Analysis of zkSync Era's latency execution mechanism: Why does your deposit have to wait for 23 hours?

Recently, friends who have made a deposit in zkSync Era should have seen this prompt—“on-chain verification takes 23 hours.” At first, it sounds quite absurd, but there are actually deep security considerations behind it.

What exactly is zkSync Era?

zkSync Era is an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution developed by the Matter Labs team, utilizing zero-knowledge proof Rollup technology. In simple terms: it bundles transactions for processing on Layer 2, achieving transaction speeds of over 20,000 TPS, which is much faster than the Ethereum mainnet, and the transaction fees are also cheaper.

The zkSync Lite version launched in June 2020 only supports transfers and does not support smart contracts. It wasn't until March 2023 that zkSync Era was launched, which finally supports contract functionality. Nowadays, zkSync generally refers to the Era version.

Delay Execution Mechanism: Why Is There a 24-Hour Lock?

This is the unique security mechanism of zkSync Era. Every block submitted from layer two to layer one will be frozen for a period of time before it can be finally executed. The initial setting is 24 hours, and it will gradually be shortened until completely removed.

This mechanism not only affects standard ETH and ERC20 cross-chain bridges, but also requires any custom bridges developed by third parties to pass this test.

Why do this?

In one sentence: Prevent hackers. The 24-hour buffer period gives the zkSync team enough time to check transactions and identify vulnerabilities. In case of a hack, the team also has time to respond—initiating emergency protocols to freeze the network and prevent large-scale asset loss.

It's like adding a delay lock to the vault; even the smartest thief has to wait another day.

How to check your deposit progress

Check with the official block explorer, the steps are very simple:

1. Open the zkSync Era browser and copy your withdrawal address.
2. Search this address to see all transaction records.
3. Find the transaction that was just initiated and click in to view the details.
4. On the details page of the Transaction Hash, you can see the current status.

There are several statuses:

• Processed: Processed by zkSync Era
• Sending: Waiting to be sent to Ethereum
• Validating：Validation stage
• Executing：Execution Phase
• Executed: All completed, deposit received

In the Token Transferred column, you can verify if the address and amount are correct.

Core Data: If you deposit with ZK tokens, it will initially display that you need to wait for 23 hours. This is not a bug, it's system design.

Summary

The delayed execution of zkSync may seem troublesome, but it is actually for the safety of user funds. The second-layer scaling has gained speed and cheaper transaction fees, but the cost of security is just waiting an extra day. This is a very normal tradeoff in Web3 — you can't have all the benefits at once.