- Matter Labs has laid off 24 employees, over 16% of its workforce, amid market changes.
- The company is shifting focus from general-purpose scaling to niche applications.
- Despite layoffs, Matter Labs continues hiring for critical engineering and business roles.
Matter Labs, the company behind the Ethereum scaling network ZKsync, has announced the layoff of over 16% of its workforce, affecting 24 employees.
The announcement, made on September 3, 2024, by Matter Labs’ co-founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski, marks a significant shift for the company as it navigates the increasingly competitive landscape of Ethereum layer-2 scaling solutions.
Matter Labs restructuring amid market challenges
The layoffs come as Matter Labs re-evaluates its strategy in the face of changing market conditions and evolving business needs. It follows a large organizational planning exercise that revealed a mismatch between the company’s current talent and the needs of its future strategy.
According to Gluchowski, the decision to downsize was “the hardest change” he’s had to implement in the company’s six-year history.
In the layoff announcement, Gluchowski explained that the affected employees were notified of their termination and emphasized that the decision was not performance-related. He highlighted the necessity of aligning the company’s resources with its new strategic goals.
Despite the layoffs, Matter Labs is currently hiring for key roles in engineering, business development, and operations, underscoring its ongoing commitment to innovation and growth despite the reduction in staff.
Shifting focus from general-purpose to niche solutions
The layoffs are part of a broader strategic pivot for Matter Labs.
In June 2024, the company introduced the Elastic Chain, a new solution aimed at enhancing interoperability for the growing number of teams building custom chains on ZKsync. This launch has prompted Matter Labs to reconsider its positioning in the highly competitive Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem, which includes other major players like Coinbase’s Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
Gluchowski indicated that Matter Labs might be moving away from its initial focus as a general-purpose Ethereum scaler. Instead, the company is exploring more niche and case-specific applications of its technology, a move designed to better meet the needs of its users and stay competitive in the crowded market.
As Matter Labs adjusts its course, the company’s commitment to innovation remains strong. The layoffs, while difficult, are a step towards aligning its workforce and resources with its evolving strategy in the Ethereum scaling space.
41% of Top ZKsync (ZK) Wallets Have Sold Everything; Market Experts Predict Huge Gains for Shiba Inu and Rebel … Times Tabloid
Source link ]]>
Breakthrough Cryptos of 2024: DTX Exchange (DTX) Dominates Cardano (ADA) and zkSync (ZK) Techpoint Africa
Source link ]]>
Breakthrough Cryptos of 2024: DTX Exchange (DTX) Dominates Cardano (ADA) and zkSync (ZK) Finbold – Finance in Bold
Source link ]]>
Decentralized Exchange (DEX) PancakeSwap (CAKE), has announced the launch of PancakeSwap v3 on zkSync Era, a Layer 2 scaling solution that promises to deliver improved scalability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness to its users.
According to the announcement, with the popularity of ZK rollups increasing and users and builders increasingly looking to L2 solutions, PancakeSwap is thrilled to offer users and developers even more reasons to build and trade on its DEX.
The Benefits Of PancakeSwap v3’s Swap Feature On zkSync Era
PancakeSwap v3 on zkSync Era comes with several exciting features, including Swap, Liquidity Provision (LP), Farms, and Initial Farm Offering (IFO).
The Swap feature allows users to enjoy quick and cost-effective token swaps through a user-friendly interface. With multi-tier fee structures ranging from 0.01% to 1%, traders can select the fee structure that aligns best with their trading preferences and liquidity pool engagement.
With low trading fees, users can trade their favorite tokens seamlessly while enjoying enhanced liquidity and reduced slippage.
Moreover, the Liquidity Provision feature lets users become part of PancakeSwap’s thriving decentralized exchange ecosystem by providing liquidity. Liquidity providers earn passive income through trading fees when people use their liquidity pool to complete swaps.
Per the announcement, with the scalability of zkSync Era, users can maximize their returns, achieving an impressive capital multiplier of up to 4000x.
Users can engage in Swap, LP, and social media tasks to earn loyalty points and unlock exclusive NFTs. The Galxe campaign provides an opportunity to explore and experience the power of PancakeSwap on this ecosystem, unlocking the full potential of the platform.
Ultimately, the integration with zkSync Era allows PancakeSwap to increase its transaction capacity and reduce congestion on the Ethereum network. As the popularity of DeFi continues to grow, the Ethereum network has become congested, leading to high gas fees and slower transaction times.
By leveraging Layer 2 scaling solutions like zkSync, PancakeSwap can significantly increase its transaction capacity, reduce congestion, and offer users a more reliable and cost-effective trading experience.
What’s more, the integration with zkSync Era is expected to pave the way for the mass adoption of DeFi. By offering users faster and cheaper transactions, PancakeSwap can attract more users to the platform, increasing the adoption of DeFi as a whole.
PancakeSwap’s Revenue Hit By Market Conditions
PancakeSwap has experienced some fluctuations in its market performance recently. According to Token Terminal data, PancakeSwap’s circulating market cap is currently $313.88 million, with a 1.16% decline in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, its fully diluted market cap has declined by 3.22% in the same period, currently standing at $1.12 billion.
Similarly, the total value locked on the platform has also decreased by 0.77% in the past 24 hours, currently sitting at $1.23 billion.
Over the past 30 days, PancakeSwap has generated $1.20 million in revenue, representing a decline of 26.02%. Its annualized revenue has also decreased by 32.11% to $14.55 million. The trading volume on PancakeSwap for the past year is $40.22 billion, indicating a 16.00% decline.
The fully diluted P/F ratio of PancakeSwap has increased by 31.2% to 26.21x, while its P/S ratio has also increased by 29.1% to 76.46x. In the past 30 days, PancakeSwap has generated $3.49 million in fees, representing a decline of 27.23%. Its annualized fees have decreased by 32.59% to $42.45 million.
These figures suggest that PancakeSwap’s performance has been impacted by recent market trends. Despite the decline in revenue and trading volume, the platform’s P/F and P/S ratios have increased, indicating a higher valuation for the company.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.com
- Boojum upgrade is live as zkSync Era transitions to a new STARK-powered proof system.
- The new proof system is designed to power world-class performance on regular consumer-grade hardware.
- zkSync is rolling out the feature in phases as it tests out its security and functionality.
zkSync Era, a zero knowledge (ZK) proofs layer 2 protocol for Ethereum, has announced its high-performance proof system called Boojum.
According to the team, the upgrade is not only to scale network performance but also significantly improve on its overall decentralisation by allowing for the use of consumer-grade hardware.
Say hello to Boojum
: zkSync Era’s new high-performance proof system for radical decentralization. Boojum is an upgrade that will transition zkSync Era to a STARK-powered proof system, providing world-class performance on consumer-grade hardware.
Learn more:… pic.twitter.com/1GrwJ5Y07A
— zkSync ∎ (@zksync) July 17, 2023
New zkSync Era upgrade
Boojum is a Rust-based arithmetization and constraint library that zkSync is transitioning to from its SNARK-based prover system. The protocol noted in an announcement on Monday that the new proof system will power the platform’s upgraded version of ZK circuits.
While zkSync Era can currently process over 100 transactions per second (TPS), Boojum is expected to considerably bump this up. On top of that, the team targets near-real-time and cheap transactions.
“Our current SNARK-based system, while effective for today, won’t scale to the high-volume, near real-time transactions the ZK Stack, where zkSync Era operates as a Hyperchain, aims to support in the coming years. The future we imagine for these systems is one in which proofs are generated and verified cheaply and quickly, allowing for fast finality and interoperability between Hyperchains,” the zkSync Era team wrote.
In terms of reducing hardware requirements, Boojum will allow for GPU provers with as little as 16 GB of RAM. The move to have such a low barrier is crucial to supporting an increasingly decentralised ecosystem.
Today’s rollout of Boojum upgrade will incorporate a phased out integration into mainnet. While live on the mainnet, the upgrade’s first implementation is in “shadow mode”. It means the team will run the new proof system in tandem with the current one.
However, while Boojum will be in testing mode, “shadow proofs” will be generated and verified from real production data on Mainnet blocks. zkSync will continually work on the ecosystem to fine-tune the upgrade’s functionality as it moves closer to full migration.
The emergence of Layer 2 scaling solutions has led to many cryptocurrency enthusiasts flocking to these networks, attracted by their high speed and low transaction fees. One such scaling solution is zkSync Era, host to the most anticipated airdrop in the crypto community.
zkSync is a Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that aims to improve the network’s speed and scalability while reducing transaction costs. It is based on zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic method that allows for privacy-preserving transactions without revealing sensitive information.
Despite zkSync still in its infant stage, early whales appear to be betting big on the Layer 2 network, according to a report by Nansen Research. The report revealed several early adopters are seen securing an average of 32% of their crypto holdings on the network.
Significant Amount of Idle Capital on ZkSync
According to the report from Nansen Research, the top 25 early whale bridgers to zkSync Era have an average of 32% of their total holdings on zkSync. Holdings of these early adopters comprised mainly of spot Ethereum token (ETH), stablecoin USDC, and a distant third of MUTE, a new privacy-focused cryptocurrency.
The high percentage of holdings on the platform suggests that these investors have a significant amount of idle capital waiting to be deployed, according to Nansen Research.
Related Reading: Ethereum Scalability Solution zkSync Deploys Tesnet, Cheap Network Fees Imminent?
According to the report, the majority of the activity on zkSync is centered on decentralized exchanges (DEX), particularly liquidity providers (LPs) on SyncSwap, Izumi Finance, Mute, and Velocorexyz.
The Nansen report further notes that the LPs are mostly in the ETH/USDC pools, while Pool 2s and altcoins (alts) make up a very negligible position, “indicating a lack of interest in zkSync alts.” This suggests that the early adopters are mainly focused on liquidity provision on the platform, and are not yet willing to invest in altcoins on the network.
Profitable Investment Opportunities in the Near Term
The report notes that although there are opportunities for profitable investments in the short term, users should be careful when engaging with zkSync protocols. The analytics firm pointed out that there have been numerous rug pulls on the platform and advises the crypto community to exercise caution before interacting with any protocols.
In light of this warning, it is crucial to keep track of new product launches, such as upcoming derivatives apps like UniDex Finance and Derivio, which are currently in testnet.
Notably, the data from the Nansen report paints a positive picture of early adopters’ use of zkSync, with a high percentage of holdings on the network suggesting that they have confidence in the platform’s capabilities to deliver value in the long run.
However, the report’s warning on rug pulls is a reminder that even established platforms can still have risks associated with them.
While the zkSync native token is yet to launch, the global crypto market has been in an uptrend in the past few days expressing indulgence in new tokens. In the last day, the global crypto market cap rose by nearly 1% with a value above $1.2 trillion.
Featured image from Unsplash, Chart from TradingView
DeFi Tokens, Shiba Inu Clones Populate zkSync as Locked Value Climbs to $100M CoinDesk
Source link ]]>
Key Takeaways
- zkSync 2.0 is set to launch this Friday.
- The upgrade will bring added smart contract functionality, allowing developers to deploy their own DeFi apps, NFTs, and games on the Layer 2 network.
- zkSync also has plans to launch a token, with some speculating that it will follow Optimism’s lead in rewarding early users.
Share this article
The zkSync 2.0 launch is set to go live Friday.
zkSync Readies Mainnet 2.0
The newest version of zkSync is almost here.
The Ethereum Layer 2 project is about to undergo its most significant upgrade to date. With the launch of zkSync 2.0, the network will gain the capacity for smart contracts, letting developers create and deploy their own DeFi protocols, NFTs, and blockchain games.
Currently, zkSync 1.0 only lets users transfer tokens between wallets. However, this hasn’t stopped it from finding use within certain niches. For example, Gitcoin Grants, a program that helps developer teams raise funding for public goods projects, lets users donate through zkSync, offering projects and contributors huge savings in gas fees compared to what they would have to spend on Ethereum mainnet.
zkSync is one of several Layer 2 solutions working to scale Ethereum. It uses Zero-Knowledge proofs to bundle transactions together on a separate network and send them back to Ethereum mainnet for validation. Through this approach, “ZK-Rollups” like zkSync can reduce transaction gas fees by an order of magnitude while inheriting Ethereum’s security and decentralization.
Matter Labs, the company behind zkSync, has been working on its 2.0 version since 2020. The goal has been to fuse ZK-Rollup scaling technology with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, allowing code written in Ethereum’s Solidity language to be deployed on a ZK-Rollup-based Layer 2 network. Although this was initially expected to take years to achieve, several breakthroughs have sped up development. After a series of testnets earlier in the year, Matter Labs is now preparing for the full release of its so-called “zkEVM” 2.0 network.
Matter Labs Hints at Token Announcement
It’s not just the zkSync 2.0 launch that has crypto enthusiasts excited. Last week, Matter Labs Chief Procurement Officer Steven Newcomb revealed in a Twitter Spaces call that details surrounding a zkSync token would be announced in early November.
According to Matter Labs’ developer documentation, the company has always intended to release a token for its zkSync network, but details on when it would happen have not been released. Many have suggested that a zkSync token could be used as an incentive for decentralized transaction sequencing, similar to how the Ethereum network pays out staking rewards to its validators.
Others have also speculated that early users of zkSync 1.0 and the 2.0 testnets could receive an airdrop of zkSync tokens as a reward for their participation. Other Ethereum Layer 2s have airdropped tokens to early users in the past. In May, Optimism celebrated the launch of its OP governance token by distributing 5% of its token supply to early users and those who met various eligibility requirements, and it said at the time it would have further airdrops amounting to 14% of the total supply.
Whether Matter Labs will follow Optimism’s example in airdropping tokens to its community remains to be seen. However, after several high-profile airdrops made the headlines this year, most recently with the newly-launched Layer 1 network Aptos, expectations for another are high.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this piece, the author owned ETH, BTC, and several other crypto assets.
Share this article
Per an official press release from its developer Matter Labs, Ethereum’s second-layer scalability solution Zero-Knowledge (zk) Sync on its second iteration has been deployed on this network testnet. The first EVM-compatible ZK Rollup to enter this phase, zkSync 2.0 will:
(…) allow developers to build and deploy decentralized applications in a low-fee, highly scalable layer-2 environment using Ethereum’s native programming language, Solidity.
Related Reading | How Vitalik Buterin Will Use $100M In SHIB To Fight COVID-19
This scalable solution will remove human operators to validate transactions without compromising the security of its users. Matter Labs claims the solution will be “community-run” following the “ethos of Ethereum”, and therefore fully decentralized.
In the release, the team behind zkSync 2.0 claims users will benefit from a “improve” experience on this network. One of the main issues while transacting on this blockchain is its elevated fees. This has led many users to migrate to more cost-efficient blockchains.
The introduction of a fully EVM compatible scalability ZK Rollup, such as zkSync 2.0, could finally become the long-awaited solution for this issue and usher in a new era for Ethereum. Matter Labs claimed:
The promise of a ZK Rollup capable of general computation has been predicted by many to be a key component in the endgame of blockchain scalability, but as little as one year ago, many of the top minds in the space believed we were years away. Today, we’re launching one to the public on Ethereum’s testnet.
According to the release, zkSync 2.0 has already seen the development of key infrastructure that will guarantee its adoption on the ecosystem. Quoting numerous products, use cases, and teams, Matter Labs provided a potential vision for the future of this network when zkSync finally become available on the mainnet.
The Ethereum Endgame To Be Enable By zkSync 2.0?
Amongst the listed products, there is Banxa, Ramp Network, UTORG, and MoonPay’s solution to directly transact with zkSync and allow users “to avoid L1 fees altogether”. This product is to be implemented by major crypto exchanges, like Crypto.com, ByBit, Houbi, OKEx, and others.
Thus, in the coming months, users might be able to send and withdraw their ETH avoiding high fees. In addition, the scalability solution will be implemented by Chainlink to its oracle services, and across multiple cross-chain protocols also known as “bridges”, such as PolyNetwork, Nomad, deBridge, ZigZag, and many more.
ETH compatible crypto wallets, including those that play a big part in the DeFi ecosystem (MetaMask, Argent, 1inch, MyKey, etc.) will leverage the scalability solution, the release revealed. Matter Labs named other important use cases, and also clarified a relevant concern for users by stating the following:
The current version of the zkSync 2.0 solves the needs of most applications on Ethereum, and with more features planned for release soon, zkSync 2.0 will provide developers with a design space to experiment with applications not possible on Ethereum today.
This scalability solution will make possible the implementation of many upgrades to the ecosystem and could be a huge step forward in terms of user experience, but also decentralize application development on the network.
Related Reading | Ethereum DAO Hacker Doxxed? How This Chainalysis Tool Led To His Identity
As of press time, ETH trades at $2,599 with a 1.4% loss in the last 24 hours.
