Polygon, a leading developer of Ethereum layer-2 solutions, has unveiled the alpha version testnet of its new zero-knowledge (ZK)-rollup solution called Miden. The announcement, made on May 6, states that the Polygon Miden Alpha Testnet is now live, allowing developers to begin testing. Miden is a ZK-rollup specifically designed to enhance the capabilities of the Ethereum blockchain.
Similar to other ZK-rollups, Polygon’s latest solution utilizes a cryptographic technique that allows data to be verified or “proved” without revealing its contents to the rest of the network. Miden also incorporates client-side proving, which enables users to generate proofs for their own state transitions locally, without the need to disclose the state to the network. This approach aims to reduce network load, improve privacy, and enhance scalability.
In addition, Miden introduces new features, including private accounts that support private tokens and transactions, where only the hash of the account is stored on the blockchain. The solution also leverages parallel transaction execution, allowing for concurrent processing of transactions, resulting in significantly higher throughput compared to the Ethereum mainnet and reduced blockchain node state bloat.
The roadmap for Miden indicates that a builders testnet is planned for September, although no specific timeframe has been provided for the mainnet launch.
Miden enters the market in direct competition with StarkWare’s layer-2 scaling network and rollup technology stack, known as StarkNet, as well as other alternatives like Matter Labs’ zkSync Era. Polygon also offers zkEVM, a scaling solution equivalent to the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which ensures seamless compatibility with existing smart contracts, tools, and wallets.
Despite the launch of the Miden testnet, Polygon’s native token, also called Polygon, did not experience a significant market reaction. At the time of writing, Polygon’s token had fallen by 5% to trade at $0.704.
Last month, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron criticized Layer 3 (L3) networks on the Ethereum blockchain, arguing that they are unnecessary for scaling the network and only serve to drain value from the mainnet. Boiron expressed skepticism about L3 networks, stating that Polygon Labs, a prominent Layer 2 (L2) scaling network for Ethereum, does not work on L3s because they are not essential for scaling existing networks. According to Boiron, “L3s exist only to take value away from Ethereum and onto the L2s on which the L3s are built.”
The L3 ecosystem includes various solutions from L2 networks such as Orbs, Xai, zkSync Hyperchains, and the recently launched Degen Chain on Arbitrum Orbit.
Meanwhile, the Polygon Proof-of-Stake (PoS) sidechain has successfully executed the Napoli hard fork, adding support for Dencun features and becoming the first network to support RIP-7212. EIP-1153 aims to improve block space utilization efficiency, optimizing the overall performance of the network.
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