Why is Zircuit considered a maverick Layer2?

Why is Zircuit considered a maverick layer2?

1. It is built on the OP Stack Codebase but does not belong to the OP Superchain camp?

2. Belongs to the OP-Rollup chain but does not highlight fraud proof, with a strong ZK imprint from name to technical details?

3. There is no connection between Mingming and AVS Security Consensus Mechanism, but it gives Airdrop to $Eigen stakers, etc.

Next, let me briefly explain my understanding of the Zircuit chain:

1. OP Stack obviously provides a fast basic technology framework for layer2, but many chains including Metis, Mantle, Zircuit, etc. use OP Stack’s Codebase technology framework but have not been incorporated into Superchain’s strategic roadmap.

The reason is simple, although SuperChain will enjoy the resource benefits of the OP Super Alliance, it will also be limited in technical autonomy and flexibility, such as fraud proof. Many layer2 camps of the OP Stack have not fully launched the Fraud Proof system until now, and the significant correlation between their choice of framework dependency and neglect of independent development will be substantial.

Zircuit is typical, although it is marked as OP-Rollup Type on L2beat, its overall technical architecture and brand tonality give people a strong impression of ZK perception, and many people will put it in the category of ZK-Rollup.

The reason why I prefer the ZK technology framework is mainly because the addition of ZK technology can make the OP-Rollup framework more reliable. After all, an OP-Rollup without a real Fraud Proof operation is difficult to be called a secure and reliable chain. But with the ZK Proof system, the trust environment of state change constructed based on ZK technology can well compensate for its shortcomings in optimistic challenge proof.

So strictly speaking, it should belong to a hybrid Rollup. In fact, the architecture design of such hybrid Rollups is not new. Metis, as a cutting-edge layer2 solution, also capitalizes on this by offering users a fast withdrawal channel through ZK-Rollup Router, without having to wait for the 7-day challenge period.

2. Recently, Vitalik praised the performance of Starknet in optimizing Blob Gas pricing and Block state compression. This is actually another optimization direction after enhancing Cross-Chain Interaction operability in layer2: enhancing its own data structures and performance processing details. Because the future upgrade path of the ETH mainnet will tend towards lightweight ZK-SNARKs, if layer2 chains can familiarize themselves with the application of ZK technology at the underlying level, there will be enhancements in data structures, state compression, message passing, etc., which will be closer to the future Rollup-Centric strategic direction.

So, as a new player, Zircuit has made many technical optimizations in the details at the beginning of the chain launch, such as:

1. Sequencer Level Security Enhancement (SLS): Many layer2 chains suffer from centralization and MEV issues in their Sequencers, which has hindered the stable development of financial application protocols like Decentralized Finance in the layer2 environment.

In view of this, Zircuit’s original preventive security architecture design for Sequencer includes malicious transaction monitoring when transactions are in the Mempool. Malicious transactions will be isolated with a layer of multiple release conditions to ensure the smooth and secure execution of normal transactions; this method of adding a security pre-check in the Sequencer component can identify potential MEV behaviors and provide a fairer execution environment for Decentralized Finance applications.

2. Modular Proof System: The layer2 chain of ZK-Rollup paradigm has obvious advantages in Finality compared to OP-Rollup chain, but at the same time, it will incur additional costs for computing, generating, and verifying Proofs. These cost expenses are not within the scope of Mainnet through BlobsBlockdroplayer2 Gas, so ZK-Rollup layer2 needs to find a way to drop ZK Proofs expenses. In this regard, ZIrcuit adopts two paths, Template Proofs and Proof Aggregation, to optimize costs: Template Proofs are a transitional solution that uses simplified proof templates to maintain the verification of basic state updates without having to generate complete proofs for each batch to drop costs; Proof Aggregation collects multiple unverified proof tasks and generates proofs in parallel through specific circuits and general circuits, and finally aggregates these proofs into a single proof for unified verification. Obviously, this setting of specific proprietary circuits to adapt to different proof types can effectively drop the costs of ZK proof generation and verification. This is similar to the adoption of STARK system by Starknet and the adoption of recursive system by zkSync, which can effectively drop ZK expenses.

3. AI-Enabled Layer2: As a relatively new layer2 chain, Zircuit is naturally suitable for the integration of AI elements such as AI model inference and AI Agent. This is reflected in the AI model analysis of suspicious transactions in the SLS sorter, AI automated isolation or suspension of special cases of protocol, etc.

Above.

As for why Zircuit is collaborating with Eigenlayer to airdrop, it’s hard to see purely from a technical perspective. I would rather understand this as a strategic support from Zircuit’s layer2 to Eigenlayer’s output of ETH AVS security. Taking a longer-term view, AVS as a fast and secure Consensus infrastructure may help Zircuit’s SSL system to quickly integrate into other layer2 ecosystems at some point in time.