Rollups: Analogies

The Receipt Bundle Analogy

Imagine you go shopping with a group of friends. Instead of each person paying separately and getting their own receipt, you all give your items to one friend who makes a single purchase.

That friend gets one receipt covering everyone's purchases.

If anyone wants to verify what was bought, they can simply look at that one receipt—it’s faster and more efficient than tracking down ten separate receipts.

Rollups work the same way: rather than recording each transaction individually on-chain, they bundle many transactions off-chain and submit one proof. This reduces costs, saves space, and keeps the blockchain efficient.

The High-Speed Train Analogy

Think of traditional blockchain transactions as people driving individual cars down a single-lane road—each car moves one-by-one, and traffic builds up quickly.

Now imagine a high-speed train. Passengers (transactions) board off-chain, and the train (rollup) carries them all together. At the end, the train submits a manifest (proof) showing who rode the train.

This keeps the blockchain from getting congested, while still recording everything securely.