Polygon, OP Devs Bash Matter Labs for “Misleading” Comparisons

Matter Labs draws backlash for comparisons made to its multichain architecture.

A guy wearing Polygon hoodie confused by the Polygon (MATIC) maze.
Created by Kornelija Poderskytฤ— from DailyCoin
  • Matter Labs has drawn backlash for comparisons made to its multichain architecture.
  • Matter Labs’ chain verification claims have become clouded in suspicion.
  • Matter Labs continues to be the subject of scrutiny among peers in recent weeks.

Flying jabs are commonplace in every competitive space, and the burgeoning Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem is no different as leading scaling solution providers square off for supremacy. Amid the frequent squabbles, Matter Labs, the developer of the popular zkSync Era chain and the ZK Stack, has often found itself at the center of controversy.

On Tuesday, July 2, the firm unveiled its Elastic Chain vision, a multichain architecture that bears a striking resemblance to Polygon‘s AggLayer. While the newly unveiled architecture promises to serve as a boon for the zkSync ecosystem, claims made by Matter Labs about competing architectures in comparison to the Elastic Chain have drawn significant backlash.

Matter Labs Propping up Elastic Chain with “Made up Metrics”?

Matter Labs has drawn backlash for comparing its multichain architecture to Optimism’s Superchain and Polygon’s AggLayer. In the July 2 blog post announcing the Elastic Chain’s architecture, Matter Labs compared it to Optimism‘s Superchain and Polygon’s AggLayer on five metrics. These metrics included their tech stack, verifiability, shared interoperability, native interoperability, and throughput, all of which appeared to combine to give Matter Labs’ Elastic Chain the edge over the competition.

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However, several Polygon and Optimism team members say Matter Labs’ presentation of the facts is misleading.

Matter Labs created table comparing Elastic Chain, Superchain, and AggLayer
Matter Labs created table comparing Elastic Chain, Superchain, and AggLayer. Source: Matter Labs

The developers highlighted multiple issues with Matter Labs’ claims in several X posts. For one, access to the Polygon AggLayer is not restricted to chains built with Polygon’s CDK. At the same time, while Matter Labs claims that chains in Optimism’s Superchain were not verifiable, fraud proofs are already live on the OP mainnet. Moreover, throughput has nothing to do with the AggLayer, the Elastic Chain, or the Superchain.

Surmising the gripes of several community members, crypto content creator Jesse Eckel argued that Matter Labs appeared to be propping itself up with “made up metrics.”

The recent uproar over Matter Labs’ claims about the AggLayer and the Superchain is the latest in a growing list of instances in recent weeks in which the firm has been the center of criticism.

Matter Labs x Controversy

Matter Labs has frequently faced backlash in recent Ethereum Layer 2 squabbles. In May 2024, the firm drew the ire of several crypto community members for deciding to use “ZK” as its ticker when another project, Polyhedra Network, had already claimed it.

Barely a week later, with the dust yet to settle on the ticker dispute, Matter Labs again found itself in the line of fire, this time for filing to trademark “ZK” in multiple jurisdictions.

Despite the continuous controversies surrounding Matter Labs, zkSync Era remains the largest ZK-powered Layer 2 chain by TVL with $1.3 billion, according to L2Beat data at the time of writing.

On the Flipside 

  • Matter Labs founder Alex Gluchowski maintains that the table comparing Elastic Chain to the AggLayer and the Superchain painted a correct picture of the current technological maturity of each project.
  • While joining the Elastic Chain requires developers to build with the ZK Stack, joining the AggLayer does not.

Why This Matters 

The recent dispute over Matter Labs’ Elastic Chain claims highlights the escalating tensions among Ethereum Layer 2 developers in the battle for dominance.

Read this for more on Matter Labs:
zkSync’s Matter Labs Faces Pushback Over “ZK” Trademark Efforts

Stay up to date with the latest in the legal battle between Consensys and the SEC:
Consensys Fast-Tracks SEC Lawsuit Following Enforcement Action

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Author
Okoya David

David Okoya is a journalist at DailyCoin covering DeFi ecosystems and exchanges. David has moderate holdings in Bitcoin, and minor holdings in LINK, DOT, INJ, and memecoins.

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