Can ZKP technology incubate new gameplay? The cross-chain Bitcoin ecosystem may be a shortcut
The core product ZKP Bridge has a poor user experience. How will Polyhedra Network, which has raised a total of $25 million, break the deadlock?Author: DeMan
In the past decade, the development of Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology has received high recognition from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, who believes it could be one of the most powerful cryptographic technologies. According to a deep report by Bing Ventures, the market size for ZK Rollup operators could reach between $1 billion to $10 billion. Additionally, the total locked value (TVL) of Rollups experienced a rapid growth of up to $7.5 billion in 2020, reflecting the market's optimism and high expectations.
Vitalik: Glad to see Arbitrum achieve the first phase of Rollup, hoping more projects will follow next year.
Despite the enormous development potential behind the ZKP track, it is still in the early stages of technological development and faces considerable uncertainty. Delays in technology validation, value realization, and performance demonstration have prevented market acceptance and overall growth from reaching a tipping point. The penetration rate of the ZK Rollup market is only 5%, indicating significant room for improvement. Against this backdrop, Polyhedra Network has become a darling of capital with its series of technical features.
With a total financing of $25 million over two rounds, Polyhedra Network has become one of the most widely used ZKP cross-chain bridges.
In the Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) market, Polyhedra Network stands out with its total financing of $25 million over two rounds. These financings were led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital, with other participating investment institutions including Animoca Brands, Daofive, ABCDE Labs, Foresight Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, and HashKey Capital. On January 10, 2024, OKX Ventures announced its Series A investment in Polyhedra Network. Although the specific amount was not disclosed, this action undoubtedly increased market attention towards Polyhedra.
OKX Ventures invests in Polyhedra Network.
In the current early stage of the ZKP field, while the importance of products cannot be overlooked, true competitiveness stems more from the technical capabilities of the team. In this regard, Polyhedra Network, a ZKP technology service provider led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital, demonstrates significant technical advantages. Its developed Zero-Knowledge Proof cross-chain bridge is not only popular, with over 1,200,000+ on-chain interaction addresses and 9,000,000+ transactions, but it is also one of the most widely used ZKP cross-chain bridges in the market.
Moreover, the platform supports over 20 blockchains, showcasing its diversity and adaptability within the blockchain ecosystem; it has established partnerships with over 80 ecosystem partners, with more than 11 million total messages, indicating a very high level of activity and interaction on its network or platform.
The core team of Polyhedra consists of experts from the University of California, Berkeley, Tsinghua University, and Stanford University. They focus on developing advanced ZKP protocols such as deVirgo and paraPlonk, dedicated to promoting the comprehensive interoperability and scalability of ZK technology.
Overview of Polyhedra's technical highlights and product system: secure and efficient, enabling trustless interactions between Web2 and Web3.
Here are the main technical highlights and products of Polyhedra:
ZK Bridge: ZK Bridge provides trustless interactions between Web2 and Web3 systems, capable of handling asset and data transfers. Although its testnet has gone live and garnered some attention, there is still room for improvement in user experience.
ZK-DID: This is a decentralized identity verification solution, primarily characterized by verifying credentials for scenarios such as KYC/AML/CFT through zero-knowledge proofs without infringing on user privacy. While there are competitive products in the market, its uniqueness and potential remain evident.
ZK-NFT: Going beyond the traditional concept of NFTs, ZK-NFT encapsulates standard tokens and off-chain data, achieving data encryption and privacy protection through ZK pointers, making it play an important role in both Web2 and Web3 worlds.
In terms of technology, Polyhedra particularly focuses on solving the following two core issues:
Security: Considering the security challenges faced by traditional cross-chain bridges, in 2022, cross-chain bridges accounted for 60% of the stolen funds in the entire DeFi sector, totaling over $2 billion. Polyhedra's zkBridge employs zk-SNARKs algorithms, avoiding reliance on external trust and enhancing overall security.
Efficiency: Utilizing its self-developed deVirgo algorithm, Polyhedra demonstrated its technological efficiency at ETHcc, completing a zero-knowledge proof for an Ethereum full node in under 10 seconds, showcasing its advantages in rapid proof generation.
How the deVirgo algorithm works.
Overall, Polyhedra Network's technical strength is significant, but in a fiercely competitive market, how to leverage its team's technical capabilities to maintain an advantage is a key challenge faced by Polyhedra.
Through a series of technological innovations, Polyhedra Network has achieved corresponding results in Bitcoin cross-chain transfers.
In December 2023, Polyhedra Network introduced an innovative Bitcoin cross-chain messaging protocol based on its zkBridge technology. This technology aims to enhance interoperability between the Bitcoin network and other Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchain networks, improving both efficiency and security. The core goal of the protocol is to enable the Bitcoin network to act as both the sending and receiving chain, achieving seamless connectivity with other blockchain networks.
In the application scenario where Bitcoin serves as the sending chain, Polyhedra's zkBridge is fully compatible with the Bitcoin network. This means that the updater contract on the receiving chain can directly verify the consensus mechanism of Bitcoin and validate transactions on the Bitcoin network through Merkle proofs. This compatibility ensures that zkBridge can cover the PoW consensus proof of the Bitcoin network and the Merkle proof for each transaction.
Polyhedra Network launches Bitcoin cross-chain messaging protocol based on zkBridge.
To ensure the security of cross-chain transactions, Polyhedra Network employs a mechanism similar to Proof of Stake (PoS). This mechanism involves validators staking Ethereum's native ETH tokens or BNB tokens on the BNB chain. These stakers are authorized to perform data writing operations on the Bitcoin network.
The specific proposal put forward by Polyhedra Network includes the following steps:
Staking Initialization: Stakers deposit ETH tokens on Ethereum as collateral.
Handling Malicious Behavior: If malicious behavior by a staker occurs, honest stakers or users can report this behavior on Ethereum. Using zkBridge, relevant data from the Bitcoin network is transmitted to Ethereum for verification.
Verification and Penalty Mechanism: There are dedicated smart contracts on Ethereum ready to verify the validity of messages transmitted from the Bitcoin network. Once malicious messages are detected, the contract automatically executes penalties against the dishonest staker's ETH deposit.
Through this mechanism, as long as there is at least one honest member on the Bitcoin network, transaction security can be maintained without trust and in a decentralized manner. Polyhedra Network's solution not only seeks to enhance the practicality of the Bitcoin network but also aims to strengthen trust and security among PoS blockchains, which could have significant implications in the fields of digital assets and decentralized finance.
