Ethereum scaling solutions

Short description: Software to accelerate Ethereum application's transactions

Ethereum scaling solutions, more commonly known under a collective term of "Layer 2", are solutions designed to help scale Ethereum-based applications by handling transactions off the Ethereum Mainnet (Layer 1) while taking advantage of the robust decentralized security model of Mainnet.^[1]^[2]^[3]

State of the Ethereum blockchain

With global increase in blockchain adoption, the Ethereum network has surpassed 1+ million transactions per day - increased activity has risen the gas prices, needed to process these transactions. Layer 2 solutions are created with the intent of expanding the network and lowering the transaction processing costs.

Scaling approaches

To solve the mentioned issues, multiple engineering teams have devised their own approaches to scaling Ethereum blockchain.

The most notable are mentioned here:

Roll-ups^[4]
State channels^[5]
Sidechains^[6]
Plasma^[7]
Validium^[8]

Scaling solutions

According to the independent website L2Beat,^[9] there are 20 visible participants in the Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem. The most commonly used scaling approaches are optimistic roll-ups and zero-knowledge proofs (or "ZK-proofs"): 75% of current teams use one of the two approaches as the basis for their own solutions.

Optimistic roll-ups

Optimistic roll-ups
Project	URL
Arbitrum	https://arbitrum.io/
BOBA Network	https://boba.network/
Fuel v1	https://fuel.sh/
Layer2.Finance Network	https://layer2.finance/
Metis Andromeda	https://www.metis.io/
Optimism (Ethereum)	https://optimism.io/

ZK proofs

ZK rollups
Project	URL
Aztec	https://aztec.network/
dYdX	https://dydx.exchange/
Loopring	https://loopring.org/
Polygon Hermez	https://hermez.io/
Starknet	https://starknet.io/
ZKSpace	https://zks.org/
ZKSwap 1.0	https://zks.org/
ZKSwap 2.0	https://zks.org/
zkSync	https://zksync.io/

References

0.00

(0 votes)

[1] "Layer 2 Rollups". https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/layer-2-rollups/.

[2] "Definition of Layer 2 blockchain". https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/layer-2-blockchain.

[3] "Layer 2 | CoinMarketCap". https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/layer-2.

[4] "Layer 2 Rollups". https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/layer-2-rollups/.

[5] "State channels". https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/state-channels/.

[6] "Sidechains". https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/sidechains/.

[7] "Plasma chains". https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/plasma/.

[8] "Validium". https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/validium/.

[9] L2Beat.com

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]