Polygon zkEVM Team Launches Independent Startup ZisK Following Leadership Changes

Co-founder of Polygon Jordi Baylina and the seven-member development team behind Polygon zkEVM have transitioned to an independent project called ZisK.

This move comes in the wake of recent leadership changes at Polygon, which saw co-founder Sandeep Nailwal assume full control of the Polygon Foundation as its first CEO.

As part of these changes, the head of the L2 platform has unveiled new strategic priorities for the project. These include plans to terminate Polygon zkEVM by 2026 in order to focus on the development of Polygon’s PoS and AggLayer solutions.

Lorenz Lehmann, head of research at Growthepie, pointed out that the network was operating at a loss exceeding $1 million annually. Initially launched as Hermez, the project was rebranded to Polygon zkEVM in 2021 after being acquired for $250 million.

According to an announcement shared by Baylina, ZisK represents a «new era» for zero-knowledge proof technology:

«The high-performance zkVM stack, originally developed at Polygon, has now been spun off as an independent venture.»

In this transition, all intellectual property related to Polygon zkEVM has been transferred to Baylina’s company, SilentSig Switzerland GmbH, while he will continue to serve as a consultant for the L2 solution.

ZisK features a modular architecture built on universal zkProver technology. The system operates as either a library or standalone software for creating custom proofs. The team offers Ethereum projects seamless integration of the technology into their protocols or the option to modify the code to suit their needs.

It is worth noting that in December 2024, top liquid staking protocol Lido ceased its support for Polygon PoS.