When having to choose between the two, the Aztec development team was forced to choose zkRollup to continue developing for the long term and painfully watched Aztec Connect have to stop. Whether giving up one and choosing another is really the right direction for Aztec or not, everyone will find out in the article below.
To understand more about Aztec ZkRollup, people can refer to some of the articles below:
- What is Layer 2? Complete Guide to Layer 2 Solutions
- What is Zk Rollup? Zk Rollup Solution Overview
- What is Aztec? Overview of Aztec Cryptocurrency
Sunset Of Aztec Connect
Overview of Aztec Connect & Reason for Closing
Simply put, Aztec Connect is a door that helps users interact with DeFi protocols on Ethereum such as Uniswap, AAVE, Compound, Liquity,… completely privately. The most important thing is that interacting with DeFi protocols through Aztec Connect helps users save a lot of transaction costs and with a fast transaction speed.
However, Aztec Connect had to close! According to the development team, the reason they stopped developing Aztec Connect was mainly due to not being able to fully commit resources to both building Aztec Connect and Aztec zkRollup. I don’t think so, with a new project calling for hundreds of millions of dollars from VCs, it’s hard to say that I don’t have enough resources.
However, in my opinion there are some following reasons:
- The long-term scalability of Aztec Connect is not as good as that of Aztec zkRollup.
- The Aztec Connect product does not really attract the community as most users come to Aztec Connect mainly for the airdrop/retroactive. The proof is that even though it was launched in mid-2021, by 2023 the project only had less than $20M TVL.
- Regarding the business model, if you look in the long term, it is clear that Aztec zkRollup has a lot of advantages over Aztec Connect.
TVL of Aztec Connect is not optimistic after many years of development
There are a few reasons why the community is rumored to stop working for Aztec Connect due to legal reasons. However, the development team working in the UK denied this information and they continue to build Aztec zkRollup to ensure user privacy.
What happens after Aztec Connect ends
After Aztec Connect stops development, users have about 1 year to withdraw money and then it will stop working completely. The Aztec team itself also encouraged the Aztec Connect hard fork community to help it continue to operate and develop but with the support of the community. Aztec grants are available to those who are willing.
The future of Aztec will not lie with Connect but will be focused on Aztec zkRollup and Noir.
The Future Of Aztec With zkRollup & Noir
Overview of Aztec zkRollup
The clear vision of Aztec is to build a Layer 2 platform based on the unique scalable and decentralized zkRollup technology that allows the construction of Private Smart contracts. However, unlike the current market that is focusing on building and developing a zkEVM platform, the Aztec team does not do so because in the market the use of Private Smartcontract is not suitable for the zkEVM environment.
With Aztec zkRollup, users can:
- Private voting on public DAOs.
- Perform actions such as Swap, Trading, Lending, Borrowing,… in complete privacy.
- Even gaming is extremely private.
With Zero – Knowledge (ZK) technology allows Aztec zkRollup to achieve just that. Let’s imagine ZK technology through an example as follows:
- After a tiring day of work, Buu decided to go to the bar, but when he got to the bar door, the security guard stopped him and asked him to prove he was over 18 years old to enter the bar. Thanks to ZK technology, the security guard knows that Buu is over 18 years old, but Buu does not need to present any personal documents and Buu still maintains his privacy.
- On the way home from work, Huong was stopped by the police because he was suspected of not driving. Stepping down from occupying Porche using ZK technology, Huong proved to the police that he not only had a driver’s license but also had car insurance, vehicle registration,… without revealing any information.
The Aztec difference zkRollup
The difference on the Aztec zkRollup platform is that privacy as a customization feature means developers have the right to choose between Private or Public depending on the needs of the developers.
- DeFi protocols such as AMM, Derivatives, Lending & Borrowing, Trading,… should be a Public Protocol.
- Protocols that favor Identity, DAO,… can choose to build towards Private Protocol to ensure information for your users.
This shows that the Aztec development team is quite open and not rigid in its imperative to be private, private, private.
Another pretty good point about Aztec zkRollup is that if popular Layer 2 platforms on the market aim for huge numbers like 2K – infinite TPS, then Aztec zkRollup is quite modest when expecting only about 100 TPS and they expect Expect EIP 4844 on Ethereum to revolutionize scalability on Layer 2 platforms.
Noir will be the highlight of Aztec zkRollup
Noir will be the primary programming language on the Aztec zkRollup platform because zkEVM is not privacy compatible. I see this as a challenge rather than an opportunity for Aztec. In the 10 years of development of the Crypto market, up to now only Rust has begun to rise to be able to compete with Sodility. So popularizing Noir is not simple.
Looking at StarkWare, they had to change Cairo to Cairo 1.0 to have many similarities with Rust to help developers easily access it. Some of the advantages of Noir include:
- Noir is highly compatible as the proofs made by Noir can be proven by any Blockchain.
- Noir does not require developers to have much cryptographic knowledge.
An Aztec Perspective on Change
I have some personal perspectives from the changes from the Aztec development team including:
- Canceling the Aztec Connect project and focusing on Aztec zkRollup shows a clear vision of Layer 2 in general and zkRollup technology in particular of the project development team.
- Making privacy a custom and optional feature for developers thereby more or less avoiding harsh requirements from the government.
- Focusing on developing Aztec zkRollup will benefit Native Tokens released later.
For me, the Aztec ecosystem is also worth looking forward to, no less than the Base, Linea, zkSync or StarkNet ecosystems. One of the opportunities for OG guys is also the retroactive opportunity with Aztec because in the long term, Layer 2 platforms need to launch tokens to decentralize their network.
Summary
Aztec’s change is necessary when it is willing to abandon ineffective products to focus on more potential products in the future. What do you think about the future of Aztec zkRollup? Can Aztec zkRollup compete with today’s popular zkRollup platforms?
