原文作者：Wilson Lee
Original source: "Biteye" community
01 Introduction
With the rapid penetration of modular blockchains into L2, the maturity of various RaaS tools, and the implementation of the Cancun upgrade, the barrier to entry for building L2 has been greatly reduced, and technology is no longer the main obstacle to building rollups.
In addition, emerging rollups such as Base, Manta Pacific, and Blast have achieved rapid rise by using existing tools to build rollups at low cost and shifting the focus of projects to the ecosystem, which has set a benchmark for the market. The transformation of traditional applications to L2 and the explosion of various types of lightweight L2 seem to have become an irreversible trend.
In terms of the technical roadmap of Rollup, there has long been a dispute between OP and ZK, and Vitalik has repeatedly expressed the view of "short-term OP, long-term ZK", because ZK-Rollup still has many problems to be solved in terms of technology.
With the advancement of technology, the infrastructure construction related to ZK-rollup is becoming more and more mature, and rollups using ZK solutions are very likely to occupy an important market share in future L2 blowouts. As a leading ZK-focused RaaS, Lumoz has great potential to succeed in the near future.
02ZK-Rollup 的瓶颈
2.1 Rollups from a modular perspective
The basic principles of OP-Rollup and ZK-Rollup may already be clear to readers, but here we will understand Rollup again from the perspective of modularity.
Rollup is essentially a modular division of labor to achieve the optimal allocation of resources, so that different participants can focus on one task, so as to improve the overall efficiency.
The modular composition of Ethereum can be simply broken down into: data availability layer (DA), consensus layer (Consensus), settlement layer (Settlement), and execution layer (Execution).
执行层 Execution
Provide an execution environment to calculate transactions, convert old states to new ones, submit new states to the settlement layer, and fraud/validity proofs.
There can be a further division of labor within the execution layer into Sequencer, which is responsible for calculating state transitions, and Prover, where Prover is responsible for generating proofs (especially ZK-Rollups, as the type of computation and overhead for generating proofs are hardware requirements).
结算层 Settlement
Verify the correctness of the state transitions that perform layer calculations. Generally, it is a smart contract deployed on Layer 1, which is responsible for verifying the computation of the execution layer, and the state hash of the verified Rollup block will be recorded on the chain, and the block generated by the Rollup will obtain finality.
For ZK-Rollup, the contract writes the verification algorithm of the ZK Proof submitted to a specific ZK-Rollup, and after the ZK-Rollup completes its execution, the state hash and ZKP are submitted to the contract to trigger the verification transaction, and when the verification is passed, the state hash is proved to be valid, and the block obtains Finality.
(Source: https://docs.theradius.xyz/overview/introduction-to-radius)
共识层 Consensus
In most cases, the consensus layer is assumed by Layer 1, and the state hash verified by the consensus layer is recorded on the chain, and the transaction block on the corresponding Rollup is secured by Layer 1.
Data availability tier DA
Save the transaction data in the Rollup block and make it available to anyone who can reconstruct the Rollup at any time. The DA layer can be Layer 1, a dedicated DA layer for Celestia, EigenDA, etc., or a more centralized data availability committee, and so on.
2.2 ZK-Rollup 普及面临的难题
While ZK-Rollup has many advantages and is seen by Vitalik as a long-term Ethereum scaling solution, it faces a number of technical challenges that limit mass adoption at this stage.
For example, the cost of computing ZKP is too high, the zkEVM is too complex, and the high hardware requirements of ZKP computing may lead to centralization, and so on.
Calculating ZKP is expensive
ZKP is computationally intensive. Taking the most popular ZK algorithms zk-SNARKs as an example, the production of ZKP is actually to convert the execution process of the program into a verifiable proposition.
This proposition is abstracted into a system of polynomial equations, and in order to prove the correctness of the program execution (the solution of the polynomial exists), pairing operations are performed on elliptic curves.
The generation of polynomials and elliptic curve pairing are very computationally intensive because they require a large number of algebraic operations to be processed.
This computational complexity leads to high hardware requirements in terms of hardware requirements and execution time. It can be difficult for ordinary hardware to complete these calculations in a reasonable amount of time, especially when processing a large number of transactions.
It takes much longer to generate a zk-SNARK proof than to execute the original program (not including the proof process). Depending on the implementation and transaction complexity, the time to generate a proof can be hundreds to thousands of times the original computational time.
ZKP computation has high hardware requirements that can lead to centralization
Due to the high computational cost and hardware requirements of ZKP, it may be difficult for small-scale rollup operators to afford the necessary investment to become Provers.
In this case, only a few participants with high-performance computing resources are able to effectively generate proofs, leading to a trend of centralization in ZK-Rollups. This centralization can be contrary to the decentralized spirit of blockchains and can introduce the risk of a single point of failure and censorship.
zkEVM is too complicated
In terms of design compatibility, EVM was not designed with zero-knowledge proof compatibility in mind. EVMs are stack-based virtual machines that support a series of opcodes for the execution of smart contracts.
In order for any program executed by the EVM to generate valid proofs from zk-SNARKs, it is necessary to create a corresponding mathematical representation and proof logic for each opcode of the EVM. Not only does this require complex cryptographic transformations, but it also challenges the compatibility of existing smart contracts.
Implementing zkEVM requires a lot of mathematical modeling of the EVM opcode, converting the program execution into a form that can be proven by zk-SNARKs.
This includes simulating EVM state transitions, memory operations, and contract calls. Considering the flexibility and complexity of EVMs, this is an extremely difficult task. At the same time, maintaining the efficiency and security of zkEVM and ensuring that it can generate small, verifiable proofs is a challenge.
03How Lumoz solves the bottleneck of ZK-Rollup
Lumoz is a decentralized ZK-RaaS (ZK-Rollup as a Service) platform that also serves as a PoW (Proof-of-Work) network to support ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof) mining.
To address a number of challenges faced by ZK-Rollup, Lumoz introduced the concept of ZK-RaaS. The service enables developers to launch their zkEVM chain in less than a minute, without the need to know ZK or chain nodes in detail.
Lumoz also introduced the concept of ZK-PoW, inviting miners to participate in maintaining the zkEVM and calculating ZKP. Lumoz's goal is to simplify the use of ZK-Rollup and promote its wider adoption, thereby facilitating the large-scale deployment of zkEVM-based application chains.
Developers can deploy their ZK-Rollup (zkEVM) on multiple chains with the click of a button. For miners, Lumoz serves as a multi-chain PoW protocol that supports ZK mining on various public chains and generates zero-knowledge proofs for ZK-Rollups.
3.1 ZK-PoW Cloud: Solve the problem of ZK computing power and centralization
The problem of ZK computing power and centralization is essentially that ZKP computing has high requirements for computing power, and the hardware threshold leads to the problem of centralization.
Lumoz leverages the ZK-PoW mechanism to incentivize miners to provide ZKP computing power and provide a comprehensive hardware infrastructure for ZK-Rollup, which is one of the core concepts of Lumoz.
All participants, including users, developers, and miners, can benefit from Lumoz's economic model to enable large-scale adoption of ZK-Rollup.
Lumoz's utilization of existing hardware resources
After the transition from Ethereum PoW to PoS, many Ethereum miners have lost their application scenarios. These mining rigs are worth around $12 billion in terms of capital size, and many of them are currently idle. With the large-scale implementation of ZK-Rollup, generating ZKP requires a large number of hardware and mining machines, such as CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs, to provide computing power.
Lumoz's optimized ZKP algorithm lowers the threshold for miners to participate and improves scaling efficiency
- A two-step submission mechanism for ZKP verification is proposed to lower the threshold for miners to participate
In order to encourage more miners to participate in ZKP computation tasks at the same time, Lumoz proposed a two-step commit mechanism for ZKP verification.
Submit proofhash: Within a certain time frame, multiple miners can participate in the calculation of ZKP, rather than having the miner who calculates ZKP first receive a reward immediately. This design allows for a wider range of participation, not limited to the most computationally powerful miners. Instead of submitting the original proof they calculated immediately after completing the ZKP calculation, miners first hash the proof and their own address (proof/address) to generate a hash called a proofhash. They then submit this proofhash to a specific contract on the blockchain, which does not require revealing the specific content of the proof, ensuring the security and efficiency of the submission process and allowing more miners to participate in the computation.
Commit ZKP: After the time frame ends, the miner submits the original proof and verifies it against the previously submitted proofhash, which ensures that the submitted proof is the one declared in the first step, preventing cheating. Miners who pass this verification will receive PoW rewards, and the amount of rewards will be distributed according to the miners' stakes, not just the miners who calculate ZKP first.
(Source: https://docs.lumoz.org/v/zhong-wen-jian-ti/lumoz-bai-pi-shu-v2)
- Optimize the ZKP generation algorithm to improve the proof efficiency
When a Rollup smart contract verifies ZKP, an on-chain attack can be triggered if the original proof is submitted. To avoid such attacks, ZK-Rollups often perform additional operations to obfuscate the original proof data. Lumoz's innovative two-step submission algorithm for ZKP uses a "submit first, verify later" approach, avoiding unnecessary aggregation of proofs and addresses.
In some open-source zkEVMs, ZKP calculations and submissions are sequential. This can be a bottleneck when ZK-Rollup commits a large number of sequences, as miners cannot compute multiple ZKPs in parallel. Lumoz's two-step submission algorithm realizes parallel computation and sequential submission of ZKP, enabling miners to execute multiple ZKP generation tasks at the same time, significantly improving the efficiency of ZKP generation.
The Lumoz team also improved the ZKP recursive aggregation algorithm, which significantly improved the utilization of machine resources in the cluster, further speeding up ZKP computation. Stress tests conducted in a real-world environment have shown that using a cluster of 20 machines, each with a 128-core CPU and 1TB of memory, it is possible to maintain a rate of 27.8 transactions per second in about 40 minutes. Under similar conditions, Lumoz managed to reduce the average transaction confirmation time from about 5-6 minutes to about 3 minutes, increasing ZKP generation efficiency by about 80%.
As more ZK-Rollups and miners participate, the demand and supply of ZKP computing power will continue to expand, making the efficiency improvements provided by Lumoz' PoW algorithm even more significant.
3.2 ZK-RaaS:解决开发门槛
一键生成 ZK-Rollup
ZK-RaaS (ZK-Rollup as a Service) provided by Lumoz provides a one-click ZK-Rollup generation service for all users.
Lumoz provides a universal ZK-Rollup launchpad that enables developers to easily deploy different types of ZK-Rollups to different underlying chains.
These base chains include Ethereum, Lumoz Chain, BNB Chain, Polygon PoS, and other public chains.
Types of ZK-Rollups (zkEVMs) include zkSync, Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, StarkNet, and other zkEVMs, as well as various other ZK-Rollups.
便捷管理 ZK-Rollup
Lumoz deploys a Rollup System Contract (RSC) on each underlying chain that manages the lifecycle of the rollup on that chain, including registration, suspension, and revocation.
Developers can own a ZK-Rollup by leasing a Rollup slot with a certain amount of MOZ (Lumoz's native token).
The concept of a rollup slot is similar to a slot in Polkadot or an appchain in Cosmos. However, Cosmos' appchain needs to maintain its own consensus layer and cross-chain bridging, which poses a large security risk. Instead, ZK-Rollup applies ZK technology to mathematically ensure the sharing of consensus and data availability layers between the Rollup and the underlying chain. This approach is more secure, more decentralized, and less expensive to maintain.
By leasing a rollup slot, developers get an independent execution environment that allows them to have a unique ZK-Rollup chain. Developers have full control over ZK-Rollup, as well as customize their economic model, including the choice of GAS tokens. They are free to adjust the GAS fee and can even set it to zero, making it free for users to use.
Low cost
Developers don't have to incur any hardware costs. All hardware resources, such as data availability, serializers, and ZKP computing power, are provided and decentralized by the Lumoz ZK-PoW cloud.
Interoperability
Local cross-rollup communication can be achieved between different ZK-rollups on different basic chains. This is a message communication mechanism that enables addresses on one rollup to interact directly with contracts on another rollup. This feature greatly solves the problem of fragmentation of user assets and enhances interoperability between applications.
3.3 Lumoz Chain: Further optimization of ZK-Rollup built on Lumoz
The Lumoz chain is one of the basic chains supported by Lumoz, which adopts a hybrid consensus model of PoS and PoW, which not only supports the Lumoz ZK-PoW cloud, but also provides further optimization for ZK-Rollup.
Optimizations to the performance of ZK-Rollup
These optimizations include accelerated ZKP validation with precompiled contracts, data sharding support, and PoS consensus based on ETH 2.0. Support for EIP-4844, DankSharding, and other fully sharding solutions will also be expanded in the future, potentially reducing the GAS cost of rollups to near zero.
A scheme for decentralizing Sequencer
Having the Lumoz chain's block proposers propose blocks for the Rollup layer at the same time effectively separates the roles of builders and proposers.
Builders are backed through permissionless P2P networks, while proposers rely on block proposers on the Lumoz chain. This approach eliminates the availability risk of individual nodes while maintaining resistance to Miner Extractable Value (MEV) and censorship.
The Lumoz chain provides a standardized decentralized serialization mechanism in which block proposers also propose blocks for Rollups. In this way, ZK-Rollup inherits not only security from a higher layer, but also its degree of decentralization.
In the Lumoz chain: Lumoz allows anyone who holds Lumoz tokens to become a validator, and validators can earn block rewards and gas fees from the Lumoz chain.
In the Rollup layer:
PoS (Serializer): Validators propose blocks in the Lumoz chain and the Rollup layer (i.e., data batches). As such, they also act as sequencers in the Rollup layer, where they can earn GAS fees from transactions.
PoW (Prover): Any individual with sufficient computing power for ZKP computation can become a Prover in the Rollup layer. According to PoW rules, the prover generates zk proofs from the Rollup layer blocks submitted by the serializer.
A ZK-Rollup is similar to a computer, where the hard drive represents the data availability provided by PoS, while the CPU reflects the computing power granted by PoW.
The mission of the Lumoz Chain is to strike a balance between PoS and PoW that enables all parties involved to maximize their contributions and benefits, thereby improving the performance and user experience of large-scale ZK-Rollup networks.
04Market structure and Lumoz's unique entry point
Looking at the RaaS and modularization tracks, the current market competition has become white-hot. The settlement layer is already a game that belongs to big players such as ETH, Optimism, Arbitrum, etc.;
For interoperability, there are asset cross-chain bridges such as Mini Bridge, Orbiter, and Connext, as well as cross-chain communication projects such as Layzero and Chainlink CCIP.
At the Rollup stack level, most Rollup projects and even RaaS providers rely heavily on L2 development kits such as Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, and zkSync, which also leads to the homogenization of RaaS projects that are purely development tools.
At the decentralized sequencer level, there are also cutting-edge projects such as Altlayer and Espresso that have achieved a first-mover advantage.
Homogeneity and oligopoly are the obvious characteristics of RaaS and modularization. New projects need to have a unique entry point and forward-looking layout.
The combination of computing power module and RaaS launched by Lumoz can solve a series of pain points of ZK-Rollup in one stop and promote the rapid popularization of ZK-Rollup.
At present, Lumoz is already a leading "integrated" platform in the segment of ZK-Rollup RaaS, and with the increase in the penetration rate of ZK-Rollup, Lumoz will have great potential to grow into the brightest player in the ZK-Rollup segment.
At the comparable project level, it makes sense to compare Lumoz to the AltLayer of the ZK track. AltLayer is positioned similarly to Lumoz in that it is not a pure RaaS project, but empowers RaaS through a certain feature to provide customers with more comprehensive services and achieve a competitive market position.
（来源：Binance Research）
AltLayer has achieved a certain market position by empowering RaaS through a heavy staking sequencer based on EigenLayer. Lumoz helps the ZK-Rollup project solve the computing problems after its launch by sharing ZK computing power.
（https://docs.altlayer.io/altlayer-documentation）
AltLayer currently has $670 million in MC and more than $5.3 billion in FDV. AltLayer's market performance demonstrates the high value capture of the RaaS track. In the same way, Lumoz, as a leading player in the current ZK RaaS track, will definitely be able to achieve good market performance when ZK-Rollup is in full swing by integrating ZK computing power and RaaS services.
05Project Background
Lumoz was formerly known as Opside, and its past business was also a ZK-RaaS platform. On April 8 this year, Lumoz disclosed that it had completed a new round of financing at a valuation of $120 million, with participation from OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, KuCoin Ventures, and others.
To date, Lumoz has raised up to $10 million. At present, the third round of financing has been opened, and some institutions have confirmed to participate.
(Source: https://www.rootdata.com/Projects/detail/Lumoz?k=NTkxMQ%3D%3D)
Lumoz was able to quickly gain a leading edge in the ZK computing module and was supported by many leading institutions, which stemmed from its deep ZK technology experience and PoW mining resources.
Prior to the launch of Lumoz, the team was also involved in 6block and zk. Work has two ZK mining projects, demonstrating its pioneering position in ZK mining.
(Source: https://6block.com/)
(Source: https://zkp.6block.com/)
06Progress and planning
With excellent technology and resources, Lumoz has helped the birth of several cutting-edge ETH L2 and BTC L2, such as ZKFair and Merlin Chain.
Zikaber:HTTPS://zigaber.io/
Marilyn Chan:Hattpus://MerlinChina.
The rapid rise of these projects shows that Lumoz's solid technical capabilities have been recognized by the market.
Currently, Lumoz's core component, the Lumoz chain, is in the Alpha Testnet phase, with its mainnet scheduled to go live in July this year, and token generation expected in August.
Lumoz attaches great importance to the construction of the ecosystem and the feedback of early users. Beginning in August last year, Lumoz launched Gala Event, a 4-month incentivized testnet event, with excellent results.
The Gala Event attracted close to 70w of community users, while 2.5w PoS nodes participated in network validation, and 145 miner entities contributed hash power to Lumoz. In addition, there are 15 zkEVM projects that are running stably based on the Lumoz chain.
(Source: https://twitter.com/LumozOrg/status/1740925588003840194)
Currently, Lumoz is also working with ZKFair and Glaxe on Dragon Slayer to motivate users to participate. We are currently in the third phase of the event, which will give out 25M Lumoz points and more than 8,000 USDC in rewards.
Within 24 hours of the launch of the third phase of the event, more than 14.7w users had already participated, which shows the popularity of the event and the confidence that users have in Lumoz.
Lumoz is expected to be on mainnet in Q3 and can currently participate in Lumoz through the Dragon Slayer event early on.
Event Links:
https://dragon-slayer.zkfair.io/
(Source: https://twitter.com/ZKFCommunity/status/1775014125263003766)
07 Conclusions and prospects
With the maturity of ZK-related technologies, ZK-Rollup will achieve a significant market share in the future Ethereum scaling market.
Lumoz's advanced judgment of the pain points and needs of ZK-Rollup has made it a pioneer and leader in this field. Judging by the popularity of various events, it is not difficult to see that users have fully expressed their approval of Lumoz.
With the Lumoz team's market prediction and deep related resources, we believe that Lumoz can become a leader in the ZK-RaaS track and promote the large-scale adoption of ZK-Rollup." Let's look forward to what Lumoz will do next.