The world of cryptocurrencies is constantly evolving, and in recent developments, it’s becoming less expensive to lend and borrow idle digital assets. Compound Finance, one of the original decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms with roots in yield farming, is deploying its latest iteration on the widely popular scaling solution, Arbitrum.
Arbitrum is currently the largest layer-2 scaling solution in the industry with a total value locked (TVL) of $5.8 billion, surpassing other Ethereum scalers like Optimism or zkSync. Compound’s inclusion on Arbitrum, however, is limited to selected cryptocurrencies such as ETH, Arbitrum, WBTC, and GMX. This restriction is due to Compound’s latest version, V3, which manages risk by limiting the number of long-tail crypto assets available for lending and borrowing.
But as the market continues to develop, 2022 has become a pivotal year for layer-2 solutions, with a surge of governance tokens and the emergence of zero knowledge-powered rollup solutions. While Arbitrum and Optimism are known for their “optimistic” rollup solutions, their counterparts, including Starknet, Polygon’s zkEVM, and zkSync, utilize a more intricate cryptographic approach called zk-rollups. Collectively, the TVL of these three zk-rollup projects amounts to $320 million.
Both optimistic and zk-rollup solutions function similarly by batching transactions off of the Ethereum mainnet and creating a proof from these batched transactions. Ethereum then validates this compact data, thereby keeping the mainnet relatively uncongested and gas prices low on the network.
However, there remains to be some uncertainty regarding the direction that this technology will take. Will layer-2 solutions continue to grow and become even more efficient, or is the ceiling for improvement closer than we think? Critics argue that layer-2 solutions may not be the definitive answer to scalability, as they could eventually face challenges due to increased complexities and potential security concerns.
On the other hand, proponents of layer-2 scaling solutions believe that these innovations are crucial for the industry’s evolution and have the potential to offer significant benefits. They contend that the development of these technologies will promote the adoption of cryptocurrencies and expand the DeFi ecosystem, providing greater access to these financial services for millions of people worldwide.
In conclusion, the deployment of Compound Finance on Arbitrum marks a significant milestone in the ongoing development of the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. This move represents a continued commitment to optimizing the technology and creating more affordable lending and borrowing opportunities for idle cryptocurrencies. Only time will tell the extent to which layer-2 solutions will drive the future growth of the market and address the industry’s persisting scalability challenges.
Source: Decrypt
