Polygon Labs and nearby ZK Prover announce WASM integration

The developers of Nearest and Polygon Networks are teaming up to create the Zero Knowledge (ZK) Blockchain for Web Assembly (WASM), according to a joint announcement on November 8.

Zero-knowledge, join a web conference.

The NEAR Foundation and @0xPolygonLabs are set to deliver the future of zero knowledge for WASM-based blockchains with zkWASM.

Fostering greater security, scalability, developer flexibility and interoperability in the open web

zkWASM will be… pic.twitter.com/D1BIztjMI9

– Protocol near | NEARCON | November 7-10 Lisbon! (@NEARProtocol) November 8, 2023

WASM is a binary instruction format designed for use in web browsers. Some blockchain networks use Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) as their computation engine instead. For example, Near, Stellar, Polkadot and Internet Computer all use WASM instead of EVM.

Related: Stellar joins Bytecode Consortium to develop EVM alternative WASM

According to the announcement, the new zkWASM prover is “under active development and should be available next year.” Once complete, it will be integrated into Polygon's Blockchain Development Kit (CDK), allowing developers to drive custom blockchain networks based on their initial parameters. This means developers will have the option to use the CDK to create WASM networks and access the wider Polygon ecosystem, including the Ethereum mainnet.

Close co-founder Ilya Polosukin said that the zkWASM prover network will further integrate with Ethereum and improve user liquidity.

“NEAR is further integrating with Ethereum by innovating in new research frontiers, and the joint expertise of NEAR and Polygon will expand ZK's landscape and reduce liquidity on the chain.”

The announcement also stated that zkWASM will be used to improve the verification efficiency on its own local network, because the zero-knowledge verification process will reduce the computational overhead compared to the work of verifying a shard. This means that the nearby network will “enable better scalability and decentralization,” he said.

Polygon is trying to build a multi-chain ecosystem that it calls “Polygon 2.0”. The new system builds bridges that use zero-knowledge proofs to transfer assets from one chain to another. In September, the developer announced plans to replace the Polygon Network's current native coin MATIC (MATIC) with a new Pole.