Polygon Zero team accuses Matter Labs of plagiarism

Polygon’s zero-knowledge (ZK) scaling division accused the developers of the L2-network zkSync Era — Matter Labs — of stealing the project’s code.

According to the statement, Boojum’s recent update, the competitor named Boojum, contained fully copied portions of the Plonky2 SNARK protocol used by Polygon Zero.

Representatives noted that the code had been integrated without original authors’ rights or attribution to its developers.

«[Boojum] uses the same parallel-repetition strategy to enhance security, similar customizable channels for efficient recursive verification, and the same search algorithm developed by our teammate Ulrich Habek», — Polygon stressed.

Representatives also added that Matter Labs described the zkSync update as ten times faster than Plonky2. However, according to them, this is impossible, since the code critical to performance was entirely copied from them.

Co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs Alex Glukhovsky rejected Polygon’s arguments. He said that every decision made in creating zkSync was based on \”honesty and transparency\”.

«Today’s allegations are unfounded, misleading and deeply disappointing, especially coming from a team I greatly respect. … Only about 5% of Boojum’s code is based on Plonky2,» he wrote.

Glukhovsky added that both projects are interpretations of the RedShift protocol, which was created long before Polygon’s ZK solution appeared.

Moreover, in the technical document and the opening lines of Boojum’s code contain acknowledgments and references to the creators of Plonky2, according to the head of Matter Labs.

In March 2023, the developers launched the alpha version of zkSync Era. Later, support for the L2 solution was added by 1inch Network, Aave and Rocket Pool.

In June, the team presented ZK Stack — a modular toolkit for building Hyperchain networks atop the protocol.