Polygon Executive Pivots Roles To Developing ZK Proof Tech

Polygon Labs has undergone a key structural change to improve its focus on building zero-knowledge (ZK) technology solutions. On Tuesday, the software company announced that it had expanded the co-founder and executive chairman Sandeep Nailwal’s role to chief business officer (CBO).

“He continues to work hard to accelerate adoption of the Agglayer as well as Polygon’s innovative zk solutions in verticals including DeFi, gaming, dePIN, AI and NFTs,” wrote Polygon Labs to Twitter.

Polygon Doubles Down On ZK Proofs

In a follow-up statement, Nailwal told followers that he’d spent the past 18 months working on “strategic things” related to transforming Polygon into a fully-fledged ZK protocol.

“With most of those transitions complete, its time for me to refocus on what I do the best,” he tweeted. “Hence I am taking over as CBO. One more round! Let’s do this.”

Past 18 months I have been working on a lot of strategic things, specially related to transitioning Polygon fully into a cutting edge ZK protocol. With most of those transitions complete, its time for me to refocus on what I do the best.
Hence I am taking over as CBO. One more… https://t.co/O17nLJJg4N

— Sandeep | AggLayer 👿 (@sandeepnailwal) May 28, 2024

Polygon is a multichain Ethereum layer-2 (L2) solution designed to make Ethereum-based transactions faster and more private. One of its chains is called Polygon zkEVM – a “rollup” that batches transactions together before settling them to Ethereum’s base layer in a decentralized manner.

Nailwal’s Efforts At Polygon

Nailwal plans to focus his efforts on Polygon CDK, a software development kit for anyone looking to build alternative Ethereum L2s. He will help build tools related to ZK proofs, which let one part prove awareness of a specific value to others without revealing the value itself.

His role as executive chairman will also continue – as will his efforts in building Agglayer, defined as “a decentralized network that connects chains for shared state and liquidity.”

Ethereum’s base layer underwent the Dencun upgrade in March, allowing rollup chains like Polygon zkEVM, Arbitrum, and Optimism to lower transaction fees by 90%.

In early May, Polygon launched the alpha version testnet for Polygon Miden, its latest ZK rollup solution, allowing client-side proving and increased privacy.

Polygon’s governance token MATIC is currently the 18th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Its value has fallen substantially since mid-March, from $1.27 to $0.72 today.