On Wednesday, Matter Labs, the developers behind zkSync, confirmed that it has just raised $200 million in its Series C funding round co-led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly. Other participants include Variant, LightSpeed Venture Partners, and its existing investor, Andreesen Horowitz (a16), which led its Series B funding in November 2021.
This brings the total amount raised to $458 million across all rounds, including $200 million from BitDAO for funding projects in the ecosystem.
Since the completion of the Merge, Layer2 scaling solutions such as Zero-Knowledge roll-ups have become increasingly crucial to scale the network. Blockchain developers like Vitalik Buterin have frequently mentioned ZK-rollups as critical components of the Ethereum Roadmap. At the moment, Ethereum processes 30 transactions per second, a number that would significantly improve in the future with ZK-rollups.
Zero-Knowledge proof here is a digital authentication process that allows two parties to share data seamlessly without necessarily divulging information contained in the system. It batches up and bundles transactions to be executed off-chain, which, in turn, improves speed and lowers high transaction fees making the network more efficient.
zkSync is an implementation of ZK-rollup technology; it provides a Layer2 scalability solution to Ethereum and generates validity proofs based on hundreds of transactions while maintaining security and decentralized nature.
It is important to note that zkSync’s roll-up is EVM-compatible. This means they work on blockchains using Ethereum’s Virtual Machine. These include Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Polygon, and Avalanche.
Matter Labs announced it intends to open-source its code via the MIT Open Source Initiative sometime in Q4 2022. This means third parties can now view, modify and fork the code to ensure no bug in zkSync’s smart contract.
According to Newcomb, Matter Lab’s chief product officer, the firm aims to drive a consensus in open source. To him, zkSync stands a chance to become the layer2 standard for the industry. “One of the major things we want to stop is centralized censorship. And anything other than fully open source code is centralized censorship of code.
zkSync Version 2
In October 2022, the firm launched the “Baby Alpha” version of the zkSync V2 on Ethereum. However, it is only open to members of the Matter Labs team to test. More users will gain access to the platform later this year or in early 2023.
Newcomb also mentioned that the product was still in the testing phase; therefore, initial transactions may still need to be impressive. He also stated that the firm has over 150 partners, including Uniswap, Chainlink, Aave, SushiSwap, and 1inch. Most of who have also committed to launching on the zkSync platform. For instance, Aave, the DeFi lending giant, has chosen to deploy on the zkSync platform this November.
Uniswap, MakerDAO, and SushiSwap also voted to deploy theirs in February 2023.
As stated earlier, the project is in the first stage of its three-phased mainnet rollout. The second stage of the rollout is known as the”Fair Launch Alpha,” The 150 partners who have indicated their interest in launching on zkSync will have the opportunity to do so and continue to stress test it.
Unlike other Layer2 scaling solutions like Optimism, zkSync has no token yet. Although there were speculations of a token launch at the release of the zkSync V2, Newcomb noted that Matter Lab is quick to do a token.
