Polygon launches new Etheum-compatible scaling solution zkEVM

Polygon has launched a proprietary Ethereum-compatible scaling solution called zkEVM.

Based on zero-knowledge proofs, zkEVM will enable developers to seamlessly deploy any Ethereum smart contract that scales infinitely and drastically reduces fees.

“It’s just like using Ethereum, but with the groundbreaking scaling power of ZK tech,” Polygon said in an announcement.

We are proud to announce a giant leap forward for Ethereum scaling and ZK innovation.

Introducing Polygon #zkEVM, the first EVM-equivalent ZK L2.

Today we’re releasing a complete implementation, fully open-source, and we’re just getting started.

[1/6] pic.twitter.com/P929DRCT1y

— Polygon – MATIC 💚 (@0xPolygon) July 20, 2022

Zero-knowledge scaling coming to Polygon

According to Polygon’s announcement, an Ethereum scaling solution has been in the works for quite some time. The company decided early on that zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs were the most promising pathway to achieve seamless scaling.

Polygon calls its zkEVM “the future of Ethereum scaling.” As with any other zk-based scaling solution, zkEVM is a Layer-2 protocol that rolls up a large batch of transactions and “proves” all of them to Ethereum with a single ZK validity proof.

zkEVM addresses some of the biggest problems scaling solutions like these experiences, with the biggest ones being long proof times and EVM compatibility.

Polygon’s ZK teams have reportedly made major breakthroughs in performance, significantly improving proof-generation times. They’ve also introduced true EVM compatibility.

“You can build on Polygon zkEVM the same way you would on Ethereum. You can deploy any Ethereum smart contract. Any tooling that works with Ethereum will work on Polygon zkEVM. Do anything you would do on Ethereum, for lower cost and at greater speeds, and have it verified on the Ethereum network via a ZK validity proof. It’s Ethereum, but with ZK scalability.”

Polygon built zkEVM as a permissionless, open-source solution. The code for zkEVM has been published and is available to anyone to use.

The platform said the zkEVM testnet “will soon be live,” but provided no further details about potential launch dates.