- Polygon Labs has partnered with StarkWare to develop a new zero-knowledge proving system.
- Developers have tipped the new proving system to be the fastest in the world.
- The new proving system adds to a growing list of Polygon launches anticipated in 2024.
Polygon Labs is widely regarded as having one of the leading technological teams in crypto. While the team’s primary focus remains the Polygon (MATIC) network, resulting technological feats tend to have broader industry impacts.
In the latest instance, Polygon has teamed up with another leading technological team, particularly in zero-knowledge technology, StarkWare, the developers of Starknet, to develop a new proving system that promises to be a game changer for ZK-rollups.
The Fastest Proving System Yet?
Despite backing rival Ethereum scaling solutions, on Wednesday, February 21, Polygon Labs and StarkWare disclosed that they have been working closely for months on a new proving system for Plonky 3, the upgrade to Polygon’s trademark Plonky 2 prover.
ZK-rollups, like the one developed by Polygon Labs and StarkWare, rely on cryptographic proofs called validity proofs to validate Ethereum transactions without revealing details of these transactions. The process of generating these proofs, however, is typically computationally intensive, serving as a cost and speed bottleneck for ZK-rollups, hence why developers continue to pursue improvements to the system.
Sponsored
In the Wednesday announcement, Polygon asserts that Circle STARK, the result of collaboration with StarkWare, significantly improves cryptographic proving technology. Underscoring the excitement around the project, StarkWare developer Shahar Papini, who had played a key role in Circle STARK development, predicted that the new proving system would be the fastest in the world.
This improvement would translate to even lower fees and faster transaction processing times for users.
Sponsored
No launch date has been announced for the new system, but it is likely to go live with Plonky 3 later in 2024.
The Circle STARK is the latest in a growing list of behemoth releases that Polygon has outlined for 2024 in line with the 2.0 roadmap.
Polygon Labs on a Tear
In January 2024, Polygon Labs announced that it was close to reaching a key milestone in the development of its multichain ecosystem of zero-knowledge-powered chains building on top of Ethereum with the near launch of the interoperability layer called the Aggregation Layer or AggLayer.
As explained by developers, the AggLayer would allow users to experience the ecosystem like a single blockchain with “near-instant” and “atomic transactions.”
In February, the team unveiled a Type 1 prover that promises to allow any EVM Layer 1 chain or Optimistic rollup to become a zkEVM and join the Polygon ecosystem without a complete network migration.
On the Flipside
- The Circle STARK has yet to go live.
- Polygon Labs and StarkWare face competition from Matter Labs, the developers of zkSync Era.
Why This Matters
The Circle STARK promises to make transactions on ZK-rollups cheaper and faster than ever before.
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