Ethereum Layer 2 Scroll introduces 'Euclid' upgrade, promising improved network throughput and security

Ethereum Layer 2 Scroll is rolling out an upgrade that promises 90% lower fees while providing better network throughput and security, according to an announcement on Wednesday. The team describes the update, dubbed Euclid, as "the most substantial protocol transformation" since its mainnet launch.

"A complete overhaul that will reshape what users and developers can expect from a ZK Rollup," they wrote in a blog seen by The Block. 

Euclid pulls together five main improvements to the protocol, including migrations to a new L2 "prover" and state commitment system, optimized rollup processing as well as support for the EIP-7702 and RIP-7212 support. 

The move comes at a critical juncture for Ethereum, which for years has been shaped — for better or worse — by the "rollup-centric roadmap" that privileged scaling the ecosystem through secondary layers. Amid poor price performance for the native token, ETH, and increased competition from alternative Layer 1s like Solana, some community members have levied complaints that Ethereum's core developers may have taken a wrong turn.

Scroll's advancements will make the network "Stage-1 ready," a framework proposed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and L2BEAT to describe Layer 2s that have developed a significant degree of decentralization while maintaining Ethereum's security guarantees. It typically means an L2 has reduced their reliance on centralized operators like sequencers and proof system, the systems that batch and allow users to dispute transactions.

Network improvements

According to the announcement, the Euclid upgrade will deprecate Scroll's current "halo2 circuits" — the zero-knowledge proof circuits that verify transactions, designed to replicate the Ethereum Virtual Machine for Scroll's zkEVM. In particular, the team is moving the network to a new OpenVM that offers easier and cheaper-to-audit prover code and "support for arbitrarily complex transactions."

"The last point is particularly noteworthy, as it removes the circuit capacity checker, which has been a major bottleneck on sequencer throughput. In practical terms, Scroll is about to get a lot faster," Scroll wrote. 

Euclid will also introduce "MPT state commitments," the Merkle-Patricia Trie proofs used "natively" by Ethereum, which would theoretically make it simpler to build decentralized apps and improve sequencer performance, the Scroll team said. 

Support for EIP-7702 would enable Scroll to support Externally Owned Accounts when rolled out. In short, this upcoming Ethereum Improvement Proposal would bring "account abstraction" to the network by introducing a new transaction type that essentially turns wallets into smart contracts. RIP-7212, the first Rollup Improvement Proposal, also has account abstraction features and security improvements like biometric authentication for rollups. 

In October, Scroll distributed 7% of its new SCR governance token's total supply in its first airdrop. The $77 million " community drop " received some pushback in part, some argued, for privileging whales and Binance users, according to reporting at the time.