HackMD
ZkSync Testnet
#testnet #zkrollups
Initial Protocols
For zksync there's a good amount of new protocols to try out, most widely talked about have been ZigZag and Mute. There's still high chance for airdrops so easiest process is to set up wallets and start trading.
Once you're ready, visit the Ecosystem Page and start searching for all "live" protocols. ![[Pasted image 20230319213832.png]]
Onboarding Alpha
When first starting out, you can refer to the onboarding alpha breakdown they provided.
This displays their roadmap and overall outlook for each stage of ZkSync: https://twitter.com/zksync/status/1620485295383908353?s=20
Full article: https://blog.matter-labs.io/baby-alpha-has-arrived-5b10798bc623?gi=63814e62f524
Protocols I've Used
Here are some notes on what I've done so far, which should turn out to be a solid layout for how you can start testing ZkSync.
Overall setup is up to you but keep in mind you still have to fund a lot of accounts via the faucet in order to test each protocol.
Setup
Initial signup can just be going their wallet page and either using the Twitter faucet or your Alchemy account:
Wallet account: https://wallet.zksync.io/account/
Faucet: https://portal.zksync.io/faucet
Block explorer: https://zksync2-testnet.zkscan.io/
First I'd say just start on their ecosystem page and then work on down thru each category depending on your interest: https://ecosystem.zksync.io/
Tevaera
I set up a few accounts on here and bought karma tokens. Simplest thing to do was playing the Teva Quest game and picking up points.
After that, go and mint "Guardian" NFTs.
Repeat as needed: https://testnet.tevaera.com/dashboard/app
Mute
For Mute, I'd suggest simply using a few faucets to get other tokens for $mute. You can swap for eth/btc/dai/mute, add to a few liquidity pools, then stake a mute/eth LP into their Amplifier pool. Quotes are pretty ridiculous so it's a bit annoying trying to swap assets directly.
This should be enough for now and you can continue testing each swap/pool when you need to.
Site: https://testnet.switch.mute.io/
Mint Square
After this, I went to mint square and made some offers (purchase didn't work at the time), then minted some random Gif. You can create your own NFT collection to see what that's like too.
Site: https://mintsquare.io/zksync-testnet
ZigZag
This is what everyone is most aware of, trading here can be your first step although you've already missed out on the airdrop for $ZZ.
I've used it in the past for their testnet but revisited to make some random trades on mainnet (noticed they're on arbitrum nitro too).
Mainnet: https://trade.zigzag.exchange/?market=ETH-USDC&network=zksync
Trustless Finance
The demo for Trustless has been down for awhile, I glanced at their docs and will just have to stay updated on what happens to their stablecoin in relation to governance.
Site: https://www.trustless.fi/
Demo: https://zksync.trustless.fi/
Docs: https://trustlessfi.notion.site/Trustless-4be753d947b040a89a46998eca90b2c9
Mes Protocol
Started out with Mes their faucet to open up a trading account, made some more trades on their ETH and USDT spot market. They're on Arbitrum Nitro/Goerli and Optimism Goerli as well so you can check out the "Cross-Rollup Mode". Overall, site is a bit of a mess, still has a lot of bugs to work out.
Site: https://app.mesprotocol.com/spot/ETH-USDC
Faucet: https://faucet.mesprotocol.com/
SyncSwap
I wanted to use SyncSwap but for some reason the ZkSync RPC doesn't work unless there are still connection issues. This happened each time I used the project, you can put a pause in this and revisit if needed.
Site: https://syncswap.xyz/
SpaceFi
Finally, there's SpaceFi, an all-in-one type platform for connecting Cosmos to L2 chains. Mostly found this interesting due to their connection to Evmos, site is not as visually appealing but you can try out a few transactions to see how this might work in practice.
