Blockchain Scaling Startup Opside Raises $4M to Expand Its ZK Rollup-as-a-Service Platform
Opside Network Inc., a blockchain infrastructure startup that builds “zero knowledge” deployments, announced Thursday that it raised $4 million in seed funding led by Web3.com Venture Capital to expand its blockchain scaling platform.
ZK rollups are a type of technology that uses what are called zero-knowledge proofs to scale up blockchain networks by collecting transactions on a second-layer blockchain without knowledge of what is in those transactions. They are then sent to the primary blockchain, such as Ethereum in bulk.
This is done because so-called top level “Layer 1” blockchains like Ethereum can suffer from massive downgrades when too many transactions hit them at once. This causes congestion that slows down transaction speeds and increases fees. The use of ZK rollups both lowers the transaction time and reduces the fees.
Opside has developed a new ZK rollup-as-a-service platform that operates across multiple layers and combines the power of both “proof of stake” validation for sequencing and “proof of work” computation to proofread rollup blocks on its chain .
Proof of Stake takes place in the second layer and behaves similarly to Ethereum 2.0, where validators can “stake” or unlock tokens to prove they have a stake in the Opside blockchain to earn rewards. Proof of work is where multiple miners compete to solve computational tasks to confirm blocks before sending them to the Opscode blockchain, and this happens in the third layer.
All the different layers are connected via bridges that enable the transfer of assets between them with extremely low transaction fees and greatly increased speeds. For end users, this means that transactions on Ethereum and BNB Chain will reduce costs and lower latency for blockchain applications.
Developers benefit from the improved security of ZK rollups and better user experience for their distributed apps by using a scaling solution, Opside said. According to the company, the operating costs of decentralized apps do not need to provide their own computing power or maintain their own networks, which can save them a lot of money.
Opscode also offers a generic ZK rollup software development kit for developers to deploy Opside layer 3 applications based on the Ethereum virtual machine.
“This funding will enable us to continue to innovate and develop our platform while expanding our team and customer base,” Nanfeng, co-founder and CEO of Opside said of the funding.
Zero knowledge has been explored across the blockchain industry as a scaling solution for Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum in recent years. Notable examples include Offchain Labs, which launched Arbitrum Nova for decentralized apps – and was chosen by social media site Reddit – and Ethereum scaling solution Polygon, which uses ZK rollups in some of its products. Other examples include Sovereign Labs, which raised $7.4 million in January, Starknet, zkSync and Mina.
