<\/p>\n
Matter Labs, the team behind zkSync Era, Ethereum’s third-largest Layer 2 network, shipped an upgraded proving system for the first time since launching zkSync Lite in mid-2020.<\/p>\n
On July 17, zkSync Era Upgraded<\/a> to a new STARK-based proving system, dubbed “Boojum.” Matter Labs said the new system reduces the computational requirements of provers by 80%, reducing transaction fees and paving the way for a decentralized ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cBoojum [GPU-based] provers only require 16 GB of RAM, enabling massive future prover decentralization,\u201d Matter Labs said<\/a>, \u201cThis proof is much smaller and cheaper to verify\u2026 driv[ing] down the cost of the proof system, and therefore, the transactions themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n For comparison, Era’s previous SNARK-based proving system needed to run on high-end hardware with at least 80 GB of RAM. Matter Labs said users can even run Boojum on a CPU-based system with 64GB of RAM, with the team targeting a 50% reduction in the future.<\/p>\n zkSync Era has stormed the Layer 2 rankings since launching in March.<\/p>\n The network now holds $581M<\/a> in total value locked (TVL) and hosts the highest activity among Layer 2s, according to L2beat. Era processed 24M transactions over the past 30 days, beating out long-standing L2 incumbents in Arbitrum with 23.5M, and Optimism with 15.4M.<\/p>\n However, Era’s performance is likely bolstered by opportunistic air drop farmers<\/a> hoping to be eligible should Matter Labs issue a token to early Era adopters in the future.<\/p>\n Matter Labs said zkSync Era’s sequencer can process more than 100 transactions per second.<\/p>\n Matter Labs said Boojum is the culmination of more than three years of development, starting with its December 2019 paper, red shift<\/a>,<\/p>\n \u201cWe launched zkSync Era with a SNARK-based system underpinning our zkEVM, leveraging the battle-tested circuit framework that has been powering zkSync Lite on mainnet for almost three years,\u201d Matter Labs said.<\/p>\n Matter Labs said the transition Era’s transition from SNARK-based to STARK-based proofs drives a “dramatic improvement in performance.” SNARKs require trusted validators and use more complex mathematics, stemming decentralization and increasing transaction fees compared to STARKs.<\/p>\n According to L2fees, the average fee for DEX-based token swaps on Era prior to the upgrade was $0.34<\/a>, ranking it seventh among the top ten Layer 2 networks. For comparison, swaps on Optimism and Arbitrum cost $0.11 and $0.21 respectively. However, Era’s fees were still 92% cheaper than transacting on Ethereum’s mainnet.<\/p>\nBoojum Upgrade<\/h2>\n
ZK Stack<\/h2>\n