Polygon acquires Predictable Labs in $500M deal to further Ethereum adoption

• Polygon has acquired Predictable Labs for 290 MATIC tokens (about $500M at the current price) as part of its mission to increase Ethereum adoption.
• The firm’s Mir blockchain, which has the world’s fastest ZK-scaling tech, will now be part of Polygon’s ZK powerhouse under the name Polygon Zero.

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Ethereum Layer-two scaling solution Polygon is making bolder moves in the propagation of ZK (zero-knowledge)-rollups technology. In a $500 million deal, Polygon has now acquired the startup Predictable Labs as part of its $1 billion ZK-based initiatives.

Of note, the firm developed the Mir blockchain protocol, a host for ZK-rollups. The latter are layer-two technologies that offload data from Ethereum Mainnet to cut down on transaction processing times and costs. Mir will now be integrated into the ecosystem and rebranded to Polygon Zero, boasting as the firm says, “the world’s fastest ZK scaling tech”. This becomes the 7th solution to join the ZK powerhouse.

Polygon moves to dominate the L2 tech world

This development adds to other Polygon acquisitions that work to expand Ethereum’s capacity and coverage. Despite the network’s usability dominance in the crypto industry, its congestion and high fees have been critical deterrents in its mission – and Polygon is placing effort in solving the two pain points.

“Polygon wants to offer a wide range of secure, fast, affordable, and energy-efficient Ethereum scaling solutions for web3 developers,” Polygon Co-Founder Sandeep Nailwal noted.

The addition of Mir enables Polygon to gain access to the world’s fastest and most efficient ZK scaling technology. Zero-knowledge is the ultimate frontier for internet-level scale for blockchains.

More so, the acquisition, worth 290 million MATIC tokens, makes Polygon a much bigger player in the field of layer-two technologies. The L2 solution also announced “plonky2,” a recursive proof system that enables faster proof generation on laptops. Plonky2 is also Ethereum compatible and can be used on L1. Rivals Arbitrum, Loopspring, Optimism, and StarkWare are also pushing for layer-two developments on their ecosystems.

MATIC reaction and on-chain data

Polygon’s native cryptocurrency MATIC has shown positive momentum this week despite the broader market depression. On Wednesday, the coin rallied to $2.57 high, just pennies short of its May all-time high of $2.64. Additionally, MATIC is up 9.7 percent in the past fortnight. The coin’s recent surge is attributed to a strong surge in the number of daily active addresses on Polygon, based on on-chain data provider Santiment.

All through 2021, MATIC has been one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies in the market, with an 11,469.1 percent rise in the past year. It is currently the 15th most valued crypto asset with a $14.4 billion market cap. However, at press time MATIC was trading at $2.09, down 8.6 percent in the day, according to our data. The latest acquisition, nonetheless, opens doors to greater abilities.