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Layer-3 (L3) solutions on the Ethereum ecosystem have sought to address the issues of liquidity fragmentation and weak composability. These two issues are an indirect result of the rapid growth of Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) rollups.
A recent report from Messari highlights the impact of zkLink Nova, a zero-knowledge L3 infrastructure provider that works to aggregate assets, decentralized applications, and users dispersed across the slew of L2s into a unified network.
According to Messari, zkLink Nova’s status as a general-purpose L3 addresses the liquidity and asset fragmentation challenges faced by Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem.
“As Ethereum’s ecosystem grows more complex with the incremental launch of new L2s, solutions like zkLink and its L3 are crucial for streamlining the user and developer experience on the L1,” Messari states.
Messari claims that the proliferation of “alt-L1s” or alternative layer-1 platforms (such as Arbitrum and Optimism) have resulted in the fragmentation of the space. In such a competition and attention-intensive space, the need for capital-efficient multichain application is amplified.
zkLink Nova’s origins and development
Launched in March 2024 on , zkLink Nova has gained significant traction in the L3 space, attracting over $300 million in total value locked and processing over 1.2 million transactions. To date, the platform is already integrated with nine chains, showcasing its potential to become a top-tier solution for developers and users who need a seamless, interoperable environment.
Back in 2021 zkLink Nova was conceived as a multichain trading solution that could leverage zero-knowledge proofs. The zkLinks Labs team was led by Vince Yang, guiding the project into its current state as a comprehensive L3 platform. zkLink later secured $18.5 million in funding from private investors after two rounds and a community sale, with support from 21 investors including Coinbase, Orthogonal Thinker, NGC, Republic, and Ascensive Assets.
At the heart of zkLink Nova’s technology stack lies a combination of advanced cryptographic techniques and innovative design choices. The platform consists of four key layers: sequencing, execution, settlement, and data availability.
The sequencing layer manages onchain deposits, maintains the L3’s state, and organizes transactions for processing and proof generation. The execution layer utilizes ZK Stack’s zkEVM to execute transactions securely in an EVM-compatible environment. zkLink Nexus, the settlement framework, enables efficient cross-L2 and Ethereum settlement through multichain state synchronization.
Finally, the data availability layer stores transaction and state transition data, with plans to integrate external solutions like Celestia and EigenDA for enhanced security and decentralization.
Addressing liquidity and asset fragmentation
As a general-purpose L3 network, zkLink Nova addresses the liquidity and asset fragmentation challenges faced by Ethereum’s L2 ecosystem. By consolidating assets, liquidity, and dApps from various L2s into a single, secure, and efficient EVM-compatible platform, zkLink Nova enables dApps to access larger liquidity pools and attract more users.
Such an approach helps maintain the value within the Ethereum ecosystem, preventing the need for dApps to migrate to other L1s in search of better economic opportunities and performance. The L3 solution provides developers with a unified environment to deploy their dApps, tapping into the combined liquidity of connected L2s without the need for multiple deployments.
One of zkLink Nova’s standout features is its ability to aggregate assets from multiple L2s and merge tokens of identical value into a single token. Using zk-SNARKs and zkLink Nexus, the platform securely consolidates assets from connected networks, simplifying the user experience, reducing gas fees, and improving capital efficiency.
Key advantages of zkLink’s aggregated L3
According to the overview of the zkLink platform published by Messari, there are at least key advantages to zkLink’s aggregated L3 stack.
Primarily, zkLink Nova enables the aggregation of liquidity within the Ethereum ecosystem, ensuring that assets scattered across various Layer 2 solutions can be natively integrated and interact with each other seamlessly. This means that through its secure clusters executed from zkLink Nexus and ZK Stack, zkLink Nova maintains the same degree of security provided by Ethereum, given how all transactions are finalized on the Ethereum mainnet, inheriting its characteristics.
By design, zkLink Nova’s L3 solution provides an additional layer of scaling compared to Layer 2s, resulting in extremely low gas fees for users. The modular data availability (DA) design further reduces the data portion of transaction costs. Another key factor is the platform’s “multi-layer” yield structure. In this structure, zkLink Nova supports all native yield assets in a single platform, enhancing their liquidity and composability. This allows holders to generate additional yield on top of the yield they already earn from staking on Ethereum and Layer 2 rollups.
According to Messari’s insights, over $300 million has been bridged to zkLink Nova, effectively positioning it as the largest L3 network in terms of total value bridged.
Messari’s report reflects the core thesis behind zkLink Nova: by keeping value on Ethereum and addressing the fragmentation caused by the proliferation of L2 solutions, the platform strengthens Ethereum’s network effect and solidifies its position as a leading blockchain ecosystem.
This debate over L3s has been brewing for some time now, with various contentions on the line. Solutions like zkLink Nova will likely play an increasingly critical role in promoting interoperability, efficiency, and ease of use for more users by addressing the challenges posed by L2 fragmentation head-on.
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This article first appeared at Crypto Briefing
