Step Towards "Settle Down""

Original Author: JX, OFR Partner

I made two Meme pictures to represent my most intuitive experience of participating in EthCC, which almost reflects the status quo of the industry:

There are so many encrypted VCs that a side event held by a unicorn project with a valuation of more than 1 B in private equity rounds implemented a policy of "no VCs allowed". Unfortunately, dogs are allowed to enter these events. Therefore, VC is not as good as...

Almost all projects that started to make applications half a year ago, whether it is games, NFT or Social, have expressed that they have started to do the bottom layer. It is Infra and every pore uses ZK, which is very silky. If you don’t believe me, come and make our new Odyssey.

What’s New

During the EthCC conference, many projects released their own updates and progress. Here are some projects that I think are worth focusing on:

Chainlink CCIP - "Encapsulation"

After the Oracle track, Chainlink, the leader of the middleware track, announced its entry into the cross-chain direction during the EthCC conference on July 20. Its cross-chain interchange protocol CCIP was officially launched and supports the Ethereum testnet and four mainstream A testnet for the EVM L2 chain. But what is interesting is that this version is not called the testnet or Beta version, but called the Mainnet Early Access phase (Mainnet Early Access phase), and some language arts can be experienced by yourself.

CCIP Overall Architecture Diagram

The overall structure is divided into two parts: off-chain and on-chain. Off-chain uses Chainlink's DON node network to submit and verify the Merkel Proof of cross-chain transactions, and ensure the finality of transactions in the original chain and cross-chain transactions. Risk control requirements for active risk control nodes (ARM).

Students who are familiar with cross-chain projects, do you feel that the structure of the above picture is familiar, and the picture below is the structure of Layerzero with a latest valuation of 3 billion US dollars:

Layerzero structure diagram

Off-chain part: Relayer corresponds to uting DON, Oracle corresponds to Committing DON;

On-chain part: Communicator corresponds to Router; Validator and Network correspond to on/off ramp. Chain A and Chain B correspond to two token pools respectively.

The main cross-chain architectures of the two can almost correspond one-to-one. The difference is that Chainlink’s CCIP adds an additional layer of Rust-implemented Chainlink contracts and independent nodes to independently review cross-chain transactions. More importantly, the underlying Oracle used by Layerzero is currently Chainlink. .

This kind of operation can be regarded as "enshrined" (enshrined) Layerzero by Chainlink in the latest popular saying.

Uniswap X - "Decoupling"

As slow as the Uniswap team is in Token empowerment, it is as active in product innovation. After the Uniswap V4 product plan was announced in June, the new product Uniswap X was launched again on July 17. The relationship between the two is an inappropriate analogy. Uniswap V4 is like Apple releasing a new generation of iPhone. The pre-order product is Uni V3, while Uniswap X is a new product line released by Apple similar to iPad.

Uniswap X product architecture diagram

The core part of Uniswap X is to outsource the functions of transaction routing and aggregation transactions to a new participant, Filter. The Filter and Uniswap's Router will perform the task of receiving orders and matching orders. The Filter can be similar to 1inch This kind of transaction aggregator can also be a market maker or an individual, or even the Searcher of MEV. In this way, due to the existence of the bidding mechanism, the possible MEV loss of the trader will be made up during the bidding process, so the MEV value will be internalized.

This concept of decoupling (Decouple) system components to reduce the complexity of the core system (Complexity) is also the essence of Uniswap V4. Uni V4 decouples the establishment authority of the liquidity pool from the core system into a new role Hook, which is created by Hook is used to define the personalized rules of the liquidity pool, so as to meet the flexible needs of users while maintaining the stability of the core system.

The same system design logic is also the design idea of Ethereum in the Rollup-centric roadmap, which gradually puts transaction scalability into the L2 of various Rollups, and continues to decouple data availability (Data Availability), which also gives The birthplace of a large number of L2 and DA projects.

Of course, Uniswap X also brings important functional improvements such as Dutch auction orders, cross-chain transactions, and Permit 2’s transaction fee optimization module to enhance the user’s transaction experience. It is also worth mentioning that Uniswap X defines the meta transaction object as a signed order, which sets the tone for the intents-centered on-chain transaction model.

Towards the Era of Modular Blockchain - Endgame

As many Layer 2s have launched the main network this year, many of them also chose to announce important milestones of their products during the EthCC conference. It can be said that the era of Modularity in Ethereum has officially arrived.

Consensys' Linea launches on Alpha Mainnet

· Mantle, incubated by Bybit, launched on Alpha Mainnet

· The Zero Knowledge Proof scheme proposed by O( 1) Labs for OP Stack was selected

After OP Stack and Arbitrum Orbit, Starknet also released its own Starknet Appchains

From around 2020, when the Ethereum Rollup-Centric roadmap was established, the trend of Ethereum modularization can be basically foreseen. This Ethereum expansion method, which uses Rollup to bear the transaction load, disassembles the functional components of the Monolithic chain, and distributes it to the modular chain system, is called the Endgame of Ethereum by Vitalik. (Subsequently, the word endgame also became a hot word in Web3 and was frequently used repeatedly, such as MakerDao)

In the future, Ethereum will not only exist as a chain or L1, but a DA layer and consensus layer solution with strong security, just as Ryan, the founder of Bankless, said as follows: "The main chain of Ethereum is not for users, but for users. It is chain-oriented”, and more specifically, it is oriented to different Rollups and Raas platforms.

In the modular world, it is no longer a simple distinction between L1, L2, or L3 fractal scaling (Fractal Scaling); it is a combination of various execution layers, DA layers, and consensus layers:

A modular ecosystem centered on Celestia

In the future, the focus of the builders of the blockchain infrastructure will also change from various L2 volumes to various components of the modular blockchain. It can be seen from the changes in speakers at the Modular Summit over the past year: more decentralized Sequencer, faster execution layer, framework for different types of application Rollup, etc.

In addition, there are a lot of new content released at this EthCC conference, such as Lens V2 and Gnosis Card, etc. Since the focus of the conference is still on infrastructure, this article will not go into details.

To Be Continued

Vitalik's speech at the main venue this time is about the development history of Account Abstract. There are not many new things, but his speech on Aggregation at the Modular Summit is personally more interesting. He mentioned that one of the great benefits of ERC 4337 is that BLS aggregate signatures can be used, which greatly reduces the size of transactions and saves the block space of Ethereum. There is also a lot of work using SNARK-proof aggregation to improve efficiency. Theoretical and technical progress on Aggregation may be the breakthrough point for future Rollup upgrades.

The Modular Summit, one of EthCC's largest Side Events, spent a whole day discussing PBS (Proposer-builder separation), which is also a common topic. The R&D roadmap of the Ethereum Foundation can be summarized as the following heart-shaped map, which is divided into two major categories: in-protocol and out-protocol. The specific content is a bit complicated, so I can only write an article to explain it later.

At the end of imagining the future, let's look back at "yesterday". At the EthCC conference in 2022, Vitalik's expectation for Ethereum is to finally "Settle Down", that is, Ethereum will achieve enhanced system compatibility, reduced complexity, and a final balance And stable long-term running state. If, as Vitalik said, last year’s Ethereum was at the beginning of a steep slope, then this year, Ethereum has taken a big step towards the apex.

(Who said mountaintop views are cosmic? Stand up)

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