Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Ethereum
ZKsync Era ticker ZK
Summary
Zero-knowledge rollup on Ethereum. A centralized operator's sequencer orders transactions and executes them on EraVM, a virtual machine designed for proving that is EVM-compatible but not EVM-equivalent; since April 2025 an EVM bytecode interpreter also runs unmodified Ethereum contracts at 1.5 to 4 times the gas. Batches are committed to Ethereum as compressed state differences, proven with the Boojum prover (STARK proofs wrapped in a SNARK that a verifier contract on Ethereum checks) and executed once 3 hours have passed since commitment, at which point they are final. Every account uses protocol-level account abstraction. Matter Labs said in September 2026 that a transition retiring EraVM will begin within six months. Block production uses no stake or work of its own. 1681014172328
Design
- System
- Layer 2 blockchainZKsync Era (chain ID 324) is a zero-knowledge (validity-proof) rollup on Ethereum built by Matter Labs with the ZK Stack, and the first chain of the ZKsync network of ZK Stack chains. ETH is the gas asset; ZK is an ERC-20 governance token deployed on Era and does not pay gas at the protocol level. On 4 September 2026 Matter Labs said EraVM chains such as Era will begin, within six months, a transition that retires EraVM, without naming a replacement or end date; review this classification when the steps are published.
- Settles to
- EthereumBatches are committed to Ethereum as compressed state differences, proven by a SNARK checked on Ethereum and executed no sooner than 3 hours after commitment; only then can anyone finalize a withdrawal on Ethereum. ZKsync's docs put full finality at around 3 hours, with proof generation taking about an hour and further delays possible. Matter Labs recommended in September 2026 raising the delay to 24 hours and the ZIP-17 proposal would allow it; Era's adoption was not confirmed. ZKsync Gateway, an optional aggregation layer, is deprecated and its chains settle directly on Ethereum.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- One centralized operator. L2BEAT says only whitelisted proposers can publish state roots, executor accounts start batch execution but each batch also needs approval from 3 of 8 members of an Era validator multisig, and a 4-of-7 Matter Labs multisig manages operator roles, fees and transaction filtering. ZKsync's docs describe the sequencer as giving users a soft confirmation but do not name who runs it.
- Fork choice
- No open L2 fork choice: the operator's blocks are canonical, and a transaction is final only when its batch has been proven and executed on Ethereum. L2BEAT says the operator is the only entity that can propose blocks.
Qualifications
- Scarce resource · Not applicable. ZKsync Era block production uses no stake or work of its own; the operator is permissioned and security comes from Ethereum plus validity proofs. The ZK token is used for governance votes, not for producing blocks.
- Finality · Partial. ZKsync reports a soft confirmation from the sequencer, then batch commitment, proof verification and execution on Ethereum. Only execution, which the current 3-hour delay holds back, carries Ethereum's guarantee.
- Withdrawal window · Applies. Withdrawals to Ethereum wait for batch execution, currently a 3-hour minimum per ZKsync's docs and L2BEAT (cut from 21 hours by ZIP-4). Matter Labs recommended 24 hours in September 2026 and ZIP-17 would let each EraVM chain raise it; the proposal text gives a 7-day maximum, while L2BEAT's governance team said the implementation allows up to 30 days.
- Evm equivalence · Partial. Contracts normally compile to EraVM with ZKsync compilers; addresses of contracts deployed that way are derived differently from Ethereum, and accounts keep separate transaction and deployment nonces. The EVM interpreter runs unmodified bytecode, deriving addresses as Ethereum does, at 1.5 to 4 times the gas and without CALLCODE, SELFDESTRUCT, BLOBHASH or BLOBBASEFEE.
- Censorship resistance · Contested. ZKsync's docs say users can force inclusion by submitting transactions through Ethereum. L2BEAT says such transactions enter an Ethereum queue but cannot be forced, the operator can stop processing the queue, and the chain admin can add a transaction filter without delay.
- Upgrade exit window · Partial. Regular protocol upgrades pass a Token Assembly vote, a Security Council or Guardian review and a timelock, leaving about four days to exit after the vote per L2BEAT; the emergency path, renamed Instant Upgrades in 2026, has no delay.
- Execution environment continuity · Unknown. Matter Labs announced on 2026-09-04 that, within the next six months, EraVM chains will begin a transition that retires the EraVM execution environment; no end date or replacement was named. Regular wallets need no action for now, but funds held in contracts will need action, and the steps and dates, promised in the coming weeks, were not published at review time.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Security
- Gives up
- Decentralized operation and upgrade safety. One operator sequences and proposes every batch; per L2BEAT it can stop processing the Ethereum transaction queue, a transaction filter can be added without delay, and if the operator stops proposing, withdrawals freeze. A board of the Security Council, Guardians and ZKsync Foundation can upgrade the contracts instantly, which it did five times in 2026 to patch circuit and VM bugs; regular upgrades leave about four days to exit. L2BEAT rates Era Stage 0.The security emphasis refers to validity proofs checked on Ethereum and full state-difference data posted there. That rests on sound circuits: the 2026 patches included a soundness fix, L2BEAT records a manual proof-system pause for a vulnerability in July 2025, and Matter Labs announced in September 2026 that covered Era protocol code will be published three months after each upgrade ships, with independent auditors keeping continuous access, so other outside reviewers would see those changes only afterwards.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 20212223Matter Labs' external node guide lists 32 GB RAM, a modern CPU, a 100 Mbps link (1 Gbps recommended) and 500 GB of storage for a mainnet node restored from a snapshot with history pruning (the default in its Docker Compose setup); without pruning, storage grows about 1 TB per month, and snapshot recovery can take up to 10 hours. The node is a read-only replica that re-executes blocks from the main node and cannot produce blocks or proofs. ZKsync's docs now describe it on a legacy-tooling page, and covered Era protocol code is to be published three months after each upgrade.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | A protocol-level trust-minimized swap mechanism on ZKsync Era was not reviewed; contracts could implement hash-locked swaps, but none was verified. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | ZKsync Era's rollup protocol produces what a light verifier checks: each batch's root is published on Ethereum and backed by a validity proof there, and an RPC method in the zks namespace returns Merkle proofs of storage values that can be checked against that root. Limited: only state in batches already on Ethereum can be checked this way, and no dedicated Era light client was found. The read-only external node re-executes blocks and verifies state locally. 1922 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to ZKsync Era was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Account abstraction is built into the protocol: every account, including ordinary key-held ones, runs through account code with validation, execution and fee-payment steps, and paymasters can sponsor fees or accept ERC-20 tokens. Smart accounts can add multisig, spending limits and session keys. EraVM itself is scheduled to be retired. 3111213 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; no protocol feature to cancel or delay a sent payment was found. Because every account runs its own validation code, wallets can add recovery: Clave, a smart-account wallet on ZKsync Era, documented guardians who can restore access to an account in a guide dated January 2025, but no cited source shows it live in the 12 months before this review, and Clave's current site gave no product details. 31140 |
| Rollups | Unknown | Rollups anchored to ZKsync Era were not reviewed. Other ZKsync network chains such as Abstract or Sophon are separate chains that settle on Ethereum, not on Era, and the shared Gateway settlement layer is deprecated. Era's own settlement is described in the mechanism and Ethereum dependency notes. 518 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemSyncSwap, Uniswap v3 | SyncSwap's docs list classic and stable pool factories, a vault and routers on ZKsync Era, and Uniswap's developer docs list ZKsync among Uniswap v3 deployments (its ZKsync detail page returned 404). Liquidity depth and current activity were not measured, and the planned retirement of EraVM will require action for funds held in DEX contracts. 232930 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle) | Circle's USDC address list includes ZKsync Era (0x1d17CBcF0D6D143135aE902365D2E5e2A16538D4). Native here means issued by Circle on Era, not a protocol asset. USDT0 is not deployed on Era according to its deployment list. 3132 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on ZKsync Era were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolZKsync native bridge (ZKsync Bridge portal), Across, Layerswap, Orbiter Finance, Owlto Finance | Deposits lock tokens in the bridge on Ethereum and mint them on Era; withdrawals burn tokens on Era and anyone can finalize them on Ethereum once the batch is executed. ZKsync's Era ecosystem page names the portal as the official bridge and lists Across, Layerswap, Orbiter and Owlto; Across's own chain list includes ZKsync (chain 324), and the other three were not checked. Risk: Canonical withdrawals depend on the operator proposing and executing batches (L2BEAT says they freeze if it stops), on a sound proof system that needed several instant patches in 2026, and on contracts that can be upgraded after about four days or instantly on the emergency path. Contract-held funds will need action when EraVM is retired, with steps not yet published. Third-party bridges add their own trust assumptions. 492324283334 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemZKsync Era Block Explorer (explorer.zksync.io), Blockscout (zksync.blockscout.com), OKLink | ZKsync's docs name the official explorer, which shows transactions, blocks and batches, and list Blockscout and OKLink instances for Era. The former era.zksync.network address now redirects to the official explorer. Explorer indexes are not canonical consensus. 24 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinTrezor Safe 3, 5 and 7 (through MetaMask or Rabby), Ledger Wallet (ZKsync behind a default-off feature switch) | See custody rows. Trezor's ZKsync page lists the ZkSync network for the Safe 3, 5 and 7 and names MetaMask and Rabby (it also names Trezor Suite, but Suite's own network list has no ZKsync chain). Ledger Wallet's code includes ZKsync behind a feature switch that is off by default, and no Ledger page confirms users can open it. ZKsync's own wallet list names no hardware wallets. 4353638 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | PartialSame as native: Unknown | Can: Possibly add a ZKsync Era account in Ledger Wallet: Ledger's current wallet code includes ZKsync as an Ethereum-family network, but behind a feature switch that is off by defaultCounted as limited first-party support under the shared custody rule: Ledger Wallet hides ZKsync unless its feature switch is on, the switch is off by default in code, and Ledger's remote switch setting could not be read. Ledger's ZKsync coin page returned 404 and its support article on connecting a Ledger to zkSync was blocked, so no user-facing Ledger statement confirms it. Signing ZKsync's own typed transactions was not reviewed. 373839 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby (third-party wallet apps named on Trezor's ZKsync page)Same as native: Unknown | Can: Use a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 on ZKsync Era through MetaMask or Rabby, confirming transactions on the device; Trezor's ZKsync page lists the ZkSync network for these models Cannot: Add a ZKsync Era account in Trezor Suite: the Ethereum-family network list in Suite's public source code has no chain 324, although Trezor's ZKsync page names Trezor Suite as a compatible appTrezor's evidence conflicts: its ZKsync page lists Ethereum and ZkSync as networks and names Trezor Suite, but Suite's network configuration has no ZKsync chain; the page may describe the ZK token, which it also lists on Ethereum. On Era a key-held address works through the protocol's default account code, so a hardware key signs like an ordinary wallet. Signing ZKsync's own typed transactions (used for paymasters), smart-account signing and older Trezor models were not reviewed. 133536 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for ZKsync Era yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Matter Labs announced a transition retiring EraVM, to begin within six months, with new security measures
Matter Labs said that within the next six months ZKsync Era and other EraVM chains will begin a transition that retires the EraVM execution environment; it named no replacement or end date. Regular wallets need no action for now, while funds held in contracts will need action, with exact steps and dates promised in the coming weeks. It also announced security measures: a recommended 24-hour execution delay, independent second nodes confirming batches, publishing covered Era protocol code three months after each upgrade ships, emergency upgrades renamed instant upgrades, and a second proving system still subject to testing and audit.
- Proposal:announced by Matter Labs; migration steps and dates still to be published
- Implementation:security measures announced, several of them recommendations that each chain decides on; replacement for EraVM not named
- Release:no release for the retirement yet
- Activation:not active; the transition is to begin within six months of 2026-09-04, with no end date given
-
ZIP-17 proposed letting EraVM chains raise their execution delay to 24 hours
A Matter Labs author posted ZIP-17, which updates the validator timelock contract so each EraVM chain can raise its execution delay from 3 hours to 24 hours. Chains that keep the 3-hour default are unaffected. The proposal text also gives a 7-day maximum; L2BEAT's governance team said on 17 September that it voted in favour, and noted that the implementation allows delays of up to 30 days.
- Proposal:ZIP-17 posted 2026-09-04; L2BEAT's delegate team reported voting for it on 2026-09-17; final result not confirmed
- Implementation:updated validator timelock contract deployed at the address in the proposal
- Release:governance change; no software release
- Activation:not confirmed for Era; L2BEAT still showed a 3-hour delay at review time
Sources: ZK Nation Forum — [ZIP-17] Increase Execution Delay for EraVM ZK Chains (external site) · L2BEAT — ZKsync Era (external site)
-
Security Council disclosed five 2026 instant upgrades that patched ZKsync Era
The ZKsync Security Council published a notice listing five instant upgrades for ZKsync Era, signed between 23 January and 15 August 2026. They were circuit patches that fixed reported vulnerabilities (one a soundness issue), an over-constraint that could have blocked proofs for valid batches, miscomputation in some EraVM operations and a cryptographic weakness in the proof system. The notice said user funds were not believed to be actively at risk and there was no evidence of active exploitation when each upgrade was approved.
- Implementation:five circuit patch versions applied (v0.29.3 to v0.30.1)
- Release:disclosed after deployment
- Activation:applied to Era mainnet; the notice lists signing dates rather than execution times
Source: ZK Nation Forum — Notice of 2026 Instant Upgrades: Security Patches (external site)
-
Era node software core v31.4.0 added support for Protocol Upgrade 29.5
Matter Labs published release core v31.4.0 of the zksync-era node software. Its notes list support for Protocol Upgrade 29.5; let the node's Ethereum watcher take proof verification key hashes from the new-protocol-version event and handle both formats of upgrade events; fix how the verifier component masks factory dependency hashes; and remove a sort from one database query. The notes do not say whether node operators must install it or when version 29.5 took effect on mainnet. Core v31.5.0 followed on 8 August 2026; its notes list one change, a vm2 library update labelled v32.
- Implementation:Protocol Upgrade 29.5 support merged into the core node code, with Ethereum watcher, verifier and database changes
- Release:core v31.4.0 published on GitHub on 2026-08-06; core v31.5.0 marked Latest from 2026-08-08
- Activation:takes effect on each node when its operator installs it; the release gives no mainnet activation time for protocol version 29.5
Sources: Matter Labs (GitHub) — core: v31.4.0 (external site) · Matter Labs (GitHub) — core: v31.5.0 (external site) · Matter Labs (GitHub) — matter-labs/zksync-era releases (external site) · ZK Nation Forum — Notice of 2026 Instant Upgrades: Security Patches (external site)
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Era node software core v31.3.0 fixed an external node crash and several API issues
Matter Labs published release core v31.3.0 of the zksync-era node software. Its bug fixes stop the external node from crashing in its sync state updater task, correct handling of the 'to' field in the API, make state overrides iterate in a fixed order, fix three correctness issues in the Ethereum proof manager, and change how storage logs are read from the database. Its features adapt the Airbender prover server to the v31 verifier wire format and let it fetch jobs from several chains' job servers in turn.
- Implementation:API, external node, proof manager and Airbender prover server changes merged into the core node code
- Release:core v31.3.0 published on GitHub on 2026-07-20
- Activation:takes effect on each node when its operator installs it; no network-wide activation
Sources: Matter Labs (GitHub) — core: v31.3.0 (external site) · Matter Labs (GitHub) — matter-labs/zksync-era releases (external site) · ZKsync Docs — ZKsync OS overview (external site) · ZK Nation Forum — [ZIP-16] ZKsync v31 Upgrade (external site)
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The v31 protocol upgrade for Era was proposed, then delayed for review
ZIP-16 proposed the v31 upgrade, which would take Era directly from v29 to v31 and remove contract patterns incompatible with ZKsync OS, keeping Era and ZKsync OS support in the same codebase. The rescoped proposal left the earlier interop-fee mechanics out of this upgrade; a Matter Labs reply said that code stays in the codebase, inactive. Its target date for Era moved from 4 August to 24 August 2026, and on 24 August a Matter Labs reply said v31 had been delayed and was under review.
- Proposal:ZIP-16 posted 2026-07-06 and linked to an onchain vote; vote result not confirmed here
- Implementation:under review after delay
- Release:upgrade not executed on Era mainnet
- Activation:not active; no new date announced at review time
Source: ZK Nation Forum — [ZIP-16] ZKsync v31 Upgrade (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for ZKsync Era through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- What replaces EraVM on ZKsync Era, when the transition that Matter Labs said would begin within six months of 2026-09-04 is to finish, and the steps and dates for moving funds held in contracts were not published at review time; Matter Labs said exact steps and dates would follow in the coming weeks.
- Whether the ZIP-17 onchain vote passed, and whether Era has raised its execution delay from 3 hours toward 24 hours, was not confirmed; L2BEAT still showed 3 hours.
- The v31 protocol upgrade (ZIP-16) was delayed for review on 2026-08-24; its vote result and new date were not confirmed.
- Who legally operates Era's sequencer and prover was not sourced; L2BEAT describes a centralized operator whose roles a Matter Labs multisig manages, and ZKsync's docs do not name the operator.
- The members of the 3-of-8 Era validator multisig, and whether it is the independent second node the September 2026 post describes, were not identified.
- ZK Nation's governance overview page still describes a Security Council of twelve seats with at least nine members, while its Security Council schedule and L2BEAT describe 8 members; the schedule's figures are used here.
- The external node's current requirements were taken from Matter Labs' published guide; whether node releases continue on time under the three-month delayed code publication policy was not verified (the last core release seen was 2026-08-08).
- Ledger Wallet's code keeps ZKsync behind a feature switch that is off by default; whether users have it could not be confirmed: Ledger's ZKsync coin page returned 404, its support article was blocked (403 or empty) and remote switch settings are not public.
- Trezor's ZKsync page names Trezor Suite while Suite's public network configuration has no ZKsync chain; the custody row follows the source code and records the conflict. Handling of ZKsync-specific transaction types, smart-account signing and older Trezor models were not verified.
- DEX liquidity depth was not measured; the Uniswap v3 ZKsync detail page returned 404, and other venues (for example PancakeSwap, Koi Finance or Maverick) were not checked.
- Layerswap, Orbiter Finance and Owlto Finance were not checked at their own documentation for current Era support; LayerZero and Chainlink CCIP messaging were not reviewed.
- Atomic-swap, channel, algorithmic-stablecoin and L3 surfaces on Era were not reviewed; for recovery only Clave's January 2025 guide was read, and Clave's current site gave no product details, so whether it still offers guardian recovery on Era was not confirmed.
- How much of each fee goes to the operator versus Ethereum costs, and whether any part is burned, is not stated in the reviewed fee docs.
- No typical end-to-end withdrawal time beyond ZKsync's around-3-hours guidance and its caveat of possible extra delay was measured.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- About ZKsync Era (external site)
- ZKsync Era network details (external site)
- ZKsync Era unique features (external site)
- ZKsync Era ecosystem (external site)
- ZKsync chain list (external site)
- Finality (external site)
- Withdrawal delay (external site)
- Data availability (external site)
- Bridging assets (external site)
- Transaction lifecycle (external site)
- Native account abstraction (external site)
- Account abstraction design (external site)
- System contracts (external site)
- EVM interpreter overview (external site)
- Nonces (external site)
- Contract deployment (external site)
- Upgrades and migrations (external site)
- ZKsync Gateway (external site)
- ZKsync JSON-RPC API (zks namespace) (external site)
- ZKsync External Node (external site)
- External node quick start (external site)
- External node introduction (external site)
- Hardening EraVM: New Security Measures and the Transition Ahead (external site)
- Notice of 2026 Instant Upgrades: Security Patches (external site)
- [ZIP-17] Increase Execution Delay for EraVM ZK Chains (external site)
- Schedule 3: ZKsync Security Council (external site)
- ZK Token (external site)
- ZKsync Era (external site)
- Smart Contracts (external site)
- v3 Deployments (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- Deployments (external site)
- Chains & Contracts (external site)
- ZKsync Bridge: Transfer funds between ZKsync and Ethereum (external site)
- Safe & secure ZKsync wallet (external site)
- Trezor Suite Ethereum network configuration (networkConfig.ts, develop branch) (external site)
- Ledger Wallet coin-module loaders (loaders.ts, develop branch) (external site)
- Ledger Wallet feature switch currencyZkSync (develop branch) (external site)
- Ledger feature-flag definitions (define.ts): a switch declared with no value is off by default (external site)
- Secure Your Wallet with Social Recovery (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding