Polygon (MATIC) has acquired Mir Protocol, a startup that develops Ethereum scaling solutions based on ZK-Rollups. The deal was valued at $400 million.
1/8 It’s official: #Polygon welcomes @MirProtocol, a groundbreaking ZK startup in a $400M deal!
Mir’s amazing team developed the world’s fastest ZK scaling tech; we are joining hands to utilize it and build Polygon Zero — a highly-scalable, Ethereum-compatible ZK Rollup. 🦄💫 pic.twitter.com/99m7Y0tDTN
— Polygon | $MATIC — We’re hiring! (@0xPolygon) December 9, 2021
As part of the deal, the startup will receive $190 million in MATIC tokens and $100 million in USD Coin (USDC) stablecoins. The agreement was signed on November 26, with the MATIC price set at the rate in effect at that time.
Polygon says Mir Protocol possesses the fastest (0.17 seconds on a standard laptop) zero-knowledge proof technology (ZK-proof). This means it can generate ZK proofs faster and verify more transactions within a single proof.
Under the terms of the agreement, Mir Protocol will rebrand as Polygon Zero. The protocol plonky2 developed by the startup will underpin the solution the team positions as the ultimate L2 for Ethereum based on ZK-Rollups.
In an interview with The Block, Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bielic noted that the first rollups from the new unit will be ready next year. He said a zkEVM from the Polygon Hermez team is expected to launch in mid-2022, the zkEVM.
In August, Polygon acquired the Hermez Network, which also specializes in L2 based on ZK-Rollups. The deal was valued at $250 million.
At the same time, the project announced it would devote $1 billion to developing ZK-Rollups-related solutions.
In November, Polygon announced a new Ethereum L2 solution based on ZK-Rollups and released its central component — a virtual machine that uses the zk-STARKs protocol as the underlying proof system.
In December, reports emerged that Polygon to raise up to $150 million in venture funding.