Microsoft veteran Vassilis Tziokas has joined zkSync developer Matter Labs as its head of enterprise enterprise improvement.
Tziokas spent practically eight years on the tech large, most just lately as its world lead for web3 and AI enterprise improvement and technique. He desires to leverage that have to unlock the “holy grail” of web3, attracting enterprise adoption to the area by way of zkSync’s Ethereum Layer 2 scaling answer, he advised The Block in an interview.
The motivation for Tziokas’ transfer stems from a robust perception in an imminent wave of innovation, adoption and enterprise options constructed utilizing blockchain applied sciences and he wished to be as “near the motion” as attainable.
Tziokas mentioned he was significantly drawn to Matter Labs because of its work with zero-knowledge expertise and dedication to private freedom. He had met the crew at numerous conferences prior to now however mentioned that studying the ZK Credo — a manifesto on the guiding ideas for the rising ZK-powered ecosystem launched in June — was the second it actually “clicked” for him, and he knew he wished to affix Matter Labs.
Unlocking the ‘holy grail’ of web3
When requested about the way forward for enterprise integration with blockchain and web3 applied sciences, as a part of Matter Labs’ mission to “decentralized entry for all,” Tziokas mentioned that bringing enterprises into web3 was the “holy grail” for the {industry}. Enterprises are all the time searching for new methods to create worth however must function in a transparent regulatory atmosphere, he added.
“As zkSync scales Ethereum to be a extremely scalable, dependable and cost-effective computing platform, it unlocks a brand new a part of the web to be construct out — whether or not it is banking the unbanked, safer enterprise programs, shared industry-specific protocols to drive efficiencies at world scale or new forms of person experiences that naturally include new computing environments — just like what we’ve seen with the appearance of the web itself or the mainstream adoption of cloud and cellular,” Tziokas mentioned.
Tziokas believes zkSync is the correct protocol for enterprises to construct modern, safe and value-added options whereas enabling customers to retain extra management over their knowledge and experiences.
“Two years in the past, [Ethereum co-founder] Vitalik Buterin mentioned ZK is the long run, which resonated with enterprises as they decide to web3, particularly Ethereum,” Tziokas mentioned. “zkSync stands out as a result of it launched the primary ZK rollup over three years in the past, and simply have the most effective ZK expertise and long-term technological imaginative and prescient in ZK Stack.”
Final 12 months, Matter Labs additionally raised $200 million to spice up zkSync adoption and develop its crew.
Challenges and alternatives
Tziokas acknowledged that there have been nonetheless many challenges for enterprises to broadly undertake web3 expertise, not simply by way of zkSync, however among the many broader blockchain {industry}. He named vendor fragmentation, lack of regulatory readability and complicated UX as a couple of however added that enterprises and tech-forward nations have been more and more introducing new ZK-based companies.
Extra particularly, Tziokas pointed towards the latest launch of the Buenos Aires authorities’s ZK-based digital id answer to digitally retailer driving licenses, beginning and marriage certificates and revenue verification. He additionally famous Walmart’s enterprise final month into the NFT area by way of Pudgy Penguins, one of many high NFT collections with over $300 million in gross sales. The retail large is promoting 26 variations of Pudgy toys at 2,000 shops throughout the U.S., with Pudgy World — a multiplayer digital social platform the place customers can construct their “Without end Pudgy” characters, play mini-games and work together with different customers — constructed on zkSync.
Moreover, zkSync’s hyperbridging “opens up the power for all these companies to probably collaborate and associate with each other enabling the best interoperability panorama — trustless, quick and low cost cross-chain transactions,” Tziokas added.
Layer 2 decentralization
At the moment, Layer 2 networks introduce components of centralization, reminiscent of counting on sequencers and provers managed by the initiatives’ groups. A sequencer is a element that orders and batches a number of off-chain transactions earlier than submitting them to the Ethereum blockchain. A prover is a mechanism that generates cryptographic proofs to validate transactions with out processing them on the principle chain. These create single factors of failure and potential censorship dangers that might have a big affect on customers of the networks.
“Decentralizing the protocol is a should,” Tziokas mentioned. “In any other case, how is it totally different from centralized cloud or container infrastructure?” Whereas the entire Ethereum ecosystem was dedicated to decentralization, Tziokas continued, Matter Labs’ is “aggressively taking motion to decentralize the sequencer, prover and different core elements of the expertise.” It was additionally including third-party developer groups to assist keep and improve the zkSync protocol and ZK Stack and decentralizing non-technical elements of the ecosystem like challenge rankings, Tziokas mentioned.
Whereas the method of bridging into Layer 2 networks in a decentralized means stays largely complicated and costly, Tziokas mentioned the important thing to widespread crypto adoption lies in providing value-added companies that genuinely improve customers’ lives, once more highlighting these latest challenge launches.
Additional, “utilizing zkSync’s native account abstraction makes the sport really feel like an MMO, the place all of the blockchain tech is hidden from the person, in addition to specializing in enterprise mannequin innovation with conventional enterprises like Walmart on their phrases, versus forcing them to make use of blockchain as a result of it is a cool pattern,” he mentioned.
“Decentralizing entry for everybody might be a protracted journey however we’re heading in the right direction,” Tziokas added.
