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Polygon co-founder - B bet on ZK-rollups paying off

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Polygon has allocated an estimated $1 billion on zero-knowledge technology underpinning its Ethereum scaling layer 2 solutions.

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal believes the layer 2 blockchain firm is reaping the benefits of allocating $1 billion to develop zero-knowledge proof (ZK-proof) powered scaling solutions for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Speaking at a keynote address during the latest edition of the Token2049 conference in Singapore, Nailwal touched on the development of 'Polygon 2.0' scaling efforts and the promise of recursive ZK-proof technology to create a seamless interoperable blockchain ecosystem.

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal at Token2049 in Singapore.

Nailwal highlighted how Web2 and Web3 are similar in form and function, with the former serving as the internet of information with “practically unlimited scalability” as well as the ability to transfer or convey information in various forms seamlessly across the world at great speeds.

Web3 meanwhile represents the “internet of value”, which according to Nailwal will require two capabilities to become ubiquitous.

“Firstly, infinite, unlimited unbounded scalability and unified liquidity for value to be transferred. There cannot be 100 chains with the value distributed across and they cannot interoperate.”

In order to tap into the characteristics that have made Web2 able to become the internet of information, Nailwal pointed to the importance of an aggregator or interoperability layer to amalgamate ZK-proofs of different chains to a common layer.

“The moment those two proofs are submitted on Ethereum layer, we have a mechanism where we have a global state route on Ethereum and then any kind of liquidity can move across the chain without coming to Ethereum.”

Recursive ZK-proving technology holds the key to this aggregator layer which Nailwal expects to be deployed in the coming months. The technology will allow different blockchains to submit ZK-proofs of their network state to the aggregator, which then submits a proof of these combined attestations to the Ethereum network.

“Our goal is that this proving will eventually go down to like probably two seconds. So every chain is submitting a proof of whatever has happened on their ecosystem or on their chain every two seconds to this aggregator layer.”

The Polygon co-founder believes that cross chain transactions could be executed in 4 to 5 seconds, one third of an Ethereum block time, which will begin to feel “like one single big block space.”

Nailwal highlights the potential benefit of having high liquidity chains like it's zkEVM and proof-of-stake chain to share value to applications, while noting that larger layer 1 blockchain platforms have expressed interest in tapping into an interoperable layer.

“Anybody can join this layer and it's a mutual win-win because everybody benefits from each other's liquidity.”

Polygon zkEVM's beta hit mainnet in March 2023, allowing developers to deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications that benefit from faster throughput and lower costs than Ethereum's layer 1.

The company also recently launched its Chain Development Kit, which allows developers to build, customize and deploy layer 2 chains connected to the wider Ethereum ecosystem.

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Magazine: Recursive inscriptions: Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon

Polygon makes new sidechain developer stack opensource, supporting ZK-powered Layer 2s on Ethereum

September 1, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Chain Development Kit

Polygon’s Chain Development Kit allows developers to freely build, customize and deploy layer 2 chains connected to the wider Ethereum ecosystem.

The Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem could welcome a variety of new layer 2 (L2) protocols built on Polygon’s newly open sourced codebase Chain Development Kit, which harnesses zero-knowledge proof (ZK-proof) technology to ensure security and fast finality.

Jordi Baylina, technical lead of Polygon Hermez zkEVM, spoke to Cointelegraph exclusively about the new tool set which is publicly available on a Github repository:

“The motivating idea is simple: it should be easy and seamless for developers to launch a ZK-powered Layer 2 on Ethereum, tailored to the requirements of their project.”

Baylina added that a key aspect is that Polygon CDK enables automatic access to liquidity across all of Polygon’s chains as well as the wider Ethereum ecosystem, providing “on-demand scale, without fragmenting liquidity".

The Ethereum developer pointed to a number of different projects building CDK-powered chains across a variety of use cases, including from payment-specific L2s, DeFi, gaming, social-specific platforms, and creator or NFT platforms.

Baylina also highlighted the customizability of CDK for different appchains, featuring customizations for rollup or validium mode, zkEVM or another ZK-powered execution environment, various data availability solutions, native token and gas token customization, centralized or decentralized sequencer mode as well as permissioned networks with granular allowlists.

The importance of ZK-proof technology is another factor that Baylina stressed, highlighting Polygon Labs’ belief that zero-knowledge is the future of scaling Ethereum. As the Hermez zkEVM lead explains, chains launched with Polygon CDK are automatically connected to a shared ZK bridge and plugged into an “interop layer,” which is a cross-chain communication protocol.

“Suppose there are 1000s of chains in the Polygon ecosystem. It’s inefficient for each of these to submit their proofs directly to Ethereum. Instead, the interop layer will receive proofs from chains and submit a single ZK proof that proves the state of all Polygon chains.”

Baylina said the technology unlocks sub-minute cross-chain transactions and creates the perception of a single chain environment.

Cointelegraph also queried the key differences between CDK and other Ethereum ecosystem programming languages like Zk-proof pioneers StarkWare’s Cairo codebase.

Baylina explains that the architecture unlocked by Polygon CDK is different in that it enables automatic access to shared liquidity through a ZK bridge and interop layer of an L2 ecosystem secured by working ZK-proofs.

He finished by reaffirming the belief in ZK-proofs as the future of Ethereum scalability given its fast finality and withdrawal times, when compared to week-long delay by fraud proofs that feature in Optimistic rollup L2 solutions.

“ZK makes better bridges, but also secures chains by rigorous math, without a need for social-economic components required by fraud proofs.”

Cointelegraph previously explored the Ethereum layer 2 ecosystem, unpacking the basics of Ethereum rollups and the different approaches to scaling the smart contract blockchain.

Magazine: Recursive inscriptions: Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon

StarkWare, Herodotus launch tech to verify data from any point in Ethereum’s history

September 1, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Storage Proofs could prove useful for services like account recovery tapping into the ability to access and verify historical Ethereum data.

A new zero-knowledge proof (ZK-proof) technology is set to improve the ability to access and verify historical data from the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, with deep chain validation cited as a usability barrier of the network.

Technology firm Herodotus has released its on-chain accumulator which uses storage proof cryptography, allowing users to verify data from any point of Ethereum’s blockchain without the need of a third-party. The solution makes use of StarkWare’s STARK proving, the ZK-proof technology co-invented by mathematician Eli Ben-Sasson.

StarkWare presented Herodotus with a custom built instance of its shared prover service SHARP, which enables advanced scaling efficiency using recursive proofs. The latter allows for a virtual machine to provide “proofs of proofs”, by generating proofs of transactions or blocks in parallel and real time and batching them into a subsequent proof.

At a slightly more technical level, the accumulator acts as a cache that stores block headers. If the accumulator has a header in its cache, the respective storage proof computation can use it for validation.

A visual representation of the possible use of recursive proofs to batchs a variety of information into subsequent verified and cached proofs. Source: StarkWare.

If the header is not cached, then the prover has to generate a proof to cover the requested block range, add the block header to the accumulator and then complete the requested storage proof computation.

As the name suggests, the on-chain accumulator essentially accumulates proofs that roll-up prior proofs, drastically reducing the time it takes to verify the Ethereum blockchain and associated data at any point in the network’s history.

Herodotus chief technology officer Marcello Bardus notes that the technology removes the need to traverse the entire blockchain on the blockchain itself:

“We can do it off chain, generate an accumulator and just cherrypick one specific block without iterating from the entire chain on the chain itself.”

Starkware notes that Storage Proofs could prove to be groundbreaking as an alternative to cross-chain bridges that need to rely on third-party oracles to track and verify data.

Herodotus co-founder Kacper Koziol added that the accumulator is an innovation that Ethereum has long needed to align with blockchain principles of transparency and accessibility. The technology will essentially allow any use to access any point in Ethereum’s history.

“This will be very powerful. For the first time in the history of blockchains people are going to be able to prove the correctness of any aspect of anyone’s on-chain information.”

The two teams highlight the potential for storage proofs to build “Web2 equivalent applications” tapping into the pioneering ability to access and verify Ethereum blockchain data autonomously.

Account recovery is touted as one potential use case, where the ability to verify on-chain data could be used to trigger a proverbial dead man’s switch, or to automate insurance protocols that use historical on-chain events to trigger smart contract payouts.

Magazine: Recursive inscriptions: Bitcoin ‘supercomputer’ and BTC DeFi coming soon

Privacy-focused Aleo blockchain gets new wallet as mainnet launch approaches

June 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Aleo

The wallet developer also raised $4.5 million from HackVC and other firms to further advance ZK-based enterprise solutions.

Demox Labs has debuted a new wallet for the privacy-oriented Aleo blockchain network, according to a June 1 announcement. Called “Leo,” the wallet allows users to generate zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs within their browsers, letting them interact with Aleo’s ZK-based apps. Aleo is in its testnet phase but expects to launch a mainnet later this year.

According to the announcement, Demox also raised $4.5 million from investors to further develop ZK-proof technology through Aleo and other networks. Over 40,000 users signed up for the Leo wallet waitlist in the period leading up to its debut.

Congratulations to Demox Labs, creators of @theLeoWallet for securing $4.5m in funding.

We are proud to have a top-notch team building the future of privacy on @AleoHQ https://t.co/4P5bNVx4Ea
— Aleo (@AleoHQ) June 2, 2023

The funding round was led by venture capital firm HackVC and included participation from DCVC, Amplify Partners, Coinbase Ventures, CRV, OpenSea and CSquared. The funds will be used to make Leo compatible with other ZK-proof blockchains and develop Web3 applications for enterprises.

Demox Labs co-founder and CEO Barron Caster saw the wallet’s launch and fundraise as the start of a new privacy-focused era in Web3:

“Leo Wallet is just one example of how [zero-knowledge proofs] will empower individuals to use modern technologies and maintain legal and regulatory compliance without sacrificing personal privacy […] Sharing sensitive data will soon become an option, not a requirement.”

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Aleo CEO Alex Pruden echoed that sentiment. He said zero-knowledge privacy technology is unique because it allows for “programmable privacy.” He added: “Everything you can do on Ethereum, you can do in Aleo, but privately.”

Aleo raised $28 million in April 2021 and acquired another $200 million in February 2022. It launched its testnet in August of the same year.

Polygon sets late March launch date for its zkEVM mainnet beta

February 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Ethereum scaling solutions provider is preparing to launch its long-awaited Ethereum Virtual Machine roll-up technology.

The long-awaited scaling upgrade from Ethereum layer-2 solution provider Polygon (MATIC) has been announced, with the beta launch of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) mainnet slated for March 27.

In a Feb. 14 blog post, Polygon said that after three and a half months of “battle testing,” the system will be ready for the mainnet launch next month.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Poems are hard
Mainnet Beta is here

ON MARCH 27, Polygon #zkEVM launches the future of Ethereum scaling

https://t.co/OqSOYTn8Uv pic.twitter.com/kpXavea3ff
— Polygon (@0xPolygon) February 14, 2023

It's been touted as “seamless scaling for Ethereum,” and was launched as a testnet in December last year.

The development of the zk-rollup scaling technology has been ongoing for the past three years. During that time, the Polygon zkEVM system has hit several milestones noted by the team.

These include the deployment of more than 5,000 smart contracts, the generation of over 75,000 zk-proofs, more than 84,000 wallets and two public third-party audits.

*A graphic detailing the development so far leading up to the launch. Source: Polygon*

The team noted that security is the highest priority and that’s the reason “why Polygon zkEVM has been run through a gauntlet of tests and audits.”

The technology uses zero-knowledge proofs — cryptographic confirmations that, in the context of scaling, enable platforms to validate mass amounts of transaction data before bundling and confirming them on Ethereum.

Polygon is not the only team working on a zkEVM solution. Scaling provider zkSync is developing similar EVM technology with its zkPorter — which puts essential transaction data off-chain.

Scroll, another scaling solutions provider, is also building a zkEVM solution in collaboration with the Privacy and Scaling Explorations group, part of the Ethereum Foundation.

The Ethereum Foundation is also funding a project called Applied ZKP, which aims to develop an EVM-compatible zk-rollup.

The team explained the significance of the technology, stating that true EVM-equivalence means Ethereum can be scaled “without resorting to half-measures.”

“The best way to scale Ethereum is to preserve the existing Ethereum ecosystem: code, tooling, and infrastructure needs to just work. And that’s what Polygon zkEVM is aiming to achieve.”

The scaling tech also enables significant transaction cost savings. Proof costs for a large batch of hundreds of transactions are down to about $0.06 and less than $0.001 for a simple transfer, the team added.

Matter Labs, the firm behind Polygon, raised $50 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz to build EVM-compatible zk-Rollups in November 2021.

Polygon’s native token, MATIC, has reacted positively to the announcement with a 5.3% gain over the past 12 hours or so. As a result, the token was trading for $1.24 at the time of writing, according to Cointelegraph data.

60 million NFTs could be minted in a single transaction: StarkWare founder

August 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The StarkWare founder announced the launch of its new Recursive validity proof technology on Aug. 7 in Seoul.

Zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup tech company StarkWare founder Eli Ben-Sasson says its new Recursive validity proofs could theoretically roll up as many as 60 million transactions into one on the Ethereum blockchain.

The zkSTARK co-inventor made the comments to Cointelegraph during ETH Seoul on Aug. 7 after announcing the start of production of StarkWare’s new Recursive validity proof technology during a presentation.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ben-Sasson said that recursive validity proofs could further scale up transaction throughput to a factor of at least ten compared to standard Validium scaling, noting that they’ve already been rolling up 600,000 mints of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the ImmutableX protocol.

“I would say the minimum I would say is 10x [...] We've been putting 600,000 mints of NFTs, which resulted in a 10 gas per mint. We can now at the very least take 10 of such proofs and generate a recursive proof of all 10 of these things,” he explained.

“We could go to six million at the very least, and this is in the near term. That's something that would be very easy to do. ”

However, Ben-Sasson also added the number could “go up to 60 million with more engineering and tweaking," adding:

“I think also reducing the latency by another factor that's 5 to 10x is also very doable.”

StarkNet is a permissionless and decentralized layer-2 ZK-rollup that uses Validium to scale transactions. Like standard ZK-Rollups, Validiums work by aggregating thousands of transactions into a single transaction. StarkNet’s new Recursive validity proof technology can batch up several Validium blocks into a single proof.

This scaling solution could be a game-changer for Ethereum as layer-2 scaling solutions like ZK-Rollups and StarkNet’s Recursive validity proofs can offload much of the network congestion and data availability issues that have caused trouble on the Ethereum Mainnet. Currently, Ethereum’s Mainnet can process transactions at a rate of 12-15 transactions per second (TPS).

During his presentation at ETH Seoul, Ben-Sasson noted that recursion is great for scaling as it lowers gas costs, has higher proof capacity, and offers lower latency.

Starknet just turned on recursion for their production SHARP systems. Recursive proving can drastically decrease the amortized cost per transaction on L1, and introduces a secure STARK-based model for layer 3. It’s exciting to witness the profound scaling solutions rolling out.
— g.mirror.xyz (@strangechances) August 7, 2022

StarkNet has been live on Ethereum Mainnet since June 2020. It currently powers protocols including dYdX, Immutable, DeversiFi, and Celer.

Also speaking at ETH Seoul on Sunday, Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his enthusiasm towards ZK-rollups, further stating that the scaling solution was superior to Optimistic Rollups:

“In the longer term, ZK-Rollups are eventually going to beat Optimistic Rollups because they have these fundamental advantages, like not needing to have a seven-day withdrawal period.”

To date, the Ethereum-based scaling solutions with the most total value locked (TVL) are Arbitrum, Optimism, dYdX, and Loopring.