Analyzing and Benchmarking ZK-Rollups

Stefanos Chaliasos; Itamar Reif; Adrià Torralba-Agell; Jens Ernstberger; Assimakis Kattis; Benjamin Livshits

Paper 2024/889

Analyzing and Benchmarking ZK-Rollups

Stefanos Chaliasos, Imperial College London

Itamar Reif, Astria

Adrià Torralba-Agell, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Jens Ernstberger

Assimakis Kattis

Benjamin Livshits, Imperial College London, Matter Labs

Abstract

As blockchain technology continues to transform the realm of digital transactions, scalability has emerged as a critical issue. This challenge has spurred the creation of innovative solutions, particularly Layer 2 scalability techniques like rollups. Among these, ZK-Rollups are notable for employing Zero-Knowledge Proofs to facilitate prompt on-chain transaction verification, thereby improving scalability and efficiency without sacrificing security. Nevertheless, the intrinsic complexity of ZK-Rollups has hindered an exhaustive evaluation of their efficiency, economic impact, and performance. This paper offers a theoretical and empirical examination aimed at comprehending and evaluating ZK-Rollups, with particular attention to ZK-EVMs. We conduct a qualitative analysis to break down the costs linked to ZK-Rollups and scrutinize the design choices of well-known implementations. Confronting the inherent difficulties in benchmarking such intricate systems, we introduce a systematic methodology for their assessment, applying our method to two prominent ZK-Rollups: Polygon zkEVM and zkSync Era. Our research provides initial findings that illuminate trade-offs and areas for enhancement in ZK-Rollup implementations, delivering valuable insights for future research, development, and deployment of these systems.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Implementation
Publication info: Preprint.
Keywords: Zero-Knowledge Proofs ZK-Rollups Benchmarking Blockchain Scalability
Contact author(s): stefanos @ chaliasos com
History: 2024-06-05: approved; 2024-06-04: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2024/889
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2024/889,
      author = {Stefanos Chaliasos and Itamar Reif and Adrià Torralba-Agell and Jens Ernstberger and Assimakis Kattis and Benjamin Livshits},
      title = {Analyzing and Benchmarking {ZK}-Rollups},
      howpublished = {Cryptology ePrint Archive, Paper 2024/889},
      year = {2024},
      note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/889}},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/889}
}