Speaking to crypto.news, Paul O’Leary, CTO of Polygon Labs, discussed how Polygon’s zkEVM technology aims to improve Ethereum’s scalability by reducing transaction fees and increasing throughput.
Polygon’s zkEVM technology will significantly improve Ethereum’s scalability by reducing transaction costs and increasing throughput. Launched in March 2023 as an open-source mainnet beta, Polygon’s zkEVM batches off-chain transactions and posts cryptographic proofs on the Ethereum mainnet, reducing network congestion and lowering costs.
The recent move to Phase 2 of the Mainnet beta in January 2024 places an emphasis on responsible dApp growth and on-chain activity. The Elderberry upgrade, which has been live since March 14, 2024, includes optimizations that reduce network errors and improve overall performance.
Paul O’Leary, CTO of Polygon Labs, shared his insights on ongoing improvements to zkEVM’s network client architecture.
“The team is currently working on upgrading the network client architecture of the zkEVM. The next step is an implementation of the Erigon client for CDK chains. This will improve network performance and stability and be easier to maintain. We expect it to be live in the coming months.”
Efforts are being made to reduce testing times without compromising safety or efficiency. O’Leary said, “We have something in the works on this, but we’re not releasing a timetable for it yet.”
Integration with other scaling solutions, including sharding, is planned for Polygon. O’Leary noted that as a “fully functional rollup,” zkEVM will adapt to Ethereum’s new features such as sharding, ensuring continuous evolution and improved scalability.
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Further efforts to make zkEVM more accessible include simplifying the technology for developers. O’Leary emphasized that zkEVM allows Solidity developers to deploy their Ethereum dApps “without having to obtain a degree in cryptography,” making it easier to expand the zkEVM ecosystem by reducing complexity and lowering barriers to entry for new developers. to lower.
Balancing the scalability of zkEVM with the decentralization ethos of blockchain is another key consideration.
O’Leary explained that “Ethereum at the settlement layer provides a foundation for true decentralization. That’s the great thing about zkEVM; it solves the scalability challenge of blockchain while remaining fully compatible with decentralization.”
Looking ahead, O’Leary foresees significant progress for zkEVM over the next five years, especially as Ethereum introduces sharding and other scaling technologies. He also expects a significant drop in compensation.
“It won’t be long before the costs become so trivial that the amount users pay will be negligible – or they won’t have to pay anything at all,” he concluded.
The synergy of these developments and robust collaboration between communities places zkEVMs at the forefront of cultivating a scalable, secure, and decentralized Ethereum ecosystem.
Read more: Polygon launches zkEVM bridge enabling fast transactions