Chain architecture
The Immutable zkEVM is a blockchain that is fully compatible with Ethereum. It is designed for games and other applications that require fast and low-cost transactions.
Gas and congestion
Immutable zkEVM has adopted EIP-1559 as the congestion mechanism to prevent spam and provide a deterministic gas pricing algorithm. Gas is expected to cost multiple orders of magnitude less than Ethereum. $IMX is used as the native gas token on Immutable zkEVM.
Anchoring to Ethereum
There are 3 main reasons why we're anchoring to Ethereum:
- Security
- Ethereum has a large decentralised validator set that uses a well researched Proof of Stake consensus protocol that is secured by more than US$100B. These factors combine to provide a secure basis for Immutable zkEVM.
- Liquidity
- Ethereum has significant capital and liquidity that will be used to fuel applications built on Immutable zkEVM.
- Bridging
- As Immutable is a multi-chain ecosystem, we must have fast but secure and trustless bridging between each Immutable-supported chain that shares the same Data Availability layer.
At present the anchoring to Ethereum is via our canonical bridge. We are working towards being an Ethereum L2 rollup that posts state to Ethereum and allows this state to be challenged using zero-knowledge proofs. This will provide us with the a more secure Settlement and Data Availability (DA) layer.
Decentralization
Immutable zkEVM will initially launch with only Immutable as a single sequencer/validator. This is a critical first step in our strategy to allow the ecosystem to start forming while being able to respond quickly to ensure the safety and integrity of our chain. The long-term goal remains to gradually open up the chain.
We'll publish a technical Deep Dive blog soon that goes into much more depth behind Immutable zkEVM's architecture.