Polygon (MATIC) is a so called layer-2 scalability protocol for Ethereum (ETH). At the time of writing, the protocol is testing the promising zero-knowledge rollup (zk-rollups) technology. A new technology that makes it possible to scale up transactions on Ethereum enormously.
What are Ethereum zk rollups?
Let’s start with a quick explanation of how zk rollups work so you know what they’re all about. The technology is used to process transactions on a blockchain, but instead of making each transaction individually on the blockchain, multiple transactions are merged into one larger transaction, called a rollup.
This should ultimately increase the speed of transactions and reduce costs. The abbreviation ‘zk’ stands for “zero-knowledge”, which means that the transaction information remains anonymous in principle. This is done by using so-called zero-knowledge proof constructions.
By using this technology, only the validations of the transactions are visible, but not the content. In short, zk rollups are a way to make transactions faster and cheaper by packing them together and validating them using zero-knowledge proofs, without exposing the contents of the transaction.
Fast beyond expectations
Two years ago, the Polygon team shared the expectation that it could be ten years before we would have zk rollups. Now we are almost two years later and it seems to have almost been realized. That shows how hard the Polygon team has worked on the technology over the past two years.
These are ultimately the developments that platforms such as Polygon and by extension Ethereum need to bring decentralized applications to the masses. We still have to wait for the final launch of zk rollups on Polygon’s network, but that moment is now very close.
Polygon zkEVM: Now with more throughput and less latency. But how?
Recursion makes proofs smaller. Aggregation makes them correct. Batches of proofs are also 150% larger. pic.twitter.com/3Hi9H2uasT
— Polygon ZK (@0xPolygonZK) January 13, 2023
The latest testnet version of the software is currently live, so only the step to the mainnet has to be taken. If all tests go well in the coming period, then it is only a matter of time.