Cronos broadens scaling roadmap from Cosmos to Ethereum

The community of Ethereum layer-2 rollups utilizing zkSync’s ZK Stack acquired a brand new addition Thursday, with the launch of the Cronos zkEVM testnet.

Blockchain developer Cronos Labs is growing its third blockchain, which is the primary to make use of ZK Stack hyperchain to achieve a reside testnet.

The primary chain within the Cronos ecosystem was a Cosmos appchain developed in partnership with the Crypto.com trade and launched in 2021. Cronos then adopted up with an EVM-compatible chain, additionally constructed utilizing the Cosmos SDK in 2022. This new effort augments, however doesn’t substitute, the prior two chains.

Cronos’ zkEVM is the results of a collaborative effort involving Cronos Labs, Matter Labs (the workforce behind zkSync), and several other engineering groups from stakeholders Crypto.com and dapp builders on the present chains.

The zkEVM testnet is constructed on prime of the Ethereum Sepolia testnet and leverages zkSync’s new open-source prover, Boojum, a STARK-based zero-knowledge proof system, notable for its low {hardware} necessities and low charges within the layer-2 rollup house.

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Launching a local Ethereum chain was motivated by frustrations with bridging throughout EVM chains and between Cosmos and Ethereum, in keeping with Ken Timsit, managing director at Cronos.

“After we began constructing Cronos as an EVM chain, we have been, in fact, already satisfied that the Ethereum developer ecosystem has richness and robustness that has no comparability in relation to constructing DeFi and NFT functions,” Timsit instructed Blockworks.

Good relations with Matter Labs and a need to contribute to the open supply growth of the ZK Stack led them to take the subsequent step.

Hyperchains share elements of the ZK Stack, together with a shared native bridge to the Ethereum mainnet and zkSync’s trustless bridging mechanism, wherein property stay secured by Ethereum.

It’s going to additionally profit from zkSync’s native account abstraction, which permits transactions charge fee in numerous cryptocurrencies, corresponding to Cronos’ token (CRO).

“Whenever you have a look at legacy chains, it’s very exhausting emigrate Ethereum property, for instance, to account abstraction enabled wallets,” Timsit mentioned. “And so for us, beginning by default with account abstraction is a strategy to reap the benefits of what this expertise presents, higher than what we will do on a sequence which already has an ecosystem of wallets and tokens.”

Cronos’ zkEVM is predicted to progress to mainnet within the second quarter of 2024.

Rising hyperchains

A handful of different hyperchains are in growth utilizing the ZK Stack, notably GRVT, (pronounced “gravity”) a derivatives trade, and Tradable, which is engaged on bringing non-public credit score on-chain.

Tradable intends to have an institutional centered hyperchain, finally forming a decentralized chain alongside different institutional companions, in keeping with Omar Azhar, Matter Labs head of enterprise growth.

“I feel what you would possibly begin seeing is app particular chains after which ecosystem particular chains,” Azhar instructed Blockworks.

Matter Labs sees the zkSync hyperchain as strictly a greater choice than app-specific chains in Cosmos, corresponding to Cronos’ earlier efforts, mentioned Marco Cora, senior vp of enterprise and operations. That’s as a result of Cosmos chains typically should present for their very own validator set and safety, and lack native token bridges to Ethereum.

“In case you are an appchain developer, why are you taking over these two additional tasks that you just shouldn’t actually give attention to: constructing the bridge and bootstrapping the safety?” Cora instructed Blockworks.

The ZK Stack competes with different well-funded networks constructing zkEVM chains, together with Polygon, whose Chain Growth Equipment (CDK) shares most of the identical objectives, and StarkWare’s Starknet, the progenitor of STARK prover expertise which each Polygon and zkSync have iterated upon.

Hyperchains can even serve the aim of personal blockchain frameworks corresponding to Hyperledger or Corda, Cora mentioned, however with all the advantages of Ethereum.

“They’re technically extremely scalable, however they virtually don’t scale. Whenever you communicate with most enterprises, they inform you that is method too costly for what it’s for me,” he mentioned.

Other than value issues, there’s the social coordination drawback.

“In the event you’re Goldman Sachs, you don’t wish to be part of the Morgan Stanley Chain simply because it’s the Morgan Stanley Chain. In the event you’re Constancy, you don’t wish to be part of the BlackRock Chain simply because it’s the BlackRock Chain and so forth and so forth,” Cora mentioned.

“But when the sponsor of the chain…pressured himself to create a zero information proof and at hand this proof to a 3rd celebration — which is Ethereum — they now can declare a a lot larger diploma of credible neutrality,” he added. “Now, this celebration can’t mess with the system.”