On October 17, 2023, Scroll, an open-source, community-centric Ethereum scaling solution, unveiled its mainnet, marking a pivotal stride towards augmenting scalability and propelling developer adoption on the Ethereum blockchain. This comes after two years of extensive development and stringent testing, utilizing zero knowledge (zk) proofs to offload computation from the primary blockchain, thereby addressing the challenges of rising network traffic and costs on Ethereum due to its burgeoning user and project base.
Scalability Unleashed
Employing zk proofs, Scroll has innovated a mechanism that significantly boosts transaction throughput, by expediting transaction processes and slashing costs, heralding a new chapter in Ethereum’s scalability. The proprietary bytecode-level Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible zkEVM, delivers a near-identical user experience to Ethereum, enabling developers to effortlessly migrate their existing Ethereum projects onto Scroll, with zero requisite modifications to the codebase. This exemplifies Scroll’s dedication to scaling Ethereum without sacrificing either security or decentralization.
Security and Community at the Forefront
Scroll’s co-founder, Haichen Shen, emphasized the paramount importance of security, mentioning a holistic approach towards it, backed by a robust internal security team and multiple audits, retaining its open-source ethos from its inception. Over a year of triumphant testnet runs preceded the mainnet launch, with the recent Sepolia testnet alone registering over 900,000 wallet addresses and six million transactions within a two-month span. The mainnet mirrors the Sepolia testnet operations, which will persist as a developmental staging ground.
Collaborative Endeavors and Future Aspirations
Scroll, since its establishment in 2021, has been nurturing an open-source, scalable ecosystem via its zkEVM, while preserving Ethereum’s reputed security features and the community’s decentralization ethos. In the forthcoming period, Scroll eyes the launch of a decentralized prover network and a decentralized sequencer, further advancing its commitment towards a decentralized framework. The project’s collaborative efforts with the Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) group have also been notable, contributing to nearly half of the PSE zkEVM codebase.
The mainnet launch is expected to initially cater to onboarding infrastructure providers, gradually extending to global developer communities, fostering the creation of Web3 products, and ushering more users into the Ethereum fold. Scroll’s mission aligns with the broader vision of major value transfers occurring on Ethereum’s Layer 2 solutions, driven by enhanced user and developer experiences.
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