What is supposed to be a very bullish day for Polygon (MATIC) holders is looking like the opposite, with the price of the Ethereum-based Layer 2 protocol trading in losses. Today marks a historic milestone in which Polygon’s long-awaited zkEVM protocol is set to go live, an innovation that will set the pace for the next era of the L2 outfit.
A lot has been put into the development of the zkEVM product, of which a total of about $1 billion has been invested thus far. The protocol was first unveiled in the middle of last year, but the testnet was not released until later in October 2022. Today, the mainnet beta of the zkEVM is set to go live, granting the most ambitious, fast and cheap transaction layer for the Ethereum blockchain.
While Polygon is designed as a major improvement on Ethereum as a whole, zkEVM is designed as a major improvement on Polygon.
According to insights shared by Web3.0 educator Bickersteth Emmanuel, the proof time for transactions carried out on the zkEVM protocol is under two minutes for a batch of 10M gas.
With the zkEVM, every protocol with Ethereum compatibility can easily operate or link with the new Polygon tool.
Price stalemate
On a regular day, the excitement in the community is enough to stir a massive jump in the price of MATIC. However, at the time of writing, the digital currency was changing hands at a price of $1.08, down 0.55% over the past 24 hours and by more than 7% over the past seven days.
MATIC appears suppressed in line with the token’s correlation with Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader negative sentiment on the market at this time.
The tide is bound to change once zkEVM goes live, and many are projecting sustainable growth moving forward owing to this launch and the positioning of Polygon as the go-to blockchain for mainstream Web2.0 companies.
