Polygon (POL) Smashes ZK Proving Record in Push to Take the Tech Mainstream

• Polygon (POL) Labs has made another leap in ZK technology.
• The feat promises speed and decentralization benefits for ZK rollups.
• The team has received praise and encouragement from Vitalik Buterin.

Over the years, zero-knowledge technology has been hailed as the “endgame” of Ethereum scaling, but the complexity and computationally intensive nature of the technology has thus far prevented it from going mainstream. However, this could change soon amid continuous development efforts from dedicated teams.

In the latest instance highlighting this push, the ZK team of Polygon (POL) Labs has now extended its ZK proving record on consumer-grade hardware—a feat that promises to bolster not only the speed of ZK rollups but also decentralization.

An Incredible Milestone

Polygon (POL) Labs has made another leap in ZK technology. On Wednesday, October 30, Polygon ZK developer Daniel Lubarov disclosed that the team had proven over 2 million Poseidon2 hashes per second on a laptop with its Plonky3 proving technology , breaking their previous record of 1.7 million.

Hashes are digital identifiers produced when data is passed through a hash function. They are central to the immutable nature of blockchain technology, as each block contains a hash from the previous block, meaning an attempt to change data in one block will require changing all others. Poseidon2 is a hash function optimized for zero-knowledge-proof applications. 

By proving up to 2 million Poseidon2 hashes per second, Polygon (POL) Labs highlights the growing efficiency of ZK proving technology—a feat made more impressive by its ability to do so with a laptop. For end users of ZK solutions and rollups based on Polygon technology, this greater efficiency translates to faster transactions, lower fees, and greater decentralization as more users can participate in securing the network by leveraging their personal computers alone.

Unsurprisingly, the Polygon (POL) Labs team has received several accolades for the feat, including from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin .

Polygon (POL) for the Win?

“ok you guys won this game,” Vitalik asserted in response to Polygon’s Lubarov’s announcement. According to Vitalik, Polygon processing 2 million Poseidon hashes per second was the equivalent of the Ethereum network handling its maximum theoretical state size in a single slot. A slot is the time required to propose a block on the network, which is currently 12 seconds.

Furthermore, Vitalik encouraged the team to attempt to achieve similar feats with BLAKE3 and SHA-256. For context, BLAKE3 and SHA-256 are hash functions like Poseidon2, but they are considered more battle-tested in terms of security. Notably, SHA-256 is the hash function used to secure the Bitcoin network.

The latest Polygon (POL) feat comes as the project has made ZK technology integral to its long-term roadmap, unveiling plans to support a network of ZK-powered chains on top of the Ethereum network.

On the Flipside

• Beyond optimizations to improve ZK proving on the CPU, Polygon (POL) Labs is working on specialized hardware to further accelerate ZK proving with Fabric Cryptography.
• Despite Polygon’s technological achievements, POL, the network’s native asset, continues to trade flat after months of an extended decline.

Why This Matters 

Polygon (POL) Labs’ recent feat highlights the rapid growth of ZK-proving technology, suggesting that it may be ready for mainstream adoption sooner rather than later.

Read this for more on Polygon (POL):
What’s Stopping Polygon (MATIC) from Hitting $1 After Revamp?

Coinbase’s Base has taken a major step towards achieving a key decentralization milestone set by Vitalik Buterin. Find out more:
How Coinbase’s Base Just Got a Step Closer to Vitalik’s Lofty Milestone