What Is Scroll? The Bytecode-Level EVM-Compatible zkEVM Chain
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What Is Scroll? The Bytecode-Level EVM-Compatible zkEVM Chain

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Scroll, an EVM-compatible zk-rollup scaling solution for Ethereum, launches its SCR token with an airdrop and Binance Launchpool event, aiming to address blockchain scalability issues.

What Is Scroll? The Bytecode-Level EVM-Compatible zkEVM Chain

Table of Contents

Most users in the crypto space would have, at some point or another, heard of the blockchain trilemma. Comprising decentralization, speed and scalability, it purports that all blockchains can only achieve two out of these three attributes, having to sacrifice one for the other two. Ethereum, for example, is decentralized and secure, but tends to suffer from a lack of scalability when placed under heavy load. This is largely due to Ethereum’s monolithic design as an L1, which became apparent during the 2020 DeFi Summer where gas prices surged past 500 gwei on several occasions. High gas fees eventually priced out many smaller users from using the Ethereum L1, turning them to cheaper blockchains such as Polygon and the Binance Smart Chain.

Source: vitalik.ca

By mid-2020, the Ethereum community had largely accepted that rollups would be the way forward to mitigate this issue, eventually accepting it into the Ethereum roadmap by October that same year.

Rollups sought to scale Ethereum through abstracting transaction execution to a separate chain, known as a Layer-2 (L2). To ensure security, transactions executed on the L2 were “rolled up” and posted to the Ethereum L1 to ensure the validity of all transactions.

What Is Scroll?

Scroll is a Layer-2 scaling solution built on Ethereum, which combines zero-knowledge (zk) proof technology and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Scroll is an EVM-equivalent zk-rollup, designed to be as close in design to the Ethereum L1 to maximize compatibility between the chains. Due to Scroll’s bytecode-level compatibility with the EVM, this enables existing Ethereum smart contracts to be compatible with Scroll without modification, allowing for seamless migration from the leading decentralized applications on Ethereum to Scroll. In fact, Scroll’s architecture was publicly built for over a year alongside the Privacy and Scaling Explorations group at the Ethereum Foundation.

Source: Scroll Blog (Source)

Scroll’s architecture consists of three main components:

  • Scroll Nodes: Consisting of the Sequencer, Coordinator and Relayer, the Scroll Node enables users to interact with the chain. It processes transactions into blocks and commits these blocks to the Ethereum L1.
  • Roller Network: Rollers are the provers in the network that generate validity proofs for the blocks produced. To speed up proof generation, proofs for different blocks can be produced concurrently in parallel.
  • Rollup and Bridge Contract: These smart contracts link the Scroll chain and the Ethereum L1, ensuring data availability for transactions on Scroll. The rollup contract specifically, finalizes L2 blocks by verifying proofs against state roots and transaction data commitments provided to the contract.

Source: DeFiLlama (Link)

Scroll launched its mainnet on October 10, 2023, just over a year since the launch of its Pre-Alpha Testnet in July 2022. One year on, Scroll has since amassed more than $748M in total value locked (TVL), making it the third-largest Ethereum L2, only behind Arbitrum and Base. This also makes it currently the largest zk-rollup and zkEVM chain by TVL.

Scroll Sessions and Scroll Marks

In April 2024, Scroll announced the launch of their loyalty program, Scroll Sessions, which awarded Scroll Marks to users based on their activity on the chain, including bridging onto the chain, making swaps, providing liquidity, and borrowing and lending on money market platforms.

Additionally, the Scroll team introduced Scroll Canvas, a place to collect on-chain credentials, known as Badges, from completing various tasks. These badges were powered by the Ethereum Attestation Service and are non-transferrable proofs of each user’s achievements and milestones attained on Scroll.

Source: Scroll Blog (Link)

Scroll Airdrop and Tokenomics

On October 8, Scroll announced details regarding their token generation event and airdrop for the Scroll (SCR) token. The snapshot for the airdrop will be taken on October 19, with the token launch and airdrop to occur on October 22. The SCR token will be used as the Scroll network’s primary governance mechanism and will also eventually govern the Scroll DAO and its treasury.

The total token supply of SCR will be capped at 1 billion tokens, with the largest allocation of 35% to Ecosystem and Growth, which is further broken down into 10% for the Scroll DAO Treasury and 25% for ecosystem incentives and the Binance Launchpool allocation.

The remaining 65% are distributed across Scroll Contributors (team, advisors, and future team members), investors, the Scroll Foundation, and the airdrop allocation. While 15% of the token supply has been allocated to airdrops, only 7% will be distributed in the upcoming airdrop.

Source: Scroll Blog (Link)

On launch, 19% of the total supply, or 190M SCR, will be circulating, with 4.5% from Ecosystem and Growth, 5.5% from the Binance Launchpool, and 2% from the Scroll Foundation and the Scroll DAO Treasury each. Investors and Scroll Contributors’ allocations, as well as the remaining allocations to the Scroll DAO Treasury and Foundation, are subject to a one-year cliff and a subsequent three-year vesting period, with all tokens set to be fully unlocked by October 2028.

Source: Binance Report (Link)

Binance Launchpool

Binance announced the launchpool for the SCR token on October 8, as the 59th Binance Launchpool project. Users will be allowed to stake BNB or FDUSD in separate pools for two days to farm for SCR tokens, with the pools opening on October 9. Depositors will be eligible for a share of 55M SCR tokens, or 5.5% of the total token supply, which has been allocated to the Binance Launchpool. The SCR token will begin pre-market trading on Binance on October 11, with the spot listing to commence at a later date.
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