Near Foundation and Polygon Labs Partner to Build Zero-Knowledge ‘Prover’ for WASM Chains Near Foundation, the organization supporting the development of the
NEAR ecosystem, has partnered with Polygon Labs to
“build a zero-knowledge (ZK) prover for Webassembly (WASM) blockchains or zkWASM for short.” According to a joint press release, the two entities’
zkWASM prover, which is set to be launched
in 2024, is positioned “to lead the market among other wasm provers.”
For
WASM chains using this prover, the settling of transactions will be more efficient
and cost-effective with maximum security guarantees. As explained in the press release, the availability
of a zkWASM prover means
NEAR validators will significantly simplify validator requirements which in turn leads to
“better scalability and increased decentralization for the NEAR Protocol.” Through the
zkWASM prover, the NEAR Protocol is brought closer to Ethereum which in turn makes it possible for WASM networks to access liquidity. Eventually, chains will also have access to shared liquidity in a single ecosystem of Cloud Development Kit (CDK)-deployed chains through
“an in-development interoperability layer.”
