From zkProofs to Layer-3 Rollup: zkLink’s Vince Yang Reveals Missing Link to Revolutionize DeFi
In Brief
Vince Yang, co-founder at zkLink shared intricate details on launching the industry’s first multi-ZK-rollup Layer 3 trading layer.
In an exclusive interview with the Metaverse Post — Vince Yang, Co-founder at zkLink, announced in detail the promising opportunities and disruptive nature of how his company’s zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology is being implemented to launch the industry’s first multi-ZK-rollup Layer 3 trading layer.
The next-generation Layer 3 infrastructure product aims to unify liquidity across the Ethereum ZK-rollup ecosystems, enable an expansion to the current scalability limits of L2s, and most importantly, lower gas fees for DeFi crypto traders.
The Muse & Motivation Behind zkLink’s Creation
From the innovation and inception phase of the crypto adoption curve to the end of 2023 – blockchain, DeFi and Web3 have gone through many conceptual iterations, crypto winters, and epochs. However, a paradigm-shifting technology to solve the blockchain trilemma and Ethereum scalability issue has been in ideation, debate, and development for years – zero-knowledge cryptographic proof.
Tackling the issues of blockchain scalability, composability and security, along with the challenge of onboarding millions of DeFi users and improving the user experience, are the inspiration sources for Vince Yang’s multi-ZK-rollup L3 product. This is his muse.
As an experienced engineer and crypto-tech enthusiast, Yang’s entrepreneurial adventure naturally began in the Bitcoin mining business in 2019, around the bottom of the bear market. He “rode the DeFi summer wave,” experimented with liquidity mining, and noticed that successful applications such as Uniswap fostered significant blockchain and crypto adoption.
As a result, new blockchain ecosystems began to emerge, and hundreds of applications were launched on different chains. However, users struggled to move their liquidity between networks as the industry lacked mature and reliable cross-chain interoperability bridging functions.
Nonetheless, Yang’s development and tech team had already begun their work on zero-knowledge bridging technology and distributed computational systems. In essence, they possessed the foresight that ZKPs could be used for interoperability purposes.
“When we discovered ZKP scaling solutions, it was very promising as early testing allowed for interoperability among different Layer 1s. We knew this was the future and it could be potentially industry-leading,” Yang reminisced.
There was no time to waste, they had to bring an MVP to life.
Yang and his team studied the history of ZKPs and early projects such as Zcash and ZEN. But he wasn’t the only one building on ZKPs. StarkWare had already begun building StarkEx and zkSync was laying out its vision.
Yang recognized the industry trend was marching towards Ethereum scaling, and in order to beat the competition, he found his answer in zk-rollups.
“We started to brainstorm how we could implement scaling with ZKPs and after our successful research in 2021, we decided to build a unified Layer2.5 interoperability protocol connecting multiple Layer1s and Layer2s, which now has evolved into a multi-rollup Layer3. So this is the story of how zkLink came together”, said Yang.
How Does zkLink Plan To Utilize Layer 3 Technology To Revolutionize DeFi Trading?
The fundamental feature of zkLink’s multi-chain, cross-rollup solution is ZKP technology. ZKPs are already capable and widely used to offload computational work from Layer 1 blockchains. They enable efficient transactions and smart contract processing to occur off the main chain, all while maintaining Ethereum’s stringent security protocol standards.
When applied to DeFi, ZKPs offload computational work off-chain and significantly reduce on-chain resource consumption. This efficient process results in increased scalability, which remains a key challenge in the blockchain space today.
Yang believes this approach, which reduces on-chain computation costs and validator work, also makes it an ideal solution for L2 to L3 scaling. Apart from its significantly reduced trading costs, he also mentions that ZKPs have another unique feature that other scaling solutions do not possess.
ZKPs could aggregate liquidity from multiple blockchains and zk-rollups, which addressed the challenges related to liquidity fragmentation across blockchains, inherently providing users seamless access to cross-chain assets and decentralized trading experiences on a single user-friendly interface.
“The market is seeing an increased demand for decentralized financial platforms and exchanges that are secure, reliable, and don’t compromise on liquidity. A unified execution layer on top of existing Ethereum Layer 2 solutions not only simplifies user experience across the various Ethereum Layer 2 networks but also provides unified liquidity and aggregated assets through a secure layer3.”
“The result would eliminate the need for multiple wallets and complex asset management, and will democratize access to DeFi and improve the DeFi trading landscape.” proclaimed Yang.
zkLink’s upcoming Layer 3 infrastructure upgrade scheduled for mid-November is on track and promises to take DeFi beyond its current limitations by introducing added features for developers to create supra-financial dApps and improved functionality for crypto trading enthusiasts.
What’s Next For zkLink: Perfecting ZK-Rollups For A Layer 3 DeFi Future
As it pertains to zkLink’s roadmap, Yang mentioned they’ll be creating an ecosystem fund to support early-stage projects that want to build on zkLink. In addition, they’re working on introducing derivative products, adding more networks and mainnets, and creating more features to unlock real business use cases for the construction of innovative applications.
But ultimately, the rising sun on the horizon is zkLink’s multi-ZK-rollup Layer 3 infrastructure solution that will deliver a better user experience for current and prospective DeFi traders, with the features they need and want. Yang stressed, “we’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, and we’re not trying to make another AMM or another Order Book, but rather an original ZKP technology-powered multi-rollup Layer 3 execution solution.”
All in all, what’s next is ZK-powered DeFi 4.0, which will be a workable and reliable Layer 3 that can successfully onboard millions of DeFi users and transcend the Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain technologies of today.
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About The Author
Victor is a Managing Tech Editor/Writer at Metaverse Post and covers artificial intelligence, crypto, data science, metaverse and cybersecurity within the enterprise realm. He boasts half a decade of media and AI experience working at well-known media outlets such as VentureBeat, DatatechVibe and Analytics India Magazine. Being a Media Mentor at prestigious universities including the Oxford and USC and with a Master's degree in data science and analytics, Victor is deeply committed to staying abreast of emerging trends. He offers readers the latest and most insightful narratives from the Tech and Web3 landscape.
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Victor is a Managing Tech Editor/Writer at Metaverse Post and covers artificial intelligence, crypto, data science, metaverse and cybersecurity within the enterprise realm. He boasts half a decade of media and AI experience working at well-known media outlets such as VentureBeat, DatatechVibe and Analytics India Magazine. Being a Media Mentor at prestigious universities including the Oxford and USC and with a Master's degree in data science and analytics, Victor is deeply committed to staying abreast of emerging trends. He offers readers the latest and most insightful narratives from the Tech and Web3 landscape.
