The Polygon Tests Zero-Knowledge Rollups And Mainnet Integration
Before eventually integrating its zkEVM onto the mainnet, Polygon does zero-knowledge rollups on the final testnet to evaluate its performance.
Ethereum scaling protocol layer-2 Before full integration with its mainnet, Polygon performs performance testing on the technology of zero-knowledge rollup (zk rollups).
The Polygon Hermez team has been working on developing the technology known as Polygon zkEVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) for more than three years. By producing more than 12,000 zero-knowledge proofs in a preliminary version of the zkEVM testnet, the team has already demonstrated that zero-knowledge defenses are feasible on Ethereum.
David Schwartz, project manager for Polygon zkEVM and PolygonID, explained how the feature was developed. Layer-2 platforms have grown and improved over time, which has been a big part of how Ethereum has scaled.
He said that zero-knowledge rollups had accelerated the speed at which layer-2 platforms may reach finality while assuring secure transaction validation. A block of transactions is regarded to have attained finality when it has been put into the blockchain permanently and irrevocably.
“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.”
Schwartz claims that Polygon zkEVM contains the first complete source code version of the EVM-equivalent zkProver, which can pass all Ethereum vector tests with a score above 99%. Since his team started creating its zkEVM, he called the fulfillment of validity proofs for regular user transactions “the most challenging and rewarding effort.”
The Polygon team predicted it could take up to 10 years to build zk rollups compatible with EVMs two years prior. Given the advancements, the group views zkEVM as the final product, which combines innovations with layer two scalability and quick finality. Thanks to the higher throughput and lower costs, users can gain from this in various ways.
Crypto researchers have questioned the differences between Polygon’s zkEVM, StarkNet’s ZK-SNARK and ZK-STARK technologies, and other Ethereum layer-2 scaling networks. ZK-STARKS (Zero-Knowledge Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) boosts scalability primarily by batching thousands of transactions with a single proof to validate validity on a chain, as was previously described.
Schwartz says the main difference between the projects is that zkEVM is focused on scaling the Ethereum ecosystem natively. In contrast, other zk-rollups only focus on scaling transactions and improving performance in a separate VM format.
The method used by Polygon is said to fit the description of a type 2 zkEVM made by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in August 2022. According to Buterin’s overview, type 2 zkEVMs make small changes to ETH to facilitate development and speed up proof production while aiming to be fully interoperable with already-existing applications. Schwartz continued:
“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.”
To learn in various ways, Schwartz appreciated having more benchmarks and source code available from other projects. As of 2023, Blockchain data shows that the number of transactions on Arbitrum and Optimism was higher than on the Ethereum mainnet. This shows that activity on Ethereum layer-2 solutions is still growing.
