Polygon Labs acquires Toposware to enhance ZK capabilities

Share this article

URL Copied

Polygon Labs today announced the acquisition of blockchain research and engineering firm Toposware. This acquisition is the third major zero-knowledge (ZK) purchase by Polygon Labs in under three years, following Hermez and Mir in 2021.

“The Toposware team’s deep cryptography and zero-knowledge expertise, as well as excellent engineering skills, have made them a perfect fit to help advance our vision of a unified Web3,” said Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs “Moreover, our previous collaboration on the Type 1 Prover and Toposware’s work on unifying blockchains have demonstrated that they are extremely well-suited to help develop and expand our prover development and the AggLayer going forward.”

The Type 1 zkEVM prover, a collaborative development between the companies, allows any Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible chain to adopt ZK-proof-based technology and connect to Ethereum.

Notably, the acquisition also sets the stage for the Polygon proof of stake network to join the AggLayer and transition to a ZK-secured chain. The AggLayer is Polygon’s vision to connect different layer-1 blockchains in the same ecosystem, enabling seamless transactions between them.

“We are excited to join Polygon Labs’ ZK-focused R&D and engineering teams and contribute to unifying Web3 via the AggLayer,” noted Theo Gauthier. “The Polygon protocols are already well-known as leading blockchain scaling solutions, and the AggLayer will undoubtedly take the technical work Polygon is doing to a whole new level in the future.”

The announcement might also bring some much-needed attention to Polygon since its token MATIC has been underperforming its peers in 2024. Polygon’s total value locked (TVL) has shown just 3.2% in year-to-date growth, which pales in comparison to newcomer Base’s 294% rise.

Moreover, MATIC is struggling to find momentum in the current bull cycle, with a 30% price slump so far in 2024.

Share this article

URL Copied