Microsoft veteran Vassilis Tziokas has joined zkSync developer Matter Labs as head of Enterprise Business Development.
Tziokas spent nearly eight years at the tech giant, most recently as a global leader in Web3 and AI business development and strategy. He wants to use that experience to unlock the “holy grail” of web3 and thus attract enterprise adoption to the space via zkSync’s Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, he told The Block in an interview.
The motivation for Tziokas’ move comes from a strong belief in an impending wave of innovation, adoption and business solutions built using blockchain technologies, and he wanted to be as “close to the action as possible.”
Tziokas said he was particularly attracted to Matter Labs because of its work with zero-knowledge technology and its commitment to personal freedom. He had met the team at various conferences in the past, but said reading the ZK Credo – a manifesto on the guiding principles for the emerging ZK-powered ecosystem released in June – was the moment it really “clicked” for him, and he knew he wanted to join Matter Labs.
Unlocking the ‘holy grail’ of web3
When asked about the future of enterprise integration with blockchain and web3 technologies, as part of Matter Labs’ mission to “decentralize access for all,” Tziokas said that engaging enterprises with web3 is the “holy grail” for the industry used to be. Companies are always looking for new ways to create value, but must operate in a clear regulatory environment, he added.
“As zkSync scales Ethereum into a highly scalable, reliable and cost-effective computing platform, it unlocks a new part of the internet to be built out – whether it’s banking the unbanked, more secure enterprise systems, shared industry-specific protocols to power efficiencies on a global scale or new types of user experiences that naturally come with new computing environments – similar to what we have seen with the advent of the internet itself or the mainstream adoption of cloud and mobile,” said Tziokas.
Tziokas believes zkSync is the right protocol for enterprises to build innovative, secure, value-added solutions while allowing users to maintain greater control over their data and experiences.
“Two years ago, [Ethereum co-founder] Vitalik Buterin said ZK is the future, which resonated with companies committed to web3, especially Ethereum,” said Tziokas. “zkSync stands out because it launched the first ZK rollup over three years ago and easily has the best ZK technology and long-term technology vision in ZK Stack.”
Last year, Matter Labs also raised $200 million to drive zkSync adoption and grow its team.
Challenges and opportunities
Tziokas acknowledged that there are still many challenges for companies to broadly adopt web3 technology, not just through zkSync, but within the broader blockchain industry. He cited supplier fragmentation, lack of regulatory clarity and complex UX as some examples, but added that companies and technologically advanced countries were increasingly looking to introduce new ZK-based services.
More specifically, Tziokas pointed to the recent launch of the Buenos Aires government’s ZK-based digital identity solution, for digitally storing driver’s licenses, birth and marriage certificates, and income verification. He also noted that Walmart entered the NFT world last month through Pudgy Penguins, one of the top NFT collections with sales of more than $300 million. The retail giant is selling 26 versions of Pudgy toys in 2,000 stores in the US, with Pudgy World – a multiplayer digital social platform where users can build their ‘Forever Pudgy’ characters, play mini-games and interact with other users – built on zkSync .
Furthermore, zkSync’s hyperbridging “opens up the opportunity for all these services to potentially collaborate and collaborate with each other, creating the ideal interoperability landscape – reliable, fast and low-cost cross-chain transactions,” Tziokas added.
Layer 2 decentralization
Currently, Layer 2 networks introduce elements of centralization, such as relying on sequencers and provers controlled by the project teams. A sequencer is a component that orders and batches multiple off-chain transactions before sending them to the Ethereum blockchain. A prover is a mechanism that generates cryptographic proofs to validate transactions without processing them in the main chain. These create single points of failure and potential censorship risks that can have a significant impact on users of the networks.
“Decentralizing the protocol is a must,” Tziokas said. “What is the difference with a centralized cloud or container infrastructure?” While the entire Ethereum ecosystem was committed to decentralization, Tziokas continued, Matter Labs is “taking aggressive action to decentralize the sequencer, prover, and other core parts of the technology.” It also added third-party developer teams to help maintain and upgrade the zkSync protocol and the ZK Stack and decentralized non-technical parts of the ecosystem, such as project rankings, Tziokas said.
While the process of bridging to Layer 2 networks in a decentralized manner remains largely complex and expensive, Tziokas said the key to widespread crypto adoption lies in offering value-added services that truly improve users’ lives, which again recent project launches highlighted.
Furthermore, the use of zkSync’s proprietary account abstraction makes the game feel like an MMO, with all blockchain technology hidden from the user, and focuses on business model innovation with traditional companies like Walmart on their terms, rather than them to force use blockchain because it is a cool trend,” he said.
“Decentralizing access for all will be a long journey, but we are on the right track,” Tziokas added.