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Polygon Labs is moving ahead with plans to reinvent its entire architecture as part of its goal to become the "value layer of the Internet."
Polygon 2.0 will have a fundamentally different architecture that makes it easier and more seamless to spin up new chains in the Polygon ecosystem. Polygon itself is an Ethereum layer two. It was designed to address some of Ethereum's limitations through a sidechain solution.
As its upgrade seeks to make it easier to create new Polygon chains, it will also feature a shared bridge to improve interoperability between those chains and eliminate the need for wrapped tokens. A wrapped token, like Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), allows users to move assets off their native blockchain. In this case, WBTC allows users to move their Bitcoin onto the Ethereum and Tron networks.
The way that’ll work on Polygon 2.0, native Ethereum tokens will be deposited into a single contract on Ethereum mainnet. When a user wants to use their tokens across different Polygon chains, the corresponding assets will be mapped to the tokens deposited on Ethereum, which Polygon says will eliminate the need for wrapping them and improve user experience.
“The coordination layer allows us to optimistically confirm cross-chain transactions in a way that’s safe and nearly instant,” said Polygon co-founder Brendan Farmer. “It’s the first multi-chain design that will truly deliver unified liquidity."
As a further step, Polygon says it will integrate zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs as part of the system to improve. When using online services, for example to make a payment, personal identifying information like names or birth dates are required to access them. Using a ZK proof, a party must prove they know what is in a transaction without revealing the known information directly in order for it to be verified.
In the new system, both the original Polygon network and the new one will rely on ZK proofs that will store the validated transactions on the L1, and the actual transaction data on the L2 that will be added. Together, they will lower costs and improve privacy for Polygon users.
Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic said that the vision behind the upgrades is to fill in "the missing piece of an Internet" and contribute to a "digital economy that serves everyone."
"The vision for Polygon 2.0 is to create the Value Layer of the Internet," Bjelic said in a press release. "In the same way that the Internet allows anyone to create and exchange information, the Value Layer will allow anyone to create, exchange, and program value.”
These changes echo in part suggestions from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin earlier in June. In a post titled ‘The Three Transitions’, Buterin said Ethereum's future would hinge on adaptations to greater privacy, increased use of L2 scaling solutions, and a move to smart contract wallets. Polygon 2.0 utilizes at least two of these elements.