Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, has been appointed by Polygon to execute the first transaction of Polygon zkEVM, a ZK rollup fully compatible with the Ethereum infrastructure.
The official launch of Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta, the scaling solution developed by Polygon Labs, was successfully completed this Monday.
The first transaction within the new network was carried out by Vitalik Buterin, the 28-year-old known worldwide for being the creator of Ethereum.
Polygon Labs developers livestreamed the mainnet launch of their new scaling solution. During the stream, Buterin shared his impressions of Polygon zkEVM.
In recent years, Buterin has been highlighting the importance of second-layer solutions focused on the scalability of the Ethereum network. Speaking at the 2021 Shanghai International Blockchain Week conference, the Ethereum creator acknowledged the need to increase the network's performance and scalability. Buterin noted that rollups allow for faster transaction processing off-chain.
Regarding ZK rollups, such as Polygon zkEVM, Buterin highlighted that these are more complex to implement but that, in turn, provide a higher level of security compared to optimistic rollups.
For this reason, the Ethereum ecosystem is betting on the development of rollups as its main short- and medium-term scaling strategy, to cope with the growing use of the network driven by the development of NFT projects and DeFi protocols, while developers complete their evolution with Ethereum 2.0, which is still years away from completion.
Buterin records message in his first transaction on Polygon zkEVM
The historic moment, both for Polygon Labs and the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem, was immortalized with a message from Vitalik Buterin.
“A few million restrictions for man, unrestricted scalability for humanity”, were the words Buterin recorded in the first transaction executed on Polygon zkEVM. According to CoinDesk, these words quote the famous message transmitted by American astronaut Neil Armstrong when he walked on the Moon for the first time in 1969: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.
The development of Polygon zkEVM will have a huge impact on the Ethereum and Web3 blockchain ecosystem.
This new network will increase transaction speeds, reduce gas fees per transaction, increase the performance of smart contracts and, among other things, provide a programming environment fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the EVM.
Dozens of companies commit to building on Polygon zkEVM
In her blogPolygon Labs reported that a significant group of companies and projects are taking advantage of the new network on day one to build on Ethereum.
From companies like Telefónica to decentralized protocols like Lens, Balancer and video game developers like Midnight Society, Everyone wants to take advantage of what Polygon zkEVM has to offer, the company noted.
As reported by this media, Polygon launched the zkEVM mainnet in beta version, so Sandeep Nailwal, one of the co-founders of Polygon Network, noted that, although zkEVM is open to the public, it is necessary to exercise prudence and caution when investing significant amounts in this new technology.
In fact, Nailwal advises users not to bring significant amounts of money to the new network, at least in the immediate future.
A living technology in development
Nailwal noted that the optimization process is still open for Polygon zkEVM and that as the number of users increases, this optimization will become even greater.
The developers have implemented a bug bounty system to incentivize other developers and users to report bugs or errors. The company will also be conducting a new set of audits of the network in the coming months.
Ultimately, the launch of ZK rollups, such as Polygon zkEVM and zkSync Era, may make Optimistic Rollups a thing of the past, thanks to the former's improved performance and greater application possibilities in multiple use cases on the Ethereum blockchain.
On the other hand, reducing gas fees for DApp users could have a positive effect by driving further adoption while ensuring the inherent security of the Ethereum blockchain.
Continue reading: Polygon Labs launches its zkEVM solution for Ethereum scalability
