Optimism’s major mainnet upgrade to Bedrock set for June 6

    The much needed upgrade will provide a number of improvements across the network, and come at a time when competition in the Layer 2 space has been heating up. Layer 2 scaling solution Optimism is set to undergo its highly anticipated Bedrock upgrade on June 6. The move is expected to result in significantly reduced…

    More TPS, less gas: Ethereum L2 Starknet outlines performance upgrades

    Starknet makes performance improvements a top priority in 2023, aiming to increase throughput, lower latency and reduce transaction costs. Layer-2 blockchain protocols have been in the spotlight in 2023, bringing major performance improvements to a variety of platforms and services operating in the Ethereum ecosystem. Zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs have been key in the roll-out of a variety…

    Buterin weighs in on zk-EVMs’ impact on decentralization and security

    Vitalik Buterin has weighed the impacts of the addition of zk-EVMs at the protocol level, saying it could speed up the verification process on the base layer. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wants to see zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (zk-EVMs) built on Ethereum’s first layer to speed up the verification process on the base blockchain. Buterin…

    Zero-knowledge proofs coming to Bitcoin, overhauling network state validation

    Zero-knowledge proofs have powered the development of Ethereum layer 2s, and now they’re coming to Bitcoin. Bitcoin users will soon be able to use zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) to expedite the process of verifying individual blocks and, eventually, the entire blockchain. ZeroSync Association, a Swiss-based nonprofit, is developing tooling which allows users to validate the state of…

    Polygon launches decentralized ID product powered by ZK proofs

    The public launch of Polygon ID comes 12 months after it was first launched in a closed-environment to a select group of builders. Polygon, a layer-2 scaling protocol for Ethereum, has launched a zero-knowledge decentralized identity solutionto the public nearly a year after announcing its development. The Polygon ID service uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proofs)…

    App-specific blockchains remain a promising solution for scalability

    Building an interoperable network of blockchains dedicated to a specific purpose appears to be a viable alternative to layer-2 scalability solutions. App-specific blockchains, or appchains, are specifically designed to support the creation and deployment of decentralized applications (DApps). In an appchain, each app runs on its separate blockchain, linked to the main chain. This allows…