Consensys zkEVM Linea head Nicolas Liochon has stated that Ethereum's proto-danksharding is expected to drastically reduce the cost of rollups used in zero-knowledge (ZK) proof solutions, which have been critical in scaling the Ethereum ecosystem. Proto-danksharding, also known as Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) identifier EIP-4844, aims to reduce the cost of rollups by introducing data blocks that can be attached to blocks and later deleted, significantly reducing transaction costs. Liochon estimates that this will further reduce rollup costs by 10 times.
Although rollups have been beneficial in batch-processing transactions and data off-chain, their costs are still affected due to the fact that transactions are posted in call data in Ethereum blocks. The Ethereum Foundation is still developing and testing proto-danksharding, and has yet to release an expected launch date.
Additionally, Linea, Consensys' general-purpose ZK-rollup solution, adds to the reduction of rollup costs. Liochon stated that Linea's prover, which handles computation that verifies, bundles, and creates cryptographic proof of the combined transactions, represents only a fifth of the cost, with data availability being the biggest factor contributing to the cost of rollups.
Linea's goal is to be a rollup that enables various decentralized applications and solutions across the Ethereum ecosystem, including DeFi, gaming, and social applications. Consensys launched Linea in August 2023 and has onboarded over 150 partners, bridging over $26 million in Ether.
