Original author: Blue Fox Notes

Seeing that ZKM has also entered the BTC L2 track, this track, like Ethereum L2, will become more and more crowded, and the final market structure will have to wait for the results of technology and market evolution.

ZKM's underlying technology is zkVM, and its ultimate goal is to try to make its zkVM technology adopted by more long projects and ecosystems, so as to become the underlying infrastructure. For example, assets that can be connected to different ecological networks (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Comos, etc.) to form better liquidity. Under this large framework, it is possible to better understand why ZKM entered the BTC L2 track.

Returning to the technical solutions, there are two main aspects of ZKM's core technology: "Entangled Rollup Architecture + zkVM". These two aspects mainly solve two major concerns in the market: first, how to ensure the safety of assets; The second is how to achieve the sustainability of its own network.

At present, the market is very concerned about the security of cross-chain, ZKM launched the "Entangled Rollup Network" mechanism, trying to synchronize the state between Blockchain through recursive zk-SNARKs technology, without relying on the traditional bridge mechanism to achieve asset cross-chain. This framework was previously implemented on Ethereum, which is Metis' Optimistic Rollup mechanism. At present, ZKM is trying to apply this idea and framework, and at the same time transform it according to the characteristics of Bitcoin L1 itself, so as to launch its BTC L2. Of course, BTC does not support smart contracts, and it is longer more challenging to achieve L2. ZKM attempts to aggregate the state to the ZKM network through the Entangled Rollup, and then pass the verified state to other ecosystems. The asset security of BTC adopts a locally controllable mode, for example, BTC is controlled by a longest script, as long as at least one honest party exists, the evildoer cannot withdraw the BTC deposited by the stake; On the L2 side, a Decentralization sequencer is used, and the inclusion and finality of transactions are done in a Decentralization manner, and the execution of L2 transaction batches is also planned to be verified by BTC scripts.

ZKM introduces the OCP mechanism (Optimistic Challe n ge Process), which is partially similar to the BTC L2 version of Ethereum's optimistic proof. Presumably, when a user deposits an asset into L2 (ZKM), the asset is locked into a pre-signed n-of-n multisignature script, typically signed by an independent third party/auditor. The redemption script for multisignature is activated after the specified challenge period, and the signer sends the asset to the target user in advance, starting the challenge phase. During the challenge phase, the signer pre-signs a transaction that contains the challenge script and the asset script. To initiate a challenge script, the challenge can be initiated via a payment input UTXO, requiring the operator to attempt to turn on its commitment by providing an intermediate computation trace to the asset script. If the commitment cannot be successfully opened, the validator will receive all assets at the end of the challenge period or give the challenge assets to the signer. Execution traces are submitted through a tap tree, where each leaf of the tree represents an intermediate value. Each intermediate value is calculated using a one-time signature, with the previous value as its input. Using this approach, the BTC script directly performs this calculation and completes on-chain asset validation. That said, ZKM attempts to provide security for off-chain computation through the OCP mechanism, ensuring that L2 transactions are included in a decentralization sequencer network.

zkVM has been one of the important fundamental explorations in the field of encryption, and ZKM's zkVM is one of them. One of the differences from RSIC and SP 1 is that ZKM provides native support for Golang. (RSIC and SP 1 support for Rust) ZKM allows Golang developers to compile their code into MIPS instructions using the Vanilla Golang compiler, and then prove its execution using ZKM's attestation network. At the same time, ZKM plans to support Rust in the future.

In addition to the safety of BTC on-chain assets, the market is also concerned about how the ZKM L2 itself can achieve sustainability. To be sustainable, participants in the network need to have the opportunity to generate consistent income. In ZKM's BTC L2, the concept of Decentralization Sequencers is introduced, and these sequencer nodes receive rewarded revenue based on their contributions. ZKM plans to reward 40% of its tokens to mining participants (including participation in sequencer nodes, liquid staking, proof network mining). That is, the sequencer Node can earn revenue from Mining in addition to gas fees from L2 transactions.

According to the current trend, the exploration of BTC L 2 will continue, both in native L 2 and EVM compatible L 2, and the native L 2 side lies in the exploration of internal ecological tension, due to its native nature has a large number of loyal fans; In terms of EVM compatibility with L 2, it is not only to expand the BTC ecosystem, but also to provide an exploration direction for the integration of more long ecosystems.