Author: William M. Peaster

Original source: Bankless

Compilation of the original text: The Way of the Metaverse

Author: William M. Peaster

Original source: Bankless

Compilation of the original text: The Way of the Metaverse

We are bullish on modular blockchains.

This is how Ethereum scales to millions of users while keeping transaction fees cheap. Importantly, we believe this argument will be an important narrative this year.

Layer 2 (L2) is the backbone of the modular blockchain. Polygon, Immutable, Starkware, Optimism, Arbitrum, Aztec, etc. will play a key role in the development of this topic.

It's also one of Ryan's big predictions for the year, dubbed L2'22.

If 2022 is indeed the year of Tier 2, it will be a huge opportunity.

One of the most promising L2 solutions is zkRollups. Some industry leaders call them the holy grail of Ethereum scaling. why?

They have an interesting design feature that gets cheaper the more transactions they process. It upends the blockchain trilemma.

One of the leaders in zkRollups is zkSync. They are in the early stages, but it is highly likely that it will be in full production on mainnet soon.

There is a key phrase in the tweet above: zkSync will be owned by the community. Wondering what that means...

Now is the time to get ahead. This article shows you 5 opportunities you can take advantage of.

• 5 opportunities to use zkSync

• zkSync is one of Ethereum's most promising scaling solutions utilizing zkRollup technology. With the crypto economy trending towards rollups, and zkSync moving towards decentralized governance, the time is ripe to take advantage of this rising L2.

This Bankless strategy will show you some projects you can try out on zkSync right now.

Goal: Learn 5 different ways to use zkSync

ROI: Building Your Cryptocurrency Skill Tree + Future Token Airdrops

Use zkSync

zkSync is a Layer 2 (L2) scaling solution designed to make Ethereum transactions cheap and near-instant.

Built by Matter Labs, zkSync belongs to a class of L2 called zkRollups. This means that zkSync uses "zero-knowledge" cryptographic proofs to efficiently batch and verify Ethereum transactions by publishing batches of data "on-chain" to Ethereum through zkSync while executing transactions outside of the Ethereum base layer. (The modular design works!)

The design of zkRollup leads to something rather magical in that through network effects, zkSync becomes cheaper for users as activity on its network increases. This reality is in stark contrast to traditional blockchains, which become more expensive as the demand for their block space grows. So you can understand why a resource like zkSync is very promising as a prospect for scaling Ethereum.

Today, zkSync is the 10th largest L2 by total value locked, with a TVL of $71 million, according to analytics site L2BEAT. This number is expected to grow as zkSync continues to advance in features and functionality, and as more and more users begin migrating to zkRollups for a better user experience and cheaper transactions.

The upcoming zkSync token will also undoubtedly attract more liquidity and utility to zkSync. However, Matter Labs has stated that they will release tokens in a deliberate and steady manner, so its arrival may still be several months away.

In the meantime, by using zkSync, we can start to gain L2 experience and prepare for the future. This does not guarantee that you will make money. But being on the cutting edge always pays off.

There are 5 possible opportunities to consider

1. Use the Argent wallet

Argent is the leading social recovery wallet. It lets you pick out "guardians" who can help you update to a new key if you ever lose access to your wallet signing key and maintain your wallet indefinitely.

This type of system is ideal for both newcomers and veterans of cryptocurrencies, as it offers users strong security and more flexibility than traditional cryptocurrency wallet offerings.

That said, Argent gives us a glimpse into the future of crypto wallets. More importantly, it combines its social recovery system with fast and low-cost L2 execution capabilities using zkSync.

So if you want to try zkSync, I think Argent is a good user-friendly gateway.

How to create a zkSync wallet with Argent

Whenever you create an Argent wallet or open an existing one, you will now see an L1 Ethereum account (i.e. "Argent Vault") and a zkSync account, so the first step is to fund your zkSync account.

At this point, you can go straight to L2. There is no need to send assets to L1, and no need to pay expensive L1 activation fees, only a $2.5 zkSync account setup fee. Sure, create and prep your L1 Argent Vault first, but you deposit directly into zkSync and probably save +$100 in fees.

You can do this by pressing the "Receive" button in your zkSync account, at which point you can buy cryptocurrency through Ramp, or receive funds from other Ethereum wallets or zkSync wallets. Execute the program to your liking and your zkSync account on Argent will be funded.

Now you're ready to explore early in-app L2 investing and staking opportunities like Yearn Vaults or staking ETH with Lido. Press "Invest" to see the available options and you're ready to go.

2. Trade on ZigZag

ZigZag Exchange, a decentralized order book exchange, has quickly gained fame as the first DEX to run on zkSync. So if you want to trade on zkSync at an early stage, then ZigZag is the center of the action right now.

warn! This exchange is currently unaudited, proceed with caution!

While it’s still early days, the up-and-comer has plans to do a lot of things like a native bridge UI, fast withdrawals to Ethereum, limit orders, and fiat on-ramp via Banxa. Additionally, the project is developing permissionless matching lists, NFT marketplaces, and more.

If you’re interested in trying ZigZag but feel overwhelmed by the order book UI, consider trying the exchange’s new Argent integration.

If you set up a zkSync account with Argent, you can press the "Trade" button and trade through ZigZag's simplified UI. Currently supported assets include ETH, DAI, FRAX, USDC, USDT and WBTC.

3. Donate on Gitcoin

Every quarter Gitcoin hosts Gitcoin Grants, a donation-driven event where Ethereum community members can donate to fund open-source Web 3 projects. Gitcoin is unique in that all donations are matched through Quadratic Funding (QF).

Over the past few years, Gitcoin Grants have proven to be a massive collective force. The project is also notable because it has been supporting donations via zkSync since 2020. This is support for earlier zkRollups.

If you want to donate to a project via Gitcoin, you can do so at any time without waiting for the next round of Gitcoin Grants (although there is no secondary funding).

Simply head over to Gitcoin, press "Add to Cart" on the item you want, and when you're ready to checkout, select the "Checkout with zkSync" option and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note that for now if you want to make an L2 Gitcoin donation, you must first set up a wallet through the main zkSync website.

4. Use zkNFT to create NFT

Another app you can try if you create a wallet through the main zkSync website is the NFT platform zkNFT.

Created by Sudoswap creator 0xmons, zkNFT is a proof-of-concept alpha version, so treat the platform as an experiment. But at the same time, kNFT has done a good job of highlighting how zkSync’s early NFT API works, so we can use it to get a first feel for zkSync’s early NFT scenarios.

The platform lets you affordably mint, manage, and exchange zkSync NFTs. The Mint dashboard is where you finalize token metadata, which will then be pinned to IPFS via the nft.storage project.

Before diving in, keep in mind that zkSync NFTs have unique nuances, such as becoming "final" within a few hours of minting. 0xmons gives a good overview of some of the major nuances in this zkNFT introduction article, so make sure you understand the important concepts here to avoid confusion.

5. Bridging cryptocurrencies with LayerSwap

Under the hood, LayerSwap leverages the fact that transactions between CEX accounts are free and instant for many venues. Once LayerSwap receives your transaction, they use the L2 liquidity pool to quickly and cheaply deposit your funds into zkSync.

in conclusion

Currently, supported assets include ETH and USDT, and supported CEXs include Binance, Coinbase, FTX, Huobi, KuCoin, and OKEx.

Note that LayerSwap’s liquidity can currently only facilitate transfers of up to 0.15 ETH, though this limit should be lifted over time, especially if the project follows its liquidity mining plan.

in conclusion

The cryptocurrency economy is moving in the direction of zkRollups. They hold great promise and will help bring Ethereum-based transactions to millions, if not billions, of users in the coming years.

While it's clear that the zkRollup ecosystem is still in its early stages, it can be seen that zkSync is a bright early star in the scene, showing the beginnings of what zkRollups can do.