Scroll, a zkEVM-based scaling solution for Ethereum, announced successful completion of their pre-alpha testnet, Scroll 5. This testnet focused on proving out the performance and stability of the network under a higher load of transactions, including complex DeFi interactions. They achieved significant performance improvements, demonstrating increased transaction throughput and decreased latency compared to previous testnets. The team is now working towards a permissioned alpha release, followed by a permissionless alpha later this year, with the ultimate goal of a mainnet launch on Ethereum.
The fifth iteration of the Scroll prize, a competition designed to incentivize the creation of high-quality, detailed summaries of academic papers, is undergoing several exciting developments. Foremost among these changes is a significant expansion in the scope of eligible papers. Previously limited to computer science papers found on arXiv, the competition now welcomes submissions summarizing papers from a wide array of disciplines, encompassing the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. This broadened scope reflects the Scroll team's belief in the universal value of concise and accessible summaries of academic work, regardless of the field of study. This interdisciplinary expansion aims to encourage participation from a more diverse range of summarizers, bringing together individuals with expertise across numerous academic domains.
Furthermore, Scroll 5 introduces a novel evaluation mechanism. Moving away from the previous system of community voting, the evaluation process will now leverage the expertise of subject matter experts. These specialists, selected for their deep knowledge within specific fields, will meticulously assess the quality and accuracy of the submitted summaries, ensuring a more rigorous and professional evaluation process. This shift towards expert review underscores a commitment to upholding the highest standards of academic rigor and accuracy in the summaries produced.
Another key development is the enhanced focus on real-world impact. The Scroll team is actively seeking partnerships with academic journals and institutions to explore the potential integration of winning summaries into existing publication workflows. This potential integration highlights the practical utility of the summaries, envisioning them as valuable tools for researchers, students, and the broader public seeking to quickly grasp the key findings of complex academic papers. The possibility of these summaries being featured alongside original publications represents a significant step towards increasing the accessibility and dissemination of academic knowledge.
Finally, the announcement emphasizes the continued commitment to open-source principles. The codebase driving the Scroll platform remains openly accessible, fostering transparency and encouraging community contributions to the project's development. This commitment to open-source practices aligns with the overall goal of democratizing access to academic knowledge and empowering individuals to contribute to its dissemination. By maintaining an open-source framework, the Scroll team encourages ongoing refinement and improvement of the platform by a wider community of developers and researchers.
Summary of Comments ( 3 )
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42955356
Hacker News users discuss Scroll's announcement about expanding their zkEVM rollup's compatibility with existing Ethereum infrastructure and tools. Several commenters express skepticism about the viability and necessity of zkEVMs in general, questioning their complexity and potential security risks compared to optimistic rollups. Some point to the lack of readily apparent demand for zkEVM technology outside of specific niche use cases. Others voice concerns about the closed-source nature of Scroll's implementation, hindering community review and potentially impacting trust. Conversely, some commenters express excitement about the progress, particularly regarding the compatibility with existing tooling, viewing it as a positive step towards wider adoption of zk-rollups. A few users ask about the pricing model, but no definitive answers are provided in the comments.
The Hacker News post "News from Scroll 5" (linking to a Scroll Prize update) has a moderate number of comments, most of which express skepticism or raise concerns about the project. No one outright champions the project, and the overall tone is cautious.
Several commenters question the value proposition of Scroll, particularly given the existing ecosystem of ad blockers and privacy-focused browsers like Brave. They argue that these existing solutions already address many of the issues Scroll claims to solve, like annoying ads and trackers. Some question whether the average user understands or cares enough about the nuances of web privacy to pay for a service like Scroll.
A few commenters express concern about the centralized nature of Scroll and its potential to become a single point of failure or censorship. They worry that routing all web traffic through a single entity could grant that entity excessive control over information access. One commenter specifically raises the question of whether Scroll will block access to sites critical of its own operations.
There's also skepticism about the technical feasibility and scalability of Scroll's approach. Some doubt that it can effectively handle the complexity and ever-evolving nature of the web without introducing performance issues or compatibility problems. One commenter points out the historical difficulties faced by similar projects attempting to filter or modify web traffic at a large scale.
Some of the more technical comments delve into the specifics of Scroll's proposed architecture and question its robustness and resilience. These commenters express concerns about potential vulnerabilities and the difficulty of maintaining a comprehensive and up-to-date filter list for ads and trackers.
Finally, a few comments simply express disinterest or apathy towards the project, indicating that they don't see a compelling reason to switch from their existing browsing setup.