The HUGE Ethereum news, that no one is talking about...
Why is no one talking about it?
Probably because it's confusing as hell.
Don't believe us? Here's the headline:
'ZkEVM Rollups will launch on Polygon's mainnet, very soon.'
What does that even mean!??
Ok, let's run you through it, step-by-step.
First up, what's the problem being solved?
Transactions on Ethereum are slow and expensive.
The solution: Rollup thousands of transactions, process them on Polygon, then push them through on Ethereum (where thousands of transactions can now fill the space of just one).
The benefit to users: transaction fees that are a hundredth of a cent, instead of $1-$3000 (seriously, that happened once) - and are all processed in seconds instead of minutes.
(Because who's going to want to use Ethereum on the regular, if those fees/speeds aren't possible).
Alright, moving on - how did this all start?
Originally, there were two kinds of 'rollups' - Optimistic and Zero Knowledge (Zk).
The Optimistic Solution:
Rollup a bunch of transactions, shove them through the Ethereum transaction queue all at once, and save time by not double checking them.
If someone does something shifty, the person receiving the funds has 7 days to call them out and get the transaction adjusted or cancelled.
Transactions are less secure and take 7 days (7 DAYS!?) to process. Not the best solution.
The 'Zero Knowledge' Solution:
Rollup a bunch of transactions, verify them on a separate/faster blockchain independent of Ethereum (like Polygon), then shove them through the Ethereum transaction queue all at once.
These are fast n' secure, and you don't have to wait 7 days - we love it!
But here's the problem...
They don't play nice with smart contracts - and that's an issue.
Let's say you've built a mobile game that uses a smart contract to pay players crypto, every time they beat a level - and you want to use zkRollups to make these transactions faster and cheaper.
To do that you would have to code the smart contract again from scratch, using a completely different coding language. Which is like having your literature professor say:
'Hey, great essay! ...now re-write it for me, in Latin.'
It's a lot of unwanted work (and the more work, the slower the adoption).
So, to solve this, a bunch of nerds (i.e. a collection of highly intelligent people, who deserve our praise and respect) came up with a third solution.
Zero Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine Compatible Rollups (aka ZkEVMs)
Stupid name, amazing technology!
These are Zk Rollups that are fully compatible with Ethereum smart contracts.
No starting from scratch, no learning a new coding language - just plug and play baaaby!
It's a huge deal!
Think of it like going from dial-up, to fibre optic internet - AND getting a discount for doing so.
Once Polygon launches its ZkEVM Rollup solution, it'll give Ethereum what it needs to become the default currency of the next generation of the web.
(It's as exciting as it is complex!)
