Polygon takes (zero-knowledge) Zk rollups to the final testnet to gauge the performance of its zkEVM ahead of eventual mainnet integration. Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling protocol Polygon Matic is testing its ZK-Rollups technology ahead of its full integration with its mainnet. This team has been working on Ethereum’s Polygon zkEVM for over three years, and they have made great progress in the last year. The team of developers has successfully generated over 12,000 zk-proofs for an early version of the zkEVM testnet. Project lead of the Ethereum Wallet, David Schwartz, wrote the first blog post about the newly added wallet functionality on Cointelegraph. Layer-2 platforms have evolved and improved functionality, and have played a key role in driving Ethereum’s scalability. Zero-knowledge rollups have increased the speed at which layer-2 platforms can achieve finality while ensuring secure validation of transactions. In blockchian terms, finality is the point at which a block of transactions is considered to have been permanently and irreversibly added to the blockchain.
“Finally, we have zkEVMs, such as Polygon zkEVM, that offer all the above in addition to the equivalence to Ethereum Virtual Machine with its advanced methods of zk-STARKs and zk-SNARKs.”- stated David Schwartz.
Polygon ZK is the only tool that includes the full source code for an EVM-equivalent zkProofVerifier. After the completion of the validation proofs for conventional transactions, he described the process as “one of the most challenging and rewarding efforts” since the inception of their native zkEVM.
Two years ago, the Polygon team estimated that it would take around ten years to develop zk-Rollups with EVM compatibility. They proudly announced that zkEVM is a part of their end game, combining all the advances they’ve made over the years and the new ideas to create layer-2 scalability and fast finality. When adding greater throughput and lower fees, this can provide many benefits to its users. Both technologies rely on a ‘zero knowledge proof protocol’ that allows the users to transact with certainty that their transactions are legitimate. As previously reported, zero-knowledge scalable transparent argument of knowledge, or zk-SNARKS, primarily increases scalability by batching thousands of transactions with a single proof to confirm validity on chain.
Schwartz said the main difference between the projects is that ZK-EVM focuses on natively scaling the Ethereum ecosystem while the other zk-Rollups focus on scalability enhancements of transactions and enhancing performance with a different VM format. Polygon’s approach purports to meet the classification of a type 2 zkEVM described by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in August 2022. The type 2 zkSNARK protocol aims to be fully compatible with existing applications. But it makes minor modifications to Ethereum for easier development and faster verification.
“In contrast, StarkNet is positioned as a Type 4, introducing a new high-level language and requiring transpilers to translate solidity code into their language.”- said Schwartz.
Schwartz welcomed the chance to have a broader set of benchmarks and source code available from other projects to learn from. Data from blockchain data shows that transaction volume on the Ethereum mainnet was surpassed by transaction volumes on the Ethereum layer-2 solutions in the second half of 2023.
Polygon is leading the charge to bring down transaction fees. They’ve integrated sidechains to process Ethereum transactions with their Scaling Solution: Sidechains, they have the ability to scale as needed, to support any type of transaction, without compromising on security or decentralization. Through sidechains, Polygon can significantly lower transaction costs, which is seen as a major boost for users of Uniswap. The protocol has also announced several initiatives and the announcements year ago, such as its acquisition of Mir Protocol and its partnership with 776 VC to launch a $200 million initiative aimed at building social media on Web3.
Polygon Zero, alongside with the existing Polygon solutions including: Polygon PoS, Polygon SDK, Polygon Avail, Polygon Nightfall, Polygon Hermez, and Polygon Miden. Another positive news last year was the Uniswap DEX became avaliable to Polygon (sidechain) blockchain.
The goal for Polygon is to build a strong scaling infrastructure that will deal with the scaling, privacy and speed issues with Ethereum, in order to give way better users experience. Polygon has market capitalization of $$9,108,136,501.00 and Circulating Supply of 8,965,469,069 MATIC along with price of $1.022 per coin.
