Introduction
Hello, Treasure ecosystem, community, and DAO. I’m Alex Gluchowski, co-inventor of ZKsync. Some of you might recall a post from a few months ago by Omar Ahzar, when ZKsync Era was the only chain live on the mainnet, and it was still ZKsync 2.0. Although it’s only been a few months, in the world of crypto, that’s almost a lifetime. Today, I’m reaching out not as a core contributor to ZKsync 2.0, but as a contributor to ZKsync 3.0, the Elastic Chain.
What is the Elastic Chain?
The Elastic Chain is an ever-expanding network of chains that enables trustless, low-cost interoperability between Ethereum Layer 2s built using the ZK Stack, Ethereum’s most performant ZK framework.
ZKsync has made significant progress not only on the technology behind the Elastic Chain but also on adoption by numerous independent players across the ecosystem. Many of the major brands in gaming and consumer crypto on Ethereum have recently announced their own ZK Chain (our term for the Layer 2 chains within the Elastic Chain) this summer –with dozens more expecting to launch before the end of the year. This is by no coincidence. The ZKsync vision is a world with thousands, if not millions, of independent ZK Chains all powered by ZK technology, offering trustless interoperability and secured by Ethereum.
This same vision, and a proof of ZKsync technology, is what has drawn so many to join ZKsync community. Some of the most exciting names in consumer and gaming such as Abstract, Lens, Sophon, Creator, zkCandy, Cronos, and XPLA have decided to launch their own ZK Chains. If you’d like to track count you can see the full list of upcoming ZK Chains to be launched on L2Beat.
Our belief in the Treasure ecosystem has not changed through this transformation into the Elastic Chain. Treasure is one of the OG crypto consumer and gaming communities on Ethereum. After speaking to members of the community over the past four weeks, I know that ZKsync is deeply aligned with the community’s vision and belief in the future of decentralized gaming. As such, I am proposing that TreasureDAO vote to launch Treasure L2 as a ZK Chain on the Elastic Chain as a leader and core contributor to the future of decentralized gaming and crypto mass adoption.
Why Treasure L2 as a part of the Elastic Chain?
Technology that is focused on building the best user experience
A world where every account is a smart account. For crypto to reach mass adoption it needs to strive to achieve amazing user experience. This can only be achieved by making every account a smart contract account. Something achieved only when account abstraction (AA) is built as a core component of the underlying protocol and not an add-on. With ZKsync’s native-AA, TreasureDAO will be enabled to build out its Universal Identity System and Global Treasure Account system without compromises.
Frictionless interoperability. As I recently hinted in a recent twitter post, it is expected that interoperability between ZK Chains will be production ready by Q4 2024. This will make ZKsync the first of its kind amongst the L2 stacks. This will enable a number of user experience unlocks for Treasure L2 including:
- Unified liquidity. Unlike conventional bridges, there is significantly lower capital cost (i.e. % charged) for moving assets between ZK chains using the native protocol. Chains will have the ability to utilize liquidity from other chains.
- Seamless UX. A user with assets on one ZK chain will be able to interact with any smart contract on any other ZK chain with a single wallet confirmation. Which means that all ZK chains will get access to users of the entire network.
- Simple DevEx. Any smart contract on any ZK chain will be able to call any other smart contract on any other ZK chain with a single method invocation, passing assets and arbitrary data. This enables asynchronous yet atomic operations: for example, you can request a swap on the AMM on a remote chain, and this operation will either succeed or fail, automatically sending the proceeds back to origin.
Trustless, fast, and cheap interoperability are all the prerequisites for a true Internet of Chains that have always been missing but will soon be here.
An ecosystem focused on consumer where the sum is greater than its parts
As mentioned earlier, a number of consumer focused teams have started building within the Elastic Chain. Each of these ecosystems is an opportunity for collaboration and combined growth. Whether it’s utilizing Lens’ social graph to enhance the identity and social layer or creating gaming experiences in collaboration with Pudgy Penguins, each community within the Elastic Chain brings with them something special that gives more optionality to developers and opens up a universe of possibilities for Treasure L2.
Alignment and support from Matter Labs
Although control over ZKsync is fully in the hands of the community (see today’s announcement), Matter Labs continues to exist as a standalone devco that provides technical support to projects that are creating their own ZK Chains. In that capacity, Matter Labs is committed to ensuring that TreasureDAO has a technology partner that will support Treasure L2 on all fronts including launch, operating, and maintaining the technology infrastructure underpinning Treasure L2. As CEO of Matter Labs, I can personally assure you of our commitment and dedication to Treasure L2.
Our support doesn’t just end at the technology frontier. We fully believe that joining the Elastic Chain is only the beginning. Matter Labs has an internal team whose entire purpose is to ensure the success of builders. We call this our Partner Success team and as a leading ZK Chain within the Elastic Chain we are committed to providing white glove support from our Partner Success team to ensure continued support and growth on all fronts.
As part of this proposal we are also proposing to host an AMA with the TreasureDAO to discuss its together on ZKsync and answer questions from the community.
Sincerely, Alex