Using a local ZK Chain

Funding accounts

The first step to start interacting with your ZK chain is to fund an account (or a few). This means you need some funds on the base layer.

During the zkstack ecosystem create configuration, you have a choice of what base layer to deploy the ZK chain onto: a local reth node, or an Ethereum network (e.g., Sepolia).

Base layer is the local reth node

If you choose to deploy on local reth node, you will have a set of addresses that have 100 ETH each. You can find the list of rich wallets on GitHub in the matter-labs/local-setup project and use these addresses to deposit into your ZK chain via the bridge.

Base layer is an Ethereum network (e.g., Sepolia)

If you choose to deploy on an Ethereum network (e.g., Sepolia), you need to have an account on the base layer with ETH. You can use the deployer, governor, or operator wallets setup during the deployment process, or any other wallet with funds, to deposit into your ZK chain via the bridge.

Once you have the accounts with funds on the L1 base layer, you can do a deposit via the bridge to your ZK chain, and start interacting with your ZK chain using the L2 funded account.

Using your chain RPC

Your server contains both HTTPS as well as WebSocket (WS) RPC services that are fully web3 compatible (and contain some extra ZK Stack functionalities). Learn more on the API reference page.

Using zksync-cli

ZKsync CLI allows you to easily interact and develop applications on your ZK chain. When executing any command with ZKsync CLI, you can specify RPC urls for both L1 and L2. Your local server contains RPCs for both. An example deposit command via the bridge would look like:

zksync-cli bridge deposit --rpc=http://localhost:3050 --l1-rpc=http://localhost:8545

You can save the chain configurations for your ZK chain with ZKsync CLI by adding a new configuration.

Using the Portal

The Portal module is a web-app that allows you to:

• Bridge & transfer tokens to your ZK chain.
• View balances.
• Add contacts for quick and easy access.

Once you have at least one chain initialized, you can run the portal app locally:

zkstack portal

This command will start the dockerized portal app using configuration from apps/portal.config.json file inside your ecosystem directory. You can edit this file to configure the portal app if needed.

You can now navigate to the portal web-app. By default, portal frontend starts on http://localhost:3030, you can configure the port in apps.yaml file.

Using a Block Explorer

A block explorer is a web-app that lets you view and inspect transactions, blocks, contracts and more. A free open source block explorer is available for your ZK chain.

First, each chain should be initialized:

zkstack explorer init

This command creates a database to store explorer data and generates a docker compose file with explorer services (explorer-docker-compose.yml).

Next, for each chain you want to have an explorer, you need to start its backend services:

zkstack explorer backend --chain <chain_name>

This command uses previously created docker compose file to start the services (api, data fetcher, worker) required for the explorer.

Finally, you can run the explorer app:

zkstack explorer run

This command will start the dockerized explorer app using configuration from apps/explorer.config.json file inside your ecosystem directory. You can edit this file to configure the app if needed.

You can now navigate to the explorer web-app. By default, explorer frontend starts on http://localhost:3010, you can configure the port in apps.yaml file.