Scroll Co-founder Haichen shares the development and future plans after the Mainnet launch

Recently, a co-founder of the Layer2 solution Scroll gave an interview to the media, sharing the development history and future plans of the project.

Scroll is an open-source Layer 2 solution led by Asian entrepreneurs. After more than two years of development and a year of testing, Scroll officially launched its Mainnet in October 2023. As of October 27, the total locked value on the Scroll chain has exceeded $19.3 million, with over 147,000 Mainnet wallet addresses, and the total verified transaction volume has surpassed 860,000.

As one of the co-founders of Scroll, Haichen is mainly responsible for the work of the engineering team. He worked for many years at Amazon Web Services, focusing on the field of AI compilers. During his participation in Ethereum community activities, he developed a strong interest in zero-knowledge proofs, believing that this is a highly promising area for developing practical products and systems, ultimately achieving the scalability of Ethereum.

When discussing the reasons why Scroll chose a zkRollup solution based on zkEVM, Haichen stated that zk technology can provide users with higher security and a better user experience. Compared to Optimistic Rollup, zkRollup ensures security by actively submitting proofs rather than passively waiting for challenges. Additionally, EVM equivalence is crucial for Scroll as it allows users and developers to have a better experience by using Ethereum developer tools directly without the need to install new plugins.

At the technical level, Scroll is committed to achieving high compatibility with the Ethereum EVM. They have developed corresponding zero-knowledge proof circuit components for each EVM instruction to ensure that the instructions are executed correctly. Currently, the number of precompiled contracts supported by Scroll ranks among the top in zkRollup solutions, providing developers with a more complete usage experience.

Regarding the ecological development of Scroll, Haichen stated that the current progress is in line with expectations. One week after going live, approximately $15 million has entered the Scroll chain, and some DeFi applications have begun to generate transactions on the chain. Even more encouragingly, the number of contract deployments is growing rapidly, indicating the vibrancy of the developer community.

Looking to the future, Scroll plans to focus on supporting infrastructure services such as RPC, indexing, cross-chain bridges, and oracles. After that, it will focus on developing DeFi applications and building an open, neutral platform. Haichen specifically mentioned that Scroll will pay attention to real-world application projects, such as stablecoin payments and AA wallet projects, while also supporting public goods projects that benefit ecological development.

Reflecting on the entrepreneurial journey, Haichen admitted that the main challenges came from the technical level. The team encountered many unexpected issues during the development of zkEVM, and ultimately overcame these difficulties through internal discussions and collaboration with the open-source community.

Regarding the competition and development in the Layer2 track, Haichen believes that the entire ecosystem is still in its infancy. He emphasizes the need to further improve the level of trustlessness in Layer2 and enhance security to gain user trust. He believes that the Layer2 market is not a zero-sum game, but a field with enormous expansion potential, and looks forward to more innovative projects emerging in the future.