Polygon Labs, a major developer of Ethereum layer-2 networks, shared Tuesday it is unveiling a new type of computer chip that's optimized for zero-knowledge cryptography processing, built by hardware maker Fabric specifically for Polygon's interoperability solution, AggLayer.

The news comes as Fabric announced last month a $33 million series A round, which Polygon Labs participated in, to create "verifiable processing units," or VPUs, a custom chip designed for cryptography and blockchains.

The ZK team at Polygon has been working with Fabric to create VPUs for its prover libraries, Plonky2 and Plonky3. Provers are a key component of blockchain systems built around zero-knowledge cryptography, which emerged last year as one of the crypto industry's hottest design features, and a key focus for Polygon.

The AggLayer is a Polygon project to make token transfers seamless between affiliated blockchain networks.

“As the latest AggLayer contributor, Fabric will work closely with Polygon Labs to accelerate the AggLayer’s roadmap by developing software to run Plonky2 and Plonky3 on the VPU, and Polygon Labs will work closely with Fabric to ensure future generations of the VPU will accelerate the AggLayer’s long-term roadmap,” Polygon wrote in their press release.

The team also shared that Polygon Labs will acquire $5 million worth of VPU-based server systems as part of today’s announcement, in order to accelerate ZK-proof generation projects on the AggLayer.

“Fabric’s VPUs can accelerate the timeline for wider adoption of zero-knowledge technology from three to five years to six to 12 months,” Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic said in the press release shared with CoinDesk. “For Polygon Labs, implementing this tech will massively accelerate the development of the AggLayer, bringing real-time, affordable proofs that nobody thought would come for years, and much lower proving costs than previously thought possible in the medium-term.”

Polygon Zero knowledge Zero-Knowledge Proofs Zk rollup rollup GPU GPUs

Margaux Nijkerk

Margaux Nijkerk reports on the Ethereum protocol and L2s. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds a small amount of ETH and other altcoins.