Aztec 2.0 is both a scaling and a privacy solution rolled into one.
Aztec, a privacy protocol developing on Ethereum,
announced on Monday the launch of its second iteration, promising
private transactions and smart contracts while being cheaper than
standard transfers.
The layer two solution
adopted by Aztec relies on zkRollups, similar to Loopring or ZkSync.
All these protocols rely on zero knowledge proofs to help Ethereum
scale, but come with different benefits and focused use cases.
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,
in comparison, makes a heavy focus on privacy while still allowing a
certain degree of scalability. The team says that the rollup can reach
300 transactions per second while allowing shielded ERC-20 token
transactions and private interactions with decentralized finance
protocols. 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.
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. As Cointelegraph highlighted
earlier, privacy always carries a performance cost.
Tom Walton-Pocock, the CEO of Aztec, told Cointelegraph that its limit
primarily has to do with potential mass exits: "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."
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.
"The main purpose of Noir is to incorporate data privacy," Walton-Pocock
said. The rollup also features social recovery by default, and has
several usability benefits like human-readable accounts.
The
network is currently live on the Ropsten testnet with no specific
indications as to its mainnet release, though Walton-Pocock alluded to a
launch before the end of the year.
Layer two technologies are often seen as the next step in Ethereum evolution, allowing to carry some of the burden off the main network while sharding is still being developed.
Competition is fierce in this segment, with the first solutions like OMG Network’s Plasma having reached production.
Smart contracts on layer two, which could help DeFi scale, have still
largely eluded developers. Solutions like Optimistic Rollups and some
types of zkRollups are poised to solve that problem, but are still
relatively far off from a full launch.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/aztec-launches-private-smart-contracts-as-ethereum-rollup
