Polygon, a leading name in blockchain scalability solutions, has announced plans to launch Polygon 2.0, a network of zero-knowledge-powered Layer 2 chains.
This initiative seeks to facilitate secure and instantaneous cross-chain interactions among Layer 2 chains without necessitating additional trust assumptions, aiming to establish what the team refers to as the “Value Layer of the Internet”.
The team at Polygon underlined the limitations of individual blockchains, which are not infinitely scalable and face strict throughput limits.
The conception of Polygon 2.0 is an attempt to create a protocol that allows anyone to generate, transact, and manipulate value in a similar manner to how the internet enables the creation and exchange of information.
It is proposed to serve as a democratizing force, providing access to the global economy in a decentralized fashion, and promoting digital ownership and new coordination mechanisms.
“The Internet democratized access to information; the Value Layer democratizes access to the global economy.”, the team explained.
Polygon 2.0 is characterized, in a blog post, as a network of zero-knowledge proof-based Layer 2 chains that are unified by a novel cross-chain coordination protocol. This approach intends to offer the user experience of a single chain, while supporting an essentially unlimited number of chains, thereby addressing the limitations of individual blockchains which have strict throughput limits and fragmented liquidity.
Polygon has already made strides in the crypto world with its proof-of-stake sidechain network, Polygon POS, which operates parallel to Ethereum and hosts prominent crypto applications like Uniswap and Aave.
Alongside Polygon POS, the team manages a Layer 2 network named Polygon zkEVM, based on ZK-Rollups, thus complementing its existing proof-of-stake chain.
The advent of Polygon 2.0 signals a shift in focus toward creating additional Layer 2 chains that leverage the power of ZK-Rollups, one of the most adopted solutions for off-chain Ethereum computation.
Previously, Polygon has shown interest in creating multiple chains using its software stack, SuperNets. The team has contributed to the development of individual chains for projects like Immutable and Aavegotchi.
The introduction of Polygon 2.0, however, signifies a shift towards developing more interconnected chains, laying the groundwork for ecosystems similar to Cosmos and Polkadot, but with a unique approach of leveraging ZK-Rollups for Layer 2 solutions.
Polygon 2.0 is a result of over a year’s collaborative effort involving Polygon Labs, developers, researchers, applications, node operators, validators, and the broader Polygon and Ethereum communities. The community, who controls the Polygon protocol, is the one to accept and implement Polygon 2.0.