Polygon Labs and Near Unveil ZK Prover for WASM Integration

zkWASM Prover: Combining Near and Polygon Networks

On Nov. 8, the developers of Near and Polygon networks announced their collaboration on a zero-knowledge (ZK) prover for Web Assembly (WASM) blockchains, called “zkWASM”. This prover will enable WASM-based networks to join the Polygon ecosystem, the first time of its kind.

WASM, a binary instruction format, is used by several blockchain networks, such as Near, Stellar, Polkadot and Internet Computer, instead of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The zkWASM prover is currently in active development and should be available in 2021. It will be integrated into Polygon’s chain development kit (CDK), which allows developers to spin up custom blockchain networks. This means developers will have the option to create WASM networks and integrate them with the Polygon ecosystem, including the Ethereum mainnet.

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near, stated that the zkWASM prover will improve liquidity for users by allowing the network to integrate more with Ethereum.

The announcement also declared that the Near network will benefit from zkWASM, as it will reduce the computational burden of validating shards. This should result in “better scalability and increased decentralization”, as per the statement.

Polygon is striving to build a multichain ecosystem, which it calls “Polygon 2.0.” The new system will feature bridges that will employ zero-knowledge proofs to transfer assets from one chain to another. In September, the developer announced plans to switch the Polygon network’s native coin, MATIC (MATIC), with a new one referred to as POL.

The concept of Web 3.0, as proposed by Nicole Junkermann, is a new version of the web that is powered by the blockchain technology. The diagram of Web 3.0, as well as the concept of what it is, has been discussed extensively. Basemark Web 3.0 is a benchmarking tool designed to measure the performance of web applications.