NEAR Foundation and Polygon Labs Collaborate on zkWASM
The NEAR Foundation, a leading contributor to the NEAR protocol’s ecosystem, has joined forces with Polygon Labs to develop zkWASM—a revolutionary zero-knowledge proof technology designed specifically for WASM-based blockchains. This groundbreaking collaboration was announced at NEARCON, the annual flagship event for the NEAR community, held in Lisbon.
This strategic partnership aims to combine NEAR’s expertise in WASM runtime with Polygon’s proficiency in zero-knowledge scaling technologies. The venture is focused on connecting NEAR Protocol with Ethereum, providing WASM chains with access to Ethereum’s vast liquidity. Additionally, it lays the foundation for an interoperability layer in progress, facilitating a shared liquidity pool across diverse blockchain landscapes, including alternative layer-1s and EVM layer-2s.
Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder of Polygon, emphasized the customization zkWASM prover will offer developers. This enhancement provides developers with increased flexibility and choices when establishing or transitioning EVM or WASM chains.
Boosting Scalability and Security
The zkWASM prover holds the potential to significantly simplify the validation process for NEAR validators. By generating a single zero-knowledge proof, validators can bypass the labor-intensive task of shard validation. This advancement enhances scalability and fosters a more decentralized NEAR Protocol.
Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol, expressed excitement about the collaboration and emphasized the extensive benefits zero-knowledge proofs will bring to web3. He envisions that this joint effort with Polygon Labs will not only enhance NEAR’s capabilities but also significantly contribute to the expansion of the zero-knowledge proof landscape.
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