Scroll confirms mainnet launch following on-chain indications last week

Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll announced its zkEVM is live on mainnet.

As The Block reported last week, bridge deployment appeared to have begun on Oct. 8, according to the block explorer Etherscan. Over 750 ETH ($1.2 million) has been bridged so far, according to a Dune Analytics dashboard, encompassing more than 1,500 transactions and nearly 1,000 unique users.

zkEVMs are Layer 2 networks built on Ethereum using zero-knowledge proofs for scalability. Being Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible, these networks can support Ethereum applications while running at scale.

The launch follows a two-year testing phase, including its launch on the Ethereum Goerli testnet in February, with 60 team members working alongside a broader network of external contributors. Scroll uses zero-knowledge proofs to compress computation off the base chain, offering enhanced throughput at reduced cost while retaining Ethereum's decentralization and security.

Scroll's most recent testnet on Sepolia saw over 900,000 wallet addresses created, generating more than six million transactions with over 100 projects deployed on Scroll testnets to date, the team said.

Ethereum compatibility

Scroll took the more technically challenging bytecode-level Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible route to build its zkEVM but with the same code currently used for Ethereum applications to make it easier for developers to integrate their existing apps to the Layer 2 network. Among other projects working on zkEVM Layer 2s, Polygon has also taken the same approach, while StarkWare is taking the opposite approach, and zkSync is somewhere in between.

"At Scroll, we take security extremely seriously," Scroll co-founder Haichen Shen said in a statement. "Scroll approaches security holistically, maintaining a dedicated internal security team, fully auditing our codebase with numerous audit firms, and remaining open-source, which we have been since day one."

What’s next?

Scroll said the initial focus would be onboarding infrastructure providers, followed by rolling deployments to onboard developers and, ultimately, new users.

"We see a future where the vast majority of value transfer takes place on Layer 2s on Ethereum. What will drive that adoption is improved user and developer experience," Scroll co-founder Sandy Peng added. "We focus on enabling developers to build blockchain applications that will anchor web3 in real world use cases, attracting new users en masse and moving everyone forward."

The next milestones on Scroll's roadmap are the introduction of a decentralized prover network and decentralized sequencer, combatting key centralized elements of Layer 2 networks currently controlled by the projects' teams.

There is still no confirmation of if, or when, a Scroll token will be launched and distributed.