🧞Rollup with AI security: How Zircuit will conquer Web3 with it

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Jun 24, 2024

GM and happy Monday frens🖖

Web3 has great problems with security - almost every week there is another big hack.

Zircuit is trying to solve it with its security-aligned rollup of the same name. It uses AI security on the sequencer level and EVM-compatible zero-knowledge architecture.

We talked with Zircuit's co-founder about its tech and the L2 landscape in general.

So today's newsletter is about:

🪩 Must-see events
👮 Rollup focused on security
📰 This week's news

⛓️L2con is in 2 weeks!

Gain insights into Layer 2s building with keynotes like:

"Foundation Horizontal Scalability for Ethereum" - Avi Zurlo, Chief Product Officer @ nil; Foundation
"Preventing Hacks in Practice Using Sequencer-level Security" - Dr. Martin Derka, Co-Founder @ Zircuit
"Privacy Scales Better – Build New Things with Off-chain State and Execution" - Dominik Schmid, Product Manager @ Polygon Miden
"What is Block Packing and How Does it Give Scalability" - Liron Hayman, Head of BD @ Starknet / Starkware
"Boba Network Supercomputer in Your Dapps - How to Supercharge Your Dapps with Offchain AI" - Alan Chiu, Co-founder @Boba Network & CEO @ Enya Labs

And 15 more keynotes with 5 panel discussion...

Last free 50 tickets left! Register now!

📅July 9, Brussels, EthCC

🥩Option for restaking fans

We've already got speakers from 10 different companies confirmed for Restaking & Infra Day, including Eigen, Picasso, Etherfi, Zetta Block, Trust, SSV Network, 1inch!

There will be keynotes, workshops and panel discussions focused on the current restaking solutions as well as future developments and other infrastructural technologies that are essential for any restaking solutions!

🗓July 8, Brussels

Get me a ticket

👨🏻‍💻 dAGI House AI x Web3 Hackathon powered by cyber•Fund

Less than a month until the hackathon, where we'll build autonomous agents, interfaces for on-chain interactions, natural language or voice-enabled intents for wallet tasks, and use AI to enhance security and automate auditing. Join us right before EthCC to bring your ideas to life, win a share of the $100K prize pool, and launch your product.

Get ready for the main event in Brussels by joining our pre-conference online meet-ups.

More info here

🤿Deep-dive: The future of Rollups

Zircuit is a modular zk rollup with AI-enabled security at the sequencer level. Their main focuses are:

Pioneering Research
Security at the Sequencer Level
Secure Native Bridge
Cutting-Edge Performance
Ethereum Application Compatibility

We discussed the L2 landscape and the future of tech with their co-founder Dr.Martin Decka.

The full version is here

What's the future of L2 landscape?

Many trends follow a sine wave. One day we are closer to the landscape that is very fragmented and everybody wants to have their own rollup. Then people look at that and think that this is actually maybe not the best thing because we have other issues that come from fragmenting the liquidity.

The question is how many rollups do we really need? As many as the community currently desires. This is a very open space.

If I right now can come and develop a network because I have a better idea, I can attract the interest of the users better than everybody else, then clearly there is space in the universe for my network to exist. If I can retain this interest, then my network will exist. The moment when nobody cares, when all transactions fizzle out, the traction disappears, then nobody cares about my network. And this network will not survive much longer. So it is the interest and the traction that the networks are capable to receive. And that is going to dictate the number.

What's the difference between working in service in product company?

When providing security audits for projects and smart contracts and similar things, we were always on the provider end. Now we are on the receiving end and the stakes are different.

This is actually why we have the separation between the auditors and the builders. Many builders will actually tell that they're capable of doing the security audit themselves, because they know the nitty-gritty of Ethereum. But you essentially have to be carrying completely different mindsets.

When you are a developer, you're trying to build things. Sometimes you cut corners. Sometimes it can be with very good intentions because you actually needed a mock of some service running so that you can develop against it and test against it. And sometimes that gets left behind, but in the end, you are trying to make things happen. You are trying to build stuff that did not exist before.

When you are a security auditor, your mindset is completely different. Somebody gives you a code and they make some claims about this code. And your task is exactly the opposite. You want to rip it apart and break it. You essentially are assuming that everything in here is wrong and you want to prove this other person that everything is wrong. And only under such circumstances, you are actually doing your job properly as a security auditor or researcher. And so this is the main difference in the mindset

Why did Zircuit chose to do a hybrid Zk-OP tech?

Think about yourself trying to build a rollup right now. You will need a lot of services to form this rollup. You need something for sequencing transactions. Then, you clump them together into batches and record them on the data availability layer. This layer, defined by Optimism Bedrock, is read by your sequencer to re-derive the state, ensuring no discrepancy between published data and the current state.

Next, you need to record the state on L1 using smart contracts, which fulfill either verification in zero knowledge or hold the state for challenges in optimistic settings. Additionally, you need a way to provide native assets, like Ether, on L2. This typically involves locking L1 assets in a bridge and minting L2 Eth against them.

These generic features are implemented in the OP stack, a framework by Optimism Labs for developing rollups. We used this as our starting point but had to replace the optimistic parts with zero-knowledge components. We modified existing zero-knowledge EVMs to work with this adjusted framework.

This process requires addressing additional operational concerns, such as proving performance and infrastructure. It's a complex task, but we've managed to integrate these components into a functioning rollup.

You can network with Martin during "Ask Builders" at L2con. He will answer your questions about: