Equilibrium Infra Bulletin #27: New Lens Network, The ZK Endgame, Private UTXO discovery and more...
Equilibrium Labs builds the state-of-the-art of decentralized infrastructure. We are a global team of ~30 people who tackle challenges around security, privacy, and scaling.
🔍 Introducing Lens Network on Ethereum
⚡️ Topic Summary
The web3 social network Lens recently announced that they are moving to zkSync’s ZK Stack (previously on Polygon). The two goals of Lens are openness and fairness - allowing everyone to participate in the network and enabling more evenly distributed monetization opportunities without censorship concerns.
Lens protocol will be launched on the new Lens Network, which will act as a hub for the entire Lens user base. Instances of this new version of Lens Protocol can also be deployed on other EVM networks (and non-EVM networks).
The new network will evolve gradually in three phases:
Seed: Focuses on achieving scalability through a validium, i.e. posting data to an external data publication provider.
Grow: Introduces separate public and private validium chains to support various social network use cases. The private validium uses a data availability committee (DAC) that keeps the underlying data private. Transactions are still verified with proofs on Ethereum, but data isn’t revealed publicly.
Bloom: Volition mode boosts security and provides more flexibility. Social transactions will be in validium mode (lower cost), whereas financial transactions will be in validity rollup mode with data posted on Ethereum (more secure, but higher cost).
In its final phase (Bloom), Lens provides a flexible approach to fit the different types of transactions (source)
🤔 Our Thoughts
Social networks are a good example of a “high throughput, low value” application (games being another) that can help advance infra development. They don’t require the same amount of security as e.g. defi applications and instead focus more on affordability and performance. However, the volition mode gives more flexibility around the security/performance/cost tradeoff that different use cases require. Besides zkSync, Starknet is also working on adding support for volition.
Lens also highlights horizontal scalability with the ability to add more chains that communicate with each other with the help of the ZK stack hyperbridge and ZKPs to verify each other’s state. Could we extend this thinking to national/regional “servers” (separate chains)?
Another thing to note is the practical approach to privacy. While the privacy guarantees that can be achieved by trusting a DAC (intermediated privacy) aren’t as strong as one that doesn’t require trusting intermediaries, it’s available today and practical at the scale that Lens requires. As the technology improves, the network can upgrade to stronger privacy guarantees further down the line.
Lens also aims to bring web2 UX with gasless and signless transactions (leveraging account abstraction), embedded wallet support, and fast transactions with subsecond completion times. However, it also enables users to get the benefits of blockchains by not having to commit to one platform, more permissionless interoperability with other applications, and users having more control over their data. Overall, this seems like a very practical approach considering what is possible today, which is refreshing to see!
💡 Research, Articles & Other Things of Interest
📚 The ZK Endgame: Gevulot paints a coherent picture of where we are today, what we should optimize for, and what the ZK endgame looks like.
📚 Zero knowledge tech is making rapid progress: An overview of the adoption of ZKPs in the Ethereum ecosystem.
📚 Private UTXO Discovery: Allows discovery of UTXO (private applications) without requiring the user to sync the application from scratch. 2nd place in zkHack Krakow.
📚 Taiko’s Approach to Multi-Proofs: Currently supports SP1, Risc0, and SGX with ongoing efforts to integrate Jolt and Powdr (and more down the line).
📚 Data Availability Risk Framework: A proposal by the L2BEAT research team on a risk framework designed to evaluate the security profile of data publication solutions. This is an important step to bring more clarity to the discussion.
🎧 Research Day 2024 videos: Topics covered this year include collaborative based rollups, why Ethereum sync sucks, and subjectivity oracles.
🤌 Personal Recommendations From Our Team
📚 Reading: Ubik - Philip K. Dick: A scifi novel published in 1969 that takes place in a world where psychic powers are utilized in corporate espionage and recently deceased people are maintained in a lengthy state of hibernation with the help of cryonic technology.
🎧 Listening: Sunchaser - Delta Sleep: New song by Delta Sleep in 5/4.
💡 Other: Mexican taco stand gets Michelin Star: Taqueria El Califa de Leon, a small taco stand in Mexico City, recently earned one star in the Michelin Guide. Worth visiting?