TL;DR

• OP Succinct’s key feature is its ability to incorporate zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) into the modular design of OP Stack, transforming OP Stack Rollup into a fully verified ZK Rollup.
• If the future goal for Ethereum’s expansion is to convert all Rollups into ZK Rollups, OP Succinct’s mission is to merge Rust and SP1 to deploy OP Stack’s Type-1 zkEVM, which is fully compatible with Ethereum.
• The OP Succinct Proposer is responsible for generating proofs in parallel and aggregating and verifying them.
• The current OP Stack system uses a “7-day fraud prevention window,” which delays transaction verification for a week if disputes occur. OP Succinct leverages ZK proofs to reduce the time needed to finalize transactions, removing the requirement for an extended fraud prevention period.
• OP Succinct has the potential to greatly lower transaction costs.

1. Recent Overview: Current Status of OP Mainnet and the Roles of OP Stack and OP Labs

Source: Blockscout

1.1 Recent Developments of OP Mainnet

As of March 30, 2024, OP Labs announced the release of “fault proof” on the OP Sepoila testnet, with an official launch on OP Mainnet on June 11, 2024. This marks a significant step towards decentralization, enabling users to withdraw ETH and ERC-20 tokens from OP Mainnet without relying on a trusted third party. Users can now challenge and invalidate incorrect withdrawals (including those from Base, Metal, Mode, and Zora).

To enhance the safety and trust of user assets, Optimism uses fault proof to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of on-chain transactions and to prevent malicious activities. The key principles are:

• Data Availability: Fault proof ensures that all data on Layer 2 is accessible and can be verified by Layer 1.
• Challenge Period: During a designated challenge period, anyone can dispute the data on Layer 2. If discrepancies are found between Layer 2 and Layer 1 data, a challenge can be raised.

If a dispute arises, the Layer 2 operator must provide proof to counter the challenge and confirm the accuracy of their data.

Finality: If no valid disputes are raised during the challenge period, or if the Layer 2 operator successfully addresses the challenges, the transaction is finalized and considered valid.

1.2 The Relationship and Differences between OP Stack and OP Labs

OP Labs is the team responsible for developing Optimism solutions, while OP Stack is the technical framework that supports the construction and scaling of Ethereum’s Layer 2 network. You can think of OP Labs as the developers and OP Stack as their set of tools.

● OP Labs:

OP Labs is a core contributor to the Optimism project, responsible for developing and maintaining the Optimism Layer 2 solution. It is a team or organization focused on building and improving technical tools related to Ethereum scaling, such as Optimistic Rollups. The primary goal of OP Labs is to alleviate the load on the Ethereum mainnet through Layer 2 scaling solutions, reducing transaction costs and increasing transaction speeds.

OP Labs also collaborates with other projects, such as Succinct Labs, to further advance Ethereum scaling technology, focusing on the optimization of zero-knowledge proofs with initiatives like OP Succinct.

OP Labs is the main team or organization responsible for developing and maintaining the Optimism network. Their goal is to create an efficient solution for scaling Ethereum, concentrating on lowering transaction fees and increasing transaction speeds. They are not only responsible for the development of Optimistic Rollups but are also actively promoting new technologies related to zero-knowledge proofs, such as OP Succinct in collaboration with Succinct Labs.

● OP Stack:

OP Stack is a modular architecture or technology stack used for building and scaling Ethereum Layer 2 networks. It consists of multiple customizable components that allow developers to create their own Layer 2 chains based on specific needs. It provides a standardized approach that enables developers to quickly establish Layer 2 scaling networks that meet particular requirements.

OP Stack is a modular framework developed by OP Labs. This framework provides the infrastructure for building Layer 2 networks, allowing developers to quickly create various scaling networks using OP Stack. Due to its modular design, OP Stack enables users to flexibly choose different validation mechanisms (such as Optimistic Rollups or ZK Rollups) to meet the specific needs of different projects.

OP Labs can be understood as the developer of OP Stack, which is a set of technical tools provided by OP Labs to assist developers in building and scaling Ethereum’s Layer 2 networks.

Before diving into OP Succinct, it’s important to understand the four main components of OP Stack:

1. op-geth: This component retrieves transactions from users, generates blocks from these transactions, and executes them.
2. op-batcher: It batches user transactions and submits them to Layer 1 (L1).
3. op-node: This reads batch data from Layer 1 and drives op-geth for state transitions in a non-sequencer mode.
4. op-proposer: Regularly publishes output roots to Layer 1 to capture Layer 2 (L2) states, facilitating the withdrawal process.

2. Collaboration between Succinct Labs and OP Labs to Integrate ZK Elements into OP Stack

Source: Succinct Blog

2.1Structure of OP Succinct

Referring back to the end of section 1.2, which discusses “the four main components of OP Stack,” OP Succinct is a lightweight enhancement to OP Stack. It allows the chain to utilize only blocks that have been verified using zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), while the other three components (op-geth, op-batcher, and op-node) remain unchanged. OP Succinct is primarily composed of the following four elements:

• Range Program: This program, written in Rust, is designed to execute batch blocks within zkVM.
• Aggregation Program: Also written in Rust, this program aggregates the proofs generated by the Range Program to lower the costs of on-chain verification and is intended to run in zkVM.
• OP Succinct L2 Output Oracle: This is a Solidity smart contract that holds an array of L2 state outputs, with each output representing a submission of the L2 chain state. While this contract already exists in the original Optimism system, it has been modified to use verification proofs as a method of authentication.
• OP Succinct Proposer: This component monitors the batches of transactions published on L1 and manages the proofs for both the Range Program and the Aggregation Program.

2.2 What Narrative Does OP Succinct Present for Ethereum Scaling?

Creating a zkEVM Rollup is a significant challenge due to the extensive cryptographic knowledge required. The OP Labs team took this into account while building the modular OP Stack, ensuring it supports various validity mechanisms. They developed an open-source project called Kona (see extended link 1), which implements the State Transition Function (STF) for OP Stack Rollup using Rust. This innovation enables the generation of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) for OP Stack through Kona and the SP1 program, theoretically allowing all chains in OP Stack to be upgraded to use ZKP.

The SP1 (Succinct Processor 1) aims to enable any developer to easily integrate Type-1 zkEVM Rollup using standard Rust code. With OP Succinct, upgrading any existing OP Stack chain to a Type-1 zkEVM Rollup can be accomplished in just one hour, providing the necessary high performance for applications. This approach offers several benefits:

• Fast ZKP Confirmation: Proof delays can be reduced to just a few minutes, replacing the lengthy 7-day fraud proof challenge period.
• Cost Efficiency: The average transaction cost can be lowered to just a few cents.
• Transitioning OP Stack to ZK: By deploying a single smart contract and initiating a lightweight OP Succinct proposer service (as detailed below), proofs can be generated through API calls (including components like batchers/sorters, op-node, indexers, etc.).
• Type-1 zkEVM Compatibility: All tools and smart contracts compatible with OP Stack Rollup will also work with OP Succinct Rollup.
• Improved Scalability: The customizable OP Succinct rollup allows for new precompiles to be added and Rollup logic to be modified.

According to the official GitHub documentation, upgrading any existing OP Stack Rollup to a Type-1 zkEVM Rollup is simple: install Rust, Foundry, and Docker, and follow these two steps: 1. Deploy the ZK L2OutputOracle.sol contract; 2. Launch the OP Succinct proposer service (more details can be found in GitHub extended link 2).

Upgrading OP Stack Rollup to ZK Proofs; Image Source: Succinct Blog

2.3 Building Type-1 zkEVM with SP1 Reth

Succinct envisions that the future of EVM Rollups will involve maintainable zkEVMs developed using Rust. Currently, OP Rollup is confronted with three significant challenges: the extended 7-day fraud proof window, complex interoperability issues, and reliance on multiple data sources instead of fraud proofs in certain cases. Additionally, the creation of a zkEVM is a lengthy process, which led to the development of SP1 to tackle these problems.

SP1 is a high-performance, fully open-source zkVM that can verify the execution of any program written in Rust (or other LLVM-compiled languages). Public data indicates that the OP Succinct Stack has successfully run on OP Mainnet, OP Sepolia, and Base chains, achieving proof costs between $0.01 and $0.02 for Ethereum transactions (see extended link 3). There are aspirations to develop all blockchain infrastructure (including Rollups, bridges, and co-processors) using Rust (or other LLVM-compiled languages) and leverage ZKP in the future.

According to summaries from the Succinct blog and open-source GitHub content, the performance differences between SP1 and other zkVMs can be attributed to several key factors:

1. Precompile-Centric Architecture: SP1 features a flexible precompile system that significantly speeds up various operations (like secp256k1 and ed25519 signature verification, as well as sha256 and keccak256 hash functions), reducing the cycle count for many programs by 5-10 times. The design aims to deliver performance on par with ZK circuits while preserving the flexibility of zkVM and ensuring a positive developer experience.
2. Completely Open Source: SP1 is entirely open-source, enabling teams such as Argument and Scroll to implement custom precompiles, which can greatly lower cycle counts and accelerate proof generation times.
3. Industry Standard: Since its introduction, the concept of internal precompiles within zkVMs has become an industry standard, being adopted in projects like RISC0, Valida, Nexus, and Jolt. SP1 stands out as the only production-ready zkVM that broadly supports essential cryptographic operations through precompiles.
4. Efficient Memory Operations: SP1 utilizes an innovative memory proof technique that employs a single challenge to ensure consistent memory across multiple proofs, eliminating the overhead associated with Merkleized memory.
5. Basic Efficiency Optimizations: It incorporates a lower blow-up factor and next-generation lookup parameters (e.g., LogUp based on logarithmic derivatives), along with a FRI variant in Plonky3, enhancing the efficiency of tracking areas.

Image source: Succinct blog, see extended link 4 appendix description

3. Can OP Succinct Become the Key Advantage of OP Stack Against ZK Stack?

Image source author: @jtguibas

If we consider Ethereum’s scaling solutions as leaning towards OP in the short term and ZK in the long term, then, assuming OP Succinct is successful, it will mark a significant milestone in Ethereum’s development. OP Succinct provides a pathway for ETH Rollups to transition from optimistic verification to zero-knowledge proofs. This transition not only lowers transaction costs but also enhances transaction speeds while maintaining the security and anonymity features of ZK rollups, paving the way for a potential surge in applications in the future.

Currently, among the four major players in the recognized Layer 2 landscape, OP Stack seems to hold a slight edge over ZK Stack in terms of ecosystem development. The Matthew Effect (where the rich get richer) may become more pronounced over time; with OP Succinct joining the fray, it could draw some traffic and potential away from ZK Stack. If OP Succinct is successfully implemented, it could also disrupt traditional zkEVM Rollups to some extent.

However, based on the information available at this stage, it is clear from the operational logic of OP Succinct that ensuring developers can quickly detect unknown vulnerabilities that may arise from changes to the STF function or the addition of new precompile functions is crucial. This is an issue that will require ongoing attention.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from[blockbeat],Forward the Original Title OP Stack’s path to advancement: OP Succinct unlocks the potential of ZK Rollup, All copyrights belong to the original author [Ac-Core，YBB Capital Researcher]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.

2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.

3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentionedGate.io, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.