Zilliqa mainnet EVM compatibility set to go live in April

Zilliqa users will be able to transfer original ZILs using wallets such as MetaMask and deploy Solidity smart contracts via developer tools like Truffle and Hardhat as of April 25.

On March 2, the layer-2 protocol Zilliqa published a blog post outlining new steps it was making to ensure Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility.

Developers are set to work on full interoperability between Scilla and Solidity smart contract standards — which will be phased first on a testnet and later on the Zilliqa mainnet.

Upcoming Zilliqa changes

The implementation of EVM compatibility on Zilliqa differs from other EVM-deployed smart contracts in several ways.

First, the implementation is native to the Zilliqa ecosystem, meaning that there is no need for complex conversion processes when transferring tokens. The new changes will give EVM access the same ZIL as Scilla in the same address space, making it possible to exchange value directly without bridges or unnecessary delays.

Second, the implementation provides extensive support for API libraries such as Ethers.js and Web3.js — both widely used coding libraries in the Ethereum ecosystem. This aides Zilliqa developers as they can use the same tools and workflows they are already familiar with when building on Zilliqa.

Lastly, the new changes to Zilliqa are designed to be fully interoperable between Scilla and Solidity smart-contract standards. This means that it will be as easier to transfer NFTs and fungible tokens between EVM and Scilla interfaces as it is to transfer native ZIL tokens.

What makes Zilliqa unique

In 2016, Prateek Saxena, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore School of Computing, and several students from the school, published a paper outlining how a blockchain focused on sharding could enhance network efficiency and speed. This paper was the initial idea behind Zilliqa.

Zilliqa is a unique and different layer 2 protocol because it uses a technology called sharding to achieve high throughput and scalability. Sharding involves splitting the network into smaller groups of nodes, or shards, each of which can process transactions in parallel. This allows Zilliqa to process a much larger number of transactions per second than other blockchain networks.