By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 16th, 2024
Even in its pre-alpha stage, the Ethereum Layer 2 platform Scroll has reached one million unique addresses as well as 16 million transactions.
On Monday, March 6, the Ethereum Layer-2 network Scroll which uses zk-roll-ups technology raised more than $50 million in its latest funding round.
some of the top venture capital giants participated in the latest funding round including Polychain Capital, Sequoia China, Bain Capital Crypto, Moore Capital Management, Variant Fund, Newman Capital, IOSG Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners.
Scroll hasn’t disclosed many details about the structure of the funding round or the platform’s valuations. However, a source familiar with the matter told crypto publication The Block that the latest funding took place at $1.8 billion valuations.
During its two previous funding rounds, Scroll secured $33 million in funding. However, the Ethereum Layer-2 platform didn’t disclose its valuations back then as well! With the latest funding round, Scroll has raised a total funding of $83 million to date.
Ethereum’s Layer-2 platform Scroll came into the market two years back in 2021 with the vision of scaling the Ethereum blockchain to a billion users. Being a Layer 2 blockchain, Scroll processed transactions off the Ethereum blockchain and on its own network. It then ports the transactions back to the Ethereum mainnet, thereby helping increase transactions and reduce costs.
The Use of zk-Rollups Technology
In order to achieve a higher level of scalability, the Layer-2 Scroll blockchain uses zk-rollups technology. Scroll’s zkEVM, also called zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machine, batches several transactions into one while generating proof that these transactions are legitimate. It later passes on this proof to the Ethereum mainnet which later approves the transactions.
It’s only last week that Scroll launched its zkEVM on the Goerli testnet while moving out of its pre-alpha testnet phase. Scroll co-founder Sandy Peng stated that the initial traction on the pre-alpha testnet was strong.
Even though in its pre-alpha stage, the Ethereum Layer 2 platform has reached one million unique addresses as well as 16 million transactions. Peng stated that the mainnet launch shall happen within the next three to four months.
Scroll is one among the several Ethereum scaling solutions that are currently leveraging the use of zk-rollups. Some of the other players currently doing this include, Polygon Labs, Matter Labs, and StarkWare.
Sandy Peng said that the three core values and design principles of Scroll include community-driven, security first and decentralization at every level. this provides the platform a competitive edge over others.
Scroll stated that it will use the fresh funding in building its product, launching its mainnet, as well as expand the ecosystem. Peng said that they are also looking to increase their team size from 60 to 100 in the near future.