Introducing Aligned’s Rollup-as-a-Service Platform

We believe launching an Ethereum rollup should be as simple as deploying a web app. Our new Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform makes that a reality with one-click ZK-rollup deployment. 

Powered by Ethrex (from LambdaClass) and directly integrated with our ZK Verification Layer and upcoming meta-proving service, wallet service, and interoperability protocol, our RaaS platform lets you launch secure, performant, and cost-effective rollups without needing deep blockchain expertise.

Fully open source tech built for developers, businesses, and the next generation of scalable Ethereum apps.

The Aligned stack

At Aligned, we’re building a full stack of vertically integrated ZK infrastructure designed to make it easier for teams to launch, operate, and scale on Ethereum.

Our suite of products and services includes:

• Proof Verification Layer (AVS)
• Proof Aggregation Service
• Rollup-as-a-Service Platform
• Meta-Proving Services
• Interoperability Protocol
• Wallet-as-a-Service

Our engineering philosophy emphasizes reliability and security so we can support the highest-value applications. By vertically integrating our stack we can provide the best developer experience and highest performance at the lowest possible cost.

✅ Fully open-source—no proprietary code or licenses
✅ Simplicity and minimalism—easy to maintain
✅ Modular and flexible—customizable to meet your business needs
✅ Future-proofed—designed to support emerging technologies

Whether you’re a seasoned crypto builder or an enterprise launching your first blockchain project, Aligned gives you the tools to deploy powerful Ethereum-native infrastructure without compromising on security, performance, or flexibility. 

As Ethereum continues to be adopted as the financial backend of the internet, we are committed to helping developers and companies tap into its security and global, 24/7 liquidity.

In this post, we’ll explore the next part of our stack that will make it easy for new organizations and companies to come on-chain: Aligned’s Rollup-as-a-Service platform.

Why Ethereum, Why Rollups?

Ethereum’s future is rollup-centric: it’s reaching global scale via Layer 2 (L2) solutions that inherit Ethereum’s security while enabling vastly greater throughput. Rollups take computation off-chain but anchor their state to Ethereum, providing fast, low-cost transactions while retaining trust minimization.

Among the various rollup models, ZK-rollups offer the strongest guarantees:

• Cryptographic proof of every computation
• No fraud windows or watchers
• Finality in minutes, not days

Thanks to these features and recent advances across Ethereum and ZK, we believe ZK-rollups represent the gold standard for launching a blockchain that can serve users at scale. 

Our decision to launch a RaaS platform is based on some core beliefs:

1. Developers and organizations will increasingly want or need to launch their own rollups
2. It is still too complicated for most developers to launch a ZK-rollup
3. We can integrate our products and the latest tech (e.g. zkVMs) to offer users a market-leading ZK-rollup stack at a competitive price

Introducing Aligned’s RaaS platform

Aligned’s RaaS platform is designed for developers and businesses who want to launch their own rollup without the usual complexity, time, or cost. With a single click, users will be able to deploy an enterprise-grade ZK-rollup that’s secure, maintainable, and scalable from day one. 

For execution, our stack uses the Ethrex client with multiple proving systems including trusted execution environments (TEEs) and RISC-V zkVMs. This is integrated with Aligned’s ZK Verification Layer (consisting of our Proof Verification Layer AVS and Proof Aggregation Service) to enable secure yet cost-effective verification and settlement on Ethereum.

Our RaaS platform will be integrated with our upcoming products to give developers all the tools they need to operate a complete ecosystem: wallet-as-a-service infrastructure for simplified onboarding, meta-proving services that give users access to provers provided by Aligned or other third-party centralized or decentralized proving services, and our interoperability protocol for efficient cross-chain liquidity access. 

From initial deployment to long-term maintenance, we handle upgrades, performance optimization, and help you integrate new capabilities as they emerge.

Our vertically-integrated services let us provide the best performance, reliability, and cost efficiency—but we will never lock you in with proprietary code or licenses, and remain committed to being 100% open source from day one.

Building for a based future

We’re also building support for based rollups, an increasingly important part of Ethereum’s roadmap. 

What are based rollups?
Based rollups delegate block production to Ethereum’s L1 proposer set, removing the need for separate sequencers.

This improves UX (faster confirmations), security alignment (no separate consensus), and liquidity access (tighter L1 coupling). Ethrex is built to support based rollups by default—and Aligned’s RaaS platform will make them easy to deploy.

How do ZK-rollups use Aligned’s ZK Verification Layer?

Two weeks ago, we shared our first demo of a fully integrated Ethrex-Aligned rollup—a major milestone in the rollout of our RaaS platform.

A simplified diagram of how Aligned works with ZK Rollups can be seen in Figure 1. Proofs for batches of rollup transactions (blocks) are sent to Aligned’s ZK Verification Layer (the Proof Aggregation Service, used with or without the Proof Verification Layer), which converts them into one proof that is verified on Aligned's L1 contract. After this, the rollup's L1 contract can accept the commitments and validate the rollup’s state on Ethereum.

Why we’re using Ethrex for ZK-rollups

Aligned chose Ethrex as the rollup stack for our RaaS platform due to its stable, minimalist, and modular design and its support for the latest features like based rollups. This aligns with our commitment to reliability and performance, and ensures that we can continue to offer our users the best technology to access Ethereum.

Ethrex operates in two modes:

• ​​Ethrex L1: a streamlined Ethereum execution client
• Ethrex L2: a ZK-rollup client supporting multiple proving systems (RISC-V zkVMs like SP1 or R0VM, and Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs))

Ethrex's design principles emphasize minimalism, clarity, and simplicity, resulting in a codebase that is both fast and resilient. This approach enables rapid iteration and the early adoption of next-generation features, which is crucial for staying ahead in the rapidly evolving blockchain landscape. Additionally, Ethrex's vertical integration and minimal dependencies ensure efficient operation and ease of maintenance, enabling low overhead and providing a robust foundation for our services.

By leveraging Ethrex, Aligned can offer a streamlined, high-performance RaaS platform that simplifies the deployment of Layer 2 chains, empowering developers to build scalable applications with greater efficiency and control.

How Aligned brings down costs for ZK-rollups

While ZK-rollups significantly improve blockchain scalability, they still face bottlenecks. Verifying proofs from ZK-rollups on Ethereum is expensive, and current network constraints only allow a maximum of ~120 proofs per block. This limits throughput and drives costs up for rollup operators.

Aligned’s Proof Aggregation Service addresses this challenge by using recursive proofs to combine multiple proofs into one. Rather than verifying many individual proofs on-chain, Ethereum only needs to verify a single aggregated proof. This approach cuts verification costs while preserving Ethereum’s robust security guarantees.

The aggregated proof is cryptographically valid and attests that all included proofs were correctly verified. As a result, developers benefit from significantly lower costs per proof—paying only a small fraction of the total, plus a minimal aggregation fee.

Aligned is dedicated to providing services that reduce the operational cost of both generating and verifying zero-knowledge proofs, enabling teams to scale without increasing their infrastructure spend.

Of course, not every project fits neatly into existing rollup frameworks. Some require custom rollups tailored to unique needs. Traditionally, launching such a solution demanded deep blockchain expertise and months of engineering effort. 

Aligned solves this with its Rollup-as-a-Service offering: a streamlined platform that enables rapid, one-click rollup deployments—while still benefiting from fast finality, efficient state diff proving and verification—avoiding lengthy fraud proof windows and built with strong security assumptions. Aligned’s RaaS will provide full access to our ZK-rollup stack, simplifying the entire process—from launch to proof generation and verification.

When can I launch a rollup with Aligned?

We continue to make progress on completing our Proof Aggregation Service and bringing it into production on mainnet. Testing and integrations with Ethrex are being done in parallel, in collaboration with LambdaClass.

More demos and examples will be shared soon. We also share updates from our engineering team each week on our blog and during our weekly Alignment Session streams. And of course, you can follow our 100% open source work via our Github.

We’re already working with customers across multiple regions, including several non-crypto-native teams building to serve millions of users.

Reach out if you want to launch a ZK-rollup with Aligned—you can contact our team via Telegram or Discord!

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