Vitalik Buterin: zk-SNARK will allow to scale Ethereum up to 500 transactions per second

The cryptographic principles underlying the zk-SNARK (ZCash-proof technology of zero-disclosure in the crypto currency) can greatly help with the scaling of the Ethereum network, Vitalik Buterin said during a scientific forum.

According to Buterin, using the zk-SNARK technology, the Ethereum "can scale significantly" and reach speeds of up to 500 transactions per second, without resorting to second-level solutions, such as Plasma or Raiden.

"We can actually scale asset transfer transactions on Ethereum by a huge amount, without using layer 2's that introduce liveness assumptions (e.g. channels, plasma), by using ZK-SNARKs to mass-validate transactions," Buterin said.

He added that this method will require a "relay node" - a computer that will aggregate transactions in exchange for the relevant commissions.

"Anybody can be a repeater. In this scheme, there is not even an assumption about the existence of any particular "operator," Buterin added.

As a result, according to his calculations, such a model can lead to an increase in the rate of "[approximately] 24x for ETH transactions and up to 50x for ERC-20 token transfers."

This proposal came amid increasing criticism of the blockbuster Ethereum from researchers and the community associated with the capacity of the network. For example, on Sept. 21, the head of Parity Afrid Afrid Shimon, called on Twitter developers to "stop deploying DApps" because "the network is already at its limit."

During the forum, Buterin also noted that using zk-SNARK will require considerable computing power, but in the future, rather, the technology will be optimized.

"I understand that such a model will require significant calculations on the side of repeaters. But at the moment it is well known that the optimization of snark / stark is extremely important, so I am sure that more and more engineering work will be done in this direction," concluded Buterin.

Recall that the technology of anonymous transactions, based on the evidence with zero disclosure of information zk-SNARK, appeared in Ethereum after the activation of Byzantium - the first part of the update Metropolis.