The first modular L1.5 for Ethereum: The Ghost layer

The modular Layer 1.5 “ghost layer” is intended for both institutional and retail use cases and is constructed to give public blockchains compliant privacy.

In order to allow users to store their assets privately and facilitate omnidirectional value transfer, the ghost layer makes use of a zk-based system and 0VM. Additionally, it enables users to create private access channels into various blockchain-operating execution layers to employ pre-existing apps.

Novachrono, the founder of Silent Research Labs, said in a tweet that,” if you create a system where the processing of the state(computation) and storing of the data depends on its own nodes you can call that a Layer 1; but if you create a system whose state is processed by itself but the validity of the data is stored elsewhere, it becomes a layer 2;— however if you create a ledger whose state is decided by the base ledger but the computation is stored elsewhere- you can call it a Layer 1.5”.

The concept of privacy has been ingrained in cryptocurrency since its inception, and the industry as a whole has been searching for a highly effective, modular, and fully compliant privacy system; nevertheless, most architectures and system designs are unable to satisfy practical requirements and use cases.

In 2023, Silent Protocol unveiled EZEE as a solution to the issue of state denial, also known as the lack of a “global shared state,” and to provide a fully detachable architecture for functional privacy. 

Developers are unable to create an ecosystem of applications around a framework without composability, which results in isolated systems. To prevent malicious users from abusing the system, Silent Protocol also developed silent compliance VM, a decentralized selective revealing protocol. 

The silent compliance virtual machine powers the ghost layer, which is an implementation of the EZEE architecture designed for the Ethereum environment. 

“The ghost layer is rooted out of Ethereum supporting Ethereum assets, but achieves modularity not because it captures value vertically but enables horizontal composability on different chains,” said Silent cofounder Isa Sertkaya. 

In order to update the system’s state forward, Silent Protocol also uses 0VM. However, instead of utilizing 0VM to verify the update, it uses the base ledger and zksnarks to validate the state. 

The goal of Silent protocol is to create a compliant, modular framework that will enable institutions to use Ethereum in a secure, confidential manner, just like they do now.

With the same liquidity available on the mainnet, developers of various blockchains can convert their current applications into 0dapps, or privacy-preserving apps.