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+### ⚠️ Important Notice: V2 in Development
+
+We are currently developing Version 2 (V2) of our smart contract architecture. This new version will significantly enhance the developer experience for building Universal Apps.
+
+Developers can already begin testing the new interface by referring to [the V2 Localnet guide](/v2_localnet.md).
+
 # ZetaChain Protocol Contracts
 
 This repository contains ZetaChain protocol contracts: Solidity source code,
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+# V2 Contracts - Local Development Environment
+
+Important Notice: The new architecture (V2) is currently in active development. While the high-level interface presented in this document is expected to remain stable, some aspects of the architecture may change.
+
+## Introduction
+
+The new architecture aims to streamline the developer experience for building Universal Apps. Developers will primarily interact with two contracts: GatewayZEVM and GatewayEVM.
+
+* `GatewayEVM`: Deployed on each connected chain to interact with ZetaChain.
+* `GatewayZEVM`: Deployed on ZetaChain to interact with connected chains.
+
+V2 contracts source code is currently located in [prototypes](/contracts/prototypes/)
+
+## Contract Interfaces
+
+The interface of the gateway contracts is centered around the deposit, withdraw, and call terminology:
+
+* Deposit: Transfer of assets from a connected chain to ZetaChain.
+* Withdraw: Transfer of assets from ZetaChain to a connected chain.
+* Call: Smart contract call involved in cross-chain transactions.
+
+
+In consequence, the interface is as follow:
+* `GatewayEVM`: `deposit`, `depositAndCall`, and `call`
+* `GatewayZEVM`: `withdraw`, `withdrawAndCall`, and `call`
+
+The motivation behind this interface is intuitiveness and simplicity. We support different asset types by using function overloading.
+
+### `GatewayEVM`
+
+* Deposit of native tokens to addresses on ZetaChain:
+
+```solidity
+function deposit(address receiver) payable
+```
+
+* Deposit of ERC-20 tokens to addresses on ZetaChain:
+
+```solidity
+function deposit(address receiver, uint256 amount, address asset)
+```
+
+* Deposit of native tokens and smart contract call on ZetaChain:
+
+```solidity
+function depositAndCall(address receiver, bytes calldata payload) payable
+```
+
+* Deposit of ERC-20 tokens and smart contract call on ZetaChain:
+
+```solidity
+depositAndCall(address receiver, uint256 amount, address asset, bytes calldata payload)
+```
+
+* Simple Universal App contract call:
+
+```solidity
+function call(address receiver, bytes calldata payload)
+```
+
+### `GatewayZEVM`
+
+* Withdraw of ZRC-20 tokens to its native connected chain:
+
+```solidity
+function withdraw(bytes memory receiver, uint256 amount, address zrc20)
+```
+
+* Withdraw of ZRC-20 tokens and smart contract call on connected chain:
+
+```solidity
+function withdrawAndCall(bytes memory receiver, uint256 amount, address zrc20, bytes calldata message)
+```
+
+* Simple call to a contract on a connected chain:
+
+```solidity
+function call(bytes memory receiver, bytes calldata message) external
+```
+
+## Experimenting with the New Architecture
+
+To experiment with the new architecture, you can deploy a local network using Hardhat and test the gateways using the following commands:
+
+Clone the repository
+```
+git clone https://github.com/zeta-chain/protocol-contracts.git
+cd protocol-contracts
+```
+
+Start the local environment network
+Note: `--hide="NODE"` is used to prevent verbose logging
+```
+yarn
+yarn localnet --hide="NODE"
+```
+
+The `localnet` command launches two processes:
+
+- A local Ethereum network (using Hardhat) with the two gateway contracts deployed
+- A background worker that relay messages between the two gateway contracts. It simulates the cross-chain message relaying that would normally happen between live networks with the [observers/signers](https://www.zetachain.com/docs/developers/architecture/observers/) mechanism. This allows to simulate a cross-chain environment on a single local chain.
+
+Running the command will deploy the two gateway contracts:
+
+```
+[WORKER] GatewayEVM: 0xe7f1725E7734CE288F8367e1Bb143E90bb3F0512
+[WORKER] GatewayZEVM: 0x0165878A594ca255338adfa4d48449f69242Eb8F
+```
+
+The developers can develop application using these addresses, the messages will automatically be relayed by the worker.
+
+The local environment uses Hardhat localnet. Therefore, the default Hardhat localnet accounts can be used to interact with the network.
+
+```
+Account #0: 0xf39Fd6e51aad88F6F4ce6aB8827279cffFb92266 (10000 ETH)
+Private Key: 0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80
+
+Account #1: 0x70997970C51812dc3A010C7d01b50e0d17dc79C8 (10000 ETH)
+Private Key: 0x59c6995e998f97a5a0044966f0945389dc9e86dae88c7a8412f4603b6b78690d
+
+Account #2: 0x3C44CdDdB6a900fa2b585dd299e03d12FA4293BC (10000 ETH)
+Private Key: 0x5de4111afa1a4b94908f83103eb1f1706367c2e68ca870fc3fb9a804cdab365a
+```
+
+### Examples
+
+The example contracts demonstrate how the V2 interface can be leveraged to build Universal Apps.
+
+* [TestZContract](/contracts/prototypes/zevm/TestZContract.sol): ZetaChain contract (Universal App) that can be called from a connected chains
+* [SenderZEVM](/contracts/prototypes/zevm/SenderZEVM.sol): ZetaChain contract calling a smart contract on a connected chains
+* [ReceiverEVM](/contracts/prototypes/evm/ReceiverEVM.sol): contract on connected chain that can be called from ZetaChain
+
+The following commands can be used to test interactions between these contracts:
+```
+npx hardhat zevm-call --network localhost
+npx hardhat zevm-withdraw-and-call --network localhost
+npx hardhat evm-call --network localhost
+npx hardhat evm-deposit-and-call --network localhost
+```
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