Polygon makes new sidechain developer stack opensource, supporting ZK-powered Layer 2s on Ethereum

cointelegraph.com:

The Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem could welcome a variety of new layer 2 (L2) protocols built on Polygon’s newly open sourced codebase Chain Development Kit, which harnesses zero-knowledge proof (ZK-proof) technology to ensure security and fast finality.

Jordi Baylina, technical lead of Polygon Hermez zkEVM, spoke to Cointelegraph exclusively about the new tool set which is publicly available on a Github repository:

Baylina added that a key aspect is that Polygon CDK enables automatic access to liquidity across all of Polygon’s chains as well as the wider Ethereum ecosystem, providing “on-demand scale, without fragmenting liquidity".

The Ethereum developer pointed to a number of different projects building CDK-powered chains across a variety of use cases, including from payment-specific L2s, DeFi, gaming, social-specific platforms, and creator or NFT platforms.

Related: Are ZK-proofs the answer to Bitcoin’s Ordinal and BRC-20 problem?

Baylina also highlighted the customizability of CDK for different appchains, featuring customizations for rollup or validium mode, zkEVM or another ZK-powered execution environment, various data availability solutions, native token and gas token customization, centralized or decentralized sequencer mode as well as permissioned networks with granular allowlists.

The importance of ZK-proof technology is another factor that Baylina stressed, highlighting Polygon Labs’ belief that zero-knowledge is the future of scaling Ethereum. As the Hermez zkEVM lead explains, chains launched with Polygon CDK are automatically connected to a shared ZK bridge and plugged into an “interop layer,” which is a cross-chain communication protocol.

Baylina said the technology unlocks sub-minute cross-chain transactions and