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How will Polygon zkEVM affect the Polygon ecosystem when the beta of the main web goes live

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Polygon zkEVM uses ETH to pay for GAS and MATIC will be used for Polygon eco-chain governance.

How the launch of Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta will affect the Polygon Ecosystem

Original source: Foresight News

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has made his first transaction on the Polygon zkEVM mainnet, with the Polygon zkEVM mainnet Beta officially launched on March 27.

However, the price of MATIC tokens did not rise as users expected. Instead, they fell 5% in 24 hours to $1.04. Of course, this is to some extent affected by the market, the main reason is that currently only for the beta version of the online, perhaps need to wait for the main network officially online in order to really see the impact.

Compared to Binance's FUD event, there seems to be less interest in zkEVM's mainnet beta. However, with the release of Polygon zkEVM mainnet, the ZK Rollup expansion solution has made a significant breakthrough in compatibility with EVM.

The Polygon zkEVM mainnet works seamlessly with most existing Ethereum smart contracts, development tools, and wallets, allowing Ethereum developers to migrate applications onto the chain with one click. Users can also experience the on-chain ecosystem using the "zkEVM-testnet RPC" node through the familiar Ethereum wallet.

According to the Polygon zkEVM browser, in less than 24 hours since the Main Web beta went live, 7,821 transactions have been completed, 598 lots have been submitted, and 7,873 blocks have been generated.

Polygon zkEVM Principle

Polygon zkEVM is an Ethereum Layer2-layer zkEVM expansion scheme built based on ZK Rollup technology. ZK Rollup implements Rollup's expansion scheme by using the "zero-knowledge proof" verification method.

Specifically, under ZK Rollup expansion scheme, Layer2 executes transactions and completes complex calculations. After batch processing and packaging of multiple transaction data, a "zero-knowledge proof" result of off-chain computation will be created and submitted to main network Layer1 for verification. The verifier on the main network can quickly check whether the proof is correct, and store the data in part on the main network, sharing the security of the main network.

The data verification method of zero-knowledge proof is the important difference between Optimistic Rollup and ZK Rollup. The former uses "proof of fraud", which requires an objection period, so the transfer from L2 to L1 requires a waiting period; The latter uses a zero-knowledge proof algorithm, which checks the validity of the data immediately and transfers without any wait.

However, because the zero-knowledge proof algorithm used by ZK Rollup is complex, it is not compatible with Ethereum virtual machine (EVM), which makes the application on Ethereum to deploy on the chain, the developer not only needs to rebuild the application, but also needs to relearn the underlying code language suitable for the solution, which is time-consuming and laborious. This is why we always say that the expansion plan is Optimistic Rollup in the short term and ZK Rollup in the long term.

To solve this problem of EVM compatibility, ZK Rollup expansion solutions have either redesigned the underlying programming language or developed special compilers to achieve compatibility.

In addition to Polygon zkEVM, several projects in the market are already researching and deploying Zkevm-related products, and are racing to launch the "first" fully functional zkEVM. For example, on March 24th, zkSync Era main network was officially released and opened to users. This main network is the zkEVM solution. In February, Scroll zkEVM announced that its Alpha network was now available on Goerli; StarkNet is building an EVM-compatible compiler, Mainnet is coming out, etc.

So, how does Polygon zkEVM differ from these zkEVM projects?

Polygon zkEVM is fully equivalent to EVM, meaning developers can migrate EVM-compatible on-chain applications to the chain without changing any code, and work seamlessly across the zkEVM chain using all Ethereum tools.

What exactly does ZK Rollup and EVM equivalent level mean?

ZK Rollups, a true EVM equivalent, provides developers with the same experience as developing on Ethereum, enabling developers to use all of the same tools and frameworks they used to develop on the main Ethereum network without worrying about disruption when the L1 contract is deployed on the L2 chain. This is critical for developers because it means that there is much less overhead when migrating L2 from L1. Users can also benefit from the EVM equivalent chain, which gives them access to wallets and tools familiar on the main Ethereum network.

Last August, Ethereum founder Vitalik published a blog called "The different types of ZK-EVMs Different Types of Zk-evms", which divides zkEVM compatibility into four categories: Fully equivalent to Ethereum, fully equivalent to EVM, almost equivalent to EVM and high-level programming language equivalent.

On February 15, Polygon announced that Polygon zkEVM had passed 100% of the Zkevm-applicable Ethereum test vector, without requiring developers to change or rewrite any code, and that all Ethereum tools work seamlessly with Polygon zkEVM. Full EVM equivalence has been achieved.

How will Polygon zkEVM affect Polygon ecology?

In addition to the product and technical innovations worthy of attention, for most ordinary users, what is more concerned is the impact of the launch of Polygon zkEVM main network Beta on the original Polygon PoS side chain and Polygon Eco token MATIC?

According to DefiLlama, Polygon PoS has a crypto asset value (TVL) of $1.064 billion on its lock-up chain as of March 28, ranking fourth in the entire public chain circuit, with 360,000 addresses active on the 24-hour chain. However, TVL is down about 8% in the last 30 days.

The price of MATIC and the on-chain TVL data seem to reflect the general market attention of Polygon zkEVM.

"Will Polygon zkEVM replace Polygon POS when it comes out?"

Polygon officially answered "NO", indicating that zkEVM is not intended to replace the POS side chain.

Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic also stated in an interview that "Polygon zkEVM will go live as a separate running block network, and the Polygon POS chain will continue to operate as a side chain. Within the Polygon ecosystem, there will be two networks running in parallel, with different value propositions in terms of functionality and tradeoffs, which developers can choose based on their differences in security, scalability, and transaction costs. However, the POS side chain is not as secure as ZK Rollup because ZK Rollup stores its transaction data on the Ethereum main chain, with the same security as the underlying Ethereum blockchain inheritance; the POS side chain's data is stored on its own chain rather than not stored on Ethereum."

In addition, Mihailo Bjelic added that there are plans for some ZK-based enhancements to the Polygon POS chain, which blockchain is betting on as an extension technology to boost its ecosystem. Explore how to integrate ZK technology into Polygon POS chain to improve the security of POS chain. However, he added that if Polygon POS becomes ZK-compatible, it will only use proofs like those in the ZK Rollups to ensure that transactions are not spoofed, and it will still not store data on Ethereum, but on its own network or a separate network under another chain. Unlike ZK Rollup, it does not store data on Ethereum, but on a separate network down the chain.

Given that Polygon zkEVM is a separate block network, will it issue separate tokens?

PolygonzkEVM stated in its official introduction document that the native token ETH is used to pay for GAS on the zkEVM chain. MATIC can be used for on-chain pledge governance. Regarding the issue of new tokens, Polygon Affiliate Sandeep Nailwal tweeted earlier, "There have been so many people asking about tokens, MATIC will be the on-chain pledge token within the Polygon ecosystem, and the default token for on-chain GAS is ETH."

In view of this, MATIC plays a role of governance Token in Polygon ecology, which is mainly used for the safe operation and maintenance of Polygon zkEVM network and other chains. For example, MATIC is pledged as an operation node on Polygon POS side chain. Pledge MATIC on zkEVM to obtain the sorting right to submit transaction data, etc. ETH is only used as payment for on-chain GAS charges.

What are the ecological applications of Polygon zkEVM chain?

Based on zkRollup's high safe sex, low GAS fees, real-time verification of transaction data, and no wait for transfers, Polygon zkEVM chain is more suitable for building DeFi, NFT, Gamefi and enterprise applications, payments and other applications.

So far, Polygon zkEVM has a lot of cooperative ecology officially announced. On March 24th, Web3 game developer zkMeta will be using zkEVM to build a Gamefi-specific zkRollup network on the Polygon network; On March 20th, gaming public chain Immutable announced and Polygon building a dedicated zkEVM game blockchain; On March 28, Layer2 Cross-Rollup Bridge Orbiter Finance announced that it has integrated the Polygon zkEVM network, allowing users to transfer assets across chains between Polygon zkEVM and other supported networks.

In addition to the collaborative projects, Polygon zkEVM chain also has native cross-chain bridge, DEX and other products.

Official cross-chain Bridge zkEVM Bridge- Supports asset transfer between L1 and zkEVM (L2). Currently, users can only transfer ETH between zkEVM-testnet and Ethereum Goerli Testnet.

Clober, a decentralized trading platform-- is the original order book DEX on the zkEVM chain, which can realize order matching and transaction settlement on the chain.

Credit application 0VIX- is an excess mortgage lending platform, enabling users built by zkEVM to deposit or lend assets under mortgage.

In addition, Polygon officially released a commemorative NFT called "To Ethereum, with Love" in honor of the launch of the zkEVM main Net beta, which is now open for casting, so get a taste of it first.