As the narrative around zero knowledge begins to become ubiquitous within the blockchain ecosystem, other chains are choosing to innovate on other levels as L1s. Could this be a default decision due to a lack of alternatives in this hyper-competitive industry?
Meanwhile, Polygon Labs is a firm believer in zkEVM’s long-term potential, continuing to develop its solutions and expand its ecosystem. The number of Polygon CDK-based projects wishing to implement a zero-knowledge L2 chain continues to grow. Against this backdrop, NEAR Foundation and Polygon Labs have decided to work together to add a new dimension to this disruptive decentralized technology.
Unprecedented strategic alliance between Polygon Labs and NEAR Foundation
Polygon Labs and NEAR Foundation are forging a strategic alliance around two main axes: the development of a technological innovation needed by the NEAR protocol, and the integration of NEAR into the Polygon ecosystem as a chain using Polygon CDK.
What does this mean? Coinpri explains!
Near and Polygon technology collaboration: new zkWasm prover on Polygon CDK
The NEAR protocol, historically an L1, is making a significant shift and moving closer to the Ethereum ecosystem! Working hand in hand with the teams at Polygon Labs focused on Polygon CDK (Chain Development Kit).
In this way, the teams developing NEAR are contributing to Polygon CDK’s technological progress. These innovations not only enable the NEAR protocol to integrate technically with Polygon and Ethereum, but also with all future projects requiring a similar architecture. It is therefore a natural synergy between the two top-ranking protocols.
What does zkWASM, the proverbial zero knowledge for WebAssembly, technically look like?
zkWASM then becomes the 3rd zk prover available in the technical stack of Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK), the open-source L2 Ethereum chain solution.
zkWASM is thus positioned as the or at least one of the leading future solutions for zk prover for blockchains using WASM. Web Assembly (or WASM) is a web standard that enables high-performance code to be executed in web browsers, in particular code generated using Rust, which offers a very high level of security and performance.
This will enable very high security for blockchain transactions and great interoperability, particularly in the growing ecosystem Polygon Labs supports every major project to become an L2 with Polygon CDK.
(https://wiki.polygon.technology/docs/cdk/what-is-polygon-cdk/)
What about NEAR validators who have to use a zk prover?
NEAR protocol validators, use a zkWASM prover simplifies the process and, above all, makes it possible to generate zero-knowledge proof as we say in the industry. This is why NEAR’s scaling potential is suddenly exploding. In 2024, we can expect the protocol to become more secure, enabling many more transactions at lower cost. Not to mention the new use cases linked to ZK (zero-knowledge if you were still in doubt).
Conclusion
Finally, this alliance is significant because it represents the close collaboration of two major blockchain networks, Polygon and Near.
The benefits are obvious on both sides. On the one hand, the Near protocol becomes an L2 and now has at its disposal zero-knowledge technology and access to the Ethereum and Polygon ecosystems. On the other hand, the Polygon blockchain is set to expand even further, with new technical customization available for projects wishing to become an L2 via Polygon CDK, and a new project joining the Polygon 2.0 constellation.
Will the liquidity between these two networks merge from the user’s point of view once Polygon CDK is in its final phase in 2024?
Passionate entrepreneur versed both in Business and Tech. Zero Knowledge protocols enthusiast and active contributor to the Polygon ecosystem. Background as an accountant, auditor, developer and community builder.
