Unveiling the Technical Vision Behind Massive: Decentralized, Cheap, Fair, and More

Massive is a decentralized ZK verification network service focused on achieving mass adoption for Web3. It aims to alleviate or even solve some of the key issues currently facing the industry.

Here’s a breakdown:

Mass Adoption: Massive could attract more users

The Web3 sector is actively exploring ways to attract more traditional users and resources. Massive takes a novel approach by starting with mobile phones, a device most users are familiar with. By employing a “Verify to Earn” incentive mechanism and simplifying operations, Massive aims to draw more participants. This strategy helps newcomers gradually understand and join the Web3 industry, continuously injecting fresh blood into the sector.

Highly Effective and Cheap: Massive could work as a settlement layer of blockchain

Currently, all Rollup solutions based on ZK technology face delays in state confirmation on Layer1 (L1) due to cost and security concerns. This is typically addressed through proof aggregation technology and verification delays. Massive introduces a solution that ensures Layer2 (L2)states can be decentralized and verified immediately after proof generation, significantly reducing the time for state transition confirmation. The verified state is then synchronized to L1, ensuring a swift and secure process.

Capital Efficiency: Massive could improve profits

Nodes in the POS (Proof of Stake) network can join through staking and re-staking. If Eigenlayer’s approach is reused, the POS consensus network can achieve Ethereum-level security. Massive supports staking and re-staking of various token types and offers flexible staking schemes tailored to different ecosystem types.

Modular Design: Massive could complete the modularity

The emergence of Massive further advances the modular design of blockchain. It can be specifically divided into ZKRollup (off-chain computation), DA (Data Availability — off-chain transaction storage), ZKVaaS (Zero-Knowledge Verification as a Service — off-chain verification), and L1 (state updates and consensus).

Keywords: Zero Knowledge, Mobile devices, Staking, Re-staking, Modularity, POS

Introduction

In essence, the blockchain industry is currently plagued by a crucial question: "How do we attract more traditional users to this sector?" Even though we witnessed a historical moment in January when a BTC spot ETF was approved, allowing some traditional investors to trade BTC in a compliant manner, the influx of new users and resources still falls far short of the industry's urgent need for fresh participants. Simply opening up investment opportunities can only bring in some investors; achieving mass adoption requires different strategies.

Some believe gaming could be the key to reaching this goal, others see potential in social media, and still, others think AI could pave the way. Regardless of the method, it's clear that industry insiders are all striving for mass adoption of blockchain. A recent event that caught my attention was Starkware's STRK token airdrop, which highlighted a significant fact: some developers outside of the usual crypto circles began to explore and show interest in entering the industry. This interest was sparked because Starkware conducted an airdrop to contributors of certain GitHub repositories, developers who might not have known about blockchain previously but became interested due to this event. Another application that left a strong impression on me is StepN, an app that became popular in the last bull market for its "earn while you run" concept. Users simply needed to purchase a pair of virtual shoes and then could earn rewards by running a very straightforward proposition daily. This led to a surge in user numbers and effectively broke into new user demographics.

These examples underscore applications or infrastructure projects capable of attracting new users to the industry. To draw new users, the following characteristics are necessary:

1. Simple operation, easy for users to get started;

2. Low hardware requirements;

3. An incentive mechanism.

   
   

Both examples satisfy the first criteria: GitHub is familiar to developers, and mobile phones are familiar to general users. They also meet the second criteria, requiring either a computer or a mobile phone. The third criteria is met as well, with one offering "contribute to earn" and the other "running to earn." However, to continuously attract new users, sustainable incentives are essential. For Starkware, continuous token airdrops may not be viable; likewise, for StepN, perpetual mining and selling are also unsustainable. Thus, for an application to sustainably attract new users and hold long-term value, it must inherently sustain its appeal.

Massive serves as an infrastructure service aimed at sustainably attracting new users to achieve the goal of mass adoption. It can support all ZK chain services, whether ZK layer1, ZK layer2, or ZK layer3, introducing new users to these ZK chains, enhancing system security, reducing operational costs, and improving capital efficiency.

Architecture

Massive is a POS (Proof of Stake) consensus network that primarily utilizes mobile devices as its nodes. Users are required to download the official app on their mobile devices, which supports both iOS and Android, the two leading operating systems. The architectural framework is outlined as follows (Fig.1):

To become a node, users can fall into one of the following two categories:

1. New users without any cryptocurrency assets can initially join the network. Their accumulated rewards must reach a certain amount before they can start unlocking subsequent mining rewards.

   
   

2. Users already possessing some cryptocurrency assets can stake these assets to become a node on the Massive network.

   
   

Depending on the underlying L1 blockchain, users can stake different assets. For example, in a Massive network serving BTC L2/L3, users can stake BRC20 and BTC assets. For Ethereum-based L2/L3 services, users can stake ERC20 and ETH assets.

The wallet will integrate several mainstream ZK technology stacks for verification, such as plonky2, plonky3, and boojum, all of which belong to the STARK family. Following market trends, support for mainstream algorithms from the SNARK family, such as Halo2 or Nova, will be iteratively introduced.

Mobile nodes that have completed staking will form a POS network to provide Timely Settlement for all Layer 2s and Layer 3s. If there is an excessive number of participating users, sharding technology can be utilized to form multiple independent POS networks according to specific standards.

Provide Timely Settlement

As mentioned earlier, Massive is not solely focused on attracting users; it also aims to address some of the current issues in the industry. Among these, the confirmation time for ZK L2s/L3s is a frequently discussed issue. Before we delve into this, let's take a look at the main solutions for ZK L2s as illustrated in the following diagram (Fig.2):

It's evident that in the design of most L2 solutions, there's a need to aggregate a sufficient number of proofs on L2 and then send them to Ethereum for verification. This approach is adopted to reduce costs. Even with this premise, the aggregated proofs sent to L1 must wait for a certain period before calling the Verify contract to alter the global state, a measure taken from a security standpoint, although this delay can be configured. Therefore, it can be concluded that a L2 transaction, to be finally confirmed, requires a waiting period of between 2 to 23 hours. Until then, the validity of the proofs is verified only by a centralized sequencer. The diagram below (Fig.3) illustrates the current situation where, after their generation, proofs will be verified.

Therefore, the primary intention behind Massive's design is to ensure that, before a proof is verified on L1, it goes through a verification process by a decentralized network, so everyone can verify now. It's important to note that if the POS network used for verifying the proof is provided by Eigenlayer's AVS (Actively Validated Services) service, then this POS network possesses the same level of security as Ethereum. Ultimately, only the latest global state needs to be updated on Ethereum. This aspect also offers insights into the modular design evolution discussed in later chapters.

After incorporating Massive, the entire process flow for L2s could be transformed as shown in the following diagram (Fig.4):

By extracting the ZK verify function from L1 and placing trust in the security of the Massive network, then adding a challenge mechanism to reduce the probability of Massive acting maliciously, the entire system's security will depend on the security of the Massive network. If the ecosystem of these ZK L2s is more finance-oriented, Massive could be built on EigenLayer's AVS to ensure the cost of acting maliciously is sufficiently high. Conversely, if the ecosystem of these ZK L2s is related to gaming or social scenarios, then a basic Massive construction would suffice.

Capital Efficiency

Staking and re-staking have recently become very popular concepts, focusing on capital efficiency. Reutilizing staked assets to achieve compound interest is an attractive economic mechanism currently seen in platforms like Blast and Manta. Unlike these schemes, Massive offers a novel destination for native assets across various networks, as well as for staked assets, by allowing them to become nodes within the Massive network through staking and re-staking mechanisms. Since the Massive network can provide more users, lower costs, and improved security for ZK L2s/L3s, nodes within the Massive network will share in the network maintenance profits, embodying the "verify to earn" concept.

Based on the actual circumstances of ZK L2s/L3s, different security levels of ZKVaaS can be chosen. The security level depends on the total amount staked and the number of nodes in the network.

New Modular Design

As mentioned earlier, Massive, from a certain perspective, further changes the process of blockchain modular design. Before Massive, modular design mainly consisted of execution modularization, with various Rollups solutions, and Data Availability (DA) modularization, with various DA solutions, leaving only verification, storage, and consensus functions on L1. After the introduction of Massive, modular design will evolve to include execution modularization, DA modularization, and verification modularization, with only storage and consensus remaining on L1. This is logical since verification itself is part of computation. Given that execution modularization has already moved computation off-chain, then only storage and consensus should remain on-chain. The specifics are illustrated in the following diagram (Fig.6):

If verification remains on Layer 1 (L1), the specific consensus process involves each node executing, verifying proofs, and updating the state. However, if we extract the verification process and assign it to a separate network for consensus, the L1 consensus process would then only involve updates to storage.

Under the latest modular design, existing L1 nodes will no longer undertake any computational tasks. They will only handle transactions related to the update of the global state and then execute the consensus process. There are two main reasons for this approach:

1. As mentioned in previous sections, considering costs and security, the execution of verification can be significantly delayed. Therefore, extracting it and utilizing the Massive network for verification not only achieves rapid validation but also reduces the hardware requirements for verification nodes, making it easier for users to connect.

   
   

2. The security of the separate Massive network is ensured by the amount of staked assets and the number of nodes. Compared to the original scheme, this might sacrifice a certain level of security (which depends on the value of the staked assets) but, in return, offers significant architectural advantages.

   
   

The Ecosystem of Massive

Leveraging the three core features of mobile phone mining, staking/re-staking, and Timely Settlement, Massive has the potential to become the largest network, providing safe, efficient, and low-cost services for a variety of ZK L2s/L3s. Additionally, due to its extremely low barrier to entry and profit effects, it will inject a significant number of real users into the industry.

Massive's vision is to facilitate massive adoption within the industry. Mobile mining represents a highly exploratory practice. Through straightforward operations, lower thresholds, and continuous earnings, it aims to utilize the computational power of smartphones. According to statistics, the global sales of smartphones exceeded 1 billion units in 2023. Solana and Aptos have also successively launched their own Web3 phones. Through the Massive network, these devices will be leveraged.

Reference

1. Eigenlayer whitepaper: https://docs.eigenlayer.xyz/assets/files/EigenLayer_WhitePaper-88c47923ca0319870c611decd6e562ad.pdf
2. Scroll explorer: https://scrollscan.com/batch/86321
3. Polygon explorer: https://zkevm.polygonscan.com/batches
4. Zksync contract: https://etherscan.io/address/0xa0425d71cB1D6fb80E65a5361a04096E0672De03#readContract
5. Starkware explorer: https://voyager.online/block/572773
6. Halo2: https://github.com/zcash/halo2
7. Nova: https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/370
8. Celestia: https://docs.celestia.org/learn/how-celestia-works/overview