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Polygon 2.0: The first movement - Polygon PoS chain integrates zero-knowledge proof technology, upgrading to L2

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Polygon 2.0: The first movement - Polygon PoS chain integrates zero-knowledge proof technology, upgrading to L2

Last week, Polygon Labs officially announced the "Polygon 2.0" project, aiming to build an L2 network based on ZK technology. In order to integrate the Polygon PoS chain into its ecosystem, it will be upgraded to "zkEVM Validium" using zero-knowledge proof technology. What changes will this bring to the vast Polygon ecosystem?

Polygon PoS Chain to Upgrade to zkEVM Validium

According to an official announcement by Polygon, the engineering team at Polygon Labs has proposed an upgrade to the Polygon PoS chain to "zkEVM Validium" - a decentralized Layer 2 solution based on zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs.

Polygon stated that this upgrade will enhance the security and efficiency of Polygon PoS, making it a core component of the Polygon 2.0 ecosystem.

If the community approves the upgrade, the technology of Polygon zkEVM will be integrated into the Polygon PoS chain, becoming the first existing blockchain to transition to an L2 solution using zero-knowledge proof technology.

Why the Need for the Upgrade of Polygon PoS Chain?

As per the Polygon 2.0 plan announced last week, Polygon aims to create an L2 network rooted in zero-knowledge technology and integrate blockchain interoperability through a novel cross-chain coordination protocol to achieve infinite scalability and unify liquidity across L2 solutions.

However, the current Polygon PoS chain is secured by its own validation nodes rather than zero-knowledge proofs. To enable widespread adoption of Polygon 2.0 and integration into its ecosystem by protocols and developers, Polygon aims to upgrade to utilize zero-knowledge technology post-upgrade without requiring any changes for users or developers to continue operating their apps.

Additionally, the only difference is to provide higher user security and seamless interaction with other chains within the Polygon 2.0 ecosystem.

Exploring the Unique Features of zkEVM Validium

Officially, Validium can be thought of as a low-cost, high-throughput version of Rollups, like Polygon zkEVM. These Rollups utilize Ethereum for publishing transaction data and verifying proofs, inheriting its security and decentralization.

However, unlike Rollups, which incur high costs and throughput limitations when publishing transaction data to Ethereum, Validium not only provides similar security guarantees to Rollups but also allows transaction data to be available off-chain.

The official statement believes Validium has two advantages over Rollups:

  1. Significantly lower transaction costs: as it does not require expensive Ethereum gas for block space to store transaction data.
  2. Significantly improved scalability: as Rollups' throughput is limited by the volume of transaction data that can be published to Ethereum.

However, Validium is not without drawbacks. Long-term operation of Validium will incur additional costs for generating proofs, but the Polygon Labs ZK team has made remarkable progress in reducing these costs.

Impact on Validators after the Upgrade of Polygon PoS Chain

Post-upgrade, existing Polygon PoS validators will play two crucial roles: ensuring data availability and ordering transactions.

The existing Polygon PoS consensus mechanism already ensures data availability, where validators prove the validity of transactions and the availability of transaction data. This aspect will continue post-upgrade. The new task involves validators deciding which transactions are included in blocks and confirming their order, making the Polygon PoS chain the first L2 with a decentralized ordering mechanism.

Coexistence of Polygon PoS Chain and Polygon zkEVM Rollup

With continuous updates in the Polygon ecosystem, users may have started to confuse the differences between various chains. The official statement mentions that both Polygon PoS chain and Polygon zkEVM Rollup are public networks within the Polygon ecosystem. Post-upgrade, this situation will remain unchanged, but both networks will use zkEVM technology, with one as a Rollup and the other as Validium.

Additionally, based on the following factors, the official view is that these two networks can coexist meaningfully and complementarily:

  • Polygon zkEVM Rollup provides the highest level of security, albeit with slightly higher fees and limited throughput, suitable for handling high-value transactions and applications that prioritize security, such as high-value DeFi applications.
  • The upgraded Polygon PoS chain zkEVM Validium will offer high scalability and extremely low fees, suitable for applications with large transaction volumes and low transaction costs, such as Web3 games, social apps, and micro DeFi.

If the proposal is formally approved after community feedback, the upgrade is expected to be implemented in the first quarter of 2024.