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Zenrock System Architecture

The Zenrock System Architecture defines the components involved in the blockchain-based multi-party-computation system that provides access to a broad spectrum of use cases in a secure and trustful manner.

Zenrock Architecture

Zenrock Blockchain​

The central component is the Zenrock Blockchain which provides a source-of-truth that coordinates:

  • New key requests e.g. using the MPC system
  • Keyring registration & management
  • Signature generation & management
  • Policy control - enabling multi-party control of signatures
  • Restaking of ETH to increase economic security
  • Other standard Cosmos features such as staking, governance, IBC, etc.

Besides the standard Cosmos modules, the Zenrock blockchain incorporates four additional modules that:

Users can interact with the Zenrock Blockchain using a self-hosted wallet or any registered keyring - such as the Zenrock MPC system. The Zenrock blockchain gives users the ability to interact with custom modules, stake tokens and take part in governance. As a platform agnostic signature generation & key management service, it provides unified access to some of the largest blockchain ecosystems.

Keyrings​

Keyrings define off-chain systems that manage the creation of keys and signatures. Developers are able to develop, register and use custom keyrings as required.

Keyrings are registered on the Zenrock Blockchain and thereafter receive key and signature requests that are processed off-chain. Keyring responses are published on the Zenrock Blockchain via party-specific controllers. The first enterprise-grade keyring is the Zenrock Multi-Party-Computation system. This provides MPC services as a keyring thereby allowing participants to diversify control and manage risk.

Relayers​

Relayers assemble unsigned transactions and the returned signatures and broadcast these to the relevant network. In case of private transactions, where no details about the payload are disclosed, the requesting party needs to run their own relayer.

AVS Sidecar​

The AVS Sidecar is an additional component that runs in parallel to the validator node. The AVS sidecar enables the use of additional collateral in the form of restaked ETH, combining this with native ROCK stake to calculate the validators' voting powers. Our AVS contract on Ethereum is monitored by every validator's sidecar, adding new deposits of collateral to the overall stake of zrchain's economic security package.

BTC Proxy​

The BTC Proxy is a component that runs alongside the zenrock blockchain and is mainly responsible for managing UTXOs and sending transactions to the Bitcoin network triggered from zrChain's workspaces and keys.

zrSign Omni​

zrSign Omni is the next evolution step for zrSign to provide even better key and signature services by facilitating the benefits of zrChain through EVM smart contracts. Building on the foundation of zrSign Direct, this version brings significant performance and architecture improvements, such as workspaces and policies, a broader set of supported destination networks, access to the Cosmos ecosystem and much more.