Aztec, a privacy protocol developing on Ethereum, has announced the launch of its second iteration, promising private transactions and smart contracts while being cheaper than standard transfers.
It has been reported that the layer two solution adopted by Aztec relies on zkRollups, similar to Loopring or ZkSync.
However, all these protocols rely on zero-knowledge proofs to help the Ethereum scale but come with different benefits and focused use-cases.
According to the report, Loopring focuses on the decentralized exchange experience, while ZkSync aims to be a generalized layer two protocol that could boost Ethereum’s transaction throughput.
Aztec launched the testnet for its privacy-enabled rollup, featuring private smart contracts and a much higher throughput than mainnet, @shvandrew report. https://t.co/92aXdVDJOO — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 12, 2020
In comparison, Aztec makes a heavy focus on privacy while still allowing a certain degree of scalability.
The team said that the rollup can reach 300 transactions per second while allowing shielded ERC-20 token transactions and private interactions with decentralized finance protocols, as users would be able to trade on Uniswap and other exchanges as part of a pooled contract, similar to how it works in Incognito, a cross-chain privacy protocol.
Likewise, the stated throughput is a far cry from potential figures on other zkRollup solutions, but it is still well above Ethereum’s maximum theoretical throughput of 40 transactions per second.
Tom Walton-Pocock, the CEO of Aztec, said that its limit primarily has to do with potential mass exits.
He added:
“In order to guarantee that users can withdraw from our rollup, all of the encrypted data generated by a transaction must be posted on chain as call data.”
Also, one of the innovations introduced by Aztec is Noir, a private smart contract language. This could let developers send private transactions and use on-chain cryptographic routines while benefiting from privacy.
Walton-Pocock said:
“The main purpose of Noir is to incorporate data privacy.”
The rollup also features social recovery by default, and has several usability benefits like human-readable accounts.
Moreover, the network is currently LIVE on the Ropsten testnet with no specific indications as to its mainnet release, though Walton-Pocock alluded to launch before the end of the year.
Thus, layer two technologies are often seen as the next step in Ethereum evolution by allowing carrying some of the burdens off the main network while sharding is still being developed.
Source: Cointelegraph