What Is Scroll and How to Participate in the Scroll Airdrop

What Is Scroll?

Scroll is an EVM-equivalent Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that utilizes ZK technology, enabling faster and more efficient transactions while maintaining the security of the Ethereum blockchain.

Key Takeaways

• Scroll's use of zero-knowledge proofs makes it a promising solution for addressing the scalability and privacy challenges facing the Ethereum network.

• As Scroll does not have a token yet, it is possible that they may gave a potential airdrop for interacting with some the dapps on their testnet. 

This article was updated in December 2024 by Stephanie Goh.

In this article, we will be looking at one of the highly anticipated developments in the crypto space: Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Rollups, and Scroll, a comprehensive zk rollup solution for Ethereum. In particular, we will take a look at the Scroll ecosystem, and identify some opportunities for the upcoming Scroll airdrop.

Scroll has announced their upcoming airdrop for the token Scroll (SCR), with a planned token supply of 1 billion. 

The Scroll airdrop snapshot date will be on October 19 2024, so if you haven't interacted with Scroll, now's a great time to start!

Introduction to Scroll

Within the zkEVM space, a few networks other than Scroll exist. Examples of which would be StarkNet and zkSync. With the launch of the Scroll Alpha Testnet, Scroll is a step closer to improving the Layer 2 landscape with their technology. Given the competition in this space, let's take a look at what are some of the key value propositions brought about by Scroll.

1. Hierarchical Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) System

By utilizing this proving scheme, Scroll is able to achieve efficient verification through succint proofs. In addition, it becomes more compatible for decentralized applications (dApps) to be deployed on L2s.

2. Efficient Communication Channels

Scroll is working towards building a robust L2 ecosystem, which is achieved by open innovation. Hence, effort has been made by the Scroll team in terms of establishing communication channels between dApps on Scroll and dApps on the other L2s. This also provides a good opportunity for strategic partnership between applications, potentially creating synergies that could spillover as positive externalities to users.

3. L2 Mining

By introducing robust and permissionless L2 mining, miners will be incentivized to generate zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) for users. The separation of transaction packing and mining process also reduces the maximal extractable value (MEV) issue. With these architectures in place, it is likely that Scroll will be more attractive to users given the robustness of the network and the protection from negative MEVs.

With the success of optimistic roll-ups, we can look forward to zk rollups bringing about a new wave of improvement to the crypto landscape.

What Is zkEVM?

zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine) is a type of zk rollup, which is part of a broader vertical known as Layer 2 scaling solutions. In short, they are networks aimed at increasing the transaction throughput while lowering costs. Rollups gained significant market attention between late 2021 to early 2022, with the high gas fees on Ethereum proving to be a huge financial barrier for users to come onboard. Also, while there are established optimistic rollups like Optimism and Arbitrum, they require a 7-day window for any potential disputes before a transaction is confirmed on the Layer 1. Meanwhile zk rollups takes significantly less time for a transaction to be finalized, with the Scroll testnet currently requiring a maximum of a few hours, with the expectation of even lower confirmation times on Mainnet. 

A zkEVM is a virtual machine that is able to execute smart contract transactions in a manner which allows them to be compatible with both zk proof computations and Ethereum’s existing infrastructure. Given that the Ethereum ecosystem is the largest, being EVM compatible would give zk roll-ups a huge leverage in terms of the potential market they can tap on.

Now, let's look at how we can improve our eligibility for the potential Scroll airdrop through testnet interactions.

Scroll (SCR) Token

Scroll has announced the launch of the SCR token, which is the project's first step toward decentralization. It will be the protocol's primary governance mechanism, and will eventually progress to becoming the protocol's utility token as Scroll becomes more decentralized, where SCR will be used to incentivize the miner community and creating a robust prover network. 

Scroll has also announced their planned SCR token distribution, with a total supply of 1 billion. 7% is reserved for the upcoming first airdrop, with the snapshot date set for October 19 2024. Of the remaining, the breakdown follows the pie chart below:

On October 19, 2024, Scroll concluded Scroll Marks Session 1 by taking a snapshot of eligible onchain participants. Users can now check their eligibility and claim their SCR tokens at https://claim.scroll.io/. The claim portal is open for 90 days starting from October 22, 2024.  

Scroll will continue the Marks program with Session 2, allowing users both new and seasoned alike to earn in the new phase. Successful recipients from Airdrop 1 will have their Marks reset to zero while those who were ineligible will have their Marks carried over into Session 2. The second phase of Scroll’s Marks includes a new marks dashboard, boosts for providing liquidity in Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), and contributing liquidity to Scroll’s ecosystem.

Step 1: Connect to Scroll

Follow Step 1 from the Scroll Session Session 1 guide above.

Step 2: Bridge Assets

You can now head directly to https://scroll.io/bridge and bridge your assets over from Ethereum to Scroll. The process remains the same as Step 2 from Session 1.

Step 3: Provide Liquidity in DEXs

Scroll has highlighted in their blog post that providing liquidity in DEXs will provide boosts. However, at the time of writing it is not clear what these boosts are and if there are specific requirements to obtain them. Despite this, it is clear that providing liquidity on DEXs should be a prioritized step. 

Go to https://scroll.io/ecosystem to view all the available protocols in the Scroll Ecosystem which has grown significantly since Session 1. We will not be covering all of them but we do recommend that you take the time to go through all of them to find those which you are most comfortable to interact with.

For example, you can provide liquidity on Ambient Finance as shown in Step 4 for Session 1 above. Some of the other DEXs you can look into for providing liquidity are Nuri Exchange, Sushi, and Scribe Exchange. The key step you need to follow across all platforms is to ensure that you are transacting on the Scroll network. If in doubt, always use the Visit button next to the protocol to be redirected to the correct page.

Step 4: Contribute Liquidity 

For this step, we will be using Aave as an example on how to contribute liquidity to the Scroll ecosystem. However, we also encourage you to explore other protocols offering liquidity options. 

On the https://scroll.io/ecosystem page, Visit Aave.

On the Aave page, proceed to Open App.

Then connect the same wallet you use on Scroll.

You will see a list of assets you can supply on the Scroll market. In this example, we will supply USDC.

Input the amount to supply, Approve it in your wallet, and Supply the token. 

Conclusion

And that would be all for this article! Do remember that interacting with the mentioned protocols gives you the opportunity to earn Scroll Marks for the next Scroll airdrop.