The Nil Foundation startup unveiled zkSharding, which is ZK-Rollups built using sharding technology.
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Introducing =nil; — a zkRollup that securely scales Ethereum to 60,000+ TPS through zkSharding. It takes modular and monolithic architecture advantages for scaling as it maintains unified liquidity and state while achieving full composability with Ethereum.
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— =nil; Foundation (@nil_foundation) November 7, 2023
The new development represents an alternative scaling approach, envisioning the integration of several shards into a single execution level (L2). This approach combines modular and monolithic architectures, suitable for dapps with intensive data usage.
The second-layer zkSharding will run on zkEVM technology, promising support for a broad range of decentralized applications.
“We are thrilled to finally announce the availability of zkSharding to a broader Ethereum developer community, making it suitable for launching high-load, data-intensive applications such as decentralized sequencers, data availability solutions, exchanges, autonomous worlds, and so on,” said Nil Foundation CEO and co-founder Mikhail Komarov.
The representatives of the startup are confident that zkSharding can ‘safely scale’ the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, delivering throughput of 60,000 TPS and above.
Sharding has long been an integral part of Ethereum’s roadmap, envisaging parallel processing and validation of transactions to reduce user costs and increase operation speeds.
According to the developers, zkSharding combines various architectural principles. The system consists of a main shard, where zero-knowledge proofs authenticate transactions as part of the second-layer construction. Sub-shards serve to increase throughput.
Founded in 2018, Nil Foundation developed the Proof Market protocol. It enables blockchains and L1 and L2 protocols to generate zero-knowledge proofs on demand.
In January, the startup raised $22 million at a valuation of $220 million.