At Numio we are all too aware of the problems caused by high gas fees. The fact is that we won’t see Ethereum as a mainstream payment system until this issue is resolved.
What are the options?
The launch of Ethereum 2.0 will be the biggest upgrade to Etherum to date. The scalability improvements offered by Ethereum 2.0 should result in faster transaction speeds and lower fees for users.
There is one big problem however, it’s not ready.
That’s where Layer 2 comes in, moving transactions off the Ethereum blockchain (Layer 1).
Luckily there are a number of Layer 2 scalability solutions available right now.
- State Channels
- Sidechains
- Plasma
- Optimistic Rollups
- Validium (zkSTARKS)
- zkRollups (zkSnarks)
You can read up on each of the solutions in the links above or get a full comparison on the Matter Labs Blog.
In summary what these solution bring to the table are;
- an increase in transactions per second (TPS)
- a reduction in fees
What did we choose?
Over the past year we have carried out a lot of research and development to find the best fit for Numio products. Each solution has its pros and cons, but in the end we decided to go with zkRollups.
Why zkRollups?
- Gas fees can be bundled together and split between users.
- P2P payments are instant.
- zkRollup account creation is free using our platform.
- Rapid withdrawal to Ethereum Layer 1 (typically 5-15min).
- Transactions are secured by the Ethereum Network.
- It is the most “trustless” scaling solution.
- Funds stored in the zkRollup cannot be stolen by operators.
This has been a very brief overview of the problem and the solution to scaling our forthcoming app. We will shortly be releasing a more detailed article about all the great tech we have integrated into the Numio app.
