Polygon Labs Proposes to Upgrade Polygon PoS Chain to ZK Layer2

Polygon Labs released a new proposal to upgrade the Polygon PoS chain to a zkEVM validium, making it a decentralized Layer2 secured by zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. The proposal aims to enhance the performance and security level of Polygon PoS, which is expected to be a core part of the Polygon 2.0 ecosystem.

As an Ethereum sidechain, Polygon PoS has over $2 billion of on-chain assets and an average of 2.5 million transactions per day. However, it's facing multiple challenges due to its architecture, such as security model, legacy tech stack, and UX issues. To address the challenges, Polygon Labs plans to upgrade the chain to a zkEVM validium. Validiums are one of the two main approaches to implementing zk-powered Layer2s (the other is rollups). Different from rollups, validiums don't publish transaction data to Ethereum, but use an off-chain data availability model. They can reduce fees and improve scalability compared with rollups.

If upgraded, Polygon PoS will use its current validator set to provide transaction data availability. The token validators need to stake will remain to be $MATIC, and stakers will continue to earn transaction fees.

The proposal will be discussed in the Polygon forum, and go through the governance procedures. If consensus is reached within the community on this proposal, the upgrade could go live on mainnet by the end of Q1 2024.

Related: Polygon Announces Polygon 2.0: Upgrading Protocol Architecture, Token Economics, and Governance

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