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bitcoin startup Chainway has taken a significant step into the space with the introduction of the first ethereum virtual machine (EVM) transaction in bitcoin. This is part of Chainway’s ongoing efforts to implement ZK rollups on bitcoin, a move that may offer improved scalability and privacy features for bitcoin.
Chainway’s recent demo serves as a proof of concept, illustrating how its future ZK rollup is intended to work when integrated with bitcoin. This integration seeks to combine the flexibility and programmability commonly associated with EVM and the robust security infrastructure inherent to bitcoin.
Digging deeper into the mechanics, rollups work by grouping transactions that occur off-chain, bundling them together, and then publishing this consolidated batch to the bitcoin blockchain. This process significantly optimizes computational efficiency while benefiting from the fundamental security of the bitcoin network.
The inclusion of the zero-knowledge or ‘ZK’ variant in rollups introduces a layer of cryptographic privacy. Zero-knowledge proofs allow you to confirm the veracity of a transaction without having to reveal its specific details. With ZK proofs built in, the system not only maintains the privacy of transactions but also ensures mathematical certainty, rooted directly in the bitcoin infrastructure.
The basis of Chainway’s approach is a synthesis of zero-knowledge proofs with the Ordinals protocol. The Chainway rollup is designed to publish L2 state proofs and represent a consolidated set of transactions. Through a meticulous process, Chainway’s ZK circuit will scan each bitcoin block, extract proof of the previous state for verification, and incorporate user-driven transaction envelopes into the current batch.
A noteworthy aspect of Chainway’s initiative is its execution layer, powered by EVM, a feature familiar to those familiar with the ethereum ecosystem. The Chainway team has successfully integrated the EVM into a ZK-STARK-based virtual machine, resulting in the creation of zkEVM. This new architecture is designed to produce zero-knowledge proofs for rollup state transitions, ensuring both transactional transparency and privacy. Furthermore, the Chainway rollup is developed to be fully compatible with EVM, suggesting that tools and utilities familiar in the ethereum ecosystem, such as Metamask, could be integrated seamlessly.
Comparing Chainway’s summary to existing EVM sidechains provides clear distinctions. Notably, the Chainway rollup works without relying on a separate network of nodes. It is built directly on top of the bitcoin infrastructure. In contrast, current sidechains leave no real footprint on bitcoin and, as such, their transactions cannot be validated simply by examining the bitcoin blockchain.
Chainway’s efforts to integrate ethereum‘s EVM with bitcoin‘s infrastructure represent a thoughtful and considered approach to improving bitcoin‘s potential functionalities. Aiming to merge the flexibility of ethereum with the security of bitcoin, Chainway’s potential implementation of ZK rollups on bitcoin could signal a new phase in the space.
While a soft fork would be necessary to unlock the full capabilities of a ZK package on bitcoin (i.e. a true, trustless linking mechanism between the rollup and on-chain bitcoin), this approach seems to strike a good balance between ideal and what it is. possible without any change in bitcoin. In fact, this advancement could already be quite useful for tokens based on untrusted Ordinals, such as BRC-20s.
