The Polyhedra Network, which was launched in the previous OKX Jumpstart event, provides an effective cross-chain interoperability solution using Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology, and its valuation has reached $1 billion. This article is sourced from the book “A Journey to the Moon and the Sun” by Xiaochu.
Table of Contents:
Technical Features and Highlights
Products and Services
zkBridge
zkLightClient
Cross-chain Message Passing with BTC Chain
Funding Situation
Token System
The foundation of industry development lies in creating more value for society, so blockchain always revolves around two main themes: infrastructure improvement and large-scale applications. In terms of infrastructure, the public chain is the foundation of the foundation and is also analogized as the operating system of Web2. After the bullish market in 2017, the industry realized the limitations of ETH’s performance and embarked on a journey to build new public chains that improve TPS and reduce GAS. EOS was the star at that time, claiming to achieve over a million TPS, but ultimately fell. Fortunately, in the bullish market of 2021, excellent public chains such as Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Fantom emerged.
In 2024, with the vigorous development of ecological projects, different demands for public chains have emerged. The improvement of modular infrastructure makes it low-cost, simple, and convenient to have “one Dapp, one public chain” (for details, please refer to my discourse on modularity). Under this trend, there will inevitably be a large-scale increase in the number of public chains. According to incomplete statistics, there are at least hundreds of existing public chains. In this bullish market, the number has increased by at least 10 times. Let’s illustrate this with a simple mathematical example. When the number of public chains is 10, there are 45 combinations. When the number of public chains expands by 10 times to 100, there are 4,950 combinations, which is an increase of 110 times.
Therefore, in this bullish market, the demand for cross-chain interoperability has also shown exponential growth. Moreover, the demand for cross-chain interoperability is not only for asset transfer but also includes message passing, data sharing, multi-chain deployment, and liquidity sharing. Polyhedra Network aims to build the next generation of Web3 interoperability and scalable modular infrastructure, which relies on advanced Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology. It provides a trusted and efficient interoperability solution by minimizing trust.
Polyhedra Network can achieve asset transfer, message passing, and data sharing across various Web2 and Web3 systems. So far, Polyhedra has developed and deployed several next-generation zkSNARK protocols and innovative ZKP-based products, including zkBridge, which supports cross-chain asset and data interoperability, covering over 25 blockchain networks.
With expertise in cryptography, the engineering team of Polyhedra Network has created a series of fundamental algorithms and zero-knowledge protocols, such as Libra, Virgo, deVirgo, Pianist, Marlin, Gemini, and Orion. These protocols have set new standards in the industry, providing the fastest prover time, significantly reduced proof size, and minimized on-chain verification costs. These foundational technologies are the core of Polyhedra’s efforts to enhance the scalability, security, and interoperability of blockchain systems, supporting the resolution of some of the most urgent challenges in the digital infrastructure field.
Key Data:
Cross-chain transfer volume reaches 20 million.
Verified 40 million proofs.
Connected to 25+ public chains.
Fastest Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) algorithm.
Fastest consensus proof.
Inventor of zkBridge.
Inventor of seven zero-knowledge algorithms.
Participated in OKX event: 141 million and received 500K Polyhedra Network tokens.
Participated in Binance Web3 Wallet event: received 556K and 1 million Polyhedra Network tokens.
X platform followers reached 964.3K.
Discord platform followers reached 545K.
zkBridge, as the core product of Polyhedra Network, is designed as a trustless cross-chain bridge. zkBridge uses zkSNARK to enable verifiers to efficiently confirm that a certain state transition has occurred on the sending chain. It consists of a block header relay network and an update contract. Through modular design, zkBridge implements several useful functions, including message passing, token transfer, and other computational logic executed on different chains.
zkBridge ensures strong security without adding additional trust assumptions. Through concise proofs, it guarantees correctness and significantly reduces on-chain verification costs. Its workload is several orders of magnitude faster than existing solutions. It provides trusted and efficient cross-chain infrastructure for interoperability between layer1 and layer2, solving the practical challenges of connecting different blockchain networks.
zkBridge uses the Zero-Knowledge Proof structure to verify the validity of consensus between two blockchains. Since the release of the Alpha version of the autonomous network, zkBridge has facilitated over 20 million cross-chain transactions, covering more than 25 layer1 and layer2 blockchain networks.
zkLightClient is a LayerZero cross-chain protocol developed by the Polyhedra Network team, providing secure and efficient cross-chain infrastructure for layer1 and layer2 interoperability. This technology fully integrates LayerZero’s messaging protocol, allowing application developers to develop cross-chain protocols using Zero-Knowledge Proof technology through simple integration configuration. zkLightClient has securely transmitted over 4.5 million pieces of information. LayerZero now uses zkBridge as the default decentralized verification network (DVN) for many paths.
Cross-chain message passing with the Bitcoin chain has been a recent demand. The booming development of the BTC ecosystem in 2023, as well as the emergence of BTC layer2, has led to an increase in demand for BTC cross-chain capabilities. However, BTC is a relatively special public chain, requiring a new solution to achieve cross-chain message passing. zkBridge has launched the Bitcoin message passing protocol, aiming to significantly improve the interoperability of Bitcoin. This initiative aims to enable the Bitcoin network to interact with other layer2 and layer2 networks.
When Bitcoin is the sending chain, it is fully compatible with the current zkBridge framework. zkBridge can verify the consensus of Bitcoin on the receiving chain (such as ETH) through updating contracts, as well as verify every transaction on Bitcoin through verifying Merkle proofs. This compatibility ensures comprehensive protection for the consensus proof and transaction Merkle proof on Bitcoin.
If Bitcoin is the receiving chain, it is not compatible with the zkBridge framework because Bitcoin does not have smart contracts. The solution is to adopt a Proof-of-Stake (POS) mechanism, allowing verifiers to stake the native tokens of the sending chain. If the sending chain is Ethereum, verification requires staking ETH. Authorized data writing on the Bitcoin network is achieved through Multi-Party Computation (MPC) protocols to ensure consensus on the transmitted correct messages.
Cross-chain message passing with the Bitcoin chain already supports Ordinals, BRC-20, and Atomicals. Projects using Polyhedra include Atomicals Market, Babylon, Bitmap, B2Network, Eigenlayer, and more.
Polyhedra has gone through four rounds of funding, including:
– February 2023: First round of funding, receiving $10 million led by Binance Lab and Polychain.
– April 2023: Pre-A round of funding, receiving $15 million led by Polychain.
– January 2024: Series A round of funding led by OKX Ventures, undisclosed amount.
– March 2024: In the latest round of private fundraising, Polyhedra Network reached a valuation of $1 billion, attracting investors including Polychain, Binance Labs, OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, Hashkey, and UOB Ventures.
Polyhedra’s token is named ZK, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. According to publicly available information on OKX:
– 32% for ecosystem incentives
– 28% for early investors and investors
– 15% for community markets and airdrops
– 15% for the foundation
– 10% for core contributors
The specific release rules have not been announced yet. However, zk has airdropped to users before the launch, and if a user has less than 20 tokens, they can choose to receive an additional 10% compensation in the new mainnet tokens. ERC20 tokens can also receive an additional 10% compensation.