Is the big one finally coming? What is zkPorter, the much-discussed feature in the zkSync community?
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Is the big one finally coming? What is zkPorter, the much-discussed feature in the zkSync community?
After Cancun,迎接福报？
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily
In recent days, speculation has been rife regarding zkSync's imminent token launch and potential airdrop.
Beyond cryptic hints from team members on social media, the biggest "clue" emerged when community members discovered the phrase "zkPorter is available" in Matter Labs' recently updated GitHub repository.
Shortly afterward, Ethereum Daily—boasting over 80,000 followers on X—posted a tweet stating "Ready for ZK Endgame?" citing "zkPorter is available," accompanied by a parachute emoji hinting at an airdrop possibility.
Possibly reacting to keywords like "zkPorter" and "Endgame," zkSync founder Alex Gluchowski subsequently retweeted Ethereum Daily’s post—an action initially interpreted by the community as confirmation of an upcoming airdrop. However, perhaps realizing the misleading implications, Alex later unretweeted the post.
Given these developments, much of the current speculation around a zkSync airdrop centers on zkPorter. But what exactly is zkPorter? And why might its launch be linked to zkSync’s token?
zkPorter was first introduced in August 2020, when Matter Labs proposed this new zkSNARK-based scaling solution designed to achieve greater scalability through more flexible data availability (DA) for Layer 2.
In a 2021 article detailing zkPorter, Matter Labs noted that Rollups offer only linear scalability improvements since all data must still be broadcast to every full node. To accommodate massive user growth, however, the industry needs exponential scalability gains.
To address this, Matter Labs designed zkPorter—a novel scaling solution with security between zkRollup and Optimistic Rollup, capable of achieving over 20,000 TPS—making it the focus of this article.
Like zkSync Era, which uses zkRollup technology, zkPorter is EVM-compatible, allowing seamless interaction between contracts and accounts on both platforms.
The key difference lies in data availability: zkPorter stores DA off-chain (outside Ethereum), removing the constraint of broadcasting data to all full nodes and significantly reducing gas costs—thousands of transactions can be bundled into a single update posted to the mainnet.
Under earlier Layer 2 definitions, zkPorter would fall under the Volition category, making it better suited for high-throughput applications whose economic model doesn't align with Ethereum mainnet or traditional Rollups.
Here comes the critical design element: to ensure stability, zkPorter’s data availability relies on holders of the zkSync token—referred to as Guardians. These Guardians use zkSync tokens to participate in PoS consensus, signing blocks to monitor zkPorter’s state and guarantee data availability for zkPorter accounts.
This is precisely why the community associates the message "zkPorter is available" with rumors of an impending zkSync token launch.
So when will zkPorter actually launch? In a February reply to a community question, Alex indicated it would happen after EIP-4844 activation, as they need to observe how the upgrade affects transaction fees. Given that EIP-4844 (Proto-danksharding) is scheduled for the Dencun upgrade on March 13, zkPorter’s release likely isn’t far behind.
Lastly, it should be emphasized that, like the broader community, we do not know zkSync’s exact token launch or airdrop plans. The timeline mentioned above offers only a rough directional estimate and cannot provide precise predictions.
For security and stability reasons, Matter Labs will proceed only when fully prepared. After EIP-4844, there may still be a period of observation and testing.
The “blessing” will come—just wait patiently.
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