EY Enhances Nightfall Blockchain with Zero-Knowledge Rollup Design

According to Cointelegraph, the Big Four accounting firm formerly known as Ernst & Young has transitioned its enterprise-focused layer 2 blockchain, Nightfall, to a zero-knowledge rollup design. This change is aimed at providing near-instant transaction finality on the Ethereum network. EY announced on April 2 that the new source code, "Nightfall_4," simplifies the network's architecture, making it more accessible to users compared to its previous optimistic rollup-based version. The shift away from optimistic rollups eliminates the need for users to challenge potentially incorrect transactions on Ethereum and endure the challenging period, thereby accelerating transaction finality. Zero-knowledge rollups ensure that a transaction becomes final as soon as it is added into a Nightfall block, according to EY. Paul Brody, EY's global blockchain leader, stated, "This update to version four represents a major update to Nightfall, providing the same privacy and scaling that version three enabled, but now with near-instant finality and a simplified architecture." This marks the fourth major update to Nightfall since its launch in 2019, aimed at enabling EY's business partners to transfer tokens privately using Ethereum's security while being more cost-effective than the base network. Nightfall employs technology that binds a verified identity to a public key through digital signatures to mitigate counterparty risk. Nightfall also collaborates with EY's other primary blockchain solution, OpsChain, to offer a supply chain tracking platform for financial, logistics, and manufacturing businesses. While Nightfall's code is open source on GitHub, it remains a permissioned blockchain for EY's customer base. Competitors to EY's Nightfall include IBM-backed Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda, and the Consensus-built Quorum. This development underscores EY's commitment to advancing blockchain technology for enterprise applications, enhancing privacy, scalability, and transaction efficiency on the Ethereum network.