Polygon, the Ethereum layer 2 scaling network, Wednesday said it is launching the testnet of its highly-anticipated zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup dubbed Polygon zkEVM, in what it called “a giant leap forward for Ethereum scaling and ZK innovation.”
See related article: What is Polygon (MATIC) — ‘Ethereum’s internet of blockchains’?
Fast facts
- In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Polygon said zkEVM inherits the security of Ethereum while increasing throughput and reducing fees by 90% with on-chain data.
- “Even more exciting is the EVM [Ethereum Virtual Machine] equivalence of Polygon zkEVM,” the infrastructure builder wrote in a separate blog post on Wednesday. “You can build on Polygon zkEVM the same way you would on Ethereum … It’s Ethereum, but with ZK scalability.”
- A zero-knowledge protocol is a cryptographic algorithm based on the mathematical concept of zero-knowledge proof that allows validators to verify data without decrypting it.
- “If you see in the ZK space, we acquired (ZK cryptography-based scaling project) Hermez to make our tech sec[urity] very solid. And for them, we’re expanding the team a lot,” Jaynti Kanani, cofounder of Polygon, told Forkast in March.
- Polygon said its testnet for the new rollup will go live soon, and the project’s open source code will be made available on GitHub.
- The scaling network previously rolled out a major upgrade in January, incorporating Ethereum’s London hard fork.
- Despite a 14% pullback in the past 24 hours, Polygon’s token MATIC is up 152% since June 18, according to CoinMarketCap data.
See related article: MATIC crypto skyrockets as Polygon joins Disney accelerator