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
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Scroll's use of zero-knowledge proofs makes it a promising solution for addressing the scalability and privacy challenges facing the Ethereum network.
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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.
With the recent Arbitrum (ARB) airdrop that happened on 23rd March, there has been renewed interest from the market and we have seen active participation in airdrop hunting. Hopefully you followed our Arbitrum Ecosystem Airdrop article, and got your share of ARB airdrops. If you missed it or want more and are wondering about upcoming airdrops, read on.
In this article, we will be looking at one of the highly anticipated developments in the crypto space: Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Rollups. In particular, we will be diving deeper into the Scroll ecosystem, and identify some opportunities for a potential airdrop by interacting with their testnet: Scroll Alpha.
What is 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.
Entering Scroll Alpha
Before we begin interacting with any applications, we will first have to connect the wallet to the Scroll Alpha environment.
Step 1: Adding Goerli Testnet & Scroll Alpha Testnet
Go to https://scroll.io/alpha and click on ‘Add to MetaMask’ for both the Goerli Testnet and Scroll Alpha Testnet
Step 2: Getting Goerli ETH
Sign up for an Alchemy account at https://auth.alchemy.com/signup. Once you have done so, head over to https://goerlifaucet.com/, login to your Alchemy account from this page and key in your wallet address to receive Goerli ETH. This will allow you to receive 0.02 Goerli ETH every 24 hours.
If this does not work, you can also try Quicknode's faucet which may take 140 hours or more as it is often congested. Lastly, if you really want to, you can buy Goerli ETH with real ETH on https://testnetbridge.com which is powered by LayerZero.
Note: The gas fees requirement might be more than 0.02 ETH, so you might need to get Goerli ETH from the faucet a few times. 
Step 3: Bridge Goerli ETH to Scroll
Once you have received your Goerli ETH, head over to http://scroll.io/alpha/bridge and bridge 0.01 ETH from Goerli Testnet to Scroll Alpha Testnet.
A few things to note for this section
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Your wallet should be connected to the Goerli Testnet
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Click on the arrow to change the direction of the transfer to be from Goerli Testnet to Scroll Alpha) Testnet (make sure it's not the other way round)
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This process might take up to 10 minutes.
We are all set and ready to start hunting for the Scroll airdrop!
Join the Scroll Guild
Go to https://guild.xyz/scrollzkp and click on ‘Join Guild to get roles’. You will be asked to connect your wallet, Discord and Twitter. Do take note that to qualify for this mystery role, you will need to have a Twitter account that was created before 1st October, 2022. For those that do not qualify for this criteria, fret not as we have more Scroll applications to interact with!
Uniswap
Alright, first up, we will be interacting with Uniswap that has been deployed on the Scroll Alpha testnet.
Go to https://uniswap-v3.scroll.io/#/swap and connect your wallet. Make sure that you are connected to the Scroll Alpha Testnet and not other networks. Remember the steps we did earlier on? That should have gotten you your ETH for use on the Scroll Alpha Testnet. There are a few steps to interacting with Uniswap.
Step 1: Wrapping ETH to WETH
(A) Click on the ‘Select token’ and select Wrapped Ether (WETH).
(B) Enter 0.0001 in the row with ETH and the corresponding amount of WETH will be generated automatically. Afterwards, click on ‘Wrap’.
(C) After you have wrapped the tokens, you can now proceed to unwrapping it. Click on the arrow to change the order of ETH and WETH, and you should be able to see this on the screen. Enter 0.0001 in the row with WETH and the corresponding amount of ETH will be generated automatically. Click on ‘Unwrap’.
That concludes the first part of interacting with Uniswap! Let’s move on to provision of liquidity.
Step 2: Get USDC
(A) Once again, click on ‘Select token’ from the swap interface. Enter this string ‘0xA0D71B9877f44C744546D649147E3F1e70a93760’ into the search panel. You will see the ‘USD Coin’ pop up in the list, click on it.
Take note that while adding the USDC token, there will be a warning sign that appears. It is safe to ignore the warning in this testnet.
(B) Once you have added the token address in, you can swap 0.0001 ETH to USDC. Do take note that the amount of USDC you receive might be different from what is shown below; it is a normal occurrence.
Step 3: Add Liquidity to the ETH-USDC Pool
Go to https://uniswap-v3.scroll.io/#/pool and click on ‘New Position’. Under ‘Select Pair’, type in ‘USDC’ and select the token that appears. You will be able to see USDC because you have added it in the previous step.
You can select any of the fee tiers. For this guide, I have selected 0.3%.
This next portion will require you to play around with the price. Since this is a testnet, the token does not reflect the actual price of USDC, which causes the price range to vary significantly. Under the ‘Set Price Range’, you will have to adjust the range to be able to see the ‘Preview’ and carry on with liquidity provision. One trick that you can try would be to click on ‘-’ for the ‘Min Price’ and ‘+’ for the ‘Max Price’, as this allows you to be adjust until you are within a suitable range. Once this has been done, key in the amount of ETH, but do take note not to deposit all ETH as Goerli ETH is not readily available.
Once all of the above has been completed, click on ‘Preview’. There will be a couple of prompts and you will have to sign the transaction from your wallet.
Upon the successful provision of liquidity, you should be able to see the position in your dashboard. By clicking into the position, you will have access to a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) which is presentative of the position. Over here, you will be able to access other features such as ‘Increase Liquidity’, ‘Remove Liquidity’ and ‘Collect Fees’.
And with that, we are done with the Uniswap interaction! If you are interested, feel free to play around with some of the other functions that were mentioned above.
Let's move on to other interesting dApps on Scroll!
Scroll Guardians
Scroll Guardians is a simple boss killing game. Users are able to mint the hero of their choice, and engage in a fight with the boss Moloch. Head over to https://scroll-guardians.vercel.app/ to give this a try.
Scroll.chat: A Way to Learn More About Scroll
I’m sure you have used, or at least heard of ChatGPT, given it’s newfound popularity over the past few months. Well, scroll.chat is a chatbot that utilizes the OpenAI (which is used to develop ChatGPT) API to help answer questions pertaining to Scroll. So if you are keen on learning more about Scroll, do make sure to hop over to https://scroll-chat-frontend.vercel.app/, connect your wallet and try this out!
Conclusion
And that would be all for this article! Do remember that interacting with the mentioned protocols might give you an opportunity to receive an airdrop, however, this has yet to be confirmed by the Scroll team themselves. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to begin interacting with some of the applications building on a soon-to-be released Layer 2 and to see what the protocol has to offer.
CJ is a business graduate that has been involved in crypto for 4 years and specializes in DeFi protocols. He is also interested in TradFi becoming DeFi, and has written for ByBit, SwitcheoLabs, and others. Follow the author on Twitter @fishmarketacad
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