Polygon launches beta version of zkEVM scaling solution

On March 27, Polygon developers launched the beta version of the zkEVM mainnet to scale Ethereum.

TODAY’S THE DAY ? TUNE IN FOR THE LAUNCH OF zkEVM MAINNET BETA

Join Polygon Labs and @ETHGlobal for this momentous occasion and witness Ethereum co-creator, @VitalikButerin perform the symbolic FIRST transaction. https://t.co/sZJgz5k3a0

— Polygon (labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) March 27, 2023

The solution uses zero-knowledge proofs technology (ZK-Rollups), performing off-chain calculations on the second layer to reduce costs and speed up transactions.

During the online launch stream, Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin carried out the first test transaction.

zkEVM is equivalent to the EVM, meaning it supports mainnet code and allows developers to use existing tools and infrastructure.

\”With zkEVM you will be able to deploy any application without modifications, using existing developer tools such as Remix, and interact with the network using standard wallets, such as MetaMask,\” said Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bijelić.

More than 50 Web3-projects have already been deployed on the protocol, totaling around 6,000 smart contracts. Among them are Lens, Aavegotchi, 0xvix, Quickswap, Etherscan, Phantom, Midnight Society, Luganodes, Celer, Gameswift and Yeeha Games.

The developers also released the zkEVM source code to the public.

The Polygon team launched a public zkEVM testnet in October 2022, and in December presented its final version ahead of the mainnet launch.

In March 2023, Immutable entered into an agreement with Polygon to accelerate the development and deploymentWeb3-games.