Matter Labs recently released zkSync Era, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) solution, but it is not bytecode compatible with EVM. This implies that certain functions will work differently on the new network which makes it 10 -> 1,000 times faster than previous EVM rollups and could lead to certain functions not operating correctly. Last week, this manifested itself when the .transfer() function failed in the GemstoneIDO smart contract resulting in 900 ETH stuck in the contract.

Matter Labs acknowledges that this could have been avoided if they had tested the contract on a testnet or local node and apologizes to the users of the zkSync ecosystem. Nevertheless, they point out that the monies are safe and have identified an “elegant solution” that should unfreeze the funds.

Due to the slight incompatibility between the two networks, user’s should be careful to ensure that the code is compatible before deployment on the mainnet. Since zkSync Era is a fairly new technology, there is still a lot of testing and development to be done until it is completely operational. Therefore, developers and users should pay extra caution and consideration when testing, as demonstrated by this instance.

That being said, the scalability and speed provided by zkSync Era to the Ethereum network is invaluable, since it could potentially boost the capacity of 2,000+ transactions per second, a major upgrade to the current rate of ~20 transactions per second. As such, developers continue to strive to make the network as secure and efficient as possible, while making sure that errors and glitches such as this do not reoccur.



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