EY Releases Zero-Knowledge Layer to Tackle Increasing Ethereum Costs

Multinational accounting firm EY has released a layer 2 protocol focused on scaling the Ethereum blockchain to bring down costs and increase efficiency.

• The "Nightfall 3" project combines zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), akin to the firm's previous releases in this area, the company said Thursday.
• Nightfall 3 aggregates transactions into groups, known as rollups, designed to lighten the transaction load on the blockchain by transferring them to layer 2.
• EY's work utilizes what's known as "optimistic rollups," named as such because the system assumes transactions to be valid unless proven otherwise, removing the need for validation from all participants.
• “Based on EY experience, ZK-Optimistic rollups are currently among the most effective in balancing security incentives and mathematical efficiency for running private transactions on the public Ethereum network," Paul Brody, EY Global Blockchain leader, said. "As we have in the past, we are again contributing this code into the public domain to speed up enterprise adoption of this technology.”
• Nightfall 3 could achieve costs of around one-eighth of those needed for a conventional token transfer on Ethereum, according to EY's announcement.
• The new tool was built to address network congestion and rising transaction costs brought about by the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi).