In a conversation with crypto.news, Paul O’Leary, the Chief Technology Officer of Polygon Labs, explained how Polygon’s zkEVM technology is designed to boost Ethereum’s scalability by reducing transaction costs and increasing throughput.
The innovative zkEVM technology by Polygon is poised to significantly improve Ethereum’s scalability by cutting down transaction costs and enhancing throughput. Introduced as an open-source mainnet beta in March 2023, Polygon’s zkEVM processes transactions off-chain and submits cryptographic proofs to the Ethereum mainnet, easing network congestion and lowering costs.
The recent shift to Stage 2 of the Mainnet Beta in January 2024 underscores the responsible growth of dApps and on-chain activities. The Elderberry upgrade, which has been active since March 14, 2024, includes optimizations that minimize network errors and enhance overall performance.
Paul O’Leary, the CTO of Polygon Labs, provided insights into the ongoing upgrades to zkEVM’s network client architecture. He stated, “The team is currently focused on enhancing the zkEVM’s network client architecture. The next step involves implementing the Erigon client for CDK chains, which will enhance network performance and stability, making maintenance easier. We anticipate it going live in the coming months.”
Efforts are being made to reduce proving times without compromising security or efficiency. O’Leary mentioned, “We have a project in progress for this, but we are not disclosing a timeline yet.”
Polygon plans to integrate with other scaling solutions, such as sharding. O’Leary highlighted that as a “full-featured rollup,” zkEVM will adapt to Ethereum’s new features like sharding, ensuring continual growth and improved scalability.
Further initiatives to make zkEVM more accessible include simplifying the technology for developers. O’Leary stressed that with zkEVM, Solidity developers can deploy their Ethereum dApps “without needing a cryptography degree,” making it easier to expand the zkEVM ecosystem by reducing complexity and lowering barriers for new developers.
Maintaining a balance between zkEVM’s scalability and the decentralization ethos of blockchain is a key priority. O’Leary explained that “Ethereum at the settlement layer provides a foundation of true decentralization. That’s the beauty of zkEVM; it resolves blockchain’s scalability issue while remaining fully aligned with decentralization.”
Looking ahead, O’Leary foresees significant advancements for zkEVM in the next five years, especially as Ethereum introduces sharding and other scaling technologies. He also anticipates a significant decline in fees. “It won’t be long before fees become so minimal that users will hardly notice them — or won’t need to pay anything at all,” he concluded.
The combination of these advancements and strong community collaboration positions zkEVMs at the forefront of nurturing a scalable, secure, and decentralized Ethereum ecosystem.
For more information, read: Polygon launches zkEVM bridge enabling swift transactions.