In the vast expanse of the Ethereum ecosystem, a healthy competitive climate is being fostered, according to Jordi Baylina, technical lead of Polygon Hermez zkEVM. Different firms are developing Zero-Knowledge Scaling solutions, creating an implementation race.
The spotlight is currently on Zero-Knowledge-Proofs (ZK-proofs), a scaling tool that significantly reduces transaction costs and increases throughput. The technology, leveraged by Polygon’s zkEVM, enables secure off-chain computations, making only light, non-data-revealing proofs necessary on the Ethereum mainnet. Despite its efficiency, some subtly question the sustainability of this technique as it does not reveal any data associated with transactions.
Baylina praises the diversity of projects using ZK technology. This variation expands overall experience, allows testing of different approaches, and fosters a world where progression is born from improvements made on predecessors’ effective strategies and learnings from their drawbacks. The main example here is Polygon zkEVM, which is live on the main-net and approaching 250,000 active unique addresses.
However, while user engagement seems to be on the rise, Baylina hints at a more crucial metric: the number of applications being built on Polygon zkEVM. Feedback from developers has been instrumental in shaping protocol changes. It was developers who, for example, identified timestamping issues critical to the functioning of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) oracles. This, in turn, resulted in a short-term solution and the start of long-term fix developments.
Sandeep Nailwal, Polygon’s co-founder, celebrates the introduction of their zkEVM as the “holy grail of Ethereum scaling”. This potentially leads to a future where developers can build DApps without being bound by the base blockchain’s network performance.
This development brings to light the importance of harnessing the power of blockchain technology, while also being mindful of the real challenges and need for solid improvements. Deeper questions emerge: How sustainable and secure is it to handle transaction computations off-chain? Are we ready for the weight of the rapid scaling of Ethereum?
Source: Cointelegraph
