LayerZero officially launched the new Layer 1 blockchain Zero on February 10, 2026, positioning it as a 'Decentralized Multi-Core World Computer.' This marks a significant transformation for LayerZero from a cross-chain interoperability protocol to a self-built high-performance public chain, aiming to address the scalability bottlenecks of traditional blockchain's single-threaded, homogeneous architecture and to enable on-chain support for institutional-level financial markets. The core architecture and innovation Zero adopts a heterogeneous structure, separating execution from verification through zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), allowing validators to verify proofs without needing to execute all transactions repeatedly. This is similar to the parallel processing model of multi-core CPUs, distinguishing it from single-core 'world computers' like Ethereum.
Atomicity Zones: Multiple parallel execution zones similar to sharding, each Zone can independently handle application logic and support horizontal scaling. Zones are not independent sovereign chains but parallel processes under a unified settlement layer.
Block Producers & Block Validators: High-performance nodes (Block Producers) are responsible for execution and proof generation, while lightweight validators (Block Validators) can operate on low-spec hardware, greatly lowering the threshold for decentralization.
Pure Delegated Proof of Stake (PDPoS): No minimum staking requirements, no automatic penalties, anyone can participate in validation or delegation.
Technical highlights: Zero achieves breakthroughs in storage, computation, ZK proofs, and network layers.
QMDB: A new state database with 3 million updates per second, 100 times faster than existing blockchain databases.
FAFO: A parallel transaction scheduling algorithm that automatically identifies non-conflicting transactions and reorders them, achieving up to 1.2 million EVM TPS on a single node.
Jolt Pro: An optimized zkVM based on a16z Jolt, currently achieving a proof speed of 1.61GHz, with a roadmap to 4GHz by 2027, 100 times faster than existing zkVMs.
SVID: A high-throughput data availability solution, where validators only need to download less than 0.5% of the block data to achieve 10 GB/s throughput.
Performance goal: Each Zone can be configured to 2 million TPS, with near-zero transaction fees (approximately one ten-thousandth of a cent), compatible with Solidity, and can directly deploy Ethereum contracts. layerzero.network (The above image is a schematic of Zero's official architecture: multiple Atomicity Zones running in parallel, executed by Block Producers, aggregated to lightweight Block Validators for verification) Institutional support and positioning: Zero receives strong endorsements from Wall Street institutions:
Citadel Securities makes a strategic investment in ZRO
ARK Invest participates
Collaborates with DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation), ICE (Intercontinental Exchange), Google Cloud, and others
The goal is to create a global permissionless market infrastructure that supports the issuance, transfer, and settlement of stablecoins and tokenized assets, seen as a key step in migrating traditional financial clearing to the blockchain. ZRO becomes the native token of Zero, used for governance and network security. The official blog describes Zero as the 'last blockchain,' aiming to make decentralized models truly viable for large-scale commercial applications. The mainnet is expected to go live in Fall 2026. More details can be found in the official announcement:
This release has attracted significant market attention, with the ZRO narrative evolving from a cross-chain bridge to a high-performance settlement layer, and the subsequent ecosystem deployment is worth looking forward to!