Optimism evolves. Optimism, now renamed OP Mainnet, is an Ethereum layer 2. In practice, Optimism is an optimistic rollup, which assumes that transactions are correct until proven otherwise. However, the teams are now exploring the possibility of implementing zk-proofs in their system.
zk-proofs on Optimism
RISC Zero is a team of engineers, developers and cryptographers specializing in formal methods and computer security.
On May 30, RISC Zero published a proposal to modify the Optimism protocol on the project’s GitHub. In practice, propose to build a virtual machine implementing zero-knowledges.
The aim is to offer better performance in terms of proof, recursion and on-chain verification.
RISC Zero aims to update Optimism’s proof-of-fault protocol to use zero-knowledge proofs. This would replace the current interactive fault protocol.
As a result, Optimism would transition to a state management model closer to zk-rollups than optimistic rollups.
This proposal has also attracted the attention of 0(1) Labs. The company is also interested in developing zk-proofs for Optimism. For its part, however, the company plans to use Kimchi, a zk-proof system used in particular by the Mina protocol.
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A proposal on the right track
Following this proposal, various players in the ecosystem debated the feasibility and importance of the project.
« We are pleased to announce that we will be following up on the proposals from O(1) Labs and RISC Zero. We will contact Optimism directly to launch the project and discuss expectations in more detail. »
Finally, the RISC Zero team proposed a 6-month execution schedule. This schedule will be made up of two work streams:
- Development of the customer zero-knowledge for Optimism ;
- The development of the L1->L2 bypass system.
This development would have several beneficial impacts on the network. The main one being the end of the lock-in period for withdrawals. Indeed, withdrawals from L2 to L1 have a blocking period of one week. This mechanism is intrinsically linked to that of optimistic evidence.
In fact, the protocol gives network players a one-week period in which to check transactions and publish proof of fraud in the event of suspicious behavior. However, during this period, withdrawals are blocked.
With the use of zk-proofs, Optimism could do away with this constraint and drastically improve its users’ experience.
At the same time, more and more projects are exploring the OP technology stack for the creation of their L2. This is particularly true of Celo blockchain, which aims to become an Ethereum L2..
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