A Polygon noob says the recent advancements in ZK-Rollups are worth the hype

With a few articles under my belt, I can say I see the astonishing benefits of Zero-Knowledge Proofs. It's amazing to acknowledge how quickly the developers have moved to make strides toward building a working solution. I'll share some of the information I've gathered along the way here.

Here's a quick explanation of how ZK-Rollups work:

• Zero-Knowledge Rollups is a protocol that scales the Ethereum Network by performing bundling and taking transaction data off the main blockchain, preventing Ethereum from becoming congested.
• ZK-Rollup works by taking hundreds of payments off-chain and mixing these into one transaction. The Ethereum Network then sends a SNARK to the main chain for verification.

As you may be aware, the first working solution (which is also EVM compatible) is Polygon's zkEVM. Not only does it use Zero-Knowledge Rollups to process transactions off the main chain (Ethereum, thus not congestion it), but it's also EVM-compatible, making deploying on zkEVM a breeze for smart contracts already deployed on EVM-compatible chains (Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Avalanche, etc.).

Now, projects whose smart contracts are already deployed on less-secure Layer2 blockchains can take advantage of the security benefits of Ethereum.

Benefits of deploying smart contracts on zkEVM:

• Secure: Transactions performed by smart contracts on the Polygon zkEVM can be reliably verified on Ethereum without nodes having to re-execute the operations (because of the ZK proofs).
• Cheaper: not compared to Polygon POS Chain, but to Ethereum, costs are cheaper while enjoying the same security of the battle-tested Ethereum Network. ZK-Rollups can afford to post minimal data to Ethereum because validity proofs already guarantee the trustworthiness of state transitions.
• Faster Finality & Capital Efficiency: transactions executed on Polygon zkEVM are finalized immediately after they are posted on Ethereum.
• Network Effects: being able to easily deploy smart contracts on multiple chains is insanely valuable for developers. Instead of having to spend time and effort adapting the same smart contract code to different chains, developers can now just take the same code and deploy it on zkEVM, enjoying all the benefits that come with it in a breeze.

As with any new chain, DeFi is a MUST to kick-start the on-chain activity and bring it to life. With zkEVM becoming very popular before launching, EVM-compatible protocols have already deployed on the chain, competing for TVL. While the current TVL on the chain is low, there are two current contenders:

1. Quickswap with $732K in TVL (DEX). Despite the relatively low TVL, Quickswap’s V3 comes with a unique Automated Market Maker called Concentrated Liquidity. This allows Liquidity Providers to supply liquidity within custom prices ranges, lowering fees and boosting volume. These prices ranges can also be automated thanks to the Gamma implementation.
2. 0vix with $667K in TVL (Lending). Lending and especially borrowing can be daunting. Thus 0vix has implemented a plethora of in-house developments to ensure that price volatility doesn’t get you by surprise. Quantitative in-house Risk Assessment Research, Dynamic Interest Rate Curve, Toxicity Numbers and 24 hours Liquidation Probability are just a few of the special features of 0vix. Ensure you give them a read to understand how they work, since it's a lot to go through.

While in its early stages, Zero-Knowledge Rollups technology has already made a big splash in the crypto space, and, apart from zkEVM, there is a bunch of other projects in the works:

• zkSync
• StarkNET
• Scroll

Some of the information in this post is taken from official documentation sources, while some of it is explained using my understanding. Please correct me if I'm wrong and share your knowledge as I would love to learn more about Zero-Knowledge Rollups and/or zkEVM.