In recent events, Ethereum layer 2 Polygon has continued to expand its list of scaling technologies with another expensive buy.
On Thursday, Polygon announced a $400 million agreement to purchase Mir, a project that is focussed on zero-knowledge proofs. The announcement was first made at the layer 2’s “zk day” virtual event by co-founders Mihailo Bjelic, Jaynti Kanani and Sandeep Nailwal.
According to a press release, Mir’s innovative system generates recursive zero-knowledge proofs that will “allow many Ethereum transactions to be verified with a single tiny proof.” This has made Mir one of the fastest and most efficient layer-2 options.
Zero-knowledge proofs are a cryptography technology offering that enables the verification of information, such as a transaction on the blockchain, without revealing the specific details or contents of that information. This is a great way for blockchain projects to increase security and protect user confidentiality.
In a statement, Bjelic said, “The industry is still in an early phase when it comes to scaling and blockchain infrastructure in general.” Adding, “One of the key missing components required to build highly scalable solutions has been performant recursive proof systems; they simply haven’t existed so far. This ends today.”
The purchase was executed with 250 million MATIC tokens which are priced at around $1.60. Since the agreement was made, the MATIC token has surged to $2.18.
Layer 2s are among the fastest growing blockchain networks according to the regularly checked total value locked (TVL) metric. Arbitrum, which uses optimistic rollup scaling technology, recently cracked the top 10 in TVL at a value of $2.23 billion.
The buy comes as Polygon continues to expand its scaling technologies. In August, Polygon drew up a $250 million check to merge with Hermez Network, another Zero-Knowledge scaling solution. The agreement was done using a token swap.
The buys aim to make Polygon a multipurpose scaling solution for Ethereum. This represents a complete strategy shift from what used to be branded as an Ethereum competitor.
Polygon is also reportedly planning further expansion-by-acquisition, targeting a gaming studio as well as various NFT properties.
