ZK-Rollup uses zero-knowledge proofs to instantly verify the correctness of transactions, ensuring that transactions are almost 100% fraud-free. Rollup offers higher security compared to Optimistic Rollup and eliminates the delay in transaction confirmation caused by the challenge period. As a result, Rollup has become the fundamental direction for the future development of Layer 2.
1. Environmental Factors Driving Rollup Changes
Layer 1 Scaling is Urgently Needed
As the number of Ethereum users continues to grow, the network becomes increasingly congested, especially during initial coin offering events, causing gas fees to spike. Additionally, the rising price of $ETH has led to prohibitively high transaction fees, making small transactions impractical. Therefore, improving storage efficiency, increasing transaction throughput, and reducing transaction latency are crucial for the development of Ethereum.
Traditional Layer 1 scaling solutions generally include two forms: on-chain and off-chain. On-chain scaling refers to updates and optimizations made directly on Layer 1, such as changing the consensus mechanism, implementing sharding, and increasing block size. Off-chain scaling, on the other hand, includes sidechains and Layer 2 solutions. The main difference between sidechains and Layer 2 is that sidechains rely on their own security protocols, whereas Layer 2 relies on the security protocol of the main network. Therefore, from a security perspective, Layer 2 is often considered superior.
In past developments, the implementation logic of Layer 2 involved processing information off-chain through centralized offline computation, then transmitting the results back on-chain. This approach not only improved transaction processing efficiency but also leveraged the high security of the Ethereum mainnet. The current mainstream Layer 2 solutions include Channel, Plasma, and Rollup. Rollup, being an extension of the Plasma solution, offers higher security, state validity, and data verification capabilities. As a result, Rollup has become the fundamental direction for the future development of Layer 2.
Which Rollup Solution is Superior?
In Optimistic Rollup, the assumption is that the transactions submitted to the main chain are valid by default. Under this assumption, there is no need to immediately verify each transaction, allowing for quick submission and processing of transactions. A challenge period, usually about a week, is set during which other validators can challenge the transactions and provide evidence if they find any discrepancies. If a challenge is successful, the transaction will be rolled back, and the party at fault will be penalized.
In contrast, ZK-Rollup uses zero-knowledge proofs to instantly verify the correctness of transactions, ensuring that transactions are almost 100% fraud-free. Overall, ZK-Rollup offers higher security compared to Optimistic Rollup and eliminates the delay in transaction confirmation caused by the challenge period. Due to these advantages, ZK-Rollup has better application prospects. This is why Vitalik Buterin has repeatedly stated that ZK-Rollup is the main direction for the future development of Layer 2 solutions.
However, due to the significantly higher technical complexity of ZK-Rollup compared to Optimistic Rollup, the mainstream market for Rollup technology is still dominated by Optimistic Rollup.
Arbitrum currently leads the Optimistic Rollup sector with a TVL (Total Value Locked) share of 31.36%, while zkSync Era holds a much smaller share at 1.32%. Therefore, shaping a standardized ZK-Rollup solution and gradually expanding its application market becomes a crucial issue. The comprehensive solution that Lumoz can provide may potentially be the key to breaking through this challenge.
2.Lumoz's Strong Background
Lumoz is a comprehensive ZK platform.
Lumoz Network is a globally distributed modular computing network that integrates with the DePIN network to create a powerful, secure, and flexible computing platform. It provides computational support for ZK-Rollup, ZK ML (Machine Learning), ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof), and other technologies. Lumoz also focuses on ZK-RaaS (Zero-Knowledge Rollup as a Service) development, aiming to offer a complete set of deployment and implementation solutions for ZK-Rollup. This initiative addresses various issues such as incompatible ZK-Rollup solutions, centralized computation power, and concentrated risks.
Having deep expertise in the ZK (Zero-Knowledge) domain for many years.
Unlike the multitude of concept-driven projects saturating the Web3 space, Lumoz has been deeply rooted in the ZK (Zero-Knowledge) domain for many years. Its founder, Nanfeng, has held executive positions in several top-tier technology firms and investment companies, bringing extensive technical knowledge and exceptional blockchain project management skills. It is this forward-thinking approach that has led him and his team to delve into exploration and research in the ZK field since 2018.
Establishment: In March 2022, Opside was founded in Hong Kong, China, aiming to become a blockchain expansion infrastructure provider specializing in ZK-RaaS. It helps developers create customized zkEVM chains through "one-click deployment."
Seed Round Financing: In April 2023, Opside completed a $4 million seed round financing, used to accelerate project development, expand team size, and operational scale to meet growing market demands.
Rebranding and Brand Restructuring: In October 2023, Opside officially rebranded as Lumoz. The renaming aimed to avoid confusion with Optimistic Rollup and better reflect its focus on ZK technology. The new name "Lumoz" is derived from Latin "Lumos," symbolizing brightness and the promising future of ZK technology.
Pre-Series A Round Financing: In March 2024, Lumoz completed a $6 million Pre-Series A round financing led by Hashkey Capital and OKX Venture, with a valuation of up to $120 million.
Strategic Financing: In May 2024, Lumoz completed strategic financing with participation from IDG Blockchain, Blockchain Coinvestors, Gate Ventures, Summer Capital, EVG, 7upDAO, Sweep Ventures, and others, achieving a valuation of up to $300 million.
In addition to its high valuation, Lumoz has also delivered impressive results in practical actions. In May 2023, Lumoz launched its testnet, featuring 28,403 POW nodes, 16 active Rollups, 470,000 ZKP submissions, and 20 million transaction instances to date.
On the technical front, Lumoz has launched ZK-Rollup Launchbase, which includes support for ETH, BSC, and Polygon testnets. It provides various modular components such as Data Availability (DA) and Shared Sorters. Lumoz has achieved several breakthrough innovations including ZKP Two-step Algorithm, NCRC, zkVerifier node verification mechanism, and Lumoz RaaS Launchbase highly compatible technology stack. Additionally, Lumoz supports Merlin Chain's ZK computations at ZKFair, facilitating initial technology implementation.
3.Unified ZK Technology Solutions
Lumoz offers modular computing layers.
Modular Rollup provides a new approach to solving the blockchain trilemma. Typically, Rollup achieves a layered structure by breaking down the blockchain system into different modules. This approach enhances transaction processing efficiency and data management, thereby balancing decentralization, security, and scalability to some extent. Conventional Rollup structures typically include settlement layers, execution layers, consensus layers, and data availability layers.
Settlement Layer: Updates blockchain asset states on Layer 1 to ensure asset security.
Execution Layer: Processes transactions on Rollup, records, and updates transaction status.
Consensus Layer: Reaches consensus on transactions to ensure transaction security.
Data Availability Layer: Records and aggregates all transaction data to ensure data traceability.
In addition to the four typical layers of Rollup, Lumoz includes a core module called the Prover Layer. The Prover Layer provides censorship-resistant distributed computing, implements Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), and ensures the authenticity and validity of transaction states.
Lumoz integrates powerful ZK computing resources with the EigenLayer restaking mechanism through Lumoz Oracle, zkProver, zkVerifier, and Lumoz Chain. This allows users to restake tokens already staked into EigenLayer, enhancing the security of its Active Verification Service (AVS). Staked tokens serve as node collateral to mitigate malicious behavior by nodes.
Staking and Restaking: Users stake tokens on blockchain networks like Ethereum, and these tokens are restaked into Lumoz's AVS through EigenLayer's restake mechanism, enhancing the security of verification services.
Data Processing and Storage: Lumoz AVS Oracle retrieves and stores data from EVM-compatible chains, ensuring data availability and integrity. This data serves as input for zkProver and provides the necessary information for zkVerifier's verification.
Task Assignment and Execution: Lumoz Chain manages task scheduling, allocating computational tasks to zkProver nodes. zkProver nodes execute these tasks to generate ZKPs.
Result Verification and Confirmation: zkVerifier nodes verify the proofs generated by zkProver to ensure the correctness of computational results. Upon successful verification, Lumoz Chain records the results on the blockchain and incentivizes participating nodes through a reward mechanism.
In this process, multiple verification servers are allowed to share a pool of tokens, thereby improving resource utilization and computational efficiency, which is crucial for generating ZKPs with high computational demands. Through restaking, Lumoz can better support various EVM-compatible blockchain environments such as Polygon EVM, Scroll, etc., enhancing the platform's scalability.
Optimizing ZKP Computation and Submission Mechanisms
Lumoz optimizes the ZKP computation and submission mechanisms by supporting parallel computation and sequential submission of ZKPs. It decomposes ZKPs into multiple sub-tasks that can be computed on different zkProver nodes and ensures the correct sequence of submission for these sub-tasks.
Additionally, Lumoz introduces a novel recursive aggregation algorithm for processing ZKPs, which aggregates multiple ZKPs into a smaller one. This recursive approach reduces the size and complexity of ZKPs, thereby lowering the demand on blockchain storage and computational resources.
The Aggregator serves as the core manager within zkProver, ensuring efficient allocation of computational tasks and precise scheduling of verification.
Highly Compatible ZK-RaaS Solution
From its inception, Lumoz aimed to develop the easiest to deploy and most compatible ZK-Rollup solution. Today, the ZK-RaaS Launch Base supports all mainstream zkEVM technologies, allowing developers to easily deploy and launch ZK-Rollup with just a few simple steps.
Base Layer Selection: Lumoz supports various networks such as ETH, Polygon, Lumoz chain, etc.
zkEVM Configuration: Choose the type of zkEVM according to actual needs, such as Polygon zkEVM, zkSync, Scroll, and StarkNet.
Gas Token and Data Availability Layer: Select the gas token and corresponding data availability layer according to project requirements to ensure transaction security.
Modular Customization: Lumoz offers a range of functional modules that can be directly integrated into the ZK-Rollup as needed.
Modular Compute Layer:Lumoz offers a modular computing layer that can support various Layer 2 solutions, including architectures like Op Stack + ZK Fraud Proof. This modular approach allows developers to choose different base layers, zkEVM types, data availability layers, and sorters as needed. Native Cross-Rollup Communication:Lumoz also supports native cross-Rollup communication between different ZK-Rollups on the same base chain. This communication mechanism allows addresses on one Rollup to directly interact with contracts on another Rollup, thereby enhancing interoperability between applications. Customizable Infrastructure Services:Lumoz offers a variety of infrastructure services including bridging interfaces, customized zkEVM types, block explorers, decentralized exchanges, decentralized identity systems, wallet infrastructure, and more. These services allow developers to customize various aspects of ZK-Rollup according to their project requirements.
Thanks to Lumoz's contributions, the deployment of ZK-Rollups is transitioning from difficult to easy, potentially marking the beginning of a trend in ZKP application adoption.
4.Node presale seizing the opportunity
Selling zkVerifier licenses.
Lumoz implements the zkVerifier certificate mechanism, offering 100,000 licenses divided into 10 different price tiers. Only users with a license can operate zkVerifier nodes and can delegate the certificates to other nodes for running and earning profits. The zkVerifier sale event is divided into three main phases: whitelist phase (June 17, 15:00 UTC+8), whitelist sale phase (June 25, 15:00 UTC+8), and public sale phase (July 3, 15:00 UTC+8). Users on the whitelist phase enjoy a 10% purchase discount during the whitelist sale phase, and they can also receive a 10% rebate for inviting others to purchase licenses.
Unlike traditional node license sales, Lumoz provides users with Lumoz points distribution. Starting from June 25th until August 4th, 1 million Lumoz points will be distributed daily. The distribution of points will be weighted based on the staked license amount. Participating teams can enhance their overall weight. Additionally, the earlier users purchase a license for staking, the higher their chances of earning rewards. After the TGE, users holding Lumoz points can share 25% of the tokens.
Lumoz provides a refund mechanism for purchased licenses, allowing users to get 80% of the purchase funds back within a 6-month window after TGE, greatly avoiding risks.
Clearly, purchasing zkVerifier licenses is a very lucrative business opportunity, offering high returns with low risk. Therefore, the license purchase activity is exceptionally intense. As of the time of writing, 54,752 licenses have been sold, reaching Stage 6 with an astounding FDV of $62,705,216.
Token model
The token economic model of Lumoz follows a typical dual-token governance model, providing two tokens: MOZ and esMOZ.
MOZ is the native token of the main network, serving as the core asset of the network.
MOZ can be used as transaction gas fees on the Lumoz main network.
Payment for ZKP services and AI computing power services provided by Lumoz must be made in MOZ.
MOZ can be exchanged for esMOZ at a 1:1 ratio.
esMOZ, on the other hand, serves as the governance token for ecosystem development and maintenance on the main network.
Lumoz offers esMOZ as rewards to incentivize main network computing power providers and node operators.
Users use esMOZ for network delegation, enabling decentralized governance.
It is worth noting that the redemption rate of esMOZ varies over time: during a 10-day redemption period, the rate is 100%; for a 7-day period, it is 70%; for a 3-day period, it is 50%; and for a 1-day period, it is 10%. This redemption mechanism helps alleviate market pressure from miners redeeming tokens and effectively prevents market disruption caused by large-scale esMOZ redemptions following hacking attacks, thus safeguarding the interests of MOZ buyers.
5.Why I'm optimistic about Lumoz
Back in 2022, Vitalik proposed that ZK-Rollup would be the optimal solution for the future of Layer2 Rollups, which has destined the vibrant development of ZK-Rollup.
The emergence of Lumoz integrates the previously fragmented landscape of ZK-Rollups, optimizing their construction while also creating a streamlined deployment process for ZK-Rollups.
With Rollup revolution imminent, Lumoz's emergence meets the urgent demand to integrate ZK-Rollups and drive industry innovation.
Lumoz offers a modular computing layer, combined with EigenLayer in the staking concept, enhancing mainnet security and scalability.
Lumoz optimizes the ZKP process, maximizing the utilization of computing resources and improving computational efficiency.
Lumoz provides a comprehensive set of ways to deploy ZK-Rollups, potentially ushering in a wave of ZK-Rollup project advancements.
Overall, Lumoz's emergence will address past challenges such as the difficulty in deploying ZK-Rollups, high computational resource requirements for ZKP, and issues leading to computational centralization. This marks a crucial step forward for the future development of ZK-Rollups.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Please conduct your own research (DYOR) before making any investment decisions.