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 is now valued at $1 billion. This article is sourced from a publication by “Riyue Xiaochu” and compiled, translated, and written by PANews.
Table of Contents:
Technical Features and Highlights
Products and Services
zkBridge
zkLightClient
Cross-Chain Message Transfer with BTC Chain
Funding Situation
Token System
The foundation of industry development lies in creating more value for society, so the blockchain industry always revolves around two main themes: infrastructure improvement and large-scale applications. In terms of infrastructure, public chains are the foundation of the foundation and are also analogized as the operating system of Web 2.0. After the bull 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 bull market of 2021, excellent public chains such as Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Fantom emerged.
In 2024, with the flourishing development of ecological projects, different demands for public chains emerged. The improvement of modular infrastructure allows “one Dapp, one public chain” to become low-cost, simple, and convenient (see my discussion on modularity for details). This will inevitably lead to a large-scale increase in the number of public chains. According to incomplete statistics, there are already hundreds of existing public chains. In this bull market, the number has increased at least tenfold. Let’s use a simple mathematical example to illustrate: when the number of public chains is 10, there are 45 combinations of two chains; when the number of public chains increases tenfold to 100, there are 4,950 combinations, an increase of 110 times.
Therefore, in this bull market, the demand for cross-chain interoperability has also exponentially increased. The demand for cross-chain interoperability goes beyond asset transfer and includes message transfer, data sharing, multi-chain deployment, and liquidity sharing. Polyhedra Network aims to build the next-generation Web3 interoperability and scalable suite infrastructure, relying on advanced zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology. It provides a trusted and efficient interoperability solution by minimizing trust.
Polyhedra Network enables asset transfer, message transfer, 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, Polyhedra Network’s engineering team has pioneered a series of foundational 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 proving time, significantly reduced proof size, and minimized on-chain validation costs. These foundational technologies are the core of Polyhedra’s efforts to enhance blockchain system scalability, security, and interoperability, providing support for some of the most pressing challenges in the digital infrastructure field.
Key Data:
– Over 20 million cross-chain transfers
– Verified 40 million proofs
– Connected to over 25 public chains
– Fastest zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) algorithm
– Fastest consensus proof
– Inventor of zkBridge
– Inventor of seven zero-knowledge algorithms
– Participated in OKX activities: received 500K Polyhedra Network tokens
– Participated in Binance Web3 Wallet activity: 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. It uses zkSNARK to allow the prover to efficiently prove that a certain state transition has occurred on the sender chain to the recipient chain. It consists of a block header relay network and an update contract. Through modular design, zkBridge achieves several useful features, including message transfer, token transfer, and other computational logic executed on different chains.
zkBridge ensures strong security without additional trust assumptions. Through concise proofs, it guarantees correctness and significantly reduces on-chain validation costs. Its workload speed 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 structure of zero-knowledge proofs to verify the consensus validity between two blockchains. Since the release of the Alpha version of its native network, Polyhedra has facilitated over 20 million cross-chain transactions, covering over 25 layer1 and layer2 blockchain networks.
zkLightClient, developed by the Polyhedra Network team, is a LayerZero cross-chain protocol that provides secure and efficient cross-chain infrastructure for layer1 and layer2. The technology fully integrates LayerZero’s messaging protocol, allowing application developers to easily integrate and configure zero-knowledge proof technology for cross-chain protocols. 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 transfer with the Bitcoin chain has become a new demand in recent times. The booming development of the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2023 and the emergence of Bitcoin’s layer2 have led to a surge in demand for BTC cross-chain capabilities. However, Bitcoin is a more unique public chain, requiring a new solution to achieve cross-chain message transfer. zkBridge has launched the Bitcoin message transfer protocol, aiming to significantly enhance Bitcoin’s interoperability. This initiative aims to enable the Bitcoin network to interact with other layer2 and layer2 networks.
When Bitcoin is the sender chain, it is fully compatible with the current zkBridge framework. zkBridge can verify Bitcoin’s consensus on the receiving chain (e.g., ETH) through the update contract, as well as verify each transaction on Bitcoin through verification of Merkle proofs. This compatibility ensures comprehensive protection of consensus proofs and transaction Merkle proofs on Bitcoin through zkBridge.
If Bitcoin is the receiving chain, it is not compatible with zkBridge’s framework since Bitcoin does not have smart contracts. In this case, a POS mechanism is adopted, allowing validators to stake the native tokens of the sender chain. If the sender chain is Ethereum, verification requires staking ETH. Authorized parties write data on the Bitcoin network, and multi-party computation (MPC) protocols ensure consensus is reached on the transmitted correct information.
Cross-chain message transfer with the Bitcoin chain now 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 private funding round, 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. According to public data on OKX:
– 32% for ecological incentives
– 28% for early investors and investors
– 15% for community market and airdrops
– 15% for the foundation
– 10% for core contributors
Specific release rules have not been announced. However, zk has airdropped to users before the launch, and users with fewer than 20 tokens can choose to receive an additional 10% compensation in the new mainnet tokens. ERC20 token holders can also receive an additional 10% compensation.
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