Macauley Peterson

Ethereum has a new scaling solution reaching public mainnet, going live Friday. ZkSync’s EVM-compatible zero-knowledge proof-based rollup is open to the public from 10:00 am ET.



The zkEVM, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/matter-labs-rebrands-zkevm">rebranded to zkSync Era</a> last month, has been open to developers-only <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-sharpens-role-ethereum-200m-funding">since October 2022</a>. But now the proverbial training wheels are coming off and the public will have their first chance to interact with dapps on the platform.



ZkSync Era was previously known as zkSync 2.0, and its 1.0 cousin, launched by developer Matter Labs in December 2020, remains live as zkSync Lite.



A rival zkEVM from Polygon was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-zkevm-beta-live-on-ethereum">announced in mid-February</a> and its equivalent offering, which the team calls “Mainnet Beta,” is expected to go live on Monday, March 27.



So, the zkSync folks can lay claim to being “the world’s first zkEVM mainnet,” if only by a weekend.



Matter Labs’ co-founder and CEO Alex Gluchowski told Blockworks the timing is coincidental, and Era’s alpha launch milestone is arriving right on schedule, following the completion of a second public <a href="http://code4rena.com/contests/2023-03-zksync-era-system-contracts-contest">security contest</a> via Code4rena.



“Now we feel completely safe to launch,” Gluchowski said, stressing that the testing of the product has been extensive.



The developers spent $3.8 million on testing and auditing, according to a statement shared with Blockworks, including seven independent security audits — <a href="https://blog.openzeppelin.com/zksync-layer-1-audit/">one</a> with leading auditor OpenZeppelin — and an open-ended bug bounty program <a href="https://immunefi.com/bounty/zksyncera/">with Immunefi</a>.



“You really need this layered approach to security,” Gluchowski said, adding, “Now we feel comfortable, but I mean it’s still Alpha — people have to understand it’s still brand new technology.”



He pointed to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/euler-bounty-defi-flash-loan-attack">recent exploit of Euler Finance</a>, whose smart contracts were audited by a reputable firm and were live for the better part of a year, as an example of how audits alone aren’t enough.



The combination of external and internal audits, public security contests and bug bounties and a developer gated release, Gluchowki thinks should be industry standard practice.



The zkSync Era code is also fully <a href="https://github.com/matter-labs/zksync-era">open-source</a>, including the prover, which the team <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zksync-sharpens-role-ethereum-200m-funding">sees as a competitive differentiator</a>.



“We open-sourced everything the moment we opened the network to developers — as we promised — under a permissive MIT Apache 2 License,” Gluchowski said, explaining the rationale is that they “believe it’s fundamental to crypto have the code open-source and forkable, because that’s tied to the ethos and values of Ethereum.”



Another key feature is native <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-are-smart-contract-wallets">account abstraction</a>, which will allow Era users to pay transaction fees in any token or even let dapp developers pay users’ fees.



<h2>Looking forward: Decentralization</h2>



There remain guardrails in place, such as a delay period for withdrawals, initially set to 24 hours, but which will be reduced gradually, Gluchowski said.



“In the initial phase, we will be still running the sequencer [and] we have the right to upgrade the contracts — it’s not yet fully decentralized,” he said.



The plan is to follow a similar approach to that of zkSync Lite, which has a <a href="https://blog.matter-labs.io/security-council-2-0-2337a555f17a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">security council</a> that supervises protocol upgrades.



“We can’t guarantee that there are no problems, we encourage people to experiment slowly,” Gluchowski said.



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ZkSync’s zkEVM ‘Era’ Opens to the Public

Shalini Nagarajan

Two powerhouse Ethereum scaling solutions have teamed up to build a gaming blockchain in a push to accelerate the adoption of Web3 gaming.



Immutable announced Monday that it would use Polygon’s zero-knowledge technology to create a new network called Immutable zkEVM, a roll-up designed to make the process of developing Web3-enabled games faster and easier.



It “will allow both large game studios and independent developers to build high-quality games that support true asset ownership,” Immutable said in a <a href="https://www.immutable.com/blog/immutable-and-polygon">statement</a>.



The network isn’t live yet and has to wait for the launch of Polygon’s zkEVM, which utilizes the power of zero knowledge proofs to reduce transaction costs and processing time while being fully Ethereum-compatible.&nbsp;



After launching <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-and-matter-labs-compete-on-zkevm-rollups">a public testnet in October</a>, the mainnnet is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-zkevm-beta-live-on-ethereum">slated to go live</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/MihailoBjelic/status/1625532387235971076">March 27</a>. Some of the biggest DeFi platforms, including Aave and Uniswap, will be among the first protocols to deploy on the zkEVM as they continue to scale their decentralized apps.



Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal <a href="https://twitter.com/sandeepnailwal/status/1637934814136266752" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> all gaming studios building on Immutable will end up using Polygon (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/matic">MATIC</a>) validators. These studios will launch their own app-specific chains, which will require staked MATIC, and gas fees, paid in Immutable’s token (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/imx">IMX</a>), from all such chains will go to MATIC stakers, he added.



<h2>Consequences for Gaming</h2>



Immutable and Polygon’s strategic alliance will build “an Ethereum-centric gaming ecosystem that is poised to take Web3 mainstream and bring digital ownership to millions of people around the world,” said Robbie Ferguson, co-founder at Immutable.



Gaming is one of the fastest-growing subsections of the blockchain industry, with brands like Ubisoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/epic-games-fortnite-store-crypto-blockchain">Epic Games</a> diving into decentralized gaming. Both projects combined reported nearly <a href="https://twitter.com/Immutable/status/1637877713120948224">$2 billion</a> invested in Web3 games in 2022.



“Billions of dollars of skins are sold each year with no rights for players — we’re changing that, so players are in control, and ownership is the expectation.” The Immutable zkEVM will be an additional option for game developers. It does not replace the platform’s Starkware-based solution, Immutable X.



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Immutable and Polygon Join Forces To Attract Web3 Game Developers

Bessie Liu

As the race to deploy zero-knowledge (zk) technology <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-and-matter-labs-compete-on-zkevm-rollups">intensifies</a>, Polygon reveals that it will launch its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) Mainnet Beta on March 27.



Hailed by Vitalik Buterin as the <a href="https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/05/rollup.html">future</a> of Ethereum scaling, the layer-2 scaling solution <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/polygon-unveils-zkevm-the-holy-grail-of-scaling">first revealed</a> its zkEVM in July last year — promising faster transaction speeds than optimistic rollups.



“We are delighted to share the launch date for the Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta which is coming in the first quarter of 2023 as promised,” Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon Technology told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Polygon’s zkEVM mainnet will be the first “fully EVM equivalent” zk rollup to reach Ethereum mainnet, Nailwal said.&nbsp;



“This represents a huge step towards scaling Ethereum and bringing Web3 to the masses,” he said.



Zk rollup technology moves transaction verification off-chain and then batches them so they can be settled on Ethereum. The process uses a “prover” that determines if a dataset is true or false — all while maintaining user privacy.



<a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/">Blockworks research</a> analyst <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/research?author=sam">Sam Martin</a> noted that “zkEVM race is well underway, with stiff competition amongst zkSync, Polygon, Scroll, Taiko, and others.”



“All teams are taking different approaches, but Polygon’s zkEVM has been classified as a Type-3 by Vitalik Buterin given its near EVM equivalence and choice to forgo the use of precompiles,” he said.&nbsp;



<a href="https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/08/04/zkevm.html">Type-3</a> zkEVMs are “almost EVM-equivalent” — but require a few sacrifices before it meets the golden standard of Type-1, the fully Ethereum equivalent EVM.&nbsp;



“It is possible that the first zkEVM to launch on mainnet without any limitations could garner significant traction with a first-mover advantage, so keeping a close eye on developments in this space throughout 2023 will be important.”



Over the next couple of weeks, Polygon Labs, the team behind Polygon — will be revealing more details about the Mainnet Beta.&nbsp;



“Security is the highest priority, which is why Polygon zkEVM has been run through a gauntlet of tests and audits,” the company said in a statement. “Users and devs can expect full transparency about the security measures that will protect the Ethereum community during Mainnet Beta.”



At the time of writing, Polygon’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/matic">MATIC</a> token is trading at $1.23, up by over 4% over the past 24 hours.



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Polygon’s zkEVM Beta Is Going Live on Ethereum Mainnet Next Month

<div id="highlights-block_63448cb8d5295" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>EVM compatibility or equivalence allows dapp developers to port their applications from other Ethereum-based chains</li>
 <li>Multiple zk-rollup implementations of the EVM will go live in the next 6 months</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The race to get a working Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) on a zero-knowledge proof-based rollup (zk-rollup) is heating up, as Polygon announced its EVM-equivalent effort is live on a public testnet, today.



Rival zkSync has had its EVM testnet up <a href="https://blog.matter-labs.io/zksync-2-0-public-testnet-is-live-de870ba9632a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">since February</a> and expects to roll out its mainnet by the end of October.



Once thought to take three to five years of development work, the announcement at the Polygon Connect event in Bogota, Colombia — on the sidelines of DevCon, the largest Ethereum developer conference — confirms that zkEVMs are right around the corner, according to Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic.



“Thanks to several breakthroughs that we had internally in our zkEVM team, we were able to improve the efficiency by several orders of magnitude, and we managed to deliver in a little bit less than one year,” Bjelic told Blockworks in an interview.



The advent of zkEVMs is seen as the likely <a href="https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/12/06/endgame.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">endgame</a> for Ethereum scaling. But Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin cautioned in December 2021: “It will take years of refinement and audits for people to be fully comfortable storing their assets in a ZK-rollup running a full EVM.”



Zero-knowledge rollups move the execution of transactions off-chain for verification and then batch those transactions to be settled on Ethereum.



The technology has the potential to achieve several major blockchain design goals: near-infinite scalability, high security guarantees and a familiar experience for Ethereum developers to build.



“So you can take, let’s say, 1 million transactions, generate one single proof for them, and that proof takes a fraction of a second to verify, and you prove that these 1 million transactions were correct,” Bjelic said. “So that&#8217;s, like, super cool, and allows us to scale.”



Unlike optimistic rollups, zk-rollups don&#8217;t require long withdrawal periods associated with <a href="https://medium.com/@cpbuckland88/fraud-proofs-and-virtual-machines-2826a3412099" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fraud proofs</a>, which can lead to greater capital efficiency.&nbsp;



Polygon claims to be the first general purpose, EVM-equivalent and fully open-source zk-rollup. Major DeFi platforms such as Aave and Uniswap, as well as the social platform Lens currently on Polygon’s PoS chain, are set to be among the protocols to kick the tires on the zkEVM testnet.



But what will they find when they do?



<h3>Equivalence versus compatibility</h3>



Polygon zkEVM is “Ethereum-equivalent,” the Polygon team said, which means that all existing smart contracts, developer tools and wallets already built for Ethereum will work seamlessly.



But according to Steve Newcomb, chief product officer at zkSync, a look at the project&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/0xpolygonhermez/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Github code repository</a> implies otherwise. As of Monday, the repository showed 97% coverage of Ethereum compatibility tests.



“I read Polygon’s source code every other weekend…It just is not possible that they have [the prover] working for general purpose [use],” Newcomb told Blockworks in an interview.&nbsp;



By contrast, zkSync’s EVM — dubbed zkSync 2.0 — is referred to as “Ethereum-compatible,” Newcomb said, because just three opcodes (short for operation code) are deliberately omitted to gain performance.&nbsp;



Both <a href="https://polygon.technology/solutions/polygon-zkevm/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polygon</a> and <a href="https://docs.zksync.io/zkevm/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">zkSync</a> have a developer-friendly edge over non EMV-compatible zk-rollup tech from Starkware and Loopring, in that existing code written in solidity for Ethereum doesn’t need to be re-written in another programming language for use on the rollup.



The Polygon team calls Newcomb&#8217;s claim &#8220;deliberately misleading,&#8221; defining “Ethereum-compatible” not in relation to opcodes, but rather as the ability to run EVM bytecode natively without requiring developers to put code through any compiler.



“We think it’s a non-issue,” Newcomb said on the <a href="https://shows.banklesshq.com/p/the-zkevm-is-here-zksyncs-steve-newcomb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bankless podcast</a> last month. “It’s very easy to port to us,” he added, noting that dapp developers won’t find anything lacking with zkSync’s implementation. 



And, evidently they won’t be the only games in town. Aside from <a href="https://scroll.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Scroll</a>, a previously announced EVM-equivalent zk-rollup project, new entrants can be expected, such as <a href="https://taiko.xyz/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Taiko</a>, whose team includes Loopring and GameStop alumnus Matt Finestone.



Blockworks Research’s Matt Fiebach sees a trend forming, predicting more EVM-equivalent ZK rollups will emerge.



“Oh man there are gonna be 50 EVM equivalent ZK rollups next year aren&#8217;t there,” he said.



<h3>Open-source approach</h3>



Key to the operation of zk-rollups is the so-called “prover” — cryptographic logic that signs off on transactions while preserving users’ privacy. The speed and design of the prover is already a major point of contention between the competing teams.



“Polygon zkEVM testnet also includes a completely open-sourced zk-Prover — the first of its kind to be released publicly,” Polygon said in a statement.



The zkSync team plans to open-source its EVM when it launches on mainnet — except for the prover. That will have to wait until the project begins to decentralize through its own set of validators and, presumably, via issuance of a token.



“We don&#8217;t have a date yet, because we’re very conservative about giving dates,” Newcomb said, adding the team will be updating a <a href="https://docs.zksync.io/userdocs/roadmap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">public roadmap</a>, with additional specificity as available.



Newcomb said there are huge advantages to adopting a standard prover, such as native bridges which are not really bridges at all, but “straight cryptography,” making it inherently more secure than existing bridges which have been so <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/hacks" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hack prone</a>.



“It’s like a browser agreeing to use Javascript and CSS [standards]&#8230;and all browsers use it the same, and therefore all browsers benefit because of it,” Newcomb told Bankless.



<h3>From testnet to mainnet</h3>



Polygon expects to launch the mainnet version of their zkEVM in “early 2023,” a Polygon spokesperson told Blockworks.



That’s an extremely optimistic target, according to zkSync’s Newcomb.



&#8220;You can’t do a security audit in that amount of time. You can’t even book a meeting with a security company to schedule them in that amount of time,&#8221; he told Blockworks.



Bjelic responded that &#8220;multiple&#8221; audit contracts are &#8220;being rolled out and being discussed,&#8221; adding that &#8220;Polygon has arguably the strongest in-house security team which is constantly verifying everything that we are building.&#8221;



Newcomb said that a more appropriate testnet period would be &#8220;about 9 months.&#8221;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“I just hope to God they’re not hurrying through testnet in an effort to catch up with us,” he said.</blockquote>



In a separate announcement today, timed to coincide with Polygon’s, zkSync wrote in a blog post that they are <a href="https://blog.matter-labs.io/zksync-l3-pathfinder-to-hit-testnet-in-q1-2023-367a425592db" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">looking beyond layer-2</a>, to what they term “Pathfinder,” a layer-3, also slated for early 2023.



As multiple teams chase what Polygon’s Bjelic <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-unveils-zkevm-the-holy-grail-of-scaling/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">frequently has called</a> “the Holy Grail of blockchain scaling,” the race for adoption of zk-rollups — previously seen as a marathon — is now turning into more of a sprint.



Bessie Liu contributed reporting. This story was updated on Oct. 11 at 7:00 a.m. ET with additional comment from Mihailo Bjelic and 3 p.m. ET to clarify zkEVM advantages in relation to other rollups and the interpretation of &#8220;EVM-compatible.&#8221;



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Polygon and Matter Labs Compete on zkEVM Rollups

Jack Kubinec

<div id="highlights-block_62daeb7403a20" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Polygon’s open-source zkEVM code is incomplete</li>
 <li>“We’re not at the point where any team has a zkEVM prover that works,” an Arbitrum developer said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Within 36 hours this past week, Polygon, zkSync and Scroll teased their own imminent releases of the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-unveils-zkevm-the-holy-grail-of-scaling/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“holy grail” of layer-2 technology</a> — the zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machine (zkEVM).&nbsp;



The announcements raised eyebrows. Blockworks has spoken with multiple programmers who’ve questioned how close the space really is to a functioning zkEVM.



ZkEVMs would greatly increase <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/ethereum/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum</a> layer-2 transaction speeds over the status quo of <a href="https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/scaling/optimistic-rollups/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">optimistic rollups</a>. The blockchain’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin has <a href="https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/05/rollup.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hailed the technology as the future of Ethereum scaling</a>.



Zero-knowledge rollups move transactions off-chain for verification before sending a batch of data to be settled on Ethereum. The process relies on a so-called “prover” that can label data as true or false while preserving users’ privacy.



Provers are essential for these kinds of scaling solutions. For some, this week’s zkEVM announcements did not contain sufficient indication any team has created a functioning prover.



“We’re not at the point where any team has a zkEVM prover that works,” said Steven Goldfeder, the CEO of Offchain Labs, the developer behind the optimistic rollup Arbitrum. “What I think is happening is they’re quite far from production.”



Not to mention, layer-2 sequencers are still centralized, and most zkEVM builders have yet to actually make their provers — the core of the technology — open source.



Polygon, the layer-2 giant that recently announced a partnership <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/meta-trials-nft-display-feature-for-instagram-creators-and-collectors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bringing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to Meta</a>, made its zkEVM code public. Polygon believes clarifying its code sets the company ahead of Scroll and zkSync, neither of which has publicly posted its prover.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">We support all Ethereum projects, but it&#39;s good to clarify: ✅ Polygon zkEVM is FULL-FEATURED &amp; OPEN SOURCE ❌ Scroll currently supports only a portion of EVM opcodes ❌ zkSync doesn&#39;t have an (open source) prover, so we don&#39;t know much Ignore marketing, ask to see the code. <a href="https://t.co/D5dhwYe8Xx">https://t.co/D5dhwYe8Xx</a>&mdash; Mihailo Bjelic (@MihailoBjelic) <a href="https://twitter.com/MihailoBjelic/status/1549777790114971651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



But, some question if Polygon’s code is as “full-featured” as advertised. The prover code Polygon <a href="https://github.com/0xPolygonHermez/zkevm-prover/blob/main/src/prover/prover.cpp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">uploaded to GitHub</a> is not fully functional. Sources familiar with the technology expressed doubt about Polygon&#8217;s code, with one questioning Polygon’s ability to run proofs at all in the program’s current state.



David Schwartz, technical lead at Polygon Hermez, told Blockworks in an email that the code is a work in progress. Commented code sections in the project&#8217;s GitHub are not currently operative. 



&#8220;We are not hiding anything, not in the docs or the code,&#8221; Schwartz said. &#8220;Competitors like Starkware or zkSync are not open-sourcing their [zero-knowledge] networks at all.&#8221;



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/starkware/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Starkware</a>, the company behind StarkNet, a zero-knowledge rollup with an open-source prover, emphasized zkEVM technology is not a simple matter.



Building a prover is “a Herculean task in terms of math, engineering and software. We have a team of 100 and have been at it for four years,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-ben-sasson-9b7959/?originalSubdomain=il" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eli Ben-Sasson</a>, the company’s president, told Blockworks in a phone call from EthCC.&nbsp;



Even assuming zkEVMs do have functioning provers, making the prover code public would move layer-2s closer to blockchain’s decentralized ideal.



“If the prover is open-source, then you could verify what’s being done with funds,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-yanev-38604185/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dan Yanev</a>, chief product officer at the layer-2 money market protocol Rhino.fi, told Blockworks.&nbsp;



“These companies are pressured to have something in the hands of users,” Yanev said of layer-2s.&nbsp;



Still, Yanev called Polygon’s open source prover a “big step” for zkEVMs and remains optimistic that layer-2 networks will decentralize as the technology matures.



On the other hand, Goldfeder, whose company runs on optimistic rollups, believes the high cost of zero-knowledge proofs will prohibit zkEVMs from being financially sustainable in the long run.



“Scaling needs to come from scaling solutions, not from [venture capital] funding,” Goldfeder said.



Scroll and zkSync did not immediately return requests for comment.



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DeFi Is Betting Big on ‘Zero Knowledge’ — Is the Technology Ready?

<div id="highlights-block_62d78acb6e6e0" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Polygon is taking a multi-side approach to scaling Ethereum with zkEVM, the first rollup with EVM-equivalence</li>
 <li>“Besides The Merge, this is the second-biggest event in terms of technology in the ecosystem in general,” Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



When it comes to scaling Ethereum, Polygon has taken an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach.&nbsp;



Its logo may be a hexagon, but Polygon already maintains seven discrete teams building an interrelated web of products.



Three of those teams, Hermez, Zero and Miden, have worked together to create zkEVM — a zero-knowledge proof-based rollup which achieves equivalence with the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), which the Polygon team defines as EVM specification-level compatibility. 



That means developers can easily deploy applications written in Solidity — Ethereum’s smart contract language — and take advantage of the ecosystem’s robust developer tools, just as they do on the Ethereum mainnet.



The move Wednesday, at the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris, heralds the imminent launch of a zkEVM testnet, a goal set by the Hermez team at the same conference a year ago.



“It’s been a long journey — I can talk in personal terms — this has been the project of my life,” said Jordi Baylina, technical lead at Polygon Hermez, during the group’s #PolygonTuesdays weekly Twitter space, last week. “Scaling Ethereum, scaling blockchains, has been the dream since at least 2015 if not before.”



Rollups based on zero-knowledge proofs have several advantages over the optimistic rollups which are already up and running, such as Optimism and Arbitrum — the two largest by total value locked.



Zero-knowledge rollups combine many layer-2 transactions into one — which settle on Ethereum as a validity proof. While computationally intensive, zero-knowledge rollups are much faster and more scalable.



“It makes Ethereum almost technically or theoretically infinitely scalable,” Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal said during the Twitter space, adding that in contrast to other solutions, only Ethereum itself is needed. “It has network effects. It has developers. It has users, so you know we can take Web3 to the next stage of growth,” he said.



Other projects are working on EVM-compatible or EVM-equivalent zero-knowledge rollups, such as Scroll and Matter Lab’s zkSync, but Polygon has a significant funding edge thanks to its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-closes-450m-raise-led-by-sequoia-india/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$450 million raise in February</a>.



A closed testnet of Polygon’s zkEVM should be available within two weeks with a public permissionless testnet to follow a few weeks later, Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic told Blockworks. The product is expected to reach the Ethereum mainnet by year&#8217;s end. Major Web3 applications such as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/uniswap/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uniswap</a> are planning to deploy on zkEVM.



“A future configuration of off-chain data availability will be able to reduce the fees further,” Bjelic said.



<h3>Polygon Avail envisions sovereign rollup chains</h3>



While zkEVM is “a proper old-school rollup,” Bjelic said, potentially significant efficiency gains are possible by using an off-chain data availability solution, such as Polygon Avail.



Avail is an entirely new blockchain focused on data availability that fits into a framework for scalability known as “modular” — as opposed to monolithic, such as Ethereum is today, where execution, data availability and settlement all occurs on the same layer.



In a rollup, 70% to 85% of the cost is attributed to storing Ethereum call data, Avail lead Anurag Arjun told Blockworks.&nbsp;



“That component can move to Avail,” he said.



Doing so would transform zkEVM into what’s known as a validium.



“Everyone is really looking for lower transaction fees, if the security can be maintained,” Arjun said. “You will see every rollup — at least in my opinion — will have a rollup version and a validium version.”



ZkEVM is a likely candidate for upgrading the existing Polygon <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake-whats-the-difference/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proof-of-stake</a> chain — the Ethereum-aligned sidechain using the MATIC token that was Polygon’s first foray into Ethereum scaling.



“That’s probably the end goal,” Bjelic said.&nbsp;



A team at Polygon is working on a way to migrate the entire proof-of-stake chain into a future version of the zkEVM in a way which would not require dApp developers or users to take any action. But such a solution is still about a year away.



“Polygon is a multichain ecosystem. We believe there will be probably thousands such chains built on top of Ethereum,” Nailwal said, stressing the open-source nature of all the company’s development efforts. “Cryptography must be open to be safe…Whatever we are building is for the public good and everything will be open source and will be in the public domain.”



This story was updated on July 20, 2022, at 11:31 am ET.



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