Today marks the launch of the long-awaited Polygon zkEVM scaling solution, which leverages Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology to increase Ethereum network throughput and significantly reduce its gas fees.
Introduced in the middle of last year, Polygon zkEVM is a new solution that leverages the potential of Zero Knowledge (ZK) technology to increase the scalability of the Ethereum network, which has reached its capacity limitations due to massive usage.
Through Polygon zkEVM, Polygon Labs developers seek to increase transaction throughput and speed without compromising the security and decentralization of the network.
Polygon zkEVM is a technology developed for Unlocking Ethereum's True Potential for Web3.
Ryan Wyatt, President of Polygon Labs, announced on Twitter that Polygon zkEVM represents the first release of a Zero-Knowledge-based solution fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
The arrival of Polygon zkEVM comes just days after the mainnet launch of the zkSync solution, developed by Matter Labs.
Scalability, the future of Ethereum
Ethereum is the leading blockchain for smart contract development. However, its capacity limitations have made access difficult for many users with its unviable gas fees. Still, the network Ethereum is the second blockchain with the largest market capitalization and the first in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL) in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, which gives us an idea of its great use and demand.
In September, Ethereum migrated from a consensus protocol, adopting Proof of Stake (PoS) as part of its transformation and evolution phase to become a more scalable, efficient and accessible blockchain network.
But reaching mainnet scalability is a long road that developers still have to travel. Ethereum aims for the shading as its primary method for lightweighting the network and increasing its scalability.
Meanwhile, off-chain scaling solutions like Polygon Network allow users to access the potential of the mainnet while deriving its security.
What are ZK rollups?
ZK rollups are a set of protocols capable of grouping and validating a batch of transactions off-chain, allowing the data load on the blockchain to be reduced and thus increasing its speed, performance and scalability.
By using Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology, this set of protocols records a summary of the transactions processed on the blockchain and issues a proof of validity to verify and certify the authenticity of the transaction.
Polygon zkEVM
As its developers explain, Polygon zkEVM is a decentralized ZK rollup, based on the Ethereum mainnet, which is designed to execute Ethereum transactions quickly and transparently. Polygon zkEVM is even capable of executing smart contracts with zero-knowledge proof validations.
According to its developers, Polygon zkEVM is the first zk rollup fully compatible with the Ethereum infrastructure, marking a milestone for both Polygon and the blockchain network. This compatibility means that application developers will be able to take advantage of the security and decentralization guarantees of the mainnet and deploy their applications and protocols on the mainnet in a friendly way in the Solidity programming language, without having to modify their code.
The Ethereum Foundation notes that ZK rollups are not easily compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, but that current advances in ZK technology make their development possible.
Today, Polygon Labs developers will launch the Polygon zkEVM mainnet in beta. The testnet of this new scalability solution was launched in October last year.
ZkSync was launched on mainnet last week
ZkSync is another zero-knowledge rollup implemented to increase the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain. This solution was launched on mainnet, in Alpha version, last Friday, March 24th.
The launch of ZkSync Era was led by Germany-based company Matter Labs, highlighting the arrival of a new era of revolution for Ethereum scaling with the power of zkEVM solutions.
In addition to Matter Labs and Polygon Labs, Two other projects on Ethereum are also working on building an EVM-compatible ZK scaling solutionThese two projects are Applied ZKP, funded by the Ethereum Foundation, and Scroll, a blockchain company focused on blockchain scalability.
Applied ZKP is working on building an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible ZK rollup and a mechanism to generate proofs of validity for blocks on the Ethereum network. Scroll is also developing a native layer-two zkEVM solution for the Ethereum blockchain.
Continue reading: Polygon joins Unstoppable Domains to make it easier to create Web3 “.polygon” domains
