The quarterly project progress is written seriously, but compared with the L2 of several other major ZK technologies, the progress of TAIKO is worrying. Looking at Linea’s crazy Odyssey activities, TAIKO, as the baby project of Chinese Wang Dong, I wonder if it can gain a place in such fierce L2 competition!
The following is a translation of the first quarter project community summary released by Taiko:
We know it's mid-May now, and we're sorry for the delay! We'll try to publish this update at the end of each quarter. Of course, you don't have to wait for these updates to know what's going on with Taiko - we try to share major updates as soon as they happen: in the bi-weekly GitHub changelog, Taiko Tuesday weekly recaps, timely announcements, and building in public from the beginning. But we hope this format is helpful for those who occasionally like to get a general idea of what's going on. Considering that we'll include updates that happened after the end of the first quarter but before this update, this can be thought of as 1.5 quarters. Let's get started.
Research and Development
ZK-EVM Integrate basic zkEVM circuits into the protocol Updated common input circuits to match the latest Taiko protocol MPT circuit refactoring/optimization Improved invalid transaction support Halo2 API improvements Created a set of circuit toolsets KZG circuit implementation progress Blake2 circuit implementation/optimization progress Basic compression circuit
Client and Testnet
Fixed client driver software L1 reorg handling issues Added more metrics and improved monitoring system Updated client software/go-ethereum based software according to new protocol design Migrated to new cloud platform Launched an internal development network
Bridging
We have made significant improvements to Bridge, such as integrating partial Merkle proofs for signal/message verification. This improvement has greatly reduced the gas required for cross-chain transactions, thereby improving efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
We are currently working on a large-scale redesign of the Bridge user interface (UI). The goal is not only to improve the user experience, but also to accommodate multiple Layer 2 and Layer 3 integrations to facilitate greater scalability and adaptability.
protocol
During this quarter, we undertook a comprehensive overhaul of the Taiko protocol. This redesign significantly reduced the need for on-chain validation, and much of the validation logic that was previously on-chain is now being moved to our circuits. The result is a new protocol that significantly reduces on-chain costs, especially in proposing, attesting, and validating blocks. The upcoming Alpha-3 testnet will use this new, more efficient protocol.
In our quest for transparency and understanding, we have produced a detailed document that explains the process of block proofs in Taiko. This includes how cross-validation of data is done inside the circuits, as well as the ZK-EVM specification for PSE. The constraints outlined in this document are being incorporated into several Taiko-specific circuits. Originally an internal document, we are now in the process of integrating it into our GitHub repository for public access and collaboration.
We piloted our initial tokenomics design in Q1, and while there were some bugs and functional limitations, we learned valuable lessons. We have now designed and implemented a new tokenomics model that has been exhaustively unit tested and will be integrated into the Alpha-3 testnet. Additionally, we are experimenting with an auction-based tokenomics model that aims to incentivize cost-effective proof generation rather than speed. We expect the proof auction functionality to be ready for deployment in Q3.
All of the above is available in our open source repository. To learn more or contribute, visit our GitHub.
Operations and Community
We launched our Alpha-2 public testnet, Askja. The launch was at the end of March, and the major new additions to the network were permissionless proofs and the implementation of protocol economics. These are big features that have provided a valuable learning experience. You can see the stats and learning experience here, and the final stats and deactivation notice here. Thanks again to all testers for participating, regardless of how they participated. We are now approaching Alpha-3.
Expanded education and documentation
We continue to focus on education, both on topics specific to Taiko and on Ethereum and ZK more broadly.
Our documentation has received some significant improvements, including coverage of important concepts inside Taiko such as cross-chain messaging.
We published a Taiko roadmap, sharing milestones leading up to the mainnet launch, planned for early 2024. We explained the Taiko protocol and its various recent improvements. We kicked off a new bi-weekly series, ZK-Roller-Coaster, covering the most interesting news in ZK and adjacent spaces. We dug deeper into ZK education, publishing our more advanced article, What are ZK-SNARKs and How Do They Work. We published a Rollup Glossary, inviting the entire rollup community to contribute and help solidify concepts and terminology.
We further explained key concepts like “completely anarchic” rollups, “entry layers,” and cross-layer communication and bridging.
Continued focus on community, contributors, and openness
From ambassadors and moderators to testnet traders and node runners in the community - the pace of the Taiko community is inspiring us. Empowering contributors to push Taiko further is our fundamental goal. To this end, we have improved our contribution guide, made it easier than ever to get started with some good first issues, and provided some workshops on the topic.
We continue to add ways to engage with our community. Things like "Office Hours", "Tea with Taiko", and "Community Calls". These usually take place on our Discord stage, and you can find recordings of these meetings on our YouTube channel. We've also created a Taiko Community Forum for more permanent community discussions, questions, and research.
In our quest for Ethereum parity, we are trying to be as open and transparent as possible. Our GitHub project board is open so anyone can see what we are working on (and easily get involved). We also publish changelogs every two weeks, so you can see what we have been working on.
Taiko Ambassador Umede has launched Taiko Tuesday, a weekly review of all things Taiko. Already proving to be an indispensable outlet for information, you can view all issues and sign up here.
The community grew to 1.7k followers on GitHub, over 57k followers on Twitter, and over 60k followers on Discord.
In the Ethereum ecosystem
We attended incredible Ethereum ecosystem events like ETHDenver, Scaling Ethereum, ETHGlobal Tokyo, and more. Meeting other builders throughout the quarter made us feel extra energized. You can see video presentations and workshops from these events and more in this YouTube playlist. You can also see some recap threads about hackathon builders on Taiko here and here.
Taiko has also been featured in some of our favorite Ethereum news and education outlets like The Daily Gwei, Bankless, and Week in Ethereum.
Growth of the Team and Extended Teams The Taiko core team has grown by 6 people, now totaling 25 people, spread across a dozen countries. The new team members are primarily in ZK engineering, but also in design, devops, and more. The Extended Team is growing as well, welcoming Ambassador Umede and Moderator Kachinsky to our world-class community of contributors. If you'd like to join full-time, check out the positions on our Careers page, or start contributing directly. We also held our first team outing, where 20 of us met up in Tokyo! You can see some fun recaps here.
