Polygon Labs Launches New Zero-Knowledge Proof System

 

Polygon Labs recently announced a significant update to its zero-knowledge proof system, introducing Plonky3. This new version promises to be more flexible than the previous one, Plonky2, which was released in 2022.

Zero-knowledge proof systems are essential for ensuring the security of multi-layer distributed networks. This is because they create proofs that summarize off-chain transactions and feed that information back into base blockchains like Ethereum.

According to Polygon, these systems ensure that transactions occur correctly and that the blockchain state is updated accurately. Plonky3, now available as open-source software under the MIT and Apache licenses, represents a significant improvement over its predecessor.

While Plonky2 focused on speed by optimizing hardware, Plonky3 presents itself as an open-source tool that allows developers to build their own virtual machines using zero-knowledge encryption.

This flexibility gives developers the ability to optimize for speed, proof size, or a balance between both.

What’s New at Polygon

When Plonky2 first hit the market, Polygon claimed it was 100 times faster than existing alternatives at the time. However, it faced some performance issues and lacked the generality needed for broader applications.

In an interview, Daniel Lubarov, co-founder of Polygon, commented on the limitations of Plonky2:

“Plonky2 partly had some performance issues and partly it didn’t have the generalizability we needed.”

In a separate Q&A, Lubarov explained that Plonky3 “builds on the successes of Plonky2,” which had already set a high standard in the industry.

“Plonky3 takes this a step further by providing a toolkit that supports a wide range of configurations, allowing developers to optimize for speed, proof size, or a balance between the two, depending on their needs,” he highlighted.

Discussing the impact of Plonky3 on Ethereum and its performance compared to Plonky2, Lubarov explained that it is difficult to make fair comparisons between zero-knowledge proof systems.

“Each system has its strengths and weaknesses, both in terms of the types of calculations it excels at and the hardware it performs best on,” he said.

However, for certain calculations and configurations, Plonky3 is about 5 to 10 times faster than Plonky2, marking a notable improvement in efficiency and capacity.