Polygon PoS Considering Merger with AggLayer, Here’s Implication

• Polygon hinted at a possible merger with AggLayer that would involve its Proof-of-Stake (PoS). 
• The merger will see the involvement of decentralized prover protocol Succinct Labs which will serve as a support for the use of the SP1 zkVM.

Polygon hinted at a possible merger with AggLayer that would involve its Proof-of-Stake (PoS). This will mark phase 1 of its zkPoS evolution. 

If the proposal is accepted by the community, the expectation is that the pool of unified liquidity for chains connected to the AggLayer would grow by $2 billion.

Polygon Foundation Lauds PoS Capabilities

There are two main consensus mechanisms in the blockchain ecosystem; the Proof-of-Stake and the Proof-of-Work. 

Many cryptocurrencies including the firstborn digital currency Bitcoin (BTC) utilize the PoW. It wasn’t until 2022 that Ethereum (ETH) went through a transition to the PoS consensus algorithm through The Merge.

Polygon Foundation believes strongly that PoS is one of the most used blockchains in the world. The algorithm boasts more than 400 million unique addresses and thousands of applications. 

Today, the Polygon community began discussing a proposal that would see Polygon PoS connected to the AggLayer.

This is zkPoS Phase 1 and, if accepted, the pool of unified liquidity for chains connected to the AggLayer would grow by $2B

— Polygon Foundation (@0xPolygonFdn) June 12, 2024

Polygon PoS prides itself in handling more transactions than the entire Ethereum Layer 2 protocols put together. 

With these ‘success stories’, Polygon highlighted that the potential effects of the merger can not be overstated for AggLayer.

The merger will see the involvement of decentralized prover protocol Succinct Labs which will serve as a support for the use of the SP1 zkVM. 

This particular zkVM will permit AggLayer to prove the execution of Rust code with the performance benefits of the Polygon Plonky3 proving system.

Polygon PoS connection to the AggLayer will be established via the Plonky3-secured pessimistic proof, a novel zero-knowledge Proof written in Rust. 

Noteworthy, the pessimistic proof is flexible enough to accommodate both zk and non-zk chains. Additionally, the pessimistic proof is preferred because of how it treats all chains suspiciously.

Polygon PoS to Utilize AggLayer Pessimistic Proof

Ordinarily, the AggLayer unifies liquidity across all connected chains via a single bridge. As the only bridge contract for chains connected to the AggLayer, the unified bridge allows users to send and receive native, but never-wrapped tokens. 

However, the presence of a single bridge becomes a challenge for all the tokens on the bridge as it entices malicious actors.

The pessimistic proof steps in to tackle this setback by providing two guarantees. First, each chain has updated its state truthfully and secondly, no chain is withdrawing more tokens than have been deposited to it. 

Not meeting these conditions means that the proof cannot be verified and the chain cannot settle to Ethereum.

Meanwhile, at a high level, proof of consensus would validate PoS and it will reach its new state faithfully. 

Also, this proof of consensus would allow Polygon PoS to prove finality to the AggLayer. The pessimistic proof would ensure any withdrawals from PoS do not exceed the deposits made into it.

Noteworthy, no validator, alterations to consensus mechanisms, or network client is required to utilize this upgrade. 

In the long run and with the community’s approval, this upgrade would marry the Polygon chain with the final form of Ethereum scaling.