The Evolution of ZK Rollup's Role in the Ethereum Ecosystem and a Summary of Top Projects

The Inevitable Choice for Ethereum Scalability

Since the rise of smart contract platforms, Ethereum has faced an unavoidable contradiction: the higher the level of decentralization, the more severe the network congestion, and the [transaction fees]( become increasingly expensive. Although Ethereum 2.0 promises fundamental improvements, in the short term, it still needs to leverage [Layer 2 networks]( to share the mainnet pressure.

Among various scalability solutions, ZK Rollup stands out with its unique cryptographic advantages. Unlike optimistic rollups that “assume transactions are valid first and verify later,” ZK Rollup adopts a more aggressive validation strategy—each transaction undergoes rigorous zero-knowledge proof verification, ensuring security while achieving instant confirmation.

How ZK Rollup Works

The core of this technology lies in a clever “black box” mechanism: bundling and processing a large number of transactions in an off-chain virtual machine, generating a cryptographic proof, and then submitting this concise proof to the Ethereum mainnet. Throughout the process, transaction details are hidden within the mathematical structure, but their authenticity can be verified by anyone.

This design offers three direct benefits:

• The mainnet only needs to store minimal proof data, not the full transaction records
• Transaction processing speed is significantly improved, with immediate finality
• Transaction fee costs are greatly reduced, in some scenarios reaching 1% of the mainnet

Differentiation of Technical Solutions

In the current ZK Rollup ecosystem, zk-SNARKs and STARKs are the two leading cryptographic schemes. The former offers better computational efficiency and is adopted by most projects; the latter is known for trustless setup and quantum resistance, but has higher computational costs.

This technical difference directly influences project positioning—favoring SNARKs for privacy features, and STARKs for long-term security.

Leading Projects in the Ecosystem

Manta Network: Pioneer in Privacy DeFi

Market Cap: $33.95M

Since its launch in September 2023, Manta Network has explored a unique path in privacy DeFi. It uses zk-SNARKs to encrypt each transaction, allowing users to exchange assets completely anonymously—transaction amounts and counterparty identities are concealed by mathematical proofs.

This design is particularly scarce in the current DeFi ecosystem. While Ethereum’s transparency is an advantage, on-chain privacy is often essential for large-value traders. Manta quickly captured this niche, with TVL once surpassing Coinbase’s Base solution.

Linea: Stable General-Purpose Solution

Market Cap: $107.71M

Developed by Consensys, Linea takes a “balanced” approach—it neither overemphasizes a single feature nor blindly pursues extreme performance. It offers a developer-friendly EVM-compatible environment, enabling existing Ethereum applications to migrate with zero modifications.

A token incentive plan in early 2024 further boosted ecosystem activity. Although the specific tokenomics are still unclear, its solid technical foundation has attracted many application developers.

Polygon zkEVM: Concentrated Ecosystem Advantage

Polygon, as an established scalability ecosystem, further strengthens its tech stack with zkEVM products. It inherits Polygon’s network effects while introducing the performance benefits of ZK Rollup. Using MATIC tokens for governance and fee payments, and its close integration with the Polygon main ecosystem, give it a unique ecosystem synergy advantage.

Starknet: Aggressive Technological Exploration

Market Cap: $396.83M

Starknet adopts STARKs technology, which sacrifices zk-SNARKs’ computational efficiency for stronger security and quantum resistance. For applications that prioritize long-term security, this is a worthwhile trade-off.

Its support for general computation also attracts many developers. Compared to schemes that only support specific transaction types, Starknet offers greater flexibility.

zkSync Era: Balanced and Strong Participant

With a TVL of $555M, zkSync Era leverages Matter Labs’ technical expertise to find a good balance between EVM compatibility and user experience. Its low fees and high throughput make it a popular choice for deploying on-chain applications.

Scroll: Pursuit of Extreme Throughput

Focusing on high-efficiency transaction processing, Scroll leads its peers with an aggressive batching strategy. This feature provides significant advantages for DEXs and trading applications. Although it has not yet issued a governance token, its technical direction has already gained market recognition.

Aztec Protocol: Privacy Paradigm Innovator

Unlike other projects, Aztec has designed a hybrid public-private execution model—developers can choose to run smart contract logic in private or public environments. This programmable privacy feature opens new possibilities for application innovation. Its self-developed Noir programming language also lowers the barrier for ZK circuit development.

ZKFair: DEX-Focused Selective Hand

Market Cap: $163M

Compared to general-purpose solutions, ZKFair focuses on fairness in transaction execution—using ZK technology to eliminate front-running risks common in traditional DEXs. This is a core requirement for traders needing fair transaction prices.

Other Supporters

ZetaChain ($80.78M market cap) extends the application scope of ZK Rollup, enabling cross-chain communication and multi-chain applications.

Taiko made rapid progress last year, with its “based sequencer” innovation addressing centralization risks in existing Rollups—allowing Layer 1 validators to directly participate in sequencing, avoiding single points of failure.

Technical Bottlenecks Still Need Breaking Through

Current ZK Rollup scalability faces practical challenges:

• Cryptographic complexity limits new entrants’ participation
• Proof generation resource consumption constrains certain use cases
• Data availability management costs are still decreasing
• Decentralized governance models are in early exploration stages

These challenges will not be fully resolved in the short term, but ongoing industry investment has already shown initial results.

Long-term Vision for ZK Rollup

With time, ZK Rollup is expected to become the default Layer 2 solution for the Ethereum ecosystem—not only improving transaction efficiency but also laying the foundation for new paradigms like privacy applications and cross-chain interoperability. As technology matures and user barriers lower, the potential for explosive growth in this sector is significant.

ZK Rollup is evolving from “technological innovation” to “infrastructure,” and its transformation of the Ethereum ecosystem is deep and lasting. As more applications migrate and innovate, this technology will ultimately shape a more efficient, flexible, and inclusive blockchain ecosystem.