Polygon and Immutable Team Up On Gaming Focused zkEVM

Polygon and Immutable, two of Ethereum’s top scaling teams, are joining forces to launch an Ethereum-compatible rollup powered by zero-knowledge proofs designed to support web3 gaming.

Immutable zkEVM, the forthcoming Layer 2 solution, combines Polygon’s zkEVM technology with Immutable’s gaming-focused blockchain architecture. Polygon says the teams will launch Immutable zkEVM “in the coming months.”

“Partnering with Immutable is a monumental step forward in our mission to empower developers and enable users to truly own their in-game assets,” said Ryan Wyatt, president of Polygon Labs.

Game developers can already access documentation, helping them prepare to integrate with Immutable zkEVM. Polygon noted that web3 games drove half of all blockchain transactions executed in 2022, according to DappRadar. Leading game developers Ubisoft and Atari are already building on Polygon.

The news comes as zkEVM rollups promise to disrupt and expand Ethereum’s Layer 2 (L2) scaling ecosystem.

Rollups work by bundling together transactions on Layer 2 and submitting them to the Ethereum mainnet in batches for finalization, enabling faster and cheaper transactions. The most popular L2s are optimistic rollups, which offer high compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine — Ethereum’s core smart contract engine — but require a seven-day delay in withdrawals for fraud detection.

By contrast, rollups secured by zero-knowledge proofs typically offer greater privacy and fast finalization at the expense of EVM compatibility, meaning developers cannot easily port their code from mainnet to L2 without making significant changes.

But zkEVMs solutions claim full EVM compatibility, with some analysts predicting zkEVMs could come to dominate the L2 sector.

Polygon is set to launch its zkEVM on March 27, while rival teams Matter Labs, Scroll, and Consensys are readying to launch their own zkEVMs in the coming months.