Ever since the web3 game Crypto Kitties ground Ethereum to a halt over seven years ago, computer system architects have been working on building out more efficient blockchains, with the capacity to support a growing number of users and decentralized apps (dapps).
What could essentially be considered a collective experiment, each smart contract platform is applying their own unique solution to the scalability problem, and we still don't know what the accepted answer to scaling blockchains will be in the future.
Ethereum is taking the route of supporting multiple layer 2 blockchains, MultiversX has implemented adaptive state sharding, and Solana recently implemented zero knowledge compression of state to increase capacity.
Layer 2s vs. Monolithic
According to their original roadmap, Ethereum had been planning to implement a scaling solution called sharding in Ethereum 2.0. However the idea was pushed to the back burner, as layer 2 solutions started to launch.
Ethereum has since re-positioned itself to be something of a beacon chain for these these layer 2 networks, such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and more. The transaction burden has been reduced on the mainnet, but bridging assets between sidechains still remains a challenge.
Unlike Ethereum, Solana is considered a "monolithic chain", meaning that popular dapps don't need to migrate to a multitude of layer 2 blockchains. Rather, all transactions stay on the main chain, improving dapp composability (compatibility), while also dramatically increasing load.
Light Protocol & Helius Labs
To lower the transaction burden, Helius labs and Light Protocol introduced ZK compression on the Solana blockchain, allowing developers to save significantly on state storage.
From Light Protcol's website:
Light is a protocol built on Solana that introduces ZK compression, a primitive that enables secure scaling directly on the L1.
The change is projected to increase scalability of Solana by 10,000x, without having to rely on layer 2 solutions (even though some in the Ethereum community might argue this ZK compression is another form of L2).
Mert, the CEO of of Helius Labs, announced on X that he and Light Protocol had introduced ZK compression to Solana, and he provides more details in his post.
https://x.com/0xmert_/status/1804244166584516865?s=43
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Zero Knowledge Proofs
Zero Knowledge proofs are a cryptographic innovation that allows one party to prove that a statement is true, without revealing any additional information, aside from the validity of the statement. In a previous article, we discussed whether ZK proofs could be the ultimate solution to blockchain scalability.
If you learned something new from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the HIVE blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
Until next time...
Resources
Tweet that prompted this post [1]
Daily Hodl article about Solana and ZK compression [2]
Solana Logo [3]
Altcoin Buzz Article [4]