- Ethereum Layer 2 network, Hermez, was launched on the Ethereum mainnet on 24 March 2021.
- Hermez network uses zk-rollup technology that will facilitate fast and cheap transactions.
- It aims to reduce gas costs by around 90%.
Hermez Network, Ethereum’s layer 2 scaling solution that uses zk-rollup technology, has gone live starting 9:30 AM UTC, 24th of March 2021.
This network is intended to reduce gas costs and increase scalability for moving Ethereum and other tokens. Initially, the network will support 5 assets including ether (ETH), tether (USDT), wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), dai (DAI), and Hermez token.
In the official announcement, they expressed their goals in this way:
We aim to help with Ethereum’s congestion peaks, and lower the entry barrier to decentralized finance. This is just the beginning, but the network will be able to process vast amounts of transactions, moving billions of dollars worth of digital assets.
Technically, Hermez Network is a form of zk-rollup that creates SNARKs (succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge) by grouping transactions together. These grouped transactions (SNARKs) are then settled on the Ethereum base layer as a single transaction. Zk-rollups are valuable because they can process transactions faster and cheaper than on the base chain.
Jordi Baylina, the well known smart-contract auditor “white hacker”, and also Hermez’s tech lead, told The Block:
People should save around 90% of gas costs.
This is great news for everyone who has to pay about a $16 gas fee per transaction nowadays. By doing some math, we can expect the gas fee to drop to less than $2 per transaction, as of now.
Another major benefit of the Hermez Network is its scalability. Currently, Ethereum can process about 15 transactions per second, which is very low. However, Hermez is believed to multiply Ethereum capacity by 100 times.
Hermez will be open to any ERC-20 token. As Baylina told The Block, they are planning to “add many other tokens very soon.”
While everything about the Hermez Network announcement is quite promising, the disclaimer at the end of the article somehow spoils the mood. Here is what it says:
Please remember that the public Hermez Network mainnet is the software currently in development, and it might be prone to bugs. You might find unforeseen errors and issues.
However, for sharp-sighted individuals, these bugs can be an opportunity to win up to 100 ETH. Hermez Network has launched its very own bug bounty program to encourage users to report any bug(s) they find.
