Polygon launches scalability solution that promises to reduce fees by 90%

The Polygon team announced this Wednesday (20) the launch of a zero-knowledge scaling (ZK) solution that is 100% compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

According to the announcement, the solution promises to reduce fees by up to 90% compared to current costs on the Layer 1 Ethereum chain.

Polygon zkEVM

As Polygon highlighted in a press release, Polygon zkEVM is the first ETH equivalent scaling solution.

The solution works with all existing smart contracts, developer tools and wallets. This is all through zero-knowledge proof encryption.

This solution allows a layer built on top of a blockchain to process many more transactions at a much lower cost.

In other words, zkEVM leverages the power of ZK to reduce transaction costs and increase network throughput. At the same time, zkEVM “inherits the security of the ETH network”.

Fee costs are reduced because the technology works by grouping transactions. Then they are then relayed to the network ETH as a single large transaction. Thus, the gas fee is split among all participants, greatly reducing fees.

Polygon’s Solution

According to Polygon, for developers of payment and DeFi applications, zkEVM’s security and censorship resistance make it a more attractive option than other Layer 2 solutions.

“Unlike Optimistic roll-ups, where users have to wait up to seven days for deposits and withdrawals, zk-Rollups offers faster settlement and much better capital efficiency,” says Polygon.

In addition, the system allows for easy migration of decentralized applications (dApps) that exist in EVM-compatible chains to zkEVM.

“The holy grail of Web 3.0 infrastructure should have three main properties: scalability, security, and ETH compatibility,” said Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon. “Until now, it was not possible to offer all these properties at the same time. Polygon zkEVM is an innovative technology that finally achieves this, thus opening a new chapter of mass adoption.”

As said, Polygon estimates that ZK ‘Rollup’ is able to reduce rates by 90%. Additionally, the team claims that a future off-chain data availability setup could further reduce fees.

Polygon has released some of the zkEVM source code and roadmap, with its public testnet slated for later in the year. Meanwhile, the launch of the mainnet is planned for early 2023.