Cronos Labs, the developer behind the Cronos blockchain, introduced Thursday the launch of a brand new layer-2 community, becoming a member of the rising ranks of second-tier initiatives which have opted to construct auxiliary networks inside the dominant Ethereum ecosystem.
The brand new “Cronos zkEVM chain” is launching initially as a take a look at community, based mostly on Matter Labs’ software program instruments, which can be utilized to spin up new layer 2 and layer 3 “hyperchains” atop Ethereum.
The testnet, powered by zkSync’s ZK Stack software program package developed primarily by Matter Labs, will add a brand new chain to Cronos’ present ecosystem, at present consisting of the Cronos EVM blockchain, and Cronos PoS chain. The crypto trade Crypto.com is a accomplice with Cronos Labs, in response to its web site, contributing to the supply code of the PoS chain.
It’s also the primary public testnet making use of Matter Labs’ ZK Stack, in response to a press launch. Cronos zkEVM mainnet will comply with, aiming for the community to be up within the second quarter of 2024.
“Seeing a layer 1 like Cronos being the primary to make the transfer to deploy as a hyperchain is a good testomony to the ZK Stack structure,” Omar Azhar, head of enterprise improvement head of Matter Labs, informed CoinDesk over Telegram. “Cronos and Crypto.com have proven they can construct a powerful group – at present an addressable consumer base of greater than 80 million crypto customers.”
Cronos, whereas a fraction of the scale of Ethereum, the dominant smart-contract blockchain, nonetheless maintains a good rank among the many top-20 initiatives, in a universe of main blockchain networks that Messari numbers near 200.
Based on DeFiLlama, Cronos boasts some $354 million of complete worth locked, or TVL – a generally used metric, much like deposits, that analysts use to rank blockchains’ relative stature in decentralized finance. That is good for a No. 11 rating within the trade, however nonetheless pales compared with Ethereum’s $28.2 billion.
The most recent blockchain addition to the Cronos ecosystem is a part of a wider development of initiatives launching layer-2s, which is made attainable by the simply accessible software program stacks, additionally typically known as blockchain improvement kits.
“The Cronos zkEVM testnet represents a possibility for Cronos Labs and our companions, together with VVS, Fulcrom and Veno, to experiment with ZK layer 2 expertise in an effort to put together the following part of progress beginning in 2024,” Ken Timsit, managing director of Cronos Labs, stated in a press launch seen by CoinDesk.
Learn extra: ZkSync Developer Releases Toolkit for Constructing Ethereum Rollups
