- Polygon zkEVM has unveiled the next stage of its mainnet beta development.
- The new phase is billed to bolster DeFi activity on the rollup.
- The Polygon zkEVM is preparing to play an essential role in Polygon’s multichain ecosystem.
Polygon zkEVM is entering the next stage of its development to bolster DApp growth and DeFi activity. Polygon Labs DeFi lead Jack Melnick teased the development on January 6, dubbing it the start of “DeFi season.” The details have become clearer as Polygon Labs outlined plans for what it has dubbed the stage 2 beta of the project.
Polygon zkEVM Stage 2 Beta
In an 𝕏 post on Thursday, January 11, Polygon Labs asserted that for the past ten months, the team has focused on security, scaling, and infrastructure on the Polygon zkEVM due to the novelty of the technology. However, they contend that it is time for the project to move to the next stage.
We launched Polygon zkEVM as the first full-featured, open source zkEVM ever made available. With that launch comes responsibility, including high levels of security and uptime. Thus, the last 10 months have been stage 1 of the Polygon zkEVM Mainnet Beta, focused on testing,… pic.twitter.com/5TjmqaR2dd
— Polygon (Labs) (@0xPolygonLabs) January 11, 2024
This next phase, dubbed stage 2 of the mainnet beta, is expected to bolster DApp growth and DeFi activity. The mainnet beta stage two is billed to last for two months and would see the onboarding of multiple projects and community education on these protocols. Polygon Labs’ Jack Melnick estimates that about 30 to 50 of these projects are expected to roll out during this time.
In addition to these efforts to bolster DeFi activity, Polygon Labs noted that within stage 2, developers will increase the network’s throughput through a client upgrade. Stage 3 is expected to come after this upgrade in March 2024. Here, the project intends to launch multiple campaigns to bolster engagement on the protocol.
The Role of Polygon zkEVM in Polygon’s Multichain Ecosystem
With the Polygon PoS chain set to transition to a zkEVM validium chain, developers are setting up the Polygon zkEVM chain to become the home for DeFi within the envisioned interoperable Polygon network of ZK Layer 2 chains.
As a full rollup, the zkEVM would offer DeFi protocols greater security guarantees. On the other hand, the validium would serve as the base for payments and gaming applications, which would prefer faster and cheaper transactions, albeit at the cost of reduced security guarantees.
Polygon zkEVM boasts a TVL of $121 million per L2Beat data at the time of writing.
On the Flipside
- Polygon zkEVM already hosts leading protocols like Quickswap, PancakeSwap, and Balancer.
- The network faces stiff competition from projects like Arbitrum One and zkSync Era.
Why This Matters
The Polygon zkEVM has lagged behind rollups like Arbitrum One and zkSync Era in activity and adoption—the planned efforts to bolster DeFi activity promise to shake things up in the Ethereum Layer 2 space.
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