ZKsync Launches Elastic Chain Paradigm Innovation or False Demand

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (
@OdailyChina
)
Author | Nan Zhi (
@Assassin_Malvo
)


Yesterday, ZKsync announced the launch of Elastic Chain, an infinitely scalable ZK rollup network. This concept was first proposed in 2022 as the “Bridgeless Superchain.” ZKsync states that this solution achieves native, trustless, and low-cost interoperability between ZK chains. Elastic Chain is not a new L1/L2 chain but a solution that connects various ZK networks. This article will explore its functions and characteristics.
Background and Purpose
Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap has successfully reduced transaction fees, improved transaction speeds, and increased network processing capacity. However, with Layer 2 continuously expanding, there is a fragmentation of liquidity and a proliferation of duplicate products across different chains, resulting in a poor user experience.
While various official and third-party cross-chain bridges aim to address liquidity issues, they still face the problem of high operational costs. ZKsync points out that cross-chain bridges typically pass on the integration costs to users, amounting to as high as 1%-2% of the transaction value. Furthermore, the largest three DeFi protocol hacking incidents have all involved cross-chain bridge issues, resulting in losses exceeding $20 billion.
Therefore, ZKsync aims to create a solution that allows users to use various chains without the need for cross-chain bridges to transfer funds, achieving seamless interoperability across thousands of chains without users having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.
Interpreting Elastic Chain
According to the official definition, “ZKsync 3.0 (Elastic Chain) is an infinitely scalable ZK chain network (including rollup, validium, volitions, and other ZK solutions) protected by mathematics and seamlessly interoperable with unified and intuitive UX.” So, what are the characteristics of Elastic Chain, and how does it differ from unified solutions like Optimism’s Superchain?
Firstly, the features of Elastic Chain include:
Seamless cross-chain usage: Users can use the same address across multiple chains and only need one signature when interacting with any user or smart contract in the Elastic Chain ecosystem, without the need for cross-chain bridges to transfer funds. It supports using any liquid token to pay gas fees and can be sponsored by DApps to enable users to operate for free.
Elastic scalability: In economic terms, elasticity refers to the ability to increase supply in proportion to demand. In this context, elastic architecture allows blockchain to infinitely expand its capacity by adding new instances to match usage demand. As more users join and transactions increase, the system can continue to expand without affecting performance, verifiability, or decentralization.
Mathematical guarantees: All transactions are verified and executed by Ethereum, with no honest majority assumptions. ZKsync states that, in the long term, all transactions will be verified by every user with a smartphone.
Elastic Chain Architecture
Elastic Chain consists of three parts in its architecture: the various ZK chains themselves, ZK gateway, and ZK router. The ZK gateway is the most crucial part of Elastic Chain, acting as a middleware inserted between ZK chains and the Ethereum mainnet to collect fees from various ZK chains, process data, and publish it to Layer 1.


ZKsync states that by joining Elastic Chain, ZK chains can achieve finality faster, reduce verification costs on L1, and allow each chain to exit Elastic Chain independently.
However, joining Elastic Chain is not free. ZK gateway is operated by a group of decentralized, trustless validators who need to pay a certain ERC-20 token (e.g., ZK token) to participate in validation, and validators charge fees for the data sent to the gateway.
Comparison with Competitors
ZKsync compares Elastic Chain with other integrated solutions, Superchain and AggLayer, in four aspects and claims that Elastic Chain “wins” in all of them. The specific angles and data are as follows:
Verifiability: Users can use consumer hardware to verify the validity of all chains, such as smartphones.
Shared interoperability: Interoperability latency between chains is replaced by a shared finality mechanism to replace settlement processes (e.g., shared sequencers), allowing synchronous transactions, resulting in zero-second latency between chains in all cases. ZKsync states that OP Stack has not released any design for fast cross-chain asset transfers between Superchain.
(Odaily note: The Elastic Chain scheme is based on each chain performing its own on-chain calculations and then providing the results to the ZK gateway. Therefore, there is no latency issue between chains.)
Native interoperability: Independent chains can settle without needing to trust each other, with interoperability time.
Throughput: TPS testing using Uniswap.


Is ZKsync trying to overthrow Ethereum?
At first glance, Elastic Chain seems to be an effective solution in the current flood of L1 and L2. With the increasing ease of launching new chains, the traditional approach for existing protocols has been to continuously support new networks as they emerge. However, based on Elastic Chain, existing protocols can directly connect to the newly added chains and projects in the network, saving development and promotional resources. For users, they no longer need to transfer funds between different chains using cross-chain bridges.
However, delving deeper, Odaily Planet Daily believes that this reflects the stagnation of the crypto ecosystem. Without breakthroughs in hardware and underlying technology, the only way to improve user experience is to sacrifice certain elements and principles.
Firstly, the proposition that cross-chain bridge operational costs will exponentially increase with the growth of Layer 2 is a fallacy. Users do not necessarily need to or want to transfer funds across a large number of chains. Currently, funds and users are primarily concentrated on a few chains, while many chains are deserted. By eliminating the need for cross-chain transfers, these deserted chains will not attract more users to their applications. Even with a significant increase in Layer 2, as long as there are no compelling products, there is little demand for cross-chain transactions. This situation would lead to the demise of ecosystems and networks that otherwise should have died, rather than artificially prolonging their existence.
Another issue to consider is why various Layer 2 solutions choose to use the Ethereum mainnet as the DA or settlement layer. Aside from Ethereum’s orthodox status, decentralization is also a key factor. Ethereum can indeed improve its performance and reduce costs, but there still needs to be someone who adheres to this fundamental principle. From Solana being dubbed the “server chain” in 2021 to the latest MegaETH, which claims to achieve 100,000 TPS (but with extremely high hardware requirements, and only one sequencer active at a time), the degree of centralization is becoming increasingly pronounced.
Finally, Ethereum, as the settlement layer, reigns supreme and collects taxes, while various Layer 2 solutions operate their own fiefdoms. This situation may change if Elastic Chain or future competitors occupy a significant market share. Some smaller ecosystems will have to join the network and pay taxes to this intermediary layer in order to attract traffic and funds, and Ethereum’s Layer 2 revenue will depend on this final overlord, creating a situation where the overlord dictates to the vassals.
However, there is one piece of good news: if the entry requirement for validators on Elastic Chain is the use of ZK tokens, ZK may have a chance.