ZKCross & Syscoin, Crossing Blockchain's Limits

With rollups on the horizon, we are inching towards a breakthrough in blockchain scalability that will usher in an unprecedented period of adoption. We at Syscoin have made great strides to ensure we will be at the forefront of this revolutionary step forward with Rollux, our own in-house rollup suite. Rollux is designed to offer the all the best that rollup technology has to offer, including Optimistic and Zero-Knowledge, all tied into Bitcoin’s gold standard security. Today, we are proud to introduce Syscoin's integration of cross-chain ZK-Rollups made possible through an ongoing collaboration with our latest partner, ZKCross.

The blockchain industry has seen over $1 billion lost to hacks over the past 24 months. Over $21 billion are locked on Ethereum bridges today. The time has come to invest in safer, more effective bridging technology that leverages Zero-Knowledge proofs to create the most secure form of cross-chain bridging possible.

ZKCross is utilizing leading-edge cryptography to create a secure and decentralized cross-chain infrastructure for the evolving crypto world. By establishing connections to multiple blockchains in order to create a decentralized platform, they are enabling the DeFi ecosystem to develop cross-chain applications with high levels of security, efficiency, and scalability. Essentially, ZKCross’ cross-chain ZK-Rollups combine Layer 2 and multichain rollup methods to create a network that enables users to effectively trade while maintaining control of their assets, with speed, low cost, and ease-of-use on par with centralized exchanges.

Syscoin’s own Lead Developer and Foundation President, Jag Sidhu, has been working closely as an advisor to the ZKCross team in order to build the world’s first cross-chain ZK-Rollup.

Initially, it will act as a Universal AMM / DEX to manage liquidity and trading across multiple chains via its own custom ZK-Rollup deployment. As an AMM, it will serve as a safer, more secure alternative to the current bridge models that are commonplace in the industry. Those models require users to trust external consensus mechanisms like multi-party computation (MPC), or multisig, as well as minting processes which can succumb to failures.

ZKCross remedies common cross-chain bridge vulnerabilities by introducing a trustless scenario.

Funds are completely isolated to only the parties actively swapping or liquidity mining from the broader ecosystem. External consensus is avoided through the use of Zero-Knowledge proofs (zkSNARKS in this case). In contrast to directly minting, this system incentivizes liquidity mining, thereby creating a viable bridge secured by validity proofs.

source: zkcross.org

zkEVM + Proof-of-Data Availability (PoDA)

It should be noted, our cross-chain ZK-Rollup opens up a wide range of new possibilities beyond the AMM function. We are also working on a Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine akin to Matter Labs' zkSync 2.0 and Polygon Hermez. We would like to congratulate our partner, Polygon, on their recent strides with Hermez and making it open source. This is the kind of breakthrough the industry has been waiting for.

We will pair our own solution with our PoDA innovation in order to anchor offchain data to Layer 1 security via validity proofs, combined with an open source zkEVM. Syscoin is positioned to be the first platform to offer Layer 1 data availability joined with a zkEVM.

Current Status of Cross-chain AMM / DEX

ZKCross and Syscoin’s ZK AMM solution is already having the finishing touches put into place. We plan to demonstrate it at Token2049 in Singapore this September. Once deployed to mainnet, it will open the way for more adoption as users choose the user-friendly bridge that keeps their assets in their own hands, is fully secure, and is designed from the ground up to work within the larger, holistic platform Syscoin has constructed. As a cross-chain solution, it will offer a DeFi experience spanning different Layer 1s and Layer 2s via Zero-Knowledge Proofs, an industry first. A recursive ZK (Zero-Knowledge) circuit was custom coded for the multichain deposit logic as well as one for the state transition logic for highly efficient transactionality and safety when dealing with value entering and exiting multiple blockchains from one ZK system.

New Research

Additionally, Zero-Knowledge-based KYC is being researched, which can provide the ecosystem with regulatory compliance when warranted, complementing the opt-in regulatory compliance already found on the UTXO-based chain of Syscoin’s dual Layer 1. Beyond this, we are exploring the hardware side of Zero-Knowledge sequencing, something that is currently in its early stage, but has the potential to eventually rival the Bitcoin mining market of today.

Foundation Board Member and Syscoin Marketing Head, Bradley Stephenson, had the following to say about the ZKCross integration:

Industry firsts are always exciting, especially when building things as relevant as a cross-chain Zero-Knowledge Bridge or a more efficient solution for Layer 1 data availability. This ZK bridge will be integral to advancing the Syscoin Platform as the complete blockchain solution, and will offer the industry as a whole a better bridging solution that eliminates common risks. It’s atypical to see direct partnerships between ZK projects and Layer 1s like ZKCross and Syscoin, but we are coming together to offer a truly special product that will raise the bar for rollups and DeFi.

About ZKCross

ZKCross is utilizing cutting-edge technologies to create a secure and decentralized cross-chain infrastructure for the evolving crypto world. By establishing connections to multiple blockchains in order to create a decentralized platform, they are enabling the DeFi ecosystem to develop cross-chain applications that require high levels of security, efficiency, and scalability. Essentially, ZKCross’ cross-chain ZK-Rollups combine Layer 2 and multichain rollup methods to create a network that allows users to effectively trade while maintaining control of their assets in an experience on par to centralized exchanges.

About Syscoin

Syscoin is a decentralized and open-source project founded in 2014 whose NEVM blockchain combines the best of Bitcoin and Ethereum in a single coordinated modular platform.

Syscoin is ushering in the next step in the evolution of blockchain technology, providing Bitcoin's proven security and Ethereum's Turing-complete programmability elevated to true scalability via Optimistic & ZK-Rollups and other Layer 2 technologies.

Jul 21, 2022 by Syscoin Foundation