ZK-Rollups: how the layer 2 solution works

In the previous article, we openly discussed how the first layer 2 solution proposed to scale the Ethereum Blockchain, namely Plasma, worked. While the proposed solution improved speed and eliminated a good portion of unnecessary data from the main chain, users were forced to wait a long time to withdraw their funds while also facing risks regarding the immutability of transactions. Plasma and its hundreds of thousands of sidechain transactions do not solve the problem thoroughly leaving a large amount of data saved off chain to validate transactions from off to on-chain. The solution that will be analyzed in this article is still under development and the first implementations are only now coming out to the market.

ZK-Rollups: general overview and introduction

ZK-Rollups are one of the most discussed and interesting topics among the various Ethereum layer 2 scalability solutions. As mentioned above we are talking about a solution still under development but with a very interesting potential. The basic idea, as in all layer 2 solutions, is to increase scalability through the processing of transfers of large amounts of data to be computed (transactions) in a single transaction.