Polygon Launches zkEVM Testnet – Polygon said on Monday that the project’s zkEVM testnet is now live, and the team is seeking users to help them battle-test and accelerate the process toward mainnet. Polygon’s zkEVM is a zk-rollup solution with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, designed to improve scalability. According to the Github project profile, zkEVM “consists of a decentralized Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution utilizing cryptographic zero-knowledge technology to ensure validation and fast finality of off-chain transaction computations.”
In addition to encouraging users to test the project, the decentralized finance (defi) platforms Uniswap and Aave, as well as the gaming studio Midnight Society and the social networking site Lens, will join the zkEVM testing network. “Using zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to scale the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a big challenge,” Polygon reported on Monday. “We want to keep what we love about Ethereum while harnessing the power of ZK proofs. Today, we take another big step towards scaling that doesn’t sacrifice EVM equivalence.”
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The zkEVM testnet comes at a time when there are a plethora of L2 initiatives working to scale Ethereum, many of which use ZK technology. Loopring, Zksync, Arbitrum, Boba, Aztec, Immutable X, and Optimism are L2 projects that attempt to deliver improved scalability, faster transactions, and lower fees. Some L2 projects employ optimistic rollups in addition to ZK technology, while others use validium. The difference between the other L2s and zkEVM is the project’s EVM compatibility equivalence.
“EVM-equivalence is a spectrum, and the testnet version of Polygon zkEVM is not yet everything we want it to become,” the team’s blog post notes. “Vitalik’s framework currently puts our zkEVM in the Type 3’ category of protocols, which are ‘almost EVM-equivalent, but make a few sacrifices to exact equivalence to further improve prover times and make the EVM easier to develop. Our goal is to become a Type 2, meaning Polygon zkEVM will eventually look exactly like Ethereum ‘from within.” The blog post adds: “The testnet will help us accelerate toward Type 2 compatibility.”
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