What is Immutable X? Before we answer this question, we need to understand how NFTs work in the ETHereum blockchain. If you are into NFTs, you would know that trading and minting NFTs on Ethereum can be expensive, especially during times of high traffic. Users need to pay higher gas fees to have their transactions confirmed quickly. It’s also common for minting transactions to fail, causing significant losses.
What is Immutable X and how does it work?
To solve the aforementioned problems, ETHereum has come up with Immutable X, a layer-2 scaling solution for NFTs on the blockchain. It aims to improve scalability and user experience by offering immediate transaction confirmation and near-zero gas fees for minting and trading NFTs. Users can also create and trade ERC-721 and ERC-20 tokens at lower costs without compromising the security of their assets.
Immutable X uses a scaling technology called Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK-Rollup), which is a layer-2 protocol for validating transactions on the ETHereum blockchain. Instead of adding every transaction data to the blockchain, ZK-Rollup batches hundreds of transactions into a single zero-knowledge proof known as the zk-STARK proof. It’s a verification method used to prove possession of certain knowledge without revealing any information about it. Immutable X transactions can thus be carried on with increased levels of privacy and security.
After batching the transactions, the proof is submitted to the blockchain and verified by a smart contract. The ZK-Rollup smart contract maintains all transaction details on layer 2, so that the proof can be quickly verified as they don’t contain the complete data of every transaction. The computing and storage resources required for validating a block will be lower too. As a result, Immutable X can facilitate up to 9,000 transactions per second (TPS) with significantly reduced gas fees.
NFTs that users trade or mint on Immutable X are 100% carbon-neutral. For example, minting 8 million NFT trading cards for the play-to-earn game Gods Unchained would consume approximately 490 million kWh on ETHereum. With ZK-Rollup compressing the data required for minting, Immutable X only used 1,030 kWh to mint the same amount of NFTs, which is 475,000 times less energy consumption.
In addition, Immutable X has a set of powerful REST APIs that can simplify complex blockchain interactions. Users can create and transfer NFTs easily via API calls without having to interact directly with smart contracts. Combined with Immutable X’s simple software development kits (SDKs), developers can integrate the APIs and Wallet to their platforms easily. This will allow them to build NFT projects, such as play-to-earn games, in just a few hours rather than weeks. Users can seamlessly trade NFTs on different NFT-enabled crypto wallets without moving their assets across networks because Immutable X supports all desktop ETHereum wallets.
The IMX token
IMX is an ERC20 token that works as the native currency of Immutable X ecosystem. The digital coin is the utility and governance token with a total supply of 2 billion. Users can fetch IMX coins by contributing to the growth and development of the cluster in ways such as creating apps and trading NFTs. The coin can be used to pay trading fees and incentivize the users. One can place their assets in staking pools to collect juicy staking rewards. Token owners can also participate in voting and decisions related to the growth of the native community. The voting power depends upon the volume of tokens held. The more the token volume, the more the voting right.
In Conclusion
What is Immutable X? As aforementioned, Immutable X is one of the first Layer 2 solutions that use zkrollups and focus only on NFTs.
It has the potential to change the NFT landscape and make the job of creating, minting and transacting NFTs much easier. So, if you are interested in NFTs, Immutable X may be your greatest partner, as the platform offers a wide range of benefits to its users.
