Ethereum L2 Project Scroll Launches Alpha Testnet for zkEVM on Goerli

By 0xGorki 02/28/23 3:52 AM

Ethereum (ETH) L2 project “Scroll” made an announcement on February 27th that it has launched its solution of “zkEVM” on the Goerli testnet. This news marks a significant milestone in the development of Scroll, and it is expected to have a far-reaching impact on the blockchain industry.

A few years ago, zkEVMs were purely theoretical and only existed in research forums and whitepapers. However, with the combined effort of researchers in the zk space, significant improvements to proof systems, circuit design, and acceleration have made zkEVMs practical.

Scroll has been working on building a bytecode-compatible zkEVM for nearly two years in the open, alongside the Privacy and Scaling Explorations team and other open-source contributors. The team has adhered to its values of community-driven development, long-term thinking, and adherence to Ethereum’s values throughout the process.

The Pre-Alpha testnet of Scroll was launched in August 2022 and has been supported by a community of over 100,000 users. So far, the testnet has processed over 15.4 million transactions and proved 1.8 million blocks, with over 641,000 batches submitted as validity proofs and finalized by the rollup contract on L1.

Now, with the launch of the Alpha testnet on Goerli, anyone can experiment with Scroll’s technology and push it to its limits, as it is completely permissionless. The team is committed to iterating and improving the performance of its zkEVM over the coming months and is excited to continue working alongside its strong community of open-source contributors to build a future where blockchains power the applications of tomorrow.

In April 2022, Scroll announced that it had raised $30 million in a Series A funding round in preparation for the launch of its testnet. The funding was led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Robot Ventures, Geometry DAO, and others. The round also saw support from several angel investors, including Ying Tong and Carlos Aria of the Ethereum Foundation, as well as members of the Ethereum community such as Anthony Sassal, Ryan Adams, and Santiago Santos.