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ABCDE： Why we invest in Polyhedra Network？

Validated Venture

PolyHedra Network is a ZK full-stack project, and its core team comes from the University of California, Berkeley, Tsinghua University, and Stanford University. They have developed two advanced ZKP protocols, deVirgo and paraPlonk, to achieve full-stack ZK interoperability and scalability.

Polyhedra Network has received a strategic round of investment totaling $10 million from top global VCs (as reported by Coindesk). ABCDE has also participated in investing in Polyhedra Network.

1. ZK scalability VS ZK interoperability

As we all know that the Internet, blockchain, and Metaverse all need to be interconnected, but today’s multi-chain world is full of isolated islands, and liquidity and data are becoming more and more fragmented. The current most cutting-edge ZK projects, including zkRollup and zkEVM mostly focus on scalability, and the interoperability of ZK is ignored. Therefore, compared with Starkware, zkSync and other projects that focus on ZK scalability, Polyhedra Network is a ZK full-stack player. It has designed and implemented the ZK-based interoperability system zkBridge, and its developed ZKP protocol can also improve the efficiency of existing zkRollup systems, balancing both ZK interoperability and ZK scalability.

In terms of ZK interoperability, PolyHedra Network implemented deVirgo, the industry’s top distributed ZK protocol, and used it to implement zkBridge and ZKDID, providing Web3 with a trustless and efficient interoperability infrastructure. Now the testnet of zkBridge is live, supporting cross-chain interoperability between various blockchain networks such asEthereum, BNB Chain, and Cosmos.

Virgo is a version of the GKR protocol based on error-correcting codes and hash functions. This is the same cryptographic assumption used by Starkware and Polygon Zero. It does not require a trusted setup, so regular users with laptops or mobile phones can become provers without the need to download a lot of data from the server (which is a limitation known by the industry). Virgo has been one of the fastest ZKP protocols, and both indusctry and academia knows that.

deVirgo is a Virgo-based efficient distributed zero-knowledge proof protocol. deVirgo has perfect linear scalability, which means that the proof generation time can be reduced by a factor of 𝑀 in a distributed computing network with M machines. Furthermore, the communication across the distributed computing network in deVirgo is kept to a minimum for the main body of computation, known as the GKR part in Virgo. Using deVirgo, zkBridge can be 100x faster than a single-thread Virgo prover, despite the fact that Virgo is already one of the most efficient ZKP protocols.

So what is the zkBridge and zkDID implemented through distributed Virgo?

1.1 zkBridge

Polyhedra Network has implemented the deVirgo protocol in engineering and has designed and implemented zkBridge based on deVirgo in engineering, providing trustless and efficient infrastructure for cross-chain interoperability in Web3. Polyhedra Network has launched the testnet of zkBridge, which supports cross-chain asset and data interoperability for various layer-1 and layer-2 blockchain systems including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Cosmos, Polygon, etc. For the integration with various Web3 applications such as Defi and GameFi, Polyhedra Network has implemented developer-friendly system APIs and SDKs to help them easily develop cross-chain and multi-chain applications.

For the blockchains with light client protocols, Polyhedra Network compiles light client protocols into zk-SNARK circuits and prove that the execution of the light client protocol is correct. The receiver chain side can verify the light client protocol execution with a small amount of work. By employing a modular architecture, zkBridge empowers a broad range of applications, such as token bridging/swapping, message passing, as well as computational logic that works with state changes from multiple blockchain networks.

1.2 zkDID

Polyhedra Network has launched the zkDID testnet, an extensible and interoperable DID solution based on SBT and using ZKP for verifiable credentials. The goal of zkDID is to support millions of verifiable credentials per second and help billions of users use Web3 infrastructure and applications. In addition, zkDID implements a privacy solution based on Vitalik's proposed stealth address using ZKP, In order for users to have fine-grained control over their personal information. The zkDID infrastructure is compatible with W3C standards and any verifiable credential data type, and it can achieve interoperability across various Web3 and Web2 systems based on zkBridge, significantly simplifying communication among stakeholders involved in Web3 DID systems.

2. zk scalability based on paraPlonk

In addition to ZK interoperability, Polyhedra Network has also designed and implemented paraPlonk. In experiments, paraPlonk is able to accelerate the existing zkRollup systems.

paraPlonk is a series of new-generation zero-knowledge proof protocols based on segregation-friendly and laconic proof techniques. The nodes in a cluster can work together to generate the proofs almost like participating in a mining pool, in that they only need to broadcast and communicate a very small amount of data for proof generation. The protocol is compatible with Plonk and is a generalized version of Plonk that lifts the communication overhead while retaining all the benefits of Plonk. So any proof system based on Plonk can migrate to paraPlonk with minimal modifications. The implementation of paraPlonk can also work with other proof systems like Marlin and Gemini. Marlin and Gemini are also co-invented by the Polyhedra network founding team member, and Marlin has already been used in Aleo.

3. ZK full-stack

Polyhedra Network’s vision is to become a zk full-stack project that truly combines zk interoperability and zk scalability, and uses zkBridge, zkDID, etc. to realize the interoperability of the Web2 and Web3 worlds.

On the infrastructure level, PolyHedra Network implements zkBridge with advanced zero-knowledge proof protocols and connects any two blockchains through zkBridge. paraPlonk provides acceleration for existing zk-Rollup and scalability for Layer-1 blockchains.

At the middleware and application layer, PolyHedra implements zkDID through interoperability technologies to realize the interconnection of the Web2 and Web3 worlds.

Just like the meaning of PolyHedra Network’s name, it will eventually become a zk full-stack almighty warrior with zk interoperability and zk scalability.

About ABCDE

ABCDE is a VC focused on leading investment in top Crypto Builders. It was co-founded by Huobi Cofounder Du Jun and former Internet and Crypto entrepreneur BMAN， who both have been in the Crypto industry for more than 10 years. The co-founders of ABCDE have built multi-billion dollar companies in the Crypto industry from the ground up. Because we are builders, we understand builders better. Moreover, we have built an end-to-end ecosystem for our builders, including listed companies(1611.HK), exchanges(Huobi), SAAS companies(ChainUP.com), media(CoinTime.com), and developers platforms(BeWater.xyz). If you are a Builder with the dream of changing the world, join us to build the next-generation encrypted network.

Twitter：https://twitter.com/ABCDECapital

WebSite：www.ABCDE.com

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