Recently, affected by profit-taking selling pressure such as Grayscale ETF, Bitcoin has experienced a certain short-term retracement, most mainstream coins in the market have experienced a certain correction, and the market as a whole is in a consolidation stage. However, according to the Bitui market, MANTA has increased by 50.29% in the past seven days, bucking the trend and rising quite eye-catchingly. So, why is MANTA so strong? What are the advantages of MANTA's ZkEVM path? Compared with Op, ARB, etc., what is the development prospect of Manta ecosystem?
Manta's rise against the trend is essentially a prelude to the rise of the ZK series
L2beat data shows that Manta Pacific TVL exceeded US$1.7 billion and is currently the third largest Layer 2 ecosystem. According to Analytix data, the number of transactions on the Manta Pacific chain exceeds 11.44 million, with 537,000 wallet addresses, 519,000 active addresses, and 1,000 verified smart contracts deployed in ecological projects. Why can Manta rise rapidly in a short period of time?
In essence, the rise of Manta is a head-on confrontation between the ZK Rollup system Layer 2 and the Optimistic Rollup system. Technically, Rollup executes transactions outside Layer1, but publishes transaction data on Layer1. Depending on the effectiveness of compressed data (that is, data correctness), Rollup can be divided into two types: Optimistic Rollup and ZK Rollup.
Compared with the ZK Rollup solution, Optimistic Rollup is easier to implement in the short term, mainly because it has greater portability, which further promotes its first-mover advantage. Currently, the leading projects based on Optimistic Rollup include Optimism and Arbitrum. These two Layer 2 projects have issued tokens and have initially formed a first-mover advantage. In contrast, projects based on ZK Rollup such as zkSync have slower development progress. Compared with Optimistic Rollup, ZK Rollup is stronger in ensuring data availability. This means that anyone can restore the overall status of the account based on the transaction data stored on the chain, thus avoiding security risks caused by data unavailability. Different from Optimistic Rollup, ZK Rollup solves the problem of long withdrawal period through mathematical reliability proof. In terms of technical security, it is almost equivalent to Layer1 (Ethereum main chain), and deposit and withdrawal operations can be performed immediately according to user needs, which is the biggest advantage of ZK Rollup.
Before Manta, the encryption market was still dominated by the narrative of the Op series, but with the launch of the Manta network, this pattern is changing. Manta is currently a Layer 2 solution with ZkEVM, and it is also the first modular Layer 2 with multiple dazzling labels integrated into one. Behind its strong rise is essentially the prelude to the rise of the Zk series and its competition with the Op series. From a technical point of view, the market is more optimistic about the Zk series Layer 2. Due to the previous sluggish technological development, the market lacked a Zk series narrative, but now the market is changing.
Why Manta Pacific can overtake zkSync in corners
As the first Ethereum Layer 2 network with ZkEVM, how will Manta’s technological journey be realized? How to overtake in corners and implement zkSync, which has been well known to the market for a long time?
Manta Network actually has two networks: Manta Pacific and Manta Atlantic. Manta Pacific is a Layer 2 network with ZkEVM on Ethereum, and Manta Atlantic is a ZK L1 chain on Polkadot. This article focuses on Manta Network’s Manta Pacific network.
Manta Pacific mainnet uses zkEVM to achieve maximum performance, scalability and user security by using Polygon CDK and Celestia’s Data Availability (DA). From the Manta Pacific roadmap, it can be divided into four parts: Manta Pacific Alpha (Ethereum L2), Manta Pacific Alpha II (+Celestia DA), Manta Pacific Beta (+ transition to zkEVM), Manta Pacific production-level mainnet I(+Universal Circuits 2.0).
Manta Pacific Alpha (Ethereum L2) is an Optimistic Rollup based on Ethereum. By leveraging the Universal Circuits of the Manta network, developers can quickly build, test and deploy support for ZK (zero-knowledge) using only Solidity and Universal Circuits SDK. Proof) application. In the Manta Pacific Alpha II (+Celestia DA) phase, Manta Pacific will achieve data expansion by integrating Celestia’s modular data availability (DA), significantly reducing the gas costs for users to interact with dApps within the Manta Pacific ecosystem. During the Manta Pacific Beta (+ transition to zkEVM) phase, it fully transitioned to zkEVM by leveraging Polygon CDK. In the Manta Pacific production-level mainnet I (+ Universal Circuit 2.0) stage, Manta Pacific upgraded the universal circuit to achieve lower gas costs and support more use cases.
The initial total supply of MANTA tokens is 1 billion MANTA, and an additional 2% will be issued every year starting from the initial issuance of the tokens. MANTA token holders can vote on Manta Pacific and Manta Atlantic network governance decisions. MANTA In the Manta Pacific network, token holders can benefit from gas fee savings on sequencer revenue and modular DA (data availability). The initial capital income of the sequencer belongs to the Manta Foundation and is used for redistribution. Future funds may directly belong to the protocol through the sale of participation rights in the Manta decentralized ordering network.
Op system ecology has just begun to take shape, Zk system still needs to work hard
Although the recent development of Manta is eye-catching, the Op series has initially formed an ecological advantage due to its first-mover advantage. The competition between the Zk series and the Op series requires further observation.
Optimism develops horizontally, and Op Stack expands its territory. Hyperchain is a newer concept proposed by Optimism, which seeks to integrate the originally isolated L2 into a single interoperable and composable system by maintaining the OP Stack code base as a public product. In this process, the concept of blockchain itself can become abstract, and this interoperable blockchain network can be regarded as a unit, such as a store, and each Op chain can be regarded as a commodity, that is, " "Interchangeable computing resources", each Op chain is required to be built by OP Stack and managed by Optimism Collective. Optimism Collective is similar to an operating system, coordinating the resource allocation of various applications (Op chain). There are currently many Layer 2s built using Op Stack, among which the well-known ones include Base, opBNB, Zora Network, DeBank Chain, etc. Arbitrum goes deep vertically to create a Layer 3 ecological layout. Faced with Optimism's active expansion of the OP Stack Layer 2 market, Arbitrum chose to vertically enter the third-layer blockchain in the gaming field. This highly customized strategy not only significantly improves performance, but also better meets the needs of game users. As a strategic move of Arbitrum, the recently popular Xai has injected strong growth momentum into it and is expected to open up new growth space. In addition, XPET has been hot recently, which is a socialfi + gamefi project on the Arbitrum chain. It requires players to feed and accompany their pets and ensure their survival, thereby helping players earn token rewards.
The Zk series is ready to go, and the blockchain application side will explode.
Due to the high technical difficulty, most Zk series Layer 2 is still not online yet. According to L2Beat data, there are 26 ZK-Rollup solutions among 65 Rollup projects, while year-on-year, there are only 21 OP-Rollup projects. In the ZK-Rollup solution, Scroll, Taiko, etc. pursue the ultimate EVM equivalence, aiming to improve compatibility with the Ethereum main network; zkSync and Starknet pursue the comprehensive expansion capabilities of the chain, trying to improve transaction processing speed and throughput. The main network increases incremental users; Aztec focuses on solving transaction privacy issues through ZK. However, whether it is Zk-based Layer 2 or Op-based Layer 2, with the maturity and diversification of blockchain technology, it will eventually promote the explosion of the application side.
