zkSync Era Restores Normal Operations After Network Glitch

zkSync Era, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution and privacy engine, has announced that it has resolved a network glitch that caused delays in withdrawals for some users. The glitch, which occurred on May 2, 2023, was triggered by an automated safety check that failed to generate proofs for some transactions. The zkSync team says the network is now healthy and operating as expected.

What happened?

According to a network update released by the zkSync team, the protocol was not generating proofs for the blocks that were produced for a specific batch. This resulted in a backlog of withdrawals that could not be finalized on the Ethereum mainnet. The team says the issue was caused by a rare edge case that was not covered by their extensive testing.

The team was alerted by their monitoring system and immediately identified the cause and resolved the issue. The team claims that the network glitch did not affect the security or the integrity of the protocol, and that no funds were at risk at any point. The team also says that the glitch did not affect the performance or the availability of the network, and that users could still deposit, transfer, and swap tokens on zkSync Era.

How did the team fix it?

The team says that they fixed the glitch by restarting the prover cluster, which is responsible for generating proofs for the transactions. The team says that this process took about four hours, during which the network was still functional but withdrawals were delayed. The team says that they have implemented a fix that prevents the glitch from happening again, and that they will release a post-mortem of the incident with more details soon.

The team also says that they have contacted the affected users and offered them compensation for the inconvenience caused by the glitch. The team says that they appreciate the patience and the support of the zkSync community, and that they are committed to providing the best user experience possible.

Why is zkSync Era important?

zkSync Era is an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution and privacy engine that launched its alpha mainnet in March 2023. It is based on zkRollup, a technology that aggregates thousands of transactions into a single proof that is verified on the Ethereum mainnet. This allows zkSync Era to achieve high scalability, low fees, and instant finality, while maintaining the security and the decentralization of Ethereum.

zkSync Era also leverages zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic technique that allows users to prove that they have done something without revealing any details about it. This enables zkSync Era to offer privacy features, such as hiding the amounts and the recipients of the transactions, as well as supporting private smart contracts.

zkSync Era is one of the leading layer-2 scaling solutions for Ethereum, with a total value locked (TVL) of over $250 million. It has facilitated over 9 million transactions in the past 30 days, and has attracted many projects and users who want to benefit from its features. Some of the notable projects that have integrated or plan to integrate with zkSync Era include iZUMi Finance, a liquidity-as-a-service protocol that raised $22 million to launch a decentralized exchange (DEX) called iZiSwap Pro on zkSync Era, and CertiK, a security audit platform that blamed zkSync Era’s MerlinDEX hack on private key management.

zkSync Era is also preparing to launch its native token, ZKS, which will be used for governance, staking, and paying fees on the network. The team says that the token will be distributed to the zkSync community through a fair and transparent mechanism, and that more details will be announced soon.