The Rollup Coaster #29

August 19th, 2024

The Rollup Coaster is a bi-weekly newsletter that dives into the fascinating world of Ethereum, exploring the latest in rollups, zero-knowledge proofs, based sequencing/preconfirmations, TEEs, MEV/PBS and much more.

This edition is written by Taiko’s Researcher Jünger.

Hold on tight! 🎢

Disclaimer: This newsletter is neither financial advice, nor is indicative of Taiko’s position on any of the material presented. Please do your own research.

Highlights 🎢

Shared sequencer debates in progress

Rushi wrote a critique about shared sequencers. In summary, the arguments are that shared sequencers are a b2b model and that rollups have already developed their own shared sequencer mechanisms. In response, Jill Gunter said that rollups do not develop their own shared sequencers and that rollups do not have to give up their own fee revenue. And finally, Ben Fisch briefly summarised what Espresso is trying to do.

Optimism became the first rollup to transition from Stage 1 to Stage 0

Optimism deactivated the fraud proofs after audits. Donnoh raised some questions.

ZK and rollup updates📰

Garaga (Starknet’ cryptography library) shared the latest form the library.
Staking’s first stage on Starknet.
Arbitrum Foundation announced the partner studio Tandem.
Optimism added Alt-DA options to OP Stack.
NEBRA launched the mainnet.

ZK and rollup research 🧙

Stefanos et al. published a paper entitled "Analysing and Benchmarking ZK-Rollups". This paper presents an analysis of ZK-Rollups, in particular ZK-EVMs, evaluating their efficiency, cost and design choices. It introduces a systematic methodology for evaluating these L2s and applies it to Polygon zkEVM and zkSync to provide insights for future improvements.
“What is a trusted setup and how is it secured?” podcast by zkMarek.
The Zero Knowledge Podcast was hosted by Nexus this week and discussed Nexus' formal verification approach, Groth16 and IVC.
Hannes (from Equilibrium) has written a second post in the privacy series on MPC. He dives into MPC in the context of trust assumptions, alternative approaches, trade-offs and more.
wtf is settlement? by Bedlam Research.
Sin7y Labs shared a blog post on optimization of Breakdown in Plonky3 and Binius.
The Evolution of Rust Inside zkVMs by Erik Kadena from (RiscZero).
Timofey (from Chainsafe) wrote a blog post that dives into Circle STARKs.
Ingonyama published new chapter of NTT201 book. This chapter introduces Additive Number Theoretic Transform (ANTT), an alternative to Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) for efficient encoding and decoding of Reed-Solomon codes over extension fields.
New paper (by Quang Dao) introduces a novel method for constructing non-interactive zero-knowledge (NIZK) proof systems under post-quantum assumptions, using the hardness of multivariate quadratic equations.