Matter Labs has introduced its pending testnet launch – a brand new layer 3 Ethereum scaling prototype referred to as ‘Pathfinder,’ which will probably be launched within the first quarter of 2023 and will transform the primary Layer 3 community constructed on the Ethereum blockchain.
Matter Labs is the Ethereum improvement agency behind zkSync, a Layer 2 scaling community on Ethereum that’s set to launch later this month.
A layer 2 community is constructed and related to the bottom layer (Ethereum). It improves scalability, enabling it to course of extra transactions at a decrease price.
In Matter Labs’ newest Medium weblog put up, the agency introduced its layer 3 launch, described because the “path in the direction of unlocking limitless scalability and customization.”
This Layer 3 community will amplify all the advantages of Layer 2 and allow limitless scaling with limitless customization.
“With zkSync’s Layer 3 resolution, builders will have the ability to select from 3 information availability choices all utilizing the identical proving infrastructure for his or her mission. Builders can select their very own trade-offs between worth, efficiency, and safety,” mentioned Matter Labs within the announcement.
The agency additional said that their Layer 2 resolution, zkSync, is there to offer the mandatory basis for the scaling of Ethereum within the ecosystem with out devaluing its safety or decentralization. However past that, it’s their imaginative and prescient that limitless scalability, and in consequence, mass adoption comes from Layer 3 and past.
Moreover, Matter Labs defined that the layer 3 resolution, Pathfinder, will change non-native bridges with native bridges (or “HyperBridges”) and allow native bridging between blockchains.
Native bridging is transferring tokens from one blockchain to a different with out locking or giving tokens to an middleman ‘escrow’ bridging platform.
As soon as zkSync lastly launches its layer 3 community, it may resolve one of many trade’s essential ache factors, as billions of {dollars} have been stolen by means of exploits of non-native bridges between Layer 1 and layer 2 blockchains previously 12 months.
Final week, the crypto trade witnessed one other on-chain hack, with roughly $100 million of Binance Coin (BNB) stolen after an exploit occurred on a bridge between blockchains.
In line with figures from blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis, a complete of $2 billion has been misplaced to breaches on cross-chain bridges this 12 months.
With this huge amount of cash misplaced to breaches on cross-chain bridges, a Layer 3 community like Pathfinder, which allows the act of native bridging, could possibly be simply what the trade must keep away from these bridge hacks.
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